Along with my colleagues Sophie Hope and Lorraine Lim – with whom I am co-organising a postgraduate workshop series – I have been invited to partake in a ‘Live Chat’ hosted by the Guardian Higher Education Network. That chat, which takes place on 3 June 2011, addresses the topic ‘Breaching the digital divide: How could … Continue Reading
Archives
CFP on ‘the university to come’
UPDATE: The editors of TOPIA have been in touch (how very thorough of them!) and noted a correction – the number for this special issue is TOPIA 28. Original post: TOPIA, the Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies has released a call for papers seeking to tackle recent debates on the future of the university, from … Continue Reading
More to come…
It’s been too long since I have written in these parts. My excuse is twofold: (1) most importantly, happily becoming a parent for the first time this past December, which, for those in the know, is a momentous and notably anti-blog-post-writing event; and (2) enduring a remarkably busy teaching term, of which I am only … Continue Reading
New video on the death of the university, English-style
One of the more valuable interventions vis-à-vis the Browne Review (alongside Stefan Collini’s excellent article in the London Review of Books) has been Nick Couldry and Angela McRobbie’s ‘The Death of the University, English Style’. I liked their paper because it is succinct and also has a helpful focus on the implications for media and … Continue Reading
CCR Seminar: the mediated phenomenologies of urban life
Earlier this year I gave a seminar at the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) at the University of Western Sydney, a video of which is now available in the ‘virtual seminars’ section of the CCR website. To access the video you’ll need to navigate through to the clips from 1 July 2010 (there are two … Continue Reading
The heat of approaching term time
I am on the precipice of my first full and proper new teaching year since joining Birkbeck College in January 2010, and I must say, I can feel the heat. But I have good reason for my senses to be a little on the edge – I am starting two (more or less) completely new … Continue Reading
Save Middlesex Philosophy on video
Save Middlesex Philosophy from Norman Hastings on Vimeo. As many will know, though for reasons I still cannot fully grasp, Middelsex University is closing its philosophy programmes, and with them, the Centre for Modern European Philosophy. This short video takes you to the scene of the crime as it were, and includes interviews with Christian … Continue Reading
University of Sussex, but not as we knew it
A rather different University of Sussex than the one I recounted on my visit in January for an event dedicated to Roger Silverstone (and the naming of a new Silverstone Building on campus). The riot police shown in the clip embody the University’s apparently heavy-handed philosophy around how to respond to student protest. Students were … Continue Reading
Recalling the OU (Open University), through already-hazy hindsight [part 2]
This is the second of a two-part post. See the first post. A very nice feature of the campus (using these photos is leading me to talk much more about the campus itself than I intended, but there you go) was its landscaping. Much of the landscaping being implemented during my time at the OU … Continue Reading
Recalling the OU (Open University), through already-hazy hindsight [part 1]
Last week, I visited my former place of work, The Open University in Milton Keynes (hereinafter ‘the OU’) for a couple of meetings. And it reminded me that I had intended to write down a few reflective thoughts about this rather odd but special place, which I left at the end of December 2009. Now, … Continue Reading