My husband always dreamed of distant oceans. With a volunteer crew, I gave him a sailor’s farewell Seven years after John’s cremation, I was ready to set him free – with help from Australia’s Volunteer Coast Guard

Reasons I loved reading this: I learnt about someone's life & passions; it is about how we grieve & remember, which is a fundamental part of being human; I learnt about the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, which runs on donations: coastguard.com.au/donations/

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Hope to see/wave at/say hello to you at some point!

We're looking!

📢 Early Bird Registration Closes 26 MARCH !! 📢

That means 2 days until 15% early bird ends!

Join us this summer at the MethodsNET Summer School in Vienna at @weareceu.bsky.social

Register here: methodsnet.org/summer-schoo...

⏳Early Bird Registration closes TOMORROW, March 26th!

Working with case studies? Join Derek Beach at the MethodsNET Summer School this July at CEU! 🔍
Dive deep into Process Tracing: for uncovering causal mechanisms in qualitative research!

Access the course & register now ➡️: bit.ly/4hTjem4

Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook Is Based on Failures of US Corporate Democracy, not Foreign Dictators - ProMarket Sarah Haan writes that to understand American authoritarianism, it’s less useful to analyze the strategies of elected dictators around the globe than to look at how corporate leaders in the United Sta...

If we’re looking for a roadmap for twenty-first-century authoritarianism, we should scrutinize the toolkit of strategies that corporate autocrats have developed for suppressing democracy inside their own organizations. www.promarket.org/2025/03/03/d...

Must read thread on why broligarchy is different from oligarchy & why it is more dangerous:

Academic Work Tracker Template v2.2 (2025)

I have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Russian man arrested for running LGBTQ+ travel agency dies in police custody A man in Russia arrested and charged with running an LGBTQ+ travel agency has been found dead in cell after allegedly taking his own life.

Russian state homophobia is getting worse. Participating in LGBT life is effectively illegal. People are arrested for “looking gay.” Now an LGBT business owner has died in police custody. www.thepinknews.com/2024/12/30/r...

⚡️What Kaja Kallas Gets, but others don’t.

Every time you hear someone agonise over Ukraine winning. Ukraine should just accept ‘peace.’ Surrender its people, children, land. You’re hearing the voice of Ruschist Disinfolklore pouring outta of their mouths.

Doing Feminist Research on Conflict, Violence and Peace: Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas - María Martín de Almagro, Julia Margaret Zulver, Priscyll Anctil Avoine, Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, Marie Be... This piece offers a space for critical debate and reflection on the methodological and epistemological foundations that underpin feminist research on conflict, ...

📝New online from us on SAGE, @jzulver.bsky.social, @drmmartind.bsky.social, @priscyll.bsky.social, @marieberry.bsky.social and Nancy Tapias Torrado explore dilemmas in conducting feminist research on conflict, violence, and peace. Read the article here ⤵️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

We are young trans people occupying Wes Streeting’s office Following the Health Secretary’s decision to permanently ban puberty blockers for young Trans people, activists from Trans Kids Deserve Better have…

“Most trans kids will survive. But many of us will have to survive knowing that there are no institutions in Britain that will protect us … We will have to find more ways to protect ourselves and each other.”

Listen to the young trans people who are fighting for their lives, freedom and community.

Yolande Bouka #QueensuResearch | Queen's researcher Yolande Bouka, Canada Research Chair in Afrofeminist Thought and Political Transformation

Come work with me!
I am recruiting a PhD student who wants to work at the intersection of Afrofeminist Thought and International Relations.
www.queensu.ca/research/res...

Woop woop. New toolkit from TEQSA just dropped on GenAI strategies for Australian higher education:
www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resou...

Back to the futurum: how one university is countering AI with ancient examination techniques The University of South Australia is reintroducing the oral tradition of viva voce to test students’ knowledge in the age of chatbots and cheating

While oral examinations are valuable to ensure students graduate with some capacity to verbally express themselves, oral exams privilege students with a facility for speaking and the language of examination + they work better for memory recall than higher order thinking that takes time.

