Marika Rose
@marika.bsky.social
Communist theologian. Angelologist. “Too angry and gratuitously crude” - Church Times
This is both really good and terrifying on management consultants, the draining of our universities, and the peculiar use of supposed metrics to strip our colleagues of their jobs: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
Inside Britain's university crisis
As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter
democracyforsale.substack.com
I like this notetaking example. it is a good case of how gender works. Notetaking has never been about producing a transcript. It is a bureaucratic skill in the 20th c. organixarion because it is SENSEMAKING. Those women socialized to take notes? They have been doing men’s metacognition for them
Jennifer Romig @jennifermromig.bsky.social · 4d agoNotetaking in meetings is tiny case in point - used to be some predictable social assumptions who would do it; now anyone can offer to do ”notetaking” by turning on the AI listener. Further interesting scenario is human recollection / notes (taken by habit by a person) conflict with AI summary
Endometriosis takes nine years to diagnose. That’s about to change. NICE has approved two tests: a saliva test reading microRNA markers, and a gut-sensor test returning results in 45 minutes, sparing women the keyhole surgery currently needed. buff.ly/QX3jHk8 #ShareGoodNewsToo
Rapid endometriosis tests to be made available on NHS in England and Wales
Saliva and gut sensor-based tests hailed as ‘gamechanger’ for millions of women who can wait years for diagnosis
buff.ly
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
The author of Sacramental Trans Feminism (out next month - with 20% throughout August) @cdjtheology.bsky.social has written a blog (see quoted post below) on scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/978033...
Chris Clare DJ@cdjtheology.bsky.social · 5d agoAnyway, here's a discussion of epistemic injustice, the visceral experience of being silenced, and why these are deeply theological issues: scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/blog/speech-...
The sec of state who has seen at least 15000 academics lose their jobs just said this. Out loud. Mercy me. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion
Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities
theguardian.com
You can still sign up to @londonjesuit.bsky.social & @cdjtheology.bsky.social's Theology4Trans Studies conference! 2 days exploring the interface between theology & trans studies at US-friendly times & trans-friendly prices 20-21 Aug, £5, online londonjesuitcentre.churchsuite.com/events/wevpt...
Theology4Trans Studies (online conference) (20-Aug-2026)
Conference overviewOver the past few years, Christian theology has begun to take more interest in transness. Transness is recognised as an element within our contemporary metaphysical, ethical and pol...
londonjesuitcentre.churchsuite.com
in my Rethinking the Qur'an in Late Antiquity, I broached the possibility of The Odyssey's influence on Hadith, tying in to an understanding of Kawthar
A lot of the Odyssey discourse has been about how it's understood as a foundational text for Western culture, and I went down a rabbit hole trying to find out what that actually meant. It seems like it was read pretty widely across the Roman empire till about the 5th century.
I teach a lot about the bible and ancient greek tradition through comparison and one of the things I often tell my students is that one fundamental difference is that the biblical god gets mad at you for sin, but sometimes in Greece you accidentally sit on a bench Dionysius really liked
Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · last wk.I think the big thing about the Gods in Homer is that they have the same tangled network of feuds and alliances and obligations that humans do, and there's not necessarily a "morally correct" path to follow. It is entirely possible to be punished for doing something that people agree is justified.
Is this a good time to mention that in college my History of Translation lecturer (Michael Cronin) told us that one of the first vernacular translations of The Illiad was into Irish, and the translator had to give the main characters dogs because in Gaelic society a free man had a dog
One arrest at the Nazi protest against Pride, multiple arrests at the leftist Internationalist Pride, and a murderer managed to break through a police barricade and drive a van into the big pride event without being stopped or caught. Berlin’s cops and politicians have made their priorities clear.
Ideologically, generative AI is a 19th century technology: the flawed dream that once you have assembled a supposedly total archive of culture via technical media, you can use it to statistically derive new meaning from patterns of the past
Insane new research. Scientists gave asthma patients free electric stoves to replace their gas stoves, then checked to see if symptoms improved. Not only did symptoms improve, ditching gas was *better than medicine.* Details in today's newsletter: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/electric-s...
Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked.
The latest evidence that gas is bad for your health.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Incredible statement from the Church in Wales on the ignominious Code of Practice: "The Church in Wales will not use equality law exemptions to exclude trans people from our worship, our sacraments, our pastoral care, or our common life." www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-...
Statement of the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales on the publication of the EHRC Draft Code of Practice - Church in Wales
churchinwales.org.uk
really thinking about this tweet as i’ve been struggling to breathe through nausea for the last 5 hours
Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · 3w agoThese images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...
Fuck labour, fuck their supporters, fuck everyone who votes for them, fuck the scg, i want to see that party destroyed and consigned to history. If you even try and defend this shit youre fucking dead to me.
Cal Horton (they/them)@fiercemum.bsky.social · 3w agoJust had meeting with kiddo's school. She has been fully supported, treated with full equality & dignity for years. All of that changes from September. Full segregation & humiliation across the board. The school staff cried in the meeting. This will absolutely lead to children's deaths 1/2
Vice-Chancellor of University of Bristol (salary £312,251): “I take a really personal view on this. My oldest daughter is the only child in my family who really is making a very significant amount of money.”
Elspeth Van Veeren@evanveeren.bsky.social · 3w agoAnother excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
One in four academic history positions in post-92s are gone since 2019 alone. One in four. We don't have data for 2025-6 and I doubt it magically got better.
Dr Dave Hitchcock@davehitchcock.bsky.social · 3w agoPost-92s have seen a 25% fall in the number of staff teaching history. 25% since 2018-19.
"Powered by US money and far-right European think tanks, Cambridge has recently become an outpost of a peculiar blend of national conservatism and apocalyptic Christianity, through the figure of James Orr – Head of Policy at Reform UK described as Nigel Farage’s “Kingmaker“."
Hardeep Matharu@hardeepmatharu.bsky.social · 4w agoFor 6 months, Byline Times has investigated Reform policy chief & Cambridge Professor James Orr's 'political pipeline' to recruit students, some of whom he houses – & his links to Palantir's Peter Thiel. Cambridge sent our queries straight on to Orr's lawyers. What's going on at the institution? 👇
'There was an air to this debate of a bunch of clever people discussing climate change in an air-conditioned room while it is 38 degrees outside. An air of exchanging Oxford wisdom while few academics outside Oxbridge can count their jobs as safe. An air of fiddling while Exeter [etc!] burns.'
"Multiple speakers declared that there are too many universities. One railed against grade inflation. More than one speculated that AI would mysteriously solve the sector’s problems. Another believed that the answer lay in greater use of teaching assistants. Why has nobody ever thought of that?"
The House of Lords fiddled while Exeter burns
At last week’s HE debate, a host of Oxford-associated grandees made the usual points while the sector continued to melt down, says Andrew McRae
timeshighereducation.com