Some historical background to the fires in southwestern France, drawing on reading I did for my 2019 book about the moorlands, and lamenting the deeply depressing reality that we have known many of the causes of this ecological disaster for 150years 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/u...

Unintentional Arson

The fires in southwestern France are an appalling demonstration of the reality of climate change in 2026. But this is not the first ecological devastation in the region, and the role of human actio…

williamgpooley.wordpress.com

Have any other academics experienced the dystopian future of AI copyediting? In a kafkaesque doom spiral with @tandfonline.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social as their bot randomly reassigned authors to texts. Just one example of zillions of errors introduced, impossible to communicate with

Huge few days for us at @britishacademy.bsky.social as we’ve brought issues of the humanities into the public eye with different stories in the Times, Guardian and FT. Well done to all my colleagues for the hard work that makes this happen

First they came for the languages. In the hope that no one would have the words to say what was happening. 1/9🧵

University of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed' - review

The University of Aberdeen says it accepts there were "missteps" in its process in 2023.

bbc.co.uk

The proposals will mean that Exeter’s history, English, modern languages and politics courses could see up to 25 per cent of their staff cut, it said. 3/3

Really enjoyed our workshop on travel writing, the sea and the coast at Université de Bretagne occidentale, Brest. My paper was on « Écrivaines galloises de la mer : Eluned Morgan et ses devancières ». Huge thanks to Véronique Léonard-Roques.

So pleased to see this coming out with Routledge; it contains my piece on Welsh industrial landscapes in French travel writing. Huge thanks to Dan Finch-Race and @valentinagosetti.bsky.social for seeing it through. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Discovering Francophone Ecoregions of the Long Nineteenth Century | Da

This book examines how texts and visual culture from nineteenth-century French-speaking contexts can enhance understanding of twenty-first-century challenges.

taylorfrancis.com

Lecture finished, Powerpoint finished, ready for my trip to Brest for: www.univ-brest.fr/crbc/fr/actu...

Squadrons of Pigs www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

lrb.co.uk

Please visit our website for full details: uksdn.co.uk/ecr-grant/ Application forms should be returned by 1 September 2026 to the Secretary of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes, Heather Williams, h.williams@cymru.ac.uk

SDN

Tim Unwin Early Career Researcher Grant SDN ECR Grant_Application form with notesDownload Early career researcher grants of up to £500 are available to members of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes to…

uksdn.co.uk

🚨Grants available 🚨 Early career researcher grants of up to £500 are available to members of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes to assist with research projects related to 19th French studies. These are awarded on a competitive basis, and normally only 1 to 2 are awarded per year.

If you, like us, have felt like there was something missing in your life since our conference in Cardiff concluded, fear not! You can do it all again next year… our 25th annual conference will be in Dundee on 14-16 April on the theme of Craft and Industry. Find out more: uksdn.co.uk/sdn-annual-c...

Craft and Industry / Artisanat et industrie (Dundee 2027)

Gustave Caillebotte, Raboteurs de parquet, 1875 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCESociety of Dix-Neuviémistes Craft and Industry / Artisanat et industrie Dundee, 14–16 April 2027 We are now accepting s…

uksdn.co.uk

The scale of the cull is appalling.

Onni Gust@onnigust.bsky.social · 3mo ago

For further context: almost everyone in the Faculty of Arts is at risk of redundancy. Music, Modern Languages & American & Canadian Studies courses to close completely. History will not close but staff numbers will be significantly reduced. This is what 'right-sizing' looks like, apparently.

Je découvre Yann Paranthoën 'sculpteur de sons' breton: www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Mémorat ou le voyage de Marie-Job Kerguénou : épisode 14/35 du podcast Yann Paranthoën, sculpteur de sons | France Culture

AUDIO Yann Paranthoën, sculpteur de sons, épisode 14/35 : Mémorat ou le voyage de Marie-Job Kerguénou. Une série inédite proposée par France Culture. Écoutez Mémorat ou le voyage de Marie-Job Kerguéno...

radiofrance.fr

Christopher’s paper, ‘The Allegorical Architectures of Pleasure and Joy in Émile Zola’s Pot-Bouille and Au Bonheur des Dames’, was judged to be ‘a model of concision that wears its erudition lightly’ that embedded itself ‘impressively within the discourse of Zola criticism’.

Congratulations to Christopher Goring (Cambridge) who is this year’s winner of the SDN Postgraduate Prize 🎉🎉🎉 The prize is awarded for the best postgraduate conference paper submitted for the Society’s Annual Conference (#SDNCardiff2026).

“what happens at the BL is, mostly, the wrong kind of research. It’s about the dull old humanities, not the cutting-edge sciences. It mostly looks backwards, not forwards. So it’s regarded, not least by our political leaders, as a backwater.”

