What are the hidden harms faced by child domestic workers? In a co-authored article by @benhanckel.bsky.social, he examines the experiences of child domestic workers in Myanmar, revealing how economic pressure and abuse shape the lives of girls in hidden domestic labour. tinyurl.com/yc5896hh

New Book Alert! 📚🚨Huge congratulations to Prof. Brett Neilson on the release of his new co-edited book, “Decolonisation in the 21st Century: Rethinking Coloniality, Resistance and Solidarity”. Order your copies here: tinyurl.com/5fedy343

Congrats to @malinisur.bsky.social on her Volvo Research and Educational Foundations–funded project “Entangled Pathways”. With Dr Premjeet Das Gupta and partners across five universities, it explores how walking and street vending can shape more inclusive, liveable cities.

Should AI data centres prove public benefit to gain fast approval? 👩‍💻 In @aunz.theconversation.com, @ehsan-noroozinejad.bsky.social explains Australia now expects AI data centres to support clean energy, save water, create jobs, and serve national interests to be fast-tracked. tinyurl.com/bdeyp6nh

Everything is just fine folks. Nothing to worry about

Latest article from me in The Conversation this morning. I discuss a new Nature study that finds X's algorithmic feed is politically biased (surprise, surprise!). I explore the idea of social media platforms as faulty infrastructure in need of a fix. theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-...

Here is my cartoon about Mr Jon Kudelka www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This looks like a cracker of a session.

New book chapter by TASA member Leah Williams Veazy et al. Communities of Care in Migration

CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN : TASA 2026 - Resistance & Revolution How do we understand social change beyond protest, rupture, and spectacle? What does resistance look like in everyday life, institutions, technologies, and places? Click here for more: tasa.org.au/content.aspx... #TASA2026 #ResistanceAndRe

This is utterly terrifying. We have a far right party rapidly gaining votes in Australia, polling above the LNP opposition and chasing Labor.

The first Academy newsletter for 2026 has hit inboxes! View the newsletter at the link: socialsciences.org.au/news/februar... Not subscribed? Fix that here: socialsciences.org.au/subscribe-to...

Really important work from the ABC’s Gareth Hutchens yesterday: www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Paraglides, Cultural Safety and Decolonization: Randa Abdel-Fattah on her ban from Adelaide Writers’ Week and the silencing of Palestinians mondoweiss.net/2026/01/para...

Paraglides, Cultural Safety and Decolonization: Randa Abdel-Fattah on her ban from Adelaide Writers’ Week and the silencing of Palestinians mondoweiss.net/2026/01/para...

In the 21st century, one of the wealthiest societies in human history, yet diminished and lost: a nation of rich cowards without even the courage to acknowledge our origins and far less the possibility of a better future than the nightmare daily growing around us. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

1/4 An announcement, of sorts... I wasn't sure when or how to share this news publicly. As you know, Macquarie University went through a round of academic staff cuts at the end of 2025, particularly targeting my discipline of sociology.

My new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor, is now shipping! A brief summary of the argument to follow…

Very sad to hear Graeme Turner has died - what an enormous contribution he made to higher education humanities.org.au/our-communit...

A message from ACTU Secretary @sallymcmanus.bsky.social for NTEU members at MQ! We support all union activists and will advocate against these redundancies. Join us to fight for what’s right: nteu.au/join @damiencahill.bsky.social

✅ The independent Australian Census on Staff Wellbeing is now live. This survey is: 🟣 Independent 🟣 Confidential 🟣 Takes 5-6 mins This is for all university staff - help make our workplaces safer today: nteu.info/census

While Twitter might still drive policy in the US, it doesn't in Australia. But neither's Bluesky or LinkedIn. We've lost a social platform that drives discourse, brings new thinkers to public prominance and connects policymakers and journalists with people with ideas outside our stale institutions.

I wrote to Tony Burke about the closure of Meanjin, and finally received a reply from the office of Jason Clare, who had been forwarded the message because it was an issue for higher education, rather than the arts (!). This is a wholly embarrassing and inadequate buck pass and response.

