"Waiting to forget Something", one of William Kentridge's mottoes from Words (2023), speaks to me today.

So hot in the British Museum Print Room, looking at Biblical catastrophes and thinking about the present moment in this precious place with a glass roof not made for today's temperature. How much of our archival infrastructure needs rethinking and rehousing?

BREAKING News from medieval Clacton-on-Sea (Binfield Byelection) New Accessions: politics, satire.

Susanita@spanglish51.bsky.social · 4w ago

Careful study of the Bayeaux Tapestry has revealed this !

An important read. With a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers.

AI companies are throwing museums a lifeline. What do they want in return?

Touted as a way to engage visitors and boost funding, new tools are triggering concerns around trust and ethics

giftarticle.ft.com

Romanticism across Borders is out open access. I enjoyed this Parisian invitation to think transnationally about how #Turner inflected #Exodus through #Poussin in the wake of #Napoleon's #Egyptian #Campaign 2026 (36) 71 | LITTERARIA PRAGENSIA share.google/BDKvR8Bm5w3o...

Please sign to protect the philosophy degree at Dundee c.org/d87FwGB86x

Sign the Petition

Save the Philosophy Programme at Dundee University

c.org

This would be a wonderful precedent to see Princeton UK (and other presses) emulate in the UK.

Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · last mo.

PUP is pleased to offer paid internships for Fall 2026-Spring 2027 in several department areas, including Editorial, Promotions/Publicity, Sales, Academic Marketing, & Integrated Marketing. This role is hybrid/remote and for payroll purposes open to those in NJ or PA. Apply by 7/12: buff.ly/JbOmJHK

Fix the undergraduate funding model, Burnham.

University English@univeng.bsky.social · last mo.

This week, Andy Burnham – an English graduate with a love of poetry – stepped closer to becoming Prime Minister. Andy’s remarkable journey embodies the central message of the #EnglishCreates campaign: this subject has the potential to enrich lives, open up opportunities, and shape the future.

It's not the worst aspect of the University of Exeter news, but the fact that the scale, focus and timing of the planned redundancies came as such a shock to staff says something quite fundamental about the staff of staff/management relations in UK HE today. Where is respect? Collegiality? Teamwork?

poleaxed

1. past simple and past participle of poleaxe 2. to hit someone so hard that…

dictionary.cambridge.org

ISRF's Dispatches series--views on university crises from academics--continues with a piece on curricular and teaching coercions that come from a seemingly neutral European-wide practice called constructive alignment. troubles of false neutrality. mailinglist.isrf.org/p/pedagogica...

Pedagogical State Apparatus

Lars Cornelissen argues that the theory of constructive alignment is not a neutral guideline, but rather centres a particular philosophy of learning & teaching which foreclose alternative pedagogies.

mailinglist.isrf.org

Universities often encourage academics to leave their ivory towers. Yet such work is veiled in risk assessments and reputational management. In this Dispatch, Eric Lybeck argues for the slow and uneven practice of meaningful civic engagement

What Makes Public Engagement So Difficult (and Why It Still Matters)

bit.ly

Myself and colleagues from across Higher Ed have gathered under the auspices of @isrfoundation.bsky.social to think about new models for Higher Education... We'll be adding pieces as we go, and we've already published quite a few. We can't go on like this, and we shouldn't. isrf.org/projects/rec...

Reconstructing the British University

isrf.org

It's just such transparent elitism and shuttering of HE. And it's nonsense. Birkbeck English department ranked 2nd in the country for research in the last REF. Many other success stories from universities that this report would like to dismiss.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

‘Only 22 UK universities should be allowed in REF’, says think tank. Policy Exchange report arguing most universities should refocus away from research garners right-wing support. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

Archival trip to... ?

