It always starts with a lighthouse

How BioShock makes you forget you’re playing a game (2K Games)

Review
Rebecca de Jongh
6 minutes to read
13/10/2023

BioShock's narrative and clever game design fully immerse you into its story. You forget you are playing a game until suddenly the game makes you painfully aware you were never truly in control...

BioShock's narrative and clever game design fully immerse you into its story. You forget you are playing a game until suddenly the game makes you painfully aware you were never truly in control...

Hindi Medium, review

Hindi Medium: Everyone has a different starting line from birth (Saket Chaudhary)

Review
Yan Shen
03/02/2021
6 minutes to read

The Indian film "Hindi Medium" is a typical realist film in which topics such as education issues, social class issues, rich and poor issues in India are discussed. If you want to get a glimpse of these, this film would be a good starting point.

Glee ( Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan)

Review
Luna-Anastasia Riedel
27/01/2021
7 minutes to read

Glee is an American musical-comedy television drama with a typical American high school setting and deals with a group of diverse teenagers who all connect through being in the school’s show choir. 

Doctor Who Female Doctor Series 11

Doctor Who: Is there a female Doctor just to lure in young fans? (Chris Chibnall)

Review
Ananya Sen
20/01/2021
10 minutes to read

This review of the Thirteenth Doctor in Doctor Who discusses gender representation and its relation to fandom, and whether the move to cast a female Doctor was indeed a step in the right direction. 

human minds and animal stories review gorilla animal narratives attitudes towards animals

Human Minds and Animal Stories, or How Narratives Shape Attitudes (Malecki, Sorokowski, Pawlowski, Cienski)

Review
Luiza Dubicka
07/12/2020
12 minutes to read

Human Minds and Animal Stories takes a look at how stories can change human attitudes towards other species. A change in attitudes can lead to change in our current practices involving animals. Can an academic publication reach a broader audience?

Going Dark, extrimism, ebner

Going dark: The secret social lives of extremists (Julia Ebner)

Review
Ico Maly
29/10/2020
6 minutes to read

Going Dark:The secret social lives of extremists is a well structured introduction to the global far right, and succeeds in bringing academic research to a broad audience.

Lady Bird and the Celebration of Womanhood (Greta Gerwig)

Review
Lola Vos
28/10/2020
7 minutes to read

Greta Gerwig's 2017 film Lady Bird is a celebration of femininity and its strongest point is the message it sends. The film signifies an important breakthrough in male-dominated Hollywood.

Chernobyl

Why Voices from Chernobyl is a must-read you will never forget (Svetlana Alexievich)

Review
Nataliia Vdovychenko
16/02/2020
14 minutes to read

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is one of the most tragic events in European history. Nobel prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich covers the event in her book Voices from Chernobyl giving voice to multiple victims' perspectives through interviews.

Julian Barnes’ The Man in the Red Coat: Celebrity Culture in the Belle Epoque (Julian Barnes)

Review
Odile Heynders
09/04/2020
8 minutes to read

In his latest novel, Julian Barnes combines biography, art history and cultural analysis in a hybrid form of fact and fiction. The Man in the Red Coat shows that there is much real life in literature and much fiction in reality.

Freedom Writers: A Story of a Mini Holocaust (Richard LaGravenese)

Review
Mariosé Bergsteijn
24/10/2018
5 minutes to read

"How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them". A review on problems of poverty and ethnic diversity in the classroom.

Thomas Piketty

Capital et idéologie (Thomas Piketty)

Review
Jan Blommaert
26/02/2020
8 minutes to read

In dit nieuwe monumentale werk gaat Thomas Piketty op zoek naar de ideologische structuren van het hedendaagse hyperkapitalisme.

antonion gramsci

Alle mensen zijn intellectuelen. Van Gramsci naar Breitbart (Antonio Gramsci, Arthur Weststeijn)

Review
Jan Blommaert
28/12/2019
14 minutes to read

De Nederlandstalige uitgave van fragmenten uit Gramscis notities is extreem relevant voor het begrijpen van hedendaagse politiek.

kapitalisme, capitalism,

Kapitalisme bespreekbaar gemaakt (Vivek Chibber)

Review
Jan Blommaert
06/06/2019
9 minutes to read

Vivek Chibber biedt de beginner een uitstekende en vlot leesbare inleiding op het kapitalisme, met enkele doordenkertjes.