My initial reaction to NASA's announcement: "NASA reveals first plans for a moon base" | CBC News"https://share.google/yF8tOhl90EaWz64IZ

Excellent D&D prep session led by @oliverklangmead.bsky.social this afternoon 👇

On this day in 1907, Rachel Carson was born. Her 1962 book, Silent Spring, helped launch the global environmental movement. Chemical companies tried to discredit Carson by calling her a Communist and/or a “hysterical” woman. #WeTheMen

Don Miguel de Castro. Emissary of Kongo, c. 1643 By Jaspar Beckx. (Statens Museum for Kunst/National Gallery of Denmark)

Great to see our Coastal Studies & Society's special issue, 'Coastal Imaginaries 2: #Haunted Space, Story and Place' is now available online: journals.sagepub.com/toc/CLS/curr... Many thanks to Mike Benbough-Jackson, Eamon Doggett, Prash Naidu, Claire Waffel and @jfpackham.bsky.social

The latest issue of @restorationjournal.bsky.social is out! Including my review of @debcpayne.bsky.social's 'Business of English Restoration Theatre' (CUP, 2024), which was a revelation (muse.jhu.edu/article/991155). All OA, so dive in!

#EnglishCreates: Futures Today, Dr Shafquat Towheed (The Open University) asks a crucial question: Will we still be reading English literature in the future? Despite numerous challenges, he suggests that the answers are more promising than we might assume... universityenglish.ac.uk/will-we-stil...

My interview with @oldfortunatus.bsky.social is on YouTube! Featuring: Ragging on Suffolk, inevitable #ASongofIceandFire #GameofThrones references, Margaret is the best, Jack Cade made some good points even if he went too far, and why it would actually be a bad idea to kill all the lawyers.

On 1st June I'll be presenting a talk titled 'Echoes of the Past: exploring sound heritage' at @school-of-act.bsky.social as part of the @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social. A talk based on my book 'Sonic Pasts'. Free tickets available for in person/online attendance: tftv.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...

The book is dead! Long live the book! yalereview.org/article/shei...

Book Launch: join @nicosiamarissa.bsky.social, in conversation with @willtosh.bsky.social, in the Kitchen with Shakespeare at Brunch, Lunch, Tea & Suppertime!* 22 June 2026, 9:00PDT/12:00EDT/17:00BST *other [meal]time zones available rensoc.org.uk/announcement... #SRSlyGood #EarlyModernEvents

More evidence that university management doesn't understand what they're managing, or even that students, teachers, universities are a vitally important part of the real world. Students are already working, and are already relevant. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Glorious news 👇 #AdoreSnails Edward Bawden's unseen snail art goes on display in Bedford - BBC News share.google/jR1NPqpf3Fb8...

Maria Meliadò ed. Thinking in the Margins: Marginalia in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy - De Gruyter Brill, 2026 (print and open access) @dgb-mem.bsky.social www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Fantastic thread 👇

It's 8.09am I have been catching up with UKHEI news for about 30 minutes this morning I can feel my cortisol levels rise as I read

Hertfordshire's History programme had an ace 2nd-year work placement programme, which apparently was dismantled from above because it was complex. Now of course the programme itself is being dismantled from above. The market logic escapes me.

This 👇

The vast majority of my students do paid work - and many get put into supervisory roles because they are focused and professional. They also run societies and volunteer and do sports and put on plays and run student media. Oh, and try and get a degree in there too.

"Manchester’s vice-chancellor, Duncan Ivison, said no student should graduate having done three years of just academic study." Mate, have you spoken to an undergraduate student recently? The chances of them having got through 3 years having only done academic work are slim to none

If we are looking at a future of summer internships for students, then offer international opportunities to students willing to study a world language.

Coming to Manchester and Glasgow next week, Cressida's Tale stitches together a story of pearls and bones, silver threads and mussel shells: a tale of strangers and survivors. www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend... @porticolibrary.bsky.social www.villagestorytelling.org.uk/festival/pro...

Honestly every innovation at universities for the last decade has basically been “what if we tried to embed elements of self help podcasts into the curriculum, create admin jobs to oversee its nebulous nature, and load more of the actual work onto a diminishing number of academic staff”

The underlying assumption is that Manchester students are rich enough not to be already working. My own university is bringing in compulsory placements: one of the issues not raised AT ALL is that nearly every single student has a job already, quite often full-time. Are they meant to quit?

