Sean Wallis
@seanawallis.bsky.social
Socialist, corpus linguistics researcher at UCL, UCL UCU secretary, NEC member. All posts personal cap. Blogs about CL/statistics at https://corplingstats.wordpress.com Stood for election for UCU Vice President in 2026, see https://seanwallis.uk
Beautiful Country: Cortona international photography festival – in pictures
Beautiful Country: Cortona international photography festival – in pictures
Cortona on the Move 2026, an international photography festival, has opened with the theme Beautiful Country. More than 30 exhibitions explore Italy in all its complexity, blending the spirit of the aristocratic grand tour with the depth of contemporary documentaries
theguardian.com
@sheffielducu.bsky.social has launched a vote of no confidence in the university executive & council. If you're Sheffield University staff or research student, vote. This management isn't fit to lead our university. forms.gle/cuMQ72n6ZGu6... (staff) forms.gle/X1HRRfqJyTTe... (research students)
The IMF says we pay $5T/year to subsidize fossil fuels — that's $13M per MINUTE to destroy our future. Meanwhile solar & wind fight for scraps. We don't have a funding problem. We have a priority problem.
Imagine standing in a lush rainforest today... only to realize it might be the last time you witness its living majesty. Future generations? They'll only see it in documentaries, films, and old newspapers. We're losing our planet's climate infrastructure in real time. #ClimateAction #ForestsMatter
Today is Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. Around 500,000 Roma & Sinti people were killed by the Nazis in the Porajmos. There was no state given to them after the war. Commemoration of their suffering is often diminished or forgotten. Racism towards Romani people across Europe remains acceptable.
The most terrifying and shameful performance I have ever seen by an HSS Secretary. He melted down when presented with actual facts, data, and evidence. All he has is conspiracy theory nonsense.
Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 3d agoRFK, Jr. is completely unhinged on CNN.
Pet theory: when you go looking for an unusual bird and can't find it, the wretched creature is usually doing something like this. (Also: osprey on the Clyde! Wow.)
Brian Gallagher@bgallaghercoll.bsky.social · 3d agoAn Osprey over the Clyde this afternoon. I looked upriver from Parklea and saw a guy fishing at the Finlaystone burn and assumed that meant there would be no birds around there. When i looked again I realised the Osprey was sitting very near him on top of a post. #birds
Such a waste. Thinking of my friends & colleagues in History & across Hums. UH History is where I really learned *how* to teach & how to drive my teaching with my research. A dept that really cared about their students. So many brilliant & talented people in my old dept.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoSo it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
There has to be a special kind of grief when watching institutions built over generations, in a field of endeavor you gave your adulthood to, destroyed for no good reason while society apparently repudiates everything you thought worthwhile. Words fail me so often these days.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoSo it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
Trump postpones Iran escalation following Gulf diplomatic pressure: Reports
Trump postpones Iran escalation following Gulf diplomatic pressure: Reports
US President Donald Trump has temporarily delayed a planned major military escalation against Iran following high-level diplomatic pressure from key Gulf allies, according to reports on Sunday. The…
middleeastmonitor.com
It’s a dilemma I have writing academic work, knowing that a significant percentage of readers will not have English as a first language. I used to delight in using unusual words and phrases but I do that less now. Experienced readers say they like the challenge of new vocabulary but others not.
Alexandra W. Logue@lexalogue.bsky.social · 3d agoData collected 2005-2019 show that, on average, each year we spoke over 300 fewer words per day, which adds up. The question now is why is this trend happening and what are its implications? buff.ly/wJAbtO6 #psychology #AcademicSky
Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...
Rep Haley Stevens is Christian - yet her closing message is to pit Jews versus Muslims. This is a Trumpian tactic. It has NO Place in Democratic Party.
Dean Obeidallah@deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 4d agoGreat point about Haley Steven’s desperate and dangerous closing message:
Am never going to stop saying these things, even once British HE feels like a cold, dead moon.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d ago*Government: we need a sense of place and stronger regional policy to bring us together! *Also government: it's okay to shut this local uni campus in an area of high deprivation! *Thick-as-mince country. No joined-up thinking anywhere. 🇬🇧 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
“If this was true, I would be in jail” is not a real profession of innocence; it is a brag about how strenuously the state protects the male right of private sphere violence against women and children.
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 3d agoThose who believe things like this are working hard at not understanding the finite options available to someone whose abuser has not been prosecuted, found guilty, etc. by the law. And how rarely those things happen to abusers, esp. high-status white male abusers.
Well they didn't learn much from that decolonial project they launched five years ago, did they?
National Gallery security staff segregated like ‘second-class citizens’, curator claims
Exclusive: Outsourced guards, largely from minority ethnic backgrounds, barred from staff hub for mainly white employees
theguardian.com
At the University of Dundee, there is 'no growth strategy apart from cuts'. Britain really is the thickest country in the world. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...
Dundee University staff raise fears over proposed job cuts to business school
Sources within the university claim the school generated 39% of all fee-paying students last year.
thecourier.co.uk
We have 6–7 years left to halve global emissions. The fossil fuel industry? They’ve had zero years of conscience. Every delay they buy with our money brings us closer to tipping points — heatwaves, wildfires, failed harvests, and hunger. We don’t have time for their profits. #ActNow
The world needs to hear this chorus: No to deforestation. No to ecocide. 🙅♂️❌
*hurtling into the editorial office of the Daily Mail* BOSS I GOT A WHOLE NEW ANGLE ON THE “EU ARMY BAD” STORY
The Crusader Project@crusaderproject.bsky.social · 3d agoRe-enactors again not beating the allegations. Market Harborough at War today, apparently. @waitmanwbeorn.com @alanallport.bsky.social @garius.bsky.social @andraswf.bsky.social
My daughter’s university scrutinizes each essay for evidence of AI. The goal is to get a 0% score. This AI-hunting is done by… AI. A recent essay scored 17%. She questioned what the AI thought was AI, since she hadn’t used it. The answer: the uni-issued cover page showing student ID, faculty etc. 🤦🏻♂️
The Angel of Paperwork says you're not changing that lightbulb until you've completed your annual Ladder Training module. It'll be fun! There are some online videos, and a quiz. [St. Michael's, München] #DominieAufUrlaub
Last year the NYT reported on how SEAL Team Six stormed into North Korea, accidentally murdered a bunch of fishermen, punctured their lungs so their bodies would sink & then stormed out. Trump is now trying to force one reporter to reveal his sources: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...
Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources (Gift Article)
A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.
nytimes.com
The sec of state who has seen at least 15000 academics lose their jobs just said this. Out loud. Mercy me. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion
Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities
theguardian.com
So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
I'm not going to be relitigating COVID lockdowns or mask mandates. Both were necessary measures that saved lives. If you cannot accept the curtailing of even the minor of freedoms in the name of public safety, you have demonstrated that you do not give a solitary fuck about the rest of us.
"Pathways is a non-binding pledge that enables expanded oil production, higher greenhouse gas emissions and billions in public subsidies for pipelines and carbon-capture infrastructure — This is not climate policy; it is greenwashing dressed up as national strategy."
Pathways is a costly climate fiction — and Canadians are paying for it
The 2025 Alberta–Carney agreement explicitly links pipeline construction to the Pathways project. Despite record profits — $37 billion for oilsands producers in 2023 — Canadians are being asked to fin...
nationalobserver.com
