There has been quite a discussion of late going on in the academic blogosphere about both the advantages and difficulties associated with academic blogging. (See links at the end of this post). I have found references in this discussion to an avoidance by academics of public exposure particularly interesting. This kind of avoidance has become …
In the Western imagination, reason has long belonged to terra firma. Island or continent, it repels water with a solid stubbornness: it only concedes its sand. As for unreason, it has been aquatic from the depths of time and that until fairly recently. And more precisely oceanic: infinite space, uncertain … Madness is the flowing …
Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude: An essay on the necessity of contingency. Trans. Ray Brassier. London: Continuum, 2008 After Finitude by Quentin Meillassoux This book written by a young French philosopher has been taken up with great enthusiasm by a small group of English language philosophers -notably Graham Harman, Iain Hamilton Grant and Ray Brassier members …
I was interested by this comment by Rhiannon Bury in an interview on Henry Jenkin’s blog Let me close by saying that Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way I disseminate research on fandom. The norm in academia is to analyze our data behind closed doors and not report on it until we have a …
I would like to say that it is often rather difficult giving a series of lectures like this without the possibility of comebacks or discussion, and not knowing whether what one is saying finds an echo in those who are working on a thesis or a master’s degree, whether it provides them with possibilities for …
Stuart kindly responded to the comments in my previous post with some further interesting observations. I am adding a couple of clarifications here to clear up the amibiguities in my initial comment. I should emphasise that I am coming from the point of view of readership and impact, rather than production. The problem of readership …
Stuart Elden has a number of particularly interesting posts on academic writing on his blog Progressive Geographies. Recently he put up a post offering excellent advice on preparing for journal publication and then another on his own writing practices which has prompted the following reflections on my part. Stuart notes that his book: The Birth …
Olivier Dekens, La philosophie sur grand écran: Manuel de cinéphilosophie. Paris: Ellipses, 2007 My rating: *** La philosophie sur grand écran : Manuel de cinéphilosophie by Olivier Dekens I really like the format of this book – in terms of how it works as a teaching text. Each short chapter consists of a brief commentary …
Thibaut de Saint-Maurice. Philosophie en séries, Paris: Ellipses, 2009. My rating: ** Philosophie en séries by Thibaut de Saint-Maurice This book is quite a good introduction for senior school students doing philosophy and is intended as such. It systematically addresses concepts set for the final year program in philosophy in France using illustrations from a …
Posted on my site michel-foucault.com What is to be understood by the disciplining of societies in Europe since the eighteenth century is not, of course, that the individuals who are part of them become more and more obedient, nor that all societies become like barracks, schools or prisons; rather, it is that an increasingly controlled, …
Refracted Input 