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Transforming universities with an equity focus

Transforming universities with an equity focus

Inequity is everywhere in higher education, and my book Distributing Knowledge: Openness, Equity and Higher Education Transformation offers an equity lens through which the sector could transform itself.

An extreme closeup of a green leaf showing its network of veins

Popular science has a formula

Several people who work in science communication have told me this book feels like it was written for them. They know the popular version of every story in it, and they're tired of repeating metaphors they know are incomplete.

A Society of Meta-Organizations

A Society of Meta-Organizations

Meta-organizations are everywhere. They can range from local, highly specialized collectives to large, generalist global actors. They are incredibly diverse, in terms of size, membership, purposes, activities. Yet across this diversity, some shared characteristics emerge.

The book in three formats: hardcover, tablet and smartphone

On Colonial Knowledge, Africa, and Imperial Russia

It is important (and even crucial) to always put cultural and political phenomena occurring in Russia – often victim of the exceptionalist rhetoric (on the Russian side) or of othering (on the Western side) – into a wider, global context.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Adventure

My new book Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change examines what UNICEF calls the three greatest challenges currently facing children globally, now and into the future: migration, the climate crisis, and changing forms of work.

The EU Energy Transition: Doing More with More

The EU Energy Transition: Doing More with More

In a context marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, the European Union is called upon to make energy a pillar of its strategic autonomy. Accelerating on the adoption of renewables is essential.

The “Charm” of Objectivity

The “Charm” of Objectivity

Anita Frison’s open access book Africa in Russian Imperial Culture: Race, Empire, and Representation (1850–1917) unmasks how pre-Soviet Russia produced exotifying portrayals of Sub-Saharan Africa while distinguishing itself as a benevolent actor in contrast to its colonial counterparts in the West.

A pair of hands offering a yellow flower

Some Reflections on How 'Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné' Was Received by the Choné Tibetan Community

The act of returning the book was understood not simply as a gesture of completion but as a form of accountability. The book is a form of recognition that the stories, knowledge, and insights generated through research must circulate back to community members who made them possible.

Life writing, family stories and ‘history from below’

Life writing, family stories and ‘history from below’

We still have so few accounts of ordinary peoples’ lives told in their own voices and on their own terms. Might Norah’s diaries allow a different kind of access to a working-class girl’s interior life?

Small Apocalypses

Small Apocalypses

By Tricia de Souza On December 21, 2012, the world as we know it was meant to change forever. According to the Mayan long-count calendar, the day ushered a new period of history similar to the turn of the 21st century. A Reuters global poll in May 2012, however, showed

A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib

A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib

Particularly because the massive Hartlib archive has been available in digitised form since 2013, it is amazing that Hartlib himself has not been the subject of a modern English language monograph. Acceleration in the pace of Hartlib studies is essentially a characteristic of the last few years

Польові зйомки: Оцифрування документальної спадщини у складних умовах

Польові зйомки: Оцифрування документальної спадщини у складних умовах

Remote Capture is not just a technical handbook. It is a book about preserving memory and history amid loss. It walks the reader through every stage of the work—from planning the project and choosing equipment to working on the ground, creating secure copies, cataloguing, and completing a project.

Who owns open knowledge? The two types of licence to consider when making books open access

Who owns open knowledge? The two types of licence to consider when making books open access

When a more restrictive open access licence is applied to a book, who gets to make decisions about usage that falls outside the open licence?

Opening Up Mathematics

Opening Up Mathematics

Mathematics is a subject with many long-standing traditions. Partly, this stems from the way mathematicians work: once we have a correct proof of a statement, it stays correct in perpetuity. This tendency applies to how we do things, as much as to what we do.

Looking forward, looking back: William Moorcroft in the news

Looking forward, looking back: William Moorcroft in the news

Within the space of just five days in June this year, William Moorcroft was twice in the news.

Defending Academic Freedom in an Age of Censorship: Reflections from author Ash Lierman

academic freedom

Defending Academic Freedom in an Age of Censorship: Reflections from author Ash Lierman

With the threats that research faces in the U.S., OA offers equal access to publishing for many of us who have previously had the privilege of overlooking it.

Defending Academic Freedom in an Age of Censorship: Why Open Access Matters More Than Ever

academic freedom

Defending Academic Freedom in an Age of Censorship: Why Open Access Matters More Than Ever

We believe OA publishing is crucial, because it is an act of resistance against censorship and control. When knowledge is published OA, it can be accessed in many places with no restriction. When knowledge is openly available, it cannot be erased.