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Alain Badiou's book, Being and Event, which was published in French in 1988, has finally been published in English. His philosophy is shaking the foundations of Western liberal democracy.

Intellectuals from all spheres of life in France have launched a campaign against the government in an attempt to expose the government's over-all strategy to regulate and commercialise intellectual thought. The dispute between intellectuals and the government began in summer 2003, when the government changed regulations regarding the level of support offered to working or unemployed actors. The dispute expanded on 18 February 2004 when music and politics magazine Les Inrockuptibles published a petition denouncing the government's war against intelligence. In just two weeks the petition attracted over 70,000 signatories.

The victims of the World Trade Center collapse were mourned both by the futile search for bodies at the Ground Zero and by the individual profiles of victims printed in the New York Times. The act of desperation and the act of remembering are both central themes in human tragedy.

Writer, Eva Hoffman, has powerful views on exile and atrocity and she gave a lecture at Oxford university on behalf of Amnesty International.

The decline in the use of the Afrikaans language for teaching in South African universities is examined, with focus on the association of the language with the system of apartheid that used to operate in South Africa.

South African writer Andre Brink feels that his novel, The Rights Of Desire, which will be published in August 2000 portrays present day South Africa. Tensions still exist as whites suffer guilt and blacks feel disloyal if they accept whites' help.

Biographer Fred Kaplan admits he was asked by Novelist Gore Vidal to write his biography although his past works had been biographies of dead writers. Kaplan was able to spend some time with Vidal and his companion Howard Austin. He also was able to meet number of famous people who knew Vidal. Kaplan did face some opposition when he tried to talk about homosexuality with Vidal. Kaplan also faced legal difficulties when he refused to show Vidal the book before publication. But once the problem was resolved Vidal became friendly once more.

Oxford University Lecturer in Ancient Greek Literature Edith Hall and Classicist Oliver Taplin have been working on creating an archive of Greek and Roman drama performances. The aims of setting up the archive are to create a history of classical performance and as a resource for the increasing number of students who are studying performance history. The Open University is also carrying out research into the reception of Greek texts. Hall points out the staging of classical production is often linked to the social history of the period.

Philosopher Slavoj Zizek's studies are mainly focused on three areas, popular cultures, German idealist philosophy and the mechanics of politics. He is a well known philosopher particularly in the US but his ideas are not always taken seriously because of the way they are presented. Zizek lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he retains a post as a senior researcher of social sciences. His attempt to become president in 1990 failed. He has written 12 books and is due to publish 'The Ticklish Subject' in 1999. Zizek enjoys making outrageous observations and being involved in politics.

Australian Academic and Feminist Dale Spender expresses her concern how universities are not adapting to meet the new technologies or are using them in a halfhearted fashion. She is very supportive of writers using the Internet and has worked on creating a interactive course for teachers. Spender suggests conflict between the sexes has been overtaken by conflict between the generations, as the young become more knowledgeable than their elders. Her book 'Man Made Language' is being republished. It was written in the 1970s and tackles how women's use of language is criticised by men.

Rowlett Research Institute Director Philip James has emphasized the need for the UK independent food agency to be responsible for standards in food and food safety issues. James was asked to draw up ideas for a new food agency by the Labour Government. He anticipates the Food Standards Agency will be in action by Summer 1999. Some 500 employees are expected to transfer to the new agency. James hopes it will be accountable to the public and to parliamentary scrutiny. There is some concern the agency will be compromised if industry is expected to pay for its running costs through a levy.

Berkeley California Professor of Rhetoric and Author Judith Butler questioned the work of feminist activists who supported using the law to stop pornography and the use of language hurtful to women. Butler suggests by using the law the problem will only be suppressed and not solved. Butler also challenged the idea of fixed genders, in her book 'Gender Trouble,' published in 1990. Her book was seen as a challenge to the ideas of feminists who believed in the biological determination of gender. Butler sees the use of language as a very important method of political subversion.

Peter Holland is delighted with his new appointment as director of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, England. Holland's research into Shakespeare has always focussed on performance, so the Institute's connection with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford is a bonus. Experts from both the traditionalist and new historicist branches of Shakespearean studies are united in their appreciation of Holland's approach, and believe that he will revitalize the Shakespeare Institute and Shakespearean studies in the UK.

The opening of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Southwark, London, England, has created a new battleground for Shakespearian scholars at a time when the one-time 'enfant terrible' of Shakespeare studies, Terence Hawkes, has become part of the establishment. Hawkes' Marxist ideas are now taken for granted although he takes heart from his clashes with literary critic James Wood which he believes demonstrate that there is still an ideological battle to be fought over Shakespeare. Furthermore, academics who share Hawkes' ideas on Shakespeare do not necessarily share his reservations about the Globe project.

An interview with Margaret Cox, founder of the International Forensic Centre of Excellence for the Investigation of Genocide (Inforce). Inforce, which is based at Bournemouth University, brings together experts from fields such as forensic science, archaeology and anthropology to investigate mass graves according to the highest professional standards.

Historian Paul Cartledge has grown to admire the structure of Spartan society after first being drawn to study their society as an example of social exploitation. He believes that their militaristic society should not be judged by the values of another society.

Bernard Wallace, one of the leading philosophers in the UK, discusses his career and the nature of truth in the light of the launch of his latest book, 'Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy'. Williams believes that truth is not transcendent or based on an idea of God or absolute morality or divine truth, but he also believes that truth is not a relative matter either, and he contends that we only value truth when we are in danger of losing it.

James Tooley, a professor of education policy at Newscastle University believes that the policy of encourgaging women to attain the same education as men has left men feeling unneeded and women anxious. He believes that young women should be encouraged to look forward to being mothers and housewives.

