Brilliant piece from @hannahforsyth.bsky.social . Of course, nobody or almost nobody reads academic “outputs”. Their function is to get jobs, secure promotion, avoid redundancy, get better scores on dubious metrics. Which makes AI almost the perfect tool for the unscrupulous professor.

If you can't be bothered writing it, I can't be bothered reading it.

The producerist vision of AI seems to assume an endlessly expanding market for reading. And reading. Well. It is rather more than a market.

substack.com

‘Danger no longer only comes from the hitmen, but from the state’: the Honduran farmers labelled terrorists for protecting their land

‘Danger no longer only comes from the hitmen, but from the state’: the Honduran farmers labelled terrorists for protecting their land

After another massacre of smallholders – who are subjected to violence from palm oil firms and drug traffickers – the country’s new Trump-backed government has criminalised community leaders

theguardian.com

#PSA27 Call for Papers 📢 Paper & panel proposals invited for the PSA27 Annual Conference at the University of Hull, 22-24 March 2027. 🌎️ Conference theme: 'Seismic Politics – impacts and responses from the global to the local' 📆 Deadline 12 October 2026

PSA27 Annual Conference - Political Studies Association

Join us in Hull for PSA27 to discuss Seismic Politics – impacts and responses from the global to the local “PSA [conference] was really great. It gave much-needed exposure to interact with…

buff.ly

Please sign this petition against UK government threats to remove remuneration for highly trained and relentlessly brave Coastguard Rescue Officers - campaign led by my dear friend and absolute legend @kellyjstockdale.bsky.social: act.38degrees.org.uk/act/coastgua....

Save Our Coastguards: Scrap plans to strip rescue heroes of their pay!

This is so outrageous. The Government wants to reclassify Coastguard Rescue Officers as "volunteers" so they can get out of paying them an hourly wage when they go out to save lives. Join me and sign...

act.38degrees.org.uk

Things are so bad I joined WhatsApp (still don't have a smartphone though, no). In amongst the serious stuff in our 'at risk' chat are some Very Lovely Things. For instance, my colleague who works on the Italian Renaissance shared this photo of the Archivio di Stato di Roma, where she currently is:

Just totally unacceptable that countries of origin--including many, wealthy Western countries--continue to refuse to repatriate their nationals detained or displaced during the conflicts in Syria. www.ohchr.org/en/statement...

UN Syria Commission concludes latest visit to Syria

Commissioners Monia Ammar and Fionnuala Nì Aolain of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic concluded their latest visit to the Syrian Arab Republic, where the...

ohchr.org

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mural of Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers appears in Birmingham

The artwork on the side of a chippy shows the Black Country-born England stars eating orange chips.

bbc.co.uk

When officials say shit like this, they're not thinking about Oxford and Cambridge. They're thinking about the post-92s and the lower-ranked Russell Group schools—in other words, the universities that serve working class & BIPOC students whom the "political strategy" would love to ignore completely.

Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · last mo.

UK to Universities: drop dead archive.is/PN5y7

'A less than five-minutes-long Teams call with no opportunity to respond is how staff at the University of Dundee heard that their jobs, the courses that they teach and their livelihoods might be at risk. I ask members to think about that for a moment.' (Maggie Chapman (North East Scotland) 1/5

The Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament examines what the Scottish Government is doing, makes new laws on devolved matters and debates the issues of the day.

parliament.scot

First management @northumbriauni.bsky.social came for our pensions and pay - for no good reason. Now they're coming for our colleagues. This is terrible news for staff, students, and the region. @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @ukhenews.bsky.social @21group.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Northumbria UCU Branch@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UCU - Staff at Northumbria University to be balloted for strike action in job cuts row www.ucu.org.uk/article/14548

Times are very hard, but waiting for things to get better before celebrating tiny wins would be waiting forever. This book, written during 3(?) rounds of industrial action as the HE sector and world falls apart, finally reached us, so a trip to the local to celebrate was had.

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

Our society has spent the entirety of teenagers' lives systematically destroying every alternative to online interaction, from youth-clubs to broadcast TV, and now wants to cut off their access to the one thing that was sold as replacing it all.

