Publication day! My special issue on Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic is officially out: www.euppublishing.com/toc/gothic/c... My heartfelt thanks to all the contributors. So much in here - will cover in future posts. The issue positions B as a major force in C20th British Gothic.

The Economic and Social Research Council core budget for 24/25 was £134m, not £8 billion.

'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.' Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

Read our response to the Government's Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, published today: https://bit.ly/48z0QOe

A personal opinion is that if an archive is moving to ‘structured content releases’, it is no longer an archive but a private comms repository. What an incredible loss to our understanding of UK culture and heritage.

The cover of my upcoming special issue of @gothicstudies.bsky.social - 'Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic' - is here! Eight essays on Blackwood's fiction, delving into questions of genre, war, empathy, occultism, and much more. Full issue out soon! @edinburghup.bsky.social @igagoths.bsky.social

'I didn’t study Old and Middle English [...] because I thought a great job awaited me at the end. I did it because I love learning, and studying the middle ages enriched my life while connecting me to the fears and longings and delights of the past.' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Something cosmic this way comes... the special issue of Gothic Studies I have been working on - Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic - is now in production ready for its November publication. Thrilled with the depth and breadth of insight and expertise from the contributors. More updates soon!

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

Does STI policy need a strategic brain? Join us at 5pm on 30 Sept for a talk by @stianwestlake.bsky.social, Executive Chair, ESRC @ukri Hosted by STEaPP-UCL & RoRI, w/ responses by @britishacademy.bsky.social’s Molly Morgan-Jones & UCL’s Sarah Chaytor www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/does-sti-p...

Hot off the press, the British Academy's Cold Spots: Mapping Inequality in SHAPE Provision in UK Higher Education report. Read it if you care about universities or access to the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the rising generation. 1/5

The time Steve Martin and Gregory Hines showed off their tap dancing skills in 1981. Happy 80th Steve.

“Gender studies as a discipline…is defined by a set of debates and problematics.” In this 10-Minute Talk, Judith Butler FBA discusses gender as a field of study and its interdisciplinary contributions to research, social analysis and social movements. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEvH...

This is extraordinary. An East End woman remembers the arrival of television. I would listen to this woman give a ten hour lecture on the history of media in her lifetime. www.instagram.com/reel/DMw4yrg...

Ozzy going out after raising $190 million for sick kids and a Parkinson’s cure is metal AF.

This, on the frailties of human bodies fighting the passage of time and Ozzy Osbourne’s last gig, is well worth a read. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

‘England’s higher education system risks long-term decline unless ministers overhaul their “confused, if not incoherent” approach to universities’ FT interview with outgoing @britishacademy.bsky.social President Julia Black where she pulls no punches! www.ft.com/content/3162...

Ok. The "No Kings" movement has kicked off and raised lots of questions about how it fits within political theory/practice. It's old school Republicanism which is very very very different from what that means today. It emerged in Italy. Informed the English Revolution, then the American Rev.. 1

Universities and international students play a crucial role in national, regional and local economies. The British Academy has this week responded to the Immigration White Paper. Read our recommendations to the Government here: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/58...

‘Learning how to coherently structure your thoughts, choose words to capture a specific tone, or find a specific voice that’s your own are all incredibly meaningful struggles of a genuine education …

Big day @leverhulme.ac.uk - we are celebrating our centenary by investing £100m in blue skies research and doctoral centres. Here I explain why... @wonkhe.bsky.social Research funding requires research capacity wonkhe.com/blogs/resear...

How can policy effectively support innovation to deliver economic and social benefits? A new report by @britishacademy.bsky.social & @sciencecampaign.bsky.social‬ finds that UK innovation requires tailored support to create economic and social returns. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

Do the French really use “Être de Birmingham” to mean “being bored”? Also: how the Danelaw still haunts British politics. Some things from the summer, now out from behind the paywall

Valerie Eliot, TS Eliot’s widow, in a letter to The Times:

Last week on Wonkhe: The British Academy has released analysis of what social sciences, humanities, and arts graduates do after graduation. Pablo Roblero and Alfie Denness introduce the findings

We have just published our @britishacademy.bsky.social Understanding SHAPE Graduates toolkit! It includes a trio of tools to help us better understand SHAPE grads’ contributions to the UK economy and their career trajectories www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/policy-and-r...

