Snack, a meal inevitably associated with childhood, conveys many representations marked by conviviality, transgression and nostalgia. Whether taken on a daily basis or on the occasion of a birthday party, it is undoubtedly the last bastion of the French food model which has not given in to the promotion of healthy eating. Assimilated to a break […] … learn more→

Imagine you’re a young samurai in Japan in 1701. You have to make a difficult choice between an impoverished life in exile, or the prospect of almost certain death while trying to avenge the death of your dishonored lord. Which do you choose? “Ako: A Tale of Loyalty,” a video game built in 2020, takes […] … learn more→

Over the weekend, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk suggested his company could sell off its Bitcoin holdings, sending the cryptocurrency plummeting. It followed Musk’s announcement earlier this month that his company would no longer accept Bitcoin in payment for its electric cars, due to the fossil fuels needed to create the digital currency. Bitcoin is created via high-powered computers […] … learn more→

In the past year, COVID-19 abruptly disrupted schooling, and forced the question of how much kindergarten to Grade 12 education should or will rely on online teaching in the near and distant future. Education has taken a decided technological turn in its massive adaptation to online learning. This is precipitating a critical debate in education right […] … learn more→

After a year before the Covid-19, we have transformed our behaviors in communication and education through telepresence. Immediate information and ubiquitous communication also transcend language, which is still alive, generating neologisms that appear in the press and in the daily use of its speakers. If we asked ourselves what communication is today, we would probably answer: global, digital. And we would […] … learn more→

The UK government’s announcement that all universities in England can resume in-person teaching from today will give a welcome boost not only to students but also to exam invigilators like me. Online exams were the only sensible option during the height of the pandemic – although it took some university departments quite a while to […] … learn more→

This post comes back again at the discussion “chapter”. It seems you can never say too much about this tricky bit of the thesis. A caveat before I start. This post is written from a social science perspective and offers a fairly orthodox view of what a thesis has to do. I think it has […] … learn more→

Creating a learn-at-home experience in just a few weeks last year was an incredible achievement for universities. But this rapid shift created a problem: cyber-criminals have been gifted the perfect opportunity to target them. The University of Northampton’s recent experience shows how much damage these attacks can cause: its IT services – including email and […] … learn more→

Most university senior women I know have had “the style” conversation at least once in their career. It goes something like this. The line manager of the female staff member asks for a meeting, or raises the matter during a performance-review meeting. There has been “feedback” about her, and it’s not positive, unfortunately. There is […] … learn more→

The mathematical Hypatia of Alexandria climbs into a DeLorian DMC-12 well loaded with plutonium. Enter the date of October 21, 2015. It accelerates to 88 miles per hour and… it appears 1,600 years later. If Marty McFly, the protagonist of Back to the Future II , finds notable differences in a journey of barely 30 years, Hypatia finds his journey shocking. […] … learn more→