The American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) is regarded as a key figure of the Modernist movement, with his distinctive writing style emulated to this day. My research aims to explore how psychological dissociation (detachment from ones surroundings, identity, etc.) informs and appears in his famous narrative style. The phenomenon of dissociation as a response to trauma is well documented, as is Hemingway’s role as a writer of traumatic war narratives. What has not been explored in detail, however, is dissociation as a fundamental aspect of his narrative style, not just in his explicit war stories, but throughout his entire body of work. I have combined textual analysis and critical readings with contemporary trauma research to explore how Hemingway communicates what is, for many, uncommunicable. I give particular focus to his ‘Chapters’, Cubist-like vignettes first published in 1924, which, compared to much of his later work, remain relatively unexamined. I also make reference to numerous other texts of his, both published and unpublished, to demonstrate the pervasiveness of what I call his dissociative style.

The challenge of narrating trauma, of speaking the unspeakable, is not just a literary one – it is one affecting all areas of society. Many believe that finding a way to communicate and make sense of trauma is key to allowing survivors to heal. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the mechanisms – such as fragmented, repetitive imagery, dreamlike imagery, narrowing of focus and shifting, inconsistent adverbs – used by writers who manage to convey traumatic experience. Understanding Hemingway’s dissociative style illuminates a powerful device for communicating trauma, which may be used by other survivors seeking to process their own experiences.

ISIS is a heated topic of debate in today’s time. Its emergence has always been a mystery to most people across the world. ISIS is a recent phenomenon, and thus has limited literature and articles. As such, no one knows yet what exactly led to its formation or who heads it. People speculate and do have a rough idea about the causes and reasons for its emergence but it is still not clandestine, and we still do NOT have a clear answer. In this research, we looked at various authors who have given a detailed description about ISIS in their books.

As a methodology, we used different journals, and the resulting conclusion will be based on the tallying the results in each journal. It provided clarity and gave us the idea of why and how ISIS emerged in the Middle-Eastern countries only. The uniqueness of this research lies in the fact that we tried to find reasons and answers to the questions that every students wants.

We often hear in the news about the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, but the fact that ISIS is one of the major reasons behind it is ignored most of the time. In this research, we have tried to come up with the answers to questions that are raised by students – and this makes the research study distinct from the previous studies about the emergence of the Islamic States.

Paedophilia is reported on by the media mainly as an issue of criminality, yet when considering its definition as a psychiatric disorder, this changes. This research examines how and why reports on paedophilia often disregard its classification as a mental disorder, and hence aims to positively change the currently damaging social perceptions towards non-offending paedophiles.

The number of publications denoting paedophilia and related crimes such as Samantha Ashenden’s, ‘Policing Perversion: The contemporary governance of Paedophilia’ (2002) escalated around the turn of the twenty-first century. However, the topic remains of prominence to a contemporary society, reflected by Kieran McCartan’s, ‘Media Constructions of, and Reactions to, Paedophilia in Society’, (2014).

Two Louis Theroux documentaries are examined as a sample of modern media, (‘A Place for Paedophiles’, 2009; ‘Among the Sex Offenders’, 2014) in order to deduce how broadcasters portray issues. Results show a solely ‘negative’ portrayal of paedophilia, forming a damaging and biased belief about the issue. Such a media portrayal of this topic has also been shown to influence the way the public respond to this issue in their daily lives, and provoke a damaging effect on the health of non-offenders.

This paper argues that an explanation for this damage is due to a lack of public recognition of paedophilia as a psychiatric disorder, rather than a crime. From here therefore, it is important for researchers in this field to examine what the next steps in developments of social policy should be. Furthermore, as issues around criminal acts associated with paedophilia have been shown to cause moral panic within society, there is a necessity for wider social change. Hence, this research highlights both: a greater need for focus on protocols for treating sexual offenders after they have been released from prison, and the need for addressing the aims of sentencing.

In the WHO’s 2016 SDG Progress report, Gender Inequality (GI) was identified as an SDG problem that not only impacted the mental and physical health of women but also their agency in terms of economic contribution and GDP. The World Bank’s review of interventions addressing Violence Against Women (VAW) concluded that community and societal interventions were relatively ineffective. Application of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to the topic of GI and VAW provides vital insight into why interventions are ineffective, especially with regards to experiences and fear of abuse. By performing a meta-analysis drawing on past qualitative and quantitative research of the topic, this research seeks to establish: 1) How VAW and GI cultural norms can be viewed as the product of underlying societal values and beliefs; 2) How SCT can be used as a framework to understand underlying mechanisms that can perpetuate or prevent these cultural norms; and the key focus is 3) How workplace interventions could serve as a solution to impacting cultural norms of GI (and indirectly, VAW) in a positive manner in the future. Workplace interventions can be better incentivised with research showing gender equality’s association with improved economic performance. These interventions are also a less intrusive way to modify the environment in the attempt to impact societal cognition of women and men alike. This impact would, in theory, alter behaviour so that women begin to model increased positive economic agency, as based on the SCT – which could affect overall agency of women.

Keywords: Economic agency, meta-analysis, social cognitive theory, Violence Against Women, gender inequality, sustainable development goals, societal intervention