No comments

Academics speak out: How institutions and academic associations can ease the “oversupply” and low morale of PGRs and ECRs

  By , , ,

“As a general principle, improving the working conditions of academics with non-permanent jobs received the highest rating of any suggestion. 86% of respondents said conditions had to be improved for postgraduates and early career researchers, with every identifiable group agreeing that it is important. But some respondents argued that as long as there is an oversupply of academics their labour will be mistreated.” Continue reading

No comments

60 Seconds With Ben Offiler

  By ,

What advice would you give to early career academics?

“I was speaking to a friend today who commented that both during and after the PhD it’s very easy to focus on the negative aspects of academia, all the parts that you find difficult or that others seem so much better at, while forgetting about the things at which you excel. So, I guess my advice would be to accentuate the positive.” Continue reading

No comments

Why High School Teachers should teach History through and beyond Narrative

  By , , , ,

“A postmodernist historian would hold that history, and historiography, cannot be simply quantified and determined as one particular narrative with one particular meaning. The problem with this is that non-narrative history typically represents the larger group – the cohort or mass actor. By contrast, a narrative approach to history-telling is more likely to focus on the individual, a character or narrator who reveals their personal experiences and perhaps their emotional responses to historical events and dilemmas. Students of history can commonly relate more easily to the individual, with whom they may be able to identify common experiences or emotions.” Continue reading

No comments

Book Review: Hidden in the Mix – The African American Presence in Country Music by Diane Pecknold

  By , , , , ,

“Hidden in the Mix is an enjoyable, enlightening and captivating read that finally gives recognition to the African American presence within one of the most successful music genres in the world.” Continue reading

No comments

60 Seconds With Michelle Green

  By ,

You’re stranded on a desert island, but luckily you pre-empted it. Which book do you take with you?

“I would invest in a poetry collection because novels ‘end’ — Imagine reaching the last page of a novel without rescue in sight. Grim.

With that in mind, H.D.’s Trilogy or the aptly titled edited collection, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times.” Continue reading

No comments

Selling Houses to Buy a Dream: White Diaspora and the Suburbs in Richard Ford’s Bascombe Trilogy

  By ,

“The issues raised in Independence Day and The Lay of the Land – rising house prices, shoddy construction, profiting on the back of others’ aspirations (for what else does a realtor do than make money from people in search of their dream home?) – are still remarkably relevant today. The Markhams fall victim to their own outsized ambitions but also to the upswing of a property bubble that eventually crashed with devastating consequences for millions across America.” Continue reading

No comments

The Cold War and the Origins of US Democracy Promotion

  By , , , ,

“However, previous strategic tensions re-emerged as the George W. Bush and Obama administrations both soft-pedalled democracy promotion in friendly Middle Eastern states such as Egypt when it clashed with immediate geopolitical objectives, and were able to do so because the US government funds the NED and now implements the bulk of US democracy promotion programs. Due to this back-tracking the fall of the authoritarian Mubarak regime was followed by a power struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military rather than a pro-US democratic successor elite.” Continue reading

No comments

Review of “Created Equal?” IAAS Annual Conference 2014

  By ,

“Conferences with specific themes can suffer from repetition, but the IAAS annual conference persisted in original thinking, valuable and creative research, and remarkable quality. I heard almost nothing negative about the proceedings and felt, from my own vantage, that so many issues of inequality – whether to do with race, gender, economy, or education – were discussed with such fine presentations that delegates left the conference invigorated, not wearied.” Continue reading