Graham Macklin@grahammacklin.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Shhh! The British Library is in crisis. Still struggling with the impact of a devastating cyberattack, striking staff and a lack of leadership have left the institution in disarray

“The coming redundancies will officially be called ‘voluntary’ but this is the equivalent of giving a condemned man a pistol in his cell prior to being led to the gallows and classifying him shooting himself as suicide.” Grim and stark. The human faces of the UK university omni-crisis. 1/3

‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be in the same room as former colleagues’

The results of Times Higher Education’s UK University Redundancy Survey vividly illustrate the deep human impact of the redundancy crisis on those who have lost their jobs. But respondents are torn ab...

timeshighereducation.com

Higher Education in the 2020s, ladies and gentlemen. No one will save us. We have to save ourselves.

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 4mo ago

15 minutes; no questions; government got the blame; my department to have 60% of us sacked. Apparently sacking us will lead to a ‘new, improved’ curriculum. No voluntary scheme, straight to selection and legal minimum redundancy payment.

We have two SDN Publication Prize winners this year! Claire Dupin de Beyssat, Musée d'Orsay, and Rachel Coombes, Downing College, Cambridge. We also awarded a Highly Commended to Zofia Litwinowicz-Krutnik. See uksdn.co.uk/sdn-publicatio… for article titles and references.

“Decapitating God: Revolution in Victor Hugo’s Le Livre des Tables and Dieu” by Katherine Lunn-Rockliffe of Oxford University, which appeared in volume 29, issue 2: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Decapitating God: Revolution in Victor Hugo’s Le Livre des Tables and Dieu

Hugo’s experience of seances in exile is closely bound up with his protest at the Second Empire and this article studies the visionary images of revolution which appear in the transcripts of these ...

tandfonline.com

'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

UK job cuts hit English and modern languages staff hardest

‘Vicious cycle’ of course closures means system ‘gradually losing breadth and depth of expertise’

timeshighereducation.com

Yr Athro Heather Williams (@heatherhmw.bsky.social) sy’n codi cwr y llen ar y cysylltiadau agos rhwng Cymru a Llydaw ar ddechrau’r ugeinfed ganrif 👇 golwg.360.cymru/gwerddon/219...

Pwy oedd Cochfarf?

Yn yr erthygl hon mae’r Athro Heather Williams o Ganolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant yn codi cwr y llen ar y cysylltiadau agos rhwng Cymru a Llydaw ar ddechra...

golwg.360.cymru

Pwy oedd Cochfarf? – @golwg.360.cymru golwg.360.cymru/gwerddon/219...

Pwy oedd Cochfarf?

Yn yr erthygl hon mae’r Athro Heather Williams o Ganolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant yn codi cwr y llen ar y cysylltiadau agos rhwng Cymru a Llydaw ar ddechra...

golwg.360.cymru

There’s one week left to register for our annual conference! Register now and get ready to talk all things health and happiness in 19th century French and Francophone studies 😁

SDN@uksdn.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🎉 Registration now opened 🎉 Coming to the 24th Society of Dix-Neuviémistes annual conference taking place in Cardiff from 8 to 10 April? Register before Monday 2 March via our website: uksdn.co.uk/health-and-h...

To showcase research projects at Master’s and PhD level, we are pleased to invite expressions of interest in this year’s Postgraduate Poster Competition, which will be held at this year's annual conference in Leicester. See link below for more info: www.sfs.ac.uk/prizes/postg...

Postgraduate Poster Competition

The Society for French Studies is the UK's premier scholarly organisation for encouraging and supporting intellectual enquiry in French studies at all levels.

sfs.ac.uk

OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...

Researchfish — Information for Researchers Regarding Researchfish Sunsetting

After careful consideration, Elsevier have made the difficult decision to sunset Researchfish on July 31st 2027, when the product will no longer be availab

help.researchfish.com

Find out what French and German travel writers made of the Menai Bridge when it was new footsteps.bangor.ac.uk/en/location/...

Diddordeb mewn cysylltiadau Cymru-Llydaw? Erthygl yn Saesneg am Joseph Loth a Chymru gan Elisabeth Chatel: journals.openedition.org/lbl/11477

Figures and sources, a first look at Joseph Loth and Wales

This article is the combined result of two talks given during the DreAM seminars, entitled “Joseph Loth et le pays de Galles, premières approches”, in February 2024, and “To Send or not to send bir...

journals.openedition.org

Interested in Pan-Celtic relations? My article on Cochfarf and Brittany is out here: journals.openedition.org/lbl/11337

Edward Thomas (Cochfarf) « premier ami de la Bretagne »

Introduction Dans les relations interceltiques, l’Eisteddfod de Cardiff en août 1899 est un phénomène incontournable. Nul ne nierait que cet évènement qui a fait venir une délégation de vingt-cinq ...

journals.openedition.org