 An Utterly Dark Spot: Gaze and Body in Early Modern Philosophy
Miran Bozovic
University of Michigan Press, 2000 Slovenian philosopher Miran Bozovic's An Utterly Dark Spot examines the elusive status of the body in early modern European philosophy by examining its various encounters with the gaze. Its range is impressive, moving from the Greek philosophers and theorists of the body (Aristotle, Plato, Hippocratic medical writers) to early modern thinkers (Spinoza, Leibniz, Malebranche, Descartes, Bentham) to modern figures including Jon Elster, Lacan, Althusser, Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen J. Gould, and others. Bozovic provides startling glimpses into various foreign mentalities haunted by problems of divinity, immortality, creation, nature, and desire, provoking insights that invert familiar assumptions about the relationship between mind and body.
The perspective is Lacanian, but Bozovic explores the idiosyncrasies of his material (e.g., the bodies of the Scythians, the transvestites transformed and disguised for the gaze of God; or Adam's body, which remained unseen as long as it was the only one in existence) with an attention to detail that is exceptional among Lacanian theorists. The approach makes for engaging reading, as Bozovic stages imagined encounters between leading thinkers, allowing them to converse about subjects that each explored, but in a different time and place. While its focus is on a particular problem in the history of philosophy, An Utterly Dark Spot will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, semiotics, theology, the history of religion, and political philosophy as well.
Miran Bozovic is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is the author of Der grosse Andere: Gotteskonzepte in der Philosophie der Neuzeit (Vienna: Verlag Turia & Kant, 1993) and editor of The Panopticon Writings by Jeremy Bentham (London: Verso, 1995).
UW Struggle: When a State Attacks Its University
Chuck Rybak
University of Minnesota Press, 2017 A Wisconsin story that serves as a national warning
UW Struggle provides an on-the-ground view of the smoldering attack on public higher education in Wisconsin. Chuck Rybak, who works in the University of Wisconsin System, provides important glimpses into the personal lives of those affected, the dismantling of tenure protections, the diminishment of shared governance, and how faculty remain the scapegoat for all of the university’s problems. This is a chronicle of failed leadership and what actions, if any, can protect this vital American institution.
Uyghur: An Elementary Textbook
Gulnisa Nazarova and Kurban Niyaz
Georgetown University Press, 2013 The Uyghurs are one of the oldest Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia. Their language is closely related to Uzbek, with which it shares a common ancestor. Modern Uyghur is spoken by about 11 million people in Xinjiang and 2 million people in Central Asia and elsewhere. This textbook offers beginning students a thematically organized and integrative approach to the Uyghur language that emphasizes communicative activities, step-by-step development of linguistic skills, and elements of Uyghur culture. A multimedia DVD includes audio that helps develop listening and speaking skills and videos filmed in different regions of Xinjiang, China.
 Uyghur: An Intermediate Textbook
Gulnisa Nazarova and Kurban Niyaz
Georgetown University Press, 2016 Uyghur: An Intermediate Textbook offers students, professionals, and travelers alike the preeminent tool for expanding their knowledge of the Uyghur language and culture. Combining innovative language learning methodology with authentic audio and video materials, this textbook develops the four primary language skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing—by integrating them into a clear, balanced whole. Uyghur: An Intermediate Textbook prepares learners to perform at level 1+/2 or 2+ on the ILR scale and at the Intermediate High to Advanced Mid/High levels on the ACTFL scale. Features include: * A multimedia CD that contains videos filmed on location as well as both authentic and scripted audio segments, all highlighting key elements of Uyghur culture * Authentic original and modified reading passages ranging from short stories to news articles to menus * Abundant cultural notes to reinforce reading, grammar, and vocabulary skills * Easy-to-understand examples and exercises on points of Uyghur grammar * Chapter themes that facilitate immersion in daily Uyghur life and culture Designed for both classroom and on-the-ground learners, and developed in accordance with the latest ideas in performance-based principles and methodology, Uyghur: An Intermediate Textbook guides readers on a journey to the heart of a fascinating culture.
 Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier
David Brophy
Harvard University Press, 2016 The meeting of the Russian and Qing empires in the nineteenth century had dramatic consequences for Central Asia’s Muslim communities. Along this frontier, a new political space emerged, shaped by competing imperial and spiritual loyalties, cross-border economic and social ties, and the revolutions that engulfed Russia and China in the early twentieth century. David Brophy explores how a community of Central Asian Muslims responded to these historic changes by reinventing themselves as the modern Uyghur nation.
As exiles and émigrés, traders and seasonal laborers, a diverse diaspora of Muslims from China’s northwest province of Xinjiang spread to Russian territory, where they became enmeshed in political and intellectual currents among Russia’s Muslims. From the many national and transnational discourses of identity that circulated in this mixed community, the rhetoric of Uyghur nationhood emerged as a rallying point in the tumult of the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War. Working both with and against Soviet policy, a shifting alliance of constituencies invoked the idea of a Uyghur nation to secure a place for itself in Soviet Central Asia and to spread the revolution to Xinjiang. Although its existence was contested in the fractious politics of the 1920s, in the 1930s the Uyghur nation achieved official recognition in the Soviet Union and China.
Grounded in a wealth of little-known archives from across Eurasia, Uyghur Nation offers a bottom-up perspective on nation-building in the Soviet Union and China and provides crucial background to the ongoing contest for the history and identity of Xinjiang.
Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook
Nigora Azimova
Georgetown University Press, 2010 Designed to cover beginning college levels of language instruction, Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook provides learners and instructors with a wide selection of materials and task-oriented activities to facilitate the development of language learning. It offers a thematically organized and integrative approach to the Uzbek language and its culture, including a functional approach to grammar, an emphasis on integrated skills development, and the use of authentic materials such as videos filmed in various regions of Uzbekistan. This volume includes
-authentic audio and video materials, available for free on GUPTextbooks.com
-an extensive glossary
-color illustrations and photographs throughout
Topics Covered
The Uzbek alphabet, greetings and introductions, commands and requests, daily routines, etiquette, weather, family, money, food, clothing, travel, leisure, and medical matters.
 Uzbek: An Intermediate Textbook
Nigora Azimova
Georgetown University Press, 2015 Using a wide selection of materials and task-oriented activities drawn from realistic situations and contexts, Uzbek: An Intermediate Textbook, is designed to help adult professional and higher education learners deepen their understanding of the Uzbek language, culture, and its people. Learners will develop listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills, with special attention to grammatical accuracy. With a variety of texts, audio clips, videos, and activities, this textbook will encourage learners to explore Uzbek culture and to compare and contrast it with their own. Uzbek: An Intermediate Textbook prepares learners to perform at level 1+ or 2 on the ILR scale and at the Intermediate High or Advanced Low level on the ACTFL scale. Features of Uzbek: An Intermediate Textbook:
-Topics covered include work, study, personal interests, and travel.
-Authentic audio and video materials to accompany the text, available for free on GUPTextbooks.com
-The book uses the Cyrillic alphabet—the alphabet used in current government reports and the mass media as well as in archival material from the Soviet era.
-A useful appendix compares the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet.
-Uzbek-English and English-Uzbek glossaries facilitate vocabulary acquisition.
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