Tessera
Folgen

@endeeekay.bsky.social

35 Posts640 Follower771 Folgt
Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · last mo.

Which means: what, exactly? The argument for the humanities as moral education has always been weak; the argument for the humanities as knowledge-producing endeavors has always been strong; and the argument for valuing disciplines based on the number of ppl who major in them has always been stupid.

lowtax speedrun enjoyer@rickywlmsbong.bsky.social · last mo.

ai doesn’t work if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, episode 6 zillion or so, but i will say: before we do another round of stem vs humanities discourse, remember that all the worst people in silicon valley are humanities and social science majors

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · last mo.

All of this. This is why the vanishing of material support for reading and thinking is such a massive crisis for the historical profession. 🗃️

Carlos Noreña@carlosfnorena.bsky.social · last mo.

The reason why it is essential to read IN BULK when studying history is not simply to amass empirical knowledge—though that is important, too, of course—but because *interpretation* requires thick contextual awareness, and there is NO SHORTCUT for building that up that awareness.

Mark Williams@mrfw17thc.bsky.social · last mo.

This is it: there's no coherent logic driving these changes. It's an ideological choice in the guise of a financial crisis. As Kent proved post-REF 2021, you can top all the tables and jump through all the hoops. The vandals are still not going to listen or respect you. Because they're vandals.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

Struggling to parse this. Exeter is celebrating its overall global ranking to 136th, comprised (it reports) of 151st (Natural Sciences), 131st (Life Sciences & Medicine) and 76th (Arts & Humanities) while announcing plans to make 25% of Arts & Humanities staff redundant. Does this compute?

Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · last mo.

May I remind #UKHE of the Cost Allocation Death Spiral.

The Cost Allocation Death Spiral and the University

The Cost Allocation Death Spiral and the University Accountants, as people whose business it chiefly is to bring hard news to powerful people, generally avoid emotional terms. They prefer softer, nuan...

linkedin.com

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'What is perhaps remarkable about the Exeter cuts is that they are targeted at some of the university’s most successful departments, many of which turn over a profit even after they have made enormous and increasing contributions to the central university budget.' Read, rage and weep.

Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · last mo.

You already see it in how people have clocked out. Universities used to be run on an inordinate amount of goodwill. Yes, the unhealthy kind that meant people bent over backwards in things they should be properly remunerated for, but also more broadly in collegiality and turning up. Eroded now.

Peter Mandler@petermandler.bsky.social · last mo.

Economists talk about 'scarring' - long-term effects on a cohort of some short-term phenomenon like a bout of unemployment: even if we pull out of this UK HE crisis soon (doubtful), the whole sector will be scarred for life. (1/2)

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · last mo.

Redundancies at a post-92 are just as catastrophic--if not more--as redundancies at the institutions that are members of a group specifically set up to structurally advantage themselves at the expense of post-92s. Solidarity with everyone at risk. We are all very much needed.

becimay@becimay.bsky.social · last mo.

In case you didn’t know, Exeter uni, where I work, has announced a plan to make 25% of staff in my English department redundant. Left-over staff will do double the teaching while their research time will be shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile admissions for English at Exeter are HIGH, and on the rise this year

Katherine McDonald@katherinemcdon.bsky.social · last mo.

Ok, look, what's been particularly infuriating about the redundancies at Exeter (and Nottingham and Newcastle and and and) is this weird idea that it only affects those individuals and institutions. It harms us all because we are so closely interconnected.

Katie Turner @katieturnerphd.com · last mo.

The last three years have seen over 30,000 jobs lost in UK Higher Ed. Acting as if this doesn't grievously impact the economy, and the nation's future prospects in all areas, is, at this point, nothing short of wilful self-harm / purposeful vandalism.

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts@elliemackinroberts.net · last mo.

I am once again begging universities to realise that staff - academic, professional services, estates, all of them - are the product they are trying to sell. Without staff there is nothing to sell. No amount of flashy buildings will replace staff in universities. UKHE is in freefall.

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

Courtney Weiss Smith@cweiss-smith.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I am *thrilled* to share that we are hiring again! A tenure track job in early modern literature! I’ve found Wesleyan a terrific place to work—help us spread the word? wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

Professor of English

The Department of English at Wesleyan University seeks a scholar-teacher of early modern literature for a tenure-track appointment beginning July 1, 2027. We are open to candidates with comparative ap...

wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"The mantra, repeated ad nauseam in those years, was ‘competition drives up quality,’ an assertion that anyone looking at, say, the privatised water companies or privatised train companies might greet with a hollow laugh."

Carsten Timmermann@ctimmermann.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I've got to be honest: reading the excellent text by Stefan Collini in the LRB on the state of British Higher Education is leaving me a bit depressed. He is offering some solutions that would address the dilemma the marketisation of universities has placed us in, but this needs political will.

The concluding three paragraphs of Collini's text, which is available here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n10/stefan-collini/squadrons-of-pigs
Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 3mo ago

UC Berkeley Law creates new AI policy that bans AI for "conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit" or exams because "thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education)." That's what I'm talking about.

Rule: The use of AI is prohibited for aid in conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit. AI use is prohibited for any use for any purpose in any exam situation. Students may not upload course materials—including assignments, readings, slides, class recordings, or other class content—into generative AI systems. AI can be used for research on papers ONLY for the limited purpose of identifying sources, such as cases, statutes, or secondary sources. Students are responsible for the accuracy of their research and all other aspects of their submitted work. Citations to sources that do not exist will raise a presumption of prohibited AI use
Deidre Lynch@drbibliomane.bsky.social · 3mo ago

There are stories from all over about universities' dismantling of the humanities. I have a small but dismaying data point from my university to contribute to the discourse. Harvard University now has NO assistant professors of English. That's how long it has been since we were allowed to hire.

Kathleen Commons@kabcommons.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Really pleased to share my (open access!) article on immigration control in early modern England, feat. rights-bearing subjects, rightsless migrants, and experiments in immigration control

The Historical Journal@historicaljnl.bsky.social · 4mo ago

📣Out now on #firstview Kathleen Commons @kabcommons.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social on 'Discovering ‘Immigration Control’ in England, c. 1540 – c. 1640' #Migration #History #EarlyModern #England #Immigration 📜 16thc 17thc 👉Read open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Migration history is a growing field – yet the legal status of migrants in early modern England has not yet been investigated in detail. Reconstructing the legal system that governed migrants in early modern England does not just add significant depth and nuance to histories of migration and migrants, but also provides fresh insight into the status of English subjects. Furthermore, it enables historians to trace longer histories of the exclusion of migrants from rights in England and Britain. This article reconstructs the common law governance of migrants between c. 1540 and c. 1640, showing how common law principles and practices excluded migrants from the rights-bearing status of English subjects. Rather than being governed by the law, migrants were substantively governed under prerogative, a form of governance repeatedly resisted by English subjects. Although some migrants could access (unstable) liberties granted under prerogative, for the most part migrants were also subject to discriminatory local byelaws and licences and commissions granted by the crown for their exploitation. The repeated ‘molestation’ of migrants by informers for working contrary to statute, and petitions against this harassment from migrants suggest this early modern system of immigration control was relatively well understood by both subjects and migrants.