Including an image of diamond miner being chased by a police officer shouting “Hi! Waar’s yo pas” ! What you are looking for really shapes what you see.

Interesting new article about the "illicit diamond buyer" in c19th South Africa by @imperialminerals.bsky.social. A lot to learn in it. I've seen this map of claims before without fully noticing it is decorated with caricatures of African miners being chased by police. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The Commemorations Grants scheme has opened for the third year. Funded by the @deptcultureirl.bsky.social, this scheme provides between €1,500 and €10,000 per project. The deadline for applications is 29 April 2026. https://www.ria.ie/grants/commemorations-bursary/

Delighted to have an article, 'The Racialized Energy and Labour of Illicit Diamond Buyers in Colonial South Africa' published as part of this special issue edited by Michael Tondre: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... This article has come from the Research Ireland-funded Imperial Minerals project and

Victorian Review @victorianreview.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New! A thrilling special issue on "Post-Carbon Victorian Studies" edited by Michael Tondre. A fantastic forum on "Victorian Breeds and Breeding" edited by Kristen Guest and Ronja Frank. Reviews of new books on Conrad, A Brontë, Carroll, and others! Read us on Project Muse muse.jhu.edu/issue/56547

Nigel Biggar attacking Alan Lester and colleagues through a proxy student ‘whistle blower’ in the national media, with no right of reply. Disgraceful MAGA tactics.

Alan Lester@alanlester.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Spectator published this attack on me & colleagues just as the High Court is considering Sussex’s request for review of the Office for Students fine. It accuses us of ‘repressing’ our students. The magazine ignored my request for to reply. Please disseminate. alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...

Fantastic blog by my former colleague @alanlester.bsky.social forensically refuting the disgraceful attacks on the University of Sussex by the disgracefully ignorant Nigel Biggar. If you’re interested in protecting academic freedom please do read and share

Smearing Sussex (and Me): Responding to Nigel Biggar’s Latest Attack in The Spectator

The University of Sussex, Feb 2026, taken by the author. Alan Lester The Spectator has published an article by Nigel Biggar smearing the University of Sussex as repressing students who ‘don&#…

alanlester.co.uk

And now I have a helpful 20% discount code for anyone interested too: 26AFLY1

Sarah Comyn@sarahcomyn.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My short take on the long view of Political Economy has happily just been released as a paperback🥳 It begins with the South Sea bubble & ends with the digital economy & Irish bogs, with many interesting pitstops along the way. It's true to its title & only 80 pages🙂 www.routledge.com/Political-Ec...

This book has the most scathing dedication by an illustrator I have ever seen (and he is completely right) #kidlit

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

History: Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the present (RS936) - Swansea University

We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.

swansea.ac.uk

"this does not need a balm this needs an ending" --Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...

Dionne Brand : Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems | Milkweed Editions

Today’s guest Dionne Brand, to borrow the words of John Keene, “is without question one of the major living poets in the English language.” Kamau Brathwaite called Brand “our first major exile female ...

milkweed.org

The deadline for submissions to the Vcologies Early Career Paper Prize has been extended to February 15! Submissions should be emailed to Kathleen Frederickson. See attached flyer for details! #envhist #envhum

I was funded by the minerals project to visit Museum Africa to consult its fascinating postcard collections on SA’s extractive histories. The postcards discussed in this article offer a glimpse into how this highly commercial medium shaped global perceptions of mining capitalism and abstract labor.

Sarah Comyn@sarahcomyn.bsky.social · 7mo ago

You can read @gigitang.bsky.social excellent article in full here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl... And find out more about Gigi's broader case study for the Imperial Minerals project here: imperialminerals.ie/team/ge-tang/

@gigitang.bsky.social article, 'Race, Postcards, & the Visual Politics of Chinese Indenture in South African Gold Mines' has been published in Victorian Studies! In it, Gigi compares how 3 SA postcard publishers represent the arrival of indentured Chinese workers👇 imperialminerals.ie/publications...

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away

thezebra.org

When the active shooter on campus is the Israeli state, does anyone offer thoughts and prayers?

