The Open University

How will history view the UK’s Brexit process?

19 March 2019

As negotiations continue over Brexit and politicians hold various votes on leaving and delaying one might well wonder how historians will look back at this unprecedented time in UK/EU relations. Last week Theresa May’s deal was rejected for a second time and then MPs voted to rule out leaving the EU without a deal and […]

£1million to research care of child migrants

18 March 2019

A researcher who travelled to ‘the Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais to see how unaccompanied child migrants lived has secured £1million of funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to study the care of lone child refugees. The new research project, which is co-led by The Open University and University College London, will investigate […]

Imperfect and absurd, the modern literary heroine is a woman of our times

15 March 2019

Sally O’Reilly, Lecturer in Creative Writing at The Open University discusses how the female characters in the books that we read are changing. The way women are portrayed is changing. In film, The Favourite has won numerous awards and features three women, variously wild and untameable, as joint protagonists. Other movies such as The Wife and Can You Ever Forgive Me? show older […]

Books are delightful as they are – don’t fall in the trap of competitive reading

5 March 2019

“My happiest times in childhood were spent reading the books of E. Nesbit, C.S. Lewis and Joan Aiken. Preferring to read in hidden corners where nobody could find me, I immersed myself completely in these stories and believed utterly in their magic, even attempting to enter Narnia via the portal of my grandmother’s wardrobe. As […]

LGBT History Month: a retrospective on Alan Turing

15 February 2019

February of each year is LBGT History Month, a month-long focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, with the overall aim of promoting equality and diversity, and increasing the visibility of the LGBT community. Professor Sophie Grace Chappell, Professor of Philosophy at The Open University, regularly writes about her own experiences as transgender, as well as discussing […]

Why Glasgow’s ‘Bolshevist Uprising’ in 1919 wasn’t quite the red threat to UK many believed

30 January 2019

January 31 is the centenary of Bloody Friday 1919, in which thousands of protesting workers were attacked in Glasgow’s main civic square by police, causing multiple injuries. Coming barely a year after the Russian Revolution and with insurgency in the air across much of Europe, then Scottish Secretary Robert Munro claimed that Glasgow was in […]

50 words for 50 years

21 January 2019

As we commence a year of celebrating our 50th anniversary, we’re hooking into National Storytelling Week with a literary competition for all the wordsmiths out there. Every day for eight days (starting on Saturday 26 January) we’ll be sharing a different image prompt designed to inspire you to forge a 50-word, fictional footpath. We invited […]

Eurozone is recovery resistant but it could also be recession-proof

15 January 2019

For years, the eurozone has grown more slowly than the US and its growth has been unbalanced. Germany has enjoyed strong external trade and GDP growth while Italy and France stagnate, and some smaller members submerge. This has led many to condemn the eurozone’s design as fundamentally flawed and predict that it could lose peripheral […]

Why it’s time to rip up the political playbook and imagine a truly new global order

11 January 2019

Dr Peter Bloom, Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies and Head of the Department of People and Organisation at The Open University discusses how Brexit and US government headaches are revealing a transforming world … The new year has not ushered in a fresh political start. The problems and divisions of 2018 have carried over to 2019. […]

Fast-food chains use cute animal toys to market meat to children – new vegan ranges pose a dilemma

7 January 2019

Being vegan appears to be all the rage in Britain. The news that McDonald’s has launched a new plant-based “Happy Meal” for children based on a vegan “wrap” would seem to bear this idea out. McDonald’s new offering is the latest in a wave of vegetarian or vegan product launches, including Gregg’s vegan sausage rolls, […]

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Category: Arts and social sciences