My critical analysis of the anti-trans astroturf group, the LGB Alliance, has just been published in the special edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. I recommend the whole special edition - it's open access, no pay wall. bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...

Over 50,000 cis women have signed the @nionwomen.bsky.social open letter rejecting the narrative that trans women are a danger to women. The real threat to women has never been trans women. The real threat to women is male violence. Add your name today: notinourname.org.uk/petition/not...

An incredibly important third win in a row in our ongoing fight for the rights and dignities of trans people

1. A new journal report in the prestigious Medical Journal of Australia eviscerates the Cass review, saying it is filled with fallacies and launders anti-trans disinformation. It methodically goes through each problem in the review. The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism

News from UCU Scotland: Autumn of university strikes on the cards amidst cuts and job losses: "... unprecedented number of universities making budget cuts, jobs being lost and a record number of universities facing industrial action ballots and strikes..." www.ucu.org.uk/article/1421...

Even those of us working in universities but on teaching-only contracts are excluded from a variety of opportunities and funding.

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer. This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

£140m cuts. 1,800 jobs at risk. Edinburgh staff are voting again. @drjogrady.bsky.social: “The quickest way to force their hand is a resounding YES vote. We stand with our members at Edinburgh as they ballot to defend jobs, students, and education. ✊

✨ We’ve Moved! ✨ Thank you to the 42,890 people who have signed, shared and supported our letter so far: Not In Our Name: Women in support of the trans+ community. 🌐 NotInOurName.org.uk

'Counting the Stakes: A Reassessment of Vlad III Dracula': new in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/46iJfIU In this new article, Dénes Harai reconsiders the victims of 'Vlad the Impaler' (c.1431-76), the historical inspiration for Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula #Skystorians 1/2

We're starting day 4 of the strike with Jack the cat's full support. He also says that this is a manufactured crisis because there is no deficit at the University of Edinburgh. Clever cat.

Should know not to look at FB first thing. This morning, person in England explaining Scottish politics with the customary absence of understanding. Spending the rest of the day draped in a saltire, singing 'Caledonia' while softly weeping, and framing a photo of John Swinney for the wall.

The consultative ballot response unfortunately has not given HEC a clear steer. To inform our decision, we are asking @ucu.org.uk members' views on the questions below. If you are a UCU member in HE, we want to hear from you! Please respond to the form below by 5 pm on Friday, 29 August

Each year, we publish lists of books, journal articles, and chapters published by historians working off the tenure track. It's never too early to start collecting, so if you or someone you know has something with a 2025 publication date to submit, have at it!

Academic historians rarely speak up like this but have made an exception in speaking in support of trans people in the UK and against the current trans exclusionary situation over there. Not just a few historians but hundreds signed this. www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/02/h...

Do you run a business in the UK? Concerned about the proposed guidance on single sex spaces? Information and a letter sign www.transsolidarityalliance.com/businesses-o...

EXACTLY as trans people predicted... Cis women & non-binary people are being harassed & assaulted in toilets since the supreme court misjudgement. @libbybrooks.bsky.social in the Guardian. I'm now working on a way to monitor, document and record incidents like these. Attn @cliveefford.bsky.social

#MedievalSky #EarlyModern If you're working on any aspect of the life-cycle (eg birth, marriage, baptism, leaving home, death, childbearing, etc) and want to present at the Life Cycles Seminar at IHR I'd be keen to hear from you! Echo chambers are never good, so it's always worth casting the net.

For years gender critical activists have called Nicola a whole range of lesbian slurs, provided rampant speculation while refusing to give her any space or privacy on the matter. This isn't something that a gay ally does, that's the behaviour of a bigot.

What about the women and children who need protected FROM these "protests"?!

Every time someone posts about the structural and inherent limitations of LLMs there are loads of people in the replies confidently asserting AI will overcome all its current limitations, and they remind me of the people in the 1960s who were confident we would have colonised the galaxy by 1999.

“Global AI demand is projected to account for 4.2 – 6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal in 2027, which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of Denmark or half of the United Kingdom.” arxiv.org/pdf/2304.03271

'It is less that AI is the cause of degradation in reading and thinking, and more that the creation of a culture that views knowledge primarily in an instrumental manner has made it easier to misuse AI.'

