iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Reading the news and rereading this 🧵 - If only there were a discipline that focused on the causes of overlapping environmental crisis, the dangers of environmental and other socially discriminating determinisms, and the importance of grappling with social and environmental complexity together.

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FND Portal @fndportal.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

This a remarkably good explainer on what we know about FND and the struggles many people face in trying to get treatment

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Prof Richard Betts @richardabetts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Nope, it’s the weeks of hot, dry weather made more severe by global heating due to fossil fuel burning that has increased the risk of wildfires. The landscape is so dry that any ignition can start a fire that becomes uncontrollable. Fields of crops and grasses are not “rewilded” but have burned

Front page of the Daily Mail newspaper “eclipse special” with headline “Rewilding link to record fires”, beneath a photograph of people watching the near-total eclipse of the sun with the title “Britain finally gets a break from the sun (for a few minutes!)”

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James Kneale @jameskneale.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I'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

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Nick Holmes @thehandlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Should UKRI use 'AI' to triage and assess your #research #grant applications? Tell them here 👇

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Janine Gibson @janinegibson.ft.com · 12/06/2026

Here is a gift link to Simon Schama's appreciation of David Hockney's life and art which we ran last year. It's an amazing piece and contains, as you might imagine, some spectacular pictures including an absolute corker of Hackney with Lucian Freud as.ft.com/r/f1473f70-0...

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Jon Agar @jonagar.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Please help spread the news far and wide! We have a new, full-time, permanent Lecturer in Global History of Science job @stsucl.bsky.social Don't be fooled by the application of deadline of only 9 June 2026. This is an open search #histsci #skystorians www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

ucl.ac.uk

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

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Soph Warnes @thatsoph.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I was annoyed that I couldn't find a database of David Attenborough documentaries where I could search for a specific episode by topic. So I made it. attenborough-100.vercel.app

attenborough-100.vercel.app

Attenborough at 100 — A Nature Documentary Archive

Explore nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 series — from Zoo Quest in 1954 to Secret Garden in 2026. Search by animal, habitat, location, or theme.

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Katie Parker @kparkerhistorian.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

How are bodies charted, and how might maps chart bodily experience? Steph Morris asks this question at their new exhibition, Skin Maps: semi-permeable cartography, held from 12 June to 16 Aug at the Director's Gallery @rgs.org. Steph was inspired by maps and atlases in the RGS Collections. 🗃️

rgs.org

Skin maps: semi-permeable cartography | Exhibition

A new exhibition of collages and reworkings of historic maps from the RGS and other archives by Steph Morris.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

The Government Chief Scientific Adviser will have a year focusing on the theme of ‘Trustworthy Information’. Great role in her office for a social scientist to provide support on this crucial topic and on other projects (£33k - £40k) www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...

Social Science
Adviser
Government Office for Science
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 13th
April 2026
Government
Office for Science

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Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Exeter’s got a two-year teaching stint for someone into philosophy of data and related - the job’s pretty plush as far as non-permanent ones go - and Exeter is an amazing place to do this kind of philosophy - please pass around! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQZ094/l... #philsci

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Lecturer in Philosophy or Sociology of Data and Artificial Intelligence at University of Exeter

Apply for the Lecturer in Philosophy or Sociology of Data and Artificial Intelligence role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

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Eva Haifa Giraud @evahaifa.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

A rare thing: *four* three-year hums/soc-sci posts in animal studies, on the Multispecies Mutualisms project at UoSheffield - with @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social, me, Robert McKay and Alasdair Cochrane; see here for a video explainer: digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Multis...

digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk

Multispecies Mutualisms - Join Our Research Team!

We’re hiring 4 Postdoctoral Research Associates (PDRAs) In this video, members of the team share insights into four exciting PDRA opportunities currently available. If you are ready to take the next s...

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Jenny Pickerill @jennypickerill.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Our new piece out today in Times Higher Education about the threats to Geography in the UK - particularly fieldwork - please do share. It links to a recent snapshot survey on the challenges being faced in UK HE, which highlights the inequities of the challenges, but also fears of what is yet to come

timeshighereducation.com

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings

From climate change to geopolitics, the knowledge, skills and insights of geographers have never been more relevant, say five professors

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FND Portal @fndportal.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Bumping this story again cuz it’s good magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/fun...

magazine.hms.harvard.edu

Functional Neurological Disorder, Reframed

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Rebecca Wynter @rebeccawynter.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.

theguardian.com

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

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George Holmes @georgeholmes.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

This is the latest salvo in what I'm calling The Great British Herpetological Hoo-Hah - disagreements on what amphibians and reptiles should be 're'-introduced to Britain, where, and how. Lots of fascinating details. Worthy of a PhD study or a 4-part BBC1 drama www.arc-trust.org/lost-frogs-r...

arc-trust.org

Lost Frogs report: comment from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust

This note summarises ARC’s views on “Investigating the Status of Britain’s Lost Frogs: Prospects for Rewilding” (Tweats, 2026), hereafter referred to as the “Lost Frogs report”. ARC was pleased to be ...

