Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026"A headache in a novel is more than a character trait or plot point: it is a narrative object that registers the force of, & embodied responses to, history...the way a headache mediates inner life & outside world tells us...abt the felt dimension of social reality organised by the capital relation" 031
Reposted by Felicity CallardKetil Slagstad @slagstadk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Very pleased to share the first article from my research project on the history clinical research and biological psychiatry, published open access in Isis. The article analyses the introduction of pneumoencephalography in schizophrenia research in the 1950s. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... 1214
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026This is great: Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social reading Esmat Elhalaby’s 'Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization' to counter Pankaj Mishra's equivocations in 'The World After Gaza' 052
Reposted by Felicity CallardPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I’ve suddenly realised what actually happened in my workload meeting yesterday. My head of dept offered me hourly-paid teaching on top of the proposed 0.5 role *to cover the shortfall caused by my own half-sacking*. (I said no - it’s a proper job or nothing). 3418419
Reposted by Felicity CallardFelicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The brutal reality of universities' suppression of wages (in KPMG's report for DfE on cost of undergraduate provision in England) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aabfa... 24441
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The brutal reality of universities' suppression of wages (in KPMG's report for DfE on cost of undergraduate provision in England) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aabfa... 24441
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Trying to describe what it’s like working inside British universities at the moment is very hard. One small vignette: not a single week of my teaching this semester looks the same as any other. We have virtually no courses/modules that are taught by 610834
Reposted by Felicity CallardEmile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The programme I run - the MSc in Contemporary History - will be axed, amongst so many others. We've also been told our undergrad courses will need to have a minimum of 20 students over a 3 year period. The bonfire of the universities has truly come for Edinburgh. 227636
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Also: Can someone clarify what they are planning to do to history at Edinburgh. Cutting intellectual history, contemporary history and medieval history looks catastrophic 1104
Reposted by Felicity CallardRobert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 17/09/2026Ben Delo is many things: a crypto billionaire, a Reform mega-donor and a free speech advocate. @oilsheppard.bsky.social and I discovered he's also the landlord of a bankrupt academic after funding her failed libel claim against a Jewish artist who complained of antisemism www.ft.com/content/21aa...ft.comReform UK’s mega-donor backed a friend’s libel claim. Now he controls her homeCrypto billionaire Ben Delo loaned more than £300,000 to former academic Nina Power 811640
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Yet more planned destruction “The biggest casualty by far is the university's School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC), which is losing a total of 48 programmes” 1129
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026"I've been less impressed with what LLMs do with Henry James". Well. [from the entry by the postdoc] www.thedriftmag.com/into-the-fun...thedriftmag.comInto the Funhouse Mirror | Anonymous A.I. ConfessionalFourteen anonymous contributors share how they’re using, not using, or being forced to use A.I. 020
Reposted by Felicity CallardMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 17/09/2026'The University and College Union (UCU)’s Edinburgh branch said staff had been called into “informal meetings at less than 24 hours' notice” and told not to bring union representatives.'heraldscotland.comFear and anger as university set to announce 'massive course and programme closures'Asked to respond, a university spokesperson said that staff and students were recently informed of changes to “our future academic offering across… 911487
Reposted by Felicity CallardAnna Girling @annagirling.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The Centre of African Studies is the only academic institute in Scotland of its kind - with its own budget, space, and leadership - and has produced, and brought to Edinburgh, generations of scholars. The proposal to close ('restructure') it diminishes the university, and Edinburgh, as a whole. 15132
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Anything written by Kaleem Hawa is always very much worth reading 151
Reposted by Felicity CallardPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Got the formal notification of my half-sacking. Apparently congratulations are due! 11518138
Reposted by Felicity CallardPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Quick equalities check: across English, History/Politics/War Studies 6 women have lost their jobs and 0.5 men. 4 men and one woman are safe. English goes from 50:50 (6M, 6F) to 1 woman and 2.5 men. 913159
Reposted by Felicity CallardPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Well, it’s Sacking Day (to the tune of Tannenbaum), when we learn via Teams calls which one of the 4 of us left is to go. That will leave 3 (from 12) to teach English Language, Literature and Creative Writing and supervise 25 PhD students. I’m sure management have thought this through carefully.static.klipy.comThe Simpsons AirhornALT: The Simpsons Airhorn 6922036
