📢 Call for Contributions is open for #ICRMC 2026! Find out more here: creativeresearchmethods.com We're also excited to announce the ICRMC 2026 keynotes: Ranjita Dhital and Alastair Roy — ready to spark debate and inspire new ways of thinking. #ICRMC26 #CRMethods #creativeresearch

which is all to say that fighting reform on immigration is just a one way street to right wing policies. even IF the media decide that labour is actually acting tough on immigration and give them that credit (lol, they won’t!)… they will still have tied their hands on a range of grim policy (end)

I wrote up the whole book club placement specialist weirdness on the blog - do feel free to pass on to other academics so more folks are aware that this is a thing. #academia #AcademicSky

The single biggest difference they could make is to re-fund local authorities. What’s the point in putting libraries into primary schools when councils have to close all the public ones that make such a difference for early years and for older people?

Three weeks ago, the Government suspended Refugee Family Reunion — one of the few ways mostly women and children could reach their loved ones safely. And today, the Home Secretary is expected to announce even harsher migration policies.

Why is this the question? Why focus on whether voters are racism? The more important question is, how will the Labour Party address the concerns of British voters/citizens/residents in ways that are not racist?

If you require migrants to meet higher standards than the average Brit, whether that is in terms their language requirements, voluntary service, which isn't remotely "voluntary" if it is compulsory, or anything else then you have a system which is by definition discriminatory. One which dehumanises.

Academics! This book-club stuff is coming our way as well! Really helpful break-down of some of the Frankly Peculiar e-mails you may have been getting in your inboxes (as I have). Hat-tip to @courtneymilan.com for the link.

People respect&believe those who stand for something.Current center left (leadership) in U.S.& U.K. & likely elsewhere doesn’t stand for anything. They slide around based on polls,chasing sentiment that could help shape.They seem feckless&afraid.

Digital IDs are a terrible, dangerous idea for numerous reasons. But, even on their own terms, what's the gap they're supposed to fill? It seems many people don't realise that we already have eVisas. All migrants get this "digital record" of their status and permission anyway.

Anyway, you do have to wonder what this means for "growth": yesterday's ID proposals are *designed* to make access to work more difficult for people on low incomes, and they come with the side effect of potentially squashing a growing domestic technology sector.

In case anyone needs to hear this, you can leave this kind of note *to yourself* in the draft too.

An update! Thank you to everyone who offered advice and support online and off. I owe you all one of those drinks that have accessories and snacks stuck in them. And thank you to the American Libraries magazine for updating with attribution.

When I started A Meeting With Your Writing in Sept 2012, I had no idea if anyone would register. They did. And many of them stayed for years. Are you looking for a supportive academic community to help you write? academicwritingstudio.co.uk/a-meeting-wi...

Day off activities. Finally cut out the top I bought fabric for in June (?). Listened to new @smartbitches.bsky.social episode w/ Alexandra Vasti and am reminded why I preordered Ladies in Hating. Going for a walk along the Sett Valley Trail to meet friends for lunch. This is good.

Stand by for endless discussions about digital ID but, yet again, zero conversations about digital poverty. Or any other kind of poverty come to that.

Ok. They’ve pissed me off. I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards: 1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.

As so often my expectations of Starmer’s article were so low as to be basically subterranean and he still failed to live up to them. Let’s start with the weaselly and inflammatory conflation of seeking asylum with “illegal immigration“ 1/ [text in article below]

I missed this when it came out in March but if you're affected by dyscalculia you might find it interesting. Navigating dyscalculia: Designing with empathy in mind accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2025/03/06/n... And for those who don't know much about dyscalculia this might help understand it better.

Today we have the official government statements on digital ID and I would add a few things to what I am seeing on here. 1) The UK is an ID-poor country. The relative difficulty of getting a recognised ID, and the share of citizens without a recognised ID would be unthinkable in continental Europe.

Have now booked all accommodation for our “escape the gloom” adventure to Spain in November (returning through France)

If you are struggling to focus, pause and figure out what might help. Are you physically uncomfortable? Do you need a glass of water? Are you just too tired for this task? Anything else? #TeamNoBurnout

Every other week is "book week" around here. No, I'm not writing a book. But I am helping a bunch of other people do so. It's great to see their progress and help them solve the small problems to keep making progress.

I’ve got a paper coming out very soon that answers this call in The Times, showing pseudoscience and pseudo history is coming from the top, including from within elite universities, and from people educated by them during their ‘golden age’.

