Experts at the University of Sheffield want to build a UK Swear Map to show how English is spoken, before the words and phrases used locally in 2026 "disappear".
#language #research #HigherEd #edchat
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This looks great: Leverhulme-funded PhD scholarship to work with Olivia Knapton on how insects are framed in educational and learning contexts, aiming to better understand the widespread aversion to bugs in the UK! 🐛Please share with prospective PhD students: www.kcl.ac.uk/study/fundin...
One week to our yearly event! If you haven't joined yet, there is still time to register! See link below.
a digital illustration in the style of a relief print depicting a black cat in a defensive pose holding a torn and tattered transgender pride flag in its mouth as it looks directly towards the viewer. the background is purple with some specks of blue and pink showing through, and behind the cat is a black midground resembling grass or flames. the top right corner features a box with a caption reading "T.D.O.V."
DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GET YOU DOWN 🏳️⚧️
#art #tdov #transart
Oh, thanks!! Will try to get my hands on a copy!!
🥁New issue published!!
🤓Interested on #MediatedDiscourse? Here are the contents!
1️⃣ Zhuyuan Han et al. look at the construction of the "ideal scholar-self" in academic vlogs.
2️⃣ Elisabetta Adami studies the construction of an influencer's identity throughout time.
It started with a seemingly innocuous assumption, an easily made logical leap: For a rather long time, archeologists who found burial sites with weapons or hunting gear inside would label the remains as male.
Fresh new piece:
www.broadhistory.com/weve-been-ve...
Oh did you want 3300 words from me on today's IOC sex testing rules? An essay on the nature of evidence and why we can't seem to stop getting stuck in the same traps around sex and gender in sports? Wow lucky you!! www.coyotemedia.org/the-olympics...
🔔 final reminder! I promise! 🔔
LavLang 32 abstract submission deadline is THIS SATURDAY - get scribbling, come join us in Edinburgh in September for a brilliant conference ft. Dr. Nikki Lane, Dr. @kevinguyan.bsky.social, Prof. Erez Levon, Dr. Stamatina Katsiveli, Dr. @mxeddie.bsky.social and YOU? 🤩
We are delighted to announce this year's winner of the Judith Baxter Award. Congratulations, @peterbrowning.bsky.social. Join us in Southampton (on 10 April) to hear more about Peter's research. See info to register.
Don't miss @uonenglish.bsky.social @uoncral.bsky.social graduate Daniel Edmondson's keynote at this year's annual @lgas-baal.bsky.social event!
And this has a knock-on effect for postdocs, etc.
One of the more dispiriting elements of the funding lottery atm is having to constantly write up 'concrete' and 'ambitious' medium-term collaboration plans when neither you nor many of your colleagues have any sense of job security past the immediate future.
Thanks so much! Yes, always nice to see you popping up on here 😀
This is really sad to hear, Rob. It felt like a busy, vibrant dept when I was working there '09-'12.
Something you don't see often: a trans person given a media platform to speak about a trans health issue! This woman is incredibly eloquent about the crucial issue of puberty blockers - I just hope it reaches the people it really needs to.
'Teaching-only staff at Sheffield Hallam University are set to be moved into a subsidiary firm, leaving research intensive scholars the only academics still being employed directly by the institution.'
Utterly inequitable & betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the teaching/research nexus. 1/3
Oh no! Get well soon, both of you!
I dropped out of high school, gained a huge amount of often difficult life experience, then went to community college, and now I'm a professor in a prestigious university. There HAS TO BE A PLACE for non-traditional students. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.
