• A black and white photograph of Hermann Gross holding a metalworking tool, with an in-progress sculpture before him.

Emigration from Aberdeenshire and Banffshire

By Marjory Harper In February 1983, just as I was finishing my PhD, I gave my first conference paper in the slightly intimidating surroundings of Marischal College at the University of Aberdeen. The event, organised jointly by two university departments…

View of Cathcart Castle tower after collapse, December 1979

1980-81 Excavations of Cathcart Castle, Glasgow

An extract from Open Access article, Cathcart Castle, Glasgow – Excavations 1980–81, by Brian Kerr et. al. Published in the Scottish Archaeological Journal, Volume 38 Issue supplement, Page 1-100, ISSN 1471-5767 Available Online Oct 2016 ‘The castle of Cathcart is…

The Islamic Cult behind the Abortive Coup in Turkey

By Necati Polat Who are the Gülenists ostensibly behind the failed Turkey coup of last July, when, for the first time in Turkish history, soldiers led by a large cabal within the military did not hesitate to bomb the parliament and…

Islamic Thought in China

“There are Muslims in China?  I didn’t know that.”  Yes, indeed, there are—possibly as many as 25-30 million souls—and they constitute a fascinating segment of two vital world entities, “China” and “Islam.”  Almost half of them speak Chinese as their…

On Wasting Time

By Claire White In France, the turn of the millennium ushered in a bold, and controversial, act of legal reform that sought to reshape the French citizen’s working life: the introduction of a 35-hour working week. For many, the law…

Deanna Womack

Images of Islam

By Deanna Ferree Womack Images of Islam abound these days, and many of them are troubling. Those who speak loudly and most forcefully define Islam in the narrowest of terms, making one image – the militant extremist – into a…

Work, but At Your Own Risk … We Warned You

By Audrey Evrard Despite of the loud chorus of political and business leaders extolling the virtues of hard work, a counter-narrative calling into question the centrality of work has gained momentum in France since the early 2000s. My recent article…

Five Unmissable Performances from Penny Dreadful

By Benjamin Poore For the uninitiated, Penny Dreadful is a genre-busting neo-Victorian fantasy horror show, set in the 1890s, in a world where Victor Frankenstein, his Creature, Professor Van Helsing, and Dorian Gray can all co-exist. It’s a world where…