This session will present work by scholars on the literature, movements, activism, and cultural production from the regions of Latin/South America, Africa, and Asia, which have, in a showcase of imperial language, been described as the “Third World” by those in the industrial West. This session topic is vital and timely as the Trump administration’s rhetoric toward Africa as having “shithole countries” and the United States’ history of colonization as “taming countries” calls upon us all to actively resist such violently colonial discourse with the narratives, stories, and experiences directly from the people of these areas.

Free Will, defined by Dante's Virgilio as the noble power to guide and constrain the soul's natural inclination and desires (Purg 18.73),  holds a place of central concern in the Commedia. Elaborating on Marco Lombardo's discourse, the roman poet asserts that it is Free Will that accounts for the justice in feeling joy for doing good and misery for doing ill. While offering a general outline of the fundamental importance of Free Will in the ethical and moral rationale for the fate of departed souls, the pilgrim's first guide promises that Beatrice will provide clarity on this and other topics of particular complexity beyond the purview of his Classical pagan understanding.

Drugs and spices have long been at the center of global trade, but the concept of “drug” in its modern, Western sense is particularly derived from interactions with cultural “others.”  Thinkers such as Jacques Derrida have written on the ancient Pharmakon and its relationship to signification and sacrifice.

This special issue of the journal Humanities is dedicated to a field that is currently experiencing a veritable explosion: contemporary historical fiction. In recent years the genre has been successful in securing coveted literary prizes and in attracting the efforts of some of the best contemporary writers of fiction.