This is a highly concerning move for the civic museums outside of London. Less popular with global tourists no doubt, but absolutely vital third spaces for locals, visitors, commuters, students, recent asylum seekers, and all those people who may not be able to prove UK residence easily.

Excited to hear that the 2nd edition of "Queer Shakespeare" edited by Goran Stanivukovic is forthcoming on 11 June 2026 This edition contains 5 new essays incl: Lee Hansen 'Queer/Crip Ovidian (dis)inheritances in "Venus and Adonis"' [posted with permission] www.bloomsbury.com/uk/queer-sha...

Horrific, and becoming the norm. Whatever @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social can do to help in the fight, let us know. So many senior managers are rushing through 'fire and rehire' or equivalent before the legislation to stop it kicks in. Which politicians speaking out against this? @labouruk.bsky.social

My School of Arts' colleague's cfp looks very exciting 👇

Readinge complex textes not for ynformacioun but for understandinge, writinge nuanced argumentes, reasoninge criticallye and also beinge critical of reasoninge when needid -- these are the vital technologyes taught by humanityes disciplines lyke literarye studyes, historye, and philosophye.

Measuringe the value of educacioun by returne on ynvestment onlye ys lyke measuringe the value of a garden by the weight of the floweres

Tyme spent wyth a catte ys nevir a mistake.

Plese repost & share! *THE OPEN ACCESS COMPANION TO THE CANTERBURY TALES*, a free, scholar-produced onlyne resource for teachinge and learninge *The Canterbury Tales* at the universitye level: opencanterburytales.lsusites.org

Another @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line @northumbriauni.bsky.social yesterday. We're loud and proud in our fight for pay and pensions justice! @ucu.org.uk @chionwurah.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @timeshighered.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk

It's ASOS time, everyone! We regularly hear from colleagues that they're working, to use a technical term, "silly hours"; way beyond what could be considered reasonable. It wasn't our first choice to end that via action short of strike, but it was clear SOMETHING needed to be done, so here we are.

Reading the news today & came across this. To be CRYSTAL CLEAR, @ducu.bsky.social has REPEATEDLY raised workload problems to management and offered potential solutions for negotiation. In EVERY instance, management has refused to negotiate. “No” is not negotiation. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Solidarity with colleagues at Durham Durham University staff start industrial action in workload row - BBC News share.google/dFdh9caLfjIN...

✊✊👉@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social are back on strike next week, all week. No-one wants to be, and no-one is asking for more than keeping what we have. For our communities, colleagues, and students, we will never accept the pay and pension injustice planned by management at @northumbriauni.bsky.social

No-one wants to go on strike, and no-one ever does it just for themselves. @jimdickinson.bsky.social @moneyontheleft.bsky.social @ukhenews.bsky.social @ucea.bsky.social @andylong6.bsky.social @georgeclarke.bsky.social

Folk thynke that innovacioun yn academia will come from technologye. It will come ynstead from settinge asyde olde assumptions and hierarchies and givinge people more chances to trulye and radicallye thynke wyth each othir wyth no specific outcome yn mynde.

Whose uni? Our uni! @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk We are united, loud, and proud. We will never accept bosses @northumbriauni.bsky.social stealing our pay and pensions, demoralising and demeaning staff and students. We are always ready to talk, listen, and negotiate. Let's fix this!

"Unlike stories no flowers last forever. Bone is an uncommon vase, the aura of sainthood no fertiliser." - from 'The Vanishing Song'

Delighted to be series editor for Cambridge Elements in Women, Gender and Sexuality in Premodern Literature and Culture. If you have something cool and interesting you’d like to work with us on please get in touch (micrograph 20-30k) www.cambridge.org/core/publica...

Caleb makes some really useful points here - the feeling that we need a new approach to workload in Durham is even more widespread than the raw ballot numbers suggest. We need to hear more from our employer than "We responded fully to [your] claims".

I was very pleased to find that my copy of The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Authorship had arrived when I got home today! I find myself in very good company, and I'm looking forward to reading more. @loughnrv.bsky.social and Will Sharpe were great editors to work with 😊

Results are in regarding our local ballot. 63.3% of voters are prepared to take IA consisting of a strike action, and 75.6% are prepared to take ASOS. Return rate was 53.1%, comfortably clear of the Tory anti-trade union minimum.

