Library News - Research Guides at Sonoma State University Library

Shortened Library Hours

12/16/2024

Laura Krier

Congratulations, Seawolves, you've made it through finals and the fall semester! We hope you can all enjoy some well-deserved winter break rest.

The library will be open for limited hours this week, between December 15 and December 23, and will be closing at 5:00 pm. Visit our hours page for more details.

If you borrowed a library laptop this semester, don't forget to return it by December 20 to avoid fines and replacement item fees! If you have any concerns about returning your laptop, you can contact the Information/Checkout Desk at circdesk@sonoma.edu or call 707-664-2375.

If you're looking for something to read over winter break, come by the library. You can find all of our popular reading in Lobo's Lounge, across from the Information/Checkout Desk, but also check out our Winter Break Reading display.

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24/7 Finals Hours in the Library

12/01/2024

Laura Krier

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Are finals making you feel like this?

via GIPHY

Never fear! The library is here. From December 1 at 2:00 pm until Friday, December 13 at 5:00 pm the first floor of the library will be open for 24 hours a day. You can access computers and printers, use our phone charging locker, book our first floor study room, or just use our quiet space to study.

The second and third floors of the library will be open until midnight every day from December 1 until December 12, including Friday and Saturday. You'll be able to access reserves, borrow a laptop, check out books, book any of our study rooms, and use our other library services.

Keep your eyes open for our Finals Emergency Response Team. The team will periodically roam the building with snacks to give you the sustenance you need to keep on going. Stop by to check out our pop-up tea library every evening in the 2nd floor lobby, or take a break to color an aquatic creature for our Holiday Reef.

And of course you can get expert research help from a librarian any time, day or night, via chat or email. You can schedule an appointment with a librarian, or stop by the desk for help from 11am to 4pm Monday through Friday.

We are here to support you and help you get through finals, so stop by the library anytime.

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Focus On: SSU Research

11/25/2024

Laura Krier

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Want to know what kind of amazing research happens at Sonoma State? Read on for this month's SSU research update.

Baker, Z. (2024). Governing climate : how science and politics have shaped our environmental future. University of California Press.

After decades of debate about global warming, the fact of the climate crisis is finally widely accepted. People at all scales-from the household to the global market-are attempting to govern climate to deal with its causes and impacts. Although the stakes are different now, governing climate is centuries old. In this book, Zeke Baker develops a genealogy of climate science that traces the relationship between those who created knowledge of the climate and those who attempted to gain power and govern society, right up to the present, historic moment. Baker draws together over two centuries of science, politics, and environmental change to demonstrate the "co-production" of what we know about climate in terms of power-seeking activity, with a focus on the United States. Governing Climate provides a fresh account of contemporary issues transecting science and climate politics, specifically the rise of "climate security," and examines how climate science can either facilitate or reconcile the unequal distribution of power and resources.

Glasgow, J. (2024). The significance impulse : on the unimportance of our cosmic unimportance. Oxford University Press.

Why should we strive to be important? Does it make our lives go better if we are especially significant? This book argues that the common impulse to seek exceptionally high levels of significance is misguided. One reason why is that we cannot reach cosmic-grade significance, even if we do matter somewhat in our communities. We do not have the size, duration, or power that would allow us to be that important. Even the value that we do contribute to the universe, our loving and rationality and pain and pleasure, are in short supply. So our significance has built-in limitations. What is more, being exceptionally significant would not be to our personal benefit: it does not advance our well-being, our meaning in life, or any other of our interests. In fact, we have ample reason to embrace our modest levels of mattering: if we do not matter very much, then we are liberated to go about our lives without worry, to the same extent. We should thus feel good about our unexceptional lives. This book is a celebration of being ordinary.

Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M. N., Chu, J. Y., Pink, S. L., Mernyk, J. S., Redekopp, C., Ghezae, I., Cashman, M., Adjodah, D., Allen, L. G., Allis, L. V., Baleria, G., Ballantyne, N., Van Bavel, J. J., Blunden, H., Braley, A., Bryan, C. J., Celniker, J. B., Cikara, M., & Clapper, M. V. (2024). Megastudy testing 25 treatments to reduce antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity. Science., 386(6719), eadh4764.

