London South Bank University is in the midst of a vicious fire and rehire attack on its workers. The details are here. If in Britain, please ask your MP to sign the early day motion edm.parliament.uk/early-day-mo...

London South Bank University industrial dispute - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament

That this House notes with concern the escalating industrial dispute between London South Bank University (LSBU) and University and College Union (UCU) over fire and rehire proposals to terminate the ...

edm.parliament.uk

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · 3w ago

LSBU’s fire and rehire plans put the university itself at risk. Its nursing provision trains one in four of London’s nurses. 23 MPs have signed a motion calling on LSBU to suspend the plans and negotiate. The university has refused ACAS talks. Ask your MP to sign👇 www.ucu.org.uk/NoFireRehire...

Launched on Wednesday, our petition in solidarity with Rajiv Menon KC, the first barrister in British legal history to face contempt proceedings, on 28 July, over a closing speech (for a Palestine Action defendant), has almost 8000 signatories. Help us get to 10K you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Save Britain's Juries

Juries have had the right to acquit based on their conscience for centuries. Now, a barrister is facing jail just for mentioning it in court. Add your name to help save Britain's juries.

you.38degrees.org.uk

Another extraordinary essay by Abdaljawad Omar @hamayel.bsky.social - on moral stupidity (“These people act morally stupidly…because what they know, if inhabited fully, would cost them their world”) & the “tragic reality” of the Palestinian intellectual’s position www.equator.org/articles/mor...

Gaza and the Problem of Moral Stupidity • EQUATOR

Forty years after Edward Said demanded ‘permission to narrate’, the truth from Palestine has never been more widely known. And yet the annihilation continues.

equator.org

I am so incredibly sad to hear that Andrew Lakoff has died. I remember so clearly when I first read his words — in Pharmaceutical Reason, and then when I first heard him speak. My condolences to all who loved him. What an enormous, profound loss.

professor tools for commensality (red scare edition)@inquiline.myatproto.social · 3w ago

I am deeply and truly sorry to share the passing of Andrew Lakoff last week. Andy was an extraordinarily generous colleague in addition to his excellent scholarship. My heart goes out to his family. Announcement from our campus STS center, which he founded: t.e2ma.net/message/xx3p...

Vice-Chancellor of University of Bristol (salary £312,251): “I take a really personal view on this. My oldest daughter is the only child in my family who really is making a very significant amount of money.”

Elspeth Van Veeren@evanveeren.bsky.social · 3w ago

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Florence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’

Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education

theguardian.com

A few weeks ago, @wellcometrust.bsky.social announced that scholars in the republic of Ireland would no longer be eligible to lead bids to the flagship discovery research scheme. We think this decision is badly flawed, and are asking them to rethink: www.irishhumanities.ie/assets/PDFs/...

Walking back from glasgow queen street in a daze after multiple hours of #eshs-hss <why is everyone screaming?> boy, about 5 years old, plaintively, confused, holding his mother’s hand <coz England’s getting beat> the voice comes, conveying profound truths from the universe

The programs now being cut across the sector - e.g. modern languages, anthropology, 'area studies - were funded and promoted as part of the Cold War. Which is a tell that this isn't serious beyond the objective of handing over more of our universities to war profiteers in the armaments industry.

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 3w ago

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

University of Glasgow - which prides itself on being “world changers together” - is a founding member

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 3w ago

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

We are keen to encourage paper/special submissions to History of the Human Sciences @histhum.bsky.social — particularly on topics our journal less frequently addresses. Please get in touch w @sarahvmarks.bsky.social or me; we are happy to discuss in person at Edinburgh conf or afterwards #eshs-hss

Have been to lots of excellent panels at #eshs-hss in Edinburgh. This one on “Beyond Binaries in LGBTQI+ Histories of Sexology: Bi, Trans, Intersex” was particularly rich convention2.allacademic.com/one/hss/hss2...

When @molliesimpson.bsky.social started reporting on the renamed Bolton University two years ago, I had *no idea* it would turn into one of the biggest scandals in the history of UK higher education. Proper, proper reporting of the kind that a functioning society relies upon.

The Mill@manchestermill.bsky.social · 4w ago

Exclusive: Vice-chancellor George Holmes among those arrested on suspicion of fraud. It marks an unprecedented moment in British higher education - the first time a university vice-chancellor has ever been arrested in the UK as part of a criminal investigation. manchestermill.co.uk/exclusive-vi...

Beautiful essay by Isabella Hammad on Gaza, grief, mourning, rubble, monuments. And on Arabic poetry and its recasting of some of the foundational readings/uses of Freud and Klein

Equator@equatormag.bsky.social · 4w ago

“Witnessing, or looking and weeping, did not stop the atrocities.” In a brilliant essay for our first print issue, Isabella Hammad traces the motif of “weeping over ruins” in Arabic poetry – and the impossibility of mourning in Gaza, where destruction does not end www.equator.org/articles/sta...