Thrilled for my colleague, Laurence Publicover, and his appearance on In Our Time today, joined by the brilliant @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and @lucycmunro.bsky.social - what a trio! Have worked on H4 quite a bit and still learned lots! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

In which @oldfortunatus.bsky.social, Laurence Publicover and I did a thing... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This is the strangers' case / and this your mountainish inhumanity

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social has developed reasonable, comprehensive, and constructive counter-proposals to help resolve the dispute @northumbriauni.bsky.social regarding pay and pensions in good faith. You can see them here: www.ucu-unn.org.uk/news/319-ucu.... What do you think?

Dr Alistair Brown from our Department of English Studies uses VR & gaming make classic literature immersive, accessible & future-focused. He is helping English Studies thrive in the digital age. Find out more 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/departments/... #DUinspire #DUSpotlightOn

Dear UKHEI Managers Stop spending money on things Start investing in people - students, employees - other than yourselves

I just spoke to the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History in an online talk about the Franciscans in Bury St Edmunds, and the Suffolk Records Society currently has an INSANE offer where you can buy my £60 book on the Bury Franciscans for *£10* 😯 suffolkrecordssociety.com/publications...

Tech wythout wisdom ys dystopia For a bettir future we need poetrye, creativitye, historical studye, love of languages, dreames, dialogues, new storyes, & intellectual curiositye. We must fund & expand higher educacioun yn HEART: H umanityes E thiques A rtes R hetorique & the crafte of T eaching

And it begins! Post your ballots ASAP, #ducu members! Our workloads are rising & our jobs security isn’t. We deserve better from management than just “no” to our reasonable requests and suggestions. @ducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Very happy to see this volume finally out. Anyone opening it will immediately appreciate the enormous amount of work involved -- should be the definitive edition of these difficult but fascinating poems for many years to come.

Job klaxon: for a medievalist working across English and history cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

Management at @northumbriauni.bsky.social say they want to 'do different things' to fund their strategy. Whodathunk that mean freezing staff pay? @ucu.org.uk @strathclydeucu.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social @danhollandnews.bsky.social

A shout-out for this excellent collection edited by @johannawinant.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social including essays by Robert Stagg of @nvshakespeare.bsky.social and @noreenmasud.bsky.social #CloseReading

Barnabe Rich explaining that "bookes are like cheese"

Excellent and empoweringe educacioun will nevir be "efficient" yn the waye that a businesse doth stryve to be "efficient." It ys the heighte of knavery to use one standarde to measure everye human activitye. Businesses are ther to make profits. Educacioun ys ther to make the future.

Pretty big news to kick off the year... Predramatic Theatre now available as an e-publication! Happy 2026 everyone!

If you're looking for some new year reading....

🎭 To chat, or not to chat? #Shakespeare 📚

Eight Palestine Action activists are being left to die in prison – all without even facing trial. We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️ https://goodlaw.social/3e3320

The lure of ChatGPT ys conversaciouns wythout any actual dialogue or accountabilitye. A mirrour that doth flatter by offeringe no reflectioun whatsoevir. A google searche that doth kysse up to you.

The results of the 2025 Staff Survey at Northumbria University are damning and shameful: www.ucu-unn.org.uk/news/316-202...

The end of this term saw several colleagues in my School leave under the voluntary redundancy scheme More colleagues from English Literature are slated to leave at the end of the academic year It feels so very sad

Can be early modern, Dekker and Webster fans!

Call for papers for our new special issue on 'Nocturnal London', edited by Maurizio Cinquegrani, Yihong Zhu, and @mcmccluskey.bsky.social. Abstracts due in by 31 March 2026. All submissions and reposts much appreciated.

Caught up with Hilary Hinds this morning Wonderful to learn her co-edited collection with Bronwen Price - inspired by Simon Barker's research - is now published Excellent cast of contributors 👏 Manchester University Press - Early modern drama and the theatre of war share.google/K8hr4frMaYs9...

Who's entering our Biennial Book Prize 2026, to celebrate the best monographs in Renaissance studies published in 2024 and 2025? Send your scintillating scholarship to the Chair of the Book Prize Committee, @racheljwillie.bsky.social, by 31st January 2026. www.rensoc.org.uk/funding-priz...

Tech wythout heart ys harmful. For a bettir future we need poetrye, creativitye, historical studye, love of languages, dreames, dialogues, new storyes, & intellectual curiositye. We must fund & expand higher educacioun yn HEART: H umanityes E thiques A rtes R hetorique & the crafte of T eaching

Want to teache young people creativitye, problem-solvinge, teamworke, awarenesse of the power and influence of language, and wayes of workinge thrugh the beautiful and terrifyinge and complex contradictiouns and ambiguities of thys worlde? Teache poetrye. Teache a lot of poetrye.