Universities have challenging times ahead: the demands of a global student, new technology, employers wanting work-ready graduates and shifting ideologies that influence who holds and creates knowledge. The role of a university as a civic institution becomes increasingly contested. How can and should universities engage with communities to create lasting social impact?This collection offers global perspectives on community–university engagement, highlighting innovative approaches t...

Despite progress, the Western higher education system is still largely dominated by scholars from the privileged classes of the Global North. This book presents examples of efforts to diversify points of view, include previously excluded people, and decolonize curricula.What has worked? What hasn’t? What further visions do we need? How can we bring about a more democratic and just academic life for all?Written by scholars from different disciplines, countries, and backgroun...

Drawing on theories of myth and narratives from pop culture, this book develops a sociology of the story that shows how stories create meaning in contemporary religious practices in the West.Martin Stringer shows how stories work in religion within the context of the story-saturated world of the 21st century through discussions of a wide range of theories of myth. He traces religious elements in the stories of film, television and literature to explore how a wide r...

"A compelling thriller" set against the historical backdrop of Edwardian England's railway system ( Daily Mail).Assigned to drive holidaymakers to the seaside resort of Blackpool in the hot summer of 1905, Jim Stringer is happy to have left behind the grime and danger of life in London. But his dreams of beer and pretty women are soon shattered when his high-speed train meets a huge millstone on the line, leading to a passenger's death . . .This is...

'A cracking good thriller.' Independent on Sunday'Unerringly sharp and pioneeringly original, it locks the reader in from start to finish.' Andrew Barrow, SpectatorWinter, 1906. It's Jim Stringer's first day as an official railway detective, but he's not a happy man.As the rain falls incessantly on the city's ancient streets, the local paper carries a story highly unusual by York standards: two brothers have been shot to death....

'A great deal of well-researched railway detail [and] killer lines, without which no Andrew Martin novel is complete' Irish TimesOn a chilly December evening in 1925, while walking to meet his wife at York railway station, detective inspector Jim Stringer finds himself face to face with a man pointing a revolver straight at him.In a flash Jim's thoughts go spinning back to a hot day at the end of August, when he attended a Wild Wes...

The latest in Andrew Martin"s much-loved "Jim Stringer, Steam Detective" series. "Andrew Martin has recreated an extraordinarily convincing world . . . Terrific." Daily TelegraphDecember, 1909. A train hits a snowdrift in the frozen Cleveland Hills. In the process of clearing the line a body is discovered, and so begins a dangerous case for struggling railway detective Jim Stringer, a case which will take him from the Highlands to Fleet Street to the mighty blast furnaces of Ironopolis.Jim...

York railway station, December, 1925. Detective Inspector Jim Stringer is enjoying a pint in the Parlour Bar before accompanying his wife, Lydia, to a charitable function. But when the couple meet at their regular spot near the footbridge, Jim is alarmed to see a man pointing a revolver in his direction.His thoughts go spinning back to a hot day at the end of August, when he attended the York Summer Gala in company with his boss, Superintendent Saul Weatherill, aka...

'A brilliant murder mystery set in Edwardian London about a railway line that runs only to a massive cemetery.' Daily Mirror'An ingenious and atmospheric thriller.' ExpressWhen railwayman Jim Stringer moves to the garish and tawdry London of 1903, he finds his duties are confined to a mysterious graveyard line. The men he works alongside have formed an instant loathing for him - and his predecessor has dis...

'Jim Stringer, Steam Detective, rides the footplate again in this hot-as-coals whodunnit. Sabotage, sleuthing, suspicion and steam combine with Edwardian England and railways to create a detective novel in the grand tradition of detective novels.' Express'This may well be the best fiction about the railways since Dickens.' Independent on SundayA superbly atmospheric thriller of sabotage, suspicion and steam, The Blackpool Highflyer brings a...

'A thoroughly engaging and entertaining read. All aboard.' Sunday Express'Terrific.' Daily TelegraphIt's March 1914, and Jim Stringer is uneasy about his next assignment.It's not so much the prospect of a Scarborough lodging house in the gloomy off-season that bothers him, or even the fact that the last railwayman to stay in the house has disappeared without trace. It's more that his governor, Chief Inspector Saul W...

WINNER OF THE ELLIS PETERS AWARD'Superb.' Lancashire Evening Post'Richly satisfying.' Sunday TelegraphOn the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival - even before they departed for France, a member of Jim's unit had been found dead.Durin...