The intellectual par excellence used to be the writer: as a universal consciousness, a free subject, he was counterpoised to those intellectuals who were merely competent instances in the service of the state or capital — technicians, magistrates, teachers. Since the time when each individual’s specific activity begun to serve as the basis for politicization, …
A version of this piece was published in The Australian Higher Education Supplement on 4th April 2012 as ‘Credit where it’s due – but who deserves top billing?’ I posted this on my blog last year but have moved it up as I have made quite a few revisions. We do not characterise a ‘philosophical …
A version of this piece was originally published as ‘Conformity blunts creativity’, The Australian. Higher Education Supplement, Dec 12, 2007. I have added a few minor tweaks to bring it more up to date. But unfortunately not a lot has changed since 2007! Up till now there have been two dominant images of the humanities and …
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron My rating: ** Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam; 2nd Edition, 2002. This book is an international best seller and often referred to in discussions on writers’ process, with many fiction writers claiming it has …
Links via Stuart Elden’s blog Geoffrey Galt Harpham notes the following (citation via JJ Cohen at In the Middle) [Research is] an immense undertaking in which countless people performing the most tedious small tasks are able, collectively, to liberate the modern world from the grip of doctrine, authority, and myth. The value of each contribution …
Kate Clancy notes the following on The Scientific American blog (link via Jo VanEvery’s blog) But are peer-reviewed publications, read and cited by only by a select group of those peers, the best way to assess influence and importance? They are certainly no longer the only way. My 2006 paper on iron-deficiency anemia and menstruation …
In a most interesting post titled Open access -for all?, Stuart Elden remarks: We started the Society and Space open site as a partner to the print journal and the publisher’s site […] You would think that a quick – material goes up usually within a day or two of being delivered in final form …
Posted on my site michel-foucault.com Does there exist a pleasure in writing? I don’t know. One thing is certain, that there is, I think, a very strong obligation to write. I don’t really know where this obligation to write comes from … You are made aware of it in a number of different ways. For …
Paul J. Silvia (2007). How to Write a Lot. Washington: American Pschological Association. My rating: ***** How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia One of my hobbies is reading books, articles and blog posts by academics on how to write productively. My current reading on this topic is Paul J. Silvia’s entertaining and …
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 …
