Being part of this protest meant a lot to me. I felt the power of our collective, every single person out there was standing up for justice. #ProtectEducation #SaveJobs

Compulsory redundancies, 400 job losses, a campus closed. The justification has always been: we have 2612 staff. This is the number the VC has used repeatedly to justify this unprecedented attack on our jobs. But the latest financial figures from the uni say that we actually only have 2273...?

This is why we're on strike. Not to piss management off. Not to make students suffer. But to prove that we're *not* redundant - no matter what Frances says. If we take even a few days off, vital work doesn't get done. A university is nothing without its staff.

Today, we're shining a spotlight on Language & Linguistics - one of the founding departments of the University of Essex, and a very strong department on the national scale, and - as part of a cynical and short-sighted cost-cutting exercise - a department slated for 50% cuts by VC Frances Bowen.

Today, in a branch meeting with unprecedented attendance, Essex UCU overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in our VC Frances Bowen and her senior management team for their appalling handling of the current financial shambles.

The VC has planned to cut 400 jobs, close the Southend campus, demolish the Essex Pathways (foundation year) department, and decimate other departments like language & linguistics, maths & stats and business. She met us for an all-staff meeting on Thursday. It was... fascinating! Let's fact-check.

Read our letter to Julie here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Sign our petition to help avert this crisis - stop the cuts, save Southend, protect education: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa... Thanks! 💚

Julie will know that job insecurity increases risk of suicide: in fact, 1 in 5 suicides is linked to unemployment. We'd like to ask her whether the alternatives to compulsory redundancies were fully explored on Council. Was she given the opportunity to read UCU's fully costed alternative proposals?

UCU Essex supports the crucial work @samaritans.bsky.social do. Our students and staff include a number of proud Samaritans volunteers 💚 Julie Bentley, CEO of Samaritans, sits on our University Council - which has just approved 400+ redundancies. We went to raise awareness at Sams HQ today.

Comrade Frances joined us on the pickets today! Well, she passed by while jogging. But she took a moment to blame us for not telling members just how seriously management are taking our proposals. Apparently we should be working together 🙏 This is the most we've seen of her since Christmas btw 🥰

We have written a further letter to the Vice Chancellor at the University of Essex further to meetings held over the last week and additional questions and concerns that have been raised!

What a way to say “thank you for all the work you did getting this trying term to a good end”: risk of redundancy letters to go into the Christmas break. Wishing triplet ghost visits upon Essex management. And sending much solidarity to all @ucuessex.bsky.social

Pam Cox MP, former member of staff at the University of Essex, speaks out against redundancies and course closures 👏 www.facebook.com/reel/2288732...

Sam McLean @sammcleanntcc.bsky.social on Essex Pathways, the University's experts on foundation year provision. "[O]nce that department is gone, it's gone. It would take decades to rebuild the hundreds of years of combined experience that run it."

The University of Essex has announced it is looking to cut staff and close one of its campuses as it looks to create a more “sustainable” future. Juliette Rowsell reports https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/essex-close-southend-campus-and-cut-400-jobs

Please join us for our next CPD event! 🙂🙏🏽👇🏽

If you’re a #student or #SLT2B interested in sharing your #research on #bilingualism with a friendly group of members from our Bilingualism Clinical Excellence Network, please get in touch - [email protected] All our CPD events are online and they’re usually at lunch time (12-1pm).

The Kannada version of the CGC is available here: osf.io/yt24q Congratulations to Chirag for his excellent MSc project at Uni of Essex.

The City Gesture Checklist has been adapted and translated into Kannada by Chirag Girish Kiran in collaboration with his supervisors; this was a complex process with lots of considerations e.g., cultural differences, differences in dialect, vocabulary choice #BASconf25

me and @snelljulia.bsky.social are doing a joint keynote at this UKLA/NEU conference, talking about futures of linguistic justice and designing linguistically just schools 💜 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/literacy-i...

the London Association for the Teaching of English conference is on Saturday 5 July and is all about oracy. i am giving keynote on oracy, deficit thinking, and linguistic in/justice 🌸 londonenglishteachers.com/about/forthc...

