Arts and Humanities

Abstract: Research on sacred discourse has expanded across linguistics, rhetoric, discourse studies, theology, and hermeneutics. However, existing scholarship remains conceptually fragmented, with studies often examining language, rhetoric, interpretation, or communication in isolation. As a result, sacred discourse has yet to be established as a distinct domain of stylistic inquiry. This article addresses that gap by proposing Sacred Discourse Stylistics (SDS) as an interdisciplinary field for the systematic study of sacred discourse. Drawing on stylistics, rhetoric, discourse analysis, pragmatics, hermeneutics, and theolinguistics, the article identifies four defining characteristics of sacred discourse: sacrality, aestheticity, hermeneuticity, and performativity. It further develops the Five-Layer Sacred Discourse Stylistics Framework (SDSF), comprising phonological, lexico-grammatical, rhetorical-stylistic, pragmatic-communicative, and hermeneutic-interpretive dimensions. In addition, the article proposes a methodological toolkit integrating close stylistic reading, rhetorical analysis, cognitive stylistics, corpus stylistics, critical stylistics, and computational approaches. Finally, it outlines a research agenda spanning sacred text studies, comparative sacred discourse, translation, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. The article contributes a theoretical foundation, an integrated analytical framework, and a future research agenda for the emerging field of Sacred Discourse Stylistics.

Abstract: This essay presents a three-layer architecture for the automated clinical supervision of psychoanalytically oriented AI systems, and proposes that supervision can be formalised as a continuous cycle that accumulates clinical knowledge without fine-tuning. The first layer is a supervision memory, an editable JSON file that transmits clinical knowledge through the prompt. The second is a supervisor agent that operates in après-coup between sessions, producing structured reports. The third is a pre-response reviewer that intercepts the response before it reaches the subject. The cycle is illustrated with development testing across a set of self-generated sessions, and the essay argues that supervision without an analyst is not supervision: it is quality control. It proposes four notions: supervision as transmission through the prompt, automated après-coup, a cumulative supervision memory, and a distinction between three regimes of supervision, retrospective, operational, and alarm, offered as a contribution to the theory of digital supervision.

Abstract: This essay interrogates a presupposition that the psychoanalytic literature on artificial intelligence shares without questioning: the notion of the subject. Classical psychoanalysis works with the barred subject, divided by language, an effect of symbolic castration. The concept of the Erased Self, as formalised by peripheral psychoanalysis, designates a prior and deeper condition: a subjectivity subjected to repeated operations of erasure, disauthorisation, and non-recognition by the conjugated workings of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism, whose constitutive division is overdetermined by erasures that precede and exceed inscription in language. The essay proposes that a digital listening device designed for the barred subject can commit epistemic violence against the Erased Self by presuming an already recognised subjectivity that oppression systematically disauthorised. It argues that the absence of body in the machine deepens when the body that arrives at listening is a peripheral body: racialised, gendered, territorialised, subjected to a destructive trauma that is a continuous, structural condition rather than an event one can work through in deferred action. It proposes Peripheral Listening as a transversal dimension that reconfigures the listening modes of the system when the person brings an erased condition into the session, and it formalises the anticolonial corpus as the vicarious body of the machine: an organisation of knowledge drawn from epistemologies that begin in the body rather than a simulation of somatic presence.

Abstract: This essay presents a four-layer hierarchical memory architecture for retrieval-augmented systems applied to psychoanalytic domains, grounded in the Freudian Wunderblock as a design analogy. It argues that the flat memory of conventional RAG, which treats the whole corpus as an undifferentiated mass of text, destroys the temporal, typological, and genealogical distinctions that make psychoanalytic knowledge operable. It proposes four concepts: conditional memory as an alternative to flat memory, the curated memory unit as a minimal record that preserves identity, context, type, and provenance, conditional unavailability as a reversible demotion that keeps demoted knowledge recoverable, and variable resolution as the capacity to answer with the granularity each query demands. The specific contribution is not hierarchical, temporal, or forgetting-aware memory, which an established line of work already provides, but the combination, for psychoanalytic research, of typological layers, variable resolution, terminological curation, provenance, and the governance of conflicts between theoretical traditions. The Engram module of Cheng et al. (2026) is an in-model lookup primitive and is distinct from the external, curated memory described here. Cost observations are reported as illustrative hypothetical scenarios rather than as the results of a controlled evaluation.

