By Carolyn Laubender, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex
Psychoanalysis is having a moment. Instagram accounts dedicated to Freudian theory have amassed nearly 1.5 million followers. Television shows like Orna Guralnik’s Couples Therapy have become compulsive viewing. Think pieces in The New York Times, The London Review of Books, Harper’s, New Statesman, the Guardian and Vulture are declaring psychoanalysis’s resurrection. As Joseph Bernstein of the New York Times put it: “Sigmund Freud is enjoying something of a comeback.”
For many, this revival comes as a surprise. Over the past half century, psychoanalysis…
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By Joseph Janes, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Swansea University
Prav Uppal, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Wolverhampton
The route a drug takes into the body can matter as much as the drug itself – and rectal use brings risks that are rarely talked about openly.
Often called “boofing”, “booty bumping” or “plugging”, the practice involves taking drugs via the rectum rather than swallowing, snorting or injecting.
In health settings, this…
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By Daniel Svensson, Lecturer in Sport Management, Malmö University
In 1958, Brazil won the men’s Fifa World Cup in Sweden. The team, which included a 17-year-old Pelé, stayed in a modest country hotel and travelled by train or bus to small stadiums in cities such as Uddevalla and Göteborg.
Fan attendance was fairly low for that 16-team tournament. And so too was the the ecological impact of the event – especially compared to the 2026 World Cup which will see 48 teams and millions of supporters travel to and across North America.
For while football’s…
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By Jill Timms, Assistant Professor in Sociology, University of Surrey
Anyone on the flower rota at England’s parish churches will now be reconsidering the way they do their arrangements, after Church of England leaders voted to use more seasonal and local flowers.
A motion to use sustainable flowers brought before the General Synod of the Church of England by the Bishop of Dudley, Martin Gorrick, was passed on February 12. The term “sustainable flowers” means using…
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By Rayna Denison, Professor of Film and Digital Arts, University of Bristol
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is as much about animation as an artform as it is an adaptation of Belgian author Amélie Northomb’s book The Character of Rain (2000).
The French animated feature, co-directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, makes sophisticated use of animation style to interrogate the formation of the self in early childhood.
The film begins with Amélie telling us that she began as a god – a tube-like god – before being born into a “vegetative” state as a baby…
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By Christopher Holliday, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education, Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities, King's College London
This new exhibition is a real treat, providing a glimpse behind the scenes with some of Britain’s most beloved animated characters.
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By Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham
A recent study showed that Mars was warm and wet billions of years ago. The finding contrasts with another theory that this era was mainly cold and icy. The result has implications for the idea that life could have developed on the planet at this time.
Whether Mars was once habitable is a fascinating and intensely researched topic of interest over many decades. Mars, like the Earth, is about 4.5 billion years old and its geological history is divided into different epochs of time.
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By Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau, Professor of Behavioural Science, Kingston University
Have you ever feared looking cheap or incompetent with your Valentine’s gift? Or perhaps you’ve dismissed the idea of exchanging gifts because you worried your partner would think it’s too corny.
If so, you’re not alone. But research suggests we may be missing out on an opportunity to strengthen our close relationships by rejecting this ritual entirely.
In romantic relationships, the act of giving serves as…
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By Naomi Joseph, Arts + Culture Editor, The Conversation
A proper adaptation of Wuthering Heights, a guide to love, games for love, a regency swoonfest and a modernisation of revenge tale.
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By Yashaswini Chandra, Lecturer in South Asian Art History, University of Edinburgh
Daniel Fountain, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter
Emma Barker, Senior Lecturer In Art History
Marius Kwint, Reader in Visual Culture, University of Portsmouth
Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy, University of Westminster
For Valentine’s Day, we asked five of our academic experts to tell us about the most romantic artwork they’ve ever encountered. From first dates to sleeping lovers, these are the paintings that have touched their hearts.
1. A Leisurely Ride by Nainsukh (circa 1740-1745)
At the heart of Nainsukh’s A Leisurely Ride, a court painting produced in the Pahari or Indian hill state of Jasrota in the mid-18th century, is an exchange of gaze which transfixes the moment.
In the painting, horses of varied hues stride across an Indian…
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