Media
Public Talk - Agnosticism and Reimagining Church
Presented as part of a Midweek Lenten Worship series on Reimagining Church
St. Mark's Anglican Church, St. John's
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Academic Talk - Hacking Sumerian: A Database Approach to the Analysis of Ancient Languages
Presented as part of the Digital Classicist Berlin series
German Archaeological Institute
Monday, November 27, 2017
Public Talk - Community Systems and Belonging
Presented at the launch of NL's 2017 Vital Signs
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Academic Talk - Body Cleaning, Social Norms, and Value in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop Cleaning and Value
Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
Friday, June 9, 2017
Public Talk - Social Participation and Belonging
Presented at the launch of NL's 2016 Vital Signs
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Local Historian Redefining Belly Dance, Literally
VOCM News, May 30, 2019Radio/Podcast
URL: https://vocm.com/news/local-historian-redefining-belly-dance-literally/
Come From Away in a can, period art, and being a better ally
Weekend AM with Heather Barrett, CBC, March 16, 2019Radio/Podcast
URL: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/weekend-am/episode/15679171
Segment begins at 22:00.
VOCM Vital Signs Roundtable
VOCM News, October 23, 2017Radio/Podcast
URL: https://soundcloud.com/vocm/sets/vocm-roundtable-vital-signs-2017
Economic confidence low, community pride high: Vital Signs report
CBC Central Morning, October 20, 2017Radio/Podcast
URL: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/central-morning/segment/14459737
Celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way: with drunken mayhem
Church attendance is diminishing as multiculturalism is rising, and that's no coincidence
From Dildo to Witless Bay: Where did N.L. get its unusual place names?
All the lovely Juanitas: How did a Spanish name find such popularity in Newfoundland?
CBC, July 21, 2019Online
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/juanita-name-history-1.5217741
Gender neutrality doesn’t hurt children – it’s part of our history
The Globe and Mail, July 4, 2019Online
Shaking, shimmying and breaking down stereotypes
The Telegram, June 9, 2019Online
URL: https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/shaking-shimmying-and-breaking-down-stereotype-320398/
Oxford English Dictionary Contacts Local Historian To Help Redefine ‘Belly Dance’
Why do we call Middle Eastern dance “belly dance”?
Edinburgh University Press Blog, May 23, 2019Online
URL: https://euppublishingblog.com/2019/05/23/middle-eastern-dance-belly-dance/
Let's hear it for the nans: Here's why we all need a (grand) Mother's Day
CBC, May 11, 2019Online
URL: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ainsley-hawthorn-nans-1.5130700
There's value in preserving religious structures — even for the religiously unaffiliated
CBC, April 18, 2019Online
Chilling with Brent Beshara
Newfoundland Quarterly, April 18, 2019Online
URL: http://nqonline.ca/article/chilling-with-brent-beshara/
The college admissions scandal is shocking, but the rich have always bought their way into elite universities
National Post, April 4, 2019Online
Out of the bathroom, into the gallery for an artist working with menstrual pads
CBC, March 23, 2019Online
URL: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/menstrual-pad-art-1.5064497
In the shadow of Mount Cashel: The tipping point of disillusionment with the Catholic Church
CBC, March 17, 2019Online
URL: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/mount-cashel-religious-decline-1.5048976
Priests and pastors shoulder a huge emotional burden, but they're burning out ... alone
CBC, January 20, 2019Online
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ainsley-hawthorn-pov-priests-1.4982116
Chill out, folks; there's no need to be so defensive about Christmas
CBC, December 26, 2018Online
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ainsley-hawthorn-pov-christmas-1.4956617
Provincial Snapshot: Fourth annual report on quality of life in NL released
MUN Gazette, October 20, 2017Online
URL: http://gazette.mun.ca/public-engagement/provincial-snapshot/
NL Crime Exceeding National Average: Vital Signs Report
VOCM News, October 19, 2017Online
URL: http://vocm.com/news/nl-crime-exceeding-national-average-vital-signs-report/
Vortrag von Ainsley Hawthorn – The Shifting Gaze: Vision in the Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions
Early Concepts of Man and Nature Blog, February 15, 2017Online
URL: http://grk1876.blogspot.com/2017/02/vortrag-von-ainsley-hawthorn-shifting.html
Vital Signs report highlights differences between urban and rural NL
CBC, October 5, 2016Online
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/vital-signs-report-2016-urban-rural-1.3791289
Provincial Pulse: Latest issue of Vital Signs focuses on rural and urban differences
MUN Gazette, October 5, 2016Online
URL: http://gazette.mun.ca/public-engagement/provincial-pulse/
Distant Impressions: The Senses in the Ancient Near East
by Ainsley Hawthorn and Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel
Eisenbrauns
June 24, 2019
978-1-57506-967-8
Nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu – “There is nothing in the intellect that is not first in the senses.”
Although we often treat the senses as though they are immutable, fundamental properties of our physiology, the way we parse our sensory experiences is dictated by our cultural context. Accordingly, the essays in Distant Impressionsexplore the social aspects of sensation in the ancient Near East, inviting the reader to move beyond the physiological study of sensation to an examination of its cultural meanings.
The essays in this book approach the question of sensory experience in ancient Near Eastern societies from philological, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives. They address the means of sense perception (such as vision, hearing, and smell) and the objects of perception (such as light, noise, and odor), examining the senses within religious, political, and social frameworks. The first part looks at the monumental architecture, bas-reliefs, and tablets of the Neo-Assyrian period, while the second explores sensory dimensions of the built environment and textual representations of sensation in other times and places, such as Neolithic northern Mesopotamia and Hittite Anatolia. Building on recent scholarship that focuses on the social aspects of sensation in history, Distant Impressions brings this approach to bear on ancient Near Eastern studies for the first time.
In addition to the editors, the contributors include Elke Friedrich, Sara Manasterska, Alice Mouton, Kiersten Neumann, Ludovico Portuese, and Diana Stein.
Biography
Ainsley Hawthorn is an author and cultural historian based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. She holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University, and her areas of expertise include the ancient Middle East, Middle Eastern dance, the history of writing, religious history, and the cultural history of the senses.
She served for five years as Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, where she co-founded and co-produced Newfoundland and Labrador's annual Vital Signs report, a foundation-university partnership project that presents research data relevant to quality of life in a reader-friendly format. 100,000 copies of the report are distributed province-wide each year.
Hawthorn is a columnist for CBC, has contributed to The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and the Newfoundland Quarterly, and is currently completing her first non-fiction book, The Other Five Senses. She is also a textile artist and a teacher and performer of Middle Eastern and international folk dance.