Even as a child, poet and writer Nilofar Shidmehr was always sensitive to the suffering of others.

“When I was in elementary school, a student from a well-off family brought in these really nice cherries to eat at the break,” recalls Shidmehr, who grew up in Iran. “There was another student who just looked at those cherries – her family could not afford them. It was engrained in my mind, the look in that girl’s eyes.”

A new guide is making it easier for McMaster faculty and instructors to find free, high-quality open textbooks and other educational materials across a range of disciplines.

The OER by Discipline Guide, developed by McMaster University Library in partnership with the MacPherson Institute, includes a list of 180 open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER) organized by academic program at McMaster.

A trench map from McMaster University Library’s extensive World War One map collection is playing a supporting role in one of this year’s most acclaimed films.

The map, which depicts a network of trenches in Northern France between Arras and Cambrai, is part of the set design in the film 1917, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth.

“Equality is not about men, it’s also not about women; it’s about providing a nurturing environment where people of diverse traits can maximize their potential.”

That was the message from Rita Orji, an assistant professor of computer science at Dalhousie University, a trailblazer in advocating for gender equality in her field, and the keynote speaker at a recent symposium aimed at celebrating and supporting women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Throughout the first and second world wars, propaganda became a powerful tool of the state, considered by governments of all nations to be an essential weapon of war, every bit as critical as artillery, guns, or tanks.

Vast amounts of money and effort were spent on domestic and international campaigns designed to stir patriotism, shape public opinion, vilify or demoralize the enemy, or give hope to those living in occupied territories.

In 1910, Cambridge University Press published the first volume of Principia Mathematica, a three-volume work by renowned logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, and philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead.

It was a work of epic proportions, one that attempted to address a question that had vexed philosophers and mathematicians since the time of Aristotle: what are the foundations of mathematics and are they rooted in logic?

She’s been called the “queen of Jamaican culture,” and is considered a national hero by many in the Jamaican diaspora.

For more than 50 years, poet, actress, musician and linguist, Louise Bennett-Coverley, affectionately known as “Miss Lou,” entertained audiences through her television and radio programs, using performance and humour to deliver poignant social commentary, and to share her country’s distinct cultural heritage and patios language with the world.

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Acclaimed philosopher and researcher, Nicholas Griffin, has been named McMaster University Library’s new Scholar in Residence.

Griffin, a former Canada Research Chair in Philosophy, professor emeritus, and long-time director of the Bertrand Russell Research Centre, assumed the honorary, five-year position in August following his retirement from McMaster’s Department of Philosophy earlier this year.

Your Deal, My Lovely. Death Be My Destiny. In Passion’s Fiery Pit.

While they may not be familiar to readers today, these titles and tens of thousands like them were among the top-selling novels of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Known as “pulp-fiction,” for the low-grade quality of the paper they were printed on, these colourful paperbacks became a pop culture phenomenon, enticing readers with racy cover-art, sensationalistic titles and story lines, and a low price tag – around 25 cents a pop – making them both irresistible and, for the first time, affordable to mass audiences.