Abstract: Scholars warn that partisan divisions in the mass public threaten the health of American democracy. We conducted a megastudy (n = 32,059 participants) testing 25 treatments designed by academics and practitioners to reduce Americans' partisan animosity and antidemocratic attitudes. We find that many treatments reduced partisan animosity, most strongly by highlighting relatable sympathetic individuals with different political beliefs or by emphasizing common identities shared by rival partisans. We also identify several treatments that reduced support for undemocratic practices-most strongly by correcting misperceptions of rival partisans' views or highlighting the threat of democratic collapse-which shows that antidemocratic attitudes are not intractable. Taken together, the study's findings identify promising general strategies for reducing partisan division and improving democratic attitudes, shedding theoretical light on challenges facing American democracy.

Cooley, L. A., Hindle, A. G., Williams, C. L., Ponganis, P. J., Hannah, S. M., Klinck, H., Horning, M., Costa, D. P., Holser, R. R., Crocker, D. E., & McDonald, B. I. (2025). Physiological effects of research handling on the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part A, Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 299, 111771-.

Wildlife researchers must balance the need to safely capture and handle their study animals to sample tissues, collect morphological measurements, and attach dataloggers while ensuring their results are not confounded by stress artifacts caused by handling. To determine the physiological effects of research activities including chemical immobilization, transport, instrumentation with biologgers, and overnight holding on a model marine mammal species, we collected hormone, blood chemistry, hematology, and heart rate data from 19 juvenile northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) throughout a translocation experiment. Across our six sampling timepoints, cortisol and aldosterone data revealed a moderate hormonal stress response to handling accompanied by minor changes in hematocrit and blood glucose, but not ketone bodies or erythrocyte sedimentation rate. We also examined heart rate as a stress indicator and found that interval heart rate, standard deviation of heart rate, and apnea-eupnea cycles were influenced by handling. However, when seals were recaptured after several days at sea, all hormonal and hematological parameters had returned to baseline levels. Furthermore, 100 % of study animals were resighted in the wild post-translocation, with some individuals observed over four years later. Together, these findings suggest that while northern elephant seals exhibit measurable physiological stress in response to handling, they recover rapidly and show no observable long-term deleterious effects, making them a robust species for ecological and physiological research.

Melino, K., Bell, B., & Freborg, K. (2025). Deconstructing Professionalism as Code for White (Power): Authenticity as Resistance in Nursing. Nursing Philosophy, 26(1).

The concept of professionalism is embedded into all aspects of nursing education and practice yet is rarely critically interrogated in nursing scholarship. This paper describes how professionalism in nursing is based on whiteness. When actualized, this oppressive construct homogenizes individuals' identities to assist nurses in building and wielding power against each other and against patients, and results in dehumanization and disconnection. Foregrounding an ethic of authenticity as a practice of resistance against white professionalism offers an alternative possibility for how nursing could be taught, practiced and theorized. As such a practice must begin with oneself, the authors outline a reflexive process from which to begin this work.

Liu, L., Ahmadi, Y., Kim, K.-H., Kukkar, D., & Szulejko, J. (n.d.). Assessment of interference/synergistic effects in the adsorption of polar and non-polar VOCs on a commercial biomass-based microporous carbon. Chemosphere (Oxford).

This research has been carried out to investigate interference/synergistic relationship in adsorption behavior between polar and non-polar volatile organic compounds (VOCs: formaldehyde (FA) versus toluene) using commercial macadamia nutshell (MNS)-based microporous activated carbon (i.e., Procarb-900: namely, P900). The breakthrough (BT) volume, adsorption capacity, and partition coefficient of P900 are estimated for 100 ppm FA as a single component and as a binary phase with 100 ppm toluene. The basic features of FA adsorption over P900 adsorbent are accounted for in terms of interaction between the key variables (e.g., pore size distribution, adsorbent particle size, surface element compositions, and sorbent bed mass). Accordingly, the powdered P900 (0.212-0.6 mm: 150 mg) exhibits an adsorption capacity of 5.7 mg g-1 and a partition coefficient of 0.19 mol kg-1 Pa-1 for single-phase FA at the 10% BT level. Interestingly, its performance is synergistically improved in the presence of toluene (e.g., >150%) in the early stage of adsorption (e.g., 10% BT), possibly reflecting diffusion resistance of the adsorbent (e.g., small particle size and developed ultra-micropore structure) and natural attributes of FA (e.g., low affinity and smaller kinetic diameter). The overall results of this study are expected to offer a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the interactions between the mixed VOC system and microporous adsorbents.

