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In this special issue of differences, leading feminist theorists acknowledge Derrida’s contribution to feminist theory, discuss the crucial place of difference in both Derridian deconstruction and feminist theory, and reflect on the ethical, professional, and epistemological implications of Derrida’s thought for the discipline of women’s studies.

In bringing together major feminist critics whose work has been touched by the writings of Derrida, this issue both pays tribute to and reflects upon Derrida’s ideas. Among the essayists included, Jane Gallop considers Derrida’s writings on Levinas; Judith Butler reads Derrida’s final interview in Le Monde in 2004; Elizabeth Grosz signals Derrida as a rare philosopher for whom sexual difference was crucial; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak explores the figure of the mother’s child in Derrida, focusing on the critique of reproductive heteronormativity and the question of agency in feminism; and Joan Wallach Scott argues for the importance of critique in the academy. The issue also includes an edited transcription of a vibrant discussion between feminist theorists and Derrida called “Women in the Beehive: A Seminar with Jacques Derrida,” which took place at Brown University’s Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women in 1984.

Contributors. Fran Bartkowski, Anne-Emmanuelle Berger, Susan Bernstein, Judith Butler, Pheng Cheah, Drucilla Cornell, Jane Gallop, Elizabeth Grosz, Peggy Kamuf, Christie McDonald, Joan Wallach Scott, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

This special issue of Camera Obscura, which gathers work from leading feminists in film studies, takes a fresh look at early film and the creative ventures of women performers. While much of the existing scholarship of the silent era focuses on film form and industrial organization, the essays collected here aim to recover women’s roles in the early decades of cinema. They do so in part by considering the ways in which social and ideological economies of the industry contributed to the complex semiotics of film stardom of the period.
Essays focus on figures across the wide international lexicon of stardom, including stunt star Pearl White, iconic French performer Musidora, imported European vamp Pola Negri, pixie heroine Colleen Moore, and Chinese star Xuan Jinglin. Other articles revisit figures, such as Mary Pickford and Greta Garbo, whose stardom appears to be self-evident but proves more complex than previous accounts have suggested. In this collection, early female stars function as a medium through which authors reconceptualize feminist film history and historiography.

Contributors. Jennifer M. Bean, Vicki Callahan, Lucy Fischer, Amelie Hastie, Diane Negra, Gaylyn Studlar, Zhen Zhang

The essays in this special issue of Social Text explore the fields of cultural and intellectual production in post-Tiananmen China and address the discrepancy between the growth in critical studies of China and the virtually untouched terrain of China’s ideological-intellectual dimension.
Creating a platform for further theoretical discussion about the ongoing struggle to bring about a new social system, the contributors grapple with the internal crisis or disorientation of the Chinese intellectual world as a distorted, but telling picture of the complexity of contemporary Chinese economics, politics, society, and culture. Essays offer a critical examination of the current state of Chinese intellectual discourse; a challenge to mainstream liberalism in China today and its commitment to democracy; a summary of reconsiderations of property rights, economic democracy, political participation, and the meaning of socialism in the age of flexible production; a reflection on the handover of Hong Kong in the context of a general discussion of Western colonialism in China; and an analysis of the rise of consumer nationalism and mass culture in China since the early 1990s. Intellectual Politics in Post-Tiananmen China sheds light on the evasive nature of Chinese society, and the contributors engage the Chinese problematic not only as a crisis but also as an ongoing historical dynamic.

Contributors. Rey Chow, Zhiyuan Cui, Wang Hui, Gan Yang, Xudong Zhang

The annual Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference provides a forum for presenting research that will broaden the understanding of these two languages, especially through comparative study. The sixteenth Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference, held in October of 2006 at Kyoto University, was the first in the history of the conference to be held outside of the United States. The thirty-six papers in this volume encompass a variety of areas, such as phonetics; phonology; morphology; syntax; semantics; pragmatics; discourse analysis; and the geographical and historical factors that influence the development of languages, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics.

This issue of Public Culture attempts to overturn perceptions that frame Africa as an object apart from the rest of the world. By placing the city of Johannesburg—the preeminent metropolis of the African continent and a city facing a complicated legacy of racial strife and wealth accumulation—at the heart of new critical urban theory, Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis broadens discussions of modernity, cosmopolitanism, and urban renewal to include Africa. The issue brings Johannesburg into direct dialogue with other world cities, creating a space for the interrogation and investigation of the metropolis in a properly global sense.

