all academic applications should have consolation prizes. doesn’t have to be much, like a mug that says “i applied for leverhulme 2020” or a t-shirt “UKRI reject 2023”

"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975 “It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975

Thanks for the judicious edits from @jacobsaliba.bsky.social – a pleasure to write this piece for the JHI Forum!

Went to bed last night with a strange twitching in my arm, which Google tells me is a result of overcaffeination. Had the best time at my first Historical Materialism Conference - challenging, rewarding and, somehow, hopeful - and am already looking forward to next year's. @histmat.bsky.social

My first @histmat.bsky.social conference next week, presenting on Jameson's periodisations and turning the lens on British culture in the 1970s. Can't wait to get stuck in!

Reading Andy Beckett's Promised You a Miracle: Desmond Plummer is a character straight out of The Long Good Friday. Reckon Guy Pearce in Brutalist mode could do a decent job of him.

Reflection on cuts and closures in the humanities from @britishacademy.bsky.social, including an essay on the work of @englishassociation.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social @univeng.bsky.social, thanks to my brilliant colleagues journal.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/thematic-col...

Had the most amazing time and came home stuffed with ideas, thank you British School at Rome!

Really enjoyed this by @solgamsu.bsky.social -- made me reflect a lot on my tendency to focus on painting a picture of how bad things are -- "Avoid moaning without directing it towards some sort of action"

If people outside of the UK wonder why their colleagues in the UK are stressed: Check out this list--> qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Dipping my toes into the blue waters in order that my profile is not that of the coy and blank lurker: here's a thing I wrote for Verso on the miners' strikes before being pulled under by my PhD. FFO state finagling and rhetorical failures on the Left www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...