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Spectator
5 days ago
- General
- Spectator
The real reason why academics write in gobbledygook
Why can't academics write properly? Why can't they express themselves in language that normal people can understand? These are questions that have echoed through the ages, and ones that still resonate today – so much so that even academics are starting to ask them. In an address to the Hay Festival this week, Professor Kehinde Andrews of Birmingham City University lamented how the work of so many of his peers is written in 'devastatingly bad', 'mind-deadening' and 'over-convoluted' prose. Taking one book as an example, he asked why it 'kept using the word 'quotidien'. What does 'quotidien' mean? 'Everyday'. Why not just say 'everyday'?' While many will welcome this intervention by Professor Andrews, and many have for decades groaned at the tendency of academics to lurch into gobbledygook, this misses the point. Academics in the humanities today don't write in order to be understood by the public, or even by their students. They write the way they do primarily to signal fealty to an ideology.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Books written by academics are a con, says professor
Books written by academics are a 'con' designed to sound more complex than they really are, according to a prominent professor. Prof Kehinde Andrews dismissed the work of many of his peers as 'devastatingly bad' and 'mind-deadening'. 'We make money as academics by being overly-convoluted. That's the game. That's the con. Honestly, it's a con,' said Andrews, the UK's first professor of black studies. He claimed that one academic had written something so bad that 'he writes like he has a brain injury'. 'There's a way you write as an academic, there's a way you're trained into writing - it's devastatingly bad, honestly. I was in that same world of having to do it. I stopped going to academic conferences because it's mind-deadening.' He referred to one book which 'kept using the word 'quotidien'. What does 'quotidien' mean? 'Everyday'. Why not just say 'everyday'? That's how we do things. No need.' His abiding rule when communicating is to 'make it plain'. In a conversation at the Hay Festival, he said: 'There is no concept that is so complicated that a seven-year-old shouldn't be able to have some vague understanding of it.' Prof Andrews, of Birmingham City University, published a book in 2023 entitled The Psychosis of Whiteness. He previously caused controversy with his claim that 'the British Empire was worse than the Nazis' because it lasted longer and killed more people. His latest book is Nobody Can Give You Freedom, a biography of Malcolm X. In it, he describes himself as 'a recovering academic' who had graduated with 'the Whitest psychology degree in human history at the University of Bath'. He writes: '[I] bear the title of 'professor', which I view in a similar way to that of 'chief constable'. I've been trained in the ways of Whiteness and sold my soul to the academic industrial complex to reach where I am today.' Elsewhere at the literary festival, historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton discussed the power of social media as an alternative to academia. Loxton has amassed more than two million followers on TikTok and Instagram, where she shares short videos about historical locations. She has written a book, Eighteen, about the lives of famous figures as they approached adulthood, from the Venerable Bede to Vivienne Westwood. Loxton, 29, has a history degree and worked for History Hit, Dan Snow's podcasting and documentary channel before becoming a social media star. She admitted that she is a communicator rather than an expert, and said all the chapters in her book were fact-checked by Oxford professors. She said: 'Today it's probably more useful to have a social media account than it is to have a PhD if you want to be published. What does that say about the publishing industry? That is up for debate.'
