Fraternities and sororities

Fraternities and sororities commonly organize themed social functions. Unfortunately, many of these functions have themes that are racially or sexually derogatory. The belief is that these themes are “just for fun” and there isn’t any intent to harm or offend anyone. This session reviews examples of inappropriate party themes and provides suggestions on creating more inclusive and welcoming environments in fraternities and sororities.

Fraternities and sororities promote the ideals of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship. Little or no research, however, has demonstrated that college students who join fraternal organizations actually grow in these areas as a result of their fraternal experience. The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the extent to which fraternity and sorority members experienced gains in the four outcome areas. The researcher analyzed the aggregate results of 15 Southeastern institutions that administered the AFA/EBI Fraternity/Sorority Assessment during the 2008/2009 academic year. The results revealed the respondents did experience gains related to the espoused values of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship. Recommendations for improving the experiences of fraternity and sorority members include encouraging members to spend more time preparing for class and developing the study skills and career-related abilities of members.

Arguably, fraternities and sororities are the most noticeable symbols of college social life. Dr. Fran Becque, a fraternity history scholar states, “Nationally, fraternity or sorority members are the largest and most visible value-based student organizations”.  As a freshman, from the moment you step on campus, you cannot help but notice the ubiquitous Greek letters in a spectrum of bright colors. A diverse array of college fraternities and sororities exists that should appeal to any demographic, culture, or interest. These range from the centuries-old traditionally White associations, historically Black Greek-lettered organizations (BGLOs), Latino-oriented fraternities and sororities, and the newer cultural interest groups that were founded in the past half century. The following chapter presents a history of the American college Greek system; controversies and criticisms of Greek life; the positive attributes and contributions Greeks make to campus life and society; and finally, how to succeed in joining the fraternity or sorority of your choice.

Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order from the shadows. Membership in these organizations is often simultaneously revered and misunderstood. The reverence toward these organizations is both a product and a cause of recent popular cultural fascination with the secret world of fraternal orders.

After the author of Genesis postulates a universal flood that eliminates all evil people from the world, he has now to explain how come that the world in which all readers live is as full of evil and violence as it had been before the flood. While evil entered the world for the first time through Cain who killed his brother – and no one assumes Cain to have been a saint – this time evil entered the world through Noah who had managed to be a saint for no less than 600 years. And this time evil entered the world in a form that is quite benign: Noah gets drunk, exposes himself naked, one of his sons accidentally sees him naked and warns his other brothers about the condition of their father who covered him up, and after Noah regains consciousness, begins to throw with blessings and curses to the right and to the left by which he turns his grandson Canaan into a slave who was not even aware of what had happened. Since slavery has to be imposed by force and therefore through violence, Canaan and his descendants also resorted to force and violence to defend their freedom and became the great heroes of the ancient world that built the empires that dominated that part of the world, including Palestine. We are now back at square with the world full of Nephilim and violence, this time, not in order to revenge murders, but in order to create supposedly ideal societies based on power with a hierarchy in the shape of a pyramid with the right people at the top. This is what Noah established: a pyramid with his son Shem or “name” at the top and the other son as his subordinates, with Ham and Canaan as slaves. The purpose of the whole social structure was not to facilitate cooperation among all citizens, but rather to control or to “keep” all people together. Geometrical figures such as pyramids, obelisks, and triangles are universal symbols for power structures that convey stability, security, and permanence. Contrary to traditional interpretations, the story about the Tower of Babel is not about building skyscrapers but about building societies based on a pyramid of power that controls all the members of the society, indeed, eventually the whole world. Although this has been the dream of all great conquerors, such enterprises have always collapsed, just as the story about the Tower of Babel ends in failure. The reason all hierarchies that use power and not rationality eventually collapse is because they are based on secrecy and deception. Although democracy presupposes the ability of all individuals to evaluate the performance of their leaders whom they elect, secrecy and deception not only makes that impossible, but enables the most corrupt to get to the top. It is the reason all empires and civilizations have ended up in ruins, and the story about the Tower of Babel claims that God not only has never endorsed such enterprises, but that their collapse is actually God’s verdict.

Il poema virgiliano presenta una caratteristica singolare: ciascuna delle due vittime più illustri dei fata eneadici, Didone e Turno, ha una sorella che vorrebbe esserle compagna di viaggio verso l’ultima meta; ma il destino non lo consente, e questa impotenza dell’amore di sorella rende ancora più cruda e struggente la solitudine della regina cartaginese e del re rutulo di fronte alla morte.

