We’re appointing a writer-in-residence! Join us to respond to our holdings related to the Bloomsbury Group (including the archives of Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press) ahead of a major exhibition in 2027. Applications close 19 May. Best of luck! collections.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...

Today, I offered an amendment that would have shut this scam down. My amendment would've prevented self-dealing by public officials — including the President & members of Congress — who own or promote digital asset companies, including crypto. Every Republican voted against it.

Farage now insisting he is “not and has never been a crook”. Lucky there’s no political history of “I am not a crook” as a line of defence coming back to bite anyone.

I taught in Hums at UHerts & the students & staff were & are incredible. They deserve better than this & society needs more thoughtful, creative, curious humans. Save Humanities.

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

Shouldn't running a fictional person as a candidate incur some sort of criminal sanction?

10/10, no notes www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/nationa...

Lolz. French professor investigated for awarding himself fake prize www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Informed people make choices that are better for them and for society at large. The mission of partisan mass-media is to keep people poorly-informed. This is also why Musk bought Twitter, how Facebook works, and why independent journalism is becoming untenable as a profession.

So much of the economics of education are predicated on the obviously false proposition that learning is not labor

Being asked to do more with less is one of those internet era maxims that seems to imply ingenuity, but is actually just the managerial slogan for squeezing uncompensated labor out of workers unwilling or unable to leave their current employment.

Well, well, well.

today's hero is William 'Gentleman' Smith who knew how to do retirement well: "he continued riding, drinking good wine, and walking until his late eighties." #lifegoals

PhD Funding! King’s College London’s Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War is pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral studentship from October 2026. We invite proposals on aspects of historical war studies 1791-1926. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRD022/p...

Is there a nice way to say that actors making charitable appearances get the credit for being charitable w/o having to actually part with any cash? (Writing about who benefits from benefits) #amwriting #c18 #theatrehistory

Teen was doing her homework in the kitchen. Cat, ŵ infinite love, brought her a mouse & ripped it open to show Teen the exciting mousie insides. Teen did not appreciate her gift.

You know who actually supports my work? Daycare workers. That's the industry that needs billions poured into, not tech and slop AI.

Today's tiny work rebellion was completing the compulsory DSE training on my laptop from my bed. Where I've been writing & reading for the last 3 months.

The cats are worried abt me: yesterday they gifted me a 5 am mouse, & today they put an exciting slug in my bed.

Things I've asked my writing group this week: • Do I need to be more explicit that the dancing-masters were pimps? • which of these quotes is the filthiest? • is it obvious that the stilts represent an erection? #amwriting #c18 #theatrehistory

This is horrific. Universities (*all* of them 👀 at you RG) exist to educate. Teaching is the core business. Teaching staff are core staff.

Today's tasks: tidy up my Eliza Haywood essay (she acts! She sings! She has a great sense of humour!); get stuck into my benefits aren't as beneficial as managers think essay & go to parent-teacher night at Child's school. #amwriting #soloparenting

Who needs Molly Bloom when you have Lady Flame?

Today's writing clocks in at -800 words, but there are 2,000+ new and improved ones after the general slaughter. #amwriting #slowly

9,600 redundancies at just 24 universities. Imagine what the picture is for the sector as a whole. This is the other half of the student loan scandal picture, which has been national news lately. Nothing at all from the government on a key sector effectively in freefall…

Writing is as tortured as the cat's spine. Not, alas, as fluid as the cat. #amwriting

They brought a plane of food ... to ITALY

As Google Books starts to sink, it's worth remembering how Google organised a separate class of employees to do the actual labour of the book scanning, and kept them in a separate building on the Google campus with none of the privileges of regular Google staff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0RT...

Can I get away with describing the 'Eliza' section of _The Dunciad_ as an authorial piss-up? #amwriting

The defection of Suella Braverman, who was sacked twice from Government in disgrace, spent £700m of taxpayers' money to send four volunteers to Rwanda on a deportation scheme that was then scrapped and has a public approval rating of minus 32 is currently being described as a "major coup" for Reform

Wise words from WEB DuBois to gird us today: "It would be shame and cowardice to surrender this glorious land and its opportunities for civilization and humanity to the thugs and lynchers, the mobs and profiteers, the monopolists & gamblers who today choke its soul and steal its resources."

Mistead this as "cheese piece" and am now slightly disappointed

great readings for our students to understand what 'generative AI' is. I take the approach of bringing AI into our course work as an object of inquiry--to study it, to understand what it is, its myriad contexts. And my students are hungry for this information. I bet yours are, too.

Things are terrible so here's a cat enjoying Wild London.

So the Teens did let me sleep and largely managed themselves while I was ill. But they also made sure to let me know that I'm still needed (I'm on the mend, but still sound like Iggy Pop on a bad day)

And the curse of research leave lurgy strikes again. Have been too sick to work (or even drink coffee) for days. Feeling better enough now to mostly feel sorry for myself.

🎶on the first day of research leave, my true love gave to me... a Smeg bean-to-cup coffee🎶 [maker - in the sales!]

It's my first day of research leave. & while I have a truly terrifying number of things that must be written in the next 6 months, today I'm settling down to read, because *research*

2025 has been a rotten year for most early career postdoctoral researchers, especially in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. For a better 2026, check out (or repost) this short thread on a free resource for UK-based SHAPE PhDs within 10 years (excluding career breaks) of the doctorate. 1/3

Happy Boxing Day to all who celebrate

Before essay mills were banned in 2022, advertising for essay mills were all like ‘students, get help with your ideas’ and *everyone* knew it was bullshit. EVERYONE! And now universities themselves are encouraging students to ‘get help with their ideas’ from ChatGPT - and it’s STILL bullshit!

Out of office is ON. I am on annual and/research leave from now until September 2026. 🎉🎉

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

The remains of end-of-term bounty

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🤬

Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.

Because the world is too much with us of late, I give you this pure unadulterated joy: youtu.be/OZqz94ODz18?...

Kittens holding paws for your evening palate cleanser.

The children & the cat also had v different reactions to the end of the snow flurry