How do you turn people off the green transition and deliver them to the far right? Through #ClimateAuthoritarianism. The government seeks to coerce, not to persuade. And it's turning a planning system based on consent into one based on decree. This week's column.🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#translatio Looks terrific 👇 "Crossing the Wine Dark Sea by Emily Wilson review – a masterclass in translation" | Classics | The Guardian share.google/MdS0pHeIFYy0...

OTD in 2020, Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the world following the murder of George Floyd. To mark this date we have chosen some pieces from our archive which explore and celebrate Black history. First up is Emma-Lee Amponsah's reflection on Black Cultural Memory.

And in the UK. AI is not "in the cloud", but very much down to earth, with #ClimateEmergency and other serious environmental impacts www.politico.eu/article/big-...

Perhaps the fact that we are conducting an unprecedented experiment with the only home we have, by digging up and burning massive amounts of fossil fuels that is driving global change at rates 10X faster than the most recent warming of this magnitude that occurred oh about 55 million years ago? 🧐

It's a huge mistake to "adjust to" or "adapt" to generative AI. There's rarely been a more clearcut situation to reject vehemently for so many reasons. One reason beyond those that apply now is the future capacity for proactive manipulation and distortion. We need less outside interference not more.

I suspect that a lot of the lack of concern about sweeping academic redundancies is the perception that academics come from upper middle class backgrounds and can simply fall back on family wealth or trust funds. Nope. I live solely on my job like, y'know, almost everyone else.

Bristolians! Still spaces for our Walkfest workshop on Thursday...please share post if you think it might stimulate sign-ups. More on the thinking underlying the workshop here: 'The history of walking is tied up with a history of exclusion' share.google/rDlVjDALCuri...

And it's just been announced that Clare's fantastic book 👇 has won the 2026 David Bevington Award 🎊🎊🎊

technique—technology—technê ‘Technique: Alternate histories of expertise and experiment’—our 2025 double special issue—explores modes of making and questions of functionality, ornamentation, craft, artificiality, skill

I've just watched Ep 1 of The Boroughs I'm completely hooked "The Boroughs review – this witty, star-packed monster show could have been made by Spielberg" | Television | The Guardian share.google/KYPwAkbRnSVK...

I am a total sucker for fun stuff like this, and one of my fav (completely unnecessary) parts of our Thinking With Moss site is how its appearance changes based on the current weather conditions at our server's site. Right now it's warm, very cloudy, and humid. www.thinkingwithmoss.net

Lack of accountability is at the root. In post, they are not accountable, and they all make sure to move on (to another uni, to do the same) before the disfunction becomes undeniable. They will not listen to reason or experience. They have no solutions or imagination: just cuts.

As we face an unprecedented May heatwave, please remember that globally we haven't any idea how many are killed by extreme heat. The given estimates may be a small fraction of the real total. A huge and shocking data gap, which illustrates rich world indifference. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

www.kingswomen.org/post/alice-t... The latest blogpost from the King’s Women looks at new evidence identifying the woman who served drinks to theatregoers at the Globe tavern.

My brilliant colleague Taj Hayer has written an episode of "Zog" ☺️ Lecturer pens episode of popular CBeebies TV programme - Lancaster University share.google/YYeQKLebQ7Gd...

On what would have been Miles Davis' 100th birthday, my fantastic colleague Kwasu Tembo and Jeremy Stuart are speaking on ... Jazz, Derrida & Improvisation @ The Waterside Library, Tuesday 26 May, 3:00pm - Lancaster University share.google/e17nMr1TMjCC...

Been sitting on this for a while, so delighted to be able to be publicly delighted about it!

On the one-year anniversary of EMPIRE OF AI, I am so, so excited to announce The AI Resist List, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world 😍 airesistlist.org

Love an essay on the great value of AI in historical research funded in part by <<checking acknowledgments again>> Amazon.

Took myself off to see "The Christophers" this evening: go see this fine film The Christophers review — 'a terrific two-hander' share.google/dg4HLsjC6Hd4...

📖As well as putting on plays, we like to adapt other bits of literature and see what happens. A Mirror for Magistrates: The Fall of Richard II reworks the opening of the vast history project started by William Baldwin, as the authors meet to share their poems. audioboom.com/posts/875334...

Blu*sky ...I need to raise my D&D game for Friday's campaign 👇 All tips for online resources very gratefully received 🌕🌙🌕🌙🌕🌙🌕

So pleased to be starting this new project on royalist exiles in Paris attached to Queen Henrietta Maria's court, 1644-60. Thank you @britishacademy.bsky.social for funding this research! @openuniversity.bsky.social

Check out this fabulous poster my mother-in-law just discovered in her loft 🤩