6 months.

We are BACK folks, after the British black hole of August holidays. In this week's episode, I talk with Erin McGlothlin about how Holocaust perpetrators are depicted in both fiction and non-fiction. Check it out! thhp.buzzsprout.com/2291653/epis...

Delighted that the University of Canberra has announced my appointment as Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas, and Director of UC's new Vice-Chancellor's Centre of Public Ideas. Looking forward to developing this exciting initiative from early 2026. www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/med...

What historians see when people claim AI is solving mysteries that have baffled historians for years.

Oh fabulous 🙄 www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/910525...

Philippe Sands' review of Olivera Simic's new book observer.co.uk/culture/book...

New article by Ilona Fekete www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

NY NY 🥳

On further reflection, handing operation of our Universities over to a professional administrative class with no personal investment in the educational mission of the university or the creation and maintenance of knowledge might have been somewhat in error.

Haunted house but it’s all the co-authors you owe draft papers to

Future Fellowship application in! Phew!! I deserve $1m just for writing this thing 😅 It's my first time applying and no chance now to apply twice more. Thanks ARC gods. Oh well. It was, in the end, sort of fun 🙃

Great interview www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Nobody in authority ever suggested that "Essay mills are just an inevitable part of modern life, you should change your teaching-methods to circumvent them". They fucking MADE THEM ILLEGAL.

🤡 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

check out this absolutely terrifying ancient babylonian lullaby

A haunted house for academics where a senior faculty member says "yeah, I wouldn't be able to get a job these days either." But still believes in merit 🙃

"In the end, generative AI might be a blip in tech history, over-promising and under-delivering until finally the cash runs out. But it seems it’s arrived just in time to shove universities over a cliff edge they’d already walked themselves up to."

someone just asked what my methodology is

Even real Nazis were getting these burned off by US doctors lol

The thieves should win the Nobel peace prize for bringing some joy to my timeline

I spend a year plotting a mystery novel and then this happens.

Aidan Turner in the Diplomat 🚨 but also gimme season 2 of Rivals stat

Well I was not expecting BILL NIGHY to be spitting facts today! observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

Mark Fennell is becoming insufferable

reminiscing about the lovely few weeks before my puppy learnt how to bark. at the noisy neighbours. 🥴

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

🙃🤡 www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/909142...

International crime expert named as new UniSQ Vice Chancellor www.thechronicle.com.au/business/too...

Webster is better than Shakespeare

They consult HE research sometimes. First the VC decides on a policy to supposedly cut costs or increase income based on anecdotal information and whether it weakens academic influence. Then their cronies try to find 'HE research' supporting it. Regardless, it is forced through and backfires.

know what's good? a great lecture by someone who really knows their shit

poor old Tony Abbott is on the public broadcaster dismissing the oldest and longest continuous oral histories in the history of humanity as “hearsay” how’s your morning going.

Sure. This also seems to be another failure of the MH system after her high-achieving mother was recently sectioned and then released with, I imagine, minimal follow-up. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Only available on microfilm

UK safety PSA ads from the 1970s-80s were infamously scary and bleak, but I just learnt today THAT THIS WAS A REAL AD IN NEW ZEALAND. youtu.be/u51OxZF1ltI?...

Chris Hammer cannot write teenagers.

👀Don't miss this! Two of Australia's sharpest & most prescient thinkers, the legendary Sheila Fitzpatrick and Linda Jaivin, on how the F we got here If anyone can tell us, they can. They've seen it all Moderated by my Dad, Russia specialist Kyle Wilson www.blackincbooks.com.au/events/stali...

Broken university governance is holding higher education back in Australia. Where wrongdoing occurs, who or where do staff go? Who’s holding officials to account?   Uni governing bodies have proven incapable of doing the right thing.

Are you a university staff member? Tired? Stressed? Overworked? It will only take 5-6 mins to help independent researchers shine a light on the state of wellbeing in our universities. Results will be published and responses anonymous. Please help by adding your voice: nteu.info/census

Hot off the press & #OpenAccess, check out 'Amendments to Non-European Naturalisation Policy, 1956–1957: Differentiating Between Intention and Effect' by Nathan Gardner Molina: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Towradgi