Singing along has aided songs to gain wide geographic distribution and popularity. In the case of K-pop, singing along is hampered by the lack of language skills. However, a key component of K-pop’s success has been the visual – music videos that feature beautiful stars and trending fashions – and, perhaps most of all, a prominent dance component. Fans from around the world have been moved to interact with K-pop by substituting dancing along for singing along. The barrier to participation is low – cover dancers benefit from a song and choreography created by other artists. While some dancers only practice, without uploading videos or performing, others attract viewers to private subscriptions for access to full videos and interactions with the dancers. Fans perform dances for crowds, upload them online, enter cover contests, and even develop new careers. They can become quite well known, their videos drawing millions of views. Just like the K-pop idols, the Korean government supports these activities. This chapter outlines the variety of cover dance activities, investigates the motivations of cover dancers using interview data, discusses the implications for cultural diplomacy, outlines the economy of K-pop cover dance, and touches on the ways it contributes to learning about Korea.

This chapter argues that Thucydides’ History provides for its readers an opportunity to assess the limits and opportunities of diverse political regimes, particularly democracy, oligarchy and monarchy. In doing so, he offers insights not only into the specific characteristics of the cities that employ those regimes (Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes), but also into what is distinctive about those regime types, understood in categorical terms. The chapter focuses on Thucydides’ presentation of democracy in Athens and in Syracuse, arguing that Thucydides, although alert to the weaknesses of democracy, was also an admirer of the attainments and ambitions of this form of governance.

This chapter reflects on the challenges of translating Thucydides into English. The discussion, which is informed by the author’s own experience of producing a translation of the History, offers some general observations on the translation process, but it focuses on the specific problems raised by Thucydides’ text. Issues considered include genre (including the question of the work’s title), structure and, above all, the stylistic complexity of the work: the compression of Thucydides’ language and the range of different voices in the text. The problem of cultural distance, and how (and to what extent) this can or should be reflected in translation, is also addressed.

Thucydides’ continuing influence in contemporary political debates rests in large part on the perception that he offers a ‘realistic’ portrayal of human nature and of the impact of human nature on the behaviour of both individuals and states. This chapter analyses and contextualizes the two principal varieties of realism that have been attributed to Thucydides. First, the conventional realist reception, which reads Thucydides as a structural analyst of classic power politics. Second, a new political realism, which sees Thucydides as a witness to the complexity of politics and to the tragic consequences of that complexity. Finally, the chapter introduces a third possible mode of responding to the text, which brings back into the frame the question of what should be counted as ‘realistic’ in the first place and insists on ‘the usefulness of anachronism’ rather than the usefulness of lessons on reality.

The global success of BTS demonstrates that their artistry and message have captured the attention of many. Similarly, their fandom, ARMY, has received attention for its ability to organize around social justice causes. While BTS and ARMY are pushing against and connecting across borders that often seem impermeable, this work does not happen with ease. How do people in a fandom that spans the globe both organize and educate within this fandom community? This chapter examines fandom through a case study. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests called attention to violence and racism against Black people after the murder of George Floyd. There were concerted efforts within the ARMY fandom to raise money and awareness for BLM. Many of these efforts began before BTS and their company announced support for BLM. It is important to recognize the fandom’s public-facing, collective work, and it is equally important to recognize the effort required to educate within the community about this and other social justice issues. This chapter identifies, tracks, and analyzes attempts being made in the fandom to educate and discuss race and racism around BLM by sharing stories of personal experience with racism, hashtags meant to encourage solidarity, and visual art.

The Megarians and the Stoics were different philosophical schools, and also presented internal variations in a number of respects. Their logics, however, are interrelated enough to be usefully outlined together.1 To indicate their differences and to identify historical connections between the two, I use biographical data, on the one hand, and continuities in logical developments, on the other.

This chapter looks at the work of the contemporary Noongar writer Kim Scott, focusing both on its portrayal of his family history and the history of Indigenous settler contact in Western Australia. It emphasizes the importance of the university as a context for Scott’s historical fiction, focusing on creative-writing programs and practice-led research. It demonstrates how the rise of “the doctoral novel” plays a vital role in a more plural and more just model of literary engagement.

Several ancient philosophers and philosophical schools address issues about terms and propositions. The most important contributions are offered by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. In the Sophist, Plato distinguishes names and verbs (which roughly correspond to subject-expressions and predicate-expressions), he claims that truth and falsehood qualify only speeches (which roughly correspond to complete sentences), and he sketches accounts of truth and falsehood for speeches of the simplest sort. In De Interpretatione, Aristotle picks up Plato’s distinction between names and verbs and identifies the bearers of truth and falsehood with sentences of a special sort, namely, declarative sentences. In the Prior Analytics, he develops a theory of inferences constructed from propositions and terms, but he ignores the distinction between names and verbs. With the Stoics, a contrast analogous to that between terms and propositions is found at the level (not of speech, but) of sayables, incorporeal items signified by utterances. The Stoics single out a special type of sayable, the statable, as the bearer of truth and falsehood. Of the four sections of this chapter, the first is dedicated to Plato, the second to Aristotle’s views in De Interpretatione, the third to his position in the Prior Analytics, and the fourth to the Stoics.

Chapter 5 locates Montesquieu in an intellectual context he fashioned through his own choice of interlocutors in The Spirit of the Laws – his world of ancient political writers and lawgivers. Montesquieu turns to the classical world in search not of models for imitation but knowledge of the science of politics. This chapter considers the relationship between Montesquieu’s critique of the substantive ideals of classical politics and his significant debts to the Aristotelian mode of regime analysis.