I just feel like this is not the ideal thing for the Max Spielmann photo booths helpdesk to show up as in one's email inbox

I turn 50 this year. My father wasn’t born yet in 1946.

Classic beginning of term/state of things dream last night: I was at a (?semi-) derelict version of my secondary school with a group of people. We were playing a game, which was to hide a box full of copies of what we were teaching among the ruined, deserted buildings. (1/2)

So many of HE’s problems are the product of these efforts to generate market structures that just simply don’t work because the conditions that markets need to work really aren’t there, and all they do is create uncertainty (and financial problems) for students, staff, and institutions.

Three short paragraphs, and you've got the whole mind-bending mess that is #UKHE finance & governance neatly laid out. This is why it's all so exhausting: our managers declare there's only one static frame, while we know their framing is part of the issue. 💡 www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/10/w...

Look no further than an English or other Arts and Humanities degree #EnglishCreates excellent careers

Scottish universities PhD students in English and associated subjects, please come along to this a week on Friday! Signup at link in quoted tweet.

Scottish universities PhD students in English and associated subjects, please come along to this a week on Friday! Signup at link in quoted tweet.

How likely is ‘likely’? Does ‘likely’ have a higher probability than ‘probable’? I put together a quick quiz so you can see how you interpret probability phrases, then see how you compare with others: probability.kucharski.io

Right. My students working two part time jobs and/or having an hour and a half commute to uni because they have to live at home due to the cost of student accommodation lack drive and vigour. Sure thing, Peter. The UK Govt still haven't a clue about the realities of universities today.

Some very important messages via graffiti seen on Cramond Island this afternoon.

Since 2019, one of the proudest services I do for the profession is collaborate w. @rcolesworthy.bsky.social & Erin Bartram @contingent-mag.bsky.social to compile a (limited) list of pubs by contingent lit studies scholars. Here is our 2025 compilation. contingentmagazine.org/2025/12/16/2...

My suspicion is that we're already beyond this, as the time costs of applying for funding are resolutely uncounted by university administrations.

I'm organising this hybrid training event on PhD thesis to book for @sgsah.bsky.social Literature+ Catalyst on Fri 16 January. Great speakers inc. Sarah Bernstein, @drjamesbailey.bsky.social, @hannahkateboast.bsky.social, @emilyalder.bsky.social. Please sign up! www.sgsah.ac.uk/e_t/dp/disci...

Webpage now with cover art! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beyond-mo...

Imagine running a higher education system/country so badly that you actually can't afford, or refuse to fund, research that is *literally defined as* "internationally excellent". Stupid, stupid, stupid country.

Check out these amazing keynotes for Weird Modernisms - and there's still time to propose a paper or panel: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M... @moderniststudies.bsky.social

PhD Studentship in War and Climate Change: University of Reading, UK. This looks like a great opportunity for someone wishing to study the military's contribution to the climate crisis: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPU288/p...

Well—this looks *superb*.

This volume, a long time in the works, now lives on the Bloomsbury website. Thanks to my co-editor Katie, associate editors Lauren Faro and Petar Penda, and to @bendoyle.bsky.social and the Bloomsbury team. Look out for the excellent cover, coming very soon... www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beyond-mo...

It is incredibly sad that the BBC is a place for Robbie Gibb, Fiona Bruce and Laura Kuenssberg, and not Robin Ince.

This, every goddamn time

I'm not even going to repost That Article, but if you're still reading the THE hoping that it's going to have something for workers in UKHE, I have some very attractively-priced magic beans to sell you.

I've only seen The Herald report it accurately: www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/2568...

Couldn't believe this when I saw it in the pub. But it also makes perfect sense, as FIFA has massive form for cosying up to authoritarian regimes for World Cup hosting - to only name the most obvious, Italy 1934, Argentina 1978, Qatar 2022 www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

Even if you don't know Steve Cropper, you've heard his playing scores of times, those sharp, choppy changes and licks that characterise Memphis soul guitar. Vale.

Nominations are open for the newly-founded Scottish Literary Studies Book Prize, administered by the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature and awarded biennially to an outstanding work of scholarship in the field of Scottish literary studies. £300 prize. ucsl-scotland.com/scottish-lit...

What a way to precipitate a crisis of demand in manufacturing 😅

🔊 CfP: New Work in Modernist Studies 15 🗓️ Friday 9 January, online ⏰ Apply by 5pm (GMT) Friday 12 December bams.ac.uk/new-work-in-... A great opportunity for postgraduates & early career researchers to share work on modernist cultures in a supportive environment. See link above for full details.

Supermarket herbs, offering superfluous advice to academics

Supermarket herbs, offering superfluous advice to academics

So I am running the London Lea Valley 50km in March and trying to raise some money for Step Forward - a youth centre in Tower Hamlets, Kiddo attends their LGBTQIA+ group and it's been such a brilliant and supportive space for them, which feels so important when trans youth are under constant attack.

Good, of course, though the SFC isn't, as far as I know, doing anything for other Scottish universities who also are making redundancies but haven't needed to be bailed out.

Are you working on literature and culture in the First World War? have you considered submitting to First World War Studies? meet our Associate Editor @afrayn.bsky.social who is keen to receive more submissions in these fields!

Sure Labour's commitment to funding universities so that people can go to them is coming soon, and that when my MP @melanieward.bsky.social replied to my third email about the HE crisis with what could be not unfairly paraphrased as a shrug, it was just a misunderstanding.

Same for literary studies. Non-tenure-track lit studies scholars I know you're out there and publishing articles and books. And if you're tenure-track and know NTT authors, let me know about their work! I can reach out and confirm that they're cool with being listed.

⚠️ Time is running out! ⚠️ 🗓️ The deadline for applications for The WFA PhD Grant Scheme is 1 December. 📣 No topics are off limits, ANY First World War research considered! #FWWHist #PhDchat

In case you were wondering about the state of political discourse in the UK, I just saw on Facebook (via the algorithm) someone who had posted "Here's my letter to my MP. Please don't add political comments."

student working conditions are student learning conditions

"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn." #HigherEd www.theguardian.com/education/20...

What if there was no bailout for failed investments and we put the money into some other analogue system for communicating intelligence www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Not saying I have some bad feelings about today, but I've already driven instead of walking to the station, nearly missed the train anyway, and then nearly failed to get off at the correct sop. Happy Tuesday!

This is a really vile Labour government.

Solidarity with colleagues across the city, not least as it seems pretty likely we'll be doing the same.

It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3

On a bus with a load of schoolchildren, one of whom is, disorientatingly if you were alive in the early 1990s, listening to some sort of video that has What's Up by 4 Non Blondes as the soundtrack.

Wilson Pickett, to the media, promoting a Soul Clan concert in summer 1981: "I think you all realize we all have our own personalities and our way of expressing ourselves. Me? I'm mad as shit." (Tony Fletcher, In the Midnight Hour, p. 217)

Last shout for this event tomorrow - hope to see you there!

I've written about Richard Aldington and the First World War, on and off, since my MA thesis (2002). I don't think it's too much to say that the war affected his physical and mental health, and his relationships, for the rest of his life.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the Bluesky choir, but on Remembrance Sunday it's worth remembering that the important thing is the remembrance, not the ritual.