The author summarises the results of his search for parallels between the Armenian epic “Sasna cṙer” (“Daredevils of Sassoun”) and the Mahābhārata. The comparative study has revealed considerable similarity in the "ethnographic substratum" of both epics, particularly that relating to the archaic social organization mirrored by the epic. The earliest layer of both the Armenian and the Indian epics preserves the memory of a rural, largely pastoral society, in which an important role was played by young warrior brotherhoods. In the Armenian epic, this is indicated by recurrent motifs: the young heroes' rampage followed by exile, the foundation of their own outpost in the backwoods, young warrior brotherhoods, their defense of herds and warding off enemy attacks, battle frenzy (a common characteristic of all the Sassoun heroes), their immutable mentor and leader ("uncle") Keri Toros, allusions to orgiastic feasts, traces of premarital freedom by young men and women, etc. Among the Armenians, these motifs were supported by the existence until recent times of the institution of youth age-set groups, described by ethnographers. A comparative study of the Armenian epic reveals its hitherto unnoticed socio-historical aspects. Its wider use for studying other epic traditions (not only Indo-European but also those of other peoples inhabiting the Caucasus and the Eurasian steppes) will contribute to Comparative epic studies.

В статье суммированы результаты сравнительного исследования армянского эпоса о «неистовых сасунцах» («Sasna cṙer» = «Давид Сасунский») и «Махабхараты». Выявлено значительное сходство их этнографического субстрата, пре-жде всего отражаемой эпосом архаической социальной организации. В древнейшем слое как армянского, так и индийского эпоса сохраняется память о сельском, преимущественно скотоводческом обществе, важную роль в котором играл инсти-тут молодежных воинских братств. Отражением этого института в «Сасна црер» можно считать мотивы буйства юных героев с последующим изгнанием, создания ими поселения в лесной глуши, братства юных воинов, защиты ими стад и отражения вражеских нашествий, боевого бешенства, являющегося главной характеристикой всех сасунских героев, образ их неизменного, переходящего из поколения в поколение наставника и предводителя, «дядьки» Кери-Тороса, упоми-нания оргиастических пиршеств молодежного объединения, следы добрачной свободы юношей и девушек и т.п. Исполь-зование данных мотивов, очевидно, поддерживалось существованием у армян вплоть до Новейшего времени института юношеских социовозрастных объединений, что засвидетельствовано этнографией. Сравнительное изучение армянского эпоса позволяет выявить в нем прежде скрытые от нас аспекты социально-исторического содержания. Более широкое привлечение материалов армянского эпоса к изучению как индоевропейских, так и иных эпических традиций народов Кав-каза и степной Евразии послужит обогащению и развитию сравнительного эпосоведения. Ключевые слова: армянский эпос, «Махабхарата», сравнительное эпосоведение, этнографический субстрат, социо-возрастные объединения, юношеские воинские братства. The author summarizes the results of his search for parallels between the Armenian epic "Sasna cṙer" ("Daredevils of Sassoun") and the Mahābhārata. The comparative study has revealed considerable similarity in the "ethnographic substratum" of both epics, particularly that relating to the archaic social organization mirrored by the epic. The earliest layer of both the Armenian and the Indian epics retains the memory of a rural, largely pastoral society, in which an important role was played by the fraternities of young warriors. In the Armenian epic, this is indicated by recurrent motifs such as the young heroes' rampage followed by exile, the foundation of their own outpost in the backwoods, young male warriors' fraternities, their defense of herds, warding off enemy attacks, battle frenzy (a common characteristic of all the Sasun heroes), their immutable tutor and leader ("uncle") Keri Toros, allusions to orgiastic feasts, premarital freedom enjoyed by boys and girls, etc. In Armenians, these motifs were supported by the existence until the recent times of age sets, described by ethnographers. The comparative study of the Armenian epic reveals its hitherto unnoticed socio-historical aspects. Its wider use for studying other epic traditions (not only Indo-European but also those of other peoples inhabiting the Caucasus and the Eurasian steppes) will contribute to the comparative epic studies.