It's alarming how many people need to hear this: racism is not the natural and inevitable response to the presence of (the wrong number of) racialised Others. It is a learned response, and as such it is contestable and replaceable. This is anti-racism 101. Entry level stuff.

🧵 tl:dr the judge threw out the appeal. the thread is worth reading The HO position is audacious and not in a good way

Okay, I need to stop looking at all the terrible things happening in the world and get back to helping scholars do the work they want and need to do without burning out. Your work is important too. jovanevery.co.uk/juggling-dys...

I genuinely do not get the argument that if we tax wealth (extreme or otherwise) or very high incomes, people will just leave the country. If they aren't contributing, why do we care if they leave? Taxes are a contribution to the community.

To anyone who needs it today: credit your translator. A good translator's skills are at least as important as those of the original creator. Imagine if someone were to build a life sized replica of the Eiffel Tower out of matchsticks, you wouldn't just credit Gustave Eiffel - would you?

A reminder for those who are starting teaching/orientation this week. The chaos is temporary but it is real. It's not you. The things you need to drop this week to deal with urgent beginning of term stuff, will not stay dropped forever. Do what you have to do to get to the end of the week.

I have absolutely been there with academic overwork and that awful feeling of being told to stop or cut down and thinking 'but I can't'. Helpful advice I had in similar circumstances was 'sit with the why'. Note the reasons for 'I can't' It exposes those hidden harms you're too busy to notice.

This

Un bien beau geste, qui devrait tous nous pousser à acheter le livre.

It's a shame, because normally I've a lot of time and respect for the organisation who put this report together, however in this instance it shows dangers of treating refugee protection as a thought experiment, rather than remembering these are human beings 1/ www.infomigrants.net/en/post/6705...

Does anybody know of a way I can listen to Canada vs Black Ferns on an audio feed? I can't find anything online, which is baffling

Tweaked the Planning Class and invited people to submit challenges in advance. Now reminding myself that I am both doing a thing and figuring out a new process for doing the thing at the same time. Which is 2 things. And bound to take longer and be somewhat frustrating.

That’s how censorship operates in the USA (and many places) government pressure is used to force people & groups to self-censor. It’s a constant pattern: The majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is deliberately cultivated by an outside power. It’s the goal

We’ve joined our friends and colleagues across the homelessness and refugee sector in writing to the government to oppose the reduction in the move-on period for newly recognised refugees. Read the coverage in today's Guardian: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This government is giving the distinct impression that they think asylum seekers (and other migrants) should not have any rights at all, even to make applications. E.G. that seeking legal remedy is "by definition" vexation. Very worrying. (glad the courts don't agree)

Last call for the next Planning Class! Review your patterns and plan your next 3 months with a guided session of prompts and coaching for you & your writing. Join us at 10am Eastern / 3pm UK tomorrow! academicwritingstudio.co.uk/plan-oct-nov...

There's literally a *legal* difference between signing up for a mailing list and RSVPing for a specific activity

Last call to sign up for the 6-week Dissertation-to-Book Workshop—we start next Monday, Sep. 22! Would you like a practical method for clarifying your argument, threading it through the chapters, and assessing your structure? Would you like to do all this with a supportive community? Join us!

I wish more people would call this what it is: a lie/scam to increase unpaid labour. Management know many of us won’t give crap feedback, so instead we work evenings/weekends or let other work slip. Their spreadsheet is happy, students still get decent feedback. All the burden is on the Lecturer.

Looking forward to talking to @readywriting.bsky.social later about her new (co-edited) book "Of Many Minds: Neurodiversity and Mental Health among Faculty and Staff".

If you're interested in my new project on medievalism & the extreme right, you can read the first update on our blog here: www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo... As the project progresses, @siobhanhyland.bsky.social and I will write updates to share info & upcoming events. @errnetwork.bsky.social 🗃️

Since privatisation in the 1980s, we the public have paid *almost £200bn* to shareholders Your household has paid £250 extra a year since 2010 for this ideology Excellent new study from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social 👇 Time to take back OUR public assets 💧💡🚌🚄📮 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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If you want to keep writing even when you are busy with teaching and other things, making a plan will motivate you to do that. Find the time (and structure) to *actually* make that plan by registering for Planning Q2, happening September 19th online.

All of this. It's no good trying to play nice and "understand" why people are espousing racist ideology. We have tried that. We ended up allowing racists to feel emboldened. The only option to confront racism is to call it out. If people don't like being called racist they should stop doing racism.