Humanities

Setting pre-seen exams can bring out previously unsuspected abilities among students, say Nicholas Morton and Natasha Hodgson

Health and environmental agencies face savage reductions as defence spending soars

Cambridge professor has helped policymakers wrestle with complex ethical challenges

Structured writing groups could have a transformative effect on the morale and productivity of early career scholars, says Alice Kelly

Discriminating in hiring practice against particular intellectual perspectives is no less sinister than discriminating against particular political persuasions, says Glenn Geher

Traditional defences of the discipline are based on unsound reasoning, writes James Nikopoulos

Six academics offer their views on the state of language learning in a populist climate

Matthew Reisz reflects on the role of universities in overcoming monolingualism

Big questions remain unanswered about an important female Modernist theatre-maker all but written out of history, says Liz Schafer

Sarah Wise on how the insanity plea developed in English law and why ‘homicidal mania’ became acceptable to experts

A scholar of the past returns to a Britain he thought he knew – and finds himself averting his gaze in despair. Felipe Fernández-Armesto mourns

During a hospital stay, Emily Michelson learned why the humanities and sciences are in no way opposites

New academic partnership to build on the country’s deeper ‘engagement with world literature’

Universities teach attention to evidence and fact-based reasoning, which 1930s Germany, 1990s Rwanda and now today’s US show us are vital, argues Donald E. Hall

Discipline needs to forge new research agendas and promote its benefits more effectively, workshop hears

Formation of British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies follows ‘explosion’ of teaching and research

From the first fires to other forms of prohibition, a first-rate study charts a complex history, says Robert Gellately

A study of adolescents’ spaces unlocks mysteries and nostalgia. Enter if you dare, says Emma Rees

American Academy of Arts and Sciences warns that problem exists from school right through to university

The most popular Times Higher Education stories of the last year revealed

Britain got sober patriotism, purpose and more from its post-war leader, says Gordon Marsden

Book of the week: The scrutiny to which two intellectuals submit their relationship fascinates Shahidha Bari

Martin Cohen on a study that strives to position a much-quoted thinker as a social geographer

Shelley King is happy to linger over an erudite, witty and intimate journey through Wonderland

As we cannot cut the cords tethering us to tech, we must fully grasp the connection, says John Gilbey

A study focused on Singapore’s Biopolis centre concentrates on various global ‘currents’ in bioscience, says Flora Samuel

Provost of Universitas 21 tells THE summit that universities must engage with institutions outside their elite groups

UK universities can now ‘feel confident’ in recruiting postgraduate students for 2017-18, says RCUK chair

Shahidha Bari on an idiosyncratic and tantalising inward-looking exercise in soulful diary-keeping

Tristan Bekinschtein lauds a Nobel laureate’s fusion of art interpretation and analysis with the internal mechanisms by which we see works of art

Are our mental faculties really too unevolved to keep us afloat in an ocean of digital distraction? asks Shane O’Mara

The tale of a shocking killing falls short as true crime and as social history, says Sharon Wheeler

All the spoken and unspoken desires in one household are unveiled in a study of their prolific, and introspective, writings, says Jane Shaw

Book of the week: From the black stuff to books, who gets the goods in a sharing and streaming era? asks Paul Bernal

Saikat Majumdar looks at how public universities and liberal arts education in India still bear the marks of colonialism

June Purvis on an engaging study of the doughty pioneers who swapped Edwardian life for the front line

London as an eco-village? Treehouses in Accra? Danny Dorling lauds beautiful and bold what-ifs

Book of the week: Political Svengalis, not the public, drive populist pantomimes of democracy, says Angelia Wilson

Mark Gatenby considers what it means for business schools – and universities more generally – to embrace Utopian ways of thinking

Has the corporation acted as an arm of the state in the past, and might it in the future? Ivor Gaber wonders

A.W. Purdue on the man whose narcissism led to his becoming a mouthpiece for the Nazis

Duncan Wu on the art of biography

Book of the week: New sources yield fresh insights and oversights by the father of psychoanalysis, says Janet Sayers

Karen Harvey on a cultural history of sexuality that attempts to put real people centre stage

Martin Cohen on the philosophical implications of living the simple life – and owning a homemade toilet-brush holder

Cheap taxis come at a price but remodelling the online marketplace is an option, says Kylie Jarrett

A study offers a new perspective on one of the most important yet elusive Jewish thinkers of the past century

A clear-eyed study of shiny and new inventions calls for better oversight, says Richard Joyner

Clare Griffiths on a study that recovers the complexities of the lives of six individuals who lived their principles

Book of the week: A memoir wrestles with moral questions about using animals in research. Kristin Andrews writes

More helpful advice from Zachary Foster on how to successfully overcomplicate your writing

National brutality has taken many twists and turns but domestic savagery endures, finds Dick Hobbs

William Kolbrener on a study of the tales that centre on a place that is both a real Polish city and an imaginary realm

Once upon a time, authors pushed young readers to see the world very differently, says Shelley King

A controversial philosopher turns his mind to subjects ranging from happiness and euthanasia to vegetarianism, incest and doping, says Jane O’Grady

Seneca meets The Sopranos in a lively who, what, when, where and why of cursing, says Tom Palaima

Clare Griffiths on a study of the whirlwind life of the flame-haired Labour minister

In liberal arts and technical disciplines alike, we must help students develop a quantitative mindset, argues Anthony Monaco

Helen Berry on the socio-economic and political drivers behind consumer culture in colonial America