Female athletes must pay £185 to prove their sex Matt Lawton - Chief Sports Correspondent British female track and field athletes are being asked to pay £185 for a sex test if they want to compete internationally. World Athletics requires all athletes to take an SRY gene test before competing in the female category at major championships and Diamond League events to guarantee fair competition by excluding trans and DSD (differences of sex development) competitors. Before the World Championships in Tokyo last September, World Athletics gave $100 per test for the thousand or so female athletes needing one. More money will be provided by the international federation for this year’s World Junior Championships. But British women have been advised by UK Athletics (UKA) to pay for the test themselves, urging them to have the cheek swab, which indicates the presence of a Y chromosome, “as soon as possible to avoid delays around selection”. However, some women have complained it is unfair when the test is not required for men. UKA has a hardship fund to pay for the test and will assess requests on a case-by-case basis. But the situation is symptomatic of a national federation already facing financial challenges, made worse by UK Sport cutting its funding for this Olympic cycle. While almost £32 million was given to the relatively niche sports that won five medals at last month’s Winter Olympics, athletics has had its funding cut from £22.18 million to £20.45 million despite winning ten medals in 2024. It was only last year UKA returned to some form of financial stability, posting a profit of £107,588. But it is now facing a big fine after admitting corporate manslaughter over the death of Abdullah Hayayei, who died in 2017 after a metal cage fell on him while he was training for the World Para Athletics Championships in London.
"Feminism" [Times]
Party Total reported Donations accepted (excl. public funds) Public funds accepted Total accepted in this quarter Alliance - Alliance Party of Northern Ireland £65,140 £20,538 £44,602 £65,140 Conservative and Unionist Party £4,216,224 £2,401,452 £1,614,729 £4,016,181 Co-operative Party £131,180 £131,180 £0 £131,180 Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P. £104,320 £0 £104,320 £104,320 Green Party £294,069 £189,010 £98,764 £287,773 Labour Party £2,043,007 £1,943,824 £31,836 £1,975,660 Liberal Democrats £2,190,101 £1,314,139 £749,173 £2,063,312 Open Party £197,151 £155,067 £0 £155,067 People Before Profit £8,605 £0 £6,453 £6,453 Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales £63,967 £30,000 £33,967 £63,967 Reform UK £5,473,000 £5,456,000 £0
The funding gap between Reform UK and the Greens is astounding.
New Electoral Commission stats today reveal the reportable donations in Q4 2025:
🟢 Green Party: £189,010
🟣 Reform UK: £5,456,000
Greens are bringing in barely 3.5% of Reform UK's large donations - but still polling around 20%.
Graphic with the following text: "1. International students who do not generate provider income should be exempt - including Erasmus+ participants following the UK’s association."
"2. Students studying SHAPE subjects must be eligible for levyfunded maintenance grants. Restricting subject eligibility harms UK economic growth and signals that disadvantaged students ‘deserve’ fewer choices."
"We urge the government to reconsider the levy, engage with the sector, and pursue a sustainable funding model to safeguard higher education and research."
We are continuing to call for the government to withdraw the International Student Levy. This levy will add more financial pressure to a system under strain, threatening the UK’s research excellence, global reputation, and economic competitiveness.
Pleased to see the ebook publication of 'Discourse Approaches to Gendered Violence' with Brill. My chapter (no. 10) explores how users of the manosphere discursively downplay and justify violence against women and girls.
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Last week on Wonkhe: Madeleine Pownall and Sebastian Cordoba make the case for reflexivity and positionality statements as important in all kinds of research
💧💩Fountain of Filth: Today we joined other water campaigners to attend the opening of a fountain depicting river users getting sick from dirty water
Our waterways shouldn’t be making us sick. Sewage pollution MUST end✊️
Tune in: Dirty Business (9pm on Channel 4) spotlights Britain's sewage scandal
This programme is incredibly well done and everyone should watch it. I had to pause it several times because of how angry it made me. www.theguardian.com/dirty-busine...
Delighted to have been an academic project lead on this animation addressing eating disorders from the perspective of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
edifyresearch.co.uk/resources/56...
Glad to see there is at least one politician seriously engaging with the absolute catastrophe currently taking place in UK Universities. Inflation linked fee increases will do nothing to abate a crisis that has taken thousands of jobs already. The horse has already bolted, where is the government?
9,600 redundancies at just 24 universities. Imagine what the picture is for the sector as a whole. This is the other half of the student loan scandal picture, which has been national news lately. Nothing at all from the government on a key sector effectively in freefall…