The study examines how the TFM Girls Instagram account, along with its followers, shapes and maintains dominant discourses of masculinity. Mixed-method analyses revealed that women were depicted more in bikinis, posed in overtly sexually suggestive poses, excluded the women’s eyes and faces, and included predominately White, fit, big-breasted women. There was a positive correlation between the number of likes/comments with breast size. There were also instances of misogyny and objectification manifested in the men’s comments attached to the photographs. The results highlight Instagram as a digital extension of fraternal social spaces. TFM Girls reinforces hegemonic masculinity on a macro-level by allowing virtual linkages among fraternity members across the United States and by fostering a national online frat house ripe with misogyny and objectification.

Open access at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118760809

The purpose of this study was to compare the experiences of students residing in on-campus housing with those of students residing in fraternity/sorority housing, specifically to explore the differences in academic success, alcohol use, and perceptions of the living environment as a function of students’ living arrangement and gender. The researcher sampled 772 respondents from the aggregate results of five institutions that administered the ACUHO-I/EBI Resident Assessment and the AFA/EBI Fraternity/Sorority Assessment during the 2009—10 academic year. Differences by living arrangement and gender were tested using a rank-based factorial analysis of variance. The results revealed several significant differences. Implications for practice include encouraging students to review their academic behaviors, promoting active engagement within residence halls, establishing improved safety measures in fraternity and sorority houses, promoting academic engagement in fraternities, and reducing the prevalence of alcohol use in fraternities and sororities.

Содержание выпуска
Специальный выпуск журнала «Свет Христов просвещает всех: Альманах Свято-Филаретовского института» составлен по материалам конференции «Православные братства в дореволюционной России: приоритеты деятельности», проходившей 31 января – 1 февраля 2017 года в Москве и Подмосковье. Конференция была организована Свято-Филаретовским православно-христианским институтом и Преображенским содружеством малых православных братств.

На конференции прозвучало 14 докладов, 9 из которых публикуются в данном выпуске Альманаха СФИ, было сделано 5 стендовых докладов, состоялись просмотр и обсуждение фильма «Александро-Невское братство», был проведен круглый стол «Основные задачи и приоритеты в исследовании православных братств». Краткое содержание докладов, не вошедших в номер, и наиболее интересные моменты дискуссий помещены в разделе «Обзор дискуссий».

Der farbentragende Student mit Band und Mütze galt im deutschsprachigen Raum bis in die erste Hälfte des vorigen Jahrhunderts als idealtypische Verkörperung des akademischen Lebens, wobei die Anzahl jener Studierender, die sich keiner Korporation anschlossen, zu allen Zeiten jene der in Verbindungen organisierten Hörer überwog. In den ideologisch und konfessionell heterogenen Verbindungen, die sich immer auch als elitistische Hochschulgruppen und halboffizielle studentische Vertretung verstanden, bildete sich eine spezifische akademische Kultur mit einem breiten Brauchtum aus. Die Geschichtsschreibung des Hochschulwesens und dessen Institutionalisierung nimmt bei historisch Interessierten, häufig aber fachfremden Akademikern in den Verbindungen ihren Ausgang. Zu den bedeutendsten Vertretern dieser Richtung zählt der jüdische Burschenschafter Arzt, Bibliothekar und Sammler Oskar Scheuer.

Abstract:
Students‘ Fraternities (Studentenverbindungen) and active their members have long been considered as the emblematic archetype of a University student in German-speaking Middle Europe. The number of those students who did not join a Fraternity always outweighed that of those who engaged themselves in such an organisation. Students‘ corporations understood themselves always as élitist and semi-official Students representation. Inside these groups a specific academic culture, often unfamiliar to outside individuals with a broad heritage of tradition was both developed and encapsuled. In this framework members of Fraternities – Academics but no historians – started the process of researching the history of academia and German Universities to advance the understanding of universities and their place in society. Among the first notable protagonists in this field is the Viennese author, librarian and physicist Oskar Scheuer.

