Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Wild honey has a scent - of freedom Dust - a scent of sunshine And a girl's mouth - of violets. But gold - nothing. Water - like mignonette. And like apple - love. But we have learned that blood smells only of blood. -Anna Akhamatova, trans. Ilya Kaminsky/Katie Farris #everynightapoem #shanatova

The British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation are inviting applications from early-career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of Truth, Justice and Peace in Germany. https://bit.ly/4nyWsmv

As beautifully written as it is devastating.

"An interesting question is whether anyone dares to weaponise Brexit against Reform. These are the people who gave you Brexit and promised it would deliver controlled migration." @jillongovt.bsky.social on the surge in popularity in Reform among UK voters

"European politics is affected by the same phenomena of fragmentation and polarisation. For both the political agenda is packed with big, wicked issues that are hard to solve, which makes UK-EU relations less of a priority." @jenniferrankin.bsky.social on the salience of UK-EU relations

Re-upping this, just in time for the start of term.

From The Question of African Philosophy Peter Bodunrin, Philosophy 1981

If you are interested in the history of book, check out this phenomenal exhibit curated by the wonderful Martin Heijdra at Princeton. It is a model exhibit in so many ways, covering different parts of the world, so many languages, and, images are in IIIF dpul.princeton.edu/global-book-...

Oxford University Press is introducing an AI summarisation & quizzing asst. into their law textbook ‘trove’: it took considerable effort from our Fac+Library to have them engineer in a license-level off switch (they initially refused!). They did not clock how important the skill of summarisation is.

A world of different ideas. Our latest @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social shelf spotlights Hay Festival Segovia 2025 participants – a reading list for our complex times. Dive in! uk.bookshop.org/lists/hay-fe...

Almost there… arriving @hayfestival.bsky.social in Segovia.

I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/

Aushalten muss man auch aushalten können

The news of Conor Gearty's death has just been announced and I'm not coping. He was a mentor and the pole star in my constitutional thinking. He was also a great friend and fantastic fun to be around. I'm heartbroken for Aoife and the children.

"The practice of violence changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world." - Hannah Arendt

Listen in for thoughts, cities, writing, laughter, and pronouncing London in other languages. With a big shout-out to the team at @euinuk.bsky.social for recording this with us.

What happens when we see ourselves as others see us? This weekend I'll be @hayfestival.bsky.social in Segovia to talk writing, place & language with @martarebon.bsky.social, William Chislett & Deborah Christopher. Includes most picturesque setting yet for our @europeanlitlondon.bsky.social pop-up.

Young Europeans don’t care about democracy, right? In fact, they do! They even develop concrete and actionable ideas for the EU to act on to improve the democracy they (want to) live in. @euobserver.com @ourruleoflaw.bsky.social @stiftungmercator.bsky.social euobserver.com/rule-of-law/...

AJP Taylor: not a referencing guy

Not too long ago I had a strange conversation with someone about immigration. They were asking me if I could confirm their suspicion that some figures they’d seen recently were bogus. What unfolded was... not what I'd expected. georginasturge.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

Interesting point.

📝 New Blog Post! 📝 Check out this new @voltaire.ox.ac.uk blog post by Nicholas Cronk, celebrating our recent acquisition of a rare printing of Voltaire's Candide, from 1791. Read on to learn more about the novel itself and the history of its publication, as well as more details on our new edition!

'Speaking at the event at the University of Exeter, Patrick Vallance said there would be a “short” three-month pause in processes in order to ensure “we get it right”. He stressed that the overall timeline, with results to be published in 2029, was not affected.' 1/2

Worth reading The Times' editorial on Powell from 1968. Contrast it with last week, when it pointed out that Farage's deportation proposals would "undoubtedly find favour" and other parties "better come up with something radical." A truly contemptible descent for a once-great newspaper.

