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Dr Barbara Eichner

@barbaraeichner.bsky.social
912 followers 569 following 1.2K posts

Music historian, author of "History in Mighty Sounds" and a perenially half-written study of music in monasteries and nunneries around 1600. Loves country walks, reading, sightseeing, archaeology.

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Reposted by Dr Barbara Eichner
University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 13h
Strikes start today at Nottingham. “These are not cash-strapped universities.” Dr Jo Grady on R4 this morning. 700 jobs. 48 courses. All to drive a surplus. Show your support. ✊
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Reposted by Dr Barbara Eichner
UCU Edinburgh @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Day 2 of the UCU workers' strike at the University of Edinburgh. The 1,800 jobs UCU estimates will be cut is unprecedented in Scottish higher education. It is happening in the wealthiest Scottish university, and the third richest in the UK, currently sitting with over £3billion reserves.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
That would be peak Manchesterism.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
That would be peak Manchesterism.
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Ash @queerash.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
what if we just get Man City to pay for the National Care Service
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP @bellribeiroaddy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Three people, including a child, drowned in the Channel today. Our politics is so broken that the debate is never about how we stop these deaths and always about how we can come up with harsher policies that make more deaths inevitable.
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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
2yrs after I finished my MA History at Goldsmiths, my research rights were bought and I was hired to work as historical consultant on this TV show. It's had BAFTA and International Emmy nominations. I got a book deal, too. Goldsmiths: "No point in MA History, let's fire everyone and delete it."
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The BBC has long given up even pretending to be interested in who these people are, why they are coming or how they might feel, in favour of acting as a kind of shop window for the parties to display their wares of violence and cruelty
bbc.co.uk
Most migrant small boat arrivals in single day of 2026
A total of 781 migrants arrive on Wednesday, but the yearly total is below the same point in 2025.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Which is why teaching in person is superior to online teaching.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I did say Shabana Mahmood would be on the side of the thugs. Burnham keeping her in post was an utter disgrace. Labour supporters should be brave enough to say so. So should Labour MPs.
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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ditto 30,000 roles in universities in the past three years.
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Tom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The BBC has decided that this constitutes news… A man who left for Monaco several years ago declaring he’s ’lost confidence’ in the UK His qualification for making the headlines? Owning £15bn Broadcasting like democracy already died! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Think of the combined CENTURIES of expertise lost here, the creativity, the knowledge, the depth and breadth of cultural learning and understanding, the generations of minds enriched and enlightened, the sheer weight of history that led to the establishment of these programmes. Purged. Destroyed.
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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
When it’s left-wing protesters, Home Secretaries have changed the law so they are now criminals. When far-right criminals break the law, they’re asked not to break the law again 🙄
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is not just grim, but also an admission of managerial and political failure on a large scale.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Celtic (UG), Chinese & Russian (UG), Contemporary History, Economics & Statistics (joint degree), Inclusive Education (MSc), Intellectual History, Italian & Classics (joint), Law & Social Policy (joint), Medieval History, Persian Studies (UG), Portuguese (UG), Psychology & Economics (joint)....
heraldscotland.com
Full list of the 90 programmes earmarked for closure at leading Scottish university
Managers say the cuts are necessary “to protect our world-leading reputation and resilience in research and teaching” but staff members have hit…
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Time to deport all these fighting age men terrorising our patriotic lifeboat volunteers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
RNLI facility had been targeted by activists trying to stop asylum seekers landing in boats from the Channel
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Tess is Surviving the Horrors @mothmother.com · 17/09/2026
LLMs obscure the very world science seeks to illuminate. They have no place in our knowledge work practices. Anyone who insists they are the "future" of scientific papers is either a charlatan, an ignoramus, or a saboteur, and should be treated with the same contempt they show to scholarship.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.
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Atul Haria (immigrant) @atulharia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
So Burnham and Labour happy to jail *peaceful* anti-genocide and climate protestors, but are silent in the face of fascist mob rule that has the potential to injure / kill. Shameful pandering to racists for votes. cc. @davidpintod.bsky.social - you are my MP. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
independent.co.uk
RNLI closes Portsmouth lifeboat station after huge anti-migrant protests
RNLI volunteers were branded ‘traitors’ after bringing migrants ashore
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Andrew Blair @andrewblair.co.uk · 16/09/2026
The arts industry in the UK: we contribute so much money to the economy but we are dying, please help Lisa Nandy: Village Parish Council: we held a pretend referendum Lisa Nandy: I'm listening
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Madeline Odent absolutely nails the #Piddington situation. 🧵
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Because women academics work in English and History just as a fun hobby and a ladylike accomplishment and for a bit of pocket money for their beauty sessions, with a hubby breadwinner holding down the real job.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Seems none of these universities seems to greatly care about their REF results in the "Strategy, People and Research Environment" department ...
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Party that wants to retrospectively change rules so as to remove migrants also says retrospective rules on party funding are "dictatorship tactics".
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Every year a delight to hear "Rule Britannia" and see a waving sea of European flags (and many other flags and national paraphernalia). #LOTP
