When @molliesimpson.bsky.social started reporting on the renamed Bolton University two years ago, I had *no idea* it would turn into one of the biggest scandals in the history of UK higher education. Proper, proper reporting of the kind that a functioning society relies upon.

Beautiful essay by Isabella Hammad on Gaza, grief, mourning, rubble, monuments. And on Arabic poetry and its recasting of some of the foundational readings/uses of Freud and Klein

We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Lincoln University, who are once again facing redundancy! We also updated our #UKHE Shrinking list. Check it out to get a full picture of the systematic destruction of the sector: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Yesterday 142 academic staff at the University of Lincoln were put at risk of redundancy including the entire Politics and International Relations team. This follows cuts since 2024 which have already seen over 500 people leave the university. This is the 'University of No Regrets'.

The dismantling of UKHE continues. Solidarity with all at University of Lincoln

This petition needs as many signatories as the Exeter one. Please sign and share — don’t let Hertfordshire managers get away with this just because a Russell Group one took the spotlight. #UKHE

If you haven't yet signed the petition against the attacks on University of Exeter staff, here it is

How higher education is vandalised in the UK. Here is our last published annual report (www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/univ...) containing info about "a year of continued financial stability with operating cash generation of £48m and an increase in cash of £11m to end the year with balance of £211m."

“The third option, of course, is to try to blow up a police station” lareviewofbooks.org/article/dang...

I heard Lucie Mercier give a fantastic paper on French postwar debates around materialist psychiatry. Here’s her related paper on Fanon and Tosquelles in @radical-philosophy.bsky.social www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/sain...

For this keeping track of the dismantling of UKHE, Glasgow University will open a voluntary redundancy scheme next month to reduce number of academic and professional services staff cc @qmucu.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2622742...

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

Mona Khalil, Lebanon’s most well-known sea turtle conservationist, died of her wounds today after being injured by an Israeli strike I feel sick

“Some 25 per cent of applicants for Wellcome’s early career awards last January said they had used AI, alongside 16 per cent of applicants for British Heart Foundation grants in 2026, and 12 per cent of applicants for Cancer Research UK grants”

I think I am less optimistic than you. Wikipedia lists all winners of the Dan David Prize from 2022. So if anyone has rejected it after being awarded it they might want to check whether their name is still listed here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dav...

LSBU is one of those universities, which is why our dispute is of national significance. To add insult to injury, the latest version of the 'Academic Transformation' plan presents this as an 'individual decision' that new staff can now make: join a crappy DC scheme or join no scheme at all. Even.

Has any Dan David Prize recipient rejected their award? Looking through these names of our colleagues and once again grappling with the utter failure of academia at our current moment

Shame. Shame. Shame.

Whole logic pernicious on countless fronts. Note how Wales doesn’t even figure - even at the level of pointing out its absence policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/u...

‘Talwar [art therapy professor with tenure] told the Guardian…that she was “stunned” by a suspension that appeared to be motivated by “the mere mention of the word Palestine”’

So at this wonderful event yesterday, we learned from Nigel Fabb (one of the organisers of The Linguistics of Writing) that he bought a 'The Linguistics of Writing Venue' sign from the AA after the event (see image below) & sent it to Derrida & Derrida wrote back & said he had put it in his garden

Come and join us at this workshop on political pathologies and psychic life at University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). Joelle Abi-Rached @joelleabirached.bsky.social is giving the keynote, 'Trauma without Aftermath: Gaza, Lebanon, & the Psychic Life of Injustice' www.eventbrite.com/e/political-...

An important piece by Jon Danforth-Appell in @jewishcurrents.bsky.social (now out from beyhind the paywall) challenging the models of trauma that have been taken up in some accounts of attachments to Zionism jewishcurrents.org/does-the-jew...

Really looking forward to reading this

“[E]ven at its most trenchant, Collini’s argumentation has remained…somehow politically abstract, indicting a system & its culture, that of capitalism, but at a familiar, contemplative distance” Alongside Collini @lrb.co.uk read Mulhern @newleftreview.bsky.social newleftreview.org/issues/ii123...

I have seen a few academics offering their takes on English HE in the last week. I don't think the issue of insolvency is really being grasped in these. Basically, it is worse than people think ... The Education Committee gives a good account of the issue: committees.parliament.uk/work/9012/hi...