She remembered it was August and they say August brings bad luck. But September would arrive one day like an exit. And September was for some reason a lighter and more transparent month. Clarice Lispector (t. Katrina Dodson) #everynightapoem #september As ever

External evaluation of the Turing Scheme published. The scheme aimed to enable more participants with disadvantaged backgrounds. But the evaluation shows weak delivery (eg late confirmation of funding) means those groups could not easily participate assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/658302...

Again - the reason that the Good Friday Agreement locks in the ECHR is that the UK had repeatedly been held accountable by the European Court of Human Rights for human rights breaches during the Troubles - while national courts had failed to do so, even upholding miscarriages of justice

“If you don’t let my Plagiarism Machine run unhindered, the business I have built around stealing and reusing your intellectual property may prove unviable” is certainly among the more entitled of whinges.

NEW Yes, an incoming illiberal and radical UK government would have absolute constitutional power By me Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/yes-an-inc... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/08/yes-...

Was ein elendiges hin und her wegen ein paar reaktionären Hansels. Jetzt ist klar: Morgen wird umbenannt. Berlin bekommt die Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

“This house once stood in another country. Human will can move mountains” (seen in Berlin East today)

Today is a special day for SSEES Library. Exactly 20 years ago today (15th August 2005) we opened at our current location in Taviton Street. The new @uclssees.bsky.social building was not quite finished, but that didn't stop us! 📚🥳🍾🎉🎈

Long before modern feminism, women in 16th-century Dubrovnik were challenging the norms through poetry, philosophy, and wit

Excellent selection by @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social - dating back to 2021 i think but just as apposite today. And a v interesting conversation with @nigelwarburton.bsky.social about the choice of books, and the relationship between human rights & literature.

hoping that when they say the LLM talks like a Ph.D.-level expert, they mean "holds indecipherable decades-long academic grudges expressed largely in the form of questions that are actually more of a comment"

THE HERDS’ 20,000km journey has finally come to an end at one of the furthest reaches of the world. Since April, the animals’ route has led them through the Congo Jungle of Central Africa, the desert of the Sahel, and towns and cities across Europe. @theherds.bsky.social

Please share this thread. It is important that political scientists, in Europe and across the world, understand why EPSS exists and why we are encouraging people to attend our inaugural conference, in Belfast next June.

Die wirklich bewundernswerte Kollegin Brosius-Gersdorf zieht ihre Kandidatur zurück und formuliert schärfste - völlig berechtigte! - Kritik an den Unionsparteien sowie der FAZ. Die Kampagne war eine Shitshow epischen Ausmaßes und wird die Verfassungsrechtspolitik unseres Landes nachhaltig prägen.

We are hosting the UK premiere of the powerful documentary, ‘The Librarians’, directed by Kim A. Snyder. Come and join us @bodleian.ox.ac.uk for the screening, a panel discussion, and drinks! Co-organised with @rsliterature.bsky.social visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/sep25/...

Spectacular is the word. Wow! 🗃️

New Writers Prize for 5,000 word short story. Prize is £3K and scholarship for MA at Brunel University, runner up prizes too. Details in link. Please share :)

Very excited to be recording a special edition of The Ukraine Shelf at @edbookfest.bsky.social with my co-host @okhromeychuk.bsky.social and the brilliant Oksana Maksymchuk and Phillipe Sands! Ticketes here: www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

Nerdy joke warning. 😁 I've been planning this since I first saw the Newton for Hyde sign.

Early career, fixed-term curatorial fellowship focusing on European paintings 1600-1800 at the National Gallery, London. #earlymodern #arthistory jobs.theguardian.com/job/9693493/...

Ernst Jandl wäre heute einhundert Jahre alt geworden. 💝

Cool! "Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men" is no.1 on the @iajournal.bsky.social summer reading list. 👇☀️😎🥂👇 @princetonupress.bsky.social

"It is fearful! It is mad! I am quite giddy and confused. London is the grandest and most complicated monster on the face of the earth." If writing-walking-musing-blasting-singing-craving-lyricising London is your thing, @europeanlitlondon.bsky.social might be too. www.europeanliterarylondon.org

In Berlin this August? Come see our map in the town hall, just off Alexanderplatz! #summer #plans