Engadget
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Video Games Weekly: Grand Theft Auto is no friend to the queer community
Welcome to the initial installment of Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday (yes, we realize today is Tuesday), broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays, observations and ramblings about video game trends and related topics from me, a reporter who's covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from the past week that you need to know about, including some headlines from outside of Engadget. Please enjoy — and I'll see you next week. I've noticed a growing sentiment in some of my favorite queer gaming forums regarding Grand Theft Auto VI , and it's both making me laugh and causing me deep anxiety about the malleable nature of our shared reality. When the second trailer for GTA VI dropped on May 6, one of its protagonists, Jason, became an instant sex symbol among the gays, and the thirsty memes started rolling in. This was light-hearted and fun, but at the same time, the alt-right gaming crowd was freaking out about Jason being too gay — even though, canonically, he's clearly a straight dude. Queer players accused the neo-Nazis of projection, and the memes exalting Jason as a gay icon ramped up, until, somewhere along the way, it stopped being a joke. I started to see earnest comments suggesting the GTA franchise was a bastion of inclusion and an outspoken friend to the LGBT+ community. I saw queer players talk about GTA VI as if it were going to be a warm and welcoming space, something made for us. And I oop — that is some serious grand theft gaslighting, friends. I'm not here to burst any bubbles, and I sincerely hope that GTA VI presents well-rounded, diverse characters with thoughtful storylines. However, when it comes to queer issues, that's just not what the series does. GTA has a history of perpetuating harmful stereotypes about transgender people in particular, and GTA V specifically provided a platform for players to enact violence against trans characters. I covered this topic in-depth in 2020, and at the time I spoke with Dr. Ben Colliver, a lecturer in criminology at Birmingham City University and the author of ' Representation of LGBTQ Communities in the Grand Theft Auto Series .' Violence against trans people in the United States has long been recognized as an epidemic, and in 2025, the situation is worse than ever — lawmakers are legalizing transphobia and shutting down access to gender-affirming care, using trans lives as a political football. It's a bad time for the LGBT+ community to have false friends, which is one reason I cringe when I see people rewriting the history of GTA. Ugly stereotypes and targeted violence are part of GTA's DNA, so the common argument here is that, actually , the series punches in all directions and that means it isn't discriminatory. But, this take doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Dr. Colliver's analysis found that straight, cis men in GTA games remain largely unscathed, and characters who represent oppressed groups are often the ones used as punchlines. 'Largely it is LGBT people, sex workers and women who are portrayed in a bad way,' Dr. Colliver said in 2020. 'Typically, men in the game conform to almost these traditional masculine stereotypes that we expect of men around violence and aggression.' The only subject that GTA really takes seriously is masculinity, and even then it approaches the topic from a basic lens. GTA presents mainstream straight-male power fantasies with a Michael Bay flair and a teenage sense of edginess, and GTA VI looks to be more of the same. That's even with the inclusion of a female protagonist — Lucia, who is very much involved with Jason, who is actually straight-coded despite appealing massively to gay men, which I believe was a total accident on Rockstar's part. (And because I can hear your screams from here: Yes, The Ballad of Gay Tony exists and it's a fine piece of DLC for GTA IV focused on a queer character. The thing is, it came out 16 years ago — before Rockstar built trans violence into GTA V — and even though it was incredibly well-received, the studio has yet to return to its blueprint. I find that fact more telling than anything else.) GTA is a non-subversive franchise built for basic bros, and this fact is only reinforced by the homogeneity of Rockstar Games and the complacency of its parent company, Take-Two Interactive. We don't have data about queer representation at Rockstar, but at Rockstar North in 2024 , women composed less than 12 percent of employees in the highest-paid roles. Across the studio, women's average hourly pay was 43 percent lower than men's. In its annual investor report filed this month, Take-Two removed all references to diversity and inclusion, and deleted any mention of awards the company has received for supporting LGBT+ employees. These moves are intended to appease President Donald Trump, and it's the exact type of spineless, bootlicking behavior that the GTA series is supposed to mock. Personally I love doing crimes and messing with cops, and as it turns out, so do most other video game fans. This mass-appeal ethos has helped make GTA one of the industry's most enduring franchises. Please, just don't bank on GTA VI being progressive or actively inclusive from a queer standpoint. We don't need another reason to be disappointed nowadays. More than that, we can't let the alt-right reality consume our own. The people complaining about Jason being too gay are the same ones claiming that Widow's ass isn't visible enough in her Overwatch 2 Cammy skin — they are unserious people making bad-faith arguments about games as an art form. Do not absorb their messaging and do not engage with their lies. Think critically about their angles of attack and, meanwhile, play all the queer games you want to. One of my personal recent favorites is Sorry We're Closed , if you're looking for a sexy, campy place to start. Avowed director and longtime Obsidian narrative lead Carrie Patel has joined Night School, the studio behind the Oxenfree series, as a game director. This is a big get for Night School and a sign that the team has some stability in its future. Netflix acquired Night School in 2021 , before the launch of Oxenfree 2 and as part of the streaming company's big push into video game development and publishing. Netflix has since closed one internal AAA studio and reduced its third-party output , but it seems Night School is secure and working on something story-heavy, if Patel's involvement tells us anything. Lili made history in May as the first video game to be included in a Cannes Festival competition, and it