The point isn't to produce essays, it's to teach students how to think for fuck's sake. The minute you automate that, it's over. You might as well close the course. Which they're also doing. This is an attack on learning, and everyone is just shrugging.

These groups - Springer Nature, Elsevier, Informa, etc - are robbing the sector blind and contributing to it's spiralling decline

Caroline Ball@heroicendeavour.eurosky.social · last wk.

Reading articles on the amounts HE has spent in APCs over the last 5-10 years, and slowly watching my blood pressure rise. Millions upon millions, on something WE CAN ABSOLUTELY DO OURSELVES FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST - what universities couldn't do with that kind of money now... 😠 And breathe...

open.substack.com/pub/lizzywil...

On Redundancy

Four weeks ago, the university that I have been working at for 9 years announced massive, unjustified, reckless job cuts, predominantly targeting the humanities, arts and social sciences.

open.substack.com

New on the Shakespearean Graves blog, @lizzywilliamson.bsky.social writes about shared commemorative language and the value of the humanities -- under threat at the University of Exeter and so many institutions worldwide. #ShaxEpitaphs #DefendExeterUni shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2026/07/15/j...

Professor Whittle is one of four colleagues in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty at the University of Exeter elected to Fellowship of the British Academy this year. 🗃️ ALL FOUR of these outstanding scholars were placed at risk of redundancy last month. Here's their statement:

When your excellent union re-phrases the VC's fear-mongering all-staff talk:

#DefendExeterUni

We are against these unjustified, cruel and ideologically founded attacks on our University. Exeter is not in financial deficit and the 153 job losses are overwhelmingly directed at the humanities and social sciences. Please sign, share and shout #DefendExeterUni: www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

change.org

📣 People are understandably up in the arms about this (it is horrible). But just want to wave a hand out there 👋 as we're going through the same thing in Humanities at Northumbria (1 out of 5 staff need to go by end of July). 1/?

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

If you asked me, off the top of my head, to name a non-Oxbridge university in England synonymous with excellence in the Humanities - I would probably think of Exeter first. This feels like a very deliberate, targeted and ideological Bonfire of the Humanities

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

Exeter Green Party stands in solidarity with the Exeter University and College Union in condemning the University of Exeter’s announcement of sweeping job cuts. These plans will recklessly imperil the University’s vital contributions to the social, cultural, and economic life of the city. 1/4

Humanities, arts and social sciences prop up stem - we cost less to run but are modelled as costing the same. Exeter does not have a financial deficit. This is ideological.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

The University of Exeter has become the latest Russell Group university to announce major job cuts, insisting it “must” take action to reduce financial pressures. Juliette Rowsell reports #highered #jobcuts https://ow.ly/K8bq50ZfYlY

Another 500+ people facing months of uncertainty. As part of our ongoing Dispatches series, Glen O’Hara asks “What does it mean to live under a constant cloud of uncertainty?” isrf.org/blog/what-do...

What Does It Feel Like to Live Under the Threat of Redundancy?

isrf.org

Exeter announces compulsory redundancies, overwhelmingly targeting the humanities and social sciences - 153 FTE people to be cut, 114 of which from our faculty. At-risk colleagues to be notified today.

Ben Phillips@benphillips1989.bsky.social · last mo.

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

UK historians! Please could you help with this survey about AI use? Open to all doing history professionally (independent, uni-based, etc); it's the work of a lovely friend (& brilliant former colleague at @uophistory.bsky.social), @alexandraortolja.bsky.social: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Survey on AI use by historians

You are invited to participate in a research survey exploring how historians in the UK use artificial intelligence (AI) in their work. This study is being conducted by researchers at the University…

docs.google.com

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.

Ooh this looks good 😊

Kieran Hegarty@kieranhegarty.bsky.social · last yr.

I have a chapter in "Platform Power & Libraries" which has just been published by Library Juice Press✨ As in many other sectors, commercial intermediaries are increasingly shaping how libraries fulfil their functions & serve their users - but there is resistance!✊ litwinbooks.com/books/platfo...

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Listening to some great papers online at the #susDH conference @ukiedh.bsky.social - wish I could be there in person, maybe next time...

My team is hiring a permanent lecturer: -> Lecturer Digital Culture & Society Deadline 28 June 2026. Please share with friends. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

ucl.ac.uk

I wrote a thing on (commercial) digitized archives, digital provenance and slow scholarship: doi.org/10.1093/llc/...

Digitized archives, content providers, and slow scholarship: why archival researchers should care about digital provenance

Abstract. Recent research has stressed the importance of recognizing the political nature of the digitization of primary sources, but how much do we really

doi.org

📢Considering a PhD in History?📢 Find out more about what funding is available, and what to include in a PhD research proposal 👇 🗃️ #PhDChat

University of Exeter Archaeology and History Department@uoearchhist.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Are you considering a PhD? 🤔 Join our 'Masterclass - PhD proposal and funding 101' 📅Wednesday 3 December 🕰️ 10am or 4pm 📍ZOOM All welcome! 🎫 Book your *free* ticket: • 10am: fixr.co/event/master... • 4pm: fixr.co/event/master...

🎺ANNOUNCEMENT!🎺 STORIES & SONGS: WILLS AS WINDOWS ONTO PAST LIVES Join Chris Hoban and I at #Exeter Phoenix for a unique performance of history & original music inspired by #Tudor, #Stuart & Georgian wills! 🗃️ FREE! Claim your ticket: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1738865536...

Stories and Songs: Wills as Windows onto Past Lives

A unique performance of history and original music inspired by Tudor, Stuart and Georgian wills.

eventbrite.co.uk

As of today, I am moving from Senior Research Fellow in DH to Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature and Digital Humanities! I'm still based at Exeter, in the excellent English & Creative Writing dept, and I'm really looking forward to this new chapter!

The police (wrongly) inform a peaceful protestor that holding a Palestinian flag and signs deploring genocide is an offence under the Terrorism Act. This is the deranged policing environment the government has created.

madoc cairns@madoc.bsky.social · last yr.

Police in Canterbury today informed a protestor that the phrase "Israel is committing genocide in Gaza" could be considered a declaration of support for Palestine Action and therefore a terrorism offence.

*really not funny at all. Those loans these managers are taking on bind universities to a high cash reserve (hundreds of millions) for years, leading to more cutting in running cost just to meet the covenant. This is why we need a governance review alongside a financial structure reform. #UKHE

East London university strikes deal for major life sciences investment

Queen Mary plans to develop £750mn biomedical campus after buying site from government

ft.com

Hello Bluesky, in September I'll be out of contract and would be grateful to hear of any potential teaching (early modern lit) or research (with archives, rare books, humanities data) work. I'm based in SW England. Thank you!

Another stimulating day at #RenSoc25: rich keynote by Subha Mukherji; I especially liked panel on bibliographic data science (unsurprisingly!) Good discussion of potential and pitfalls of data-led approaches to incomplete em sources by @fredschurink.bsky.social, @annalujz.bsky.social, Pete Morris

My personal fav panel from yesterday was John-Mark Philo's project on Global Libraries, check it out if you like books, travel, knowledge exchange, and putting the past in dialogue with the present (in this case forced migrants' lack of/access to libraries) #RenSoc25 www.globallibrary.net/about

About | Global Library

The Global Library Project (1500–1700) reconstructs the journeys made by Anglo-Scots visitors to libraries across North America, Europe, and the Middle East during the early-modern period. By reconstr...

globallibrary.net