We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Lincoln University, who are once again facing redundancy! We also updated our #UKHE Shrinking list. Check it out to get a full picture of the systematic destruction of the sector: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

UK HE shrinking

a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.

qmucu.org

Lincoln Branch of UCU@uculincolnbranch.bsky.social · last mo.

This week, University of Lincoln, have briefed 142 colleagues that ~33 roles need to be cut across 7 schools before Sept 2026. We are processing the news with members, and now in a collective consultation with the SLT. The rationale is as murky as ever. Send solidarity our way, more info to come

Yesterday 142 academic staff at the University of Lincoln were put at risk of redundancy including the entire Politics and International Relations team. This follows cuts since 2024 which have already seen over 500 people leave the university. This is the 'University of No Regrets'.

The dismantling of UKHE continues. Solidarity with all at University of Lincoln

Lincoln Branch of UCU@uculincolnbranch.bsky.social · last mo.

This week, University of Lincoln, have briefed 142 colleagues that ~33 roles need to be cut across 7 schools before Sept 2026. We are processing the news with members, and now in a collective consultation with the SLT. The rationale is as murky as ever. Send solidarity our way, more info to come

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 ago

Shocking 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

If you haven't yet signed the petition against the attacks on University of Exeter staff, here it is

Francesca Stavrakopoulou@proffrancesca.bsky.social · last mo.

I’d love it if you’d sign this. It might not prevent me and my colleagues losing our jobs, but it will draw attention to the ideological vandalism being perpetrated by the wealthy execs running our university. Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter - sign the petition below! c.org/NpvY4sR9gH

How higher education is vandalised in the UK. Here is our last published annual report (www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/univ...) containing info about "a year of continued financial stability with operating cash generation of £48m and an increase in cash of £11m to end the year with balance of £211m."

“The third option, of course, is to try to blow up a police station” lareviewofbooks.org/article/dang...

A Better World Is Not Possible | Los Angeles Review of Books

Did the Weather Underground have a point?

lareviewofbooks.org

I heard Lucie Mercier give a fantastic paper on French postwar debates around materialist psychiatry. Here’s her related paper on Fanon and Tosquelles in @radical-philosophy.bsky.social www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/sain...

Lucie Kim-Chi Mercier · Saint-Alban’s contested legacy: Fanon, Tosquelles and the politics of psychiatry in post-war France (2026)

radicalphilosophy.com

For this keeping track of the dismantling of UKHE, Glasgow University will open a voluntary redundancy scheme next month to reduce number of academic and professional services staff cc @qmucu.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2622742...

Scottish university braced for job cuts amid drop in international students

The University of Glasgow has said a voluntary severance scheme will be announced in August and a review of the curriculum is also expected.

heraldscotland.com

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

Mona Khalil, Lebanon’s most well-known sea turtle conservationist, died of her wounds today after being injured by an Israeli strike I feel sick

Megaphone News@megaphone.news · 2mo ago

Mona Khalil spent over 20 years protecting sea turtles on Mansouri Beach. After she was injured in an Israeli attack, activists continued her initiative at Rmeileh Beach, where they protected the first loggerhead nest of 73 eggs on Thursday. youtu.be/fbBKzK4JNRc

“Some 25 per cent of applicants for Wellcome’s early career awards last January said they had used AI, alongside 16 per cent of applicants for British Heart Foundation grants in 2026, and 12 per cent of applicants for Cancer Research UK grants”

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Major UK research funders green light AI for processing grant bids. Stance on generative AI softens, but final funding decisions still taken “by humans”. Latest from #ARMA2026. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

I think I am less optimistic than you. Wikipedia lists all winners of the Dan David Prize from 2022. So if anyone has rejected it after being awarded it they might want to check whether their name is still listed here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dav...

LSBU is one of those universities, which is why our dispute is of national significance. To add insult to injury, the latest version of the 'Academic Transformation' plan presents this as an 'individual decision' that new staff can now make: join a crappy DC scheme or join no scheme at all. Even.

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · 2mo ago

Universities up and down the UK are quietly moving staff out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme to cut costs. Christine Blower co-chair of our Parliamentary Group, put it straight to the government. Pensions aren’t a cost cutting exercise. They’re staff’s terms and conditions. Hands off.

Has any Dan David Prize recipient rejected their award? Looking through these names of our colleagues and once again grappling with the utter failure of academia at our current moment

Briony Neilson@brionyneilson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This appeal by Palestinians to recipients of the Dan David Prize to reject the award to help dismantle Israel's system of apartheid was penned three years ago. The need to reject these prizes has never been more urgent. bdsmovement.net/news/palesti...