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‘Beware of the ninnies!’ – Thoughts on ballet history
Read more: ‘Beware of the ninnies!’ – Thoughts on ballet historySebastian Cody explores the challenges of ballet historiography, emphasising the need for rigorous scholarship amidst widespread inaccuracies
The New Islamic Presence in Europe: Perspectives from Ireland
Western Europe experienced the immigration of people from a Muslim background after World War II who settled in countries like France, Britain or Germany to fill the labour shortage and made important contributions to the economic recovery of Western European…
Dai Vaughan, John Berger, and disciplinary boundaries
Three years ago, Richard Macdonald and I compared Dai Vaughan (1933-2012) with two other ‘outstanding figures of his generation’, Robin Wood (1931-2009) and V F Perkins (1936-). The comparison is worth extending. Wood and Perkins are now regarded as key figures…
The Post-Mortem of Labour Scotland
Three years ago, Gerry Hassan and I published a book entitled ‘The Strange Death of Labour Scotland’. We envisaged that, unless radical steps were taken, Labour’s influence in Scotland would steadily decline. Speaking personally, I did not envisage a total…
Austerity Bites: Two 1980s British Road Movies
By Ieuan Franklin Where are the films being made today about ‘Austerity Britain’ that combine social realism and humour, as in The Full Monty (1997)? In my article for the Journal of British Cinema and Television last year I looked…
Guest Blog Post – Socrates: Mark Morris on Death and Dying
In 1917, Erik Satie faced a spiritual dilemma—the challenge of giving voice to death, to nothingness. The composer had begun setting fragments of Plato’s narrative account of Socrates’s final days and death. Satie wanted the music to be ‘as white…
The Absence of God and Its Contextual Significance for Hume
In our featured article this week, “The Absence of God and Its Contextual Significance for Hume”, David Fergusson of the University of Edinburgh sets Hume’s thoroughgoing religious scepticism within the context of the Scottish Enlightenment. Much of Hume scholarship today…
‘Don’t pump up the emotion’: The creation and authorship of a sound world in The Wire
The HBO TV series, The Wire, is well known for capturing a realistic slice of Baltimore life in and around the city’s drug trade. The show is considered to be more in touch with the world it portrays than previous…
Monsieur Desnoyer – Mapping Choreography. 18C Dance Design
Below is a beautiful illustration of ‘Spanish Entree Performed by Mr Desnoyer and choreographed by Anthony L’Abbe’. Full of jumps, turns and entrechats, a virtuoso vocabulary runs throughout the solo. Appearing in the article, “The Celebrated Monsieur Desnoyer, Part 1:…
“Spotlight on”…Scottish Affairs
Scottish Affairs is published quarterly in February, May, August and November of each year. Founded in 1992, it is Scotland’s longest running journal on contemporary political and social issues. Fully peer-reviewed, Scottish Affairs provides the opportunity for analysis of Scottish…