So we have full 2025 immigration stats - Total net down by 2/3rds in 2025 (3/4 from peak) - Small boat arrivals in 2026 down 40%. Asylum backlog down 48%; returns up 9% - Asylum seekers in hotels down 35% (down 48% from peak) YET PUBLIC PERCEPTION 49% think 2025 saw increase; only 16% know it fell

The shoes at the Vindolanda museum were so moving.

Mary Beard cited the prison system as the thing Romans would find most puzzling in modern uk life. Obviously capital punishment/exile is not really an improvement.

Yeah. One of the main ways an LLM can be useful is to replace the simple search functionality that Google has abandoned.

We’ve been lucky to receive high-profile support since we started our campaign, and we know visibility and vocal allyship matters. It doesn’t come much higher than Sandi Toksvig, who’s done so much for women’s equality and inclusion. Thank you 🙏 notinourname.org.uk

Student work continues most encouraging, rewarding and consoling. We really have great students. I would be very sad to give up teaching Latin poetry to people and I have been incredibly privileged to be able to do it for so long.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia #IDAHOBIT We should be ashamed that this year, the UK has fallen again in the rankings for LGBT+ equality on the ILGA Rainbow map. 🧵

The great pyramid of Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus!

Well just wow. In this shit show of a week, I’ve just read the best UG dissertation I’ve ever had. I’ve had some amazing students over the years, and the current ones are as good as any I’ve had.

absolutely wild to see people out here saying that it is responsibility of peer reviewers to check for hallucinated references. it is hard enough to persuade people to read articles and provide reviews. expecting them to spend hours cross reffing literature is unreal.

Pretty sure that the “Thucydides Trap” is now just the nickname of @nevillemorley.eurosky.social’s email inbox. Woke up this morning to a flood of questions—and immediately wept for all the Thucydides scholars in my life. m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-e...

It’s time for Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and STEMM staff to talk and stand together. We are actually all on the same ship. Stronger and better together.

Farmers are very difficult patients. What makes my father so challenging is the utter selflessness of his tyranny

I think this is valuable! It is also an argument that is very commonly made, so I would not be contributing anything unique by highlighting it. The point I am making is one that is rarely made: the pressure to be practical at all times is dangerous to our humanity.

We've all wanted to throw our writing in the toilet—& might preserve it for posterity. In Germany, a "well-preserved notebook from the 13th to 14th centuries" was found within a medieval latrine. 🚽 It is a Latin text in/on a mixture of a leather, wood, and wax. www.lwl.org/pressemittei...

At least there’s some translated stuff this time? And one of my top 5 made no. 81?

Started the new Ann Leckie, Radiant Star, and wondered how the central character’s name was spelled, I can’t help wondering whether Jonr is a reference in some way to genre?

I love to start the day with a good 404 error, and this one is *really* good.

So maybe let’s not destroy the arts? And the academic research that underpins, collaborates with and amplifies them? Arts and cultural engagement ‘linked to slower pace of biological ageing’ www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Sometimes it is ten or twenty other books that they will never have time to write

This end of life thing (parent) puts things in perspective. I told my sister: ‘I just want to go to bed at night knowing I did my best’. The same applies to other aspects of my life. Limit the damage. Keep on swimming. Etc.

2000 plus people at risk of redundancy. That’s well over half, so very likely to include me. Tempting, tempting.

We currently invite applications to our 2026-27 Master's Scholarships programme: bit.ly/4dTHmXe Scholarships of £5000 are for students from groups currently underrepresented in academic history to study for an MA in history or a related subject. Closing date: Friday 5 June #Skystorians

This would be great for our Communicating the Past module! @uonclassarch.bsky.social

Emotion check: very grateful for new Murderbot right now

'The Humanities are not a luxury. They are how a democracy understands itself' - ACLS President Joy Connolly: www.historians.org/news/federal...

Had convos w/ multiple people in the past 4 days who DID NOT KNOW that 1. AI doesn't "think" or know anything; it's a probability machine 2. It was created using massive amounts of work stolen from actual people including me 3. The environmental costs are astronomical Spread the word, every time!

Surprisingly knocked back by Future Nottingham 2 going through Council. It’s no surprise. Guess I was more in denial than I realised. It will be hard to keep going through all this.

This is also interesting advice to think about for getting students engaged. Make it their job to remind themselves why they are there.

i do love a lot of the outfits at the Met Gala, but wish more people played into the craft part of "fashion as art" with more crazy skilled or innovative techniques, silhouettes and materials. like the bubble blowing dress from Iris van Herpen.

I just really don’t want to do any more work. There are loads of things that need doing but I really don’t want to do them.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, I absolutely, categorically do NOT agree.

And how much of a problem is it that the sector’s best known media outlet is owned by a private equity group with an explicit business focused agenda?

Completely agree. You’re not Cicero either.

Very late Tiberius. Autocracy and paranoia

Still thinking about this. I’m personally ok right now, but always interested in coping strategies. I also think it it’s important to remember that it’s ok to enjoy things even while others around you are suffering. naomialderman.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

So, friends: I promised I'd tell the story. Now I shall. Let a (former) psych nurse tell you the true (gods help us) story of a night in a big-time NYC emergency room: and the arrival of The Man With The Bloomingdales Bag. (1/n)

Anne Hathaway, you will ALWAYS be that girl. 💙💛

Today’s big shock: baby turnips are incredibly snackable. Maybe better than chocolate? Nearly as good as kimchi?

I'm DELIGHTED by this comment from a listener about the Untitled History Podcast. This is exactly what I'm trying to do. From ships cats, to the upcoming pod on Nazi Whaling. Do spread the word to your friends online AND offline if you enjoy it! Because we're not leaning into "the algorithm"

Yes, I'm doing the thing I said I might do! Saturday June 20th Near St Pancras, London Tickets are £1+ The vibe is 'post-it notes & packed lunches in a village hall'. ti.to/tabletop-unc... If you make tabletop games, come along to meet folks, swap ideas, and lament shipping costs together.

FYI: Salvador Dali partnered with Disney in 1945 on an animated short, "Destino," but they only got so far as soundtrack and storyboarding before WWII and financial issues made them backburner the project. In 2000, Roy Disney rediscovered it. It came out in 2003. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Tl...

Wild garlic sauerkraut. So delicious

Progress: gathered materials to do reviewer’s comments on article. Found book in Italian. Enjoyed listening, learnt some new vocab. Found relevant sections. Not That relevant. Will probably add a footnote. (Currently working on my Italian in Duolingo, so good to spot pronouns and reflexive verbs.)

Multiple UK universities took down their policies relating to trans inclusion after the OfS's unprecedented fine of Sussex over its wholly anodyne approach to discouraging transphobia. Today is a very good day to demand to know when those policies will be going back up.

Acknowledgment that ‘free speech’ has not recently been meaning what you might expect it to mean

Just staring at the enormous pile of admin that is most of my job now teaching is more or less done. Can I listen to a story while I do this?

So excited to announce we've got the funds to release a final drop of patches! The absolute final return date is May 6th, so this is our challenge: decorate your patch in one week! We're ready to send them out: just comment below or email [email protected] and we'll get you one!

“Use AI to brainstorm but not to write.” “Use AI to help you outline but not to write.” These are commonly proposed as “ethical” ways for undergrad students to use AI, but I’m sorry, brainstorming & outlining are just as integral to writing as the actual construction of sentences.

Go on then. I’m a Professor of Classics and my daughter’s friend was super impressed that they had a quote from me in their A-level excerpts. I also have a side hustle as a Homeric storyteller and play in a brass band.