By Blanka Grzegorczyk, Senior Teaching Associate, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge; Manchester Metropolitan University
Between 2013 and 2015, Malorie Blackman was Britain’s first black children’s laureate. Her young adult series Noughts and Crosses (2001-21) at once challenges and plays with the prevailing racial ordering of western life and thought.
Blackman’s series is set in an alternative Britain called Albion, where power is held by a dominant, black majority known as the “Crosses”, while the white “Noughts” are stigmatised minority subjects. In doing so, Blackman suggests that if we see difference as threatening or inferior, then any alternative worlds we imagine will just reflect our own culture.…
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By Beverley O'Hara, Lecturer in Nutrition, Leeds Beckett University
Jordan Beaumont, Senior Lecturer in Food and Nutrition, Sheffield Hallam University
Since Wegovy received approval as a weight loss treatment in 2021, there has been huge demand for GLP-1 drugs. These drugs reduce hunger and suppress the “food noise” that can make it difficult to lose weight.
But while these drugs have been a gamechanger for many who have struggle to lose weight,…
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By Bran Nicol, Professor of English, University of Surrey
Awarding the Nobel prize for literature to László Krasznahorkai today, the Swedish Academy commended the author’s “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. But in itself their decision is also a commitment to the value of serious and intellectual writing in an age characterised by immediacy, the distractions of digital culture and the entertainment industry.
Krasznahorkai was first propelled into literary…
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By Clodagh Toomey, Physiotherapist and Associate Professor, School of Allied Health, University of Limerick
Stiff knees, aching hips and the slow grind of chronic joint pain are often accepted as an unavoidable part of getting older. But while osteoarthritis is the world’s most common joint disease, experts say the way we treat and prevent it is badly out of step with the evidence.
The best medicine isn’t found in a pill bottle or an operating theatre – it’s movement. Yet across countries and health systems, too few patients are being guided toward the one therapy proven to protect their joints and ease their pain: exercise.
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By Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation
This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.
As the world mourns Jane Goodall, the pioneering chimpanzee scientist and campaigner who died last week aged 91, it’s worth asking what chimpanzees can still teach us about climate change. They not only have a few tricks for surviving a warming planet – they’ve also helped to cool it.
Most of the world’s 200,000 or so wild chimpanzees…
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By Mireille Rebeiz, Chair of Middle East Studies, Dickinson College
A US-backed diplomatic push is trying to end months of Israeli attacks on Syria with a bilateral security pact. But concluding an agreement may prove a tall order.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus (3rd L) visits three secret detention facilities known as "Ayna Ghor," which had been used as torture cells during the Awami League government's rule, Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 12, 2025. © 2025 Nayem Shaan/Drik/Getty Images On October 9, the Bangladesh authorities filed charges against 28 people for enforced disappearances, secret detention, and torture. It was a long time coming.A “smear campaign,” the home minister had scoffed in 2017, after Human Rights Watch released a report on secret detentions and enforced…
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By Jacques Hartmann, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, University of Dundee
Edzia Carvalho, Lecturer in Politics, University of Dundee
Samuel White, Senior Lecturer, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland
In the most recent YouGov poll on this issue, 54% of Conservative voters and 72% of Reform voters were in favour of leaving.
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By Penelope Hannant, Assistant Professor in Educational Inclusion, University of Birmingham
Julia Carroll, Professor of Psychology in Education, University of Birmingham
Without enough resources to follow up on screening results, teachers, parents, and children may be left feeling frustrated and unsupported.
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By Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
From Disney’s Scrooge McDuck and Cruella de Vil to DC Comics’ Lex Luthor to and Mr Burns in the Simpsons, there are plenty of examples of wealthy people using their money and power in evil ways. But is there any truth to the stereotype that rich people are mean?
There are many rich people who act benevolently, including philanthropists who give a lot of their money away. However, research in psychology has found a clear link between wealth and unethical behaviour, including an increased tendency to cheat and steal.…
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