Sophie Cooper

@sophcocooper.bsky.social

Social historian of gender, migration & public space | Nuns | Ireland & its diaspora | Senior Lecturer @QUBLiberalArts | Forging Identities in the Irish World @EdinburghUP 2022 | She/her.

Do you like conferences? You might not enjoy them so much when half of attendees can't write their papers or even attent because they've been made redundant. Want to publish? Well it's going to get harder without reviewers. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/job-cut... 5/5

Job cuts fuel staff discontent at Lincoln and Northumbria

UCU declares ‘no confidence’ in Lincoln management while redundancy plans prompt fresh dispute in north east

timeshighereducation.com

Northumbria's announcement (30 people to go by end of July, 10 of whom from Humanities) is maybe less egregious than Exeter's, but the pattern is the same: Humanities are disproportionately targeted for reasons that do not align with a rational look at the situation (student staff ratios) 3/?

Ok, look, what's been particularly infuriating about the redundancies at Exeter (and Nottingham and Newcastle and and and) is this weird idea that it only affects those individuals and institutions. It harms us all because we are so closely interconnected.

My students at Durham, my collaborators worldwide, anyone who reads my work... ALL of them have benefited from my time at Exeter, and the expertise of my colleagues at Exeter, because those colleagues improved my work so immeasurably. Job losses are losses for us all.

I mean, this was paid for by taxpayers -- $14.2 million to paint and waterproof this pool to make it "American flag blue" -- so I guess people are getting their money back in a way

"women can be perfectly capable of using this technology and simply choose not to" we did in fact need data backing up this incredibly obvious claim bc a LOT of companies will insist Susan from Accounting is refusing to use AI to do the books because IT needs to come explain how it works to her

jenna newman phd@jennanewman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“study of around 8,000 respondents concludes that women’s lower uptake of generative AI tools has little to do w/ skills or access. Instead, it is driven largely by how women perceive the broader societal risks associated w/ the new technology.”🧪 @josiecox.bsky.social

Note: relatively stable institution; HAPP's a supportive (even harmonious) School; there's another Ancient History colleague; and pay at Queen's is now relatively high (starting salary is junior; post confirmation-in-post, lecturer starts c. £52k, SL starts c. £66k). www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRP030/l...

Lecturer in Ancient History at Queen's University Belfast

Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer in Ancient History on jobs.ac.uk!

jobs.ac.uk

Finally, Burnham's speech spoke about unity, but was actually quite divisive - honest North vs wealthy South, honest apprenticeships vs posh degrees, honest local gov't vs wicked Whitehall. How does that "bring the country together"? It's just another crowbar in a different set of cracks. 6/

'The key findings were said to be “surprisingly simple”: “a good student academic experience ultimately comes down to quality teaching, access to in person interaction with teachers and a strong sense of belonging”.' 2/3

What Matters Most? 20 years of the student experience - HEPI

Half of students miss one-third of their lectures. 20 years of data show undergraduates are struggling to access the high-quality teaching, in-person interactions and satisfying student experience the...

hepi.ac.uk

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.