DHDexter
@dhdexter.bsky.social
Associate Professor of International Politics (interested in feminist peace), mum, knackered. Here to learn and avoid marking. She/her.
"don't make enough money" is a fig leaf All those degree programs--social work, art, etc.--have disproportionately female student bodies. This is designed to make it harder for women to attend college--college education being a key factor in women's autonomy from men & left-leaning voting pattern.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
I really do miss green grass. Will I see another summer in the UK with green grass? Will my kids remember a summer with green grass? Sigh.
So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.
More money on nuclear weapons won't keep us safe and it's not going to kick start the economy. CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt speaking on LBC earlier today. You can listen to the full interview over on our IG and FB pages.
le.ac.uk/news/2026/ju... Suspending UK study visas for students from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, and Cameroon was a disgraceful decision. I'm pleased to see my institution contributing to the Mosaik scholarship initiative. There should be more than 9 UK universities involved with this.
Leicester joins universities acting to create opportunities for students shut out by visa brake | News | University of Leicester
University of Leicester is one of nine UK universities providing postgraduate places as part of the Mosaik Scholarship initiative
le.ac.uk
Heading to university to study what though? Will there be any humanities degrees left?
Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · last wk.This letter to the Times on Burnham’s education proposals captures a strain of thinking on the Right: culture is for those heading to university, while everyone else’s children can do with much less of it.
Oh god, this. I know a bunch of people who have left the UK in the last 10 years and they're doing pretty well out there. Having options is brilliant!
Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · last wk.One of the things I find odd about UK skills and jobs policies over the last 10 years is the idea that - for young people - place is destiny. It's like we've taken the Brexit memo and double stamped it into meaning you need to stay put to be a success. The geographical footprint of the UK is *tiny*
For anyone who needs activity ideas 💡 for pupil engagement 📚 , I hope this helps: Today I organised a politics activity for our Year 10 Summer School at the University of Liverpool. My activity was titled ‘ Race, Space, and the Everyday(Politics)’.
If this had been policy in the 70s (as it partly was), towns would have produced lots of mining engineers & metallurgists just before pits & steelworks closed. As the yanks say, you should skate to where the puck's going, not to where it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Burnham to tell schools in England to adapt teaching to local business needs
PM wants curriculums for students aged 14 and above to be more responsive to local jobs market
theguardian.com
This is awful news …
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A new Peterloo jug is news, because all known examples are printed over a leftover batch commemorating an admiral. This one is part of a new batch on a purpose-made jug, indicating sustained demand. On display soon at the People’s History Museum. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
People's History Museum to display rare Peterloo massacre jug
The jug commemorating the 1819 Peterloo massacre will be displayed at the People's History Museum.
bbc.co.uk
Be Still My Heart, this is marvelous.
Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 2w agoOMG I could spend weeks and months here!
'... being a historian is about how you engage with the world, it’s about being curious about the people and the environment around you, and asking questions about it'.
Dr Laura Sangha@lsangha.bsky.social · 2w agoLast week, about a third of the History department were able to gather together on graduation day. Rather than lend our intellectual authority to the official procession and ceremony we invited our students to come and celebrate their achievements with us in a shady courtyard. They came. 1/
9.30am call from dentists to confirm appointment with hygienist on Monday 11.30am call from dentists to say hygienist has resigned. No appointments until September. I don't care about my appointment. Tell me everything.
Total and complete shut down of gender until we can figure out what the hell is going on
Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 2w agoour elites want to abolish hard men
Did you miss our #BISA2026 keynote recording with Professor Kimberly Hutchings 🌟 The #BISA2026 conference keynote in Brighton was delivered was titled 'Violence and the Meaning of Peace’ 🌍 You can watch the full recording here 👉 https://ow.ly/TqMz50ZmOHz
#BISA2026 keynote recording: Professor Kimberly Hutchings
Watch the #BISA2026 keynote from Professor Kimberly Hutchings on 'Violence and the Meaning of Peace'.
ow.ly
It’s 25 years since we lost Douglas Adams. I am happy to have been able to get a reference to him into this piece in the FT about why the humanities are essential www.ft.com/content/fbde...
The creator of Roger Rabbit (who is 85 years old by the way) is a good sort Crossposted with @openvibe.social
This part rings true to me: "people today are inoculated against moral critiques of social and technological systems... we exist in a world where it’s impossible to live a regular life ... without relying on the exploitation of countless people and finite environmental resources"
'Being anti-AI feels the same as being anti-war.'
Baldur Bjarnason@baldurbjarnason.com · 3w ago“Potentially Useful | Hating AI in 2026” https://www.eamoncaddigan.net/posts/ai-in-2026/ > We can point out all of the harms being done by the technology right now, and we can speak to the additional harms that will be done if things continue like this, but our concerns are spurned or ignored.
There are 31 men and 3 women standing in Clacton.
At lunch a child asks what agency means. I give a definition and then begin to explain that the relationship between agency and structure is central to the subject I teach. Cue groans from both kids 'we don't need a lecture Mum.' So I have remotely disabled their phones. Experiential learning it is.
oh are reform calling other politicians “traitors” now well i’m sure nothing bad will happen because of it
Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions
I've signed and sent a letter - from authors, broadcasters, journalists, artists, scholars and performers - to express our deep concern at @exeter.ac.uk’s troubling plans to make mass redundancies within the Humanities Dept @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social. I would love it if you read and shared widely.
Every time I read a story about gynecology it's always something like "doctors discovered women could experience pain in 1989 but decided not to act on this knowledge for 20 years"
19thnews@19thnews.org · 4w agoTrials found that Carevix — a portmanteau of “care” and “cervix" — reduced pain during IUD insertion by up to 73 percent and bleeding by 78 percent, compared to the tenaculum.