iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr Eleanor Hopkins

The English Association @englishassociation.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Results day - @britishacademy.bsky.social has a new v useful data dashboard www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/policy-and-r...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Secondary and post-16 subject trends

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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Failure is an option: funding risky research can foster innovation. Opinion: Unconventional funding scheme for high-risk research, including lottery element, offers wider lessons, says Anete Vingre. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

researchprofessionalnews.com

Failure is an option: funding risky research can foster innovation - Research Professional News

Unconventional funding scheme for high-risk research, including lottery element, offers wider lessons, says Anete Vingre

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Dr. Karen Carr @quatrus.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

My favorite depiction of the Trojan Horse, and the earliest known version. I love the windows, like an airplane, and that the windows go up the neck too.

Trojan horse depicted on the Mykonos vase ca. 675 BC, so around the time of the Odyssey and Iliad. Found with human bones inside (like the horse!) and now in the Archaeological Museum of Mykonos. Image shows the horse with little windows in its side so you can see the men waiting inside.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Look the way she translates the opening versus other versions. It's incredible.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

‘Prof Susan J Smith, president of the British Academy, recently described the situation as “an emergency, threatening all subjects”, and singled out the problem of “cold spots” where some disciplines are at risk of disappearing.’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial

Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Alongside CERN, cuts include scaling back UK facilities including the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Jodrell Bank is local to me and the Lovell is much beloved. Making me think about how this short-termism impacts beyond discovery science and extends to our social and cultural infrastructure.

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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

UK research at Cern to shrink as government approves STFC cuts. 🚨Exclusive: Science department approves UKRI’s cost-saving proposal, with major UK facilities also facing cutbacks. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

researchprofessionalnews.com

UK research at Cern to shrink as government approves STFC cuts - Research Professional News

Exclusive: Science department approves UKRI’s cost-saving proposal, with major UK facilities also facing cutbacks

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

We’ve opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowships. We provide 3 years of funding to early-career researchers in the humanities and social sciences wishing to pursue an independent research project. Apply by 30th September www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Fellowships

The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships is a three year award made to an annual cohort of outstanding early career researchers in the humanities or social sciences.

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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I am BEGGING people - think tanks, governments, random organisations - to DATE YOUR REPORTS WHEN YOU DO THE PDFS. It should not be THIS HARD to find a BLOODY PUBLICATION DATE. You might think everyone will remember the magical day you published it years later. But you are delusional.

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Dylan, on life in your 80’s, is incredible. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/14/o...

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

On legitimising yet another pogrom.

Some prefer to step two degrees away from the above conclusion, blaming the violence not on one discrete crime, but rather on long-simmering discontent about “unfettered immigration”, to use the words offered by loyalist MP Jim Allister, in the wake of last year’s Ballymena riots. Such riots are appalling, the argument goes, but their anger reflects a legitimate concern; that immigration has simply gone too far.

Again, we risk demeaning ourselves by pointing out that rates of migration into Northern Ireland have never been connected to any rise in crime, and represent a tremendous benefit to the economy, from workers in hospitality and agri-business sectors to manufacturing and academia. Migrants are most beneficial in the health and care sectors, with 22 per cent of carers in the state coming from outside the UK and Ireland, without whom Tracey Reid, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, says the sector “could not survive”. Such statistics are, of course, broadly similar throughout the UK and Ireland, and were regarded as truisms until it became seemingly gauche for any prominent newspaper or politician to repeat them, in favour of contorting gymnastically to flatter the perceptions and prejudices of those who just hate migrants for entirely racist reasons. No matter how much they contribute to society, and no matter how few of them there are.

A compelling argument that this is the case can be found in the demographics of Northern Ireland itself. Its current population is just shy of two million. According to the most recent figures available, net migration in the state between 2001 and 2023 amounted to around 62,000 people, including less than 2,400 refugees in secure accommodation. Ballymena, which until this week had been the most prominent site of anti-immigrant violence in the state, sits in the Mid and East Antrim council area, which has seen fewer than 5,000 international migrants settle there this century. Only 3 per cent of Northern Ireland’s population belong to any ethnic minority at all.