Sociology, Communication Studies, Biology, Philosophy, Nursing

The National Women's History Project

11/06/2024

Laura Krier

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Did you know that National Women's History Month was started in Sonoma County? The National Women's History Project (now the National Women's History Alliance) was founded in 1980 by six Sonoma County women (including a former Sonoma State University librarian!) with the goal of bringing attention to women's history. Their advocacy resulted in the establishment of National Women's History Month in 1987.

The library recently acquired the archives of the National Women's History Project, and have begun the work of processing these archives and making them available in our Special Collections. We'll be documenting and sharing with you the treasures we uncover and sharing what the work of processing an archive entails. We're excited to share this journey with you, and to be part of the continued work of preserving and sharing women's history.

In the meantime, you can explore women's history through the library's circulating and electronic collections. Here are just a few things you might want to check out:

Jane: An Abortion Service Through interviews with many of the women who participated, this film details the abortion service which operated in Chicago during the late 1960s and early 1970s, before Roe v. Wade.

Crash Course US History: Women in the 19th Century In which John Green finally gets around to talking about some women's history. John will teach you about the Christian Temperance Union, the Seneca Falls Convention, the Declaration of Sentiments, and a whole bunch of other stuff that made life better for women.

Rebel Girls video series A series of short films about women in history and today, including Boudicca, Mary Shelley, Michelle Obama, Ada Lovelace, Ruby Bridges, and many more.

A Black Women's History of the United States An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country.

A History of Women in 101 Objects This book presents a rich tapestry of historical artifacts and cultural items, each representing significant moments and figures in women's history.

Where Women Made History This website explores women's history through important historical places and sites. This project from the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeks to preserve and publicize women's history and increase the representation of women's stories.

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Focus On: SSU Research

10/25/2024

Laura Krier

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It's time to highlight more great research and scholarship coming out of Sonoma State.

Zheng, Y., Drew Peabody, S., & Jiang, J. (2024). Do dividends and share repurchases convey information about financial strength? An exploration of the disparities between banks and industrial firms. The Journal of Financial Research.

Differing from prior literature, this article suggests dividends are positively associated with financial strength for both financial institutions (i.e., banks) and non‐financial firms (i.e., industrials), and that this relationship is much more pronounced for banks. We also find that the signaling impacts of dividend changes on financial strength are asymmetric for these two groups as a decrease (increase) in dividends is more powerful than an increase (decrease) for banks (industrials). This suggests that dividend cuts send a more significant negative signal of bank financial strength than similar decreases by industrial firms, and that dividend increases say more about industrials' improvements in financial strength than those by banks. Similar to dividends, share repurchases are indications of financial strength for industrials but not for banks. This suggests that share repurchases serve more as a buffer (substitute) of dividends for banks (industrials).

Kladou, S., Usakli, A., & Lee, K. (2024). Zooming in small family wineries: exploring service quality, loyalty and the moderating role of wine involvement. International Journal of Wine Business Research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of wine involvement in moderating the effect of winery service quality on loyalty toward small family wineries.The results reveal that wine involvement moderates the effects of winery service quality on wine tourists’ loyalty. Specifically, staff behavior affects the loyalty toward wine tourists with low involvement more significantly compared to the wine tourists with high wine involvement. On the other hand, the quality of wine tastings affects the loyalty of wine tourists with high wine involvement more significantly in contrast with the wine tourists with low wine involvement.

