Journal of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences

Managing Editor's Note

Editors JLAHS — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

This current issue of JLAHS presents a variety of articles each uphold of which the Liberal Arts tradition of critical thinking, innovative research, personal reflection and contribution towards the bigger picture. We hope that the upcoming issues of the journal will continue to move forward in the same direction with the same intellectual fervor and enthusiasm.

Ruins

Editors JLAHS; Elbunit Kqiku — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

With current demining efforts, it will take 1100 years to rid the earth of the landmines contaminating it. We have no choice but to live with them. This project aims to analyze the impact of landmines in Kosovo, planted by several outsider and insider military actors during the Kosovo War. Landmines mainly affect civilians, and in Kosovo they have been left primarily by invading forces, which essentially lead this project to view landmines as imperial ruins -- a product of a colonial empire meant to last in the bodies and landscapes of Kosovars even after its fall.

Early Years Teachers' Perception of Integrated Curriculum in Pakistan

Editors JLAHS; Lubna Adil — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

The term ‘integrated curriculum’ is inextricably linked to the curriculum units. This article explored the perception of preschool practitioners and middle management as facilitators and determined the understanding of an integrated curriculum; its efficacy with advantages and disadvantages; and the hurdles and challenges they faced while infusing and integrating the lessons through a variety of approaches. This study adopted the qualitative research methodology, based on the interview protocol as a research tool outlined by Creswell (2012). Within a population of early-year and pre-primary private schools in Karachi, Pakistan, six early years teachers, and three middle-management staff members from five different schools were the sample size of this study. Transcriptions of recorded interviews were coded with further development of the themes and sub-themes. Data analyzed that most of the participants possess an adequate understanding of the integrated curriculum with its implementation in their teaching. Thus, all participants agreed on the practicality of a comprehensively curated and integrated curriculum with much emphasis and agreement on the advantages. Whereas, a few notable disadvantages like access to resources, time constraints, and parental concerns were highlighted which need further study to form productive outcomes. However, respondents lack philosophical and theoretical aspects which are yet to be assimilated with the knowledge of various approaches and the numerous types of integration models that may be adopted. This study suggests further research with a bigger and broader sample to take into account the greater diversity of integration themes, approaches, and modes of teaching while integrating the curriculum.

Are the Activities of Aid Donors in Africa Neo-Colonial in Character?

Editors JLAHS; Nabila Okino — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

This essay critically analyses the claim that the activities of aid donors in Africa should be understood as neo-colonial. This assertion implies that aid and the activities of donors are not provided for the benefit or development of African states, but to retain structures of dominance that are ultimately to the benefit of donor states/institutions. While discussing the differing perspectives on sovereignty, this essay adopts a constructivist approach in explaining that aid, both from the global North and South that compromises the ability of a state to make its policy decisions and control its developmental narrative can create neo-colonial structures. By using Ethiopia and Zambia as case studies, this essay asserts that aid relationships are by themselves not neo-colonial. However, relational issues like historical, political, geographical and social factors, play an important role in determining the extent of a state’s agency in aid negotiations and whether such relationships become neo-colonial.

Action and the Modern Times

Editors JLAHS; Ariba Javed — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

Why did Porphyria, of Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover, come straight from a storm, labored to improve the conditions in the cottage, and gave in to her lover’s whims while he lay inside, all the while, quite comfortably? What made her do nothing, as per the narrator of the poem, in response to being strangled? Why did she act like the puppet of a puppeteer and not like a person of will when being killed? As bizarre is her lover’s wish to love her unnaturally perpetually i.e. by murdering her, it is just as bizarre that Porphyria lets go of her life with the ease reported by the narrator.

Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover may be narrated by the lover, but the actions of Porphyria speak for themselves and tell us of her struggle between the outer world and her inner self. Her actions, or lack thereof, can be taken as a microcosm for the modern woman living in a patriarchal world, where their existence, much like Porphyria’s—after whom the poem is named but much of the critical work present on it revolves around the lover—has been treated as secondary and whose realities also come to a halt in response to the gaze of the Other all too often. In the Madhouse Cell, Porphyria was an equal participant, and should be looked at that way.

Legitimizing a Military Dictatorship: The Referendums and General Elections of Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq

Editors JLAHS — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0500

When a dictator begins to lose legitimacy, they try framing themselves as democrats. This paper explores how two military dictators in Pakistan- Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq - attempted to strategi- cally use the electoral process to legitimize their regimes. Guided by Carl J. Friedrich’s definition of legitimacy, the paper comparatively analyzes Ayub Khan’s 1960 referendum and 1965 elections as well as Zia ul Haq’s 1984 referendum and 1985 elections. This is done by contextualizing the regimes’ desper- ations for legitimacy that led to the referen- dum/elections, narrating the events of the polling exercise and then evaluating how it affected public perceptions of legitimacy and, in turn, the power of the two leaders. Accordingly, the paper relies on primary sources (interviews, newspaper articles and speeches) as well as secondary sources (research papers, journals and books) to provide a broader understanding of the two leaders’ electoral maneu- vers. Ultimately, the paper concludes that both Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq failed to legitimize their rules through their manipulated referendums and general elections; however, Ayub Khan was able to maintain a firmer control of state affairs during this process than Zia ul Haq.