For those of us who find the constant discussion of “the immigration problem” dehumanising and dishonest in any context, it’s revealing to see it deployed in places where immigration barely exists, not least for what it might suggest about such legitimate concerns everywhere else. We are left to presume that any number of non-white faces, no matter how few, is a salient enough horror for locals that their concerns become legitimised automatically. Even one, it would seem, is one too many.

Most confusing of all has been the near-total absence of any context regarding who, exactly, is committing all this violence. The reluctance among media outlets to specify that these pogroms are the work of far-right loyalist gangs is particularly odd, given that such groups are fond of signing their work. The LVF, and associated gangs, have for decades sprayed their tags on the houses of the people they burn out, whether Catholics, economic migrants or refugees. Even now their graffiti proudly adorns walls and estates, demanding they be reserved for “locals only”. I’m old enough to remember when the LVF attacked the specially modified home of a severely disabled child because his family was insufficiently Protestant. I’m old enough to remember it because it happened less than two years ago.

When loyalist gangs burned Catholic families out of their homes in past years, there were few stern and sombre pleas that we should understand the arsonists’ concerns. Nor was there a reflexive jolt to place such acts in a context the perpetrators themselves might have liked, perhaps by drawing direct links between their violent acts and the existence of alleged crimes committed by disconnected Catholics many miles away. That this same logic is no longer applied to vast acts of violence against dozens of non-white people of all nationalities in Belfast, purportedly due to the actions of a single man from Sudan, is as preposterous as it is repulsive.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Hugely excited at the latest dashboard we’ve developed to let you have a systemwide view of student number trends in SHAPE (social science, humanities and arts subjects) across UK higher education. Also you can see characteristics & mobility. Have a play! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/policy-and-r...

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Restore is on 7% in that Makerfield constituency poll. I wrote this week why they're a threat that needs to be taken seriously. And why splitting the Reform vote isn't worth the normalisation of what is, in effect, a neo-Nazi party. samf.substack.com/p/is-andy-bu...

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LSE Impact @lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

🗣️"to believe that only STEM drives progress and economic growth reflects something wrong in education and our public culture, a remarkable degree of ignorance about how the world really works" #STEM #EconSky #AcademicSky

blogs.lse.ac.uk

The myth of STEM only growth holds back the UK - LSE Impact

The view that STEM subjects on their own drive growth is misguided and presents a lopsided view of the value of the social sciences and humanities.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Thought this was a model response from @celiarichardson.bsky.social to a pretty harsh article in the Spectator about the National Trust

Celia Richardson • • 2nd
Director of Communications and F...
6h・
The National Trust is run by 'infantilised morons' according to a spectator article published this weekend.
•+ Connect
It is of course entirely reasonable to question how organisations like the National Trust serve the public.
But I found myself less struck by the argument and more by the tone.
During the school holidays this year the National Trust will be hosting Pokemon adventures for children and families in beautiful historic landscapes and gardens.
I'm one of the morons behind the decision.
This isn't something unique. From the Van Gogh Museum to the Natural History Museum, and city-wide experiences that lead visitors around landmarks like the Louvre, it's a global pattern of cultural organisations experimenting with how people encounter heritage.
We know from their writers that articles attacking the National Trust get a lot of clicks for the Telegraph and Spectator, so we tend to expect more negative headlines than other culture, heritage and nature charities.

There's a serious discussion to be had about how heritage organisations balance conservation, interpretation and access. That includes how we invite in children and young families-often their first step into places they may come to love for life.
We won't all agree on how these places should be enjoyed and critics have every right to voice strong opinions. But I think we share a common goal: that the places continue to matter to people, and are cared for long into the future.
The tone we choose shapes the debate and the kind of public life we create, around our institutions and everywhere.
I'd like to think we can hold ourselves and each other to a standard that is both robust and respectful.
Much of the article is behind a paywall. But anyone can read the opening abuse of our staff for free. And there is a cost to this kind of commentary.