Boaler, J., Conrad, B., Ford, B., Mazzeo, R., Nelson, J. (2024). Three views on the California math framework. Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

In California, curriculum frameworks are adopted periodically to give guidance on implementation of the state standards in a particular subject. A framework is written by a committee working with the Department of Education, multiple drafts are posted for public comment, the drafts are revised in response to comments, and eventually the document goes to the State Board of Education for consideration. Frameworks are not the same as the state standards, which specify what students should learn and determine what will be on the state assessment. In California, the math standards are the California version of the Common Core State Standards, adopted in 2013. The most recent math framework was adopted this year, and we asked three authors to give their point of view on the framework and on the processes around its development. Note that the first piece is about the framework in its final, approved form, which accommodates important aspects of the feedback provided during the process described by the second two pieces.

Garcia-Putnam, A., Michael, A. R., Duff, G., Maronie, A., McCrane, S. M., & Morrill, M. (2024). Embodied Poverty: Bioarchaeology of the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868). American Antiquity., 89(3), 459–474.

Through a commingled, fragmentary assemblage of skeletal remains (MNI = 9) recovered from a 1999 salvage excavation, this article explores the lives and deaths of individuals interred at the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868). This work demonstrates that bioarchaeological analyses of smaller samples can provide nuanced accounts of marginalization and institutionalization even with scant historical records. The skeletal analysis presented here is contextualized within the larger history of the American poor farm system and compared to similar skeletal samples across the United States. The hardships these individuals faced—poverty, otherness, demanding labor—were embodied in their skeletal remains, manifesting as osteoarthritis, dental disease, and other signs of physiological stress. These individuals’ postmortem fates were also impacted by status; they were interred in unmarked graves, disturbed by construction, and once recovered, were again forgotten for more than 20 years.

Smith, H. J., & Grant, D. R. (2024). How to improve group affirmation manipulations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Researchers often ask participants to affirm positive aspects or shared values for a group important to them (a group affirmation manipulation) in order to encourage healthy behavior, acknowledge historical harm, accept group-based criticism, or diffuse the impact of social exclusion. An exploratory meta-analysis of 92 experiments that included a group affirmation manipulation and a threat to participants’ self-integrity revealed an average g of −0.03, 95% CI [−0.10, 0.05], and enormous heterogeneity (I 2 = 77.15%). Group affirmations predicted a larger effect size if participants in the comparison condition completed the dependent variable immediately afterwards, compared to other comparison conditions. They also predicted stronger positive self-evaluations compared to dependent measures such as behavioral intentions or attitudes. Group value affirmations slightly reduced defensive information processing, whereas affirmations of positive group characteristics increased ingroup bias; a pattern that reflected researchers’ decisions to treat group affirmation as either an opportunity to reduce defensiveness or to increase the pursuit of collective interests. Careful consideration of the intergroup context and group norms should improve the effectiveness of group-based affirmations.

Jeffra, Miah. American Gospel : A Novel in Three Parts. Mount Vernon, New York? Black Lawrence Press, 2023. Print.

A low-income Baltimore neighborhood is targeted for a controversial urban renewal project--an amusement park in the theme of Baltimore itself--that forces its residents to reckon with racism, displacement, and their futures. Peter Cryer is a queer teenager who fantasizes about leaving Baltimore and the instability of his home life while also seeking a place to belong. Ruth Anne, his prickly mother, is terrorized by her estranged husband and the indecision of what to do after the wrecking ball comes through her neighborhood. Thomas, a cleric and History teacher at Peter's school, questions his vocation in the face of the neighborhood's destruction. These three voices braid together a portrait of a neighborhood in flux, the role of community and violence in our time, and the struggles of a very real and oft misunderstood city.

Sullins, J. P. (2024). Artificial Intelligence with Dignity, and Trust – Comments on: The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence, by Carlos Montemayor, Bloomsbury Publishing, Feb 23 2023. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness, 1–4.

Dr. Sullins provides a review and commentary on the book The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence by Carlos Montemayor. His comments focus on the importance of centering and honoring human dignity in the development of AI technologies.

