can't believe I was too slow to book the seafield tour again!! fml www.doorsopendays.org.uk/regions/edin...

🌱 Fully funded PhD scholarship in Environmental Humanities at Ghent University! A unique opportunity to collaborate with Marco Caracciolo, Elly McCausland, and me on innovative research connecting literature, culture, and ecology.

Interesting thread! I remember these floods well: some friends had to be evacuated with their pets in a boat, while I was worried I might not be able to get to my viva, a few days into the new year (would have been an apt reason for it to be postponed)

Really sorry to see news of more voluntary redundancies planned at Sheffield. As a Sheffield evangelist - it famously happens to everyone who studies there! - I'm so sad to see what's being done to my favourite university www.thestar.co.uk/education/un...

I'm applying for research leave for 26/27, hopefully spring '27. Would love to know of any visiting fellowships that might be available in that time and perhaps suitable for me (will probably be trying to make progress on my water and world literature project).

👋 Sociologists in Solidarity with Palestinians @socispal.bsky.social have joined Bluesky Give them a follow for resources, events and upcoming actions calling on sociological professional bodies to us their platforms to stand with Palestinian If you want to get involved email [email protected]

A thread🧵 on our new study "German Academia since October 7" was released yesterday. The study, coauthored with Sven Chojnacki, Iman El Ghoubashy, @thaddaea.bsky.social and Nina Moya Schreieder systematically examines how October 7 and the genocide in Gaza have affected researchers in Germany /1

Very sorry to hear of the death of Conor Gearty. His life's work is an inspiration to anyone seeking to act with purpose, courage and integrity, and he was a kind and warm-hearted person who took junior scholars seriously.

Fructidor 25th (aka September 11th) is the crayfish day in the French Republican Calendar @crayfishiaa.bsky.social, it would be nice to set this day as an international crayfish day (although the date is already important in Catalonia, Chile and the US) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...

As ever, threats from the right are the real risk to academic freedom - and we need to make a concerted effort on the left to wrestle back that language from the people who have successfully monopolised it over the past few years.

We've also had a faculty Senate vote of no confidence in this financial "plan." The vote has gone unheeded by our Court and unrecognised by our SLT, which is honestly just very strange: www.parliament.scot/-/media/file...

The sign here says "strike for fair pay" but this strike is really over the plan to cut upwards of 1,800 jobs from the University, despite not being in deficit. The entire "plan" has no justification or, well, discernible plan. We've already had 350 people leave on vol severance. What of workloads??

An easy way out of this too is for universities to go big on non-taxable benefits and other services that are in effect wage increases but cost less overall. Lunch cards, better childcare provision, procurement benefits for staff etc.

I get that there's a lot of acrimony in UCU, even if I was working abroad during much of the last dispute. Still, I don't see why a threat of strike action over pay is so widely seen on here as automatically stupid. A 1.4% pay offer is a complete piss-take and we need to say that much more.

Pickets across @edinburghuni.bsky.social campus this morning opposing £140million cuts and up to 1,800 jobs going, including by compulsory redundancies #SaveHE #NoCompulsoryRedundancies #StopTheCuts

@emilyjlm.bsky.social hi Emily, nice to cross paths again!

It's welcome week and I'm on strike (again) over the University of Edinburgh's refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies. UoE has no deficit, but cuts of £90 million are already underway, damaging teaching, research, and the future of education at our university.

A tale of two protests. If you hold up a banner saying ”I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” the police reaction will be quite different in London and Edinburgh. Good analysis by @xanderelliards.bsky.social

and this International Solidarity Action Research Network seminar convened by Anthony Alessandrini and Anna Bernard! www.acla.org/seminar/0ca1...

got to stop scheduling Sheffield visits for the cusp of autumn, wistfulness and nostalgia levels off the charts

Lmao at this open letter to the Unimelb VC proposing she pay for Meanjin with a 10% salary sacrifice that would still leave her better paid than the VC of the University of Cambridge It was my joy to sign, & I recommend doing so to all in the world of arts & letters

Fishwives, or ‘oyster lasses’, were common figures in the streets of 1700s Edinburgh. Oysters were so plentiful that they were considered to be cheap snack food. The shells themselves, when ground up, were taken to relieve heartburn

