Masstige is defined as ‘a class of mass-produced, relatively inexpensive goods which are marketed as luxurious or prestigious’. It started out as a specialist marketing term at least 20 years ago, particularly in the beauty and fashion industries, but has ...

Geoffrey Miller is worried about academic freedoms. As a self-identified “aspie” and “nerd”, Miller has already laid out the case for us to consider the effect free speech policies can have on those academics and students who are ‘neurodivergent’ or ...

The ancient craft of carpentry still implies hands-on working with wood, using tools such as saw, hammer and nails to join the pieces into weight-bearing structures. So the phrase software carpentry used for an advanced training course makes an odd ...

Universities have embraced technology as teaching and learning tools, while students and staff alike typically rely on connected devices for far more than just studying. As university campuses serve as the hub of student life, providing reliable, fast internet access ...

Would Sir Isaac Newton flourish in an academic career were he alive today? The great man was said to have “an obsessive, paranoid personality, with Asperger’s syndrome, a bad stutter, unstable moods, and episodes of psychotic mania and depression”. Imagine then ...

 Lest. We. Forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine).”  – Yassmin Abdel-Magied When you hear about slavery for 400 years – for 400 years! – that sounds like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? ...

Since the Harvey Weinstein allegations were publicised in October last year, it seems the world has shifted. For the first time, women appear to be asserting their power over sexual harassers and abusers, and are being validated for doing so. Among the swathe ...

A doctor of history has sparked the latest academic Twitter spat. Dr Fern Riddell, a Research Associate at English university Royal Holloway, changed her Twitter name, adding the ‘Dr’ prefix, with the following explanation: My title is Dr Fern Riddell, not ...

Yesterday, Xanana Gusmão’s Alliance of Change for Progress (AMP) – an opposition coalition – clinched election victory in Timor-Leste (formerly known as East Timor). Gusmão, Timor-Leste’s first and fourth Prime Minister, is commonly viewed as a national hero, due to his resistance ...

The online Oxford English Dictionary has regular updates, and an entry added last month was for the word eveninger. It’s actually quite an old term, first cited in the US in 1932 as an item of women’s evening wear, but ...