American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Stolarz Fantino*, Lauren Olsho, Harry Telser, Jessica Hanson

Creative writing has gradually developed from a personal leisure activity into a serious form of intellectual and professional engagement. Learning and practicing creative writing requires investments of time, effort, training, and financial resources, while the outcomes of such investment may remain uncertain for a considerable period. This study examines creative writing from an economic perspective by exploring the relationship between the resources devoted to developing writing skills and the potential benefits associated with literary achievement and publication. Attention is given to opportunity cost, especially the value of alternative activities that may be forgone while pursuing creative writing. A cost-benefit perspective is used to consider both measurable and less tangible outcomes, including professional opportunities, personal development, recognition, and potential income from published work. The analysis highlights the uncertainty surrounding the recovery of investments in creative writing and emphasizes the importance of evaluating its broader cultural and professional value alongside direct economic returns. The study contributes to a wider understanding of creative writing as an activity involving choices, investments, and potential long-term outcomes.

Keywords: Creative Writing; Opportunity Cost; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Economic Value; Literary Practice; Writing Investment; Publishing Outcomes; Professional Development; Creative Economy; Literary Production.

Leonard Cole*, Gerd Berget, Lipson Smith

Television plays an important role in everyday communication and can have a strong influence on the way language is used and understood by the public. This study examines changing language practices in television speech, focusing on the occurrence of neologisms, barbarisms, and jargon in contemporary broadcasting. The analysis places these forms within the wider context of verbal communication and literary language norms rather than viewing them as separate linguistic features. Attention is given to differences between television program formats and the language choices made by journalists, presenters, and other media speakers.

The study shows that neologisms are more common in news and documentary programs, where television professionals frequently refer to new technologies, social developments, and emerging concepts. Barbarisms and jargon occur more often in entertainment and comic programs, where informal, expressive, and audience-oriented language is frequently adopted. These differences demonstrate how the purpose and style of a program can shape the language used in television communication.

The findings also point to a continuing interaction between linguistic innovation and established language norms. New words and expressions are an expected part of language development, but their repeated use in television can contribute to wider changes in public speech. Greater attention to clarity, appropriateness, and responsible language use can therefore help television maintain its communicative role while responding naturally to ongoing linguistic change.

Keywords: Georgian Television; Broadcast Language; TV Speech Culture; Verbal Communication; Georgian Language; Language Change; Neologisms; Barbarisms; Jargon; Media Discourse; Television Communication; Literary Georgian; Language Use; Linguistic Innovation; Communication Practices.

Claire Goodfellow*, Ming Logsdon

This study examines whether differences in national research organization are reflected in the scholarly performance of European Research Council (ERC) grant recipients in the social sciences and humanities in France and the Netherlands. The comparison is framed around contrasting patterns of research governance and institutional organization, with particular attention to their possible influence on publication output, subject specialization, and collaborative activity. The study analyzes 9,996 publications produced by 305 ERC-funded researchers during 2019–2023, using data obtained from Scopus and SciVal. A combination of topic modeling through latent Dirichlet allocation, compound annual growth rate calculations, and co-authorship network analysis was applied to identify major disciplinary patterns and research relationships. The findings indicate strong activity in neuroscience, climate-related research, and psychology, while French researchers show greater prominence in language and linguistics and Dutch researchers demonstrate stronger representation in law and political science. Institutional affiliations also differ considerably between the two countries. French awardees are more frequently connected with national and specialized research organizations, whereas Dutch awardees are concentrated in leading universities. Collaboration appears closely associated with scholarly visibility, particularly when international partners are involved. Overall, the findings demonstrate that institutional settings and patterns of collaboration play an important role in shaping academic performance.

Keywords: European Research Council; Scientometric Analysis; Research Governance; France; Netherlands; Scholarly Collaboration; Publication Performance.

Solbach Laskay*, Pinsault Walsh, Chance Larsen

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a potential resource for strengthening the initial stages of support available to individuals affected by sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including intimate partner and domestic violence. Proposed applications extend across helplines, healthcare services, specialist support organisations, online reporting environments, legal assistance platforms and other digital pathways. Despite growing interest, the extent of the available evidence, the developmental stage of existing applications and the quality of their evaluation are not yet clearly established. This review therefore sought to examine where and how AI is being applied, assess the maturity of the evidence, and identify important implementation, safety and research gaps.

Methods: A scoping review was undertaken and reported in accordance with the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The Population–Concept–Context framework guided the review of AI-based technologies designed to support first-contact, immediate or early-stage responses. Searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed, with additional targeted searches of IEEE Xplore and the ACM Digital Library. Eligible records were screened using predefined criteria, relevant information was extracted through a structured charting process, and findings were summarised descriptively.

Results: The primary database searches retrieved 187 records, from which 21 sources were included. Supplementary searching generated 539 additional records or candidates; following assessment of 27 full-text publications, 6 further sources fulfilled the eligibility requirements. A total of 27 sources were therefore included. The literature encompassed AI-supported conversational assistance, emergency and specialist-service screening and triage, analysis of social media disclosures and online help-seeking, survivor-informed chatbot development, legal and support-service navigation, and speech-related technologies. Most studies concentrated on technical accuracy, system characteristics, usability, acceptability or audit-based findings. Evidence examining AI within established service workflows was absent, while outcomes relating to survivor wellbeing, successful connection with services and potential harms were infrequently evaluated.

Conclusions: Current evidence on AI-supported early responses to SGBV is diverse but remains at a relatively preliminary stage. Existing research has predominantly examined individual tools and prototypes rather than their effects across complete support pathways. Greater attention is needed to human oversight, escalation procedures, accountability, equitable access, digital safety and effective handover to appropriate professionals. The practice priorities and outcome areas identified in this review are intended to inform future pilot and implementation research rather than serve as validated practice guidelines.

