We are Leeds Institute for Societal Futures – find out what we do at societal.leeds.ac.uk #Leeds #InstituteForSocietalFutures #LISF #HealthInequality #Polarisation #Trust #SocialCohesion

Holiday, holiday, I declare a holiday.

I love this so much. Something to think about…

It’s been quite a day - my highlight was listening to two PGRs from this wonderful city talking about their experiences earlier today, but it was good to catch up with peers to discuss some current challenges. #UKCGEAC

How much does the UK spend on welfare? 🇪🇺 Relatively little compared to Europe: just 10.8% of GDP in 2023 (including sickness & disability benefits, pensions, etc.). Meanwhile, 🇫🇮Finland spends 25.7% of GDP & 🇫🇷France 23.8%. #ChartOfTheDay #Welfare

Every UK resident is £355 better off per year as a result of international students. Even for those who are not convinced by the immense cultural and intellectual contribution of international students, even for those unaware of the cross-subsidy ground breaking research they allow, 1/

@adamrutherford.bsky.social finishes our day with a flourish, with a history of people giving their most personal data, their genome, to private organisations, and how data is manipulated for racism & eugenics. "Data is never neutral. Science is always political. Race is social construct" #LKFS2025

Now @adamrutherford.bsky.social is back to provoke us #LKSF2025 looking forward to this…

I’ve been finding today a bit much so in an unusual step I have been playing along with Masters of Reality in a break between sessions… (the seminar is great BTW it’s the other stuff ;-))

here's my presentation to the super #LKFS2025; super important conversations. Many thanks to @masudk.com and colleagues for showing the way to knowledge futures. and here's Allan Ginsberg on the library dancefloor! anatomiesofpower.wordpress.com/2025/06/27/k...

The final panel session on “International Perspectives on Knowledge” starts now. Chaired and beautifully started by @jsendall.bsky.social and with wonderful panel members including Jonathan Bengtson, Dr. Rangashri Kishore, Patti Cheung, and Lindiwe Soyizwapi. #LKFS2025

Hugely entertaining talk from @adamrutherford.bsky.social at #LKFS2025 “Information transfer is definitional human” (unlike e.g. toolmaking, use of fire)

I am delighted that @leedsunilibraries.bsky.social and @lulgalleries.bsky.social are hosting the inaugural Knowledge Futures Symposium today. An amazing speaker lineup discussing the future of knowledge in a world full of mis/dis-information, fake news, and other contemporary challenges. #LKFS2025

Fantastic to see this - wonderful to work with @whiteroseuc.bsky.social on delivering this exciting programme - and with such a lovely group too!

Professionals who work to support doctoral candidates, whether in managerial or academic roles, have key roles to play in embedding inclusive practice to support gender equity in universities. Read this EUACDE #DoctoralDebate article at buff.ly/tTpzYjO @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

Our PhD alumnus Dr Yinwen Mai reflected on his experience of the International Medieval Congress last year ahc.leeds.ac.uk/medieval/new.... Attendance is free for our students. Looking forward to seeing everyone this year. Come to the IMS reception on 7 July at 6 pm #medievalsky #IMC2025

I may be revisiting the recording of today’s launch - which was packed full of insights… @ukcge.bsky.social @annabull.bsky.social @the1752group.bsky.social

Have you booked yet for our Annual Conference: Transitions and Transformations in Postgraduate Education? It takes place in Glasgow in July and the programme is now available online. ukcge.ac.uk/events/a...

Read Dr Anna Bull's comment piece in Nature about the toolkit for addressing harassment and sexual misconduct experienced by PGRs (it's available for free download on both the UKCGE and the 1752 Group websites). www.nature.com/artic...

With Leeds IMC 2025 less than a month away, this rough guide I wrote a couple of years ago may be of use to some of the new faces #IMC2025 #medievalsky salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2023/05/18/a...

doi.org/10.1098/rsos... < user beware

Cuckoo flower (I think) has spontaneously appeared on our unmown lawn along with quite a lot of cuckoo spit. No actual cuckoo so far. #wildflowerhour

University of Leeds PhD Alumnus Matthew Bourne hiding behind a microphone and messing with his sampler before his gig tonight at the Howard Assembly Rooms with Keeley Forsyth. Good to shake his hand again: it’s been too long.

On our way to #BeCurious fueled by a ginger bear. www.leeds.ac.uk/becurious

NEW on Wonkhe: Paul Gratrick's research on student perceptions of value sheds new light on the very old question of value for money buff.ly/wGkU6rM

Currently in a webinar about competency based admissions from the EDEPI project www.ntu.ac.uk/c/equity-in-... - I share their starting point which is to select doctoral candidates based on potential (which I have found to be more controversial than I expected).

