Matthew Edwards

Global circuits and local pathways are shaped by the needs of our bodies – both as individuals and as societies – and reflect our access to resources, networks, ideas, and knowledge. Towards Dissent highlights the paths forged through resistance and defiance. It examines how differences travel across regions through small editions, sound bites, news clippings, and translations; how research on revolution transforms our methodologies, encouraging participatory and subjective approaches; and how access to resources, communities, and ideas shapes the ways we understand, write about, and document sociopolitical struggles across the Americas. In this book, Matthew J. Edwards combines traditional essays with shorter, more experimental texts such as manifestos, personal vignettes, interviews, and chronicles. Together, these pieces explore the circulation of ideas, objects, and cultural artifacts across the Americas, showing that while movement is essential for resisting oppression and enacting political change, our access to archives, information, and social networks determines how we engage with communities, and experiences, and how we document and understand political struggles. This volume situates critical inquiry alongside ideological affinity and activism, arguing that political movements not only initiate social change but impact and influence the observations and critical processes that work to communicate their outcomes.

Jesus told stories. His most powerful stories were parables about the kingdom of God: The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed . . . The kingdom of God is like a persistent widow . . . The kingdom of God is like a man who had two sons . . . Jesus's stories have captivated hearts for thousands of years. Countless books and sermons have been written and preached explaining the background of these parables, but these dry explanations can rob the parables of their beauty and "punch." Think about it: if you explain a joke, it isn't funny. Jesus's parables primarily captivated the heart. Similarly, in Mustard Seeds and Viral Videos, Matthew Edwards combines his backgrounds in New Testament theology and semiotics with his fifteen years of preaching the Bible to retell the parables of Jesus in modern contexts. Instead of explaining that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed because it starts small and grows big, Edwards tells a story of a video that goes viral. Each chapter is a different story of the kingdom of God based on a different parable of Jesus.

Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century addresses the West’s current crisis of confidence. Reflecting on how the famed Roman philosopher-statesmen Marcus Tullius Cicero thought and acted in a time of great turbulence in the ancient world, this book offers lessons to 21st century students of politics and statesmen alike. Cicero’s example shows that the survival of liberal democracy requires us to recover a sense of nobility in politics – a balance of power, honour, and justice with the pursuit of truth for the common good. Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century brings the reader into the dirty politics of the late Roman Republic and tells how Cicero rose to the top in this environment. He managed to work with people who were often diametrically opposed to him, juggling different power blocks and interest groups, while trying to implement reforms, all at a time when the state apparatus and public consensus holding the Republic together were breaking down. Cicero was able to attain power, all the while maintaining his integrity and advancing the interests of his people. Additionally, Cicero and his time bring much needed perspective to our political thinking by enabling us to examine events through a prism of assumptions different from those we have inherited from the turmoil of the 20th century.

Serial killers, mass murderers, spree killers, outlaws, and real-life homicidal maniacs have long held a grim fascination for both filmmakers and viewers. Since the 1970s, hundreds of films and television movies have been made covering killers from Charles Manson to Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer creating a uniquely morbid sub-genre within horror and thrillers. This collection of interviews sheds light on 17 filmmakers and screenwriters who tackled this controversial subject while attempting to explore the warped world of infamous killers. The interviews include John McNaughton (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Tom Hanson (The Zodiac Killer), David Wickes (Jack the Ripper), Chris Gerolmo (Citizen X), Chuck Parello (The Hillside Stranglers), David Jacobson (Dahmer) and Clive Saunders on his ill-fated experience directing Gacy. Offering candid insights into the creative process behind these movies, the interviews also show the pitfalls and moral controversy the filmmakers had to wrestle with to bring their visions to the screen.

Horror and exploitation films have played a pioneering role in both American and world cinema, with a number of controversial and surreal movies produced by renegade filmmakers. This collection of interviews sheds light on the work of 23 directors from across the globe who defied the conventions of Hollywood and commercial cinema. They include Alfred Sole (Alice, Sweet, Alice), Romano Scavolini (Nightmares in a Damaged Brain), Stu Segall (Drive-in Massacre), Joseph Ellison (Don't Go in the House), David Paulsen (Savage Weekend, Schizoid), Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik, Schramm), Jack Sholder (Alone in the Dark, The Hidden), Marinao Baino (Dark Waters), Yoshihiko Matsui (Noisy Requiem) and Jamil Dehlavi (Born of Fire). More than 90 photographs are included, with many rare behind-the-scenes images.

Rock ‘n’ roll is a style that was born out of the great American melting pot. An outgrowth of the blues, rock 'n' roll music combines driving rhythms, powerful chords, and lyrics that communicate the human experience to audiences around the world. Although rock singing was once seen as a vulgar use of the human voice and was largely ignored by the academic community, voice teachers and singers around the world have recently taken a professional interest in learning specialized techniques for singing rock 'n' roll. So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll gives readers a comprehensive guide to rock history, voice science, vocal health, audio technology, technical approaches to singing rock, and stylistic parameters for various rock subgenres. Matthew Edwards, assistant professor of voice at Shenandoah Conservatory, provides easy-to-understand explanations of technical concepts, with tips for practical application, and suggestions for listening and further reading. So You Want to Sing Rock ‘n’ Roll includes guest-authored chapters by singing voice researchers Dr. Scott McCoy and Dr. Wendy LeBorgne, as well as audio and visual examples available from the website of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. This work is not only the ideal guide to singing professionals, but the perfect reference work for voice teachers and their students, lead and back-up singers, record producers and studio engineers. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.

The Book of Wisdom's understanding of Israel's history, of contemporary politics and of the immortal fate of the persecuted sage can be understood to be part of one theological system. This system integrates texts and concepts from Jewish Wisdom, the biblical narratives of the patriarchs from Adam to Moses, eschatological hope and apocalyptic language, an understanding of the spirit of God in the enabling of prophets and leaders and, most distinctively, the Stoic concept of pneuma. This last concept unites the biblical resources and allows Wisdom, using eschatological language, to speak of the ordering of the cosmos for the judgement for the wicked and the exaltation of God's people in the present age.Matthew Edwards addresses first the question of the literary unity of Wisdom. This is followed by an examination of the differing uses of the term pneuma within Wisdom, that is as divine agent of salvation, the means of the ordering the cosmos and the substance from which souls are composed. The nature of personal salvation within Wisdom is also considered and shown to be an integral part of the understanding of the cosmos, ordered for judgement and exaltation. Finally, this notion of the ordering of the comos and history for God's people is discussed with its consequences for Jewish life under contemporary Hellenistic and Roman rule.

"Mathematical Theory of Dispersion-Managed Optical Solitons" discusses recent advances covering optical solitons, soliton perturbation, optical cross-talk, Gabitov-Turitsyn Equations, quasi-linear pulses, and higher order Gabitov-Turitsyn Equations. Focusing on a mathematical perspective, the book bridges the gap between concepts in engineering and mathematics, and gives an outlook to many new topics for further research. The book is intended for researchers and graduate students in applied mathematics, physics and engineering and also it will be of interest to those who are conducting research in nonlinear fiber optics. Dr. Anjan Biswas is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics, Delaware State University, Dover, DE, USA; Dr. Daniela Milovic is an Associate Professor at the Department of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Nis, Serbia; Dr. Matthew Edwards is the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Alabama A & M University in Huntsville, AL, USA.