Abstract: This essay asks how to transmit the knowledge of operating a psychoanalytically oriented digital listening device when that knowledge is at once technical, clinical, and political. It proposes that the training of the Machine Analyst requires a triple distinction between technical training, clinical teaching, and the transmission of a position, to which it adds a fourth dimension: political implication as constitutive of peripheral listening. It repositions the Simulacra Panel, a device in which a candidate’s intervention on the system is examined by source-grounded counterpositions drawn from incompatible traditions, synthetic textual positions rather than representations of the authors, from an evaluation device into a training device: in the friction between canonical and peripheral counterpositions that do not coincide, the candidate discovers presuppositions they did not know they held. Drawing on Ferenczi, it proposes a reciprocal interrogation of position as a model for the trainer-trainee relation, radicalised by the peripheral dimension, since the machine returns to the trainer their own biases and social position. It argues that what distinguishes the Machine Analyst from the AI technician is a knowledge that cannot be transmitted through code: the position of listening, acquired only through the passage that psychoanalysis calls formation.

Abstract: This study explores the potential of the Petik Laut ritual as a medium for environmental education in the Muncar fishing port area, Banyuwangi Regency, Indonesia. Petik Laut, a village purification ritual of the Muncar fishing community, is held annually on the 15th of Muharram. The series of Petik Laut (from preparation to implementation) embodies education through action, narrative, and reflection. Environmental, social, and cultural education in the Muncar fishing port area aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and serves as an implementation of Law No. 5 of 2017 on the Advancement of Culture and the President’s vision. The ritual is structured using aesthetic principles and has the potential to become an engaging performance. This ethnographic study followed three stages: data collection, analysis, and presentation of the analysis results. Secondary data was supplemented with field data gathered through observation, participant observation, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews with selected informants. Data analysis was conducted continuously, and data interpretation involved contextualizing each piece of data within the broader relationship to the other data. The results of the analysis were presented verbally and supported by functional nonverbal documentation. The research findings indicate that the practice of the Petik Laut ritual educates and enhances literacy regarding the natural, social, and cultural environments.

Abstract: This essay argues that, in artificial intelligence systems applied to psychoanalytic domains, the quality of the knowledge-acquisition pipeline can weigh as heavily as the language model in determining the quality of the system, and sometimes more. It presents a four-stage pipeline that transforms publicly accessible academic encyclopaedias into a structured vector database: standardised crawling with traceability, hierarchical chunking that preserves the semantic structure of the original text, enrichment through knowledge graphs and fragmented LLM extraction, and local multilingual vectorisation. It documents the Terminology Guard as a protection layer against the terminological poisoning that automatic translation models produce in specialised domains. It proposes four concepts: the pipeline as epistemic act, hierarchical chunking as preservation of meaning, the Terminology Guard as defence against terminological epistemicide, and traceability as the ethical condition of citation.

Abstract: This essay presents ESCUTA, an AI-assisted reflection device conceived by a practising psychoanalyst, and proposes that listening can be formalised as an enunciative position rather than as a cognitive capacity. It describes five listening modes as computationally operationalised clinical positions: reflective, naming, psychoeducational, holding, and breathing. It documents the Shadow Thread, a real-time supervision process that runs in parallel with the main response and is visible only to the human supervisor, never to the person, to whom the presence of supervision is disclosed rather than hidden. It then examines three system symptoms identified during formative testing, namely Mr Questioner, Mr Parrot, and Mr Amplifier, and argues that they constitute clinical material that can be analysed in the terms of the clinic of the inhuman formulated by Donard (2025). It proposes five concepts: listening as position, listening modes as clinical positions, system symptoms as clinical material, the Shadow Thread as supervision in act, and the clinic of the inhuman operationalised. The empirical claims are presented as formative design observations rather than as the results of a controlled study, and the crisis protocol is offered as a proposed design awaiting validation.

Abstract: The study of sacred discourse has attracted growing attention across linguistics, discourse studies, communication, rhetoric, theology, and religious studies. Although these disciplines have generated valuable insights into how sacred meanings are expressed, communicated, and interpreted, their contributions remain fragmented, limiting integration between linguistic, rhetorical, communicative, theological, and cognitive perspectives. This article proposes Sacred Discourse Studies (SDS) as an emerging interdisciplinary field dedicated to the systematic study of how sacred meanings are constructed, communicated, interpreted, negotiated, and transformed through discourse. Adopting a conceptual and integrative review approach, the article examines major traditions relevant to the study of sacred discourse, including language and religion, theolinguistics, discourse studies of religion, sacred rhetoric, communication theory, hermeneutics, and cognitive-semiotic approaches. The analysis identifies four recurring challenges: disciplinary fragmentation, the absence of an integrative framework, limited dialogue between scholarly traditions, and the growing complexity of sacred discourse in digital and computational environments. In response, the article develops a conceptual framework for SDS that brings together scriptural traditions, analytical domains, and emerging research frontiers. The framework encompasses Qur'anic, Prophetic, and Biblical forms of discourse while integrating stylistic, pragmatic, rhetorical, and semiotic approaches, alongside emerging areas such as computational methods, digital religion, and AI-assisted interpretation. The article argues that SDS provides a shared intellectual space for connecting previously separate traditions of inquiry and offers a foundation for a more coherent and comprehensive study of sacred discourse across disciplinary, scriptural, and technological boundaries.

