Faculty will be ”given a score between zero and three by the university” - unbelievable stupidity and cruelty, solidarity with comrades at Exeter

Andy Brockman@andybrockman.bsky.social · last mo.

"The idea that people will be able to hold it together and deliver a term of teaching before they vanish off into the horizon, is bizarre, spiteful and naive as well.” The Times HE's punchy account of Exeter University's #BonfireOfTheHumanities & what one academic describes as "existential terror".

Polls open in New Caledonia’s first provincial elections since 2019 https://aje.news/snsr6z

The death toll from Israel’s war on Lebanon has surpassed 4,000. Since March 2nd, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health: — Israel has killed at least 4,057 people throughout Lebanon. — More than 12,000 injured. — 135 health workers killed; 17 hospitals damaged.

‘This is not our first summer of racially motivated unrest, but the level of fear this time is unprecedented. Videos circulating on social media appear to show masked individuals stopping cars to identify people from immigrant backgrounds.’ Luqman Saeed in Belfast. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Luqman Saeed | In Belfast

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that we are living under a kind of house arrest, unable to go out, with an oppressive...

lrb.co.uk

More than 1 million people - a fifth of Lebanon's population - have been displaced by Israel's strikes and evacuation warnings across Lebanon since aggressions escalated on March 2.

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Myanmar military regime widens sanitary towel ban, claiming rebels use them for first aid

Activists say clamp down on period products to target insurgents is gender-based violence and violates rights

theguardian.com

Many in Lebanon told me they don’t trust this ceasefire. Some went to check their homes but didn’t stay. Many expect a resumption of fighting at some point. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/...

Displaced Lebanese wary as ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah begins

Tensions linger as evacuees await clarity on the ceasefire’s terms before risking a return to war-torn villages.

aljazeera.com

The death toll in Lebanon is now 2,020 with 6,436 injured

Israel strikes central Beirut without warning https://aje.news/ygb521

For context, when Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich says, "The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon," he is a sitting member of the Israeli Cabinet talking about the illegal takeover of sovereign Lebanese land. That is 30 km north of the current border.

"There is no better way to honor this anniversary than to deliver on the vision of protesters fifteen years ago." Today, we at @timep.bsky.social join Syrians globally to remember the 15 year anniversary of the Syrian uprising and to uphold its memory by realigning with its compass.

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy@timep.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Today, March 15, marks fifteen years since the Syrian people took to the streets to demand freedom and dignity in the face of decades of injustice. They were met with a brutal response by the Assad regime that ushered in harrowing mass atrocities and a devastating war.

Follow these accounts to understand more about whats hppening in Lebanon. go.bsky.app/Bwe7hSf

The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without public support. Above all it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people, and without a plan to let them build a legitimate Iranian state. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Trump Has No Plan for the Iranian People

The mere act of bombing Iran will not by itself create a stable regime.

theatlantic.com

Solidarity with @lufappul.bsky.social as they wrap up a third week on the picket lines in the Sudbury cold! Solidarité avec l’APPUL alors qui terminent une troisième semaine de piquetage dans le froid de Sudbury!

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse serving veterans. He died trying to protect protestors being assaulted. A group of anonymous & masked men fired chemicals into his face, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Then his government smeared him & defended his murder.

Join us on Saturday, February 14, for PeaceRep Iraq's final conference, 'Reframing Iraq: Power, Politics, and Paths to Inclusion'. @lsemiddleeast.bsky.social @peacerep.bsky.social www.lse.ac.uk//middle-east...

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato." surreal times dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous

Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...

dailynous.com

We're organising an @ipsa.org Research Committees Colloquium in Bolzano/Bozen in June 2026, to be hosted by @euracminorities.bsky.social and @autonomyexperience.bsky.social. We welcome papers on all aspects of politics of and in ethnically plural societies. sites.google.com/view/ipsarc1...

rc14.ipsa.org - Bolzano/Bozen 2026

Image credit: Eurac Research | Marion Lafogler

sites.google.com

Some thoughts on what Trump has done in Venezuela and what it might mean for US national security. Caveat: not a Latin America scholar so this is focused on US policy. Clearly huge consequences for Venezuela that others can address. First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it. 1/

Even if Trump’s attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of Maduro somehow led to a positive impact on Venezuela’s future, it would not make these actions by the United States legal, moral or wise. Normalising and legitimising this behaviour endangers all countries - democracies and dictatorships alike.

Bowing to reality, the French government has abandoned plans to hold a referendum on 15 March for a new political statute for New Caledonia. My report for Islands Business looks at shifting French policy, which has divided legislatures in Paris and Noumea. islandsbusiness.com/news-break/f...

France delays New Caledonia referendum

BOWING to reality, the French government has abandoned plans to hold a referendum on March 15 to consider a new political statute.

islandsbusiness.com

‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing

‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing

Unless urgent action is taken life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banks

theguardian.com

may I recommend writing a book review? it's fast, it's useful, it's a good thing to do. if it's an academic review, just look up the book review editor for a journal where you'd like to publish and pitch a review of a book that came out in the last few years or is forthcoming

Our book now has a cover and a preorder link! In it, @drsiobhanbyrne.bsky.social and I trace the rise of the WPS agenda & power-sharing as conflict resolution norms, chart their intersections, and reckon with the possible decline of both norms utpdistribution.com/978104980435...

Gender, Peace, and Power-Sharing

Gender, Peace, and Power-Sharing examines the rise of two powerful norms in international conflict resolution and post-conflict governance: power-sharing as ...

utpdistribution.com

📌𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘁! 📌 🇱🇧 🇮🇶 Under what conditions are 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 established, and when are they effective? 🔓 Read the #openaccess article by @allimcculloch.bsky.social Soeren Keil, Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif and Sahar Ammar here 👉 doi.org/10.1080/1359... #power #agreement #Lebanon #Iraq

Thrilled to publish this exceptional collection on Syria a year after Assad pomeps.org/pomeps-studi...

POMEPS Studies 57: Syria After Assad - Project on Middle East Political Science

Many developments during the past year have given rise to a host of crucial questions about the future of Syria and the Syrian people. To explore them, the Project on Middle East Political Science (PO...

pomeps.org

Today, we honour the lives of those murdered at Polytechnique Montreal in 1989 and all people impacted by gender-based violence. CAUT remembers them and reaffirms its commitment to fight gender-based violence, hatred and misogyny. Read our full statement: www.caut.ca/news/caut-ma...

@inclusivepeaceora.bsky.social colleagues were among those who gave evidence to the NI Affairs Committee on the gov’s approach to Legacy reform. committees.parliament.uk/publications... @feargalc.bsky.social @neophytosloizides.bsky.social @aimeejaysmith.bsky.social @warwickpais.bsky.social

In honour of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I'm sharing my new op-ed for The Conversation on the harms of online misogyny targeting women in public life, especially when amplified by political leaders. #polisky #gendersky theconversation.com/quiet-piggy-...

‘Quiet, piggy’ and other slurs: Powerful men fuel online abuse against women in politics and media

Gender-based violence in politics has democratic costs, diminishing diverse voices and expertise in public office.

theconversation.com