A sophisticated democratic citizen must be able to vote in a way that is most representative of his/her own political views, in short they must be able to cast their votes “correctly”. The analysis of voting behavior in the new democracies can tell us a great deal about normalization of politics in these societies overtime.

The Habsburg Monarchy disappeared in 1918, but many elements of its urban culture survived and even continued to evolve in the years to follow. In popular cinema of the interwar period, we can pick up what Nancy Condee has called, in other contexts, an "imperial trace" and begin to map out a common cultural space that continued to bridge the former twin seats of empire, Vienna and Budapest. For this talk, I will focus on three titles -- Frühjahrsparade (1934), Ernte/Die Julika (1936), and Maria Ilona (1939) -- helmed by Géza von Bolváry, one of the most prolific directors of the period.

The lecture illuminates the ethos of postwar soviet social scientists as expressed in the wedding of party activism and scientific professionalism. Examining the biographies of social scientists, we learn that they moved in and out of state, Party and scientific positions throughout their professional lives. They did not distinguish between these roles, and viewed social science as a tool of social transformation in the service of the Party and state. As a result their scientific production was not limited to academic publications.

Although they sell vegetables, milk packets, and cigarettes; owners of small roadside grocery shops in southern India might be described as in the business of time-travel. Shopkeepers’ survival depends on their ability to successfully shift objects and obligations between multiple and conflicting temporal systems. Drawing on recordings of interactions gathered between 2005-08, Brown traces how shopkeepers use refrigeration, accounts of debt, and conversations with customers to negotiate and profit from temporal troubles.

Relocation can lead to professional growth and career advancement, but can also lead to work/family conflict. In this talk Connor will present the stories of three Japanese career women whose relocations led to personal crises. These crises resulted from a workplace policy which made periodic relocation obligatory for male and female employees alike. By analyzing how they faced these crises and what gave rise to them, Connor aims to shed light on issues of work-life balance, gender equity, and obstacles to social and cultural change.

In many areas of interaction in India, negotiations and ‘bargaining’ play an important role. This holds true for doctor-patient interactions as well, especially in the case of small-scale practitioners of Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and other non-biomedical traditions. These practitioners often prescribe a treatment that lies outside of their official medical specialization, which creates a proliferation of various eclectic/hybrid therapeutic forms.