Dr Eleonora Belfiore is the author of a book chapter entitled "The ‘Transformative Power’ of the Arts: History of an Idea" part of the multidisciplinary edited collection of essays entited The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning, edited by Julian Sefton-Green, Pat Thomson, Ken Jones and Liora Bresler and published in July 2011.

Oliver Bennett's article 'Cultures of Optimism' has now been published in Cultural Sociology (OnlineFirst, April 2011). Drawing on material from a broad range of fields, the article identifies an ‘optimism of everyday life’ and proposes that it performs significant psychological, social and cultural functions. These functions are reviewed, with particular reference to psychological and physical health, family and social relationships and the achievement of goals in different contexts. The article argues that the necessity of optimism has given rise to a complex of optimism promoters, which function as agents of implicit cultural policy. The family, religious institutions, the medical profession, psychotherapists and counsellors, businesses and political leaders are, amongst others, all seen to be part of this complex.

This is the first publication arising from an ongoing enquiry that Oliver is undertaking into the institutional promotion of optimism.

Dr Belfiore has had the pleasure to write a preface for a book by Elisa Bonacini, Italian archaeologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Catania, Italy. The book entitled Il museo contemporaneo. Fra tradizione, marketing e nuove tecnologie (The contemporary museum: Between tradition, marketing and new technologies) is published by Roman based academic publisher Aracne.