By Dr Paul Malgrati Over the past 220 years, the Burns Supper has become the quintessential festival of Scottish culture, identity, and gastronomy. Who would have thought, back in 1801 as nine admirers of Robert Burns held a private memorial…
By Peggy Kamuf In tribute to Jean-Luc Nancy, whose death was announced in August, Peggy Kamuf looks back on a landmark special issue of Paragraph (‘On the Work of Jean-Luc Nancy’, Paragraph, Vol. 16, Issue 2) which she edited in…
by Shivan Mahendrarajah The Taliban are back in power, ushering in renewed fears of destruction of cultural heritages. Their first time in office (1996–2001), the Taliban destroyed edifices on the basis that they were ‘un-Islamic’ and/or ‘beacons’ for polytheists (mushrikin).…
by Mie Birk Jensen Have you read “Potency is important for a real man”: Viagra-spam and the circulation of gendered discourse (Part 1)”? If not, click here! Shipping, shame and sex While spammers have put exaggerated emphasis on the benefits…
by Mie Birk Jensen “Need some love pills? So, why go to your local drugstore? Why waste time and extra money? Why let people know about your intimate life? Evil-wishers are always around to spread rumors. Start a super life…
by Xiaofei Shi and Labao Wang Does Chinese children’s literature have a prehistory? While it is presumptuous to date the history of Chinese children’s literature all the way back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317–420) when the tale ‘Li Ji’…
In this exclusive extract from chapter 6 of The Eurasian Steppe, author and archaeologist Warwick Ball explores the material culture of the nomadic Scythians, a cultural group that flourished in the Eurasian Steppe in the first millennium BC. What has…
In this interview, Christian Long, editor of ReFocus: The Films of Albert Brooks (out now in our series ReFocus: The American Directors Series), talks about the work of Albert Brooks and what led him to research it. Can you tell…
In this interview, John Renard, author of Rumi: A Life in Pictures (out now from the Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art series), discusses his new book, which studies illustrated 16th-century Ottoman manuscripts of a major hagiography of Rumi and his…
by Hilan Bensusan Pointing is a thoroughly situated activity. One points at what is somehow around – even when one needs complex language devices for the exercise. Maybe because thinking often aims to be indifferent to where one is, pointing…