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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

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Why is Emily Wilding Davison remembered as the first suffragette martyr?

By Elizabeth Crawford
“She paid ‘the price of freedom’. Glad to pay it – glad though it brought her to death (..) the first woman martyr who has gone to death for this cause.” In the context of the women’s suffrage campaign who do you think was the subject of this eulogy? Was it Emily Wilding Davison, the centenary of whose death is being honoured this June?

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Ten reasons you should get to know Irish playwright Stewart Parker

By Marilynn Richtarik
Stewart who? That’s okay — I’m used to starting at the beginning.
(1)      Stewart Parker just might be the most important Irish writer you’ve never heard of. Born in 1941, he began his career as a poet, tried his hand at experimental prose, and eventually dedicated himself to drama.

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Coronation Music

Sunday 2 June marks the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in London. It also therefore follows that it is the anniversary of the works which were first performed at the coronation, including William Walton’s Orb and Sceptre March and Coronation Te Deum, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s O taste and see and Old Hundredth Psalm Tune (All people that on earth do dwell).

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10 questions for Jonathan Dee

Each summer, Oxford University Press USA and Bryant Park in New York City partner for their summer reading series Word for Word Book Club. The Bryant Park Reading Room offers free copies of book club selection while supply lasts, compliments of Oxford University Press, and guest speakers lead the group in discussion. On Tuesday 4 June, author Jonathan Dee leads a discussion on Father and Son.

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Blaxploitation, from Shaft to Django

What do you get when you combine Hollywood, African American actors, gritty urban settings, sex, and a whole lot of action? Some would simply call it a recipe for box office success, but since the early 1970s, most people have known this filmmaking formula by the name “Blaxploitation.” Blaxploitation cinema occupies a fascinating place in the landscape of American pop culture.

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The continuing irrationality of New York’s “Convenience of the Employer” rule

By Edward Zelinsky
On Friday, 17 May 2013, two Metro-North commuter trains collided near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Through the following Tuesday, the Metro-North accident disrupted normal commuter train service between parts of Connecticut and New York City. To cope, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy asked residents of the Nutmeg State to work from their homes until rail service could be restored.

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Humor in the New Testament

By Leonard J. Greenspoon
For many people, religion is serious business which rules out any positive connection between belief and humor. For them, humor connected to religion is humor directed, in a negative and derisive manner, against religion. If this is true for religion in general, then the disconnect between the Bible and humor in particular would be especially well defined.

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Ten things you didn’t know about the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law

By Katherine Marshall
1. Key dimensions: If you are lucky enough to own the entire ten volume set, plus the Index and Tables, you will need to be equipped with a sturdy shelf. Each volume of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (MPEPIL) weighs roughly two kilograms.
2. Quality Control: Each article in the Encyclopedia can go through up to eight rounds of review to ensure that the scholarship is of the highest possible standard.

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A history of nationalism

By John Breuilly
In 1904 Józef Pilsudski and Roman Dmowski, rival Polish nationalist leaders, were both in Tokyo, just after Japan had defeated Russia, one of their major enemies. Japan now served as a model for other nationalists. Pilsudski was to become head of state in post-1918 independent Poland. Dmowski expressed admiration for Japanese nationalism well into the 1930s. This episode illustrates two points neglected in the history of nationalism.

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Why equal protection trumps federalism in same-sex marriage cases

By Erin Ryan
Federalism is once again at the forefront of the Supreme Court’s most contentious cases this Term. The cases attracting most attention are the two same-sex marriage cases that were argued in March. Facing intense public sentiment on both sides of the issue and the difficult questions they raise about the boundary between state and federal authority, some justices openly questioned whether they should just defer to the political process.

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Quantum parallelism and scientific realism

By Paul Cockshott
The philosopher Althusser said that philosophy represents ideology, in particular religious ideology to science, and science to ideology. As science extended its field of explanation, a series of ‘reprise’ operations were carried out by philosophers to either make the findings of science acceptable to religion or to cast doubt on the relative trustworthiness of science compared to the teachings of the church.

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BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the digital age

By Lorna Speid
With as little thought as combing our hair or brushing our teeth, we tweet, engage with family and friends on Facebook, write blogs, and give our opinions on social media sites. On the major streets of all major cities in the world, children, teenagers, professionals, the unemployed, and pensioners alike take calls and send texts without a second thought. Technology is so much a part of our day to day lives that we can barely remember how we could have managed without it.

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Stories We Tell: How we reconstruct the past

By Arthur P. Shimamura
Our memories, in many ways, define who we are as an individual or at least who we think we are. In the recent documentary, Stories We Tell, filmmaker Sarah Polley presents her own tale of the search for her biological father. Through interviews with relative and friends, snapshots, and re-enactments of pertinent events that look like old home movies, the documentary moves like a real-life Rashomon, wherein bits of the “truth” are revealed from various points of views.

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An Eastern reading list from Oxford World’s Classics

By Kirsty Doole
The great works of the Eastern world have provided inspiration for this month’s Oxford World’s Classics reading list. From those you have probably heard of (like the Kamasutra) to those you may not have (such as The Recognition of Sakuntala), these classic works provide a window on the classical worlds of India, China, and the Middle East.

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Europa borealis: Reflections on the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest Malmö

By Philip V. Bohlman and Dafni Tragaki
In the spirit of the Eurovision Song Contest motto for 2013 “We Are One,” we seek the common space afforded by dialogic reflections on the European unity that has inspired and eluded the Eurovision since 1956. We search to rescue stretto from the fragments of the largest and most spectacular popular-music competition in the world.

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