Please read and read again this stunning reflection on what’s happening at Exeter — and on the personal cost (for far too many and for far too long) of struggling to uphold the humanities within a system bent on grinding them down and squeezing them out. #DefendExeterUni
Lizzy Williamson@lizzywilliamson.bsky.social · last wk.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...
Nearly 30,000 signatures. Almost as if pretending nobody cares about what your cuts inflicting on #UKHE is backfiring a little, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social ? Time for a different strategy and actually act on the responsibility you have?
Pascale Aebischer (she/her)@pascaleexeter.bsky.social · 3w agoWho's not signed this petition yet? Please help us out! The official line is that this is not targeting Arts and Humanities. So why are 85% of cuts in these subjects? #DefendExeterUni c.org/DTcBbvqxn6
In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a master ring, to control all others.
Struggling to parse this. Exeter is celebrating its overall global ranking to 136th, comprised (it reports) of 151st (Natural Sciences), 131st (Life Sciences & Medicine) and 76th (Arts & Humanities) while announcing plans to make 25% of Arts & Humanities staff redundant. Does this compute?
University of Exeter@exeter.ac.uk · 2mo agoWe’re delighted to be able to share some exciting news: We’ve climbed 19 places in the QS World University Rankings 2027, and we’re now ranked 136th globally. This achievement reflects the growing strength of our reputation as one of the world’s top universities. news.exeter.ac.uk/staff-news/e...
The value of the humanities is more than just what people are willing to pay for it — it can’t just be a business decision. The arts and humanities are fundamental to the flourishing of our society; knowledge gathering, critical thinking, and creativity should be defended as sacred things
May I remind #UKHE of the Cost Allocation Death Spiral.
The Cost Allocation Death Spiral and the University
The Cost Allocation Death Spiral and the University Accountants, as people whose business it chiefly is to bring hard news to powerful people, generally avoid emotional terms. They prefer softer, nuan...
linkedin.com
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.'What is perhaps remarkable about the Exeter cuts is that they are targeted at some of the university’s most successful departments, many of which turn over a profit even after they have made enormous and increasing contributions to the central university budget.' Read, rage and weep.
In March 2026 the University of Exeter was boasting of its top 100 QS World Rankings status for arts and humanities. Now it is devastating the same areas with drastic cuts. Something is seriously wrong. Solidarity to all the excellent colleagues affected by this. news.exeter.ac.uk/university/e...
Exeter records sweeping successes in QS World Rankings by Subject
The University of Exeter has recorded sweeping success in the latest prestigious international ranking, reflecting its strong teaching and research excellence. Exeter has recorded significant, double-...
news.exeter.ac.uk
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
Petition to stop redundancies at the University of Exeter: c.org/Fgf2bPfGJC
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
c.org
www.change.org/p/stop-redun... please consider signing this petition to stop redundancies at the University of Exeter
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
change.org
I'm not here to tell you this isn't a travesty, only to say the mixed metaphor is bringing me uncanny levels of joy. Bill Pulte, a Bulldog for Trump, Prepares to Take Reins at Spy Agency www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/u...
Bill Pulte, a Bulldog for Trump, Prepares to Take Reins at Spy Agency
nytimes.com
Some lay in dead men’s skulls, and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept— As ’twere in scorn of eyes—reflecting gems, That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by. #RichardIII 1.4.28-32 #ShakespeareSunday
I feel like I'm in my peak King John era, and really want to see a live performance of the play while the mood lasts. Is anyone aware of productions planned in the UK this year?
As of this morning, we've added Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labour's Lost to the list of plays that have furnished quotations for epitaphs and obituaries. AND THAT COMPLETES THE SET! Name a play, any play, I'll give you an epitaph. #ShaxEpitaphs
Yes, I know we're all focused on Iran. But the slaughter in Sudan continues, and this excellent piece in The @guardian recounts the mass atrocities that unfolded in El Fasher, Darfur, enabled by our pals in the UAE -- as world leaders looked away. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Heroism, horror and the ‘pits of hell’: inside the last days of El Fasher
Over two days in October 2025, up to 10,000 people are believed to have been massacred; a further 40,000 civillians from the Sudanese city are still unaccounted for. This is the story of what happened
theguardian.com
Are you a PG student or ECR interested in presenting at our conference ‘Clio Reframed: Women Writing History, 1500-1750’ in June? Bursaries to help with expenses are generously funded by @srsrensoc.bsky.social, so please send us your abstract by 14 March! clioreframed.hcommons.org/call-for-pap...
Call for Papers
clioreframed.hcommons.org
The latest #ShaxEpitaphs project update is available now. Featuring this interesting elegy for George Washington, blending passages from Henry VI Part 1 and Hamlet. 'WASHINGTON -- Is Dead.' Read all about it in The New Hampshire Gazette, 1 January 1800! shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2026/02/26/f...
We are advertising 4 jobs at York for historians (1 year medieval, 2 years modern Britain and public history, 3 years modern China, and open ended modern Middle Eastern) features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/
York History Department - Academic Jobs
Uncover the past to define the future. We are seeking research-led historians to join our world-class, collaborative community. Discover career-defining opportunities within one of the UK’s most disti...
features.york.ac.uk
In terms of the brother of a living king, I think (despite the heroically dysfunctional Georgians who came close) it was George, Duke of Clarence, sent to the Tower by Edward IV in the 1470s.
Bad run of days for George, Duke of Clarence. Yesterday, the 548th anniversary of his death in the Tower of London (reputedly in a barrel of wine). Today, loses the coveted title of 'last brother of a reigning monarch to get himself arrested.'* Hope things will start looking up for George.
In future, any and all exam questions I compose will begin with “Whence”
Olga Prokopis@olgaphoos.bsky.social · 6mo agoExamination questions from an 1898 edition of Shakespeare’s #RichardIII
In Southwark Cathedral yesterday to view the Shakespeare memorials, but I was struck above all by this plaque to Susanna Barford, who died in 1652, "aged 10 yeares, 13 weekes": THIS WORLD TO HER WAS BUT A TRAGED PLAY SHE CAME AND SAW'T DISLIK'T AND PASSD AWAY.
The #ShaxEpitaphs project has so far discovered almost 300 passages from Shakespeare inscribed on graves and memorials. BUT there are some passages we haven’t yet found that would serve wonderfully as epitaphs. So if you’re in the market, as it were, why not consider the following? (1/3)
The latest #ShaxEpitaphs project update is available now. Did you know that, thanks to Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare now have memorials in the Stratford churchyard where they lie buried -- with, needless to say, Shakespearean epitaphs? shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2026/02/03/j...
January 2026 project update – Shakespearean Graves
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
