Category: Academic
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Representations of Rehabilitation: Experiences of Disability in Africa, 1940-1963
Written by Jack Bennett. Policies towards disability were a central plank of the colonial and postcolonial state. A key factor in the development of policy was exchange between colony and metropole.
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Booze, Brexit and Britannia – Britain’s Gin Crazes
Written by Sophie Whitehead. The long and complex history of gin is often overlooked when discussing Britain’s ‘drink of choice’, a history which still has implications for our understanding of gin today.
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John Polidori: Edinburgh University’s Tragic Romantic and the Influence of The Vampyre
Written by Melissa Kane. A writing competition amongst travel companions in 1816 would birth some of the most influential works of Gothic and Romantic fiction. Among those was Edinburgh alumnus John William Polidori whose short story would give rise to the Vampire literature genre.
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Paul Dirac and the Origins of Quantum Mechanics
Written by Kat Jivkova. Quantum Mechanics is as mystifying as it is precise, able to produce predictions with a high degree of accuracy. But where did some of its ideas originate?
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Plato – A Totalitarian Advocate?
Written by Nikita Nandanwad. Karl Popper’s interpretation of Plato’s Republic as advocating totalitarianism is today considered overly hostile. But this argument was built from textual evidence, so how should we approach the Republic, and how should we understand Popper in his own historical context?
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Israel vs Palestine – Is a Two State Solution Possible?
Written by Laszlo Wheatley. As conflict between Israel and Palestine continues, context proves essential. Where did the tensions originate? How have they developed over the preceding century?
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Loyalty in the American Revolution
Written by Jess Womack. The American Revolution has been typical analysed through the lens of politics and ideology. What changes if we focus on the violence of the revolution?
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Faith and Power: New Religious Movements, Authoritarianism, and Democracy in Modern South Korea
Written by Jack Bennett. New religious movements have surged in South Korea during the late twentieth century. These movements were shaped by the aftermath of the Korean War and US intervention, with churches working with and against the new government.
Retrospect Journal 