Gold. “put every university decision-maker responsible for the ongoing, farcical fatcattery in Australian higher education to the figurative sword. It’s in the national interest for the sector to be reformed, and heads to roll”

Australian universities are a shit show and university managements who listen to corporate consultancy grifters are to blame. My latest in the @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“ACU’s vice-chancellor was handed a $60,000 pay rise last year, taking his salary to $1.1 million. So while he is happy to pocket a 5.8 per cent pay rise, staff are being offered 2.5 per cent.” -NTEU General Secretary Dr Damien Cahill @damiencahill.bsky.social Read more: nteu.info/acustrike

New #book by TASA member Benjamin Hanckel et al. Researching with Young People: An Introduction to Youth-Centred Research Methods www.bloomsbury.com/uk/researchi...

**2 PhD Opps.** Led by TASA members Anita Harris and Loretta Baldassar Transnationally mobile youth and their transitions to adulthood Apps close October 24th For details, visit www.deakin.edu.au/study/fees-a...

Please sign. Help us get to 3000 signatures

📰BREAKING📰 SafeWork NSW has stepped in to force Macquarie University to make work health and safety improvements to their consultation on proposed workplace changes. Thanks to NTEU members at MQ who spoke out about the harm of workplace changes to staff mental health and wellbeing.

Finally, if you work, study or care about the university sector, write to the Minister Jason Clare, write to chair of the Inquiry Senator Marielle Smith and urge them to act. www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and...

open.spotify.com/episode/1OPE... In this week's DS episode @jennaprice.bsky.social, Sinclair Davidson, Mark and I discuss the governance crisis in the Australian University sector. It is telling when folk from across the political spectrum agree on the problem and most of the solution A thread🧵

✨️Restructures!✨️

University restructures often follow a similar playbook. If restructures are based on UniForum data, then its blind spots and biases may be hardwiring a flawed, one-size-fits-all model of governance across the sector — a model that undermines educational quality and institutional diversity.

this is a very sharp piece on why it makes no sense to run universities as if they are businesses. They're not businesses. www.afr.com/work-and-car...

‘The philosopher Judith Butler and the Middle East historian Ussama Makdisi are perhaps the only two notified people who have spoken publicly about the email they received. Butler sees the silence of the others as a sign of fear.’ @mashagessen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

Private consultants are taking control of how public universities are evaluated and run. My submission to the Senate university governance inquiry raises concerns about the impact of Nous Group and their dodgy UniForum data on our universities. www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStor... A thread

Schubert's Productivity - remastered from an old joke bsky.app/profile/prof...

The next part in my series on the hideous mess in Australian universities. I'm in despair. www.smh.com.au/national/uni...

I interviewed historian @emmashortis.bsky.social on the particulars of American fascism, comparisons with Nazism, the global crisis of democracy, and Australia's options. None of this is particularly cheery stuff, but you might find some clarity in it. youtu.be/MM6cXjTBJ0U?...

More top #highered reporting ⁦‪from Julie Hare AFR. www.afr.com/policy/healt...

1/At Macquarie Uni we are losing 50% of our units in my faculty. This is on top of cuts in 2020. We estimate by next year my faculty will be teaching 80% fewer subjects than pre Covid. Disciplines being cut do not have declining enrolments. @jennaprice.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social

'Opaque, conflicted, overpaid' uni governance' is way too polite.

@jennaprice.bsky.social is on the money with this article On rife bullying in our universities: “This has led to a climate of fear where academics see terrible decisions being made to curriculum but have no power to speak up for fear of reprisals.” www.smh.com.au/national/uni...

There is still much to be done to fix university governance but nonetheless a huge win for the thousands of NTEU members who have campaigned tirelessly to build better unis. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Here's our latest statement on the German Sociological Association's (@dgsoziologie.bsky.social) objection to the suspension of Israeli Sociological Society’s (ISS) membership in the International Sociological Association (ISA) drive.proton.me/urls/WCCB71P...

Please help us save the discipline of sociology at Macquarie University www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

Slovenia becomes the first EU country to ban all arms trade with Israel, calling it a “duty” to respond to the denial of aid into Gaza and pledging further measures against Israel in the coming weeks. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/jaafpx