People might be interested to know that Lush has a long history of supporting Palestinians. They supported Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank over a decade ago through one of their grants schemes, and now use olive oil from the farm - a wonderful place that I visited some time ago.

finally set up DMs, in case you've been saving up hot gossip 😎

just listened to someone try to haggle in my favourite vintage shop, if I hadn't been halfway through the delicate operation of removing a 1930s dress I might have been forced to intervene 😮

Are any Irish universities offering BA/MA scholarships aimed at people in Gaza beyond the IPSP and have there actually been any recent evacuations from Gaza to Ireland? Grateful for any insights @donalh.bsky.social @marthashearer.bsky.social @groenbot.bsky.social @hannahkateboast.bsky.social

This really worth doing, especially if you have a substantial project at an early stage where you don't know QUITE how it fits in the mechanics of production just yet...

on my reading list!

have done too much filming in recent weeks and am going to hide in a burrow. on the plus side, we now have new materials for the next run of How to Read a Novel www.futurelearn.com/courses/how-...

Scotland's water levels are way below average after the driest spring since 1964 and a hot summer. The problem is especially acute in the east of the country, where the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is now introducing curbs on some water use. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The government will now help 40 students in Gaza to come to the UK to take up funded university scholarships. Promising news, but many details still to be resolved: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting new article in Journal of Peasant Studies: 'Agrarian questions in global Palestine: past, present and future', Fadia Panosetti ,Taher Labadi, Ahmad Heneiti www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I've written to my MP about this, and you should too.

John Swinney criticises UK government's refusal to help Gaza students with offers at Scottish universities. Students have places at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Dundee. 'Scotland is ready to welcome these students': www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...

The UK government has agreed to help nine Gaza students with funded university places to evacuate - but what about the dozens of others? Lots more coverage at the weekend, increasing the pressure. My student Shaimaa is quoted in this piece by Christina Lamb www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

The UK government will evacuate nine of the 40+ students in Gaza with scholarship at UK universities. My PhD student Shaimaa isn't included. We must now make sure they help the other students - email your MP today. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The UK government will evacuate nine of the 40+ students in Gaza with scholarship at UK universities. My PhD student Shaimaa isn't included. We must now make sure they help the other students - email your MP today. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

just popped in to post some campaign updates, now disappearing again, bye! 🌻

My PhD student Shaimaa was in @thebookseller.com, talking about our appeal to the UK government to help her get here and take up her place. Thanks to @commapress.bsky.social and @outspokenpress.bsky.social for their support: www.thebookseller.com/news/publish...

good morning happy back to school to all who celebrate, happy one week of summer left to all the syllabus scramblers, happy grr to the quarter system people, here's some help for all of us in the college classroom against-a-i.com

Thanks to Avi Shlaim for covering our open letter in The Independent. Almost 5,000 academics and university workers call for the UK government to defer biometrics requirements for Gaza students: www.independent.co.uk/voices/pales...

Today is the last day to apply for the special Limmud track for PhD researchers and ECRs!

it's me, in one of my favourite journals! 🌱

logging off for a bit, find me via snail mail or carrier pigeon, other forms of post involving friendly animals also accepted

On a related note: does anyone know of any public lists or databases of small or indie presses? With contact details would be amazing, but I'd just take names for now. Our mailing list needs updating and I want to check our reach, this would be a great help, but not sure where to look.

The call for James Tait Black Prize submissions 2025 is open. The categories are Fiction and Biography, and the prize for each is is £10,000. Any work published in the UK this calendar year is eligible, including translations. james-tait-black.ed.ac.uk/submit/ficti...

I have a new article out today. It's about an environmental turn in Palestinian arts and activism, and how environmental framings of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle enable different forms of identification and solidarity: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

1) why would you post anything your students had written online for people to laugh at? 2) Cunk wasn't funny the first time and is an anti-intellectual joke at all of our expense. But perhaps enjoying the latter might explain why you might enjoy the former, laughing at students trying their best.

I have a new article out today. It's about an environmental turn in Palestinian arts and activism, and how environmental framings of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle enable different forms of identification and solidarity: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...