🦘🎓

Available to Watch: Federica Caso on Settler Military Aesthetics — Roland Bleiker Dr Federica Caso is interviewed by Dr Cormac Opdebeeck-Wilson about her new book Settler Military Politics: Militarisation and the Aesthetics of War Commemoration (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). T...

Here a video of our last event: Federica Caso interviewed by Cormac Opdebeeck-Wilson about Settler Military Aesthetics and her new Edinburgh UP book, which exaines war commemorations are part of broader militarised forms of governing societies. www.rolandbleiker.com/news/https/w...

Legally Affective: Mapping the Emotional Grammar of LGBT Rights in Law School - Feminist Legal Studies The teaching of critical race, feminist, and queer theory generally, and of LGBT rights specifically, has developed into a discrete, contested, and politicised area of teaching in English law schools ...

Teaching LGBT rights in law school is an emotional exercise. In a recent paper I published with @flsjournal.bsky.social, I explore how emotions function as a type of grammar that thread the personal, political, scholarly, and pedagogic dimensions of LGBT rights. 🌈🎓 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Stalling Civil Rights: Conservative Sexual Thought has been in the Toilet Since the 1940s The conservative idea that civil rights protections sexually endanger women and children in public bathrooms is not new.

“The conservative idea that civil rights protections sexually endanger women and children in public bathrooms is not new. In fact, conservative sexual thought has been in the toilet since the 1940s” - excellent piece by @gillianfrank.bsky.social notchesblog.com/2015/11/09/s...

More and more journals are on here and are petitioning their publishers for things like easy Sharing to Bluesky. Support them.

Here are some International Relations Journals in a Starter Pack doing just this:

go.bsky.app/MgB9mVd

🌍 Are you conducting fieldwork in complex environments? Join our 5-day online course Doing Fieldwork in Challenging Contexts to master the skills you need, led by field experts Xianan Jin and Catherine Owen.
📅 Feb 17-21, 2025
Early bird: €440
🔗 Register now: tinyurl.com/challenging25

🔍 New to QCA? Join our #KOMEX2025 Introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R course, Feb 17-21! It is a hands-on course led by
@evathomann.bsky.social.🌟

📅 Feb 17-21, 2025 | University of Konstanz
📊 Early bird: €440
🔗 Register now: afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/microcred...

🎥Explore the Power of Ethnography and Video Interaction Analysis! Join our 3-day in-person course and gain hands-on experience combining ethnographic observation with detailed video analysis to uncover insights into everyday practices.
📅Feb 17-19, 2025
🔗Register: afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/microcred...

🧩 Unravel the links between cause and effect!
Join our #KOMEX2025 Introduction to Process Tracing Methods course by @hildevanmeegdenburg.com and learn to trace causal mechanisms step-by-step in your research.
📅 Feb 17-21, 2025
💶 Early bird: €440
🔗 Register now: afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/microcred...

🌍Explore the world of Interpretive Research! In a 5-day online course learn foundational skills in qualitative methods, from question design to analysis. Led by experts @amalietrangbaek.bsky.social & @mathildececchini.bsky.social.
📅Feb 17-21, 2025
🔗Register now: afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/microcred...

🌐New to Social Network Analysis?
Our #KOMEX2025 Social Network Analysis in R course by @termehs.bsky.social will guide you from basic concepts to advanced statistical models. Perfect for researchers looking to analyze complex networks with R!
📅Feb 17-21, 2025
🔗Register now: tinyurl.com/komexsocnet25

The Coalition will block the student caps bill. Brace yourself for more uncertainty over international students In a surprise move, the Coalition has confirmed it plans to oppose the federal government’s bill to cap the number of foreign students in Australia.

Of interest to Australian Higher Ed followers who are thinking "what the f--?" is going on in parliament and why is it screwing us over?

It's complicated.

theconversation.com/the-coalitio...