looks super rad . Lili is a contemporary, neo-noir interpretation of Macbeth, presented in full-motion video and set on the streets of Iran, featuring webs of government corruption and witches who work as hackers. It's a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and iNK Stories, the studio behind the award-winning game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday . Lili is already on the festival circuit but it's still in development, and it's due to be publicly available in or just after late 2025. Bungie only revealed Marathon in April, but the game is already enduring a rocky pre-launch period. First, the studio had to publicly apologize and review all of its Marathon assets after it was confirmed that the game's alpha included stolen artwork . Then, Forbes dropped a report documenting the current tensions at Bungie, saying morale at the studio was in 'free fall' across every department. The most recent rumblings around Marathon , which is due to land in September, are that its marketing plans have been scuttled completely. GeoGuessr will no longer be included in the Esports World Cup after a quick — and clearly effective — community blackout. The most prolific GeoGuessr map creators pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the EWC, calling the tournament 'a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record.' Less than a day after the blackout began, GeoGuessr AB responded by abandoning the event, writing, 'You — our community — have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for. So, when you tell us we've got it wrong we take it seriously.' The FTC was the last remaining voice rallying against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and it's now been silenced for good. The FTC officially dismissed its case against Microsoft after losing its latest appeal earlier this month. In a cute moment of serendipity, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 3.3 million copies in its first 33 days on the market. If you were waiting for a sign to start playing, this might be it. If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
Mint
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
10 years of Serendipity: The arts festival hosts a mini edition in Birmingham
At the Bradshaw Hall—Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, you can see black-and-white photographs of Ustad Zakir Hussain lining the exhibition space. These hail from Dayanita Singh's Zakir Hussain Maquette and form a tribute to the late maestro, who passed away last year. This show also looks at the artist's early engagement with the form of the book and the ways in which she extended it to a handmade maquette 1986 onwards. The exhibition features exquisite candid images of Hussain alongside enlarged pages of handwritten interviews. The Zakir Hussain Maquette is part of a micro edition being organised by the Serendipity Arts Festival in the city of Birmingham, UK, till 26 May. This showcase kickstarts the 10-year anniversary celebration of the interdisciplinary festival, which will unfold across ten cities globally in the course of the year. At Birmingham, music seems to form the core of the micro edition with exhibitions, talks, performances and film screenings offering a nuanced understanding of different forms and styles such as the fado, Jazz from both India and Americas, folk music, ghazals and Hindi film music. Especially interesting is a showcase of Portuguese-Goan music by Zubin Balaporia and Nadia Rebelo, and Thumri in the Chamber, a reimagined presentation of the classical Indian vocal form. 'It invites audiences to experience thumri not only as a musical form, but as a cultural prism—one through which diverse artistic, historical, and social dimensions are refracted and revealed, offering a fresh and immersive perspective on one of Hindustani music's most cherished traditions,' states the curatorial note. This is being reflected through discussions and artistic interventions across the festival. There is also a pop-up library on the history of Indian instruments curated by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Hussain's genius is being celebrated not just through Singh's photographs but through film and interactions as well. According to Smriti Rajgarhia, director, Serendipity Arts Foundation and Festival, Remembering Zakir Hussain is a two-part tribute to the maestro. It includes a special screening of the film, The Speaking Hand, followed by a conversation between director Sumantra Ghosal and Dharmesh Rajput of Birmingham City University, which is the partner for the mini edition. The film traces the rise from the bylanes of Mumbai to global fame. The tribute also includes participatory workshops like the Art of Taal, presenting a confluence of drum and tabla, and Scoring to Picture that delves into the art of composing music for a film. Pop-up exhibitions around the history of Indian music instruments One wonders about the choice of Birmingham to start the milestone celebrations for the festival. According to Rajgarhia, the city represented a confluence of vibrant communities, a dynamic public culture, and a thriving creative ecosystem. 'Birmingham is bustling with annual festivals of jazz, comedy, poetry, film, and literature. It is also home to a notable artistic legacy — from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Royal Shakespeare Company and iconic cultural venues like the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Symphony Hall, to the region's great galleries like the Barber Institute, the Ikon Gallery, and the New Art Gallery Walsall,' she elaborates. Further, the city has come into the pop culture spotlight with shows like Peaky Blinders. This ever-evolving creative landscape made it conducive to host the first mini edition of Serendipity Arts Festival there. She feels that Birmingham, with its large South Asian diasporic community, provides a blueprint for experimentation with the idea of taking the arts across borders. For years now, the annual Serendipity Arts Festival, held across Panjim, has been rooted in the architecture and culture of the city. With every city having its own cultural fabric, how does the team plan to replicate that element going forward this year? 'Now that we kickstart with SAF's Mini Edition in Birmingham, we hope that the community here will respond to a living tapestry of art, music, and cultural narratives that bridge the East to the West,' says Rajgarhia. 'As in Goa, where we activate public spaces with our Festival, in Birmingham too we have iconic venues like the Symphony Hall and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to encourage the public's engagement with art.'
