🚨New Publication for @repjournal.bsky.social Does non-voting incur a partisan bias? #polisky #cdnpoli doi.org/10.1080/0034...

Newcastle is hiring a Lecturer in Public Policy (T&R permanent), if anyone has any questions about the city or University feel free to get in touch! Closing date is 7th August

All I can really do at this point while grading

Security Guard Confrontation

Alt: Security guard barely checking people

static.klipy.com

Andrew Heiss@andrew.heiss.phd · 4w ago

woof ≈80% of assignments this summer term have essentially been just raw chatgpt/claude output, including assignments that required designing stuff in illustrator/affinity/canva. The battle is lost for asynchronous online courses.

STOP INTERVIEWING RANDOM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO ARE HANGING AROUND THE TOWN CENTRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON YOU MAY AS WELL ASK A CAT FOR HOW REFLECTIVE OF PUBLIC OPINION IT IS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What do Farage's Clacton constituents think of his resignation?

People living in Clacton share contrasting feelings of frustration and support towards Nigel Farage.

bbc.co.uk

I have a new paper on the Gallagher index: the most common measure of electoral disproportionality. We often assume it runs from 0 (perfect 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺) to 1 (perfect 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺). But I show that in most party systems, 1 is not a possible value. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

#UKHE! You know how we're told that 'students want less choice' against what we know to be reality & against pedagogical & disciplinary needs? Finally found the Nous report that supposedly backs that up, & it's based on a survey that asks about the *choice of major* nousgroup.com/assets/docs/...

Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...

To cover a colleague's grant buy-out, we @nclpolitics.bsky.social have a one year post to advertise in Political Philosophy! Newcastle is a great city and we have lovely students, so why not apply? jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

As a lifelong MMA fan, this shit sucks so much. We should not have a gladiatorial pit on the White House lawn like some kind of Temu Rome For decades, MMA was my mindless escape from personal and political stress. Now it's work. They turned the only sport I like into work

Charlie Warzel@cwarzel.bsky.social · 2mo ago

wake up babe the white house is a six flags

Very excited to have been awarded a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant with @lottehargrave.bsky.social for a project I've been desperate to work on since my PhD. Look out for us presenting this at conferences soon!

Very happy that our piece in Scottish Election Analysis 2026 is out bit.ly/49bWmww. Some interesting (& unsettling) insights into how voters are using AI to engage with elections. Thread from @strathplacelab.bsky.social | with @tbalogh.bsky.social @elisefrelin.bsky.social @zdgreene.bsky.social

strathplacelab.bsky.social@strathplacelab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

AI chatbots –ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc. – are becoming part of everyday life, but we know very little about whether & how citizens use these tools to gain political information. Ahead of Holyrood elections, we surveyed over 1,000 Scottish voters with @Survation.bsky.social. Here’s what we found 🧵

🚨 I'm recruiting a PhD student for a new project on Parties' social group ownership, based in the @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social research group at KU Leuven! Deadline for applying is 26 June, estimated starting date is 1 Oct 2026. All info is here 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Share widely!

1 doctoraatspositie in kiesgedrag

1 PhD position to research how parties build connections with social groups

kuleuven.be

Coming to @ecprgender.bsky.social #ECPG2026 and working with quant methods or curious about using them in gender & politics research? Come along & meet other researchers at the @strathplacelab.bsky.social pre-conference social 🍻 📍 Two by Two Brewery 🕡 18:30, 14 June RSVP here: bit.ly/4dPyr8F

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

“PAY OR LEAK”: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor

The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak.

insidehighered.com

Looking forward to being back in Mannheim next week. If you are keen to hear how political parties are rewarded and punished for taking non-ambiguous positions on trans rights, then you might find this paper I'll be presenting (w\ @bogatyrev.bsky.social) of interest!

