Lactating creatures with double genitals and the head of a cow

In 1554 the renowned naturalist Guillaume Rondelet described mysterious New World "whales" with some intriguing qualities. They were mammals, could be trained like a dog, and had not one, but two full sets of genitals. Which animals were these?

Sophia Hendrikx • August 24, 2017

Trust me, I’m an expert! What AirBNB and Academia have in common

With the summer holidays approaching, you'll probably feel more like browsing AirBNB than like analysing academia. Well, what luck: in this post, you can do both!

Fleur Praal • July 17, 2017

Medieval Women as Terrorists?

What connects medieval women to current discussion on violence and religion? This post looks into the projection of political ideas on historical figures.

Lieke Smits • July 06, 2017 • 2 comments

An American Dream

Looi van Kessel has just returned from a six-month research stay in the USA and talks about the value of conducting research abroad.

Looi van Kessel • June 29, 2017 • 1 comment

Ancient and Modern Metafables

Fable collections which are intended to be read from cover to cover may begin with a metafable - a fable about the collection as a whole. This blog discusses several metafables.

Gert-Jan van Dijk • June 28, 2017

Forgetting Cicero

Is it possible to control the way you are remembered by posterity? What the politician and writer Cicero can teach us about processes of commemoration and canonization (an introduction).

Leanne Jansen • June 15, 2017

Gothic Metal and the Western Imagination of Having a Voice

We hear it so often: “people’s voice,” “someone voices out about something.” What if we don’t really have a voice of self, but many voices of split-selves?

Kai-wen Chiu • June 08, 2017

If French Politicians Were More Pop...

After several months of presidential campaign, and Emmanuel Macron's election, the most interesting element of this campaign could be the numerous analogies inspired by the disastrous French political landscape, reminding us of its old fable tradition.

Céline Zaepffel • June 01, 2017

Facial Archaeology II

You are your face. You may not have committed crimes. But your face can be used against you. Starting in July 2015, Middle Eastern refugees began crossing into Hungary. By September, news outlets were full of images of people attempting to enter the EU.

Eszter Polonyi • May 18, 2017