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Reposted by Dr Eleanor Hopkins

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

A very helpful, comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the recent British Academy 'Green' repository report and the looming issue of open access mandates for longer-form publications (aka books). 1/3

blogs.lse.ac.uk

A successful open access book mandate requires infrastructure not compliance - LSE Impact

An open access book mandate is one REF cycle away. If implemented, research funders should focus on enabling infrastructure rather than compliance.

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Fantastic to have been involved in a v small way in @sciencecampaign.bsky.social vision for the future of R&D in the UK amid fracturing political landscape in the UK and globally. Great to see trade-offs alongside goals. Lots to delve into! www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and...

sciencecampaign.org.uk

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Reposted by Dr Eleanor Hopkins

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

'If graduates are asked to supervise AI before having learnt the standards of the field, the result may be fluency without competence.' 'This is why the way universities deal with the disruptive force of AI is so essential.'

wonkhe.com

AI literacy is not enough – universities must teach through disciplinary standards

The University of Surrey will have embedded AI use into all of its degree programmes by September. Annika Bautz explains why doing so in a discipline-specific way was so crucial The University of Surr...

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Reposted by Dr Eleanor Hopkins

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

*Very* excited that vol.1 of New Directions in the Ghost Story, edited by myself, @henrybartholomew.bsky.social & @joanpassey.bsky.social is out! Well done to all the contributors, and thanks for bearing with us! :) Please recommend to your academic libraries! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

link.springer.com

New Directions in the Ghost Story, Volume I

Discover New Directions in the Ghost Story, Volume 1, a landmark collection of essays exploring haunted narratives and Gothic fiction.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

'Universities across the UK have reported more than 1,000 job losses in the first four months of this year, with the actual number likely to be far higher as institutions continue to roll out cost-saving initiatives.' 1/4

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

May I interest you in £10k for humanities or social science research? Our small grants scheme is open. Apply by 3rd June. We allocate through partial randomisation - awarding randomly between all applications that meet our quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants

The British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 mont...

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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Opinion: The UK needs a national strategy on open access involving funders, universities, libraries, publishers and scholarly communities, says Lindsay Farmer #openaccess www.timeshighereducation.com/opinio…

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

In the world’s worst conflict zones, gifted young women study in hiding, swerving militias, earthquakes, power cuts, internet outages and the threat of starvation. Ironically, they want to study in the UK...so they can develop skills to help strengthen the fragile infrastructure back home'.

theguardian.com

‘The UK is saying the same thing as the Taliban’: the women banned from studying in Britain

The Home Office has blocked new study visas for applicants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Myanmar and Cameroon. It means many women will miss out on life-changing opportunities – as five female academics ex...

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

We’re getting into the weeds of how we tell a better story about the value of HE and research in society with our brilliant plenary panel @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social, British Academy President Susan J Smith and Professor Malcolm Press from Universities UK #SHAPEConference26

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Prof Duncan Morrow kicking off our post-lunch 10 minute talks, taking us through Ulster University’s active embeddedness in some of the most conflicted and deprived areas of the UK in NI. Community is a foundational and integral part of Ulster’s research agenda #SHAPEConference26

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Fantastic to see a full house for our debate on whether ‘responsible’ AI can ever be possible in research? Some fantastic provocations from Oonagh Murphy and Tom Stoneman #SHAPEConference26 (our menti is our before poll - let’s see if the debate shifts perspectives in the room …)

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

This year marks 40 years of the @britishacademy.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowship and we are delightly to welcome a wonderful panel including Evelyn Welch, Will Allen, Mike Braddick and Daisy Ogembo to reflect on the changing face of precarity in HE

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Absolutely fantastic to have Lord Patrick Vallance giving our opening Plenary at the @britishacademy.bsky.social #SHAPEConference26 discussing priorities for the R&I system and the importance of SHAPE to them

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Colin Gorrie @colingorrie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

deadlanguagesociety.com

How far back in time can you understand English?

