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JOANNA BOURKE

Blogs
Here are my latest blogs! Enjoy.


Eric Hobsbawm (with a nod to poetic genius Adrienne Rich!)
What do we get when we lend our ears to Eric Hobsbawm? Passion. Energy. Exhilarating sweeps of time; giddy swoops into political darkness...
Feb 10, 20246 min read
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The Humanities: La Fontaine's Cat, Kafka's Ape, and the Human
What does it mean to be human? We inhabit a world that is commonly, and lazily, dubbed ‘post-human’. Indeed, in recent decades, an anti...
Feb 6, 202413 min read
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Marianne Elliott: Inspirations Series
Marianne Elliott is one of the greatest living historians of Ireland, with books that have changed the way we think about revolution and...
Feb 6, 20246 min read
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Mechanics' Institutes: What? Why? Where?
When Birkbeck was established in 1823, it was called the London Mechanics’ Institution. It was one of the first ‘mechanics’ institutes’...
Feb 6, 202414 min read
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Athens: A Guide to the City
It is impossible not to be charmed by Athens. At night, bouzouki music wells up from dark basements; tables spill out of ouzeris, around...
Feb 5, 20243 min read
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What is a University? Birkbeck College
Walking into the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution (as it was then called) in the 1890s could be a dispiriting experience....
Feb 5, 20244 min read
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bell hooks (on her death): Inspirations Series
bell hooks has been an enduring presence in my life. I first read her 1981 classic Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism as an...
Jan 10, 20241 min read
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