Category Archives: inspiration

Thinking outside the basin

Posted on June 21, 2018 by jedstevenson

This week I had the honour of delivering a keynote at the first International Conference of Water Security in Toronto. The conference, which also launched a new journal devoted to the topic, brought together 150 people from hydrology, engineering, and … Continue reading →

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Books of 2017

Posted on January 22, 2018 by jedstevenson

The books I’ve read this year ask some big questions: How can we understand cultural diversity? How do classic works of social science come into being? What makes humans care for and do violence to each other? The issues fall … Continue reading →

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A tribute to Clive Hart

Posted on September 4, 2016 by jedstevenson

What sense can we make of a life? Granted, there may not be any single meaning. But is it possible we might find something robust to hold on to? Perhaps a family of meanings? These questions grip me as I … Continue reading →

Posted in art, books, inspiration, UK | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Spring mixtape

Posted on April 19, 2016 by jedstevenson

My stock-in-trade is ideas (mostly other people’s). As reflected in the book lists I’ve posted the past few years, many of them come from reading. But books aren’t the only place I find inspiration. Art and film are important too … Continue reading →

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Books of 2015

Posted on March 27, 2016 by jedstevenson

It’s taken me until Easter to get my stuff together. Here in any case are some of the books that made an impression on me this past year. A room of one’s own, by Virginia Woolf A beautifully written feminist … Continue reading →

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Top ten books of 2013

Posted on January 1, 2014 by jedstevenson

These are the books that marked the year for me.* Each resonated in one way or another with things I’ve learned as a researcher in Ethiopia and Congo, and as a dad.   1. The landgrabbers: The new fight over … Continue reading →

Posted in anthropology, climate, education, environmental science, evolution, food, health, inspiration, medicine, politics | 2 Comments

About this blog

Posted on December 3, 2012 by jedstevenson

“THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE is not without its uses,” wrote Nicholas Humphrey in his book, A History of the Mind (1992: xv). (“While it would have been wrong to call this book ‘The History of the Mind’,” he went on, “I … Continue reading →

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