By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; Victoria University
Trump’s world order: praising Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as an ‘attractive guy’, while disparaging the first Muslim mayor of New York as a ‘lunatic communist’.
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By Tets Kimura, Adjunct Lecturer, Creative Arts, Flinders University
OzAsia 2025 once again affirmed its status as Australia’s leading multi-arts celebration of unique creativity. Despite South Australia’s comparatively small Asian population, OzAsia has grown into a significant platform that integrates music, literature, dance, comedy and visual arts.
With an additional weekend this year, the festival organisers described the program as “bigger than ever,” aiming to bring together…
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By Christian Yao, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Knowledge workers are racing ahead with AI, but organisations still evaluate them as if they are working alone. How we measure human value has to change.
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By Jean-Charles Pelland, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen
Most of us have little trouble working out how many millilitres are in 2.4 litres of water (it’s 2,400). But the same can’t be said when we’re asked how many minutes are in 2.4 hours (it’s 144).
That’s because the Indo-Arabic numerals we often use to represent numbers are base-10, while the system we often use to measure time is base-60.
Expressing time in decimal notation leads to an interaction between these two bases, which can have implications at both the cognitive and cultural level.
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By Dominic O'Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology, Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
Taking away the duty of boards to give effect’ to te Tiriti o Waitangi undermines the expectation that schools should work for Maori as well as for anyone else.
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By Victoria-Elliot Bush, PhD Candidate, Linguistics, Queen Mary University of London
The shape of a burger is reinforced in our mental linguistic definitions every time we see a burger but there isn’t a straight-forward definition.
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By Jen Allan, Lecturer in Environmental Politics, Cardiff University
If you’re still heading to this year’s UN climate conference in Belém, Brazil, I hope you booked early. Hotels long sold out, and latecomers face extortionate rates – or the prospect of a dubious “love hotel”.
The incredible cost and variable quality of accommodation have sparked outrage. It’s been the subject of high-level meetings and dialogues. But it’s also a symptom of a wider problem: these climate summits have grown so large they’re no longer fit for purpose.
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By Ansgar Wohlschlegel, Associate Professor in Economics, Swansea University
Universal basic income (UBI) has supporters across the political spectrum. The idea is that if every citizen received a payment from the state to cover their living costs, it this will allow them the freedom to live as they choose.
UBI could, for example, let people decide whether to work and let them live in dignity after AI has made their…
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By Kristin Aune, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Coventry University
Mathew Guest, Professor in the Sociology of Religion, Durham University
Matthew J. Mayhew, Professor of Higher Education, The Ohio State University
This year’s new university students are settling into life on campuses often notable for their diversity – and that includes in religion. Over 33,000 Buddhist students started university in the UK in 2023-24, for instance, alongside 769,220 Christian and 37,520 Sikh students.
Universities have a role to play in helping their students relate to others of different religious backgrounds, especially at a time of concern…
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By Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications, University of Westminster
The resignations of the BBC’s director general and director of news were shocking. Perhaps just as shocking is the US$1 billion legal threat the broadcaster now faces from US president Donald Trump.
The full story of what has happened at the BBC may take months (or years) to emerge. But it’s become evident that a combination of poor editorial judgement and political meddling by longstanding BBC critics contributed to Tim Davie and Deborah Turness’s departures.
That there were editorial mistakes is not in question. The BBC Panorama documentary on Trump spliced together two…
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