this closes in two weeks. the offer to email me with any Qs remains open!

The deadline to submit papers for the Creative PEC Research Symposium 2026 is fast approaching. Send your extended abstract of ~500 words to [email protected] by Monday 2nd February. For more information and to register for the Symposium, email [email protected].

another quick boost for this - closes 18 Feb. please send to quantitatively-oriented culture people in your life! they can email me!

work with me and @drdaveobrien.bsky.social as part of @creativepec.bsky.social! we're recruiting a postdoc to work on the arts, culture and heritage sectors using quantitative methods. please share, please feel free to email me directly with any Qs! jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Sheffiel...

culture is bad for you is £6:59! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177810/

Funded PhD opportunities thread! 1) Creative Bridges: Are you passionate about shaping the future of the screen industries? Applications are now open for Creative Bridges CDT, an AHRC-funded doctoral training programme from the University of Leeds and University of Warwick. creativebridges-cdt.ac.uk

i once sat next to someone on a flight who watched Diary of a CEO for 14 hours

Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities! www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...

just to echo Robin: *23*? (i’m on my way home from a performance at an NPO hosted by another NPO, let’s see what i get asked to do)

Nice to see two excellent academic collections on audiences, data and policy [including my only (!) academic article] in new (more affordable) editions: www.routledge.com/A-Reader-on-... www.routledge.com/Audience-Dat... Credit to @sdjhadley.bsky.social for editing/making them happen…

i'm looking through some old teaching materials, and i'd forgotten i'd made this

funded quants x cultural policy x sociology PhDs don’t come up very often. this looks great! please circulate!

Free registration is still open for A Global Dialogue on Cultural Policy and Sustainable Development. Join the conversation. 🔗 en.dialogo-global2025.pucp.edu.pe #CulturalPolicy #GlobalSouth

(free) registration for @ctjournal.bsky.social's Global Dialogues conference is now open! en.dialogo-global2025.pucp.edu.pe. i realise not many people who follow me on here are in or near Lima; please share if anyone you know is! (keynotes - ~13:00 and 20:00 UK time each day - will be livestreamed)

London comms job! work with me! £31kish. feel free to DM with any Qs

They argue for a data-first culture where ‘bad news’ is not seen as a threat, and for investing in an infrastructure that allows for independent collection and analysis of data. Read the guest blog: pec.ac.uk/blog_entries...

The benefits of culture to health, education and community are championed, but can culture ever do wrong? 'Culture is Bad for You' exposes systems of precarity, and the exclusion of women, people of colour, and working-class people: www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival... #EdBookFest #booksky

Anyone making their way to Edinburgh (or already nearby!), I *think* that there are still tickets available - come here me, @markrt.bsky.social and @drdaveobrien.bsky.social chat about whether Culture is still bad for you www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

British Academy's just announced its new Fellows. 19 Oxbridge, 29 other Russell Group, 9 elsewhere (2xSt Andrews, Aberdeen, Courtauld, Institute for Historical Research, Leicester, Surrey, UEA, Reading), 0 post-92. cool well-functioning higher education section we've got

Edinburgh! 19 August! 15:30! Spiegeltent! Book! www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival... (per the advertising, i promise @orianbrook.bsky.social and I will be slightly higher up than @drdaveobrien.bsky.social throughout)

Being an artists is about "suffering and madness" while "completely covered in paint" 🙄 www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

CfP! We Want More: Music / Sociology! Call for papers | International Popular Music Studies Conference at @erasmusuniversity.bsky.social 8th April 2026, deadline for abstracts 1st Oct 2025 www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/eve...

what a team. this’ll be great!

Peru! enormously excited for this. get those abstracts in!

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and Cultural Trends invite you: Cultural Policy and Sustainable Development: A Global Dialogue Lima, Peru | 5–7 November 2025 Full announcement and CFP: www.linkedin.com/posts/cultur...

Just a reminder that if you are in Edinburgh you can hear me, @drdaveobrien.bsky.social, antonio cuyler, Beata Kowalczyk and Ines Ruiz Alvarado chaired by @klloyd.bsky.social talking about all things inequality in creative work on Tuesday evening at @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social

today!

Some weekend reading! @petersoc.bsky.social @markrt.bsky.social & I blogging for @creativepec.bsky.social about our recent paper on who gets film funding from the BFI pec.ac.uk/blog_entries... (spoilers- there are lots of inequalities)

Ruoxi's the best

god i love quants

Manc! culture's still bad for you!

Today, we launch our latest State of the Nations report, 'Skills Mismatches in the UK's Creative Industries'. Download Here: https://buff.ly/3WVDpI4 1/8

more than *twenty* parties? what supercomputer could possibly attempt such a feat

Hi, we are the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre! We bring together independent research and policy recommendations for the UK's Creative Industries. Learn more about what we do by following us or visiting our website: tinyurl.com/2fhwbdjz

it's MA reference season again. one university has asked me to rate one of my students on 22 different scales, including "commitment to public/community service" and "energy and drive". (i'm doing it, obviously, but who designed this?)

i've got Glastonbury tickets and i'm very excited about it

ICYMI: I wrote a report with @suttontrust.bsky.social @drdaveobrien.bsky.social @markrt.bsky.social about social inequalities in creative education and creative work. Lots of good stuff in here, confirming/putting numbers on things that we might guess. Some key findings:

This drops tomorrow, including new research from @markrt.bsky.social @orianbrook.bsky.social & me on the challenge of (& lack of!) social mobility into creative higher eduction

i'm in Australia. that means it's 10:30 in the morning, and i can leave the telly onwhile i'm doing work. a strange and delightful experience to be watching election coverage at this time of day

time to try a bit harder at this website

i'm talking at this!

i like how this is as janky as twitter (i promise i’ll do things like “add a profile picture” and “add a biography” at some stage)