Reposted by Jonathan PotterMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Adam Tickell, Vice Chancellor at the University of Birmingham (previously Sussex VC) supports concentrating research in 20-30 universities, the argument too of Policy Exchange's Tarnished Towers report. An unevidenced, unmodelled ideological argument that's perniciously pervasive. Contest it. 2/2 1327
Reposted by Jonathan PotterAnne Balke Staver @anneavelo.bsky.social · 07/02/2026The most letter to the LRB letter to the LRB that I have ever read. 19231
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Very excited at what just dropped through the letter box! It's the @vpfa.bsky.social special issue of Archiv (including a contribution from yours truly). 121
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 14/05/2026"AI" literally falsifying the historical record. On an industrial scale. 12319
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Well this really didn't take long did it. I also feel like the headline could be clear this is not a run-of-the-mill misdemeanor, this is someone promoting Hitler's Nazi party in 2026. BBC News - Sheffield Reform UK councillor 'brought party into disrepute' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukSheffield Reform UK councillor 'brought party into disrepute'Reform UK say Sheffield councillor Nathaniel Menday has been suspended pending an investigation. 010
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJoanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 07/05/2026Good luck with AI without humanities, UK. 15929
Reposted by Jonathan PotterLori Emerson @loriemerson.net · 05/04/2026Benjamin wrote his "Theses on the Philosophy of History" in 1940, shortly before he died by suicide escaping the Nazis. Imagine, now, Hannah Arendt reading this aloud to fellow refugees fleeing the Third Reich on the ship that was smuggling them to the U.S. 19239
Reposted by Jonathan PotterRandy Browne @randybrowne.bsky.social · 05/04/2026Excellent news for the field www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...ucl.ac.ukUCL History Secures $575k Grant for Caribbean Enslaved People DatabaseA $575,000 grant from a North American funder will support the development of a database of enslaved people at the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS). 016158
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 28/03/2026One of the more important tables imo. Pleased to see BCU moving in the right direction on this table - up to 7th place this year. 010
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 23/03/2026I hope UCU can successfully fight this! As an English student at Leicester I benefitted from both modern languages and film studies modules and had friends in both degree programmes. Arts & Hum was such a vibrant community when I was there and these are valuable subjects worth fighting for! 030
Reposted by Jonathan PotterEmily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 18/03/2026It's hard to do satire of a field that is continually self-satiring, but this is a valiant attempt: puregenius.educationpuregenius.educationThe World's First Fully Automated Genius SystemExperience the future of education with PureGenius - an AI-powered learning platform that unlocks every student's potential. Sign up for early access today. 915140
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDerek Johnston @drdjohnston.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Well, this is bad. 153
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJohn Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 10/03/2026There's a bunch of Chevening Scholars in my Masters classes and they massively enrich it. Impressive people and also so obviously wedded to going back and improving their own countries. 413135
Reposted by Jonathan PotterCorey Rayburn Yung @coreyryung.bsky.social · 10/03/2026Even as a cynical scholar of rape culture, I'm shocked that this isn't the headline story on domestic politics everywhere right now. It's just an unfathomable abuse of power, in clear violation of the law. 2326511053
Reposted by Jonathan PotterAmy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 10/03/2026“In 2024 the UK’s creative industries contributed £145.8 billion to the economy while the entire AI sector contributed £11.8 billion.” www.thetimes.com/article/8561...thetimes.comCreative industries hold upper hand in AI copyright fightArtists, musicians, writers and journalists are pushing back hard as Big Tech firms seek access to their work for training AI models 04923
Reposted by Jonathan PotterMartin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 07/03/2026I still find it astonishing that, during Covid, the first response of so many people connected to the Conservative party was that it presented an opportunity to loot the country undercover of a national emergency. Unforgivable wartime profiteering. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...theguardian.comTory peer to leave Lords after investigation finds he breached standards over Covid PPE dealsLord Chadlington introduced government to company in which he had financial interest in 2020 23010
Reposted by Jonathan PotterVictorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Join us for a mid-week, mid-afternoon writing retreat and beat that afternoon slump! As usual, this event is free for VPFA members, but we have now opened this up to non-members for a small fee of £5 (£6.13 inc. Eventbrite fee). Sign up is available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1984543534... 131
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJohanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 09/02/2026CALL FOR PITCHES @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience. We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not. Details below! 13237140
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDr. Sandra Duffy Golden @sandraduffy.bsky.social · 23/01/2026This house thinks this is the best party political broadcast we've ever seen. 1213
Reposted by Jonathan PotterWolf Hour @wolfhour.bsky.social · 10/01/2026(cartoon Mike Luckovich) #politics #ice 511582502
Reposted by Jonathan PotterAlex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 05/01/2026The video in the thread redacts the images, mercifully. But you can see from the prompts what is happening. This is obscene, vicious and intolerable. X and Grok should be shut down until this grotesque harassment can be stopped. Those responsible should face the full force of the law. 8411124
Reposted by Jonathan PotterTom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Happy New Year, everyone! This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago. 101316518
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 31/12/2025Everyone has their blind spots etc, but Hobsbawm is a great historian - accessible, interesting, provocative - for undergrads and general readers so I'd be surprised if he wasn't still on many undergrad reading lists (he's on mine!). 020
