All over Australia, new PhD students are beginning their studies – welcome! Starting something new can be hard. Connecting with your new community can make it so much easier. world.edu is an online community, but of course you will have your local community too, in your school or faculty. If you are new to ANU, […] … learn more→

Reading is integral to research. Everyone says that, and it’s true. It’s also true that you need to find ways to read, note and keep track of all that reading. This is in part a question of tools and strategies. But tools and strategies are necessary but not sufficient. You need to make sense of […] … learn more→

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order preventing nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia from entering the US. Syrian refugees are indefinitely banned, and other refugees are banned for 120 days. It’s not clear what comes next. During his campaign, Trump also stated his intention to remove all 11 million […] … learn more→

Having been part of, and victimized by, the kangaroo campus court system, I nevertheless am perpetually amazed at just how bizarrely it runs, from how piffling the “crimes” are that merit convictions, to how far reaching the penalties can be. Of particular interest to the kangaroo court system are sex related cases. Before moving on, […] … learn more→

A week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, George Orwell’s “1984” is the best-selling book on Amazon.com. The hearts of a thousand English teachers must be warmed as people flock to a novel published in 1949 for ways to think about their present moment. Orwell set his story in Oceania, one of three blocs or mega-states […] … learn more→

The dementation of higher education is in real time. From one eyeblink to the next, it seems one more thing happens to debase higher education. So we have Shakespeare being taken down, and a new author, Lorde, in his place. Before moving on to the latest slip into the abyss, I reckon I’d best answer […] … learn more→

The challenge of fake news is well articulated in this quote from Abraham Lincoln. More and more, individuals get their news on societal issues via social media platforms and without the vetting process that previously characterised leading news outlets. This shift was made clear when a study by Buzzfeed found that fake news was posted […] … learn more→

The internet is much more than just the publicly available, Google-able web services most online users frequent – and that’s good for free expression. Companies frequently create private networks to enable employees to use secure corporate servers, for example. And free software allows individuals to create what are called “peer-to-peer” networks, connecting directly from one […] … learn more→

Welcome to 2017. It’s started in an odd way hasn’t it? When the world seems topsy-turvy, I find it’s even more important to take a moment to pause. To think. To take stock, re-orient, reassess and set new goals. I hope many of you took a break. I’ve had a month off and it’s been […] … learn more→

When you send in a book proposal to a publisher, chances are that it will be sent out to reviewers. This is peer review – and a version that actually gets talked about very little. The publisher often asks you to recommend two to three proposal reviewers. When you make these recommendations, it’s important to pick people who […] … learn more→