Why we live on this planet Geographer and climate modeller, Professor Mike Hulme writes in his recent book, “Why we disagree …” that the “idea of climate change should be used to rethink and renegotiate our wider social goals about how and why we live on this planet.” Reviewing the book in the Times Higher…

The issue of ‘Cambridge Papers: towards a biblical mind’ for June 2006 is by Dr John Coffey (Reader in Early Modern History, University of Leicester) with the title, “The abolition of the slave trade: Christian conscience and political action.” John Coffey concludes that “God can use conscientious Christians who think globally and act locally to…

Christianity and the Rise of Modern Science Those who subscribe to one strand or other of a Christian faith tradition may find themselves on the horns of a dilemma when reflecting on the historical relations between their religious beliefs and the rise of modern science.  Anxious to repudiate the common but ill-informed allegation that Christianity…

The multidisciplinary academic field As an academic subject, International Development is relatively new, emerging during the period of decolonisation in the 1950s and 1960s, but only really being accepted as a university discipline in the 1970s and 1980s. It is an inherently multi-disciplinary field, drawing on economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, public administration and engineering,…

James T. Crouse writes of his conflicted emotions as a liberal southerner on a visit to Gettysberg with his family, between the bloody defeat suffered by the Confederacy and the beginning of an end to slavery in the USA.  He concludes, “… to be human is … to forgive and to begrudge … to love…

Until his death [in November 2004], Jacques Derrida’s name had probably appeared in more lecture notes, articles and academic conversations than that of any other living thinker.  Long regarded as the patron saint of postmodernism, the French theorist made an impact that extended out of the Academe and into wider cultural life. This applied to…

How does Christianity relate to Literature? How literature works The act of reading is an act of decoding. Until our everyday habits are disrupted, we don’t realise how complex a process it is. Sitting in a tearoom in a shopping centre (not big enough to be a mall), I noticed an emergency exit with the…

You don’t have to be a devout believer to study the Bible.  Its insights into the human condition are enlightening for everyone. Professor of English, Dale Salwak, was asked by his head of department 36 years ago to begin an undergraduate course on the Bible as literature.  Under the title, “The meaning of life”, he…

Quotations from a review in T.H.E. by Malcolm Gillies of the book by Rakesh Khurana (2007) “From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: the social transformation of American Business Schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession” (Princeton University Press). The whole review can be found in the Times Higher Education, 12 February 2009,…

Matthew Reisz writes for the T.H.E., “Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Paris) … on a campus near Versailles .. is regularly ranked as the best business school in Europe by the Financial Times.  [Professor] Valerie Gauthier in [their] Leadership Centre … has the concept she calls savoir-relier.  Roughly translated, it is the ability to…