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Hello Bluesky. I haven’t been posting much because it’s been a difficult few months. My husband and I are fundraising for Sands, the baby loss charity. Any donations will be very gratefully received: justgiving.com/page/gandmfu...

Hello Bluesky. I haven’t been posting much because it’s been a difficult few months. My husband and I are fundraising for Sands, the baby loss charity. Any donations will be very gratefully received: justgiving.com/page/gandmfu...

When people talk of nations 'declining', it's usually all very vague and anecdotal. This is what decline looks like. Tangible, measurable regression: a society making a choice to roll back its progress and reduce its future possibilities of success. It's also very, very avoidable. Heartbreaking.

A shocking new investigation by Index reveals that Emily (not her real name), a school librarian in Greater Manchester, faced disciplinary action after stocking the book Men Who Hate Women. Nearly 200 books were targeted. 1/4 By @katiedd.bsky.social

For those of who don't know aka have actual lives, there was a whole bunch of internal politics and machination at a prestigious theoretical journal in Sociology, Theory and Society, which resulted in a political takeover and anyway the new contents seem completely normal so nothing to worry about

They're literally saying the fascism is OUR FAULT. www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/prep...

"The sector’s core offer should resonate with everyday concerns: national pride, resilience, opportunity, fairness and belonging." Universities should establish a "legitimacy observatory" to "monitor and understand the misalignment between universities and national attitudes."

"Iran is our enemy because it is an Islamist theocracy that denies human rights to women and LGBTQ people, brutally beheads political dissidents, violently attacks its neighbours, and funds terrorism. That's why today I'm visiting our close friend and ally, Saudi Arabia."

War crime: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

"Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Holy crap. This is very bad. Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffie...

Huge NYT article on the back story of those two weeks in March/April 2025 when DOGE illegally terminated hundreds of NEH grants. Gift link!! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org have filed a motion for summary judgment in our lawsuit to restore the NEH. Discovery documents reveal that DOGE rather than the acting chair led grant terminations and targeted grants using ChatGPT. More at mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit

Here is the spreadsheet DOGE had ChatGPT produce, to determine which grants were too DEI www.historians.org/wp-content/u...

For all the 'conscious AI' claims from tech CEOs & articles like this, I've seen nothing that distinguishes AI agents from viruses. Viruses do things to sustain, spread & evolve themselves without thought. And humans have historically misattributed agency to viruses that was never actually there.

Something, something Baudrillard

This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.

Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….

This five year old is still in jail

"These court victories tell us that … we have a right to say that Charlie Kirk said some disgusting things, and just because we’re faculty members doesn’t mean we don’t have the right to say those things.” – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Coates is always worth reading. apple.news/AEP72W5oLQW6...

‘I didn’t know how to shoot’: how African men have been tricked into fighting for Russia

400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close. This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it. 📍 Southend rally | 5 February

#AcademicFreedom | @cnn.com has published its coverage of the #UsamaGhanem case at KCL, including comments from Lewis Turner, BRISMES co-vice president and chair of BRISMES CAF, on academic freedom and #freedomofexpression. Worth a read 👇 edition.cnn.com/2026/01/23/e... #HigherEducation

Imagine debasing yourself by saying dumb shit like this

Monday and the start of a second week of being prevented from working by my employer, the University of Sheffield. Management has decided that massive damage to staff morale, student experience and the university’s reputation is worth it in a futile attempt to break the union. Shame on them.

Mother Jones and other outlets fought to unseal documents that show that the Trump administration targeted students for Pro-Palestinian speech. We won.

The same people who said that the mass murder of children in schools was a sad but necessary price to enable citizens to bear arms and oppose tyranny are now saying that if you carry a gun it’s your fault if you’re murdered.

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him. White. Hot. Rage.

There is video circulating on social media of a group of ICE agents beating a man near 26th and Nicollet in south Minneapolis, then one of the ICE agents shoots the man while he's on the ground numerous times. A witness can be heard yelling that the victim is dead.

Essential read on the move of a wide segment of AI-training data annotation out of South-South into the wealthy countries. The industry is exploiting job market precarity & paying advanced degree holders (well!) to eliminate the jobs they would otherwise have held. share.google/pbfnMi1nnaR4...

Will student loans be the next mis-selling scandal? ft.trib.al/9SMGRC7 | opinion

"Everybody - wake up! It's the #BigGardenBirdwatch!" Will you be taking part today? 👀🌳

I suppose the current US administration's vaccine stance shouldn't be so surprising. Vaccines sit awkwardly with their worldview: they rely on collective action, trust in institutions, expertise, and shared responsibility. Accepting an individual inconvenience, for shared benefit.

Amazing sob story: "ChatGPT deleted all the work I hadn't done" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This guy went to work today, put a mask on, kidnapped a 5 year old child, and then used him as bait so both he and his father could be sent behind bars

There is going to come a time in your life when you are chatting with a guy, at a barbecue or something, a new coworker maybe, a dad at school drop off, and he tells you he used to be in ICE. You’re going to need to spit on that guy

And yet universities are facing financial doom. What a great system.

Liam is one of four Columbia Heights, MN school district students who have been taken by ICE in the last two weeks, the school district said. Liam's teacher: “He is so kind and loving, and his classmates miss him. He ... just brightens the room. All I want is for him to be back here and safe.”

> reform to labour 0% another sir keir masterclass

News | Joe Hill to take up helm at Yorkshire Sculpture Park Meanwhile, Sally Tallant is named as new director of London’s Hayward Gallery

Ridiculous.

We are #hiring! PUP seeks a motivated, detail-oriented individual to support three acquisition editors as an Editorial Assistant (US, Remote or Hybrid). Applications will be accepted through Thursday, January 29th. Learn more about this role and apply here: buff.ly/3yqOphh

From the @equatormag.bsky.social mission statement and damn, was that ever proven 100% correct in short order.

A little while ago, info was circulating on here about (I think) a remote/online fellowship opportunity for independent/precarious scholars, that would provide useful things like an email address and access to digital resources. Can anyone remember the details? It might have been based in Canada..?