A reminder that the institution cannot and will not love you back.
Elaine McGirr
@emmcgirr.bsky.social
Eighteenth-century & theatre historian; cat & child wrangler; immigrant.
💯 this. But it's also relative: 20° C is pleasantly warm for England; 80° F is pleasantly warm in the States. They are not the same temperature
madeline odent@oldenoughtosay.com · 3w agoMy brain works in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, i can use either scale for weather or cooking; i am however one hundred percent incapable of translating. i have to look it up every single time
I have always said my fears of bees/wasps in the car & sneezing while driving are not phobias as are v rational
Tigg aka Sandra Lindsey 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏴@slindseywales.bsky.social · last mo....& take off my glasses with the intention of checking in the sun visor mirror to see what's going on. THERE'S A FUCKING WASP CLINGING TO THE BOTTOM EDGE OF MY GLASSES. OMFG.
The UK has now said it will actively harm or damage: *Chemistry *Nursing *High-end physics *Languages *Astronomy *Creative arts *Theatre and performance *Cultural industries *Europe-level science The UK has lost its mind. 🇬🇧
Look at my brilliant colleagues being brilliant
Migration Mobilities Bristol@mmbuob.bsky.social · last mo.Excited to see this exhibition by MMB member Nariman Massoumi is now open!
It's off. I mean, it's still kinda shit, but it's off.
Elaine McGirr@emmcgirr.bsky.social · last mo.Ugh. I *have* to get this essay off my desk today & I hate each and every of the 6253 words in it. Send gin.
Ugh. I *have* to get this essay off my desk today & I hate each and every of the 6253 words in it. Send gin.
This petition needs as many signatories as the Exeter one. Please sign and share — don’t let Hertfordshire managers get away with this just because a Russell Group one took the spotlight. #UKHE
Joanna Bourke@joannabourke.bsky.social · 3mo agoShocking news about redundancies in the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire, despite their exceptional research activities. I have signed the petition against these actions: it would be great if you would as well: c.org/kDQynZV7J4 @bbkhistorical.bsky.social @bisa-bkk.bsky.social
Congratulations to Future Places Toolkit which has now been incorporated & launched as a registered company! 🥳 Led by Prof Paul Clarke (Theatre), Future Places uses VR & AR to help communities actively co-design the places they live & socialise in Read more 👇 www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2026/ju...
June: Bristol spinout brings neighbourhood planning to life with immersive tech | News and features | University of Bristol
bristol.ac.uk
UK-based early career historian in need of up to £2,000 to complete a project? Deadline for the Royal Historical Society's scheme is 4 September: royalhistorical.smapply.io/prog/early_c...
Early Career Fellowship Grants - RHS
The Society's Early Career Fellowship Grant scheme provides grants of £2,000, maximum, for discrete research projects lasting no more than six months. In 2026, two rounds of grants will be awarded by ...
royalhistsoc.org
Book and Print History Folks: In the press room we use a rope tied to the bed of the handpress and to the ceiling to support the open tympan and frisket. I've been told this rope is called an "ingham" but I cannot find any reference to it in the literature. Whatcha got?
RIP David Hockney. Husband & I went to. Hockney exhibition on our first date. Hockney always makes me happy.
Your regular reminder that percolation is also writing: after days of productive procrastination while the back of my brain worried about this chapter, I just churned out 500 words in an hour. #amwriting #theatrehistory
Cycled uphill (both ways! It's Bristol!) to the library to collect a book & now I'm too enervated to actually read it.
Sitting in my office trying to decide if the library's A/C is enough inducement to counterbalance the long hot slog to get there. I can't believe I was complaining about the hail & freezing temps last week.
The 'stinging rebuke' is open access here. You don't need to be an historian to applaud it. #Skystorians 2/2
History and the humanities at the University of Hertfordshire – a statement from the Royal Historical Society - RHS
Even for those familiar with bleak times, this has been a particularly bad few weeks in UK higher education. Confirmed job losses at the University of Essex were followed by further bad news from Hert...
royalhistsoc.org
We’re appointing a writer-in-residence! Join us to respond to our holdings related to the Bloomsbury Group (including the archives of Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press) ahead of a major exhibition in 2027. Applications close 19 May. Best of luck! collections.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...
Call for Applications: Writer in Residence - Blooming Bloomsbury and the Modernist Archives Publishing Project -Creativity and Community Co-Curation (2026) | Museums and Collections
The selected writer will spend the summer months (June—September 2026) drawing inspiration from MAPP to develop new creative work. From September to December, they will build on this...
collections.reading.ac.uk
Today, I offered an amendment that would have shut this scam down. My amendment would've prevented self-dealing by public officials — including the President & members of Congress — who own or promote digital asset companies, including crypto. Every Republican voted against it.
Senator Chris Van Hollen@vanhollen.senate.gov · 3mo agoTrump's corruption has been well documented, but perhaps one of his most outrageous — and lucrative — schemes has been his personal meme coin. Since its launch, Trump has made over $200 MILLION from it while those everyday Americans who have invested have lost BILLIONS.
Farage now insisting he is “not and has never been a crook”. Lucky there’s no political history of “I am not a crook” as a line of defence coming back to bite anyone.
I taught in Hums at UHerts & the students & staff were & are incredible. They deserve better than this & society needs more thoughtful, creative, curious humans. Save Humanities.
Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis matters. Please co-sign. Managers like to pretend that petitions don't move them, but in reality cannot but answer questions about the numbers, and suddenly things that were deemed inevitable appear to be more-evitably-than-previously-declared.
Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?
Shouldn't running a fictional person as a candidate incur some sort of criminal sanction?
Andy-Luke@andy-luke.bsky.social · 3mo agoMonday election update: 1 Reform councillor fired, 1 Reform councillor ran away, and 1 Reform councillor might not exist. Waveney Valley's George Alexander Jonathan Boyd is an AI generated image. No A-V, no sightings, no trace except for agent's address. Why aren't the news media all over this?
Lolz. French professor investigated for awarding himself fake prize www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
French professor investigated for awarding himself fake prize
The academic is accused of dreaming up the prize he went on to win and has been suspended from his university.
bbc.co.uk
Informed people make choices that are better for them and for society at large. The mission of partisan mass-media is to keep people poorly-informed. This is also why Musk bought Twitter, how Facebook works, and why independent journalism is becoming untenable as a profession.
Imagine a technique that can heal Britain of division and keep out the hard right. I call it ‘radical listening’ | George Monbiot
In my constituency, a group of volunteers chats with people – most of whom find they are to the left of their voting intentions, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
So much of the economics of education are predicated on the obviously false proposition that learning is not labor
Being asked to do more with less is one of those internet era maxims that seems to imply ingenuity, but is actually just the managerial slogan for squeezing uncompensated labor out of workers unwilling or unable to leave their current employment.