'The university has adopted the position that boycotting staff are in "breach of contract", will receive no pay, and are therefore not expected to work at all, leading to what some have described as a "lockout".' 1/3

University staff forced to either cover colleagues' work or go without pay

Staff at Edinburgh University have been told that they must cover for their boycotting colleagues or go without pay themselves.

heraldscotland.com

How will UK HE recover from this? Disastrously shortsighted decision-making that is dismantling the very infrastructure of the humanities, and threatening the livelihoods of scholars and teachers who deserve so much better. Senior managers, what are you doing?

Mark Pendleton@markpendleton.bsky.social · 3mo ago

East Asian Studies is being gutted at Sheffield - all staff at risk with 8.6 FTE proposed to go (a third of us). Biggest cuts in Chinese and Japanese Studies. We’ll be taking a few days to process. Solidarity to Materials and Chemistry colleagues who are also dealing with similarly bad news.

“We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher” is coming to @edincollegeofart.bsky.social. Delighted to welcome co-director Simon Poulter for this screening on 20 March - all welcome. Book your tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-mak...

And this comes after the People and Money fiasco (although - this is still ongoing... it still doesn't work properly!). The same management team were in charge of that, too. But never any mention of overspending on rubbish database software when it comes to rising costs. www.bbc.com/news/uk-scot...

Edinburgh University to pay extra £8m for controversial finance system

Edinburgh University's contract with its supplier Inoapps will rise from £25m to £33.5m.

bbc.com

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

Hundreds of staff leave Edinburgh University amid cuts drive

According to the university, 345 of these departures were the result of a targeted voluntary severance (VS) scheme run by the institution in 2025.

heraldscotland.com

"Edinburgh held 12 contracts and received 26 documents from Nous or related entities between January 2022 and September 2025. As early as February 2022, it had provided the university with a “draft vision” and a “strategy and roadmap” report."

QM_UCU@qmucu.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The consultancy Nous takes hundreds of thousands of pounds from universities, leaves the exact same path of destruction everywhere, and keeps trying to avoid transparent contracts. We’re urgently need control over consultancy spent in #UKHE, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

🔉 Listen in! Dr @lucygweir.bsky.social - What Moves Them - The Global History of Modern Dance - is episode 4 of series 2 of Artful Inquiry, the ECA research podcast. Discover how migration, protest, and chance encounters shaped the language of movement. open.spotify.com/episode/3ct8...

10. What Moves Them: The Global History of Modern Dance

open.spotify.com

Our History of Art Research Seminars are back! The first is on 18 Sep with Dr Kuang-Yi Ku, '2025 Spotlight Taiwan Project - Challenging Biomedical Paradigm through Art and Design' Events are free & open to all, with a variety of in person/online/hybrid events: www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/history-o...

In very good company here - many thanks to James for this chat about my forthcoming global history of modern dance.

Edinburgh College of Art@edincollegeofart.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The ECA research podcast, Artful Inquiry, is back!💥 Welcome to Series 2 of our podcast - six more cracking episodes delving into some of the fascinating topics researched by staff at ECA. Check out www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research... or find the episodes on Spotify!

A glorious evening at Pacific Quay last night - I sneaked on to the final five minutes of Radio 4's Front Row to talk about Soviet ballet and Yuri Grigorovich's complex legacy. You can listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

We are disappointed but not surprised that Meta has used millions of pirated books to develop its AI systems. As a matter of urgency, Meta needs to compensate the rightsholders of all the works it has been exploiting. But what can authors do? Read here: societyofauthors.org/2025/03/21/t...

Tonight @edincollegeofart.bsky.social! Exploring the work of artist André Stitt and his persona of the 'hard man', an archetype used to interrogate feelings of guilt, complicity and posttraumatic suffering in the wake of the Troubles. 5.15pm, in person and online www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/history-of...

History of Art Research Seminar Series | Dr Lucy Weir

Playing the Hard Man: André Stitt’s Confrontational Engagement with the Legacy of the Troubles

eventbrite.co.uk

Join us for ‘Playing the Hard Man: André Stitt’s Confrontational Engagement with the Legacy of the Troubles’ with Dr Lucy Weir @lucygweir.bsky.social 5.15pm, Thursday 27 February, Hunter Lecture Theatre – free and open to all, in person and online: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/event/playin...

Very much looking forward to sharing some of the details of my new book, a global history of modern dance, courtesy of @rcsofficial.bsky.social Exchange Talks next week. Monday 24 Feb at 6pm (GMT), online and all welcome! events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a0bd2f...

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

events.teams.microsoft.com

UNESCO Week of Sound – Concert – ‘Stolen voices and parameters for uncertainty’ @weekofsound.bsky.social A concert of electroacoustic music and sound art from projects by the late Rebecca Collins. 7pm, Tue 18 Feb, West Court. Free and open to all. Book now: digital.eca.ed.ac.uk/weekofsound/...

Theatre Studies at University of Glasgow is launching a pilot, SCOTTISH THEATRE ARCHIVES PRACTITIONER RESIDENCY, offering a fee of £2000. Applications are invited from self-employed arts practitioners. Deadline 21 Feb. Full details in link. www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/the...

“Pina’s work is so accessible because you don’t really need to know anything; you can just experience it." www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/f...

‘People don’t want choreography – they want human beings’: Pina Bausch’s son on her legacy

Salomon Bausch, head of the foundation set up in his mother’s name, talks about the enduring, visceral appeal of the dance pioneer’s work and preserving the sense of potential in her work

theguardian.com

Since submitting my book manuscript last month, I don't think I've ever sent so many emails every single day as I have while trying to source all the image permissions. At this rate, if I manage to label them correctly, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

a man carrying a bag in a living room with a clock in the background

ALT: a man carrying a bag in a living room with a clock in the background

media.tenor.com

Sorina Chiper, the translator of my book on Pina Bausch, has written an article reflecting on the process, and it offers such an interesting insight into the linguistic and technical challenges she encountered: www.feaa.uaic.ro/LSP/no5_2024...

#15 on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social critical theory advent calendar is the brilliant @lucygweir.bsky.social discussing “Performance, Masculinity, and Self-Injury” newbooksnetwork.com/performance-...

Coming soon! www.thebookseller.com/rights/allen...

Allen Lane to publish 'immersive' global history of modern dance by Weir

Allen Lane has acquired academic and BBC New Generation Thinker Lucy Weir’s “immersive” history of modern dance.

thebookseller.com

I've been incredibly fortunate to have the support of @leverhulme.bsky.social over the last 18 months as I've been working on my new book, a global history of modern dance. The Trust's annual report has some more information on the project, which you can read here: www.flipsnack.com/leverhulmetr...

2023 Annual Review

Flipsnack is a digital catalog maker that makes it easy to create, publish and share html5 flipbooks. Upload a PDF or design from scratch flyers, magazines, books and more.

flipsnack.com

Meanwhile, a nice surprise this year was the Romanian translation of my 2018 book, Pina Bausch's Dance Theatre: editurajunimea.ro/produs/teatr... (you can find the English edition here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-pina-ba...)

Weekend listening! Lucy Weir talks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about the fascinating 'Performance, Masculinity, and Self-Injury' newbooksnetwork.com/performance-...

It's been a busy 18 months while I've been on research leave, with many hours clocked up in front of a screen. My second book was published by Routledge in August - it was a real labour of love, and I'm so grateful to the artists who gave their time to talk to me: www.routledge.com/Performance-...