This is a beautiful love letter to language and place. www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘The war leaked into every lesson’: learning Ukrainian in a country under siege

The long read: Soon after my first visit to Ukraine four years ago, I began language lessons. It taught me more than I ever expected

theguardian.com

This is the point that should be made over and over again in the prison overcrowding row. The focus is on releasing violent male prisoners but the majority of female prisoners are not a threat to the public - and should always have been given community orders.

Excited to see this in the flesh - I helped out with editing the transliterations. It is a great resource and I enjoyed reading it.

This is fun*! (*Definitions of fun may vary, but I had fun.) ourfuturehealth.org.uk/news/physica...

Revealed: what our data tells us about our physical activity levels

Analysis of data shared by almost 2m Our Future Health participants highlights differences in how we exercise, depending on our sex, age, income and location

ourfuturehealth.org.uk

Given that it is 33 degrees at gone 5pm in the UK, this seems like a good reminder. (If anyone needs me, I will be melting) youtube.com/shorts/vJqzJ...

Welcome to the Chevron heatwave!

YouTube video by Simon Clark

youtube.com

I just repeatedly typed Soviet instead of Society. I am not sure that this says good things about my academic choices.

Indeed we do! docs.google.com/document/d/e... I would add a line about the stupidity of cutting even further in the Strategic Priorities Grant, but may need to stop seething about that first. Do contact your MPs, many of them are too reliant on deeply stupid briefings from the DfE.

Will Tullett@willtullett.bsky.social · 4w ago

(1/2) Does anybody have a good standard email template that offers keys stats, links to information, that could be edited and sent to (clearly often clueless) Labour MPs about the financial, jobs, and broader crisis with UK higher education?

🚨 If you are an Exeter University alumnus or alumna, please sign this petition in solidarity with our colleagues. More than 500 are at risk of compulsory redundancy, 85% of whom are in the humanities and social sciences. 👇 @exeterucu.bsky.social

Lewis Wade 🗃️@wadehistory.bsky.social · last mo.

We'd be really grateful if you could share this petition for Exeter alumni too! We're planning to submit this to the Vice-Chancellor in the coming hours, so any final signatures would be very valuable

Excited to see this development and hope to see it strengthened further - including provisions for the writing up period, extended paid paternity leave, and access to childcare subsidies as a PhD student (because you're not a worker, you have no funded childcare hours).

The British Academy@britishacademy.bsky.social · last mo.

The British Academy is proud to be a signatory of the Women in Research Charter, which represents a step change in support for women researchers.

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

Really pleased to share the comic by the fantastic @karriefransman.bsky.social on Sex Work and AIDS Activism in Edinburgh. Research by me and based on an oral history interview with Ruth Morgan Thomas of Scot-PEP.

Had never come across Berit Stueland until reading about her in @rachelcdailey.bsky.social 's book Ramping Up Rights, but what a fascinating woman! www.theguardian.com/society/2012...

Berit Stueland obituary

Other lives: Disability rights campaigner who aroused controversy with her translation of The Little Red Schoolbook

theguardian.com

Regular reminder that what Britain desperately needs is “low skilled” care workers - and that these jobs are not actually low skilled at all and should be welcomed by an immigration system that appreciates their huge value. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Wes Streeting plans to increase high-skilled immigration if he becomes PM

Leadership hopeful to also say tax revenues from new North Sea oil and gasfields should be used to cut energy bills

theguardian.com

I had a very successful reading month, to my great surprise. (I also really enjoyed Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan). Suspect I will end up rereading all three of these.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this but the second half really grew on me. I think it tries to cover a bit too much, and as a result I am now keen to read more about Albania, if anyone has any recommendations!

I think the fact that it has taken me 8 months to finish these books (on average) says something about how little I have been reading for the last year or so.

If anyone is free tomorrow evening, I am speaking at the Reconsidering Soviet Studies seminar series in Cambridge about depictions of "gypsy" characters in late Soviet youth cinema. It is a hybrid event, please message me for the Zoom link if you would like to join online.

These are lovely

Charlie Lynch@charlielynch.bsky.social · 5mo ago

www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/...

So students are abusing the asylum system because *checks notes* they participate in an extremely competitive scholarship system that requires them to return to their home country for at least two years and come from countries in the midst of extreme suffering? Incredible logic from the Home Office

Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This is appalling. The Home Office rejected an appeal from the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, that would have protected outstanding students in some of the world’s most dangerous countries from changes to the UK’s immigration system www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I follow several parenting and community-focused Substack newsletters and it is amazing how quickly that means that Substack will repeatedly offer me anti-abortion content.

Have been commenting "Alt-text, please" when big accounts post images without alt-text. No one has eaten me alive - yet. In Bluesky settings (gear icon, bottom left), click Accessibility, check the "require alt-text before posting" button and it will remind you to add it if you forget. 1/

Alt Text Guidelines

press.princeton.edu

Enjoyed a brief moment of A accepting to wear the hat I knitted him. (He rejected the mittens, despite it being freezing, and ten mins later handed me the hat and asked for his bike helmet. Still counts as a success I think.)

The UK government is proposing radical and punitive changes to settlement rules. This is settlement, not citizenship. The consultation is open until 12 February; please respond to it and oppose these evil proposals. Amnesty have a good guide: www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/gu...

Guidance for responding to 'A Fairer Pathway to Settlement' consultation

We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

amnesty.org.uk

I absolutely agree with this in that - if you're thinking about doing a PhD, you need to be okay with that even if it's just the PhD. The odds are, there will not be an academic job at the end. However, we also need to be very clear on the realities of the PhD. It is not a good early graduate job.

Charlotte Lydia Riley@lottelydia.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I don’t know — in a way it makes it easier to say look, you might as well do this for the next 3.5 years, it’s a fun early graduate job and you should get some good bits and pieces for the CV, but it’s not going to go anywhere. All my PhD students are P/T, funded or retired: it feels more ethical.

We have until the 12th February to respond to the government's proposed changes to the right to settled status. You can respond as much or as little as you want, and it is really vital - it includes things like whether victims of domestic abuse maintain their rights. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Earned settlement

The government is consulting on how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented.

gov.uk

PS. Not too late to tell the government what you think about their proposed changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain - the public consultation is open until 12th Feb. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Earned settlement

The government is consulting on how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented.

gov.uk

Carla Denyer@carladenyer.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Yesterday I was in a room packed full of MPs imploring govt to rethink its proposed changes to ILR rules for migrants Govt is planning to make unfair retrospective changes that are racist & classist These would devastate the lives of many who have made this country their home

One of my goals for the year is to read 2 physical books that I own, so I'm making my way through this. You would think this would be a very achievable goal but I haven't managed it the last few years.