Juliet Jacques on Labour's Section 28: "Civil disobedience and trans organisation will flush this contemptible code down the toilet of history, and we can push for a full inquiry into how the EHRC became captured by transphobic fanatics and ask how we can safeguard such bodies [...] in future."

If you’re in Glasgow next week, this is at Strathclyde on 4 June, organized by @hhnnccnnll.bsky.social and Fearghus Roulston www.eventbrite.com/e/writingre-...

“At 10 Downing Street, with UUK colleagues, in a conversation led by Baroness Minouche Shafik…” Don’t want to read further

This month, UCLA admin circulated two white papers that are so harrowing they’ve kept me awake at night. If you’re a UCLA person and haven’t seen these, you really must. In response, the Faculty Senate has scheduled a Town Hall on June 2. senate.ucla.edu/news/june-2-...

“Use AI to augment Teaching Assistant Labor” (UCLA proposal)

Dr Antonis Vradis, Reader in Geography at the University of St Andrews and Hasnain Jaffer, VP for health at King’s College London Student Union were abducted and subjected to detention by Israel

Relieved to see more coverage of the grip Nous is getting on #UKHE. Thanks @privateeyenews.bsky.social! A million pound @cardiffucu.bsky.social alone. That’s a lot of money for the very same PowerPoint…

I finally started my substack back up! This post includes a draft project proposal for my new research project on character AI. I would LOVE feedback! Please comment and share, I want to build my subscriber base back up after a 2 year medical hiatus.🌈🎓 #AI #feministsky #leftist

Strangest part of today was the Avanti west coast train arriving on time despite the heat. The pendolino carriages did their usual work of making me sick as a dog, then disgorged me into a metallic, roaring sun I can hardly believe belongs to Glasgow. It is still May

The Beckmann at the Baltimore Museum of Art leaves one reeling artbma.org/artwork/stil...

Our colleague and comrade geographer Dr Antonis Vradis has been abducted by Israel and his whereabouts are currently unknown

Reposting with full alt text, because it’s important that this stuff is accessible.

Not really handling it being almost a quarter of a century since I lived in Baltimore. Attempted to metabolise the movements of history by searching out @redemmas.org (emerged 3 years after I left) to buy the current issue (number 4) of @pinko.online

Capitol is 2 blocks away: that’s where the criminals are (Amtrak employee shouting over a long line at Union Station DC bag storage)

Orozco Test Panel in a side corridor of the library: Man Released from the Mechanistic into the Creative Life

I’ve come to Dartmouth College for my uncle’s memorial service tomorrow afternoon and I’m sitting in the basement of the library looking at the Orozco murals and thinking about all that has happened since I first saw them in 1990 when he invited me to live with him for several months

In the aftermath of the “rally against antisemitism” in London this weekend, to which Zack Polanski was not invited, read the interview with Barnaby Raine published a few days ago in @equatormag.bsky.social

“Don’t you ever tire, demon? You greet me on my threshold. You watch me in my bed. You turn quiet to dread. What is left of my existence is captive to your humming, as you hunt your next prey. Evil suspended above us, you promise butcheries. The horror will never leave us. “ — Ahmad Sbaih

Aye. Heard today that my university is closing UG History, Philosophy, English Lit, Linguistics, and Creative Writing in one go.

I have just reviewed a paper for a journal that I am convinced was entirely AI-generated. But I have no idea how to make a strong accusation, nor can I advise the journal on what to do next. The 'author' seems to have produced a large amount of smooth, vacuous publications in the last six months...

I'm Lead Judge of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, awarded at University of Edinburgh since 1919 and due to be announced this month. But the university is currently withholding 100% of my pay for participating in a marking and assessment boycott. So, at present, there will be no prize.

If you are the editor of a journal and you have received a submission from me that looks a bit weird (weirder than usual) please assume it is a LLM-generated paper from a ghost author. This has happened four times in recent weeks. In each case it is possible to see how a genuine published paper 1/2

🇵🇸Palestine Action activists dismissed their lawyers yesterday to address the jury directly about why they targeted an Israeli arms firm in Bristol. “I can say with absolute certainty that this is the best thing that I have ever done”, said Zoe Rogers👇 www.declassifieduk.org/palestine-ac...