On the Edge

Caribbean Exceptions: The Problem of Race and Nation in Dominican Studies

“…In the North American and European academies, the topics of Dominican racial and national identity and Dominican/Haitian relations have been especially productive since the mid-1990s (notable publications include Martínez 1995;Baud 1996;San Miguel 1997;Austerlitz 1997;Torres-Saillant 1998Sagás 2000;Howard 2001;Matibag 2003;Duany 2006;Candelario 2007;Simmons 2009;Rodríguez 2011;Victoriano-Martínez 2014;Mayes 2014;Reyes-Santos 2015, among others). Studies on the national border and the Dominican Republic's antagonistic relationship with Haiti as well as studies on so-called Dominicanness constitute undeniable segments of this literature (see Sagás 1993;Wucker 1999;Turits 2002;Johnson 2002;Martínez 2003;Martínez-Vergne 2005; for studies on the national border see Derby 1994;Adams 2006;Fumagalli 2015; for studies on national identity see Castillo and Murphy 1987;Sørensen 1993Sørensen , 1997Martínez 1997). These studies have established nationality and national identity alongside race studies as dominant concerns of English-language scholarship on the country over the past several decades.…”

The New Era of Neuromodulation

“…In July 2012, an article entitled "Functional and Clinical Neuroanatomy of Morality" was published in Brain [16]. The authors, who are neuroscientists at the University of Milano in Italy, wrote that "understanding the dysfunctional brain structures underlying abnormal moral behavior can lead to specific treatments nowadays using deep brain stimulation or other new non-invasive neuromodulation techniques" and suggested that "deep brain stimulation might be used in...pathological antisocial behavior or violence...and for shaping individual morality" [17]. The idea of using of DBS for such "indications" may well provoke a sense of déjà vu for those who remember the premodern era of DBS (or "psychosurgery") of the 1960s and early 1970s, when the procedure was suggested for improving social behavior [18] and misused in questionable experiments on humans [19].…”