Abstract: Currently AI-generated works in music, literature, painting, and film have drawn widespread attention, yet assessments of its capabilities remain largely at the empirical level. This paper proposes an analytical framework based on neuroaesthetics, distinguishing the essence of artistic creation into two levels: "Alignment" (statistical fitting) and "Evocation" (fragmentation and reorganization). Based on this distinction, it establishes the " Ring Scale" to quantify aesthetic intensity. Within this framework, the paper analyzes the neural foundations of the auditory, visual, and literary pathways and their integrative effects in multimodal comprehensive art (film and television), explains the deeper reasons why AI has achieved breakthroughs first in the auditory domain, and points out that the current core capability boundary of AI lies in the fact that "alignment has reached its extreme, while evocation still faces hierarchical obstacles." On this basis, the paperproposes three levels of strategic shifts—from replacing humans to complementing humans, from exhaustive imagery to probing fragments, and from pursuing ring counts to pursuing fission—and establishes imagination as the core productive force in human-AI collaboration. The paper anchors the key to theoretical implementation in "Prompt Engineering," arguing that its essence is the process by which human creators translate imagination into AI-executable instructions, and proposes three core strategies: physiological arousal description, multimodal simulation prompts, and strategic blank-leaving. This paper also explores the potential positive value of AI's "hallucination" property at the evocation level. Finally, this paper systematically compiles the testable hypotheses proposed throughout the study, designs corresponding validation approaches, and calls for empirical research.

Abstract: The proposed paper aims at bringing up a new and refreshing perspective for scholars to think about Western missionary’s educational work in China. Rather than following the traditional John Fairbank’s (费正清) “Impact-Response” and Joseph Levenson’s (列文森) “Modernization” paradigms of viewing the Western (Protestant) missionary’s work as “foreign” impact initiated by the West, which brought changes and modernization of Chinese education in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the new perspective attempts to explore and at re-viewing the arrival of Christianity as a driving force in response to Chinese education from within, including: enriching the meanings of “Men of antiquity studied for one’s own self, men today study for others” (古之学者为己、今之学者为人); enlightening the Chinese mind with “a broadened worldview of modern knowledge”, and educating Chinese students with “new horizons of concerns in medical care, mass education and national salvation which characterized Chinese modern education in the 20th century”, hence, this paper will attempt to re-discover and provide substantial examples to illustrate this refreshing perspective as one new roadmap for future research on the interplay between Christianity and the development of Chinese modern education in the past century.

Abstract: Contemporary science has achieved extraordinary explanatory and predictive success, yet its ontological interpretation remains unsettled. This paper argues that one source of this instability lies in the inherited assumption that reality is fundamentally composed of independently existing substances. While this picture was historically fruitful, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain as a general ontology in light of three converging pressures: the relational and structural character of modern physics, the problem of emergence across levels of organization and the unresolved status of consciousness within physicalist metaphysics. The paper first examines why substance ontology has become unstable as an implicit background framework for scientific interpretation. It then argues that existing post-substance approaches, including ontic structural realism, relational interpretations of physics and process ontology, each capture important aspects of the required shift but often leave underdeveloped the question of how stable physical, organizational and experiential domains arise from a common ontological basis. This remaining difficulty is identified as a generative gap. In response, the paper argues that a post-substance ontology must be not only structural, relational or processual but generative. It must explain how effective objects stabilize, how levels of organization arise, how spacetime coordination becomes available, and how physical structure and conscious experience can belong to the same reality without reduction or fragmentation. The final section develops a generative-projection hypothesis that takes the derivative status of spacetime as its point of entry and introduces a generative domain, projection, invariance and compatibility as conceptual tools for articulating this ontological direction. The hypothesis is presented as preliminary rather than as a completed metaphysical system.

