reading Collini in the LRB on the crisis in the universities. my main takeaway is who wants to join my new grassroots organization “squadrons of pigs”, whose only stated goal is to take back control of universities, but this time round for ALL staff and students

guesses for whose grave i was there for (jim morrison gets an instant block)

*rubbing hands together* ♦️ ❤️

is anything less professionally dignified than the squeaky sound of flip flops in a heat wave in the archives ?

i have no knowledge of these films beyond their titles

“the fault is is our stars”, “my fault”, “our fault”, “your fault” enough with the guilt already! can’t the young people have some happiness???

I’m very pleased that the trade press is giving space to the Exeter horror. Next challenge is for them to look a little further down the league tables - Northumbria perhaps, or my own place. We have feelings too.

just realized why you never see james franco in any films these days replaced by james euroo of course

there is no place on earth to rival paris for the refinement of its cuisine

paris: the temperature now is just 16 and a positively refreshing high of 26 is predicted for today. but both archives i want to visit say they are closing at 13h until further notice, with new document limits. 🥵

“Sometimes you must stand athwart history, yelling Are you fucking serious?”

i also think there is something here - will we say neoliberal? - but certainly individualizing. it’s all about maximizing a single person’s productivity, at the expense of the common good/communities of knowledge

“i used to have to eat FOOD to get the nutrients necessary to survival” has proven a surprisingly common mindset

I can imagine how frustrating and infuriating this must be for many staff and students at Oxford, I suspect perhaps even the majority.

ive got it. so sun cream brands say “reapply every two hours” mattress manufacturers say “replace every 2 years” well we should be pushing hard for “you need ANOTHER degree every five years”

academic archaeologists are reportedly proposing referring to the famous site as “Stonehenge FINAL FINAL EDITED DRAFT FINAL”

so is this a mistake or did advertisers request upside down adverts as a strategy to gain attention? (La Petite Gironde, 3.12.1882, p.4)

about to click submit on the second book ive submitted this month, now if i can keep this up until december that would be 14 books

Our 2026 Supplement (#18) "Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600–1850" Edited by @hsmurphy.bsky.social (@kingshistory.bsky.social @cemskcl.bsky.social) Has now been published by @academic.oup.com academic.oup.com/past/issue/2...

Ok, look, what's been particularly infuriating about the redundancies at Exeter (and Nottingham and Newcastle and and and) is this weird idea that it only affects those individuals and institutions. It harms us all because we are so closely interconnected.

Petition against the job losses here: c.org/ddjtYXzdQQ

just seen the programme for SHS2026 and extra gutted not to be there this time. 2025 at the Black Country Living Museum was one for the ages but this looks amazing socialhistory.org.uk/wp-content/u... 🗃️

i was 20 once! in fact i remember getting heat exhaustion aged a venerable 26 from cycling in summer in the moorlands of gascony. i stopped for a coke and as much water as they would give me in some village cafe and the middle aged barman just shook his head at me

reading the news about the heatwave and surely the next big Discourse after AC is people who run at the height of the heat: a. don’t do that, you can’t all be training for marathon des sables but also b. none. of. my. business.

ha. ha. our heating is controlled by a thermostat on wifi and guess which day it decided to ignore all previous instructions and get this place HEATED UP

🚨 PLEASE SHARE WIDELY 🚨 If you are an Exeter alumnus, and wish to express your horror at the proposed cuts to the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, please sign the Google Doc petition below. Not an alumnus? You can still help by signing the Exeter UCU petition at c.org/msXfsb2g5b 🗃️

📣 People are understandably up in the arms about this (it is horrible). But just want to wave a hand out there 👋 as we're going through the same thing in Humanities at Northumbria (1 out of 5 staff need to go by end of July). 1/?

when will they let us edit skeets that “talk” instead of “take” has ruined some of my finest work

Colleagues at Exeter have asked me to circulate this petition as widely as possible: www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

what did nelly say to the caricature of a frenchman during the heatwave? “it’s getting hot in here, so talk off all your cloves”

Each uni has a consultancy in that tells them how to run a degree cheaply. They all simply say 'mega lectures' (LOL, infrastructure) & 'generic modules staff is interchangeable on'. It's pitched as rationalising, creating a 'sustainable' portfolio. But its destroying what university actually is.

I'm very excited to see Gwen Seabourne (@gwenseabourne.bsky.social) and Joanna McCunn's Insiders and Outsiders in the History of Law now available to pre-order. Featuring new research by me on the Chevalier d'Eon uolpress.co.uk/book/insider...

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

GP on the BBC this morning parroting the oft-heard “stay indoors between 11 and 3 because the sun is hottest then”. The sun is *most intense* then, that’s the time of day you’re most at risk of sunburn. The hottest part of the day is usually between 4-6. Thinking you’re safer at 5 is daft.

some fascinating 1877 classified adverts in code reminding me I need to read Hannah Frydman’s new book on sexuality and classified ads

whither fantasy? on stepmothers and fairytales, because i kept thinking about what irritates me about tales=demographic patterns. basically: if you want to do an incredibly laborious and probably inconclusive PhD, get in touch 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/06/24/s...

it’s 8am. there’s only one room here cool enough to be in, and the only way to keep it livable is a portable aircon unit.

And an addendum making it clear that: the education of every future professional will be worse if this isn’t addressed. The quality of teachers, doctors, solicitors, scientists, vets, engineers, social workers, therapists, environmentalists, forensics, geologists, nurses, etc etc will go down

no vice chancellor ever lost their job for saying “the government is right to hate universities, it’s our job to go along with it” perhaps that is a problem

the media and voter messaging should be this: the current government and the government in waiting do not want your children to be able to go to university, they will not support people in the UK to do original research, they do not care about job losses in one of the largest sectors in the economy

It’s wild that politicians don’t seem to grasp the degree to which universities contribute to the economy- local, regional, national. The failure to intervene is a stain on this govt - a shocking dereliction of duty to every worker, every local business, every student, every area that is suffering

'The University of Exeter is proposing to cut about 150 staff roles. A spokesperson for the university said it was "consulting with colleagues over limited and specific potential changes across some areas of our academic faculties".' 1/4

£20 million and 200 jobs, 'saying it has to go further because of the “scale of the challenge” it faces'. Cuts across technical, professional and academic staff during academic 2026-27. 1/2

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

continuing my wet theme i am thinking i might swim a length for every year ive gone round the sun. given the pool is 91m that’s almost 3km!

wow the plants really needed that rain almost as much as the lorry driver who PROPER soaked me by running through a puddle next to the pavement well played sir

I try to replace ‘apologies for cross posting’ with ‘hot cross posting’: exciting, and possibly delicious!

Britain about to get its seventh Prime Minister in ten years. I can’t say I’m surprised. As a people they’re often wonderful of course—very musical, for example, many charming customs, and always joking around in their quirky way—but they just don’t have the temperament for stable self-government.

THIS is how i find out? of course it is

whenever i get a professional email reminder but it doesn’t specify “friendly” i know it means the person sending it burns with the rage of 1000 suns toward me