B.J. Epstein

Last week, there was an academic conference at the University of St Andrews dedicated to the Harry Potter series of books. Over 50 academics gathered to discuss J.K. Rowling's books, and apparently this caused quite a stir among people who think that children's literature is not worthy of study.

Not long ago, I was startled to read a very negative view of feminists in an interview with hot English girl-group of the minute, Stooshe. I'd never heard of them before, but I'd picked up the latest issue of DIVA magazine and was skimming it when I saw that the...

A recent news story has been about the actor Anna Paquin, who has said that despite being married to a man and pregnant with his child, she still identifies as bisexual and will not deny her sexuality or her attraction to women. She has been praised for her commitment to...

WARNING: This blog contains adult content

Of late, there have been a number of news stories about anal sex and in particular how it is becoming more common. You might wonder how private sexual acts are newsworthy, but there are a few reasons here.

One is the rather...

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in the United States, so even though this day was commemorated in the UK on 27 January, it is worth pausing a moment to think about World War II. In particular, I am interested in how children are taught about it.

Much of the research...

Warning, this blog contains language which some may find offensive.

"I looked like a twat."

On Graham Norton's TV show this past weekend, he interviewed actor Ewan McGregor. McGregor was talking about his most recent film role and the outfits he wore early in the film....

There's a group of people you don't understand. Maybe they have different views from you, or they dress differently, or eat different foods. Maybe they live in another part of the world or have different religious beliefs. Maybe you suspect that you wouldn't like them or that they are somehow...

One of the big news stories this week has been the Swansea University undergraduate who was jailed after sending racist tweets.

Liam Stacey showed extremely poor judgement when he tweeted offensive and thoughtless statements shortly after footballer Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the field, and the situation quickly escalated when...

In my last article, I challenged you to read translated literature. Whether you choose a crime novel, a collection of poetry, a play, a classic, or something else altogether doesn't matter; just read a translation.

But some people feel confused about what reading a translation entails. Should we read a...

Can you imagine literature without Leo Tolstoy, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Wislawa Szymborska, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Rainer Maria Rilke, or Kenzaburo Oe?

Can you imagine our understanding of World War II without Anne Frank or Primo Levi or Elie Wiesel?

Can you imagine Western culture without the...

These days, more LGBTQ people are having children, and there are more tools at their disposal to help them do it. From more flexible adoption laws to helpful surrogates, from fertility clinics that simply welcome LGBTQ people to fertility clinics that are in fact gay-only (such as Birmingham's Gay Family...

Homophobia in sports has been in the news quite a bit lately. Several sports players have been fined in recent months for making homophobic comments or posting homophobic tweets on Twitter, leading some players and others involved in sports to wonder why there are so few openly gay athletes and...

Young people are coming out as transgender ever earlier, which often means that they want medical treatment at younger ages. This is a thought that worries and bewilders some adults, in part because they do not believe that children can really know who they are or what they want but...

The recent news that the adult entertainment industry in Los Angeles is now requiring actors to use condoms is definitely a step in the right direction. Not only will this protect the actors themselves from the potential transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, but it will also serve to...

Within the next few months, the UK government is going to hold a consultation about civil marriage for same-sex couples and, later this year, a new US president will be elected, which may end up changing the laws for same-sex marriage in that country.

At the moment, the US...