Reposted by Felicity CallardDaniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes: 13598709
Reposted by Felicity Callardprofessor tools for commensality (red scare edition) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 14/09/2026(it does feel sort of silly to post about them when i do but) i am always hoping my books will find their readers! my last book thinks about and with the truly monstrous force field of the ports in Los Angeles, interacting with "nature", the ocean, and oil press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...press.uchicago.eduOil BeachCan the stories of bananas, whales, sea birds, and otters teach us to reconsider the seaport as a place of ecological violence, tied to oil, capital, and trade? San Pedro Bay, which contains the co... 3217
Reposted by Felicity CallardChris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 13/09/2026if you’ve ever wondered why historians are very reluctant to talk about how their own experiences / backgrounds relate to their writing, i wrote a book about some who have tried, and how we all can be more self-conscious & analytical about it. i used myself as a case study. it is free to download!taylorfrancis.comThe Politics of Personal Experience | Writing a History of MunchausenHow should a historian with personal experience of their topics write about them? Exploring the author’s own experiences with Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen 14616
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Just look at Jupiter’s posture as he paints those butterflies on that gorgeous greenblue of a painted sky. When or when will there be a Dosso Dossi monographic exhibition somewhere? Has there *ever* been one in London? You can see Jupiter painting butterflies in Wawel Castle in Kraków 010
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Just back from the Małopolskie region of Poland 160
Reposted by Felicity CallardFelicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Sophie Lewis also has the most insightful takes on...Sophie Lewis (as refracted through kin relations). I particularly love this essay www.e-flux.com/journal/111/...e-flux.comWith-Women: Grieving in Capitalist Time - Journal #111Sophie Lewis, nine months after her mother’s death, finds a needed, if only digital, being-with grief in today’s physically distant reality. 154
Reposted by Felicity CallardSophie Lewis @reproutopia.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I was annoyed at the *discourse* and wrote some rapid fire notes on Steinem www.patreon.com/posts/168891...patreon.comEight theses on Gloria Steinem, because goddamn | Sophie LewisI think the phrase we’re looking for is social-democratic anticommunism. She was a metonym of the 20th century, which is currently dying. Sh 59631
Reposted by Felicity Callardstilllife @stilllife0.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Today is official publication day for Cultural Geographies of Love and Catastrophe, edited by @ajsecor.bsky.social @mikkojorge.bsky.social and myself, and published by @edinburghup.bsky.social. You can DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE TEXT FOR FREE via the EUP web page edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-cultura...edinburghuniversitypress.comCultural Geographies of Love and CatastropheCultural Geographies of Love and Catastrophe 1147
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 31/08/2026“which Deleuze travels, and which Deleuze remains difficult to assimilate?” 083
Reposted by Felicity CallardDr Hannah J. Elizabeth @sexhistorian.bsky.social · 26/08/2026We're looking for a fabulous person to join us @strathclydehass.bsky.social on a funded PhD with me & Prof Matt Smith. Are you a historian with an interest in activism who wants to design a cool project on unorthodox health movements in Britain after 1948? Apply! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSR502/p...jobs.ac.ukPhD Studentship: Unorthodox health activism in Britain after 1948 at University of StrathclydeApply for a PhD Studentship: Unorthodox health activism in Britain after 1948. Discover a wide range of PhD opportunities at jobs.ac.uk. 01026
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 27/08/2026As we mark the death of Sliman Mansour, I’m rereading @hamayel.bsky.social’s The Burden Assumed — where Mansour topples Kipling’s model of burden and transforms the work of bearing into stubborn fidelity communispress.com/the-burden-a...communispress.comThe Burden AssumedPalestine is the remainder that refuses to be remaindered. 021
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Still wear the cap I bought 30 years ago in Dollywood, Tennessee in the summer of 1996 on a road trip Baltimore to New Orleans 1170
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026London South Bank University is in the midst of a vicious fire and rehire attack on its workers. The details are here. If in Britain, please ask your MP to sign the early day motion edm.parliament.uk/early-day-mo...edm.parliament.ukLondon South Bank University industrial dispute - Early Day Motions - UK ParliamentThat this House notes with concern the escalating industrial dispute between London South Bank University (LSBU) and University and College Union (UCU) over fire and rehire proposals to terminate the ... 000
Reposted by Felicity CallardNetpol @netpol.org · 17/07/2026Launched on Wednesday, our petition in solidarity with Rajiv Menon KC, the first barrister in British legal history to face contempt proceedings, on 28 July, over a closing speech (for a Palestine Action defendant), has almost 8000 signatories. Help us get to 10K you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...you.38degrees.org.ukSave Britain's JuriesJuries have had the right to acquit based on their conscience for centuries. Now, a barrister is facing jail just for mentioning it in court. Add your name to help save Britain's juries. 01112
