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Category: Arts and social sciences

The media’s key role in calling time on genocide – says academic expert on Rwanda

The media’s key role in calling time on genocide – says academic expert on Rwanda

With the recent 30th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, an Open University academic wants to drive home a reminder that genocide is planned and the media plays a vital role in helping stop it. Dr Georgina Holmes is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and specialises in research on how the UK, […]

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Actor and former OU student’s role in bringing to life the D-Day landings

Actor and former OU student’s role in bringing to life the D-Day landings

Actor and former Open University student Joshua Leese is reflecting on D-Day with a strong emotional appreciation of what the service personnel involved went through. Joshua, 31, who comes from Bedford, plays a central role in the BBC’s D-Day: The Unheard Tapes, a three-part Open University/BBC co-production documentary TV series to commemorate the 80th anniversary of […]

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Comedic novelist’s award in recognition of his life’s work

Comedic novelist’s award in recognition of his life’s work

Celebrated novelist and academic Howard Jacobson has been awarded an honorary degree for his life’s work and contribution to British literature – reinventing the comic novel for the modern age. The Manchester-born academic was made a Doctor of The Open University at one of its degree ceremonies – this one in the city’s Bridgewater Hall […]

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New TV documentary brings to life D-Day landings thanks to rare and previously unheard interviews

New TV documentary brings to life D-Day landings thanks to rare and previously unheard interviews

A new Open University/BBC co-production of a documentary TV series to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in northern France – D-Day: The Unheard Tapes – is about to begin. From 9pm on Sunday 2 June, BBC Two airs the three-part programme about the historic event on 6 June 1944 when 156,000 Allied […]

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Five books to read if you loved the Agatha Christie whodunnits

Five books to read if you loved the Agatha Christie whodunnits

If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie Dr Anthony Howell, Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University, and the author of the free OpenLearn short course on the Queen of Crime has picked out five brilliant detective-fiction novels by other authors. Here’s his list. Almost fifty years after her death Agatha Christie’s books and […]

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Gaza campus protests: why understanding 1960s student demonstrations and police reaction is relevant today

Gaza campus protests: why understanding 1960s student demonstrations and police reaction is relevant today

For anybody interested in the history of the 1960s, the ongoing protests at US universities have a peculiar resonance. Dr Sinead McEneaney, Staff Tutor and Senior Lecturer in History at The Open University, tells us why. In the past weeks, riot police have entered several college campuses at the behest of administrators to break up […]

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pound coins

‘Financial nutrition’ podcasts set to help transform your money outlook

Two Open University academics on a quest to urge people to indulge in daily ‘financial nutrition’ have released a podcast series to provide exactly that. Their ‘Financial Five-a-Day’ podcast is a series of interviews with financial experts, who have excelled in their field. They share their expert tips to help ignite a rethink in the […]

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Cartoonists to get on board with conveying global challenges

Cartoonists to get on board with conveying global challenges

Political cartoonists have been depicting global problems for centuries making make us laugh out loud, provoke action or leave us reeling in shock. Now a group of academics from The Open University, Kings College London and a Philippines cartoon collective called Pitik Bulag, are staging a competition to demonstrate world issues through cartoons. The history […]

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500 ‘diagnostic’ assessments!? Time to reflect

Let me start with a story. Many years ago, I had a student who was struggling to get specialist support to meet his learning needs. He had dyslexia and was entitled to additional support paid for by government funding. Dyslexia was a topic skirted over in one of my degrees and so, as an Associate […]

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Michael wearing graduation gown and blue glasses, looking at the camera with a background of plant leaves.

Historian who challenged the view of Black British history is honoured

A pioneering Black historian whose research has transformed the nation’s understanding of our Black British history has been awarded an honorary degree from The Open University and confessed he is “unashamedly woke” . A delighted Michael Ohajuru made the comments as he accepted his Doctor of the University award, for all that he has accomplished, […]

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