Contributors to this issue—a mix of scholars, urban planners, and artists, many of whom hail from South Africa—reveal Johannesburg to be a polycentric and international city that has developed its own cosmopolitan culture. In a detailed study of three streets in the modern precinct of Melrose Arch, one essay shows how the thoroughly commodified and marketed Johannesburg cityscape has shaped the cultural sensitivities, aesthetics, and urban subjectivities of its inhabitants, at times even overriding the historical memory of apartheid. Another essay, focusing on the emergence of a new urban culture, examines how the city itself becomes a crucial site for the remixing and reassembling of racial identities. By tracking the movement of people with AIDS to various locations in the city to seek relief and treatment, another essay reveals an urban geography very different from what is seen from the highways. Finally, through interviews and commentaries, journalists, artists, and architects of Johannesburg offer reflections on the geography and shifting culture of the city and its townships, on the complicated relationship between Johannesburg and other African cities, and on the search for an architectural style that adequately expresses the complexity of this cosmopolitan city.

Contributors. Lindsay Bremner, Nsizwa Dlamini, Mark Gevisser, Grace Khunou, Frédéric Le Marcis, John Matshikiza, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Nuttall, Rodney Place, AbdouMaliq Simone, Michael Watts

Published in cooperation with the International Ocean Institute and Dalhousie University Law School, the Ocean Yearbook provides a comprehensive review of issues concerning the world's oceans-one of humanity's most vital resources. Volume 16 addresses themes central to ocean policy and research. Sections include Issues and Prospects: UNICPOLOS, the 1st and 2nd sessions, and Japanese Ocean Governance; Living Resources: Local Industry in a Global World: Implications of Nova Scotia Tuna Ranching, and the Role of National Fisheries Administrations; Maritime Transport: Container Vessels in the New Millennium, and Chinese Maritime Law; Environmental and Coastal Management: Challenges of Importing Principles of Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management into Canada's Ocean Laws, and Prospects for Pollution Reduction by Bioremediation in the Marine Environment; Maritime Security: Maritime Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific.

Selected Documents and Proceedings include:
Report of the International Ocean Institute 1999 - 2000
Oceans and the Law of the Sea Report of the Secretary General, 2000
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Report
The Hamburg Declaration on the Ocean
The Fiji Declaration on Islands in the New Millennium
The Appendix includes a Directory of Oceans-related Institutions

Since its inception in 1978, the Ocean Yearbook has proven an invaluable research tool to marine biologists, oceanographers, ocean development specialists, students of international law, as well as analysts of foreign policy and international security.

It is a widely shared assumption that science and religion are fundamentally opposed to each other. Yet, recent historiography has shown that religious belief needs to be added to the social, economic, political, and other cultural factors that went into the making of modern science. This new collection shows religious ideas not only motivated scientific effort but also shaped the actual content of major scientific theories. The fourteen studies contained in this volume concentrate on such topics as the theological facets of modern astronomy in the works of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton; the retention of teleology in the natural philosophy of Boyle; and the theistic and teleological associations of the modern theory of evolution authored by Darwin and Wallace. While the majority of the contributions focus on the Christian traditions, the collection also contains case-studies of Judaic and Islamic influences.

Reflecting the fecundity of contemporary scholarship, the current volume should be of extraordinary interest to historians of science, scientists, as well as anyone intrigued by the many ways in which relations between religion and science have been constructed.

Contributors include:

Peter Barker,
John Hedley Brooke,
Geoffrey Cantor,
Margaret G. Cook,
Michael J. Crowe,
Thomas Dixon,
Noah J. Efron,
Richard England,
Martin Fichman,
Maurice A. Finocchiaro,
Menachem Fish,
Bernard R. Goldstein,
Bernard Lightman,
Margaret J. Osler
F. Jamil Ragep,
Phillip R. Sloan,
Stephen Snobelen,
Jitse M. van der Meer,
Stephen J. Wykstra,

The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle offer a window onto the lives of two of the Victorian world’s most accomplished, perceptive, and unusual inhabitants. Scottish writer and historian Thomas Carlyle and his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle, attracted to them a circle of foreign exiles, radicals, feminists, revolutionaries, and major and minor writers from across Europe and the United States. The collection is regarded as one of the finest and most comprehensive literary archives of the nineteenth century.