The Peace Advocacy of Pope Francis: Jesuit Perspectives

Among the distinctive features of the papal ministry of Francis is an active dedication to peacemaking that bears noteworthy marks of his Jesuit background. A number of elements within Jesuit spirituality and history contribute to the distinctive stance that Francis assumes toward supporting peace and building the structures and conditions that encourage nonviolent resolution of conflicts worldwide. The pope’s dialogic style of diplomacy proceeds through pointed words, timely apostolic visits, and rich symbolic gestures aimed at peacebuilding and reconciliation.

When language policy is not enough

By focusing predominantly on discourse production and language management, language policy research de-emphasizes the material sources of inequality. The paper argues that language management, often restricted by ritualistic and symbolic gestures, cannot rectify historically formed relations of power and calls for critical examination of both sociolinguistic and socio-economic consequences of language reforms.

A Reflection on Engaged Scholarship

While the policy distractions outlined in this collection manifest in myriad ways—and our authors examine them through a wide range of lenses and analytic tools—we were struck as an editorial team by the commonalities they share. What is clear throughout these articles is that scholars, most centrally, raise the ubiquitous power of policy distraction as it relates to ignoring systems and structures that serve to maintain normativity in many forms. Throughout, scholars instead point to policy distractions that locate both problems—and solutions—in individual actors (e.g., students, educators), symbolic gestures, and taken-for-granted procedures and practices that are rooted in white supremacy, cis-heteronormativy, anti-blackness, and patriarchy, to name a few. In this final article we, as an editorial team, offer insights about how we see the voices in the Issue in conversation, and, in the spirit of curious collaboration and engaged scholarship, we invite you to think along with us.

The conductor’s intensity gestures

This work is aimed at outlining a repertoire of conductors’ gestures. In this perspective, it presents two studies that investigate a specific subset of the body signals of orchestra and choir conductors, namely, the gestures for musical intensity. First, an observational qualitative study, based on a systematic coding of a corpus of fragments from orchestra concerts and rehearsals, singled out 21 gestures, in which either the gesture as a whole or some aspects of it conveyed indications for forte, piano, crescendo, or diminuendo; some are symbolic gestures, used either with the same meaning as in everyday interaction or with one specific of conductors; others are iconic gestures, both directly or indirectly iconic. Second, in a perception study, a questionnaire submitted to 77 participants tested if 8 gestures of intensity out of the 21 singled out by the coding study are in fact shared and understood, and whether they are better interpreted by music experts than by laypeople. Results showed that the tested gestures are fairly comprehensible, not only by experts but also by non-expert participants, probably due, for some gestures, to their high level of iconicity, and for others to their closeness to everyday gestures.

Gone in 90 Seconds

This MRTA’s early armed actions in 1984 involve symbolic gestures, as the rebels seek to appropriate names like Tupac Amaru and Micaela Bastidas, places like Cuzco, and other sights of national historical memory. These actions culminate in the kidnapping of “90 Seconds” reporter Vicky Pelaez, in which MRTA leaders Nestor Cerpa and Victor Polay play a direct role.

Functions of Symbolic Signs of Gestures and Facial Expressions in Fiction (Based on the Material Broken Sword Novel by T. Kasymbekov)

The article is devoted to the actual problems of the modern Kyrgyz language. The main object of the research is the study of the semantics of symbolic gestures and the facial expressions of a literary text in the linguistic aspect. Semantics of symbolic gestures and facial expressions in the literary text in the transmission of information is analyzed on the basis of the example of an excerpt of the texts of the Broken Sword novel by T. Kasymbekov. The results of the study based on the interpretation of symbolic national facial expressions and gestures in the linguistic aspect.

Theatres of Transit

Deputies of territorial rulers often escorted foreign persons of rank, merchants, prisoners, or corpses when they moved through their dominions. This physical form of safe conduct was a way of honouring or protecting travellers, but it also offered a means of signalling a ruler’s claims over a thoroughfare. When several parties disputed the right to escort a traveller, the escorts attempted to gain the vanguard of the processions. It was not uncommon for these encounters to escalate into violence, leading to protest, absenteeism, and outright mutiny among subjects, travellers, and officials, as in the small County of Wertheim where the processions often assumed a warlike character. In a world where processional rankings and symbolic gestures were regarded as authentic indicators of social and political realities, these theatres of transit offered a means through which to express and broker profound dissensions over the politics of mobility.

Modern Ashtanga Yoga

Chapter 4 chronicles the development of modern Ashtanga yoga by the Indian Hindu Shri Krishna Pattabhi Jois (1915–2009) for the purpose of becoming “one with God.” Ashtanga pursues its spiritual goal through physical postures, āsanas, opening with Sūrya Namaskāra (Sun Salutations), defined by Jois as “prayer to the sun god,” and closing with Padmāsana (Lotus) and Savāsana (Rest/Corpse), to facilitate meditation and enlightenment. Postures incorporate symbolic gestures, añjali mudra (prayer) and jñāna mudra (wisdom), not only to express but also to instill devotion. Ashtanga exemplifies an experiential model of religion in which practitioners envision physical practices as transforming beliefs and achieving spiritual goals. Ashtanga arrived in the U.S. in 1975 in Encinitas, California, and attracted wealthy devotees, among them Sonia Jones, who created Jois Yoga and the Jois Foundation (K. P. Jois USA Foundation) in 2011. The Foundation’s “mission” is to bring the “philosophy, teachings and values of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois to “youths in underserved communities” and “support changes in public policy” to make yoga and meditation “essential,” even “compulsory,” in teacher credentialing and school curricula. The chapter argues that teaching Ashtanga yoga in public schools raises constitutional questions because Ashtanga exhibits the Malnak-Meyers indicia of religion.