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 30/12/2025Out of curiosity, I just ran a few paragraphs from The Butchering Art through an AI checker and it got flagged: 88% AI. This book was released in 2017, and AI machines were subsequently trained off it. How many writers are getting flagged for AI because of the literal theft of their work(s)? Insane. 262145686
Reposted by Jonathan PotterPaul ✍🏻 Dean @paullicino.bsky.social · 25/12/2025Disco Elysium being free on the Epic Games Store is truly a Christmas miracle. This is such a singular and superb video game. store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/disc...store.epicgames.comDisco Elysium - The Final Cut | Download and Buy Today - Epic Games StoreDownload and play Disco Elysium - The Final Cut at the Epic Games Store. Check for platform availability and price! 46527
Reposted by Jonathan Potter𝔍𝔬𝔢 @joeblivion.bsky.social · 25/12/2025December 25th. The day the Fellowship departs Rivendell to destroy the One Ring. Whatever you celebrate, may you have the courage to take the first steps to defy and endure against the dark, and rekindle light into the world. 3808246
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Go check out Bob for Wired! 072
Reposted by Jonathan PotterCentre for Modern British Studies @mbsbirmingham.bsky.social · 19/12/2025We are delighted to be co-sponsoring this event alongside @ihr.bsky.social and @royalhistsoc.org. Details and sign-up information is below! 058
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJenka @jenka.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Its all over Threads www.threads.com/@permanent_o...threads.comKarolinaM (@permanent_optimist) on ThreadsSo, everyone has already seen the comparison of Miller to Goebels, but have you seen these? Rubio the same as Nixon in January 1973 (6 months into Watergate) And Scavino like Himmler? 39316
Reposted by Jonathan PotterEleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 16/12/2025Amazing 😳 digital archaeology How AI’s annoying blandness “accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire” 02214
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDavid Leigh Roth @notonebit.com · 13/12/2025Happy 100th birthday Dick Van Dyke!media.tenor.coma man in a hat is dancing in a crowd of peopleALT: a man in a hat is dancing in a crowd of people 593651777
Reposted by Jonathan PotterRobert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 12/12/2025The world's richest 0.001% now control 3x as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity combined. 56,000 wealthy individuals have more than roughly 4 billion people. Read that back.theguardian.comJust 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report findsData from World Inequality Report also showed top 10% of income-earners earn more than the other 90% 21845302235
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJulia Boss @juliaboss.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Excellent advice. Get away from the desk, go for a walk. Don’t listen to a podcast, just walk. That’s when the best thinking happens. 0142
Jonathan Potter @drjonpotter.bsky.social · 04/12/2025As a chess fan this is a marvelous read. I had no idea Marx played chess, though I'm not hugely surprised. 020
Reposted by Jonathan PotterEd Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 01/12/2025“One person is an autocratic president of the university for decades” certainly wasn’t a flawless system but it’s clear that “admins hop from job to job scaling the career ladder by filling their CV with ‘accomplishments’ that are expensive burdens to the schools they leave behind” is even worse. 8590120
Reposted by Jonathan PotterHetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 01/12/2025So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game. On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad? WRONG! 1414460
Reposted by Jonathan Potterwill pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 28/11/2025“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?” this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️history-uk.ac.uk‘Doing the Readings’Dr Will Pooley (Associate Professor in Modern History), University of Bristol The students, we often grumble, don’t read the secondary readings we set for class. Every year, we find ourselves press… 1016250
Reposted by Jonathan PotterBig Issue @bigissue.com · 28/11/2025Grant. Andrew. Stewart. Andre. Four vendors equipped to earn this winter. A Vendor Support Kit gives them the tools to work their way to a better future: ♨️ Warm hat and gloves ☕ Hot food voucher 💳 Cashless payment support 📈 One-to-one sales coaching Buy one online at bigissue.com/supportkit 085
Reposted by Jonathan PotterMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 28/11/2025What do UK graduates do? Lots of information in this annual report. A reminder that Humanities graduates are quite employable. Compare unemployment rates for Biology (8.4%), Chemistry (5.9%) and Physics (8.0%) with English literature (6.4%), History (7.6%) and Languages (7.6%) for example.graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io 16032
Reposted by Jonathan PotterCathy Waters @catherinefaver.bsky.social · 27/11/2025A huge figure in Dickens Studies, his contribution to the field over the last half century is unsurpassed. @dickensfellowhq.bsky.social has lost a champion. 0103
Reposted by Jonathan PotterDuncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 19/11/2025A walk through the stone defences of Mither Tap, Bennachie in Aberdeenshire for #HillfortsWednesday I believe occupied in the early Middle Ages, don’t know how far it goes back? Whenever it was, I hope it was less windy than now. 920136
Reposted by Jonathan PotterJason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 19/11/2025This is one of the worst, most horrifying exposures we have ever seen. It is hard to overstate how bad the things that people are using tools like for are, and it's insane to pretend like these tools are anything other than nonconsensual porn machines www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...404media.coMassive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI PornChatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me... 441911664
Reposted by Jonathan PotterTuring Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴 @dov.bsky.social · 16/11/2025Well it certainly doesnt help if you start your focus on things that bring people joy instead of decarbonising the energy grid, yes. 2020827
Reposted by Jonathan PotterWRONG or METAPHYSICAL IN NATURE @jsthrill.modphi.com · 12/11/2025For anyone who is like “the creature is also named Frankenstein”; Mary Shelley went to see a play version of Frankenstein and was tickled that they listed the creature as “———“ in the dramatis personae: “this nameless mode of naming the unnameable is rather good” www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3... 3359132