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Another extraordinary essay by Abdaljawad Omar @hamayel.bsky.social - on moral stupidity (“These people act morally stupidly…because what they know, if inhabited fully, would cost them their world”) & the “tragic reality” of the Palestinian intellectual’s position www.equator.org/articles/mor...equator.orgGaza and the Problem of Moral Stupidity • EQUATORForty years after Edward Said demanded ‘permission to narrate’, the truth from Palestine has never been more widely known. And yet the annihilation continues. 185
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026I am so incredibly sad to hear that Andrew Lakoff has died. I remember so clearly when I first read his words — in Pharmaceutical Reason, and then when I first heard him speak. My condolences to all who loved him. What an enormous, profound loss. 130
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Vice-Chancellor of University of Bristol (salary £312,251): “I take a really personal view on this. My oldest daughter is the only child in my family who really is making a very significant amount of money.” 35735
Reposted by Felicity CallardElspeth Van Veeren @evanveeren.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...theguardian.comFlorence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education 59142
Reposted by Felicity CallardDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 13/07/2026A few weeks ago, @wellcometrust.bsky.social announced that scholars in the republic of Ireland would no longer be eligible to lead bids to the flagship discovery research scheme. We think this decision is badly flawed, and are asking them to rethink: www.irishhumanities.ie/assets/PDFs/...irishhumanities.ie 33228
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Walking back from glasgow queen street in a daze after multiple hours of #eshs-hss <why is everyone screaming?> boy, about 5 years old, plaintively, confused, holding his mother’s hand <coz England’s getting beat> the voice comes, conveying profound truths from the universe 092
Reposted by Felicity CallardAlex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 15/07/2026The programs now being cut across the sector - e.g. modern languages, anthropology, 'area studies - were funded and promoted as part of the Cold War. Which is a tell that this isn't serious beyond the objective of handing over more of our universities to war profiteers in the armaments industry. 151
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026University of Glasgow - which prides itself on being “world changers together” - is a founding member 1145
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026We are keen to encourage paper/special submissions to History of the Human Sciences @histhum.bsky.social — particularly on topics our journal less frequently addresses. Please get in touch w @sarahvmarks.bsky.social or me; we are happy to discuss in person at Edinburgh conf or afterwards #eshs-hss 074
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Have been to lots of excellent panels at #eshs-hss in Edinburgh. This one on “Beyond Binaries in LGBTQI+ Histories of Sexology: Bi, Trans, Intersex” was particularly rich convention2.allacademic.com/one/hss/hss2...convention2.allacademic.comESHS/HSS Annual Meeting 2026Content is hosted by All Academic Inc, a leading provider of online hosting and software solutions for academic conferences supporting submission, peer review, scheduling, invitaions, volunteers, sche... 040
Reposted by Felicity Callarddr. thrasher, an american writer in ex(archia)(xile) @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 14/07/2026BREAKING: I am suing Northwestern University, a member of congress, two cabinet secretaries and the Attorney General of the United States. I explain why in @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/when-we-figh...lithub.comWhen We Fight, We Win: Why I Am Suing Northwestern University—and the US GovernmentYesterday, I filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University and—in his official capacity as Chairman of the US House of Representatives House Committee on Education and the Workforce—Michigan Cong… 481737583
Reposted by Felicity CallardJoshi Herrmann @joshih.bsky.social · 11/07/2026When @molliesimpson.bsky.social started reporting on the renamed Bolton University two years ago, I had *no idea* it would turn into one of the biggest scandals in the history of UK higher education. Proper, proper reporting of the kind that a functioning society relies upon. 314267
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 11/07/2026Beautiful essay by Isabella Hammad on Gaza, grief, mourning, rubble, monuments. And on Arabic poetry and its recasting of some of the foundational readings/uses of Freud and Klein 0167
Reposted by Felicity CallardQM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 04/07/2026We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Lincoln University, who are once again facing redundancy! We also updated our #UKHE Shrinking list. Check it out to get a full picture of the systematic destruction of the sector: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...qmucu.orgUK HE shrinkinga live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly. 01312
Reposted by Felicity CallardAndrew Defty @adefty.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Yesterday 142 academic staff at the University of Lincoln were put at risk of redundancy including the entire Politics and International Relations team. This follows cuts since 2024 which have already seen over 500 people leave the university. This is the 'University of No Regrets'. 35868
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 03/07/2026The dismantling of UKHE continues. Solidarity with all at University of Lincoln 1112
Reposted by Felicity CallardLiesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 30/06/2026This petition needs as many signatories as the Exeter one. Please sign and share — don’t let Hertfordshire managers get away with this just because a Russell Group one took the spotlight. #UKHE 4105124