And so it goes…this thing called life Fergus Shanahan This Living and Immortal Thing By Austin Duffy Granta Books, 2016 If authors write what they know, then Austin Duffy knows a lot, but This Living and Immortal Thing, his first novel, blends experience with fiction and offers more than informed opinion […]
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The Reading Room: ‘Deaf Gain’
Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity H-Dirksen L. Bauman and Joseph J. Murray, Editors University of Minnesota Press, 2014 Reviewed by Dr Paul Dakin, GP Trainer in North London with research interest in the representation of d/Deaf people This book challenges the commonly held notion that deafness is an existence […]
Khalid Ali: ‘Let’s talk about death: a review of ‘Last cab to Darwin’, Australia 2015’
Let’s talk about death: a review of ‘Last cab to Darwin’, Australia 2015 5*, Directed by Jeremy Sims based on stage play by Reg Cribb Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) December 2015, possible release in UK cinemas 2016/17 The controversial subject of ‘euthanasia and assisted suicide’ has been a rich source for films; ‘Whose life […]
Ayesha Ahmad: ‘Lahore is an Illusion, Lahore is Everywhere’
The mango tree faded many shadows ago, its fruit became stones and the branches became a skeleton. Yet, the roots remained, and they embrace the soil in the womb of the earth. This was the cradle of my family’s birth. Now, blood is watering Lahore’s gardens. In sorrow, I remembered these words given to me a […]
Franco Ferrarini: The Past: a Friend or Foe? Different Perspectives from ‘Spectre’ and ‘45 years’.
The Past: a Friend or Foe? Different Perspectives from ‘Spectre’ and ‘45 years’. Spectre- directed by Sam Mendes, UK, 2015 45 years- directed by Andrew Haigh, UK, 2015 By Franco Ferrarini, Gastroenterologist and film reviewer In the words of the French philosopher Henri Bergson: ‘The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring […]
The Reading Room: Short-list for the 2016 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine
Fragility of the human form: short-list for the 2016 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine The Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine – winner of the 2011 Times Higher Education Award for Innovation and Excellence in the Arts – is an interdisciplinary venture that investigates the synergy between medicine, the arts and health. Poets from New York […]
Ayesha Ahmad: Introduction to Global Humanities—Through Creation, Violence Will Die
Against the backdrop of violence, I have been examining through my research the qualities of our human condition that perpetuate both our survival and our spirit. As an introduction to an ongoing series on Global Humanities, I will be discussing ways we can counter the dominant narrative of violence. Our globalised world, or rather, the collective […]
Encountering Pain: hearing, seeing, speaking – Call for Abstracts
Encountering Pain: hearing, seeing, speaking A free two-day live event and international conference at UCL Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd July 2016 Pain is not only expressed linguistically but through bodily movements, emotional reactions, and artistic expressions. How do we respond when we encounter the pain of another? What happens when our own bodies […]
Khalid Ali: London Human Rights Watch Film Festival 9-18 March 2016
London Human Rights Watch Film Festival https://ff.hrw.org/london, 9-18 March 2016 Various venues across London Over a period of 10 days, London will host the ‘Human Rights Watch Film Festival’ showing 20 feature and documentary films. The opening night will screen ‘Hooligan sparrow’, a documentary in Southern China following a group of activists campaigning to unravel […]
Khalid Ali: Film review – A political leader declares war on stroke
A political leader declares war on stroke Churchill’s secret- ITV drama- shown on Sunday 28th February 2016 Directed by Charles Sturridge 5* Released on DVD later in 2016 […]