As 2025 draws to a close, I’m grateful for what the past year has brought me. And looking forward to 2026, I have, with the poet W. S. Merwin, a keen sense of ‘our hopes such as they are / invisible before us / untouched and still possible’ (‘To the New Year’, 2005). Happy New Year to one and all!

I found it extraordinary, when I moved from the UK to Australia seven years ago, that there’s no comparable system here (for undergraduate degrees, at least).

I’m delighted to have been appointed as the ninth Warden of Trinity College, University of Melbourne www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/whats-happen...

You’ve probably heard this already, but the UniMelb ASRC cafe is closing permanently on Thursday 😭

Today on this website

Go, Lions!

Que sais-je? Michel de Montaigne, French Renaissance philosopher, whose gentle scepticism shaped European thought; died #OTD 1592. Many books originally in his library at Tour Montaigne are now in the University of Cambridge Library @theUL.bsky.social

Seven of the top ten skills employers say they most need are not technical but human: resilience, empathy, adaptability, curiosity, leadership, creativity and self-awareness. And these are precisely the skills students develop when they do a BA… #HASS

It would be good if @australia.theguardian.com could correct the article…

@burke-guardian.bsky.social is wrong when she says that the Chair of UMelb Council and the Chair of AIJAC are one and the same person…

But @burke-guardian.bsky.social is wrong to say that Mark Leibler is the Chair of the UMelb Council…

A welcome statement from the Anglican Church in Victoria about Camp Sovereignty

Remembering with thankfulness Fr Gerry O’Collins SJ on the first anniversary of his death

Letterlocking Before the invention of the gummed envelope in the 1830s, how did people secure their private letters? The answer is letterlocking—the ingenious process of...

Three cheers for the groundbreaking scholarship of Jana Dambrogio (MIT) and Daniel Starza Smith (KCL): mitpress.mit.edu/978026204927...

Henri Christophe’s tuck-and-seal letter to Toussaint Louverture’ Haiti (1802) YouTube video by Letterlocking videos

Ever wondered how letters were folded and sealed before the use of gummed envelopes in the 19th century? Wonder no more: you’ll have hours of instructive fun on this ‘letterlocking’ YouTube channel, including a demonstration of the ‘tuck-and-seal’ method favoured by Voltaire… youtu.be/iNMoq28X2sQ

Failure to study languages ‘damages Britain’s reputation’ The former schools minister says it may be time to return to make the study of a foreign language compulsory at GCSE

Failure to study languages ‘damages Britain’s reputation’. Former Schools Minister Nick Gibb says it may be time to make languages compulsory again up to age 16, but with a long lead time to ensure there are enough teachers
www.thetimes.com/article/5332...

The Lives and Loves of James Baldwin An older generation dismissed him as passé; a newer one has recast him as a secular saint. But Baldwin’s true message remains more unsettling than either camp recognizes.

James Baldwin’s message was simple: we’re afraid of love, because we’re afraid of exposing our true selves. To manage that fear, we “other” the groups we don’t belong to in order to avoid a reckoning with ourselves.

‘Beginning to wonder’… George Oppen’s ‘The Forms of Love’ (1975)

So, you mean 80% of graduates have benefited financially from it?

And, whisper it quietly, but *UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ISN’T JUST ABOUT SALARY*

Suitable Poetry Sketch - A Bit of Fry and Laurie - BBC YouTube video by BBC Studios

On carrying poetry abroad… youtu.be/0nTmSu6v0LA

“Putin would eat you for lunch.”

Today, exactly that happened.

Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom, As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights. The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that "the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security. The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's. Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea…

factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate. We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law. We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back. Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

A coffee in my @voltaire.ox.ac.uk travel cup while I watch the boys play soccer at Manningham Juventus FC in Doncaster: an almost typical Aussie Saturday morning ⚽️

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

A red journal cover with white and black short lines of different lengths with the journal title, 'Australian Journal of French Studies' written in white serif text on a purple and red metallic striped background, with the journal synopsis, 'Devoted to French and Francophone literature, culture and society' written in white serif text to the right.

We are pleased to announce that the Australian Society for French Studies are now accepting submissions for the Jarrod Hayes AJFS Prize for 2025. 🏆 Find out more: bit.ly/JH-AJFS-Prize @sfhs.bsky.social @sfps.bsky.social @ilcs.bsky.social @profnatedwards.bsky.social

A blessed Feast of the Assumption! This sixteenth-century Macedonian icon of the Dormition of the Virgin is now part of the wonderful collection of icons in the Petit Palais, Paris.

Screenshot from the Imperial War Museum website showing sound effects recording of 'French Verbal Abuse, 1945'.

Got distracted whilst looking for early 20th century sound effects.

Can we use this for a 1926 British soundscape? No.

Do I want to shoehorn it in regardless? Clearly, yes.

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Announcing the shortlists for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Creative Australia has today revealed the shortlist for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the richest literary prize in the nation.

Congratulations to all those on the shortlist for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards creative.gov.au/news-events/...

W S Merwin, ‘Heartland’ (2008)

“Now tell me, what made you begin this particular thread, @brionyneilson.bsky.social?”