When Johan Maurits of Nassau, Governor-General of Dutch Brazil (1630-54), sent out expeditions against the maroons of Palmares, he was informed by his intelligence officers that the inhabitants followed the “Portuguese religion,” that they had erected a church in the capital, that there were chapels with images of saints and the Virgin Mary and that Zumbi, the king of Palmares, did not allow the presence of “fetishists.” Portuguese sources confirm that Palmares had a priest who baptized children and married couples and that its inhabitants followed Catholic rite, although according to Governor Francisco de Brito, they did so “in a stupid fashion.” Many more examples of the existence of Afro-Catholic elements in maroon communities in Latin America can be found. They question the widespread assumption that Catholicism had been forced upon all African slaves and that, even among those who seemingly embraced the colonizer’s faith, it functioned merely as a veneer underneath which their truly African, indigenous beliefs remained hidden. As the case of Palmares indicates, slaves did not necessarily wish to liberate themselves from all “Catholic ballast” once they ran away but sometimes remained strongly attached to it. 
This conclusion corresponds to the assumption by the Brazilian historian Marina de Mello e Souza that upon arrival in the Americas, many slaves did not perceive Catholic elements as something foreign since “Catholicism represented a link to their native Africa.” Souza is but one of several scholars who in recent years contributed to a shift in the study of black performance culture in the New World. The new paradigm essentially consists in the acknowledgment that our understanding of black performance culture can be bettered if we take into consideration that many Africans had already adopted certain European—predominantly Portuguese—cultural and religious elements before they were shipped as slaves to the Americas.
In the context of this shift, there has been an increased interest in Afro-Iberian brotherhoods (irmandades/hermandades) and confraternities (confrarias/cofradías). While it was long assumed that these so-called “black brotherhoods” were associated with slave culture on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America only, it can now be confirmed that Afro-Catholic fraternities also flourished in parts of Africa during the Atlantic slave trade era. As Linda Heywood has argued, “many Kongos and not a few Angolans had been Christians before their enslavement in Brazil. Thus they would have been familiar with the brotherhoods in Luanda, Soyo, and Kongo, and the central role they played in the creole society of Kongo, Angola and São Tomé.” Nicole von Germeten’s research on black brotherhoods in Mexico also concluded that “some Central Africans probably took part in social and religious brotherhoods and sisterhoods before crossing the Atlantic.” 
Ira Berlin also observed that black brotherhoods played a crucial role in the intercontinental networks that developed in the context of the transatlantic slavery. However, like most scholars, Berlin perceives brotherhoods as an essentially Iberian phenomenon that was crucial to the development of black identity the Iberian World, differing from North America, where “numerous informal connections between black people” developed, but not brotherhoods. Although Berlin confirms that slaves “created an intercontinental web of cofradias … so that, by the seventeenth century, the network of black religious brotherhoods stretched from Lisbon to São Tomé, Angola, and Brazil,” he believes that those slaves who ended up in Dutch, French or English colonies refrained from developing brotherhoods since there were no “comparable institutional linkages” that allowed them to do so. Berlin’s assumption thus presupposes that brotherhoods could only be established with institutional support and excludes the possibility that slaves themselves may have taken the initiative to create such organizations.
This article questions this conclusion and explores the possibility that slave organizations modeled upon Iberian brotherhoods have existed in North America. In doing so, it follows a reasoning by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Matt Childs and James Sidbury, editors of The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (2013), according to whom “approved institutional structures authorized by the Catholic Church were not always necessary for Africans and their descendants to build fraternal structures.”  A first section provides an overview of the characteristics of Afro-Iberian slave brotherhoods. The following section presents a comparative analysis between king celebrations in Afro-Iberian brotherhoods and those at African-American Election Day and Pinkster festivals in New England and New York. The article ends with a reflection on the origins of Afro-Iberian cultural and religious elements among slave communities outside of the Iberian realm in the American diaspora.

This study explored the relationship between potential time commitments of fraternity and sorority members and academic performance. A secondary analysis of data collected using the Fraternity/Sorority Experience Survey revealed statistically significant relationships between cumulative grade point average and chapter involvement, engagement in academic activities, part-time work, and alcohol use. Chapter involvement, engagement in academic activities, and part-time work were positively associated with academic performance. Alcohol use was negatively related to academic performance. Implications for practice include establishing a culture of academic achievement in fraternal organizations, minimizing the use of alcohol, identifying and approaching academically at-risk members, and establishing initiatives to support the academic achievement of fraternity members.

