Seeing Ourselves and Others
The Treatment of Women Prisoners in Italy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ramona Cavalli
This study reflects on the condition of women inside prisons in Italy, with the aim of bringing out the problems that are generated around the combination of gender and detention. The marginalization of women prisoners are topics that have had little response in the academic world, perhaps due to the small number and the lack of criminal dangerousness. Even the Italian legislator has paid more attention to the role of the mother prisoner, than to the needs of the woman as such as if motherhood were the only female dimension worthy of being taken into consideration in the elaboration of prison treatment. In Italy, the "Women and Prison" Table of the "States General of Penal Enforcement" had approached the issue even outside of maternity, addressing the relationship with prison life, professional training, physical and psychiatric health and with the overcoming of the concept of treatment as "cure" or "correction"; with a decisive shift from the medical-therapeutic terrain to that of empowerment. Despite international indications the wide sphere of interests and specific needs that characterize the female universe, even in the prison microcosm, has remained in the background of a differentiated punitive system, often influenced by a "stereotyped" perception of the role of women in society, which projects the female and gender issue also within the model of justice and punishment. It is precisely the small numerical weight of female detention that has historically created difficulties for women in prison, especially for minor children, because prison is designed for men.
Featured Overlapping Identities: Montenegro’s Diaspora or Montenegrin Diaspora? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Klement Camaj
This paper explores the complex matter of defining the Montenegrin diasporic identity within the context of Montenegro’s multi-ethnic composition and in regard to its diaspora engagement policy. It does so by drawing inspiration from the Scottish diaspora and the Scottish Government’s recent diaspora engagement strategy. Our work addresses the challenge posed by migrants from Montenegro who, while originating from the country, more often than not identify with their specific ethnic diasporas (Montenegrin, Serb, Bosnian Albanian, Croatian), rather than a unified diaspora of Montenegro. Similarly, Scotland must deal with a diaspora that draws upon a very broad range of history and competing senses of identity and belonging, yet for the Scottish diaspora, there is no Scottish state or citizenship. Thus, these examples of Montenegro and Scotland present a key definitional problem, albeit a mirror of each other. Therefore, this research investigates this national identity division within the diaspora of Montenegro, examining the historical, social, and political factors contributing to these distinct identifications, including questions of national belonging and historical narratives. Our paper aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes the Montenegrin diaspora in its various forms and based on this analysis, proposes more inclusive potential governmental definitions and policies. Our proposals would allow Montenegro to acknowledge and recognise the varied ethnic and national identities of its diaspora, with its broader spectrum of connection to the homeland, and further allow a more productive and fruitful engagement with those diverse, worldwide, diaspora communities.
The Attack on the Gender and Sexually Diversity in 2025 and the Need for Media Resistance: The Importance of Media Representation of Alternative Sexualities and Genders in the Current Era View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sarah Baker
With the election of Donald Trump in 2024 the threat of attack on LGBTQ+ members was present. Since then, Trump has attacked transgender rights and set out to vilify those who are not regarded as normal. These attacks look to continue into lesbian and gay rights as the year proceeds. This paper examines the uniqueness of this threat after years of progress and examines how media representation can act as a bulwark against such attacks. The role of media representation is therefore seen as a crucial tool to act as a method of resistance and protest. By examining the historical media representation of LGBTQ+ experiences, this paper argues that a new and more forceful level of representation is needed by key media players.
Rethinking Leadership: Shifting Paradigms of Progress and Time from the Pre-Modern to the Post-Anthropocentric Age View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alfonso R. Vergaray
This paper investigates how pre-modern understandings of time and progress challenge prevailing anthropocentric notions of leadership rooted in modern ideals of continuous improvement and human mastery over nature. It begins by interrogating contemporary leadership paradigms, which define success primarily as the capacity for perpetual growth achieved through human planning and intervention. Turning to pre-modern perspectives, the paper highlights two alternative frameworks: the theocentric worldview, dominant in Biblical and medieval contexts, and the cosmocentric worldview of classical antiquity. Theocentrism situates leadership within a divinely orchestrated history, casting leaders not as agents of autonomous progress, but as stewards who ensure alignment with a predetermined divine order. Cosmocentrism rejects linear, infinite progress in favor of cyclical natural rhythms, embedding human existence within broader patterns of birth, growth, and decline. Here, effective leadership entails educating communities to live sustainably and in sync with these natural cycles, rather than striving to exceed them. In its final section, the paper speculates on how emerging developments, such as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), could render traditional anthropocentric frameworks obsolete by stripping humans of their exceptional status. This post-anthropocentric shift demands a radical rethinking of leadership roles and strategies—no longer emphasizing human-driven progress but instead adapting to new realities in which human control is diminished or displaced. Ultimately, by examining pre-modern conceptions alongside futuristic speculations, this paper provides a fresh perspective on leadership, inviting readers to reconsider contemporary assumptions and preparing them for potential transformations that AGI and other disruptive forces could bring.