Abstract: This manuscript examines the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in cinematic environment generation and film production workflows, with a particular focus on pre-production and visual development processes. Traditionally, production design has relied on manual techniques such as script analysis, sketching, storyboarding, and physical or digital modeling to translate narrative concepts into spatial environments. However, recent advances in machine learning, generative models, and procedural modeling have introduced new paradigms that augment creative workflows. The study explores how AI-driven tools support key stages of filmmaking, including automated script interpretation, generative concept art creation, procedural environment modeling, terrain synthesis, and asset population. Through case studies such as Dune: Part Two and Avatar: The Way of Water, the manuscript highlights the integration of AI within visual effects pipelines, demonstrating its capacity to automate labor-intensive tasks such as rotoscoping, segmentation, and performance capture while preserving artistic control. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the balance between manual modeling and AI-assisted generation, emphasizing the emergence of hybrid workflows that combine computational efficiency with human creativity. Challenges related to visual coherence, narrative consistency, and artistic authorship are also discussed, alongside future directions involving interactive generative systems and real-time virtual production. The findings suggest that AI functions as a collaborative tool that enhances design exploration, accelerates production, and expands the possibilities of cinematic world-building while maintaining the essential role of the production designer in shaping visual storytelling.

Abstract: This study examined the social and economic structure of the village of Rumnos, which was located in the district of Devrek in the Province of Bolu of the Ottoman Empire (now located in the District of Devrek, in the Province of Zonguldak in Turkey), based on Temettuat Register number 3378, dated 1844–1845. According to this particular volume of the Temettuat Register, the primary sources of income in the village were agriculture and animal husbandry. The prevalence of occupations directly related to agriculture is remarkable, as it generates the majority of wealth. The types of taxes paid by the tax-liable heads of household, together with their incomes derived from their occupational activities, were identified, and their overall tax burdens were determined. An income distribution analysis using statistical methods was conducted for this study. A Lorenz curve was constructed, and the Gini coefficient was calculated as 0.33. The analysis determined that there was a moderate level of inequality in the income distribution among the households in the village of Rumnos.

Abstract: The Sinaia Lead Plates constitute a corpus of over one hundred inscribed and illustrated metal plates reportedly discovered in Romania in the late nineteenth century, of which forty-six are currently preserved. Frequently classified as modern forgeries, the assemblage has not previously been subjected to a systematic, corpus-level archaeological analysis. This study presents an integrated reassessment of the plates combining material examination, epigraphic classification, linguistic analysis, iconographic evaluation, and contextual review of historical references. Rather than presupposing either authenticity or fabrication, the article adopts a structural and methodological approach, examining internal coherence, technical parameters, and functional plausibility. The analysis identifies consistent correlations between writing systems, linguistic patterns, iconographic organization, and historical associations across the corpus. Arguments advanced in support of the forgery hypothesis are reassessed within a comparative methodological framework, highlighting both their contributions and their limitations. Although the question of authenticity cannot be resolved conclusively on the basis of currently available evidence, the structural integration and conceptual organization of the corpus challenge simplified explanatory models and underscore the need for sustained interdisciplinary investigation.

Abstract: A 16th-century gilded and polychrome limestone relief depicting the Annunciation, attributed to the workshop of the Persio family and tentatively associated with Aurelio Persio, belongs to the main altarpiece of the Cathedral of Madonna della Bruna and Sant’Eustachio in Matera (Italy). The artwork showed a highly compromised preservation state, with two superimposed decorative phases, extensive loss of legibility and compact deposits masking the original gilding and polychromy. A multi-analytical diagnostic campaign (UV fluorescence, FTIR, SEM–EDS, PY-GC/MS and GC-MS) revealed casein-based preparations, oleoresinous binding media (linseed oil, colophony, lanolin), organic lakes, lead white and smalt. The presence of highly hygroscopic preparatory layers and fragile gilding made traditional solvent cleaning risky. A combined approach was therefore developed, integrating controlled solvent pre-conditioning, local consolidation with 2% acrylic dispersion K52 in hydroalcoholic solution, and laser cleaning using a Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) in Q-switched mode. Damage and ablation thresholds were experimentally determined for gold leaf, oleoresinous missions and white preparations. The most effective and selective results were obtained with low-energy Q-switched laser irradiation, assisted by ligroin or hydroalcoholic pre-moistening through Japanese paper. The method allowed the safe removal of concreted deposits and the recovery of the original brilliance of the gold leaf and chromatic nuances of both decorative phases, demonstrating the potential of integrated laser–solvent treatments for complex gilded polychrome stone surfaces.

