The purpose of this essay is to describe the perception of four medieval Syriac Christians Chroniclers, i.e. Pseudo-Dionysios of Tel-Mahre, Mikhael Rabbo, the anonymous Chronicler of The Chronicle of the year 1234 and BarcEbroyo, on the emergence of Islam with regard to religion, economic and social issues in the region of Syria and Iraq, here called Aramea, where Syriac speaking communities lived. The period of the study covers the time from the Prophet Muhammad to the end of the Umayyad dynasty.   Early passages in Syriac documents give positive accounts about the Prophet Muhammad, Abu Bakr, cUmar ibn al-Khattab and Mucawiya. And indeed, the Syriac speaking community received the coming of the Arabs as a liberation from the Byzantines´ yoke, i.e. persecution and humiliation. When the Arabs conquered the region, they made a dhimmi-deal with subjugated Christians, i.e. ahl al-dhimma “people of covenant”, and gave them protection in exchange for jizya, the protection tax. Indeed, they achieved some independence, had their own civil laws, and the Syriac church ruled very freely.   But the presence of the Muslim Arabs transformed the region in terms of religion, language, demographic and political circumstances. The jizya became a heavy burden and some Caliphs treated Christians unfairly.  The Arabs showed superiority and a political power over all subjugated.   Within this change there began also a cultural interaction between the Muslims and the Christians. The Church was challenged, the Syriac language was repressed, and the Church fathers had to act to protect their communities. First, documentation of historical events of the region became a very important and central issue. Second, the chronicles were authored in order to present a disparity between Islam and Christianity to indicate distinction in religion and moral laws. Third, the Syriac church was challenged and had to act by forbidding marriage with Muslims by constituting Church Law, as many Christians chose to convert to Islam because of interactions, heavy taxes and unfair treatment.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in History of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / In this research report I look at how the Goodman Gallery has played a role in the construction of cultural capital around the contemporary South African photographer Mikhael Subotzky (1981). Unpacking Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “cultural capital” (1986: 243), and applying it to the South African art industry, I explore the direct impact that commercial galleries have on the building of artists’ careers through acts that result in the construction of cultural capital, and in what capacity they do this. Little has been written in South African art history about local commercial art galleries, and my interest in the role that they play in the construction of art history stems from my own involvement in this sector, as a commercial art gallery curator. As businesses, these institutions have profitable ambitions, and by successfully promoting the artists they represent, they are affecting the course of South African art history. Due to the potentially vast nature of this subject I have chosen to focus on one contemporary artist, Mikhael Subotzky, and his relationship with the one South African gallery he has been affiliated to throughout his entire professional career, the Goodman Gallery. As much as every person’s life is different, every person’s career is different too, and in this way I cannot use Subotzky’s career trajectory to explain all other contemporary South African artists’ careers, but I do believe that the impact that commercial galleries can have on the cultural capital surrounding artists in South Africa is a topic that should be explored further. I argue that there are various ways of gauging the cultural capital surrounding an artist in the South African art industry, and that one can look at various aspects of an artist’s career and assess their cultural capital. I substantiate this claim in this paper, and indeed why it is important to understand what role the commercial gallery can play in this construction

Although nearly every secondary school English teacher includes film as part of the English/language arts curriculum, there is, to this point, nothing published about effectively studying the relationship between film adaptations and their print source texts in secondary school. There are several important works that inform film study in secondary English classrooms. These include Alan Teasley and Ann Wilder's Reel Conversations; William Costanzo's Reading the Movies and his updated version, Great Films and How to Teach Them; and John Golden's Reading in the Dark. However, each of these mention adaptation briefly if at all. Rather, they approach film as a text that students need to learn how to “read." While I certainly agree with this position, I argue that students also must learn how to productively investigate the relationship between films and their literary source texts. To make this case, I survey the field of adaptation theory generally, beginning with George Bluestone's seminal Novels into Film and moving towards contemporary theory, like Robert Stam's work, which suggests theoretical paradigms beyond fidelity analysis. I rely, particularly, on Mikhael Bakhtin's dialogism as a theoretical frame for studying adaptations in school. I also suggest four specific areas that act as foundations for successfully approaching adaptations with secondary English students: (1) economic analysis, (2) intertextualities (the matrix of cultural influences on a text), (3) Gérard Genette's notion of transtextuality (the relationship of one text to others), and (4) an expansion of adaptation to include the relationships of print texts to new media adaptations. In order to further develop ways that secondary school English teachers can specifically approach adaptation in their classrooms, I include two case studies. The first focuses on pairing Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning young adult novel Speak with Jessica Sharzer's film adaptation. The second suggests methods for teaching Mary Shelley's Frankenstein along with James Whale's film adaptation. Because so little has been written about effectively incorporating film adaptations into the secondary school English curriculum, this project seeks not only to analyze the theoretical foundation for adaptation study, but also to suggest specific methodology that can be utilized by teachers.