Posts & Reflections
Thoughts on philosophy and theology; helpful advice on teaching, learning, and coding.
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The Archive
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Michel Serres and film 2: Agnès Varda’s Sans toit ni loi
This the second of four undergraduate lectures in which I explore how the thought of Michel Serres can inform film studies. I embarked upon the lectures as a speculative experiment, but in writing them I became convinced that there are rich resources in Serres’s thought for generating novel and engaging readings of films that often
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Michel Serres and film 1: Agnès Varda’s Cléo de 5 à 7
This the first of four undergraduate lectures in which I explore how the thought of Michel Serres can inform film studies. I embarked upon the lectures as a speculative experiment, but in writing them I became convinced that there are rich resources in Serres’s thought for generating novel and engaging readings of films that often
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My paper “Nancy is a thinker of Radical Emancipation”, with a response by Jean-Luc Nancy
A plenary talk given at the ‘Thinking with Jean-Luc Nancy’ conference, University of Oxford, 29 March 2019. 1. Nancy against the emancipation narrative It is not an uncommon view, and it is one fuelled in part by Nancy himself, that his thought is inimical to an agenda of emancipation and liberation. He treats the
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Abstract for Thinking with Nancy conference: Nancy is a thinker of radical emancipation
I have just finished the abstract for my talk at the Thinking with Nancy conference in March. The talk forms part of a larger project on the modern ’emancipation narrative’ I am currently beginning. The larger project will examine the origins and prospects of modern Western ideas of emancipation through engagements with philosophy, literature and
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New project: How stories of liberation shape our selves and our society
As the Michel Serres book reaches its final stages, I am beginning an exciting new project provisionally entitled “The development and limits of the idea of liberation: a narrative approach”. Here is a brief summary: The project will evaluate the ways in which the modern West has made sense of the ideas of emancipation and
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Michel Serres book project update: Draft Introduction
For the past three and a half years I have been working on a monograph on the thought of Michel Serres. It has been an exhilarating and exhausting project, in the course of which I have largely forgotten what it feels like to be anywhere near an intellectual comfort zone. During these years I have
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Research Hacks #25: Another time-saving Microsoft Word macro for academics
Small time-saving computer shortcuts are great news for at least two reasons. First of all, as we research and write week after week the seconds saved with each shortcut add up to substantial gains. Secondly, it is helpful for maintaining concentration if we can minimise unnecessary clicks and key-presses. So in this post I want
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My review of Kevin Hart’s Poetry and Revelation in Los Angeles Review of Books
My review of Kevin Hart’s Poetry and Revelation has now been published in the latest edition of the Los Angeles Review of Books. the exquisite chapter on silence is worth the price of the book by itself.
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Helping university students to approach language learning as a way of life, not a slot on the timetable
Mastering a language is not like learning any other Arts faculty subject: to learn a language is to immerse oneself in a way of experiencing and engaging with the world, not to assimilate a body of knowledge or even a methodology. Language and culture are the means through which we experience anything at all, not
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My first experience of creating a chatbot, and how bots might be used in teaching foreign languages
In preparation for the next academic year (which in Australia will begin in February) I am exploring new ways of assessing students in foreign language units, especially at first year level. Last Friday I created a chatbot using Microsoft’s QnA Maker and the Azure cloud computing platform. You can have a play with it the