"Anti-immigrant march" is such a telling phrase. An immigrant is just a person who exercises the freedom they are born with, which is recognised by all human rights legislation, and moves across imaginary lines on the ground. Being "anti-immigrant" means anti-movement, anti-freedom and anti-person.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

We are at risk of losing a generation of researchers. It’s worse than the 1980s. I’d say: only do a PhD for its own sake. The work you do s as an ECR is itself important work. But this period of contractions is going to be incredibly hard for all career stages, & impossible for ECRs.

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

UK could raise £2bn by taxing SUVs in line with European countries. Why do so many people want giant SUVs? They damage roads, create more pollution, cause more serious injuries and take up bigger parking spaces. UK buyers pay 20 times less tax than in other European countries. Tax them.

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN inquiry

New blog post: some recent reading reviewed, from Booker-shortlisted historical fiction to 70s SF to a forthcoming literary novella drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/r... #booksky

Absolutely astounded that the UCU and Unison branches at Kent and Greenwich were not consulted, and that staff only found out about the merger this morning via BBC news and Kent Online. Solidarity to all colleagues.

On the blog today, I review a literary speculative novel about a digital future that left me feeling conflicted: drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/d... #booksky #sff

Typepad users in the UK can nominate #Typepad sites to be archived to the UK Web Archive by emailing [email protected] The UK Web Archive isn't currently able to display saved sites, but they are able to save them For more on the UK Web Archive and UK legal deposit law, see www.webarchive.org.uk

Why are we surprised that children don't want to go to a place that makes them miserable? And that parents can't (and often, rightly don't want) to force them?

It's grim out there, and we should be concerned. However, 'It remains the case that graduates are on the whole better off than those who do not go to university.' Current graduate unemployment rate is 6%. Rate for all 16-24 year olds is 14.3%. Graduate premium is declining, but still over 20%.

If you want to protect vulnerable young people then banning AI chatbots and making sure they have access to mental health services is much more important than invasive age verification barriers (which teens can easily bypass anyway)

Last day to submit abstracts for the interdisciplinary conference 'Opposition to Thatcher' this November. Already had some fantastic submissions. Please share to anyone who wants to submit a last minute abstract. @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

More appalling behaviour from Goldsmiths management. The students and (amazing) convenor of this unique, excellent programme have been treated disgracefully. And the alternate tokenising display & deletion of this course tells a story tale about the college’s threadbare commitment to racial justice.

UK authors who've had books stolen to train AI! Important note below (incidentally from one of my favourite YA writers):

I feel so frustrated any time a post goes around suggesting that it's mean to criticize art because art is hard to make. there are two ways to read the word "criticism" here, and whichever one this most recent post means, I ardently disagree with it. 1/

In 'what my students probably imagine I do for fun and they would be right', I have written a long blog post about queer-coding in STRANGER THINGS, &, flashing back, about why teenagers of the early 00s were so passionate about reading between the lines drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/d...

In 'what my students probably imagine I do for fun and they would be right', I have written a long blog post about queer-coding in STRANGER THINGS, &, flashing back, about why teenagers of the early 00s were so passionate about reading between the lines drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/d...

The witch trials of 1612 still cast a long shadow.

Technically Arthur C. Clarke's Islands in the Sky, but what really got me into SF was the Animorphs series.

Speaking as a DC resident: statehood now. It is absurd that Trump can do this in our city.

An eclectic range of reviews on the blog today: from a high fantasy kingdom to 1970s El Salvador to 1989 East Germany drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/08/11/m... #amreading #booksky

The deliberate killing of five Al Jazeera staff has brought the total number of journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war to 237, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. 🔴 LIVE updates:

Something has gone very wrong with British politics that almost 500 of people have been arrested at a Palestine Action protest, when we should be standing collectively as a society against the cruelty and devastation on the ground in Palestine www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Today I’m thinking about a group of protesters who broke into an air base and sprayed paint on a plane (1/?)

Today I’m thinking about a group of protesters who broke into an air base and sprayed paint on a plane (1/?)

"The camp was most known for its non-violent direct action, including women ‘embracing the base’, chaining themselves to and cutting the fence, staging ‘die-ins’ and organising blockades." Maisie Jepson (@girlinthewrongera.bsky.social) on women's protest at Greenham. www.historyworkshop....

I think there should be more press about this popular medical historian, author @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social & dual USA-UK citizen’s case. She needs to be in the UK for cancer treatment, yet is not allowed to leave US.

One of the students in Gaza with a funded university place in the UK has written about her story for @aljazeera.com: www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

This thread makes me think of Mass-Observation spying on people in cinemas! I enjoyed seeing I CAPTURE THE CASTLE as a teen with a lot of much older fangirls who tutted, muttered & commented on everything, & THE DUKE more recently in Whitley Bay for the reaction to local references like Swan Hunter

6.23m patients await 7.36m hospital appointments in England; hard to see a GP, but junior doctors can't find a job. 30,000 doctors applied for 10,000 specialist training places. Won't encourage people to incur debts to become doctors. Privatisation of services wasting money. archive.ph/6eorX

- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University - 1 in 4 people will be made redundant But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action? Please read 👇 Sign the petition 👇 chng.it/7F52bThYqn

After loving last year's list, I... couldn't disagree more

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Huzzah huzzah

A little reminder that Labour have ALWAYS been like this. 2003 - David Blunkett, as Education Secretary, says "our schools are being swamped with immigrants". 2004 - Jack Straw, Home Secretary, says he's afraid of immigrants coming to his constituency surgeries while "wearing the veil"...

There are no words. Only rage. Children turned into skeletal frames before our eyes. Emaciated families in tents. State death by starvation. Bombs dropped on aid seekers. Bullets fired at kids with empty pans. Humanity turned on its head. The world shows its depravity

Why do I hate writing the first draft of a novel & love editing it but love writing the first draft of an academic/non-fiction book & hate editing it? WHY #aciwri #amwriting #writingcommunity

#History #SkyStorians @lselibrary.bsky.social are launching a Library Fellowships scheme to work with their archives and special collections, includes funding for travel/accommodation/subsistence up to £5k. 3 themed fellowships available. www.lse.ac.uk/library/what...

A friend of the family shared this with me - if you were able to share and/or donate that would be fantastic gofund.me/6aff95b1 🇵🇸

I'm avoiding reposting graphic images but I do want to record for posterity: we are watching a people being deliberately starved in real time and the best our governments have to offer are "stern words": humanity has lost, the monsters are in charge.

My mini holiday reading guide, with readalikes for those who loved Tomorrow x3, Our Wives Under The Sea and/or A Deadly Education! drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/h... #booksky #sff #20booksofsummer

This is so key. A real problem of writing genre is you can get tricked into thinking genre-normal is actual-normal and unmoor your characters' responses to it, which renders everything weightless nonsense.

Terrible. When I got my AHRC PhD funding I applied directly to the AHRC with my own project. Now students are increasingly tied in to what universities and partner organisations want them to do, stifling research independence - plus fewer projects getting funded overall.

If you’ve ever wanted to read a book about a Palestinian haunted house that fights back against its occupiers—and the three generations of Palestinian women who are connected to it—then be on the lookout for Deena Helm’s debut! Coming to you in Sept 2026 from Tor Nightfire! 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

The govt. and MPs voted for a waste of time, resources and tax payers money all in a bid to stop people opposing genocide. Deranged behaviour from the people we put in charge of the country.

Thousands of people marched in the rain through London today to once again ask the UK Government to stop arming Israel

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...