Over the course of the last year, we have been working with a range of experts on R&D, technology and innovation as part of the @britishacademy.bsky.social Economic Strategy Programme. We explored how the UK can better leverage R&D for long-term economic improvement. 1/

"In a geopolitically uncertain world and after more than a decade of low productivity growth, the UK needs to rethink its economic strategy." Today, we're publishing a collection of expert policy insights ahead of the multi-year Spending Review conclusion: buff.ly/DAlcNo5

‘R&D is a long-term source of prosperity, and an area of UK competitive advantage… but to maximise the impact on UK productivity, innovation policy needs to link more strongly with industrial strategy for a services based economy.’ Me in CityAM ahead of the SR www.cityam.com/dont-forget-...

Some thoughts on the new US Executive Order on Gold Standard #Science, and why it should encourage us to think harder about policy, metascience and the importance of context. anatomiesofpower.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/g...

Our map of cold spots in provision of humanities and social sciences courses and student numbers across the UK has been updated with the data for the 2023/24 academic year. Explore for yourself here: buff.ly/2x7yE5K

Lots in this piece from @christophersmith.bsky.social exploring the new US Executive Order on Science, but the points below on some of the risks around ‘metascience’ have wide applicability including (and perhaps in particular) in the UK anatomiesofpower.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/g...

In which @jacobsilverman.com develops the concept of ‘hostile architecture’ to encompass all that is going wrong with the internet including enshittification, slop, hyper-commercialisation and people screaming into your void on.ft.com/3S0YA8I

Read the President of the British Academy, Professor Julia Black's full speech in defence of the humanities and social sciences, and freedom of academic enquiry here: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/julia-b...

Rare wall paintings found in Cumbria show tastes of well-off Tudors

The humanities matter and on our watch we’ll go big and bold to support them more, says Irene Tracey. The British Academy's Manifesto for the Humanities and Social Sciences takes up the practicalities of this call here: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

Today is the first annual @britishacademy.bsky.social SHAPE conference! The day looks to be a glorious one, all the way from the sunshine to our discussions about the future of SHAPE and UK HE! We’ll be live Blue Skying (!) all day, so please do join in the conversation online!

Our new annual conference in support of the humanities and social sciences is on Wednesday 2 April. Book your place at the conversation with leading voices in the education and research sector, in person at The British Academy, London: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...

The wondrous Algernon Blackwood was born on this day in 1869! Excited to say that I am currently editing a special issue of Gothic Studies on ‘Blackwood and the Gothic’ due Nov. Features a truly fantastic line-up of contributors. I can’t wait for people to read it.

📢 New report out today! 📢 ➡️ Access the report here: repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeo... 📊 What did we find? 🔸 Most of the socio-economic background (SEB) and ethnic inequalities in entry to professional occupations are driven by employer-side decisions made during the recruitment process

NEW on Wonkhe: Why does it take the British Academy to plot subject geographies? https://bit.ly/4b7HChM

Big piece on how the UK is not getting the data it needs and how this is affecting policymaking. A key issue seems to be that the shift from surveys to admin data has not worked well as govt departments have not allowed the ONS access to the data it needs on.ft.com/3WSCN6h

Superb

The @britishacademy.bsky.social latest state of the discipline report on politics and international relations is out, showing that the while the discipline has grown over the last decade, this has been unevenly spread. Write up from @connormckenz.bsky.social on Wonkhe! wonkhe.com/blogs/politi...

New from me, on Rachel Reeves's influential chief economic adviser John Van Reenen, and some of the ideas behind Labour's approach to growth: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

How are Politics & International Relations faring in UK HE? We're launching the latest of our flagship 'State of the Discipline' reports on Weds 22nd Jan. Free to attend, with a top panel of policymakers & academics and a drinks reception to follow. Details here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/politics-a...

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes visited a pub in Hebden Bridge. So I went there too, 65 years later. Here's my extended essay on their night out, the impossibility of happiness, kitchens as disputed territory, and Plath's love of chippy tea #SylviaPlath open.substack.com/pub/davehasl...