This essay briefly surveys the history of the pseudonym, its changing contexts and uses, and draws on Kripke’s theory of baptismal naming to consider some of the implications for understanding the games people play with identity. The paradox of the literary pseudonym, that it takes on a new lease of life once it is revealed, is discussed, and also its function as a … [Read more...] about On Pseudonyms
Apprenticeship a la Mode
The work of Jean Lave has made use of the term ‘apprenticeship’ to characterises how people learn from each other within face to face communities of practice. At the same time the government has introduced a system of ‘modern apprenticeship’ to provide training in many white collar and service occupations, as well as in the traditional skilled manual trades. This text … [Read more...] about Apprenticeship a la Mode
Reading Room Only: Memoir of a Radical Bibliophile
Five Leaves Press Nottingham April 2013 Political activists are popularly supposed to be wild eyed visionaries or ranting dogmatists who spend their time manning real or imaginary barricades. Bibliophiles, in contrast, are expected to be quiet retiring academic types who send their whole lives in … [Read more...] about Reading Room Only: Memoir of a Radical Bibliophile
Tricks of the Trade – Issues in MultiCultural Education
In the 1990’s I ran a series of projects designed to develop a cultural studies based approach to anti-racist education, to get away from the moral, doctrinaire and frankly authoritarian methods and rationalist pedagogies that were then in vogue. In this text I outline the theory and method of an alternative approach, illustrated with examples of the classroom … [Read more...] about Tricks of the Trade – Issues in MultiCultural Education
Its Racism Wot Dunnit – Some Notes on Theory’s Other Scene
This text was written for a course developed for the Open University by Ali Rattansi and James Donald on ‘Race, Culture and Society’ in the 1990’s. The course sought to bring to bear some of the new ‘post structuralist thinking about discourse, power and culture on issues of ethnicity and identity politics that were then dominated by essentialist and reductive concepts … [Read more...] about Its Racism Wot Dunnit – Some Notes on Theory’s Other Scene