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Banning children from social media will disempower teenagers, according to a governance expert at the Oxford Internet Institute. Dr Victoria Nash warns that children will be denied positive social interactions online and cut off from online news and learning. www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06...

It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it.

'Unsettling feelings: colonial archives, decolonial possibilities' 🌍 Upcoming BISA Critical Alternatives for World Politics Working Group event w/ Alice Finden looking at 'How does the turn to colonial archives in social research connect to decolonial politics?' 📣 👉 https://ow.ly/SyJc50ZcEaU

Current Postgraduate Network Chair, Konstantinos Manakos (@irpnorthumbria.bsky.social) says the role has been the best experience ever 🎉 Have you got what it takes to be part of the next committee? 🌟 Applications are open now! 👉 https://ow.ly/2T3r50ZbUlj

A good summary why UK HE has ended up in such a mess. I’d also add the growth of a managerial layer who refuse to take any responsibility for things they are responsible for; fall in available research funding, which wastes huge amounts of labour; and the pointless hamster wheel of REF! 🫠

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

100% this

Tim Waterman@tim-waterman.co.uk · 4mo ago

Why is this not a national scandal? If 1000+ jobs were lost overnight in carmaking or steel it would be pure shock.

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social on strike again tomorrow - pickets from 9.30, free film screening @ Tyneside Cinema from 11.00. See y'all there, for 'One Battle After Another' - in real life and on screen! @onebattlemovie.bsky.social @paulthomasanderson.bsky.social

More on the state of British academia. Such cruelty and brutalisation effected through these processes that are dismantling disciplines and universities in the face of governmental indifference

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.

“I want to talk about the way that the survival of the AI industry depends upon you, the generation coming of age right now, agreeing with them that you have essentially no say in your own future.” medium.com/center-on-pr...

Strike day with @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social #stopthegreatpensionrobbery

UCU - 10 strike days begin tomorrow at Northumbria University over pension 'robbery'. See you on the pickets. Wellies and umbrellas advised! www.ucu.org.uk/article/14401

10 strike days begin this week at Northumbria University over pension 'robbery'

Northumbria University will be hit with ten days of strike action from Thursday 12 February in a fight to save staff pensions, UCU announced today

ucu.org.uk

When people say “but what about the good policies” they fail to understand the anger these things produce. As someone living on benefits due to disability & *still trying* to get PIP, the attack on disability alone was so personal, so cruel, literally nothing they do now would make me trust them

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

1. Many here seem bemused by the anger and disappointment this government attracts. Please bear with me while I try to explain it. Let’s begin with Gaza. Starmer’s complicity is one of the major reasons so many people are disillusioned. rethinkingsecurityorguk.wpcomstaging.com/2025/10/07/i... 🧵

📣Call for abstracts 📣 If you do Critical Security/Terrorism Studies, join our #EISAPEC26 section. We welcome papers, panels, or roundtables. Feel free to get in touch with either myself or @marinegueguin.bsky.social if you have any queries. Deadline is 19 Feb. eisa-net.org/abstract-sub...

European International Studies Association (EISA)@europeanisa.bsky.social · 6mo ago

⏰ Remember to submit your abstracts for #EISAPEC26 by 19 February! ⬇️ Details and submission link below...

UCU - Northumbria University staff vote for strike action in pay and pensions row www.ucu.org.uk/article/14383

Northumbria University staff vote for strike action in pay and pensions row

Staff at Northumbria University have voted to take industrial action over plans to pressure them to leave the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS), the University and College Union (UCU) announced today .

ucu.org.uk

💥💥💥Please sign and share this petition: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no... @ucu.org.uk @unison.org.uk @tuc.org.uk

Northumbria Pay and Pension Petition: Stop the Steal!

If Northumbria does this, other universities will too.  These cuts will harm thousands of people, their students, families, and their local communities now and into the future.

megaphone.org.uk

🚨Want to improve your teaching? Applying for a Teaching Fellowship?🚨 Join our upcoming BISA Postgrad Network event 'Voices in learning and teaching: Participatory methods for inclusive education' 📚 With LeonieBJackson and Dr Maísa Edwards sign up now! 🌟 https://ow.ly/CGQl50XrsiL