Humanities

Simon Barton is disappointed by a lopsided, broad-brush tale of Dark Ages Muslim-Christian clashes

Erotic fiction is not just for entertainment, it can also serve as a study of female sexuality, believes Mitzi Szereto

The ban on performance-boosting substances in sport is a self-satisfied nonsense, argues historian Geoffrey Alderman in a fortnightly series allowing academics to step outside their area of expertise

Lancaster and Manchester move to give students more time with tutors, writes Rebecca Attwood

Edinburgh and Cambridge universities to set up Muslim research centres. Olga Wojtas reports

Ian Patterson wishes a study built around writers' day-to-day concerns wasn't quite so workaday

What price victory? Huw Dixon weighs the odds

The emphasis on learning outcomes and benchmarks in the context of English literature is little more than a straitjacket that stifles the originality and creativity of both author and student critic, argues Derek Attridge

Torture cannot be justified, says Philippe Sands, an academic and barrister who has traced how the US came to sanction the practice after 9/11. It doesn't work and it costs us dearly, he tells Matthew Reisz

University defends embassy's A$100,000 donation to Islamic research unit. John Gill reports

Chief executive Philip Esler to advise a refocusing on collaborative research. Zoe Corbyn reports

New AHRC deputy is keen to avoid past errors and to engage scholars in planning ahead, says Zoe Corbyn

Christopher Eyre on an attempt to enliven a history of the pharaonic era with an ordinary girl's life story

What is it about crime and universities? As the film of The Oxford Murders premieres, Matthew Reisz probes a world of professor-sleuths, philosophical riddles and the academics who are hooked on them

If we want to find the significance of bluestones to Neolithic society, the Stonehenge diggers should look up, not down, says Lionel Sims

The author speaks of product placement, 'role model' Katie Price and feminism. Melanie Newman reports

Catherine Belsey writes on the futility of war

A review of euthanasia and end-of-life issues may help to spur legislative change, says Julie Stone

A thinker who had no truck with biography is well served by this moving portrait, says Chris Thornhill

June Purvis on the mother of all resources

Academics aren't trained for it and often can't cope with it, yet many find themselves counselling students at risk of emotional breakdown and even suicide. Esther Oxford talks to lecturers who have been affected

Funding changes rescheduled to give more time to pilot new metrics-based system, writes Zoe Corbyn

Simon Blackburn revels in a trawl through our rich and varied tradition of ad hominem attacks

Tom Palaima on a long, bloody clash of cultures