iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Antara Datta

Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I don't think I've ever said this before, but "I love the top recommendation from this Policy Exchange report"

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Jasmine K Gani @jasminekgani.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

30,000 people attended the vigil for Prof. Jason Arday at Trafalgar Square. Speeches can be heard here: www.youtube.com/live/lPHGREJ...

30,000 people attended the vigil for Prof. Jason Arday at Trafalgar Square on 17 August 2026.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

These are archives of global importance run by some fabulous archivists. How we write the history of refugees is at stake if we allow the continued destruction of this.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Are they self employed or do they belong to an institution/organisation? If so, would it be possible for you to reach out to the employer? If you found this person through contacts are there people in common who can help? (Obviously the legal route is the correct one eventually).

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Also this from the woman who often forced me to eat things I absolutely hated. If you have ever seen any Sindhu Vee sketch on Indian parenting that was my mum.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

My mother had many batshit parenting tips. But the one thing she was correct about was this. Babies/small kids have control over only two things: what goes in their mouth and what they do with what comes out (aka potty training). If you decide to pick a fight about either, you will never win.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Aha fair enough! This is going to sound borderline weird but I can’t do online classes where I don’t like the voice of the teacher…even if the class is good one. 😳

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So it depends on how you feel about Apple fitness but I don’t mind their yoga classes. I also like that I can adjust the time to how much time I have (usually very little). I tried Down Dog and didn’t like it.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The National Archives is freezing even on hot days. I once casually said ‘gosh it’s chilly here’ to an archivist who raised an eyebrow and said: the temperature control isn’t really meant for you. 😳😳😳

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

What Exeter’s example has shown is that Departments that are excellent at research and teaching (the much vaunted dual excellence) and recruiting very well can still be threatened. Hard to believe these are not motivated by factors beyond the financial ones.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

More awful news from Exeter. Solidarity with all colleagues who got horrible news today.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Best bit of the day was this: today is my late mother’s birthday. Always a bit bittersweet. A colleague from another Department came up to me today and asked me if I was her daughter, said my mum taught her in Year 8 in Calcutta and that she was ‘truly inspirational!’

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I was well within time because I was terrified of Bella. A fantastic day of listening to my colleagues from @rhulpir.bsky.social and other Departments present their work.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I totally support anonymous marking for reasons of bias. But as an academic my work gets better when I send it to ppl and beg for feedback and write again. But repeated formative work risks undermining anonymity. You might easily recognise a particular student’s work/writing style. 🤷🏽‍♀️

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I think it’s suggesting that if a student has never come to class but produced a First Class essay then that is more suspicious than someone who has come every week, done their readings etc. I think that’s the logic.

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Reposted by Antara Datta

Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

On this #InternationalArchivesWeek I'd like to repost this absolute gem by the @bucksarchives.bsky.social!

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

This is terrible terrible for Nottingham and HE. Solidarity with everyone in this situation. The lack of wider outrage about this is absolutely telling. Academics are paying the price for problems not of their own creation.

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Alex Church @alexchurch.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Out: The Europeanisation of British politics In: The Indianisation of British politics

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Reposted by Antara Datta

kalramnath @kalramnath.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

A thread about new bks that I used in my teaching about the Indian Ocean World this past semester:

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

My favourite one was when he lost his swimming bag. I got a text next week from him : “Found it on the sports rack. I am bringing it home.’ And then he left it on the bus on his way home.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

My teenager says hello. The time he couldn’t find his viola and it ‘definitely definitely wasn’t in the school music locker. Definitely.’ And we went to the bus depot and Waterloo for TFL lost and found. And next morning at 7 am guess where it was.

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If you know you know @privatechand.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

There is no Jai Hind without Joy Bangla. We are not a people to be conquered.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

I highly recommend the cat. Unless you are allergic. She’s been very ‘helpful.’

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Between 1-25, your sweet primary school child will be a grumpy teenager who is now taller than you and tells you that you probably cant help with Year 9 History because ‘do you know how to do source work?’