Read our blog (and online article in @sgpejournal.bsky.social) on what postgraduate researchers told us about how *we* can be more systemically resilient. unu.edu/merit/articl... #phdsky #academicsky

Wood warblers are becoming so scarce that I'd given up hope of encountering another in Yorkshire. So it was joyous to see and hear one last Sunday. In the video you can hear the 'spinning coin' song (repeated notes speeding up) and the plaintive whistling 'pyu pyu pyu' call. #UKbirding

Published online today, more to come from us on this topic, but here is a taste of what we learnt about the systemic context of supervision during Covid-19 restrictions: www.emerald.com/insight/cont... @sgpejournal.bsky.social #phdsky #academicsky

🚀 New to teaching or new to teaching at Leeds? Sign up for Foundations in Teaching (FiT) - a flexible, self-paced online course to boost your teaching skills. Following completion, you'll have the opportunity to attend optional workshops to develop your skills further! ▶️Learn more: bit.ly/3ZDLEbH

Creating open publishing opportunities: Launching the Leeds Early Career Publishing Prize 2025 leedsunilibrary.wordpress.com/2025/04/04/u... @wrunipress.bsky.social @leedsunilibraries.bsky.social @masudk.com @jsendall.bsky.social @wlukewindsor.bsky.social

I was digging through photos on my phone yesterday to find some to share with @danmarstp.marshallwords.com and came across this one from a few years ago. Memories and experiences like this just bring me so much joy.

Calling all postgraduates! Submit your paper and join us for a day of presentations, research sharing, and networking with students & professionals in the Faculty of Social Sciences.📚 Deadline: April 25th, 2025 👉https://tinyurl.com/mwu5b9cb

Attended a lively Russell Group PGR meeting yesterday: good to share some challenges and potential solutions. One topic I raised was how we all manage reasonable adjustments for examinations: there’s a @ukcge.bsky.social session on this in May: ukcge.ac.uk/events/disab...

Your regular reminder that part-time PhD programmes offer a fantastic opportunity to industrial partners at current fee levels for their UK-domicile staff to get doctoral training.

Pinksky (looked pink at the time anyway)

I’ve just had an article accepted by @sgpejournal.bsky.social and I’m really pleased. A huge team effort led by Oksana Celbis, and I’ll post a link when it’s ready to share! Towards an ecological systems approach to doctoral student resilience: qualitative evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Another badge, haven’t done one of these in years. May struggle tomorrow but it was a good way to spend an audacious Sunday. And no it wasn’t 200km in a narrow boat on an aqueduct that would have been particularly audacious. #cycling

Turns out there is first mover advantage if you are a university nearly going bust www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

"Wales’s 20mph speed limit has cut road deaths. Why is there still even a debate?" - really nice to see our motonormativity research being used to explain this. Cheers, @peterwalker99.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/phd-fee... < it’s an investment not a cost (which doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem)

new theory: wonder if a lot of the journalistic/political scepticism towards ADHD/autism diagnoses comes from the fact that those people work in industries absolutely full of neurodivergent people, so much easier to go "duh, aren't most people like that" when you're surrounded by....people like that

#Extinction in the Small Isles: A fantastic photo blog from a recent group trip to the Scottish Small Isles, by Extinction Studies PhD students Alfie Howard, MT Talensby, Jon Roberts, @sicilyfiennes.bsky.social, Lydia Woods, Serena Turton-Hughes, Jenny Kennedy

The low level of public investment in higher education in the UK is somehow never the issue that gets debated. Everything else is a sideshow.

So good to see the @whiteroseuc.bsky.social collaboration helping to drive this work forward.

Interested in a career in Museums, Galleries or Archives? Pick and choose from a day of FREE workshops designed to help you get into the sector. Thursday 27 March, 09:30 - 15:30. Student exclusive! Book onto any, or all, sessions here: library.leeds.ac.uk/events/event...

Delighted to have been elected to the board of @ukcge.bsky.social as a trustee. Hoping to give back some of the things I have gained from this gem of an organisation over my time as a supervisor and Dean.

Seriously, has anyone here ever seen an example of somebody being called ableist for advocating for driving being the default mode of transport?

Much talk of FDR, Churchill, Lend-Lease, 1940 and so on at the moment. It is probably important to remind ourselves that the Roosevelt administration flirted with the idea of abandoning Britain in the early years of the Second World War and might have done had events worked out differently. 🧵