Modern political theory begins with the rise of the philosophical concept and practice of sovereignty in the sixteenth century. Over the course of the next several centuries, sovereignty was generalized as the form of the modern state – eventually, t...

Born in Tehran in 1957, filmmaker Mohsen Ostad Ali Makhmalbaf grew up in the religious and politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s, and the June 1963 uprising of Ayatollah Khomeini constitutes one of his earliest memories. In 1972, Makhmalbaf for...

During the cold-war years, Western Christians basked in a sense that they were living on the right side of the ideological divide, harboring humane values, freedom, democracy and the right to irrationality, belief and non-belief. The atheist Communis...

From plays to cartoons, books to Teddy Bears – interest groups, often using the language of human rights, are claiming that they are offended and attempting to ban, gag, even kill, those deemed to be the offenders. Intellectual heavyweights throughou...

"Palaeoperformance" is a pioneering work which examines the emergence of theatricality at the birth of human societies. In the Upper Paleolithic period, over 30,000 years ago, archaeological and art historical evidence reveals the very beginnings of...

After Independence, in 1947, in their efforts to create an "Indian" theatre that was different from the Westernized, colonial theatre, Indian theatre practitioners began returning to their "roots" in classical dance, religious ritual, martial arts, p...

In Waxing West, Daniella, newly arrived in the US from Romania, is haunted by the ghosts of the deposed dictator Ceausescu and his wife Elena until she experiences 9/11. Thida San in Eyes of the Heart, cannot rid herself of the horrific memory of her...