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Between 5-9 there might or might not be a pandemic. Or a major outage at the principal research library of the country you live in. That one blurry page of that file you didn’t digitize clearly? Nine months before you see it again.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Between 13-15 take on a major major admin role that sucks up all your time. You might get promoted. But HE falls apart. What is promotion.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Other things you can do: Between 16-20 you can rescue a cat.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

22. Decide that there must be something I’ve missed in the archives. Explore more rabbit holes. 23. Edit chapters. Hate them all. 24. Submit the book manuscript. Hate it. 25. Distract myself from self flagellation by finding a new rabbit for the next project. Rinse and repeat.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

16. Book takes shape. I hate it. Worst thing I have ever written. 17. Next week: this is going to be really good. I have so many complex ideas here. 18. I have too many complex ideas. 19. Editor says: erm deadline? What is a deadline? 20. Get ready to submit manuscript. 21. Hyperventilate.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

13. Chapters begin to get coherent. Back to thinking this will be ground breaking. 14. In laws ask how much advance I will get. Explain academia. 15. Get a grant. In laws kindly ask if there is an award ceremony they can come to. Explain academia again.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

10. Research starts to take shape. A chapter may be written. More rabbit holes explored. 11. This summer I will write all the substantive chapters of this book. 12. I have small children, admin tasks and more archival work to do. So I won’t. Shit. September. 13. Teaching. Marking. FML.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

5. Excitement grows that this will be a ground breaking book. 6. Excitement dissipates very quickly. 7. More rabbit holes are explored- a coherent research idea develops. 8. Multiple grant proposals are rejected. 9. Buried under teaching and marking. What is research even.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Life stages of a historian- thread. 1. Oooh I wonder what the archives say about X. 2. Wanders down multiple rabbit holes. 3. Discards several ideas because people have already written about them. Why. But do I like their take on it? 4. Collects more material.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Also the belief that somehow a leaflet from an A&E doctor will open the door to special schools and exam accommodation. The waiting list for these things is years long which is why starting the process early is helpful. And if dear Iris doesn’t need it, then hey she doesn’t.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

I went to see my son and his friends in the National Youth Orchestra perform this weekend. Many of the teenage boys (and girls) were in tears backstage- moved by Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. 160 teenagers playing their hearts out on stage. Felt a glimmer of hope after the relentlessness of 206.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

And our institution just did an exercise called Assessment Futures to reduce the total number of assessments in the first place. Plus there is huge pressure on professional services staff anyway…

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

So the impulse behind this is very good but as someone who tried to actually implement this, there are several practical questions to answer. Including at my institution how you actually submit this portfolio with different components in different formats.

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

What if they don’t submit the process? Do we deduct marks? (at Surrey where they are introducing this whole scale I think they can only deduct 10% when I last checked). What about anonymity if they are submitting audio and video evidence?

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Having looked at this very closely, the workload implications are huge. I have to provide feedback multiple times. Am I assessing the process only or both? What happens if the process is great but the product is not and vice versa? Is it just a percentage we set aside for the process?

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Well I thought of you, among others when I read it this morning!

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I am not convinced their financial argument is correct either. Surely if we have a decent number of EU students paying home fees, that is better than a small handful paying international fees?!

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

We miss you too! All the very best with your campaign.

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kalramnath @kalramnath.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

I put on my lawyer hat for this piece on time limits under Indian citizenship legislation, and ongoing constitutional challenges in the Indian Supreme Court for Statelessness and Citizenship Review: statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com/index.php/jo...

statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com

View of Citizenship on Pause? The Ambiguities Surrounding Termination of Citizenship in India

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Mike is a former colleague and will be an amazing councillor. This is very exciting!

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PIR at Royal Holloway @rhulpir.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

🚨 Launching: A Roadmap to Votes at 16 🚨 Kaat Smets and @jamessloam.bsky.social contributed to A Roadmap to Votes at 16 🗳️ - a report co-created with organisations, teachers, youth workers and young people to make Votes at 16 a success. 👉 Read the full report: docsend.com/view/9nnhamt...

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

In recent years, Jinal Parekh and @antaradatta.bsky.social have published on aspects of the ‘virginity testing’ practice that had not been studied explored yet. For example, they wrote about the Indian response in this article for @globalhistjnl.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

India, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and the 1979 Virginity Testing Scandal | Journal of Global History | Cambridge Core

India, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and the 1979 Virginity Testing Scandal - Volume 19 Issue 1

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Antara Datta @antaradatta.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Shame on all those news channel that would quote the death tolls with the caveat: ‘according to the Hamas controlled Gaza Health Ministry’ to cast doubt.

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