Keywords: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence; Sexual Violence; Intimate Partner Violence; Domestic Violence; Artificial Intelligence; Early Response; Crisis Support; Conversational Agents; Chatbots; Triage; Digital Safety; Scoping Review.

Lisa Schwartz*

Therapeutic relationships between humans and non-human animals are frequently assessed according to their contribution to human health, emotional functioning and social well-being. Comparatively less attention has been directed toward how the animals involved experience these interactions and how their welfare should shape therapeutic practice. This interdisciplinary narrative review examines human–animal therapeutic relationships through the conceptual framework of interpretative asymmetry, drawing together perspectives from human–animal studies, ethology, animal welfare research and biological approaches to interspecies communication. Cultural representations are considered only as boundary narratives that help demonstrate potential problems associated with projection, idealization and romanticized interpretations of animal behaviour.

Interpretative asymmetry is proposed as a conceptual condition rather than an empirically quantified measure. It refers to an imbalance in who determines the meaning, purpose and conditions of an interspecies encounter. Human participants and professionals typically establish therapeutic objectives, structure the environment and interpret animal behaviour in relation to ideas such as attachment, cooperation, comfort or emotional support. Non-human animals, however, engage through behavioural, sensory and physiological processes that may reflect a range of states, including positive engagement, familiarity, arousal, stress, behavioural inhibition or attempts to avoid conflict. These possibilities cannot always be distinguished through human observation alone.

The review argues that the assessment of animal-assisted interventions and animal-assisted therapy should extend beyond evidence of benefit to human participants. Equal attention should be given to indicators of animal welfare, including the intensity and frequency of work, opportunities for rest and recovery, the ability to move away from unwanted interaction, the preservation of behavioural agency and the competence of handlers and practitioners. Dogs and horses are considered as important applied examples through which these concerns can be examined, while accounts involving wild animals are used to identify the interpretative limits of human assumptions. Recognizing animals as active participants with welfare interests is fundamental to developing more ethically responsible therapeutic relationships across species

Keywords: Human–Animal Relationships; Non-Human Animals; Animal Welfare; Human–Animal Studies; Interspecies Communication; Interpretative Asymmetry; Animal-Assisted Interventions; Animal-Assisted Therapy; Equine-Assisted Interventions; Animal Agency; Affective Labour; Anthropomorphism.

Lianqiu Wu*, Yin Zhou

The beginning of the twenty-first century, Malaysian Chinese independent cinema has gained increasing visibility beyond national borders, and James Lee has become an important voice within this cinematic movement. While his work is often associated with independent production practices and unconventional visual storytelling, the expressive role of sound deserves closer attention. This study examines how Lee employs sound as an aesthetic and cultural resource through an analysis informed by in-depth interviews with the filmmaker. Rather than serving only to support images or advance the plot, sound in his films participates in the construction and communication of cultural experience. Situated within Malaysia's postcolonial and multilingual environment, Lee's sonic choices frequently move across languages, silences, ambient sounds, and surreal auditory elements. The article proposes the concept of sound-mediated unconscious cultural expression to describe the ways cultural meanings emerge through creative practices that may not always be deliberately articulated by the filmmaker. These soundscapes connect everyday local experience with broader transnational influences, producing a cinema shaped by cultural plurality and aesthetic experimentation. By bringing film sound theory into dialogue with discussions of cultural identity, the study demonstrates how listening can provide a valuable approach to understanding identity formation and cultural negotiation in multicultural cinema.

Momtaz Cavallo*, Owen Brigidi, Della Monica, Eduardo Horacio, Barry Robison

The relationship with the learned institutions of his age was complex, combining admiration for intellectual traditions with moments of criticism toward academic culture. This tension is particularly visible in Paradiso and raises important questions about how the Commedia itself was subsequently received by teachers and scholars. This study investigates the role of magistri, university lecturers, and other members of the higher educational world in shaping the poem’s academic reception during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It explores whether Dante’s work moved beyond literary circulation to acquire a place within teaching and interpretative practices, especially those connected with lectio. Particular attention is given to manuscript evidence in which passages from the Commedia appear in glosses and commentaries on established auctores maiores. These references served diverse scholarly purposes, including the explanation of difficult vocabulary, the support of interpretative arguments, the provision of illustrative examples, and the transmission of moral or intellectual sententiae. The evidence suggests that Dante’s poem gradually entered the repertoire of texts recognized as useful and authoritative within learned circles. Its presence in manuscripts produced across different regions further demonstrates the widening acceptance of Dante as an auctor whose work could participate in established medieval practices of reading, commentary, and textual interpretation.

Zhuoyuan Tang*, Xuan Pan

Allegra Benedetti*

This article examines how representations of madness function as a critical strategy. Both works parody the conventions of chivalric romance, yet their portrayals of mentally unstable knights also create a literary space from which broader political and cultural tensions can be explored. The study argues that Ariosto and Cervantes use chivalric madness to question emerging imperial ambitions and the continuing influence of ideals associated with conquest, heroism, and territorial rule. Their critiques engage, directly or indirectly, with European expansion into the Americas, memories and representations of conflict involving Muslim and Moorish societies in the Maghreb, and symbolic models of governance articulated through the motif of the island. By locating potentially controversial criticism within the actions and perceptions of figures identified as mad, these narratives allow political and sociocultural concerns to be expressed through parody and indirection. At the same time, this narrative strategy raises an important issue for disability and mad studies. When madness becomes a metaphorical instrument for communicating social critique, experiences associated with mental difference risk being subordinated to their symbolic usefulness. The article therefore considers the double function of madness in these texts: as a means of exposing the contradictions of chivalric and imperial ideology and as a literary convention with lasting implications for the representation of disability and mental difference.