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Open Access Week 2024

10/21/2024

Laura Krier

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October 21 marks the start of Open Access Week, a week dedicated to promoting non-paywalled publication of research (largely via books and articles) and the principles that information access should not be limited to people at colleges and universities. This year's theme is Community Over Commercialization, a theme that invites us to consider what happens when a small number of corporations control how knowledge is shared. What are the hidden costs of a system of scholarly publication that uses the labor of researchers and scholars to generate profit for those corporations? What is the impact when universities pay for research twice: once to generate the research and again when libraries purchase it? And what communities are most affected by lack of access to that knowledge? The theme stems from growing recognition of the need to prioritize approaches to open scholarship that serve the best interests of the public as well as the academic community.

The Open Access movement is dedicated to making research publications freely available online for anyone to access and read. Open access materials are often categorized based on how they are produced and disseminated. Some are “born” open and publicly available from the start, while some are made open after publication via archiving and other means. There are four central types of open access publications:

Green: The version of record is published in a journal or a book that requires a paid subscription or purchase to access, but some version is freely available in an open access archive, database, or repository.
Bronze: Publishers of subscription journals make some, often older, content free to read online. This material often does not include an open license or permission to resuse.
Gold: Works are made freely accessible immediately on publication. Publishers may require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) to offset publishing costs.
Hybrid: The same journal may include subscription and open access articles; open options usually require that authors pay article processing charges.

Contributions to Open Access Projects

The University Library has contributed to several open access publication projects, including MIT Press Direct 2 Open and Knowledge Unlatched. These open access projects riase funds from participating libraries in order to make a defined set of publications open access. Sonoma State's contributions to these projects have enabled the publication of many scholarly books as open access titles, freely available to anyone in the world.

Transformative Agreements

Transformative agreements, or read and publish agreements, are subscriptions that combine access to a publisher's journals with open access publishing for an institution's researchers. These agreements allow researchers to waive the author processing charges required to publish open access. Currently, the CSU libraries and Sonoma State have entered into transformative agreements with three different publishers

Since the first transformative agreement with the CSU was signed in 2022, 12 articles by Sonoma State authors have been published as open access through this option, including research in anthropology, nursing, chemistry, biology, and geography.

If you are an SSU researcher and want to publish your article open access, contact our Scholarly Communications Librarian, Rita Premo, to identify a journal included in one of our agreements where you can publish open access for free.

OneSearch

The University Library includes open access materials in our library search platform, OneSearch. Whether you're affiliated with Sonoma State, an independent researcher, an alumnus, or a community member, these resources are available to you. Just limit your search results to Open Access materials using one of the Availability filters in the left-hand sidebar. No Seawolf login is required!

ScholarWorks

The library archives the scholarly output of Sonoma State faculty, staff, and students in ScholarWorks, which provides green open access to all types of scholarship from the CSU system, including theses and dissertations, faculty publications, datasets, journals, and undergraduate research.

All master's theses by SSU graduates since 2015 are deposited into ScholarWorks. If you wrote a theses as part of a master's program at Sonoma State prior to 2015, the library will scan your thesis and include it in ScholarWorks at your request. It's a great way to help ensure long-term access to your thesis in case something happens to your print copy and to have a single permanent link for your resume and other personal branding. Fill out and submit the digitization agreement to start the process.

If you're an SSU faculty or staff member who wants to expand the reach of your scholarship via ScholarWorks, email a list of your recent scholarly output to right@sonoma.edu or use the online form to submit your publications. The library will handle copyright investigation to see what deposit access your publisher allows and will upload the document to ScholarWorks on your behalf.

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Introducing Library Self-Checkout

10/14/2024

Laura Krier

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The library is excited to introduce a new self-checkout option for those borrowing library materials. Self-checkout is easy and fast, and you can even borrow materials if you forgot your SSU ID card.

The self-checkout station is located near the 2nd floor entrance of the library, on the counter next to the staplers and pencil sharpeners.

All you have to do to get started is scan the barcode on your ID. If you don't have your ID, click the Start button to login with your Seawolf ID and password.