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 8mo ago

This image is from Birzeit University in the West Bank which was raided by Israel today using live ammunition and tear gas. Over 40 people were injured, mostly students. More than 8,000 students are trapped inside. But it’s controversial to talk about scholasticide.

You can also listen to Assoc. Prof Tom Nurmi's brilliant keynote which opened the symposium. In his paper, Tom engages closely with previous Minerals roundtables and provides a philosophical exploration of minerals in our contemporary era through Emerson's poetry imperialminerals.ie/podcasts/qua...

Minerals@imperialminerals.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Read @gigitang.bsky.social reflection on the brilliant Critical Minerals symposium she & Katie Donnelly organised for the Minerals project. The symposium was generously supported by UCD College of Arts & Humanities seed funding & @ucdhumanities.bsky.social imperialminerals.ie/2025/12/19/c...

Read @gigitang.bsky.social reflection on the brilliant Critical Minerals symposium she & Katie Donnelly organised for the Minerals project. The symposium was generously supported by UCD College of Arts & Humanities seed funding & @ucdhumanities.bsky.social imperialminerals.ie/2025/12/19/c...

I'm giving a public talk at Universistät Konztanz's ZKF on Wednesday at 5:30pm. I'll be talking about my @researchireland.ie Imperial Minerals project, Illicit Diamond Buyers, Zama Zama, Koleka Putuma, William Kentridge, and more. You can join online! 👇 www.uni-konstanz.de/forschen/for...

Check it out!! Hodder & Stoughton have an open submission window for all fiction genres. Get in quick. Details in link. Please share :)

HODDER & STOUGHTON OPEN SUBMISSIONS

Visit the post for more.

hodder.co.uk

Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?

Tim Newman@tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy” www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Same for literary studies. Non-tenure-track lit studies scholars I know you're out there and publishing articles and books. And if you're tenure-track and know NTT authors, let me know about their work! I can reach out and confirm that they're cool with being listed.

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Haven't received as many contributions as usual for this year's lists--could be many things, but one aspect is surely that our ability to get this in front of people is much diminished. If you know folks whose stuff should be on here, please suggest it! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...

Great to see this out in the world

Look at this excellent handkerchief from 1769 at the V & A museum: a showcase for #18thc practices of remediation. Made to imitate a quodlibet/medley print, a genre that itself aims to simulate, in a trompe l'oeil idiom, a scatter of small printed papers. Imagine blowing your nose on that! #scraps

This is a 52-pound 9000+ page accordion-bound artist’s book of Donald Trump’s lies, conceived, printed, and bound by Jill and Ray Nichols of @leadgraffiti.bsky.social in Delaware. Each of the 9000 pages has the text (per the Washington Post) of one or more of Trump’s lies; none are repeated.

5 Academy in Exile Fellowships-Deadline Extended, 30 November 2025. Eligibility: scholars with PhD in the humanities, social sciences, law, who are at risk because of their academic work/civic engagement in human rights, democracy, & the pursuit of academic freedom. www.academy-in-exile.eu

🔔 Admissions are open for the M.Phil in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin. Come and join us - or recommend our course to your students! #envhist #skystorians More info here 👇 www.tcd.ie/courses/post...

Congrats to Omar El Akkad & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson both shortlisted for the 2025 Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction ICYMI here are my 2025 conversations with each Omar: tinhouse.com/podcast/omar... Leanne: tinhouse.com/podcast/lean... @biidaasamose.bsky.social @haymarketbooks.org

It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!

Dr. Laura Hartmann-Villalta@hartmann-villalta.bsky.social · 10mo ago

We are at it again! Myself & the wonderful @rcolesworthy.bsky.social😍 Seeking pubs -- articles, book chapters, monographs -- by contingent lit scholars for the 2025 list 👇👇 please spread the word!!! contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/08/2...

Fitting advert in the airport in Zambia's biggest mining region:

A permanent post in my department. Closing date Dec 14th 2025, interviews in March. Please spread #histsci