It’s had over 2,500 downloads in its first year! We’re so proud   If you’d like to learn more or you’d like to start a peer support group, you can find all the information at: salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk/our-projects... @katiecebula.bsky.social @suereviews.bsky.social @sarahefoley.bsky.social

It’s the Neurodivergent peer Support Toolkit (NEST)’s first birthday!!   A year ago, we launched this free, co-designed, research informed tool to support mainstream secondary schools to establish peer support groups for neurodivergent young people.

these teachers were 🔥. all working to resist linguistic injustice in spite of dominant deficit discourses about language, individualistic theories of social change, oppressive policy pressures, and inadequate school management 💕

Zoom code now available for our free CLTT Summer Lecture 2025. We look forward to welcoming Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson on 11.06.25 (4pm BST). The informative lecture is Neurodiversity, Communication and Inclusive Education. essex-university.zoom.us/j/94311867295 Meeting ID: 943 1186 7295

i am giving a keynote at the London Association for the Teaching of English conference on the 5 July: Oracy, deficit thinking and linguistic in/justice 🌸 londonenglishteachers.com/about/forthc...

“Save the date” for our Summer Lecture 2025! Ticket details to follow.

It's #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek! But what is neurodiversity? We wrote an article for young people explaining what neurodiversity means for different people and day to day life! kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

Please get in touch with Richard @rtslt.bsky.social #Polish #SLTs #SLPeeps #BskySpeechies 👇🏽

Audiobook freaks! The audio version of Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism is out now! www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0DW13845...

Join us! 😀

New Dates for Lis'n Tell: live inclusive storytelling Intensive Part 1. These trainings are for small groups - up to 10 only, so that we can work individually with each at some point, & so there is opportunity for grp convos/sharing experiences, not to mention the wrk on storytelling skills!

In July last year a wonderful group of people came together to create an ebooklet on neurodiversity to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Since then we have raised over £2000. Now more than ever the people of Gaza need our help. To get a copy see below. @commonsenseslt.bsky.social

Would you like to hear from some people with #aphasia about their views on #AI? New podcast from #RCSLT with me and Caitlin Longman. You can also hear Chat GPT over-promise its SLT credentials to support language practice! (Take that bit with a pinch of salt!). m.soundcloud.com/rcslt/how-is...

Interested in exploring #AI in your practice? Here's a list of potential activities Caitlin Longman and I have compiled to get you started: tinyurl.com/AIandSLT #Aphasia

in this article i show how racially marginalised pre-service teachers' alleged inability to use standard spoken English is a sign of pedagogical inferiority, whilst white teachers’ local vernaculars were heard as signs of coolness and relatability. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#ResearchTuesday! Study explored the perceived implications of AI & generative language tools on SLP practice. Participants indicated a hesitancy, calling for institutional guidelines & training first: at.asha.org/vZ @sigperspectives.bsky.social #SLPeeps

My #MENinSLP/SLT starter pack (not "my men", but rather "my starter pack") is building VERY slowly, but I just added @achoi-tucci.bsky.social 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES go.bsky.app/CGppBcH #MENinSpeech-LanguagePathology/Therapy

On ➡️ 15th January at 12pm ⬅️ I will be giving an online lecture on researching disability. Free to attend for anyone interested - you just need to register www.gla.ac.uk/schools/educ... Aimed at Masters/PhD students/early career researchers & anyone interested in the subject. 1/2

It's great to see this work published just at the end of 2024! Thank you great team for leading on this! @catdavies.bsky.social The paper is open access and can be found here: doi.org/10.1111/jcpp...

Wow. And yet the narrative that social skills programmes are essential for autistic kids is deeply entrenched in the school system. I spend a fair bit of time trying to rebut this belief, and so great to have more evidence to back it up.

Out of office ✅ Taking some time off to rest, recharge & recuperate. And to remind myself to #WorryLessLiveMore #TheresMoreToMyStory

Thank you to everyone who has completed our survey on UK paediatric SLTs intervention planning. The survey will be open until 3rd Jan if you would still like to take part. If you would like to help, please complete our survey: bit.ly/3Z3DNWv Please share with others if you can #mysltday

Nice to see a new review of Empire of Normality in the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books! marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/2187...

Calling all #UK #SLTs! The brilliant @healthlibraryholly.bsky.social needs participants for her important #research on #accessible #information #easyread - what a great opportunity to help improve info access for ppl with #communication #disabilities @carohaw.bsky.social @abracabadger.bsky.social

Some gatekeepers of knowledge do not accept/allow different ways of knowing.

I was hoping to get some things done before the Christmas break but there’s not enough time. And that’s ok. Things can wait for a bit.

Please join us on 18.12.24 at 16.30-17.30 GMT for our next @manmetuni.bsky.social #communication #disability #research #webinar to hear @abracabadger.bsky.social presenting "Data Visualization. What is it and how is it experienced by people with language disabilities?" Join on Teams: bit.ly/3ZdneGt

It was so interesting to hear from Anna and Abi Roper about how the City Gesture Checklist (CGC) was developed as a quick screening tool to assess gestures in clinical practice. You can download the City Gesture Checklist here: lnkd.in/eJus2AxX 1/4