Laura Penny | |
---|---|
Born | Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada |
Occupation | author |
Nationality | Canadian |
Period | 2000s–present |
Notable works | Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit, More Money Than Brains: Why School Sucks, College is Crap, and Idiots Think They're Right |
Laura Penny (born 1975) is a Canadian academic and the author of the bestselling Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit, a study of the phenomenon of bullshit and its role in modern society. [1]
Penny holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo (now renamed Buffalo State College). [2]
From 2002 to 2006, she taught at the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she was a Senior Fellow in the Foundation Year Programme. [2] She then went on to teach at Halifax's Mount Saint Vincent University and Saint Mary's University [3] while still giving occasional lectures at King's College. [4] Penny published More Money Than Brains: Why School Sucks, College is Crap, and Idiots Think They're Right, a consideration of anti-intellectualism and a defence of the arts and humanities in 2010. [5] Penny was featured on 60 Minutes with Princeton professor Harry Frankfurt, author of the similarly themed treatise, On Bullshit. [6] [ why? ] Penny is an occasional contributor to The Globe and Mail . She has also written for the National Post , Saturday Night , Chatelaine , and Toronto Life (for which she is also a contributing editor).[ citation needed ]As of March 2015 [update] , she has returned to King's, teaching courses in the Contemporary Studies & Early Modern Studies programs.[ citation needed ]
Dalhousie University is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus in Saint John, New Brunswick. Dalhousie offers over 200 degree programs in 13 undergraduate, graduate, and professional faculties. The university is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada.
Bullshit is a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism bull or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive. It is mostly a slang term and a profanity which means "nonsense", especially as a rebuke in response to communication or actions viewed as deceptive, misleading, disingenuous, unfair or false. As with many expletives, the term can be used as an interjection, or as many other parts of speech, and can carry a wide variety of meanings. A person who excels at communicating nonsense on a given subject is sometimes referred to as a "bullshit artist" instead of a "liar".
Jane Urquhart, LL.D is a Canadian novelist and poet. She is the internationally acclaimed author of seven award-winning novels, three books of poetry and numerous short stories. As a novelist, Urquhart is well known for her evocative style which blends history with the present day. Her first novel, The Whirlpool, gained her international recognition when she became the first Canadian to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger. Her subsequent novels were even more successful. Away, published in 1993, won the Trillium Award and was a national bestseller. In 1997, her fourth novel, The Underpainter, won the Governor General's Literary Award.
The University of King's College is a public liberal arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Established in 1789, it is the oldest chartered university in Canada, and the oldest English-speaking university in the Commonwealth outside of the United Kingdom. The university is regarded for its Foundation Year Program (FYP), an undergraduate curriculum designed to comprehensively study a variety of intellectual developments—past and present—through great books and ideas. It is also known for its upper-year interdisciplinary programs, particularly in contemporary studies, early modern studies, and the history of science and technology. In addition, the university has a journalism school that attracts students from across the world for its intensive graduate programs in journalism, writing, and publishing.
Irving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001), Layton fought Puritanism throughout his life:
Layton's work had provided the bolt of lightning that was needed to split open the thin skin of conservatism and complacency in the poetry scene of the preceding century, allowing modern poetry to expose previously unseen richness and depth.
John Gordon "Jack" McClelland CC was a Canadian publisher. He was known for promoting Canadian writers as president of the McClelland and Stewart publishing house.
Earle Alfred Birney was a Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honour, for his poetry.
Thomas William Harpur was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist but is a fictional or mythological figure. He was the author of a number of books, including For Christ's Sake (1986), Life after Death (1996), The Pagan Christ (2004), and Born Again.
Nicholas John Gillespie is an American libertarian journalist who was editor-in-chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008 and editor-in-chief of Reason.com and Reason TV from 2008 to 2017. Gillespie originally joined Reason's staff in 1993 as an assistant editor and ascended to the top slot in 2000. He is currently an editor-at-large at Reason. Gillespie has edited one anthology, Choice: The Best of Reason.
Penelope Claire Lancaster, Lady Stewart is an English model and television personality. She is married to rock singer Rod Stewart. In 2014, she joined the ITV lunchtime show Loose Women.
Charles Stewart Almon Ritchie, was a Canadian diplomat and diarist.
On Bullshit is a 2005 book by the American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt which presents a theory of bullshit that defines the concept and analyzes the applications of bullshit in the context of communication. Frankfurt determines that bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth. The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care whether what they say is true or false. Frankfurt's philosophical analysis of bullshit has been analyzed, criticized and adopted by academics since its publication.
The Evelyn Richardson Memorial Non-Fiction Award is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Atlantic Book Awards & Festival, to the best work of adult non-fiction published in the previous year by a writer from Atlantic Canada. It is the oldest literary award in the region and is considered the most prestigious for a work of non-fiction. The award was named to honour Evelyn M. Richardson.
Walter Douglas Stewart was an outspoken Canadian writer, editor and journalism educator, a veteran of newspapers and magazines and author of more than twenty books, several of them bestsellers. The Globe and Mail reported news of his death with the headline: "He was Canada's conscience."
Molly Peacock is an American-Canadian poet, essayist, biographer and speaker, whose multi-genre work includes memoir, short fiction, and a one-woman show.
Malcolm Mackenzie Ross, was a notable Canadian literary critic.
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul were founded on May 11, 1849, when the four founding Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from New York City; this has been designated a National Historic Event.
Halifax, Nova Scotia has the largest selection of education options in Atlantic Canada.
NicolleJean Leary, better known as Nikki Jean, is an American singer-songwriter. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Jean started out as a lead singer of a short-lived Philadelphia band called Nouveau Riche. She was introduced to rapper Lupe Fiasco when he was working on his 2007 album Lupe Fiasco'sThe Cool and achieved initial success as the featuring artist on his single "Hip Hop Saved My Life". She continues to collaborate frequently with him.
Sister Yvonne Marie Pothier is a Canadian mathematics educator and educational psychologist known for her work in the development of numerical concepts in children, and an activist for refugees. She is a professor emerita of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a Sister of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth.