What happens when a literary scholar turns her attention to local archives such as inventories and court records? English professor Alexandra Harris talks about writing history, uncovering centuries of silent lives for her new book, and the interdisciplinary power of the humanities.
For this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, we talk to award-winning author, cultural historian and literary critic Alexandra Harris about the research and writing practices behind her new book, The Rising Down: Lives in a Sussex Landscape (Faber, 2024). Alexandra is professorial fellow in English at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Her other books include Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists & the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper, which won The Guardian First Book award and a Somerset Maugham Award, and Weatherland, which was adapted into a 10-part radio series for the BBC. This conversation explores what a literary scholar can bring to the study of local history, the power of place and how “trespassing” researchers can find new insights in familiar records of everyday and celebrated lives.
Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google podcasts.
Does the UK general election offer a ray of hope for the beleaguered university sector? Two higher education policy experts give their take on what university leaders can do to make a case for the sector and how a new parliament might tackle hot topics such as international students and research funding.
Immersive technology expert Monica Arés explains how the combination of artificial intelligence and extended reality in education has the potential to unlock curiosity and learning, the costs that come with these tools and what she thinks teaching technology will look like in 2034.
Academic, practitioner and policy commentator Mark Thompson shares his concern that UK higher education is drifting from its true north of research, teaching and impact in the wake of complex digital change and the prisoner’s dilemma of whole-sector transformation
Two Australian academics take on the role of person-to-person contact in student success and well-being in higher education – whether that’s the benefits of in-person teaching or the effects of using AI for academic work