I have been reading Chad Wellmon’s book After the University. I had assumed I would have finished it by now, but I made it through one and a half chapters before my emails, marking, and meetings got the better of my intentions. This incomplete exploration of the book made a greater impression on me than could have been expected for the time I gave to it. Wellmon’s description of the university as “beautiful and wretched, stitched together by both historical accident and ambit

I have just finished reading Wendy Harcourt’s book Conundrums of Care: Feminist Entanglements in Critical Development Studies . Over the last few weeks, I have been snatching moments at airports and after early morning school runs to journey through her personal stories, activist experiences, and academic reflections. Snatching these moments and giving them to myself has been a joyous act of self-care. It has also been an opportunity to spend time on a question which currentl

In December I had an unexpected, and much needed, 2 hours alone in London. I headed straight for the Hockney exhibition Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris at Annely Juda Fine Art. I sat, alone, in the ‘Moon Room’, contemplating his iPad paintings of the night sky, moved by a combination of beauty, sadness, and exhaustion. Hockney places the question of perspective at the centre of his work, challenging us to consider the ways in which our own perspect

It’s that time of year again – new year hopes, expectations, disappointments. Many of us are engaged in more, or less, helpful spaces of exchange and reflection about who we want to be and what we want to do over the next 12 months. Last January I shared some thoughts about how we might look outwards rather than inwards in our journey, and suggested reflection on what stories we might tell in support of progressive politics . I have tried to take my own advice, pushing furthe