The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis, Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam.There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfilment.

• Robert Graves and The White Goddess


• Authority and Intertextuality in the Works of Ælfric


• Barnardine's Straw: The Devil in Shakespeare's Detail


• Dulness and Pope


• Montaigne


• The Future of Our Universities


• The Inquisition and the Renaissance


• The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory


• Patents and Public Health: Principle, Politics and Paradox


• What Fates Impose: Facing Up to Uncertainty


• Empire, History and the Contemporary Global Order


• Archaeology in Mesopotamia: Digging Deeper at Tell Brak


• The New Political Economy


• 'They Worship Death Here': William Faulkner, Sanctuary and Hollywood


• Nomad's Progress


• Imagining Pan-Islam: Religious Activism and Political Utopias