This article discusses the allure and availability of affordable housing available in Paris, France.

The attraction of an archaeological dig at El-Ahwat in Israel is investigated. Through imagination, curiosity and knowledge an archaeologist is able to reconstruct stories from the past from a pile of rocks.

The works of William Shakespeare should no longer be the subject of a compulsory exam at Cambridge University, UK, but should be combined with the works of other authors of the Renaissance.

Oxford University, Oxford, England, Thomas Warton Professor of English Terry Eagleton has increasingly become more interested in Ireland and since 1996 has lived in Dublin. Some observers of Eagleton's books have suggested he has a romantic view of the Irish people. He was known for his works on Marxist criticism before writing the first of three books on Ireland in 1995. The third book 'Scholars and Rebels' is due to be published in Nov 1999. Eagleton is hopeful there will be peace in Northern Ireland. He sat on the Labour Committee on Ireland. Eagleton's grandparents came from Ireland.

Princeton University Ethics Professor Peter Singer suggests his views have not be changed by the protestors outside his building. Singer had suggested disabled babies should be killed at birth to save them from lifelong suffering. He has received death threats because of his views since he moved to the US from Australia. Yet he insists he will not hide away. He admits to finding the controversy his ideas have raised quite stimulating. Singer contributes some 20% of his yearly income to charity, as part of his concern about the differences in wealth between the rich and poor nations.

A representative of the Society of Poets has suggested the copyright laws in the UK can be used as a type of censorship. University of Massachusetts Former Professor of History Eric Robinson owns the copyright to the work of the Poet John Clare, who died in 1864. He has objected to the publication of a book of Clare's poetry by a PHD Student Simon Kovesi. The case may be settled in the courts. Some observers are concerned the ownership of copyright by a single person gives them too much control. Robinson purchased the copyright for John Clare's work for one pound sterling in 1964.

Postcolonial critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak argues that professor of English literature at Oxford University Terry Eagleton was quoting her out of context when he criticised the language of her new book 'A Critique of Postcolonial Reason' as pretentious and opaque. Spivak, an academic at Columbia University, New York, rejects Eagleton's charge that she is abandoning activist politics. Spivak is however reluctant to talk about the way in which she spends each summer helping to train people in the most inaccessible parts of India to teach reading and writing.

Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe lives in the US where he is a professor of literature at Bard College but he explains that Nigeria still feels like home and he dreams of it every day. Achebe left Nigeria for the UK in 1990 because the country's hospitals were unable to deal with the terrible injuries he had sustained in a car accident. He moved to the US six months later, expecting to stay only briefly while he convalesced. He stayed in the US because of the deteriorating political situation in Nigeria but has found it difficult to write when living so far away from Africa.

University of Chicago humanities professor, Homi Bhaba, argues that recognizing that another culture has rights is no simple issue, and can involve dealing with the culture as a group, obscuring differences within the culture. He is interested in processes that occur when cultures meet, a process of hybridization, which involves negotiations of power and the emergence of knowledge. He sees hybridity as ambivalent and causing anxiety, and involving a drive to create an identity and feeling of agency.

Racism in British universities can be tackled in several ways, such as by researching the level of institutional racism and by looking at how lecturers and students from ethnic minorities have found university life. The interviewing system must be changed to abolish racial stereotyping by interviewers. All staff involved in recruitment to universities must be retrained. Some universities have been found to show a high level of racism in their admission systems. Most universities fail to recognize they endorse racism. Yet out of 8,478 professors only 120 are black.

Actress Diana Rigg, the new Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Theatre at Oxford University, UK, aims to use her appointment to forge closer links between academic theatre studies and dramatic performance. Rigg has been highly acclaimed for several classical theatre roles, although she is most widely remember for her glamourous role in the television series The Avengers. The professorship appointment will last one year and Rigg is likely to bring a refreshing change to academic life within the college.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Director and Feminist Writer Luce Irigaray puzzles other feminists who fail to comprehend her ideas as she writes both metaphorically and literally. Irigaray has also faced opposition from feminists because of her attitude to homosexuals whom she suggests miss out on deeper mystical love. Physicist Alan Sokal has been very critical of Irigaray. Irigaray was sacked from the University of Paris in 1974, after her controversial views on Freudian psychoanalysis were published. She believes women should want to be seen as different to men.

The relevance of the Elizabethan Dramatist William Shakespeare's plays is being questioned by people in third world countries. Some fundamentalists suggest Shakespeare should be replaced by native dramatists. They see Shakespeare as representing past colonialist oppression. Author Ania Loomba in her book 'Pot-Colonial Shakespeare', which she edited with Martin Orkin, suggests Shakespeare's plays contains references to more than one culture. She notes conditions found in modern India are often reflected in the plays, such as arranged marriages.

Author Ariel Dorfman regards himself as the embodiment of the current interest in globalization and hybridization. He was born in Argentina, brought up until the age of 12 in New York, NY, expelled to Chile and then sent into exile from Chile in 1973. He welcomes the fact that everybody is now living in a double world, but believes that he tends to be intellectually abstract about these developments. His best-known works, 'Death and the Maiden' and 'Widows,' are dominated by the compulsion to narrate the horrors of totalitarian regimes.

The suburban appearance and some of the interests of Elaine Showalter seem at odds with her reputation as a leading feminist in America. Showalter is credited with virtually inventing feminist criticism, and has made women writers both visible and accepted. Showalter also invented the phrase 'gynocriticism' in a bid to make the female tradition of writing acceptable to male critics by using pseudo-scientific terms to describe it. However, Showalter refuses to be stereotyped or pigeon-holed, and she has also studied and written about psychological illnesses.