Media (studies) matters – Anna Notaro

Following a recent discussion on this blog on ‘soft’ subjects, I invited Dr Anna Notaro of the University of Dundee to explain the purpose and benefits of media studies. I would like to start this post by asking readers to play an innocent ‘word association game’. Let’s choose ‘Media Studies’ to start with, the point […]

Call the doctor

In the circles in which I once moved when I was still an active law lecturer, one of the regular questions colleagues from the United States of America would ask is whether, with a J.D. degree (‘Juris Doctor‘), they were entitled to style themselves ‘Dr’. This often led to long discussions about how academic qualifications […]

Faking it with gusto

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee ‘Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our capacity to detect it’ (Viktor Taransky, character in A. Niccol’s film S1mOne 2002) 2017 is not over yet but it is safe to assume that it has been a bad year for planet earth. Notwithstanding amazing […]

Knocking louder on Europe’s door

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, the University of Dundee It is almost two years exactly since my guest post on this blog, Knocking on Europe’s door, a post I felt compelled to write out of outrage and frustration at the loss of over 300 migrants’ lives off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. […]

50 shades of sexism in the academy

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, University of Dundee In a blog post entitled We have come a long way but…, Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University with an interest in matters of equality and diversity, while recognising the success of the Athena project launched back in 1999 and of the Athena […]

To ‘Brexit’ or not to ‘Brexit’

Guest post is by Dr Anna Notaro, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee Britain’s conflicting relationship with the European Union is nothing new; however over the past few months the prospect of ‘Brexit’ – shorthand for British exit from the EU – has become an increasingly realistic possibility. Cataclysmic change might be […]

Stuart Hall RIP

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee This is an educated guess, but I bet that many among the readers of this blog have heard of Professor Stuart Hall, who died on  February 10, aged 82. A giant of cultural theory and sociology, former Director of […]

Knocking on Europe’s door

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee Last Friday, October 4th, was a day of national mourning in my native country, Italy. The reason was not some unpredictable ‘act of God’ or a natural calamity, but a recurrent tragedy and a preventable one. A boat full […]

The cost of poverty?

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee While I’m writing this lives are still at stake in the Rana Plaza in Dhaka, the collapsed building which housed one of the many garments factories providing Western customers with low cost clothes. Three hundred workers are believed to have […]

The power of love, law… and Facebook

Guest post by Dr Anna Notaro, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design University of Dundee Here is a story that caught my attention recently. As most of us are aware the condition of women in Saudi Arabia is far from ideal, to put it mildly; they are not allowed to drive a car, to […]