Although law prohibits race-based exclusion in college sororities and fraternities in the United States, racial segregation prevails. As a result, nonwhite membership in white Greek-letter organizations (WGLOs) is often hailed as a transformative step toward equality and unity. The bulk of work on such cross-racial membership centers on comparative-historical and survey data and treats integrated membership as the successful end, rather than a problematic beginning, of analysis. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in three university campuses on the East Coast, I shift the focus from resource factors that either prevent or enable membership to the strategies of action that nonwhite members employ in their everyday lives in order to be perceived as full, belonging members. By drawing upon the insights of the sociology of culture, I argue that robust racialized schemas simultaneously enable and constrain inclusion. Rather than hide explicit racial-ethnic difference or accede to traditional expectations of Anglo conformity, I find that nonwhite members are enmeshed in a paradox of participation: their ability to frame themselves as equal and belonging Greek " brothers and sisters " remains tied to a patterned reproduction of their racial and ethnic identities as essentially different and inferior. Such a paradox emerges as an important theoretical and pragmatic dilemma with implications for an array of institutional contexts.

Brotherhood and a chance to belong: Lived experiences of gay fraternity men in a college community. In J. W. Koschoreck & A. K. Tooms (Eds.), Sexuality matters: Paradigms and policies for educational leaders (pp. 221-254). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield  Education. Hesp, G and Brooks, J. S.

How did an organization founded to empower women in institutions of higher learning end up as a place where the most narrowly conservative female gender roles are encourage and performed? By looking at Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek letter fraternity known among women, a tale of secrecy gone awry comes into view. Theta's traditions and rituals, kept secret from the public, tell an entirely different story about the purpose of this institution than a Google search of the sorority's moniker does. I posit that this is due to the fact that these rituals and traditions are relics of another time, frozen in the past, while the secrecy behind this heritage has enabled an alternate tradition to arise where aesthetics, popularity, and heterosexuality replace official goals of scholarship, sisterhood, and loyalty. Using only the "secret" material that others have chosen to reveal along with my own embodied experience as a Theta sister, I look at the complex ways in which college sorority sisters negotiate the difference between the scripted tenants of sorority life behind closed doors and the expected stereotpye of a "sorority girl" - like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. Using theories from sources as diverse as Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud, and various authors writing about sorority life, I try to work through the theoretical implications that are produced in the space between an embodied sorority experience and the mythical sorority girl stereotype that arises out of the ignorance bred by secrecy.

Between the 1920's and 1990, pledging historically Black fraternities and sororities was a mode of cultural expression that became more violent over time (Kimbrough, 2003). The pledge process often consisted of walking in lines, dressing alike, and taking direct orders from older members. Kimbrough (2003) acknowledges it was clear pledging members were second-class citizens as early as the 1930s. In February 1990, the national presidents and leaders of eight of the nine major Black fraternities and sororities met and with consensus, banned the pledge process. However, violence and risk continued to plague the membership process.  There are three main implications of the ban regarding membership development in historically Black fraternities and sororities. These implications are explored through the lens of college students, fraternity and sorority staff, and college administrators.

Intervento di Paride Braibanti al Webinar della Società Italiana di Promozione della Salute: "Scuola, salute, servizi, territorio", mercoledì 7 Aprile, ore 20-22.

Se, come taluno autorevolmente suggerisce, il 2021-2022 dovrà essere un anno scolastico "costituente" per la Scuola italiana, l'idea di una "Health Promoting School" non potrà che rimobilitarsi e riqualificarsi (oltre l'ottica preventiva e fuori di ogni distopica riproposizione di una medicina scolastica di presidio) sentendosi convocata, in piena prospettiva biopsicosociale, alla costruzione di un "patto tra responsabilità educative nel territorio".

Che cosa significa, oggi, essere fratelli? Essere fratelli, spiega il teologo Grillo, non è questione di "sentimenti da provare", ma di "fatti da riconoscere". Lo è proprio a causa del fatto che sospettiamo di ogni comunità, che limita libertà e eguaglianza Possiamo solo immaginare cosa accadrebbe se provassimo a considerarci tutti fratelli. La questione risposta non è scontata, soprattutto dopo la pandemia.

This study examined how stereotypes among alumnae members of historically Black sororities affected their experiences as both undergraduate and graduate members. This research contributes to the literature on skin color bias and to the stereotypes of Black women. For the majority of women we surveyed for this research, the myths and stereotypes surrounding skin color bias, intra-racial group relations, beauty, and femininity of different historically Black sororities influenced the initial perceptions of members in each group. The findings include some commonality among stereotypes about the oldest sororities (Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta), yet stereotypes about the other organizations (Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho) varied due to age, college life experience, and the geographic location of the interviewees. Implications and considerations for future research are included.

