Deanne Williams. Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Performance and Pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury, 2023.

This review considers Deanne Williams\u27s Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Performance and Pedagogy.

Heidi Craig. Theatre Closure and the Paradoxical Rise of English Renaissance Drama in the Civil Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

This review considers Heidi Craig\u27s Theatre Closure and the Paradoxical Rise of English Renaissance Drama in the Civil Wars

Evaluating the transformative potential of using energy as a community currency: Perspectives and propositions for a rationale evaluative framework

This article examines the utilization of energy as a community currency, elucidating a structured framework designed to address energy accessibility, energy efficiency, the need for a cleaner energy mix, the inherent dichotomy between economy and ecology, socio-economic inequality, poverty alleviation, alternative mechanisms for climate financing, and the establishment of inclusive pathways for wealth generation. This article advances an evaluative framework for assessing the merits of employing energy as a community currency compared to conventional climate financing options and community electrification initiatives. It positions energy as a community currency from the perspectives of the prevailing fractional banking systems, alternative currencies, climate finance options, and conventional community electrification programs

Wittgenstein’s Case for the Fool: Existence in the Mind Is a Mentalist Assumption in Anselm’s Epistemological Argument in Proslogion, 2

In Proslogion, Anselm claims that understanding God as “something beyond which a greater nothing can be thought” refers to God’s existence in the mind and facilitates our understanding of God existing also in reality. The argument is epistemological and not ontological since its conclusion is our understanding of God’s existence, not a proof or demonstration that God exists. However, I argue that Anselm’s notion of existence in the mind invokes mentalism, a claim that meaning is housed in the mind and semantic rules are contained within linguistic expression itself. Wittgenstein argued that mentalism is a mistaken conflation of linguistic understanding with ostensive reference to one’s private sensations. Instead, all linguistic understanding depends on the public use of rules operating within a specific semantic context. If mentalism is false, then the concept of existence in the mind alone is a shallow metaphysical idea, rendering the rest of the argument invalid

Laurie Johnson. Leicester’s Men and Their Plays: An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and Its Legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

This review considers Laurie Johnson\u27s Leicester’s Men and Their Plays: An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and Its Legacy

Kaye McLelland. Violent Liminalities in Early Modern Culture: Inhabiting Contested Thresholds. New York: Routledge, 2023.

This review considers Kaye McLelland\u27s Violent Liminalities in Early Modern Culture: Inhabiting Contested Thresholds

Slowly climbing a slippery slope: Trade unions at COP

This piece is a reflection on the role of the trade union movement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, including its annual Conference of the Parties (COP). I write it as someone who has been engaging in COPs as part of the global trade union delegation for the past four years. And it’s important to stress: for the labour movement, climate action is not reducible to the UNFCCC. Whatever trade unions decide to do or not do inside the COP process, there is an enormous need for climate activism in a range of other spaces, from the workplace to national politics. That being said, I will argue that trade unions should continue to engage in COPs, as it is a key forum where the new climate economy is being shaped. Although I recognise the many failings and structural weaknesses of the COP process, with Brazil taking up the COP30 Presidency this year, this would be a bad time to withdraw from it

From “faculty-student” to “student-student” partnerships: Exploring student-initiated inter-institutional virtual service learning in Asia

This research moves beyond the conventional students-as-partners discourse to explore student-student partnership practices in higher education, addressing research gaps regarding such partnerships in inter-institutional and non-Western contexts. Through a qualitative study of a student-initiated virtual service-learning project which involved student partners from two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong and Singapore, the research unveils novel conceptualizations of student partners as professional co-explorers and challenges prevailing negative perceptions of learners in Asian higher education institutions, a population that the literature has tended to characterize through stereotypical views of Confucianism. The findings emphasize possibilities for student-student partnerships to enhance agency and promote positive ripple effects in subsequent student-student and faculty-student partnerships. These benefits emerge through co-development in the perceived safer and egalitarian partnership learning community fostered between students. The study calls for restructuring partnership language formalizing integration of student-student partnerships into institutional practices. This research sets the stage for future studies on student-student partnerships in diverse contexts

"Students are part of our team and they’re part of our workforce": The role of student partnerships in collaborative physiotherapy practice-based education

Developing collaborative educational spaces is vital for students to be active participants within their own learning; however, there is limited research on the impact of constraints and cultures in developing active partnerships with students in healthcare settings. This paper reports on selected findings from an overarching mixed-methods study exploring UK physiotherapy practice educators’ experiences. The aim of the study was to explore practice educators’ perceptions and experiences of supporting students and considerations for future developments. An initial survey generated themes for unstructured focus groups. Fifteen practice educators participated in the focus groups. Three themes were identified around developing student partnerships: staff values in practice education, the importance of integrating students into teams,  and learning from students. Partnership working and collaboration within the practice environment provides a space for mutual growth for educators and students. Partnership can facilitate successful outcomes for both staff and students through a reciprocal learning experience