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Angela Cassidy @angecass.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

While these scholarships won't cover full costs of MA study, they will make things a fair bit easier, in turn creating critical access routes into PGR and academia, on an absolutely cracking course. Please share widely! #HEaccess #sustainability #envpol #foodstudies

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Quick science policy thread 1 Changes in the governance of UK science since the mid 1980s make it extremely hard to be strategic (that was the point), in terms of both process (dropped) and capability (hollowed out).

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The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Claire Jeantils, Rong Huang, and Benjamin Dalton unravel the stories behind the International Narrative Neurology Network (INNN), a cross-sectoral network that investigates Narrative Neurology from a practical and theoretical perspective. thepolyphony.org/2026/01/29/i...

thepolyphony.org

Hearing the Neuro-Voice in the International Narrative Neurology Network (INNN)

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Pics from local Devon news today in the aftermath of the wind. Heavy rain still coming down and the weather warning now extends into Wednesday. Left: Matt Gilley, centre: Richard Heiron.

Train tracks running next to the sea wall at Dawlish. The sea looks choppy, and a large part of the wall has fallen down onto the tracks. About 10 men, head to toe in orange high vis gear are standing around looking at the wall.

Huge waves crash into the sea wall at Dawlish, south Devon coast.

A car attempts to drive through sand that has blown across the road at Exmouth.

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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Please circulate. Our deadline for our ECR Prize at @histhum.bsky.social is approaching (30 January 2026)

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Very interesting piece from @anastasiabekt.bsky.social responding to @geoffmulgan.bsky.social's challenge that we need an Aria for social science anastasiabekt.substack.com/p/an-aria-gr...

anastasiabekt.substack.com

An ARIA-grade agenda for social science

The missing R&D pipeline for building and scaling social science solutions

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The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · 06/01/2026

FUNDING CALL: Undisciplining Seminar Series 2026 The Sociological Review Foundation is inviting proposals for in-person, hybrid or online seminars that explore the transformative potential of sociological thinking. Theme: Who & what is sociology for? Deadline to apply: 31 January buff.ly/VOwOmYt

FUNDING CALL

Apply to be part of the Sociological Review Foundation’s
UNDISCIPLINING SEMINAR SERIES
of in-person, online or hybrid events
Theme for 2026: Who and what is sociology for?

Deadline: 31 January

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NC3Rs @nc3rs.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

2026 is continuing where 2025 left off with a focus on alternatives to animal use in research and testing. Today the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology published a POSTnote on this topic highlighting the opportunities and challenges: post.parliament.uk/research-bri...

post.parliament.uk

Technology alternatives to animals in life sciences research

How is the UK replacing animal testing with technology alternatives? What are the opportunities, risks and barriers?

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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

This is such an important paper by @gailfdavies.bsky.social on how functional neurological symptoms are produced. I hope it is very widely read by clinicians, clinical researchers, and medical humanities researchers — as well as geographers

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Happy New Year’s Eve from a frost Dartmoor

Photo of a moorland landscape with track in the foreground and trees on the horizon. The shadows and frost on the track form stripes of white, green and grey

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Tim Nicholson @timnicholson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Such a superb, insightful & brave paper from @gailfdavies.bsky.social who so eloquently captures and describes what many of us have noticed about the evolution of symptoms as a result of patients’ interactions with the medical system👏👏💪🏻💪🏻 Straight into my top 10 of best papers ever on FND👌👌

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

New paper outlining a spatial account of #FND and proposing an approach to the co-production of functional symptoms. It draws on my longstanding work on geographies of health knowledges, my recent health experiences, and emerging interdisciplinary conversations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Screenshot of the front page of an article published in the journal Social and Cultural Geography called Remapping the body: an autoethnography of pain, paraesthesia, and the co-production of functional neurological symptoms

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Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) @rgs.org · 04/12/2025

📣Join the States of Precarity team for the launch of the States of Precarity in UK Higher Education Geography report. 📅 Wednesday 14 January 🎦 Online 👉 Sign up to attend: bit.ly/4rvQgP2 Check out the report before the launch: bit.ly/44HTUvg

Small blue house perched precariously on the edge of a concrete structure against a cloudy sky.

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NC3Rs @nc3rs.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Our Chief Executive Vicky Robinson appears in @resprofnews.bsky.social today, in an opinion piece focusing on the UK government's ambitious strategy to replace the use of animals in research and testing: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v....

researchprofessionalnews.com

UK’s plan to reduce animal experiments is strong - Research Professional News

Government strategy reflects recent progress and sets a path to the future, says Vicky Robinson

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Social & Cultural Geography @scgrg.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Upcoming Event: Social and Cultural Geography beyond the Academy – Opportunities in Policy and Practice Friday 28 November, 11.00-12.30, ONLINE (UK) This event joins academic and non-academic geographers to discuss their transition from the academy into the world beyond Further info: scgrg.co.uk

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Prof. Bethan Evans @drbevans.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

This is on Monday. Do join us if you can and are interested in more inclusive academic workplaces

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Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Tom Harper, Nick Dykes, & Magdalena Peszko, Secret Maps: Maps You Were Never Meant to See, from the Middle Ages to Today @uchicagopress.bsky.social, November 2025 press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... Secret Maps exhibition @britishlibrary.bsky.social until 18 January 2026 events.bl.uk/exhibitions/...

press.uchicago.edu

Secret Maps

An illustrated story of the relationship between mapping and secrecy, charting the role maps played in concealing and revealing knowledge across centuries. Is there anything more intriguing than a sec...