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James Cameron @jjjcameron.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"Universities fail to win over people who fundamentally hate everything they stand for (again)" www.ft.com/content/a314...
UK universities fail to win over Reform
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Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I hope the British ambassador to Pakistan is called in to explain why such a thing is allowed to happen.
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Dermot Smith @dermotsmith.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
’Amanda Martin, Labour MP for Portsmouth North … said it was "completely unacceptable that misinformation has led to young cricketers visiting our city being wrongly targeted"’. BEING ‘WRONGLY TARGETED’ IS NOT THE ISSUE HERE. BEING TARGETED IS THE ISSUE.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 09/09/2026
AI companies: This technology we’re developing is dangerous and might destroy humanity and we don’t know how to stop it Other people: So we should strictly regulate it, create legislative guard rails, and monitor its development? AI companies: lol no the opposite of all that & give us more money
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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I just think that risking your life at a moment's notice to save people you've never met in exchange for no money is a better expression of patriotism than dressing up like a Poundshop paramilitary and intimidating families with kids trying to get onto a ferry.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The balaclava blackshirted thugs are a result of a decade of politicians, tabloids and the broadcast media telling racists they have "legitimate concerns." The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.
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Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
You’ve gotta use AI because it’s the future. But also it’ll take your job. But also it’ll create a paradise on earth and solve most of our problems. But also it’ll end humanity soon. But also you’ll get left behind if you don’t use it right now.
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 09/09/2026
Also, why is this basically written up as "quirky crowd make an embarrassing mistake" and not "violent racists form mob because Asian people use hotel"?
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
For those still learning about Germany’s neo-Nazi AfD, here are the salient facts:
INTELLIFACTS
ALICE WEIDEL BECOMES THE FIRST LEADER IN THE WORLD WHO IS ANTI-IMMIGRATION BUT HAS AN IMMIGRANT WIFE, IS ANTI-LGBTQ+ BUT IS A LESBIAN HERSELF, OPPOSES LGBT ADOPTION BUT HAS ADOPTED TWO CHILDREN, AND IS A HARDCORE GERMAN NATIONALIST BUT LIVES IN SWITZERLAND
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Kent police said 'no arrests were made' of the people who blocked a port and roads. There's your two-tier policing, folks www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
bbc.co.uk
Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.
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Cllr Dr Alex Powell @apowelllaw.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
it's interesting isn't it that for some in the media and government: Holding up a sign declaring support for a group = Terrorism. Storming a port in masks and all black clothes to try and force political change = Protest.
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 03/09/2026
Do other industry newsletters habitually berate workers in said industry as stupid, incompetent, and evil? Does "Inside Sinks" routinely call plumbers idiots? Does "The Chronicle of Auto Repair" publish 10 pieces a day blaming mechanics for America's demise? Or is it just a higher ed thing?
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Nothing about this on the BBC News app. They still lead with Reform's "promise" (i.e. lunatic lie) to cut 80bn of public spending. Come on, #BBC, stop being the lapdog of the populists!
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Paul Steel 🇪🇺🇩🇪🇨🇵🇮🇪🇸🇯🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇦🇹🇨🇭🇨🇦 🇬🇱🍉 @pasteel61.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The best way to reverse the "Boriswave" is to reverse the Borisbollocks and fully rejoin the EU!
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
No one had to think super hard about how to make a washing machine useful. A telephone. A vacuum cleaner. So why do our bosses have to constantly challenge us to find something, anything, for which AI might be helpful If your customers don’t find your product useful, that’s a you-problem
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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Dolly Parton's scientific, public health, and educational philanthropy was so significant that @nature.com is running a piece on the impact she had.
nature.com
Dolly Parton dies aged 80 – researchers celebrate her contributions to science
The country singer was an advocate for vaccines, public health, literacy and marginalized communities.
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Liam McHugh-Russell @xntl.info · 23/08/2026
7. Academic freedom means that your Dean or VP should not be able to fire you or deny benefits because of your scholarly work or intellectual expression. But if you conduct scholarly misconduct, then your academic peers will happily (!) throw you to the wolves.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The craziest thing about all this is that U.K. universities are being ripped to shreds by cuts and *this* is the hill these academics are keen to die on democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
democracyforsale.substack.com
Inside Britain's university crisis
As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Secular canonesses (Stiftsdamen) are not nuns, strictly speaking, as they didn't take vows and could leave their religious house, but I liked how these #nuntastic ladies, dressed in gourgeeous 18th-century finery, step forward in their amazing classicist church in Bad Buchau / Upper Swabia.
Ceiling fresco from the church in Bad Buchau. To the left of a coat-of-arms, a group of the canonesses in rich 18th-century dress, to the right secular and ecclesiastical rulers.
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"If it takes a decade for an account involving being parented by wolves to be debunked, well, that’s life. But if a Black man can trick you without immediate exposure, then racial tolerance has been taken too far." 🔥👏 @stephenkb.bsky.social
ft.com
The difficult truth about Jason Arday
From the beginning, investigations were accompanied by a cloud of excessive references to his race
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Dr Barbara Eichner @barbaraeichner.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
We often read how nun musicians were meant to be heard but not seen - the proverbial "disembodied voices" . This is the organ gallery of the Premonstratensian monastery at Obermarchtal - clearly the monk musicians were hidden behind those elegant grilles! #monktabulous #nuntastic #music
The organ gallery of Obermarchtal in Swabia, built for the organ by Nikolaus Holzhay. There are grilles on the balustrade.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
This Reform press release is currently the lead story on the BBC News website
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