My Thinking Through Printing keynote began with this provocation—as an interface for interacting with large language models, the chat box relies on a flawed skeuomorphism that misleads users, obscuring rather than revealing the relationship between users’ inputs & the language model systems’ outputs

Come along tomorrow at 5pm BST to this exciting @bars.bsky.social digital event on Romantic drama and contemporary performance that I organised with Chris Bundock, featuring amazing speakers doing very cool work with 18th C and Romantic theatre! Sign up: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6461

Relieved to see more coverage of the grip Nous is getting on #UKHE. Thanks @privateeyenews.bsky.social! A million pound @cardiffucu.bsky.social alone. That’s a lot of money for the very same PowerPoint…

Really enjoyed William #Kentridge's Mackenzie Lecture, in conversation with Peter McDonald at the Schwarzman yesterday. I am so looking forward to discussing the codex as a moving image technology in "Waiting for the Sibyl" at Textual Ecologies in Passau in July.

So looking forward to discussing Blake's approaches to illustration @blakesociety.bsky.social

The Blake Society@blakesociety.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our June event is here! Blake and Illustration - Monday 15 June, 7:30 PM UK time, on zoom - Professor @luisacale.bsky.social explores the complex world of Blake as a book illustrator. More info and FREE registration at blakesociety.org/product/blak...

For arts and humanities PhDs, the proportion in teaching-only roles rose from 28% to 33% 2018-2022. Just a reminder that the British Academy's ECRN is designed for recent (within 10 years) UK SHAPE postdocs, whether working in universities or not, has resources for you, and is free to join. 2/2

Early Career Researcher Network

An inclusive, researcher-led network for UK-based early career researchers working in the humanities and social sciences

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Very much looking forward to the Textual Ecologies conference!I will be speaking on a panel with @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social and Elaine Treharne :)

📣 Job Alert (permanent) 📣 Lecturer in English Literature (Romanticism), The Open University www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRQ222/l...

Lecturer in English Literature at The Open University

Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...

jobs.ac.uk

A blog post about how I’ve spent the last month.

How To Build A Book Lab in Your Mom’s Guest Room

Full disclosure, this post is a lot of text and very few images. I’m sorry. In the December of 2024, my mother buys me a Provisional Press kit and a set of galley magnets as a present. This k…

margueritecarrithers.wordpress.com

In 1811 Thomas Frognall Dibdin claimed that a collector had illustrated four lines of Genesis with 700 plates. Today's marvel: #PhysicaSacra

Come and join us for the opening of the Jo Spence exhibition, curated by Patrizia di Bello, in the Peltz Gallery: www.bbk.ac.uk/research/cen...

EVENT! Thinking Forwards:Collaboration :The Davy Notebooks Project A crowdsourced initiative to transcribe & study notebooks of Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829), revealing a pioneering chemist & poet whose ideas emerged through collaboration - SIGN UP! englishassociation.ac.uk/thinking-for...

Thinking Forwards: Collaboration | The Davy Notebooks (15 May 2026, 13:00 - 14:00) | The English Association

We support the teaching, learning, and enjoyment of English at all levels of education, from early years to further and higher education and beyond.

englishassociation.ac.uk

Looking forward to joining an interactive reading of #Blake's #Jerusalem at #Blake'sCottage in Felpham on Saturday. @blakecottagetrust.bsky.social @blakesociety.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaking-t...

We’re very pleased to share news of this research fellowship position, working with our wonderful CECS / English Literature colleague Prof Mary Fairclough @maryfairclough.bsky.social on the collected works of Mary Wollstonecraft: 🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL782/r...

Research Fellowship: The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft at University of York

Explore an exciting academic career as a Research Fellowship: The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

DREAM postdoc for ME circa 2013 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Research Fellowship: The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft at University of York

Discover Research Fellowship: The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

jobs.ac.uk

15 Floreal... I did not know that the Paris Commune reinstated the revolutionary calendar.

Paul Mason@paulmason.bsky.social · 3mo ago

#OnThisDay 1871 - Paris Commune's Committee of Public Safety reinstates the revolutionary calendar of 1792. It is now "15th Floreal, Year 79". More in Reds: A Global History of Communism geni.us/Redscovrev