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Oct 8, 2024 | 
lrb.co.uk | Lorna Finlayson
You can tell a lot about the state of the contemporary university by looking at something peripheral: the parking. You might think there is only so much that can be said about parking. You would be wrong. Parking at my university is an issue of surprising intricacy and strong passions. Presumably this was not always the case. There may have been a time, not so long ago, when you could simply drive to work, park and work. But those days are gone.
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Mar 15, 2024 | 
newleftreview.org | Lorna Finlayson
With a uk general election looming, pundits at the Guardian and New Statesman have been urging the Prime Minister in waiting, Keir Starmer, to set out a credible plan for government. Labour, we are told, ‘desperately needs to stand for something’; it ‘needs a big idea’, a ‘political vision’ that ‘resonates with the majority’, a ‘clearer policy platform to win voters’ trust’.footnote1 Yet there is nothing particularly obscure about Starmer’s programme.
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Dec 2, 2023 | 
elsaltodiario.com | Lorna Finlayson
Salto a contenido Salto a navegación Contenidos portada Accesibilidad image/svg+xml We can't find the internet Attempting to reconnect Something went wrong! Hang in there while we get back on track No existe un escenario coherente de libertad de expresión sin restricciones, entendida como ausencia de interferencias.
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Nov 23, 2023 | 
newleftreview.org | Lorna Finlayson
Panics over apparently novel threats to freedom of speech are nothing new. Yet, much like anxiety over the state of the youth, the latest free speech crisis is always presented as unprecedented. And as with other moral panics, those sounding the alarm often turn out to have little genuine interest in what they claim to be protecting.
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Oct 29, 2023 | 
johnmenadue.com | Lorna Finlayson
The elephant can only be ignored for so long: we need to talk about academics. Rather like journalists, academics exhibit a profound mismatch between self-image and reality. Everybody has heard by now that British higher education is in a parlous state. Indebted students. Overworked staff on squeezed pay. Misery all round. The question is who is responsible.
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Sep 25, 2023 | 
lrb.co.uk | Martha C. Nussbaum |Lorna Finlayson |Peter Singer
Animals are in. As mass extinction looms, nature documentaries have become big business. The last six years have seen a succession of David Attenborough hits: Blue Planet II, Dynasties and Dynasties II, The Green Planet and Frozen Planet II on the BBC; and on Netflix, Our Planet, A Life on Our Planet and Planet Earth II. Attenborough’s most recent series, Wild Isles, was watched by more than ten million people in the first month of its release.
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Sep 21, 2023 | 
newleftreview.org | Lorna Finlayson
Everybody has heard by now that British higher education is in a parlous state. Indebted students. Overworked staff on squeezed pay. Misery all round. The question is who is responsible. Some misdiagnose the condition, blaming overly inclusive admissions policies (‘Some people just aren’t university material’); others see an epidemic of wokery (‘Students nowadays aren’t willing to be challenged’).
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Sep 21, 2023 | 
newleftreview.org | Lorna Finlayson
Everybody has heard by now that British higher education is in a parlous state. Indebted students. Overworked staff on squeezed pay. Misery all round. The question is who is responsible. Some misdiagnose the condition, blaming overly inclusive admissions policies (‘Some people just aren’t university material’); others see an epidemic of wokery (‘Students nowadays aren’t willing to be challenged’).
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Aug 23, 2023 | 
newstatesman.com | Lorna Finlayson
Children are often told: “Life isn’t fair.” It’s interesting that the line only gets used on children. Maybe people assume that they won’t notice what a stupid argument it is but I suspect virtually all children find it very stupid indeed. I sometimes think that the adults are right, if not in quite the way they think. Their intended meaning seems to be: this is the way it is, so suck it up.
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Jul 3, 2023 | 
theguardian.com | Lorna Finlayson
Since late April, staff at 145 UK universities have been refusing to mark students’ work. The marking and assessment boycott is the most recent action by the University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and other university staff. With graduation ceremonies now upon us, the boycott is causing significant havoc. Just how significant is a matter of some dispute.