Indian Express
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Serendipity Arts Festival turns 10
Photo artist Dayanita Singh often credits tabla maestro Zakir Hussain as her mentor. She was still a student at the National Institute of Design when she first encountered him. Travelling with him and his peers through the '80s led to her first book, a graduation project, in 1986. Over the years, she photographed him innumerable times, as he became an intrinsic part of her life and art. Now months after he passed away in December 2024, Singh is paying him a tribute in Birmingham. 'Zakir Hussain Maquette' is one of the several highlights of the Serendipity Arts Festival Mini Edition that is on in Birmingham till May 26. The outreach is part of the multidisciplinary festival's tenth anniversary celebrations. Expanding its global outreach, over the next few months, it will travel to 10 cities, including Dubai. Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts Foundation, states, 'As we mark the 10th milestone edition of Serendipity Arts Festival, we see this not just as a moment to celebrate, but as an opportunity to evolve. This edition is a way of looking back at a decade of building one of South Asia's largest multidisciplinary arts festivals while taking it forward in the world, to new regions and audiences… While selecting international locations, we were identifying cities where vibrant communities, dynamic public culture, and thriving creative ecosystems intersect.' Birmingham and Dubai, Rajgarhia notes, became 'natural choices'. 'Birmingham has a rich artistic legacy with iconic cultural venues and a significant history in the performing arts. Added to this is a large South Asian diaspora… Later this year, we plan to travel with a slice of the Festival to Dubai. In the last few years, the burgeoning arts scene in the UAE has attracted art collectors, patrons, local visitors, international tourists and galleries, making it a meaningful choice for us to have a presence there.' Being held at Birmingham City University, the festival also involves its students, who are participating in the workshops and engaging with curators and artists. At the heart of the Mini Edition's programme is 'Thumri in the Chamber', exploring the layered beauty of the semi-classical Hindustani vocal form that embodies poetic storytelling, improvisation and emotional depth. The musical line-up also includes Portuguese-Goan music by Zubin Balaporia and Nadia Rebelo, and ghazals and Bollywood classics by Priyanka Barve and Sarang Kulkarni. A documentary directed by Sumantra Ghosal on Zakir Hussain's musical journey will be screened along with a curated selection of films on Indian music by Dharmesh Rajput. Also on display will be 'Eternal Echoes', archival images of Indian musical instruments from the collection of Sunil Kant Munjal, curated by Helen Acharya, 'highlighting the craftsmanship and cultural legacy of Indian music'. Rajgarhia states, 'The curation for Birmingham was very context-driven. In Goa, we have the luxury of time and scale with 10 days, 20-plus venues and over 150 projects; we're able to build a truly immersive experience that spills into the city. In contrast, the Mini Edition in Birmingham is a more focussed, four-day format, and so the approach had to be precise and layered. We curated projects that reflect the values of SAF — interdisciplinary, experimentation, and accessibility, but also ones that could resonate deeply with local and diasporic audiences.' While Goa will continue to be the flagship edition, the tenth anniversary year will also see select programming in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai. 'We like to explore how the differences in each city, its character, diverse people, artistic collaborations, and eclectic socio-cultural influences shape our festival. Rather than simply touring with the same set of events, each city will have different programmes, some of which have been showcased in the past. They're curated in the context of the location. Some core projects may travel from one city to another, especially those that can adapt across formats. But each edition will also include region-specific collaborations and programming. The goal is not uniformity, but cultural resonance,' adds Rajgarhia.
