This week in interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences, including philosophy, archaeology, education, and theology.
📊 This week at a glance
🌍 African-led research
Philosopher defines ‘epistemic assholes’ as people who exploit others’ epistemic cooperation with entitled disregard.
This introduces a new concept: epistemic assholes are not grossly irrational or hostile to truth, but stably entitled in disregarding their epistemic relations with others. It changes how we think about epistemic badness, moving beyond irrationality to social entitlement. For African scholarship, it offers a tool to analyse dismissive attitudes that marginalise African knowledge systems.
Optimization algorithms are increasingly used in cultural heritage conservation, but their application remains fragmented.
This critical analysis reviews optimization algorithms in heritage conservation, finding they are applied across decision-making domains but lack integration. It implies that heritage managers could benefit from systematic algorithm selection. For Africa, where heritage sites drive tourism, such tools could enhance conservation and management.
69% of Christians live in the Global South, yet theological education remains Eurocentric.
This article argues for Global South theology as a theological and missiological imperative, using demographic and postcolonial evidence. It changes the narrative by centring Global South epistemologies. For African scholarship, it challenges Eurocentric dominance in theology and promotes decolonisation.
Interpretation of Matthew 2:16–18 and Jeremiah 31:15 explores the slaughter of the innocents and Rachel’s weeping.
This article bridges text and sermon, offering exegetical insights on these biblical passages. It changes how preachers might connect ancient texts to contemporary issues of grief and violence. For African theology, it provides a model for contextual preaching on suffering.
South African comedian Alfred Adriaan’s Full Show reveals how COVID-19 lockdown collapsed public/private divisions, forcing men to negotiate contradictory masculine roles.
This analysis introduces ‘spatial simultaneity’ to describe how the pandemic disrupted masculine performance, blending authority and dependence. It changes understandings of masculinity under crisis. For African gender studies, it highlights comedy as a site for processing shifting masculinities.
Integrating the Isibheqe Sohlamvu writing system into jewellery design education at the University of Johannesburg decolonises design by centring Indigenous knowledge.
This artefact-based analysis of a student’s design journey shows how Indigenous writing systems can reshape design pedagogy. It changes design education by moving beyond Eurocentric models. For African scholarship, it demonstrates practical decolonisation in the creative arts.
🔬 Global breakthroughs
Pride and shame mediate the link between classroom environment and English learning engagement among Chinese EFL learners.
This study finds that achievement emotions like pride and shame play a mediating role in how classroom environment affects engagement. It changes the focus from purely cognitive factors to emotional dynamics. For language education, it suggests fostering positive emotions to boost engagement.
Strategy as Practice research has evolved over 30 years into a continuum from humanist to post-humanist approaches.
This perspective proposes a continuum to capture the field’s development, highlighting post-humanism’s relevance amid AI and climate change. It changes how scholars categorise SAP research. For African management studies, it offers a framework to situate local practices within global debates.
Enjoyment strongly correlates with second/foreign language learning, according to a meta-analysis of 80 studies.
This three-level meta-analysis of 43,599 participants confirms a robust positive relationship between enjoyment and language learning outcomes. It changes the field by synthesising evidence and overcoming limitations of earlier meta-analyses. For language educators, it underscores the importance of fostering enjoyment in the classroom.
Purple-dye production in the Bronze and Iron Ages shows a 300-year gap, challenging previous chronological assumptions.
Using Tel Shiqmona as a benchmark, this study defines granular criteria for identifying dye production and reveals a 300-year gap. It changes the timeline of production shift from the Aegean to the Levant. For archaeology, it provides a more precise method for tracing ancient industries.
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