Jürgen Habermas died on Saturday 14 March, 2026 in Starnberg, near Munich. He was 96. The news has been moving through academic social media in the way these things do, with people sharing half-remembered seminars and dog-eared copies of books that changed how they thought. Let me situate Habermas for those of you who havent […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
What’s Habermas got to do with academic writing?
Almost 80% of Australian uni students now use AI. This is creating an ‘illusion of competence’
In Australia, artificial intelligence is becoming a near-universal feature of education. As of 2025, nearly 80% of university students reported using AI in their studies. Overseas, reports are even higher. This year, a UK survey of undergraduates found 94% were using it to help with assessed work. This has ushered in widespread concerns about students using AI to cheat on their […] … learn more→
Does medicinal cannabis work for depression, anxiety or PTSD? Our study says there’s no evidence
The number of Australians using medicinal cannabis has surged over the past five years. Around 700,000 Australians have used cannabis for their health in the past year. And since 2022, medicinal cannabis sales have increased four-fold. But the majority of products prescribed in the Australian market are not registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration. This means they have not been […] … learn more→
A PhD is an apprenticeship in research – we can’t let AI take that away
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT-5 in August of last year, many academics scoffed at the tech company’s claims its new artificial intelligence (AI) model possessed “PhD-level” intelligence. After all, how could systems so prone to hallucination, flawed reasoning, and sycophancy compete with the world’s brightest young minds? Yet academics are now routinely using tools such as ChatGPT to assist them in their research in much […] … learn more→
The world is in crisis – what role should our universities play?
It’s hard not to categorize our present global moment as a crisis. And just when we think things can’t get worse — they do. Across the globe, we’re witnessing a rise in far-right movements and governments. Just a few weeks ago, the AfD party in Germany secured second place. This marks the first time a far-right […] … learn more→
Detecting AI-generated images: the C2PA metadata proposal
Just a few years ago, we were amused by the completely fanciful photos generated by AI, but today it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the real from the fake with the naked eye. One idea could be to tag AI-generated photos. This solution could be effective, but it still has many limitations. In 2024, deepfake […] … learn more→
Digital media is using negativity to steal our attention — here’s how to reclaim it
With the internet and its widespread accessibility, many of us have front-row seats to widespread suffering and death across the globe for the first time in history, even when we are not directly affected. We’re living in what scholars describe as a “polycrisis” — a set of interconnected crises that compound and intensify one another. Climate change intensifies displacement […] … learn more→
AI and work: an expert assesses how far this revolution still has to run
Every week brings fresh claims about AI transforming the workplace. A CEO declares a revolution. A think piece predicts millions of jobs vanishing overnight. The noise is relentless. But strip away the hype and there is a simpler question. In developed economies, what has AI actually changed about work so far? The answer turns out to be […] … learn more→
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
Good academic writing means sitting with a discomfort that never entirely goes away. It’s not a discomfort that comes from having nothing to say. Most of us have more than enough ideas crowding the page. Not that. This discomfort is something more unsettling. The discomfort I am talking about is not the discomfort of avoidance, […] … learn more→
Higher education: the trap of low-cost massification
In France, the expansion of higher education has contributed to a kind of race against time in academic pathways, intensifying the influence of the initial degree on careers. How can we reduce this irreversibility of trajectories and propose a new pact for the democratization of higher education? An examination of public policy over the past […] … learn more→