Even aside from all the tuition fee money thrown away at transactional external consultancies, this is the huge governance issue: it's used to further obfuscate. Nobody in the university is allowed access to the 'information' on which huge decisions are made because it's 'commercially sensitive'.

"We have to sign on to this technology or else we'll be left behind" is something I keep hearing, but where are we being left??? Where is everyone else going?? Is it the place where all the 3D TVs and wifi-enabled toasters went? Is it literal dystopia? This argument is meaningless

I said what I said. Our media is directly responsible for creating the lie that transphobic bigotry is somehow a special case where people can be awful without sanction. It isn't. There's good reason transphobes tend to hold all kinds of other bigotries. www.thenational.scot/news/2535084...

THIS.

So 3 times as many people marched in Trans Pride London as in the main London Pride, 200 times as many people as at the Essex racist protest but it didn't even get a mention on the BBC or right wing media What are we to learn? That they only care if there's a riot?

4. Histories of Protestantism are still tied up in teleological ideas of progress despite increasingly strong scholarship that it encouraged regressive changes for key groups (especially women and Jews) in some (maybe many) areas.

Universal basic income works; giving homeless people a place to live works; treating the sick works; paying decent wages works; welcoming refugees works; decriminalisation of drugs and sex-work works. All these things work in the real world. Just not in conservative imaginations.

Wait, what? "Chancellor could overrule Supreme Court"? That's a thing now, is it? Funny, when the Supreme Court was dishing out bullshit rulings on what sex people were, the govt was all "Nothing we can do, guv..." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Tomorrow's front page 📰 Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland

#Latin #Medieval

3 emails over the last week at work inviting me to different events to 'learn more' about Gen AI and how to use it 'ethically.' You can't use Gen AI ethically. The desperation to 'embrace' this extremely damaging and expensive technology while jobs are under threat is gross.

Or, just spitballing here, the government could address the genuine issues, such as housing issues, cost of living crisis, and confront disinformation spread about immigration to help better inform people, rather than pandering to xenophobia and exacerbating hostile rhetoric and scapegoating.

“AI” doesn’t lie. It’s not deceitful, it doesn’t have feelings: it is broken. Those who are selling AI products encourage people to anthropomorphize it because doing so avoids language that indicates what a garbage product it is they’re selling. Or, as I wrote here: www.artforum.com/features/gen...

Remember all that fulminating in the billionaire press about "free speech" (ie their freedom to abuse Muslims, trans people etc with impunity)? Now that people are being arrested for speaking about an issue of the utmost gravity, the self-appointed guardians of liberty have fallen strangely silent.

✍️ @johnswinney.bsky.social: "It is deeply saddening that so far the UK Government has refused to even enter into a dialogue about medical evacuations for children in Gaza who, without proper medical attention, will be left to die.” www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...

In case you haven't seen it, here's our call for the upcoming Forum in Early Modern Women. Consider submitting a short piece on the theme of migrancy! #EarlyModern

As if on cue. Great work @lgbtfdn.bsky.social. Fantastic job being in the room. Really listened to. Excellent visibility. Note they slip this out at the end of the day on Friday. Labour know another GC leading the EHRC is bad. They're just too cowardly to stop it. web.archive.org/web/20250718...

Off to York this weekend. Does anyone have any tips for interesting things to do beyond the obvious highlights?

List of the original subscribers to the Royal African Company, that would go on to be the largest trafficker of enslaved people from Africa - the entire royal family balls deep.

“You’ve got more languages students setting up successful start-ups than you do maths graduates, and the same number of history students setting up start-ups as engineers, so there’s a bit of myth busting that needs to go on.” www.ft.com/content/3162...

"Is it easier for ministers to just watch universities go to the wall on a slow burn basis? Probably." Thank you to British Academy president Dame Julia Black for calling out the crisis in higher education. Our universities are at risk. Ministers need to act. www.ft.com/content/3162...

Wes Streeting took £224,575 in donations from people and companies linked to the private health sector between Jan 2023-2025. 🚨🚨🚨 I find that unconscionable. Share if you agree! www.itv.com/news/2025-07...

Please apply, especially early career and independant scholars! Come visit #Antwerp and use our magnificent collections!

I dunno, maybe try running your organisation so staff don't have to do 'resilience' courses to try to reduce the damage you do to them?