Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I closed my account five years ago & it’s really no problem. Folks, this isn’t good. 👇 073
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldhannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I'm on strike for the next five weeks with @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social because management continues to threaten mass compulsory redundancies. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukEdinburgh University lecturers begin five-week strike over cutsMembers of the University and Colleges Union are walking out in part of a long-running dispute over job and course cuts. 711951
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Och, sad news. What a writer! Who Paid the Piper? redefined the cultural history of the Cold War. Also that mega LRB essay, The Suitcase. RIPtheguardian.comFrances Stonor Saunders obituaryAuthor and documentary-maker best known for her 1999 book about CIA-funded cultural espionage Who Paid the Piper? 151
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldMelissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I grieved for the Internet, I grieved for Social Media, now I grieve for universities, and their communities. This is all part of a mass-dismantling of social connection (and university leaders have been blithe to their part). What does that leave? We all become selfish? Not why I work at a uni… 212534
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldPeter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026‘Yet the emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way.’ This from @trillingual.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk is really worth a read www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...lrb.co.ukDaniel Trilling | Masks OffThe emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way. Radical right-wing... 1114960
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldMarianna Dudley @dudleymarianna.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Huge. Huge testament to the power of organising. Huge relief for Exeter friends and colleagues. Huge waste of time and resources. Huge reputational damage done. Huge warning to universities who want to treat their staff like they don’t matter. 011232
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 28/08/2026“did maliciously dig up turf on the golf course … paint political and offensive slogans on the grass, score a political slogan into the turf… aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection” Scotland, 2026theguardian.comSeven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti 051
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldStars and Stripes @starsandstripes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026A civilian geography professor was fired from West Point for pushing back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change.stripes.comWest Point professor fired after pushing back on limitations to teaching climate change, lawsuit saysAdam Kalkstein pushed back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change, the lawsuit says. 49077463703
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I hope that the Scottish Government can urgently attend to this, despite yesterday's resignation of the minister, Ben Macpherson. Universities and their staff are struggling – this story explains why. 146
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I have a limited appetite for fiscal wonkism, but this seems like a major story about systemic underfunding of universities in Scotland, Wales and NI. Scotland is being penalised for not charging tuition fees.wonkhe.comThe Treasury is bankrupting three nations' universitiesWith funding reviews underway in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Justine Pedussel and Jim Dickinson worry none will examine the hidden accounting rules driving the crisis 0149
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Absolutely mortifying piece – very thought leader-y 392
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Extraordinary that the Scottish Government should be so cavalier with such an important cultural archive. 041
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldEwan Gibbs @ewangibbs.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Just remember this message is aimed at your children not theirs. 191062317
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldJames Kneale @jameskneale.bsky.social · 13/08/2026I've just heard that the BA/BSc Geography programme is to close at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) in Cornwall. This programme was made up of excellent modules with original and content, taught brilliantly—often with real innovation—by extremely 1/9 5172104
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 13/08/2026The story is here is less about university finances than about a management culture that has undisguised contempt for its own staff. 1175
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 12/08/2026<this is fine gif> www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...theguardian.comLive facial recognition cameras to be used on UK’s busiest shopping streetSadiq Khan has indicated the technology will be deployed on London’s Oxford Street despite human rights concerns 001
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldCharlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Heartened to see that my university is ending its contract with Turnitin before the next academic year, because Turnitin is going to use student submissions to train AI models. Institutions can and should resist this stuff! 251639391
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 05/08/2026This is good to see! There are so many sites across the city with Douglass associations, at the moment unmarked. 062
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Frederick Douglass spent about six months in Edinburgh and we have no blue plaques, indeed very modest official commemoration of any kind. Let's change this. 5232
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 04/08/2026My trusty 3M Peltors are now held together with duct tape but wow was I glad of them for The Odyssey. 060
