Prince Henry—These lies are like the father that begets them: gross as a mountain; open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-keech— Falstaff—What! art thou mad? art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth? (William Shakespeare, King Henry IV) Falstaff’s lie that […]
I have recently written a post which appeared on the post-pandemic university blog. It reflects on an online book symposium that took place on Tuesday 16th March 2021, as part of an ongoing series of Digital University Network events, organised through my work with the Society for Research into Higher Education. The […]
I finally got round to reading Huo Da’s ‘The Jade King’ or, in the original Chinese version ‘Funeral of a Muslim’ (穆斯林的葬礼). A best-selling and award-winning novel in China, and based in part on the author’s own experience, it tells the story of three generations of a Muslim […]
I read two interesting books this Summer: George Makdisi’s Rise of Colleges and W. Montgomery Watt’s Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe. Both books contain authoritative accounts about how the scholastic method of inquiry, and most elements of the academic system (but not its organisational system) in the […]
Some background to my new published chapter: I have recently been developing some of the ideas around the notion of ‘Curation’ which I first began to examine in Chapter 7 of my book. During the research for the book, I found that prominent among the students’ methodologies and strategies […]
It is that time of the year when I post a brief summary of some of the non-work-related things I have been reading throughout the past year. Last year’s post is here. I find that when I log and make notes around what I read, I can look […]
Reflecting on reflection Over the past few weeks, I have found myself in the position of writing a beginning and an end to my book. Introductions and Conclusions have always been the hardest thing for me to write. They are often the only parts of a book that […]
