The @universityofglasgow was a splendid backdrop for last week‘s annual conference of the @ags-gbi.bsky.social
Frank Finlay
@frankjf.bsky.social
Emeritus Professor of German, University of Leeds. Former Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures. Chair/Trustee Yorkshire Contemporary, Word Up North, Skipton Music. #bwfc
As the conference draws to a close, let us thank Dr Stephan Ehrig (@herrehrig.bsky.social) and his excellent te am for their meticulous organisation of #AGS2026, which has run like clockwork. Thanks for having us @glasgow.ac.uk! See you all next year in Cambridge for #AGS2027!
After three years as Vice-President, Prof Anna Saunders (@profannasaunders.bsky.social) becomes the new President of the AGS today. We also welcome Dr Benedict Schofield (@benschofield.bsky.social) as Vice-President. We wish Anna and Ben all the best in their new roles!
Chairing the business meeting is one of the last duties of outgoing AGS President Prof Peter Davies (@pdavies.bsky.social). Enormous thanks to Peter for all he’s done for the discipline and especially his thoughtful leadership as President of the association over the last three years!
This was during the last Euros. Hoping for tomorrow that things have finally moved on. “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” - Antonio Gramsci, Prison Diaries. Come on England!
At least all my dear German football friends can console themselves with coming up with the word that captures how a lot of other folk are feeling after last night’s historic penalty shootout defeat.
Colleagues at the University of Exeter need your support! ✍️ Sign the petition: c.org/yKcx6Zr29H The University of Exeter is to cut about 150 staff. The proposed reduction is almost exclusively focused on roles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, among them Modern Languages and English.
This campaign needs you now
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
c.org
First of the many pages devoted to @jonawils.bsky.social A New History of the World Cup in this month’s @lrb.co.uk @liberopodcast.com
Election Explainer in the New York Times: “There’s a lively tradition of joke candidates in Britain. That explains why Burnham was flanked on stage this morning by one person dressed as a fox and another in a trash can themed costume, who calls himself Count Binface.”
Mid-Career in academia can be a difficult time to pursue research due to other pressures. I'm pleased to say we've opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social Mid-Career Fellowships with funding for 6-12 months to complete a major piece of research www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
Mid-Career Fellowships
The Mid-Career Fellowships are designed both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and soc...
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Erstmals ist in Großbritannien keine Frau zwischen 20 und 24 durch Gebärmutterhalskrebs gestorben. Der Grund: Die Einführung der HPV-Impfung.
Studie zu HPV-Impfung: HPV-Impfung schützt laut Studie vor Tod durch Gebärmutterhalskrebs
Erstmals ist in Großbritannien keine Frau zwischen 20 und 24 durch Gebärmutterhalskrebs gestorben. Der Grund: Die Einführung der HPV-Impfung.
zeit.de
Happened to be on Leeds main station last evening and was surprised at the huge numbers of local Arsenal fans off the London train after the big parade. Never seen such a diverse bunch of football supporters in this part of the world, which was rather wonderful @philippeauclair.bsky.social
Philippe Auclair (@philippeauclair.bsky.social)
Writes and sings for Josimar, The Guardian and Tapete Records
philippeauclair.bsky.social
"The future of modern languages will not be secured simply by attempting to reverse falling demand. It will depend on expanding access to the point where demand can genuinely be expressed" by @anademedeiros.bsky.social and @marcecazzoli.bsky.social
Modern languages has a future – and it’s all about access
Contraction of modern languages provision is often painted as a response to falling demand. For Ana de Medeiros and Marcela Cazzoli, if you look across the whole education system then HE starts to loo...
wonkhe.com
When one of your favourite podcasts features one of your favourite films. Richly informative discussion of TheThird Man @ppfideas.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...
A nugget from @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social in @nytimes.com “(…) Abramovich, it was reported in 2019 book The Club, had briefly considered buying Spurs instead, but drove through Tottenham once in his Mercedes and declared that part of London “worse than Omsk” — a city in Siberia)”.
Jack Pitt-Brooke@jackpittbrooke.bsky.social · 4mo agoCan Tottenham break their Stamford Bridge curse tonight? My piece on the fixture Spurs find harder than any other www.nytimes.com/athletic/727...
Can Tottenham break their Stamford Bridge curse tonight? My piece on the fixture Spurs find harder than any other www.nytimes.com/athletic/727...
Chelsea’s painful hold over the Tottenham psyche – anything that can go wrong often does
Spurs go to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday battling for their Premier League lives. It will not be a venue that fills them with confidence
nytimes.com
We're looking for a Lecturer in Global Medieval History (ongoing) to join us in the vibrant School of History @universityofleeds.bsky.social ! Deadline 1 June. Full details jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx... #jobfairy #medievalsky #history
Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lecturer in Global Medieval History
Are you an academic with proven abilities to carry out research and teaching in global medieval history? Do you have an established background in interdisciplinary global medieval studies? Are you est...
jobs.leeds.ac.uk
You need to read this. @timothysnyder.bsky.social has been warning us since 2016 about Trump. He knows: he’s one of world’s leading experts on authoritarianism & always ahead of the game. V proud to publish him in @thenerve.news. He’s an essential voice. www.thenerve.news/p/donald-tru...
If Trump intends to attempt a coup, here are five ways he could do it
Despite the debacle in Iran, a president at war has several pressure points at his disposal to postpone, restrict and ultimately cancel democracy, writes the historian
thenerve.news
The leading ultra groups from both clubs, FCSP's Ultra Sankt Pauli and Bayern's Schickeria München, hold a long-year friendship, also based on both groups' antifascist stance. Schickeria München's full story: medium.com/@ftamsut/unw...
Unwaveringly left wing: Meet Bayern Munich’s biggest ultra group
Meet Schickeria München.
medium.com
Peter Magyar has offered a template which can be used, without too much alteration, in defeating populists worldwide open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...
JD Vance, Marine le Pen, Sergei Lavrov, Geert Wilders, James Orr, Matt Goodwin, Alice Weidel, Frank Furedi, RT, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin… your boy took a hell of a beating.
My view is that researchers who submit/publish papers with fake citations should face serious sanctions (which is not currently the case). Accurate documentation of sources is really the bare minimum when it comes to research integrity and academic practice. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?
Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a Nature analysis suggests.
nature.com
The Hungarian election is about Russian oligarchy and its support of the international far right. That’s why Vance is there. He is a node in that network.
"The issue is the system, not the subject.” Professor Charles Forsdick FBA on higher education funding cuts hitting language courses hardest and the wider risks to skills, research and opportunity in Times Higher Education: bit.ly/4tFzJbD
UK job cuts hit English and modern languages staff hardest
‘Vicious cycle’ of course closures means system ‘gradually losing breadth and depth of expertise’
bit.ly
Guess what! I was in both groups at some stage.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5mo ago'The number of English language and literature academics fell by 8 per cent to 4,680 – among the largest decrease of all disciplines. And the number employed in modern languages dropped 7 per cent to 4,890. This is 17 per cent below peak levels in 2015-16.' 1/3