An experiment in language change

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

This is an incredibly informative interrogation of the UKRI buckets framework (as you’d expect from Ben Johnson), including delving into the nitty gritty of the disconnect between the framework and the UK’s dual-funding system, and UK research base across IS-8. open.substack.com/pub/johnsonb...

open.substack.com

The Bucket Stops Here

UKRI’s new funding framework takes a stab at classifying budgets – but doesn’t yet govern research

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

With the world (and life) in the current state it is, MAN Women’s Big Air (the skill, the camaraderie, the talent!) is the antidote I didn’t know I needed. I am in awe of those amazing women.

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The latest issue of @edinburghup.bsky.social's Gothic Studies features articles by our own Dr Nick Freeman and doctoral researcher Milly Harrison, on 'Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic':

euppublishing.com

Edinburgh University Press Journals - Cookie Absent

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research. We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

International Fellowships 2026
The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce.
Funding status
Open for applications
Career stage
Early-career

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

THREAD: I'll fact-check all the viral misinformation about the US military operation in Venezuela in this thread This image, purporting to show the US military arresting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is AI-generated. According to Google's SynthID detector, it was created using Google AI.

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Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Change over time is often depicted as a trendline. But what does shape a trendline? Which forces? Our new paper presents a method allowing to “decompose” trendlines into constituent forces. Also, we tackle an old puzzle: Does culture change “one funeral at a time”? 🧵(1/8) doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

a schematic depiction of a trend line and several causal forces that give it its shape

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Well this is a marvellous betwixmas read.

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

British Academy's pioneering 'cold spots' work now replicated by HESA. 'University "cold spots" are developing in some parts of the country, new data analysis suggests, with courses in some subjects no longer available to students in certain regions.' 1/2

bbc.co.uk

University students facing course 'cold spots' as enrolments fall

New data analysis suggests courses like artificial intelligence are surging in popularity as languages fall.

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Henry Bartholomew @henrybartholomew.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

ICYMI - the latest issue of Gothic Studies journal is devoted to the author, mystic, and media star Algernon Blackwood. The Intro asks how we can understand Blackwood as an author both in and beyond the Gothic tradition and how his work reshapes the genre. doi.org/10.3366/goth...

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Fantastic opportunity for SHAPE experts to contribute to DSIT's College of Experts and to provide impartial scientific and technical advice. DSIT is looking for experts in areas including AI, cyber security, digital infrastructure, economic security, R&I and regulatory innovation, to name a few!

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The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

“The restarting of REF2029 brings welcome clarity and allows universities to resume preparations with purpose." @eicathomefinn.bsky.social reflects on the government's announcement today on the restarting of REF2029 - see our full response here: bit.ly/4pre8Sl

bit.ly

The British Academy responds to the resuming of REF2029

The British Academy has responded to the Department for Education's announcement regarding the resumption of REF2029

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Reposted by Dr Eleanor Hopkins

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

'the thing that’s been really nagging at me since October is the cheek of proposing to fundamentally restructure quality assessment without looking at whether the National Student Survey (NSS) – which sits at its heart – is fit for the purpose OfS wants it to serve.'

wonkhe.com

You can’t fix OfS’ quality proposals without fixing the NSS

There's a lot wrong with OfS' proposals on quality regulation – like the punishment of students in providers that get Bronze, the abandonment of educational gain despite students repeatedly requesting...

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Dr Eleanor Hopkins @drejhopkins.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I knew the chilli peppers were right … ‘When everything turns into television, every form of communication starts to adopt television’s values: immediacy, emotion, spectacle, brevity’ www.derekthompson.org/p/why-everyt...

derekthompson.org

Everything Is Television

A theory of culture and attention

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