"Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three main themes emerged from the data. These were as follows: (1) the primary stereotype is that autistic people are 'weird'; (2) autistic stereotypes have negative effects and consequences; and (3) autistic people are heterogeneous. " #WeirdPride

If I had been smart and thought of this ahead of time, I would have combined both my classes into one for today. Only 3 people turned up for each of the two tutorials, and whew I don't blame the students, this isn't our usual time so many would have had conflicting obligations, but that was *hard*

Due to Friday being a public holiday, my classes have been moved to today on Zoom. Stay tuned to see how I go online teaching first years 😅 I have taught on zoom before but it was four years ago and the very first time I had ever taught (not recommended), so

this is awesome!

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

So we have had a very bad week. For reasons both boring and disgusting (slug in my CPAP isn’t cleaning up right!), we’re short until the government decides to disburse my loans. Jason has done a full 50% off commissions for anyone interested. ko-fi.com/cluelessluca

Any movie poster / promotional material designers available for some work this week that requires a quick turnaround?

This is fascism.

Bunny wabbits.

Commented on a Facebook where someone was like ‘you can use AI for this. It won’t hurt anything’ and had a ‘anything but the environment’. Was a bit hesitant on it, because I didn’t want to get into a Facebook fight. But someone commented asking if that was true if it had environmental impacts

This study frames autistic empathy as “lower” rather than DIFFERENT. It reinforces deficit-based thinking & focuses on creating diagnostic tools that could be weaponized against us. Empathy isn’t broken in autism - it’s expressed differently. #EmancipatoryResearch

This week I've had a big scholarship interview and I've emailed some potential PhD supervisors. That's enough stress in one week for probably the whole month, if not two.

Apparently I could have deleted my Academia dot edu account yesterday without signing over my soul to get to the delete page after all; oh well

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

Talking to my brother nearing the end of his Masters of Primary Teaching, and he was saying how he's starting to get stressed about how he'll then have to teach a class without a mentor teacher in the room. Me: ...I've never had anyone with more teaching experience than me watch me teach.

Statement of support for the Save Meanjin campaign, from colleagues in the Screen and Cultural Studies program at the University of Melbourne savemeanjin.org

Reading about Cowrie money in prep for teaching this week, and this is so interesting! I didn’t know any of this, how cool

This is going to be so much fun - my list is going to be the first one! And it was HARD. 📚 😭 🏆

Gifting myself some flowers post interview. Bonus that I get to use my new vase for the first time, and I managed to pick great flowers for it on accident.

Can anyone help me with a PDF of: Kicklighter, Joseph A. "An Unknown Brother of Pope Clement V." Mediaeval Studies 38 (1976): 492–95. doi.org/10.1484/J.MS...? #ICanHazPDF #MedievalSky TIA!!

It’s a Melbourne spring, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it starting to rain just after I left the house when there was no rain warning on my weather up is just rude

Due to a frankly bizarre confluence of back-end tech errors, internet outages and angry squirrels, we've postponed tonight's scheduled masterclass on digital accessibility for course creators. It's now NEXT TUESDAY 23 September at 7.30PM BST. Want to save your seat? Sign up here!

Our government are not following the @WHO advice currently. Choose wisely! It’s also airborne, too many are caving under political pressure, that’s obvious.

My brother went to the ER last night. Got admitted for a few days around midnight (things are looking okay now he’s in hospital). But he’s still in a bed in ER because they don’t have a bed to move him to, which also means there’s one ER bed less for an emergency. Our healthcare system needs work

It was something I had seen via tutoring long before genAI entered the academic mainstream. It's worse now. GenAI has merely given students yet another avenue through which to forego joy and curiosity and wonderment, and genAI does so with the most lifeless, empty rhetoric it can.

📣Calling all new research students in history & historical subjects. Do you want to learn how the IHR can help you during your studies? Join us on the 8 October to find out more. @royalhistsoc.org @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social @historyandpolicy.bsky.social @chppc.bsky.social bit.ly/41UPOyG

Or, hear me out, we could just provide all institutions with guaranteed research funding without having to prove excellence. Just because research is a core function of universities. You know, like we did before the creation of RAE which later morphed into REF.

The best advice to students beginning university can be summed up as: if in doubt, ask your teachers (or librarians, or student support staff, etc. as relevant) and not the plagiarism robot. The Guardian can send my fee to my PO Box.

I am at the 'having dreams about it' level of stress. But I have put a motivating song lyric as my phone background to remind me that I have got this. (Song lyric being TSwift's "I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit, they said 'babe, you've gotta fake it till you make it' and I did.")

One day, nearly 2000 years ago, a cat dashed across some drying tiles, somewhere near Hadrian's Wall. It's immortality of a kind, isn't it?

I have to bring this up, because I am queer, and whew nondisabled queer people don’t like it when you remind them that there are intersections.

Students got their assessments back earlier this week, so I set aside time in class for them to read over it again and talk through it with their table (if they wanted), and ask me if they had any questions about anything. Excellent activity that I think I will implement again.

What is academia if not a never ending cycle of telling students to be more specific in their work and then getting feedback yourself that tells you to be more specific

Come and join us for a few days jam-packed with medieval and early modern keynotes, papers, roundtables, and events! @anzamems.bsky.social Conference 2025 at the University of Melbourne, 3–5 December

Under development and quite simply, brilliant! Hoping the full assessment includes Long Covid questions too! What’s your score? @longcovidadvoc.com @jneill.bsky.social

researchers are where the content comes from; it doesn't grow on the Wikipedia tree

Manuscript for sale! It’s so pretty (other pretty images in the og post 😍)

Cat kept yelling at me until I left the desk and came to sit in bed so she could sit on me 😂😭 She doesn’t care that I have assignments to mark

Last week, I tutored a HS student, who hadn't read his book. He said he probably wouldn't read it. So I talked through ideas of how to familiarise himself with the text (if you can't beat them, join them). He came today having started reading the text and could explain the overall plot to me 🥺

!!!

Also a really positive point that I have from this is: I have a wonderful community. So many people have offered me help/support/advice and that's just so lovely

Talking to my partner about an upcoming scholarship interview that I have: "I'm not qualified for this" pause "Okay, I am *academically* qualified for this. I am not emotionally qualified for this." (In terms of I am stressed about doing the interview itself)

im clearly reading the wrong news, but had totally missed that (here in the uk) booking is open for both the flu and the covid jabs, inc private. if you aren’t eligible for the NHS schemes, always worth checking if your employer covers private vaccination

does anyone here have any leads for toolkits/resources for organizations preparing for and responding to targeted (political) harassment? im only finding resources about cyberbullying (of individuals) but im looking for eg how charities respond to hostile journalism and social media pile ons

Talking Country at VU in 2026! Submit a paper! I will possibly be there revisiting my book Now and Rome and talking about what happens to Arendt when you think about Country rather than the polis as the organising principle of human (and more-than-human) plurality www.vu.edu.au/30th-FILLM-C...

Who could have predicted, etc.

About two months into having nerve pain in my wrists is making this seem less like a weird new flare and more like a new constant addition to my chronic nerve pains…

So please sign & RT #FightForVaccineRights

Here’s the page you need if you want to join the class action: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com And the Authors Guild statement on who may be eligible for a part of the settlement: authorsguild.org/news/what-au...

Attention #AcademicSky Everyone is talking about books, but thousands of academic journals were also pirated and are entitled to up to $3,000 *per pirated volume!!!* if editors submit titles to join the suit. Incredible opportunity for underfunded journals to get some $$! #SkyStorians #MedievalSky