MZES Uni Mannheim@mzesunimannheim.bsky.social · 3mo ago

❗️ Tue, May 12, 12:15-13:30 CET 📍 A 231 and ZOOM MZES Speaker Series with @turnbulldugarte.com "The Electoral Costs of Transphobia. Evidence from Britain" 👉 www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/en/news/even... 1/2

Got to present this early draft paper today at a neat workshop organized by @rohanalexander.bsky.social. It's my attempt to grapple with the need for struggle and friction in learning in a world where LLMs remove all that friction. Read the whole thing at stats.andrewheiss.com/pinky-lychee/

🚨 New Research Recently accepted at the @bjpols.bsky.social, our paper shows that Brexit led to weaker British 🇬🇧 identities among Remainers! You can read the paper by @jaclarner.bsky.social, me, and @danielwincott.bsky.social here: tinyurl.com/mrj96ywu

Finally done (for now). If you study elections, want to use the Constituency-Levels Election Archive, but don't like bugs, then say hello to `clean_clea`, now on GitHub: github.com/jackobailey/...

Jack Bailey@jack-bailey.co.uk · 4mo ago

Days of work and I finally have it producing vaguely sensible results. Still a lot to do!

🚨 New paper with great co-authors (@oguzhan-alkan.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social @zeynsom.bsky.social) in Political Behavior! How well do citizens perceive where parties stand? 🤔 Open access: rdcu.be/fb83Z

The takeaway: LLM agents are not infiltrating the platforms researchers actually use. Outside of one platform already notorious for pre-LLM bot problems, they just aren't there. The human data quality problem on the other hand is large, systematic, and fixable through platform choice. [9/9]

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

🚨 NEW REPORT! 🚨 What is the state of the UK academic job market in politics, and what does this mean for the field and #highered? In a new @psaecn.bsky.social report, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social @williamlallen.bsky.social and I find worrying trends in job adverts and HESA data from 2012-25 #PSA26

Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations - Political Studies Association

Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations: Evidence from the UK, 2012-25 Authored by: Dr Ralph Scott, Dr Lawrence McKay, and Dr William Allen Read the full report here   Execu...

psa.ac.uk

Is partner partisanship associated with vote choice? @cerifowler.bsky.social finds that it was for the 2016 Brexit Referendum & subsequent elections in the UK & argues that this can help us understand gender gaps in vote choice. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/D8Fdnbw @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

buff.ly

Oh really? Is that because pandering to the far-right and assuming they will act rationally, reciprocally, & in good faith has always worked in the past, & because there's good evidence that Reform can be trusted? I totally trust this former Tory advisor report published by a right-wing think tank.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5mo ago

'Universities must build bridges with populist parties and take steps to restore their legitimacy among the general public or face being recast as “convenient enemies” by the next Westminster government, according to a new report.' 1/2

📢 New article 🌟 👥 @silkegoubin.bsky.social , @olijacques.bsky.social , @staffankumlin.bsky.social (ISV), & @dweisstanner.bsky.social 👉 Why Some Want Something for Nothing: Three Explanations for Unfunded Spending Demand 📗 Open Access in Scandinavian Political Studies 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1467...

Why Some Want Something for Nothing: Three Explanations for Unfunded Spending Demand

Several studies have documented ‘something for nothing’ (SFN) attitudes among citizens: preferences for increased government spending and lower taxes. Such a demand for unfunded public spending may g....

doi.org

"Young people who were studying humanities subjects in school, namely history and art, became more likely to support more socially liberal parties. Those studying a technical subject, such as design and technology, became more supportive of more radical right parties."

What you study in school shapes your voting choices in adulthood

Subject choice fairly early on is linked to later political preferences.

theconversation.com

and if you have a billion images to work with (like me teaching dataviz lol), this by @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social is super helpful for an initial pass at making alt text for plots

Adding alt text to figures in quarto with Claude Code

Alt text is a very important thing to make sure you do right when making websites. Using AI agents such as Claude Code can help with a lot of the heavy lifting.

emilhvitfeldt.com

If you use #QuartoPub for any PDF documents for teaching and you need to meet impending PDF accessibility rules, upgrade to v1.9, add format: typst: pdf-standard: ua-1 to the YAML front matter, and it'll work!