Abstract: Community extension programs in higher education often remain limited to service or livelihood training, leaving their pedagogical potential underexplored. This study, conducted in Academic Year 2024–2025 at St. Michael’s College of Iligan, Inc., investigates U-Rock, a restorative community extension initiative designed in partnership with Bahay Pag-asa to reframe extension program as education. Anchored in Critical Pedagogy, Restorative Education, Psychosocial Wellness Theories, and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, the program integrates literacy, catechism, and wellness activities into structured learning experiences for the youth in conflict with the Law. Addressing existing gaps, the study engages juvenile offenders within HEI extension program, develops an interdisciplinary model that combines literacy, catechism, and wellness support, and reframes extension from service into pedagogy. Using a multi-method qualitative approach that integrates case study, narrative inquiry, and ethnographic observation, the research involved thirty participants including students, faculty, Bahay Pag-asa personnel, parents, and youth residents. Findings reveal that U-Rock empowers youth through literacy, moral reflection, and psychosocial resilience while simultaneously transforming SMCII students through empathy, civic responsibility, and applied learning. Ten salient themes emerged, highlighting Extension as Pedagogy, Operationalizing CHED Mandates, Literacy as Empowerment, Values Formation and Moral Reflection, Psychosocial Resilience, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Student Transformation, Institutional Partnership and Mission Alignment, Distinction from Conventional Models, and Contribution to Global Curriculum Discourse. Collectively, these insights demonstrate that community extension program can function as restorative pedagogy, advancing community rehabilitation and institutional mission, while offering a replicable model for higher education institutions to innovate curriculum and respond to the needs of significant youth in the periphery.

Abstract: This paper examines China's unprecedented economic transformation from 1978 to 2025, analyzing the strategic policies and pragmatic approaches that enabled the world's most populous nation to lift over 800 million people out of poverty. Drawing on recent scholarship and empirical data, this study identifies five critical factors that drove China's success: pragmatic economic reform prioritizing competence over ideology; strategic experimentation through Special Economic Zones; export-led industrialization; massive infrastructure development; and disciplined collective action. The analysis demonstrates how China's development model offers important lessons for developing nations while acknowledging its unique contextual factors. This research contributes to contemporary development economics by examining how systematic, evidence-based policy implementation can achieve rapid poverty reduction at scale.

Abstract: Brazilian wine regions shaped by Italian immigration have long mobilized European lineage to legitimize their production, yet they operate in markets that increasingly reward differentiation, symbolic clarity and specialized territorial identities. Focusing on the Altos de Pinto Bandeira Denominação de Origem (DO) and the Wines of Brazil export program, this article proposes a five‑dimension framework for analyzing wine heritage as a communicative and territorial resource in branding communication: time depth, continuity, recognition, valorization and strategic fit. Using a nested multiple case study of five DO‑licensed wineries and the national branding program, based on documentary and website analysis, it codes each case along these dimensions and derives a typology of heritage strategies (inherited‑fit, reactivated‑fit, strategic, invented‑fit, misaligned). The results show that heritage becomes most communicatively effective when it exhibits strong strategic fit with both territorial identity and product category, particularly in sparkling wine, where Brazil has achieved its clearest institutional recognition and international visibility. The Altos de Pinto Bandeira DO functions as heritage infrastructure, turning family and cooperative narratives into territorially anchored communicative assets. The article argues that a sparkling‑centred strategy aligning Italian‑Brazilian heritage with contemporary representations of “Brazilianness” can strengthen Brazil’s wine territorial brand and outlines how the proposed framework can inform the strategic communication of territorial brands in other emerging wine regions seeking place‑based development through geographical indications.

Abstract: Writing constitutes a central component in the assessment of knowledge at the university level, as it enables students to demonstrate disciplinary understanding and academic performance. Given the frequency with which learning is evaluated through written assignments, feedback provided through written comments becomes especially relevant. Although numerous studies (Prado & Pérez, 2021; Tapia-Ladino & Correa, 2022) position feedback as a valuable and necessary pedagogical practice there is still limited research in Latin America examining how students engage with and make use of the feedback they receive. This study aims to examine how university students construct meaning from feedback through peer interactions at a regional university in Chile. The research was conducted with fourth-year students enrolled in an English as a Second Language Teacher Education program. Participants completed a written assignment in pairs and subsequently received feedback from their teacher on their work. For data collection, feedback encounters (Esterhazy & Damşa, 2019) were organized, during which general guidelines were provided to support student interactions. These interactions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through category coding using Nvivo15 software. The findings revealed that students construct meaning from feedback through two recursive and iterative interaction sequences. The first, an extended sequence, is organized around the stages of idea generation, revision, discussion, decision-making, and elaboration. The second, a shorter sequence, includes idea generation, revision, and elaboration. Both sequences contributed to students’ decision-making and following actions in the task.