Ian Webster
@websterij.bsky.social
PhDed at Exeter: Modernism and the Making of Macroeconomics. Having spent years doing less interesting stuff. Now time to figure out what to do next.
Make sure you make it to the end 16/16 is super important. Congratulations Matt.
Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · 3d agoSo, I really hope I get to tell this story in longer form in the near future, but it it’s burning a hole inside me. Most of it comes from an interview with Bob Hirst this weekend. Bob has been Exec Editor of the Mark Twain Project for 47 years, before which he was part of its staff for ~15. 1/16
Let's not forget that these changes are about remaking the university into a corporate entity... no longer an education, but customers buying products
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d agoA deeply destructive and inexpert management consultancy class has emerged whose sole purpose is to shrink Anglosphere universities and to undermine their future - all the better to secure more work. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
Someone's labour theory of value - Ricardo, Sraffa, or maybe Marx www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Elon Musk says he got ‘carried away’ with Trump – but still holds on to contentious political views
In interview, billionaire says instead of running ‘Doge’ he should’ve ‘worked on my companies’ and shares extreme predictions
theguardian.com
What a crass vandal
Morwenna Ludlow@morwennaexe.bsky.social · 2w agoYesterday, in her all-staff talk our VC chose to highlight the recent election of 5 FBAs from the University of Exeter. She failed to point out that 4 of us (with many of our colleagues) have just been placed at risk of redundancy. #DefendExeterUni @exeterucu.bsky.social
And I thought Burnham should have kept Jones as he seemed a capable minister and his previous chairing of Select Committees was brilliant. But now I understand Burnham's reasoning
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 2w ago'Wrote on X' - thus giving money and succour to the government's chief enemy, who would prefer Darren's friends and colleagues be jailed and/ or deported and millions of his fellow citizens stripped of their rights. You really couldn't make it up.
Easy win @lucympowell.bsky.social
Andrew McCallum@andrewemc.bsky.social · 2w ago‘the fall in teenagers opting for literature is linked to an unimaginative GCSE (surely something that a new prime minister with an English degree could fix)’ Easy win here, Mr Burnham! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Congratulation to @lucympowell.bsky.social. You've been brilliant as deputy leader and can you now please sort out the mess in higher education?
Looks like Burnham’s going for the Poincaré option: ‘The Rentiers of the Right could entrust him with their purses, and the Puritans of the Left could entrust him with their principals’
It's something that The Guardian is supportive, but it needs to be longer and louder in that support www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial
Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed
theguardian.com
My heart is heavy that we are making a collective miscalculation in undervaluing the humanities - from my FT piece www.ft.com/content/fbde...
Though not about the cuts in humanities in the UK this piece wonderfully explains the inadequate thinking, reading, and analysis done by those making decisions with "the credulous use of social-science or scientistic [or economic] methods for the concerns and objects of the humanities"
Alex Gil@elotroalex.bsky.social · 3w agoBrilliant work by @gabrielh.bsky.social taking down that useful idiot Appiah. Literally laughed out loud after Gabriel ran Appiah's CV through the latter's DOGE Method for Evaluating the Humanities (D-MEH). That was gangsta. 😂 😂
Maybe there is some economic value in English after all.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3w agoWhat do English graduates do with their degrees? Christopher Nolan is an English graduate.
Good to see that University of Exeter has its priorities right. Cutting humanities, and cozying up to the defence industry.
Martin Paul Eve@eve.gd · 3w agoI am at least pleased to see that my university is not working to "bring together academia and the Armed Forces", as are 35 others. I mean, urgh. Military-industrial-education complex vibes made explicit, here. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Succinct and brilliant
Francesca Stavrakopoulou@proffrancesca.bsky.social · 3w agoWhy the VC and Exec Board of Exeter Uni needs the humanities: a very short thread. 1. When you tell us we’re ‘in scope’ for redundancy, we can parse your choice of violent language to show that the process you have triggered is predatory and combative. #DefendExeterUni
So much for universities cutting humanities departments. It is naive and will back fire.
Dr. Megan Faragher@meganfaragher.bsky.social · last mo.Henry Luce started Fortune magazine with poets because it was easier to teach them everything about business than to teach business folks to write. Anyway, let’s all tap the sign while they shut down humanities globally, shall we?
This analysis of the crisis at British universities, using Exeter as the prime example deserves a wide audience. johnheathershaw.substack.com/p/the-crisis...
The Crisis in Britain’s Universities
The cuts that have been proposed at the University of Exeter demonstrate the crisis of purpose in Britain’s universities. Should not universities also be places to prepare for "eternal dwellings"?
johnheathershaw.substack.com
Only when big names shout out do the media pick up the story. The story is not Exeter or their supporters it is about the dismantling of humanities: www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Fury over Exeter University plan to scrap dozens of humanities posts
Rowan Williams and Mark Kermode join campaign against proposed cuts for arts and social sciences
theguardian.com
In solidarity, always, while simultaneously aware that I am extremely lucky to be where I am. c.org/2nzpctxpmF
Sign the Petition
Save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire
c.org
This is one of the reasons why Exeter's decision to make cuts to the English department doesn't make sense. Even in a world where universities are solely for getting a job for graduates, English manages to do that rather effectively.
Dr Ian McCormick@wokestudies.bsky.social · last mo." Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new data shows. " #English #language #literature #HigherEd #Edchat #edusky www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...
Don't let the senior management at Exeter play silly financial games with the brilliant academic staff c.org/XDMSfwtvw5
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
c.org
T.S. Eliot described by Golding as a 'silly old twit'. It's a wonderful review. www.the-tls.com/lives/letter...
Darkness visible
In February 1955, William Golding wrote to Charles Monteith, his editor at Faber & Faber, the firm that had published his first novel, Lord of the Flies, a few months earlier: “The other night I sat u...
the-tls.com
We're overjoyed to announce next summer's star-studded line-up of scholars. Join us at Merton College, University of Oxford, 4-12 July 2026, for an unforgettable week of poetry!
