There are currently 6 permanent full time history jobs in the whole UK. 500+ PhDs being produced a year - not all of whom will want to pursue an academic year but likely most, and of course years will stack up onto each other. What a sector.
Aside from the moral bankruptcy of once more pulling up the drawbridge to HE, does anyone actually think doing the Treasury's dirty work for it will save us? Their policy is simply 'spend as little money as possible whatever the consequences'. Precisely zero additional money will be freed up by this
The image shows page 1 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to The Open University. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-the-open-university-regarding-use-of-the-term-ancient-palestine
The image shows page 2 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to The Open University. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-the-open-university-regarding-use-of-the-term-ancient-palestine
The image shows page 3 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to The Open University. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-the-open-university-regarding-use-of-the-term-ancient-palestine
The image shows page 4 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to The Open University. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-the-open-university-regarding-use-of-the-term-ancient-palestine
#AcademicFreedom | We have written to The @openuniversity.bsky.social to express our profound concern about the university’s response to a letter from the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) regarding the use of the term ‘#ancientPalestine’.
Read our letter: bit.ly/4r0j68L 1/3
Spotted Tenconi and his fascist Turning Point meatheads campaigning in Oxford today. They bravely left before the rest of us finished work and never bothered advertising the 'event' in advance. Presumably he didn't want a welcome party
Academics and students are more likely to face “repression” for their pro-Palestinian views than any other group in the UK, says European Legal Support Center www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academi... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social
Mind-blowing genius for Labour to dream up a wedge issue which divides only their own voters and not those of literally any other party
Breaking: on two counts, the High Court has ruled that the Labour government's proscription of the campaign group Palestine Action was unlawful – a win for its co-founder Huda Ammori, who sought a judicial review of the ban
Take the time to do this folks. The proposed changes to ILR are shocking and cruel, which is made abundantly clear in the text of the public consultation linked below. Please lend your voice to try to mitigate the cruelty.
‘Burke and Fox’s relationship could not withstand the ideological chasm that emerged between them after the French Revolution. But they believed passionately in the importance of friendship.’
Daisy Hay on Edmund Burke and Charles Fox.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
TIL Wetherspoons has a section of its website on Jean-Paul Marat – explaining a display about him in a Newcastle branch. Unfortunately it isn't clear that he ever actually lived in the city www.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-historie...
Surely a good omen for my PhD that I have now visited enough French archives to earn Grand Voyageur status with SNCF
BREAKING 🇵🇸 Israeli regime forces have stormed Birzeit University campus in the Occupied West Bank, injuring 41 students, including 9 with live bullets.
You'll notice that the "hard decisions" politicians are always talking about are always "cutting benefits for poor people" and never "disagreeing with America" or "banning billionaires' CSAM-machines".
Good strategy by Labour to insulate higher education against the seemingly inevitably Reform UK government by making everyone redundant now so that there is very little left to burn down
‘Wedderburn argued that true freedom was possible only if land were handed over to the formerly enslaved. Where it wasn’t given, it should be taken.’
Chris Townsend on the Black abolitionist and antislavery campaigner.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Programme and registration for International Actors in the Making of International Law 1750–2000 are now available!
I have a very short article out Fenêtre sur Tour, the magazine of the departmental archives of Seine-Maritime, on British migrant technicians and mechanics in Rouen c.1800!
IDF sniper from Chicago who says he killed Gazan teenager just for trying to retrieve his brother's corpse: “They’re thinking, ‘Oh I don’t think [I’ll get shot] because I’m wearing civilian clothes and I am not carrying a weapon' and all that, but they were wrong. That’s what you have snipers for.”
Update: after 1600km and 16 days of pedalling, we made it! And we've raised over £4,500!
My brother and I are now a week into our sponsored bike ride from Land's End to John O'Groats and we have made it as far as Warrington(!), about 650km from the start. We're raising money for the Brain Tumour Charity and Solace in honour of our late mum. Please do consider donating what you can!
Anas Al-Sharif’s last will and testament, written in April: “I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person... I entrust you with its people, w/its wronged & innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace.”
Last day for this!
When he was running to be Labour leader Keir Starmers campaign video boasted that he had stood up for protesters when the full force of the state was against them.
Today his govt is arresting a disabled blind man for holding a placard.
In the Israeli parliament MP Ofer Cassif was pulled away from the podium & prevented from continuing his speech. Why? Because he said genocide was taking place in Gaza.
Meanwhile here in the UK we're constantly told Israel is a democracy.
Summer 2025 very much in progress
WeTransfer TOS says they can use all your uploaded content for genAI
Bye forever, WeTransfer.
Incontrovertible evidence, now, of *police* investigating families supporting their kids with gender affirming healthcare in the UK. For trying to do the best for your child, following best practice in most of the world, here you get a visit from the police.
Thank you, Wes Streeting.
The world's most famous medical NGO concludes Israel is committing genocide.
It joins a consensus of genocide scholars, including in Israel, and NGOs like Amnesty International.
No politician or journalist can claim "I did not know at the time!" to evade future justice.
It's shameful that we were even considering renewing him.
The people at the top of the club were not blind to this situation, and still considered it in the interests of sporting expedience.
Lessons should be learned.
