Modern Western musical thought tends to represent music as a thing--a pattern, a structure, even an organism--than as a human practice. Music, Encounter, Togetherness focusses on music as something people do, as a mode of encounter between individuals and cultures, and as an agent of interpersonal and social togetherness. It presents music as a utopian dimension of everyday life.

The Event of Art presents, in fifty-two modular chapters and over eight hundred pages and images, the works of artist Marc Lafia. The book interweaves essays, notes, photographic archives, and a host of exhibitions wherein Lafia traverses his wide body of work and examines how his early strategies of cultural reading of photography and film, of interface, network culture, and social media, transform into an investigation of materiality itself. If his interest was once the way media becomes the message, his interest later becomes the realm of the sensible and the sensate in themselves. Here he presents art as the medium itself, giving us wide permission to explore and examine our deepest feelings and senses, our world and its becoming. The book is introduced by two essays. The first is by curator and art dealer Mathieu Borysevicz, where he recounts meeting Lafia at his first artist residency, and the many projects they would go on to do together. He introduces Lafia's interest in recording as it becomes digital and computational where "recording is not only memory, and a data structure, but a permutational instrument and ever-changing horizon of iterations." The other introductory essay is by critic Daniel Coffeen, who writes, "while Lafia may not have a traditional medium - there is no such thing anymore - he does in fact have one consistent medium: imaging making itself, its apparati of creation, consumption, and circulation. In fact Lafia's medium is the discourse of art - what it is, how it comes to be, how we experience it." The Event of Art presents the work of art as a complex material and societal event. The event is multiple, a continual becoming of perception, being, materiality, participation, a coming to the senses and the making, shaping and opening to them, not only of one's self, but the world becoming.

The International Handbook of Teacher Quality and Policy is a comprehensive resource that examines how teacher quality is conceptualized, negotiated, and contested, and teacher policies are developed and implemented by global, national, and local policy actors. Edited by two of the leading comparative authorities in the field, it draws on the research and contributions of scholars from across the globe to explore five central questions: How has teacher quality been conceptualized from various disciplinary and theoretical perspectives? How are global and transnational policy actors and networks influencing teacher policies and practices? What are the perspectives and experiences of teachers in local policy contexts? What do comparative research studies tell us about teachers and how their work and policy contexts influence their teaching? How have various countries implemented policies aimed at improving teacher quality and how have these policies influenced teachers and students? The international contributors represent a wide variety of scholars who identify global dynamics influencing policy discourses on teacher quality, and examine national and local teaching and policy environments influencing teacher policy development and implementation in various countries. Divided into five sections, the book brings together the latest conceptual and empirical studies on teacher quality and teacher policies to inform future policy directions for recruiting, educating, and supporting the teaching profession.

The 2019 novel Corona Virus, now COVID-19, stole global headlines in the opening months of 2020, and its many impacts are still to play out. The common adage, “If the US sneezes, the world catches a cold” is now demonstrable in a multiplicity of ways, but it is China that has sneezed. This anthology provides insight into the nature of global pandemics such as SARS, MERS, Ebola and HIV/AIDs, then focuses on Wuhan, where COVID-19 broke out -- though patient zero is as yet unknown. It examines the massive effort that China has undertaken since the outbreak to contain its spread, and includes personal stories of the first lockdown experiences. But the impact may be even more grave on the global economy than it is on global health. National and international analysts address the economic impact both within China’s industrial heartland and on global business, as borders close, entire regions are on lockdown, world airlines cancel flights, major US corporations in China shut their doors, factory floors empty. and global supply chains break down, millions lose their jobs and small businesses tank.. Stocks and the prices of gold and oil are impacted. Soon after the COVID-19 outbreak was announced and the extraordinary quarantine response by China was effected, it was learned that Event 201, a global coronavirus pandemic simulation was held just months earlier, in which a global coronavirus pandemic killed 65 million people. Many questions arise concerning BIg Pharma's push for vaccines, and the mainstream dismissal of the possibility of alternative treatments such as HCQ. Other disturbing questions have arisen: Has the disruption been overblown to inflict damage on China as part of a trade war? On the United States, which faces massive damage to its economy in the midst of an increasingly bitter political divide? What are the biowarfare implications –in the Wuhan instance, where China’s first BSL-4 level laboratory is situated, or in the future in general, given the spread of BSL-4 level laboratories worldwide and most extensively the US, as states and private entities conduct research into germ warfare, including the use of bat-generated viruses, for both offensive and defensive purposes, putting the entire world at risk of accidental leakage or worse? Is this truly a pandemic -- or is it a plandemic, and if so, to what end? What are the likely consequences, intended and not.

Understanding World Media Understanding World Media sets out to mirror world media and the freedom it enjoyed across the globe in about 200 countries. While media is an important part of academic research, concerns have been raised globally on its content, intent and freedom of expression. To the extent that even as per the data compiled by Reporters Without Borders, democratic India ranks below par at 138 in the World Press Freedom Index 2018 out of the 180 listed nations. Though, it is a question of debate and discussions to what extent media in India is considered free or under censorship. When India is emerging as a global power with over 55 percent of its population is under 35 years of age, interest in the world community and media is growing leaps and bounds. It is in this context that this book magnifies its mirror to bring facts about the status and understanding of media in the world. For any book like this, it will always have its challenges to cover subjects like media in a nutshell, but for today, this book is timely and relevant. It is a balanced and thoughtful effort to present such a comprehensive book in a crisp and concise manner, as it is difficult to get experts on various countries to write on their respective domains. We have put our utmost effort to consolidate all necessary information and analysis required for this collection and we are very hopeful that it will serve its purpose, fulfill the void and information gap about the world media. Understanding World Media is structured around two clear themes, the status of media in various countries and its freedom of expression. It is divided into five parts covering vast geographical areas in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia-Oceania.