Our new piece out today in Times Higher Education about the threats to Geography in the UK - particularly fieldwork - please do share. It links to a recent snapshot survey on the challenges being faced in UK HE, which highlights the inequities of the challenges, but also fears of what is yet to come
You know what, Miro? I do not need a 2025 recap of my use of your fine platform. No, no thank you.
We’ve extended the deadline by a week! More time to send in your abstract for potential inclusion in a special @mediapolis.bsky.social dossier on ‘The Synthetic City’!
REMINDER! CfP: The Synthetic City
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for
@mediapolis.bsky.social
on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
Birkbeck, University of London is seeking an Associate Lecturer in Digital Video and Editing. Part-time, contractual – perfect for creatives who want to share their skills while continuing their practice.
👉 Details & apply: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/asso...
Join us Nov 25 for Engaging Publics in Media, Cities & Space -free online conference on research impact in media and urban studies. Talks on monographs, journals, podcasts, walking tours + networking, incl. a special session for ECRs.
👉 Full programme & register: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
Two very late nights in a row keeping up with the Jays, and now I’m exhausted
Apropos of this Halloween day, Roger Luckhurst - a colleague in Birkbeck’s School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication - discusses how we lay the dead to rest today, drawing on his new book Graveyards: A History of Living with the Dead (Thames and Hudson 2025): youtu.be/ZPuNR9J9LGI?...
2/ We welcome short essays, provocations, and creative-critical reflections that examine how synthetic urbanism is produced, experienced, and theorized across media, design, and everyday life.
#UrbanMedia #SyntheticCity #SyntheticData #Synthesis #Cities #Space #Media #ML #GenAI #AI #Mediapolis
1/ CFP Dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social:
The synthetic city as an alternative, multivalent provocation to examine, interpret and forecast the emerging implications of AI and related digital technologies for urban living.
🗓️ Deadline: 30 Nov 2025
🔗 Link: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
Savoured and then ruined
Wait that'll ruin the moment
Camera on the ready
Great to see this CfP "The Synthetic City" #urbanAI for @mediapolis.bsky.social w/ guest editors @scott-rodgers.bsky.social @marcospdias.bsky.social & colleagues.
mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
Abstract deadline 30 November 2025.
Today’s the day I take the two-stop Waterloo & City line for the first time. It’s gonna be a good one.
Call for Papers: The Synthetic City
We’re putting together a special issue dossier for @mediapolis.bsky.social on 'urban AI' and seek short essays, provocations, creative-critical reflections on synthetic urbanism.
📅 Abstracts due: Nov 30
🔗 Details: mediacitytwg.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/c...
Laura Mulvey, who recently retired from Birkbeck, to refeive a BFI Fellowship. www.bfi.org.uk/news/laura-m...
Some snaps from the @birmac.bsky.social / Media & Democracy / Qualitative Methods Group workshop 'Exploring Quali-Quantitative Approaches in Social Media Research', where me, @robtoes.bsky.social & participants explored methods for approaching the messy, contradictory phenomena that is social media
I’d like to see some mainstream journalists put a question like this to Labour ministers. It the logical question to follow.
Finally something to cheer
As part of the deal, I’ll stop saying please in my prompts
I’ve been increasingly using ChatGPT/copilot for various little things here and there. But you know what I’d like? For it not to be so complementary. I mean, be a bit rude and tell me my prompts are terrible, if they are, please.
So sad to hear about the passing of my friend and former colleague Mark Saunders. Some thoughts and memories here: www.publiclysited.com/memories-of-...
The Amiel & Melburn Annual lecture is happening this Wednesday!
A stellar lineup discussing how the Left can resist the Rise of the Radical Right, hosted at Birkbeck.
@kojokoram.bsky.social, @irrnews.bsky.social @afoggyplace.bsky.social @bethanyrielly.bsky.social @robtoes.bsky.social
cc. @mediacity-ecrea.bsky.social
With Yu-Shan Tseng, I am co-editing a Special Issue (for Urban Studies, subject to full proposal acceptance) on 'Ordinary Democracy and Digital Cities'. Read the CFP details here: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
New article out in Urban Studies! I examine Google’s urban-tech power from Fiber to Sidewalk Labs and argue that the company is less a cohesive strategist and more a shapeshifter, driven by the speculative ethos of Silicon Valley journals.sagepub.com/eprint/JIJUW...
The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone.
So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment.
It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/
expertvoicestogether.org