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldMichael Barany @mbarany.com · 28/07/2026back when our uni was doing "curriculum transformation" instead of "spending restraint" I tried to tell anyone who was asking for input that the biggest proven gold standard higher ed intervention we were missing and should invest in was foundation writing courses plus writing centre 1369
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 26/06/2026A measured and sensible response from Jon Moses to those who object to ‘Scottish style’ responsible access south of the border. 1135
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 22/06/2026He didn’t even pay for his own spectacles … he only ever saw the world through the lenses of a plutocrat. 193
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 16/06/2026I don't think any university teacher is ready for the next academic year. It's a crisis without precedent. 0101
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 11/06/2026‘There needs to be a co-ordinated strategy that tackles not only acts of violence but also the narratives that make them possible.’ Essential reading from Luqman Saeed in Belfast. 041
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldJames Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 02/06/2026The rapid erosion of the mainstream political taboo on Powellism and Mosleyism (etc) is one of the most striking and alarming features of the present moment. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... 23514
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 27/05/2026One of the oddest things about Tony Blair is that he has turned into the cartoon image drawn by Steve Bell since the 1990s. It’s spooky.theguardian.comTony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to TrumpIn highly unusual intervention, ex-PM says his party’s ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’ makes it likely to lose next election 480
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 26/05/2026‘The task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist – rather than, as at present, the other way round’. Essential context for Britain’s university crisis.lrb.co.ukStefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the UniversitiesThe problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and... 093
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 25/05/2026Acrid smoke now in East Edinburgh. WHO recommend a PM 2.5 limit of 5 µg/m3, tonight it’s over 82. 2123
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 25/05/2026That’s Arthur’s Seat ablaze again. 2026 bushfire season starting in May not August. 27733
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 25/05/2026"wild swimming ... causes issues with private ownership" is genuinely a sentence written by the national park authority for Kinder Scout, the locus classicus of public access protest in England 0355
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 23/05/2026First time I've seen a Cinnamon Bug (Corizus hyoscyami), seems unusual for Scotland but seems to be spreading north. Striking colour against spinach. 291
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 20/05/2026The late Ian Jack would have had a cracking column out of this story. 0181
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 20/05/2026I’d love to hear how other academic colleagues are managing written assessment in light of AI. (but please not “I let them use it but ask that they reflect on their use of it”) 3104
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 20/05/2026I teach both academic writing and creative writing to geographers and this has been the most dispiriting semester of my career, for many of the reasons below. 3257
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 17/05/2026I witnessed this from the public gallery. The weight and pain in the Assembly Hall were palpable. Moving responses from Jamaican, Nigerian and Ghanaian churches. 16224
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 15/05/2026The situation at the University of Edinburgh is so grim right now. To deduct 100% salary for a marking boycott … is a likely illegal move from management. 56032
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 13/05/2026At the height of George Osborne’s austerity, we used to joke that keeping your job is the new pay rise. Under this Government, it is literally true. 0110
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldadam searle @admsrl.bsky.social · 12/05/2026I could not be angrier or more heartbroken today as thousands of staff at the University of Nottingham receive official communication that they’re up for redundancy. But I also could not be prouder of my inspiring colleagues who refuse to simply accept this as inevitable. We will fight for our jobs! 6349
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 10/05/2026I went to check in on Gulliver’s foot and ankle this afternoon – one of the most interesting listed ruins in Edinburgh. c20society.org.uk/news/remnant... 39227
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 09/05/2026One of their MSPs is a Tommy Robinson supporter who wants to deport all Muslims. Project hate and expect a welcome? Naw, man, being hateful is lonely. 040
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 08/05/2026Pleased about this, not least because she made the case for prison reform which is electorally unpopular but principled yet @katenevens.bsky.social held firm. 0150
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 07/05/2026Really perceptive piece that no-one in power will want to read. 065
Reposted by Fraser MacDonaldhannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 05/05/2026I'm Lead Judge of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, awarded at University of Edinburgh since 1919 and due to be announced this month. But the university is currently withholding 100% of my pay for participating in a marking and assessment boycott. So, at present, there will be no prize. 1216261
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 30/04/2026My day started with the song of my first whitethroat, and it ended with this requiem for a palm tree. Wonderful. 0110
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 29/04/2026Truly one of the easiest and most delicious things to grow, taste is incomparable from supermarket versions, 10/10 radish win 050
Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 28/04/2026honestly, what a choob but credit to Ross Greer for rapid-fire moral clarity 1140
