1. Offers an introduction and overview of key contemporary essays and topics that students of literature/culture/humanities need to be aware of 2. Knowledge of these debates is essential for advanced undergrad/postgrad work in the humanities but the essays themselves can be complex or assume a certain level of knowledge - this book fills in those gaps 3. There is no other book that looks at the most current and contemporary essays in relation to literary theory

1. Offers an introduction and overview of key contemporary essays and topics that students of literature/culture/humanities need to be aware of 2. Knowledge of these debates is essential for advanced undergrad/postgrad work in the humanities but the essays themselves can be complex or assume a certain level of knowledge - this book fills in those gaps 3. There is no other book that looks at the most current and contemporary essays in relation to literary theory

This book looks at the architecture of the courts in Scotland and the importance of these civic spaces. Given the importance of courts to the legal experience it starts by exploring why scholars have been so reticent in examining spaces in which the administration of justice takes place. It notes the major changes already unfolding in Scotland and puts these into a historical and cultural context. The authors trace the emergence of the notion of the dedicated courtroom space in 19th century Scotland and the ways in which the courtroom setting affected the exercise of power through law. They show what factors led to the adoption of different architectural styles. They examine the changes in the legal, political and social world which drove such changes and how these changed in the 20th and 21st centuries. They also examine the symbolic functions of courts both internally and externally. They note the changes in the decision-makers and their goals in the 21st century and how this will lead to a very different kind of courtroom in the near future. They examine the wider factors affecting the process of litigation and trends in dispute resolution. They conclude that the goals of transparency and civil dignity have serious implications for the kinds of spaces which will serve as halls of justice in the future. Since these are driven, it seems, by financial imperatives it does not bode well for the retention of civic pride and community which the courts of justice might be said to embody.

Why was it that, across Scotland over the last two and a half centuries, architectural monuments were raised to national heroes? Were hero buildings commissioned as manifestations of certain social beliefs, or as a built environmental form of social advocacy? And if so, then how and why were social aims and intentions translated into architectural form, and how effective were they? A tradition of building architectural monuments to commemorate national heroes developed as a distinctive feature of the Scottish built environment. As concrete manifestations of powerful social and political currents of thought and opinion, these hero buildings make important statements about identity, the nation and social history. The book examines this architectural culture by studying a prominent selection of buildings, such as the Burns monuments in Alloway, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, the Edinburgh Scott Monument, the Glenfinnan Monument and the Wallace Monument in Stirling. They give testimony to how a variety of architectural forms and styles can be adapted through time to bear particular social messages of symbolic weight. This tradition, which literally allows us to dwell on important social issues of the past, has been somewhat neglected in serious architectural history and heritage, and indeed one of the main monuments has already been destroyed. By raising awareness of this rich architectural and social heritage, while analysing and interpreting the buildings in their historical context, this book makes an exciting and original scholarly contribution to the current debates on identity and nationality taking place in Scotland and the wider UK.

The first chapter of this book is a fact sheet, providing data on past, current and proposed NASA appropriations. The second chapter provides an overview of the portion of Department of Defense (DOD) research, development testing and evaluation (RDT&E) funding referred to as Defense Science and Technology (Defense S&T). It provides perspectives on the role of Defense S&T in supporting US defense capabilities, historical funding levels, recent funding trends and approaches to determining how much the federal government should invest in Defense S&T, particularly in basic research. The next chapters focus on the appropriations and funding history of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which supports basic research and education in the non-medical sciences and engineering. NSF is a major source of federal support for US university research, especially in certain fields such as computer science. It is also responsible for significant shares of the federal science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education program portfolio and federal STEM student aid and support. The next chapter provides an overview of the history of science and technology (S&T) advise to the President and discusses selected recurrent issues for Congress regarding the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and their management and operations. Finally, Science and technology (S&T) have a pervasive influence over a wide range of issues confronting the nation. The last chapter of this book briefly outlines an array of science and technology policy issues that may come before the 115th Congress, including but not limited to agriculture, defense, energy, homeland security, information technology, physical and material sciences and space.