Once you've scanned or logged in, just scan the barcode of the items you want to check out. Then click Finish and you're done! You'll get an email receipt for your loans that includes the due dates.

Want to use your phone to check out items? You can! Scan the QR code on the self-checkout station and download the SSU University Library app. Then log in with your username and password.

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Streaming Media in the Library

10/09/2024

Laura Krier

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Did you know the library offers thousands of streaming videos that you can watch for free with your Seawolf login? Our streaming video collections include documentaries, live theatre and dance performances, television series, and feature films. Here are just a few of the collections you may want to check out.

Projectr is a streaming media database that offers a curated and ever-expanding collection of acclaimed movies, archival restorations, award-winning documentaries, and artist-made works from around the world. Some highlights include Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and The Eternal Memory. This database includes films from production companies like GOOD DOCS, Film Movement, Kino Lorber, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Women Make Movies, and More.

Docuseek streams independent, social-issue and environmental films, providing exclusive access to content from renowned leaders in documentary film distribution. Some higlights include Gaza, The Five Demands, Navalny, and many more.

AVON: PBS Collection includes more than 1,600 streaming videos from PBS's award-winning series and documentaries. Watch episodes from series including Nova, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, American Experience, Finding Your Roots, and more.

AVON: Sony Picture Classics includes acclaimed independent films and documentaries including Persepolis, SLC Punk, Ma Vie en Rose, and over 300 more titles.

There are many more streaming services available via the library. You can find them all by checking out our A-Z List. Find something for your class or just something to watch for fun.

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Sonoma State University Library on JSTOR

09/30/2024

Laura Krier

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The University Library is proud to announce that a selection of our digital special collections are now available on JSTOR. These collections are available to be searched, discovered, and explored by JSTOR users around the world. Since adding our first collection to the JSTOR platform in 2022, out items have been viewed over 1,000 times by users in 37 different countries.

You can view items in the Earthquake of 1906 collection, the Environmental History collection, the North Bay Historic Preservation collection, the Roy Maxwell Talbot collection, and the Sonoma State University Archives.

We have many more digital collections available at North Bay Digital and we'll be adding more of our digital collections to JSTOR in the future. We encourage you to explore and learn more.

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Focus On: SSU Research

09/27/2024

Laura Krier

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Goldman, A. (2024). Attribution. Women’s Studies, 1–11.

This short story explores belonging and power in academia through the story of a young woman whose theories and ideas are plagiarized by her male colleague.

Burke, M., & Ferrari, M. (2024). Disobedient anonymity and the politics of protesting violence against women. Feminist Theory.

Abstract: This article accounts for a particular kind of politicised anonymity, namely ‘disobedient anonymity’, that operates as a liberatory response to the longue durée of gender violence. We examine the street performance Un violador en tu camino created by the Chilean feminist theatre collective LASTESIS, to show how disobedient anonymity is an embodied and collective disruption of colonial subjectification and state-sanctioned gender violence. Building on the insights of the Argentinian decolonial feminist scholar Rita Segato's analysis of high-intensity patriarchy as well as discussions of perverse anonymity in critical phenomenology, we examine how disobedient anonymity operates in Un violador as an embodied practice that makes possible a decolonising, feminist liberatory public. We argue that through the deployment of disobedient anonymity, Un violador re-territorialises and re-temporalises colonial fields of sens. In doing so, it institutes a new form of political subjectivity that upends colonial logics.

Gehlawat, A. (2024). Bollypolitics : Popular Hindi Cinema and Hindutva. Bloomsbury Academic.

"Through an in depth analysis of key Indian filmmakers and actors, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kangana Ranaut, Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher, Ajay Gehlawat considers the extent to which recent Bollywood films reflect several of the main tenets of the Hindutva movement. He examines the growing influence of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on film production, as seen in filmic collaborations on themes ranging from Modi's Clean India program to India's space program, and big budget historical epics such as Padmaavat (2018) and Manikarnika (2019), which attempt to reframe Indian history in accordance with Hindutva ideology"-- Provided by publisher.

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