Colleges are rape-prone cultures with high rates of sexual victimization. Fraternities' and sororities' relationships with sexual assault are consistent themes in literature focusing on sexual violence among college students. Previous research suggests that fraternity men are more likely to endorse rape-supportive attitudes compared with non-Greek men or sorority women. The present study examines rape-supportive attitudes as well as rape and sexual assault victimization in college students with a focus on gender and Greek-life (i.e., involvement in fraternities or sororities) status variables. College students (N = 1,002) completed a survey including the Token Resistance to Sex Scale (TRSS), Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale– Short Form (IRMA-S), and items related to past experiences of nonconsensual...

Do LGBQ fraternity and sorority members experience similar benefits as their heterosexual peers? This session answers this question by presenting recent research on the educational gains of LGBQ fraternity and sorority members. As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to explain the importance of creating safe and inclusive environments in fraternal organizations and identify resources for supporting LGBTQA Greeks.

La fraternité a été introduite dans la devise républicaine française en 1848 et, bien souvent, l'historiographie en fait une fille de la Révolution de 1789. Ce travail s'efforce de franchir cette barrière chronologique, pour restituer toute la profondeur historique et anthropologique d'un concept présent dans la tradition occidentale bien avant la fin du XVIII e. En relisant l'histoire d'Abel et Caïn on comprend comment la fraternité crée non seulement un sentiment de solidarité fondé sur la commune origine, mais également un espace échappant aux règles traditionnelles de gestion des conflits (vengeance, justice privée…). Par la suite, le Christianisme modifie en profondeur la notion en opérant une bascule temporelle : si la fraternité biblique est fondée ex ante, sur l'origine, elle devient, notamment avec les Pères de l'Église et surtout avec les fraternités monastiques, un objectif vers lequel il faut tendre, en dépassant les contraintes biologiques. Autrement dit, ce que reçoit la Modernité est donc plus une manière collective de vivre en société, qu'un élément susceptible d'être décliné en droits subjectifs. De là découle le rôle singulier du dernier élément du trinôme républicain dont on a souvent relevé l'ambiguïté faute de l'avoir inscrit dans la longue durée qui témoigne, tout au contraire, d'une étonnante plasticité.

RESUMO: questões relativas ao uso e posse de terras são abordadas nesta pesquisa tendo, como foco de interesse, certas doações realizadas pelo Estado ou por proprietários particulares, em vista da construção de templos e outras destinações religiosas. O ponto de partida é a Irmandade de São José da Água Branca, São Mateus do Sul, PR, criada numa colônia basicamente de poloneses, para, entre outras obrigações, responsabilizar-se pelo " espaço do culto ". Por se tratar de um recorte temático, fazemos um percurso desde o Brasil colonial até meados do século XX; percorremos, igualmente, outros estados brasileiros, embora o enfoque esteja na região centro sul do estado do Paraná. Podemos concluir, através dessa pesquisa, que tal irmandade situa numa região densa da história, conectando aspectos da vida cultural, religiosa e política do país. Está vinculada à etnicidade, ao povoamento, aos rituais, à organização dos homens e mulheres do campo e da cidade, por fim, à ruralidade brasileira.

Zur Feier des 10. Gründungstages der Heiligenkreuzer Studentenverbindung Sanctottensis widmen sich ausgewiesene Forscher und Nachwuchstalente Themen der Studentika und der theologischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Besondere Betonung finden österreichische Stifte bzw. Klöster und ihre Beteiligung am Wissenschaftsbetrieb seit dem 19. Jahrhundert, die Babenberger-Dynastie, und das Verhältnis zwischen österreichischem Adel und Klerus in der Moderne. Schließlich gehen einige Aufsätze den Spuren von Strömungen wie Modernismus, Postmodernismus und ver- wandten Bewegungen in der jüngeren Theologiegeschichte nach. Der reich bebilderte Band führt ein in die Welt der katholischen Couleurkultur und bietet nicht zuletzt eine Dokumentation der 2011 gegründeten „Theologenverbindung“ Sanctottensis.

This article argues that Pinkster should be understood as an Atlantic Creole festival in a Dutch-American context, rather than a Dutch-African festival in an American context. It claims that the syncretic character of Pinkster did not originate in North America and that, before arriving on the American East Coast, the essence of what came to be known as Pinkster already existed as a culturally hybrid Luso-African celebration.