If you don’t like the running down of arts degrees you can sign this petition, it’s very easy c.org/XbNrQnjfVW

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

Seriously thrilled to be on the panel for tonight's episode of Free Thinking on BBC Radio 4 on the subject of travel. I'll be joining host Shahidha Bari and historians Bettany Hughes, Lucy Powell and Alun Withey and philosopher Julian Baggini. It's also on BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Travel

Travel past and present and broadening the mind? Travel journalists and historians debate.

bbc.co.uk

'Responding to the decision, Devine, 80, said: “In principle I am opposed to changing historic artefacts to suit ­today’s tastes. To do so is presentism, imposing 20th-century values on those of the distant past.' '20th-century'? Bit of an own goal Sir T.

Historian attacks ‘ludicrous’ changes to statues with slavery links

Professor Sir Tom Devine, an emeritus professor at Edinburgh University, said he was opposed to changing artefacts to suit modern sensibilities

thetimes.com

Very excited indeed to be speaking at this tomorrow. Do come by if you are in Cambridge at 5pm. I'll be rioting with Austen (and sure, obliquely with Dickens, too), at the English Faculty. @universitypress.cambridge.org, @cam.ac.uk, @bsecs.bsky.social

📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications! We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections. Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li... 📆Closing date: 5 January 2026 #UofGLibraryFellows

@drbibliomane.bsky.social More exciting than new Pynchon? Possibly?

So delighted that this long-gestated brain child is now out and in the real world. I'll be talking about it at the English Faculty in Cambridge, @cam.ac.uk on Thursday of next week at 5pm. Do please come along if you're in town!

@sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social Saw this and thought of you :)

It's not fair I mean when was the last time a white male novelist won a Booker. You'd have to go all the way back to 2023

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · last yr.

Every time I read an article like this, I think, if male novelists are so endangered, how do I know so fucking many of them? Apparently the answer is, because we're all in "genre," which is the One Simple Trick for still getting published when you're a dude. www.the-independent.com/arts-enterta...

Cambridge people! I’m going to be giving a talk on TJ Wise, detritus, stolen leaves, and made-up books on Thursday at 5pm. Do come along! www.english.cam.ac.uk/cmt/?cat=6

Check out our upcoming April titles, including "Unruly Comparison" by Alvin K. Wong, "Hemispheric Blackface" by Danielle Roper, and "The Future of Futurity" by Purnima Mankekar and Akhil Gupta. buff.ly/0pkTAfs

Certainly another stimulating BBCFreeThinking from @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social & guests. Though I have my ‘Yes, but-s’ from the start for the guests inc @askwilliamblake.bsky.social @ljpowell.bsky.social Kathleen Burk, Jim Hoare, Catherine Coldstream www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Isolation

Matthew Sweet explores ideas about being on your own.

bbc.co.uk

On tonight’s BBC Free Thinking on BBC Radio 4 right now we go into isolation (and isolationism) with Carmelite nuns, North Koreans and Covid citizens. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…

Returning to The Prelude today, and finding there a lovely dismissal of AI and discovering too a new spot of time: a magical Roman restaurant with excellent isecs colleagues...

At CECS, 2025 is a big year for us because 1775 was, too. We’ve been co-curating a 250th exhibition on Jane Austen and JMW Turner at Harewood House. More info in the coming weeks, so watch this space. #AustenTurner #18thC #JaneAusten Ticket info: harewood.org/events/auste...

To repeat: "A country so stupid it actively trashes one of things it's good at and famous for."

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 2y ago

Today's university slashing and burning is Edinburgh, where about 10% of the budget will be cut. There'll be another case every single day until UK govts actually do something. A country so stupid it actively trashes one of things it's good at and famous for. www.bbc.com/news/article...

We're delighted to welcome Barney Ronay @barneyronay.bsky.social, Chief Sports Writer for The Guardian, to the English Faculty on 3 March. He'll be in conversation w/ Prof David Taylor discussing everything from the politics of sport to the changing nature of Britain’s media landscape. All welcome!

Desperate to visit the new Byron museum in Ravenna, I read that: "one of the rooms contains tokens of love kept by the countess, including letters, jewellery, locks of the poet's curly hair and shards of his sunburned skin." Shards of what now? Shards of his burned skin? kept as tokens of ... love?!

Hello Bluesky! Did you know that we have 17 bursaries available for the BSECS Annual Conference? To find out more and apply, please use this form: (forms.office.com/e/ZJAmgxRHLd Applications close at midnight UK time on 20th November @bsecs.bsky.social @asecsoffice.bsky.social #18thC

Trust TJ Clark to immediately notice that Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, which he'd never read, begins with (another) fall of Icarus... ... ...

🔔 Please share widely! A call for contributions for an edited collection _Reading the Queer Eighteenth Century_ which will be published by De Gruyter in early 2026. Submit a proposal or pass on to interested scholars! #Skystorians #18C #Queer #Disability #Ecocriticism #trans #transnational

The more involved I get with administrative work, the more I empathize with Francis Douce's absolute banger of a resignation letter.

You know how we suffer psychologically when people deny our reality and keep making up stuff; how disorientating that is? That, but on university-level. Our finances are fine. The urgency and crisis mode is not needed. (sure, let's think how we do this thing, but we don't need the STRESS & lies)

QM_UCU@qmucu.bsky.social · 3y ago

We've joined never-ending list of unis where managers are pushing through redundancies. Our reorganisation is an artificial one, abusing the real hardships other places are in (& which STILL shouldn't warrant shutting down important dept!) for an ideological attack. post: qmucu.org/2024/03/19/h...

Applications now open for our @BSECS-Northumbria Fellowship. £4000 available to support a visiting scholar researching the culture, history, and identity of the North East of England and the Scottish Borders in the #18thC. DEADLINE 31 May. www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...

If you edit a UK Humanities book series, publish UK Humanities books, represent/belong to a Humanities scholarly society or hold a research advocacy role at your UK university, it's time to engage with REF 2029 Open Access Consultation - UK Research and Innovation - Citizen Space (ukri.org)

60s futurists: everything will be great, technology will help all humanity live in dignity and equality current state of things:

Opening in London on Tuesday, the Linnean Society Library's 'Lovely as a Tree': An exhibition on the culture of trees explored through our collections. www.linnean.org

Communicating Nature Since 1788

The Linnean Society of London is working towards a world where nature is understood, valued and protected. We're the world's oldest active biological society.

linnean.org

Please share - New Prize for non-fiction for black women writers, amplifying us as knowledge-makers and critical thinkers. Global scope with a $20,000 award for exceptional work by black cis, trans and genderqueer women. Details here. Judged by Bernadine Evaristo.

MANUSCRIPT PRIZE

Cassava Republic Press’s Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize is dedicated to exceptional works of non-fiction by Black women.

cassavarepublic.biz

URGENT: Please oppose House amendment to eliminate funding for the NEH: p2a.co/WJ0QckF

URGENT: Oppose an Amendment to Eliminate Funding for the NEH

I just took action to oppose the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities! Join me and take action here.

p2a.co