Wondering about the subjunctive
“He wondered if he were hallucinating.” I came across that use of the subjunctive while listening to the audiobook of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
The ultimate reading list for every academic librarian
Whether you are looking to escape into the histories of some libraries or looking to expand your knowledge on the future of reading and research we’ve got something for every librarian with this reading list.
Engineering a new capitalism for the 21st century
Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has observed that society has, unfortunately, come to embody Oscar Wilde’s old aphorism: “knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing”.
Five books on climate change you need to read
Keep abreast of the latest climate science by delving into this reading list of five books on different elements of climate change.
Resisting racism within America’s WWII military: stories from the frontline
America’s World War II military was a force of unalloyed good. While saving the world from Nazism, it also managed to unify a famously fractious American people. At least that’s the story many Americans have long told themselves… But the reality is starkly different. The military built not one color line, but a complex tangle […]
English idioms: etymological devilry in baking and printing
It is curious how often those who have tried to explain the origin of English idioms have referred to the occupation of printers. Regardless of their success, the attempts are worthy of note.
Why depth interviewing is essential to understanding individuals and institutions
Once assumed to be a core research tool, many of today’s researchers have cast a skeptical eye on depth interviewing. These critiques reflect a fundamental misunderstanding about what depth interviews can accomplish.
Sustainability in action: dismantling systems to combat climate change
Some connection between sustainability and the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November is assumed, but the very idea of sustainability remains poorly understood.
The appearance of the goddess Discord: Gustave Moreau and a mythical tradition
Usually considered as the first French Symbolist painter, Moreau rejected the dominant artistic trends of his time in order to explore his own anxieties and longings by returning to the Greek myths.
A pre-9/11 action movie with a Muslim hero shows what could have been
In the fall of 1999, another action movie came and went, garnering disappointed reviews and a pittance in ticket sales. Adapted from Michael Crichton’s novel “Eaters of the Dead”, The 13th Warrior offered a surprising premise.
How OUP is innovating for the future of open research
Innovations in open research can help to address disinformation, making a wider range of information accessible and available, ensuring reproducibility, and facilitating reuse.
Caring for our most vulnerable: lessons from COVID-19 on policy changes in the care home sector
If the true measure of any society is how it cares for its most vulnerable, then the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic was a sad indictment. Older people living in care homes are truly our most vulnerable.
What can early US welfare policies teach us about caring for our communities?
Every year, I spend the semester with 50 college sophomores pondering two questions. The first one is: how have people in the past cared for the neediest people in their community? The second is: how should we?
Spooks are spooks, but don’t ignore organic pumpkins
We are one more week closer to Halloween, and pumpkins are ubiquitous. How did the pumpkin get its name?
“I wouldn’t start from here”: a SHAPE route to open access
Open research may be the route to surfacing a definitional framework for the monograph in SHAPE disciplines. Director of Open Access, Academic, at OUP Andy Redman explores why in this blog post:
What is the impact of opening research? [podcast]
Open access is a publishing model that has been gathering momentum across the world for more than 15 years and each year, during the last week of October, the publishing and research sector comes together to celebrate it during International Open Access Week.