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Heike Drotbohm @heikedrotbohm.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

This SI places plant and multispecies studies in dialogue with anthropological debates on emplacement, displacement, mobilities and migration. Highly recommend!

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Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social! Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30% www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...

uncpress.org

Globalizing Wildlife

Humans have always incorporated wildlife into processes of work, capture, and exchange. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, globalization became t...

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Geo: Geography and Environment @geoopenaccess.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

New in Geo: 'Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality' by Farhana Sultana This paper critically examines the intersections of power, pedagogy and praxis in producing inequitable climate knowledge, global governance, policies and solutions. doi.org/10.1002/geo2...

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Farhana Sultana (2025) entitled: 'Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality' with an orange banner at the top.

Climate change intensifies existing inequities, disproportionately impacting marginalised populations, particularly in the Global South and Indigenous communities. This is maintained through inequitable global climate governance, policies and solutions. The paper argues that climate coloniality, the complex entanglements of colonial legacies with contemporary climate and ecological changes, operates through systemic knowledge-based marginalisation or epistemic injustice, serving as a key mechanism in the uneven production and distribution of climate harms. Beyond the more commonly discussed material dimensions of loss and damage, epistemic injustices arise from silencing critical voices and devaluing knowledge systems. The paper extends the scope of loss and damage debates by drawing attention to epistemic losses: the erasure of worldviews, ontologies and practices that are vital for just and sustainable climate futures. It critically examines the intersections of power, pedagogy and praxis in (re)producing epistemic injustices, while simultaneously revealing counter-narratives of refusal, resurgence and relationality. By engaging Indigenous and Global South scholarship, the paper underscores the need to decolonise knowledge systems that reproduce dominant climate narratives and heed the epistemological alternatives offered by land- and kinship-based knowledge systems. Advancing climate justice depends on confronting epistemic injustice as both a form of loss and a condition of possibility: centring Global South and Indigenous perspectives is essential for cultivating pluriversal, decolonial and just climate frameworks and futures.

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Metascience @metasciencejournal.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

"Lab Dog is a landmark study. Brad Bolman’s history of what might seem a niche subject is, in fact, an original and illuminating exploration of key aspects of the biological and biomedical sciences in the twentieth century." Read Michael Worboys' review here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Alison Laurence @dinostalgia.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

A call for 🦕🦖🦣 contributors! With Victor Monnin, I'm editing a collection about extinct animal parks—it's a field guide, of sorts, that turns a critical eye on places real, imagined, and yet to be. Find the full CFP for LANDS OF THE LOST here: tinyurl.com/dinoparks #PaleoSky #HistSci #EnvHist #STS

A promotional image for an edited collection called "Lands of the Lost: A Field Guide to Dinosaur Parks Physical, Fictional, and for the Future." The collection editors Dr. Victor Monnin & Dr. Alison Laurence are putting out a call for contributions. Abstracts are due January 10, 2026 to dinoparkfieldguide@gmail.com. Find the full call at: https://tinyurl.com/dinoparks

The background image is of the outdated-but-adored Iguanodon models at Crystal Palace Park.

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University of Exeter Archaeology and History Department @uoearchhist.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Join us at the *free* FUTURES Festival (11–12 Oct Exeter) for inspiring events celebrating history, archaeology, science & culture! With @lsangha.bsky.social and Chris Hoban live music based on stories from 16-18th century wills🎵 and Laura Evis in the SHArD 3D Lab news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

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Yoshinari Yoshida @yoshinariyoshida.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

3 year PhD position at U of Copenhagen for a philosophical analysis of animal models in translational neuroscience. Those with MA in HPS, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, STS, etc. are welcome to apply. Application deadline is Oct 31 #HPS #STS employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

employment.ku.dk

PhD Project in Philosophy of Science: Philosophical Perspectives on Animal Models in Translational Neuroscience

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

On my way to Oxford to chat about the new project led by Beth Greenhough and colleagues on #PPI and #AnimalResearch. Will be sharing relevant insights from our 2022 report web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/animalresear... This fantastic summary of issues and resources was put together by Gabrielle King

web-archive.southampton.ac.uk

Research Involvement resources

The Animal Research Nexus team at the University of Exeter have developed a range of resources to help understand and support involvement with research for when conversations include animal research. ...

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Some (no doubt annoyingly) glass-half-full reflections on REF2029 pause, for academic and PS staff involved in HEI submission(s). If, like me, you're having to deal with the hiatus in the known unknowns, what's a viable approach to take? Some very preliminary thoughts. 1/7

On the left, a wine glass half full (or is it half empty) with a red liquid; on the right, a bottle half full/half empty with the same red liquid. Because let's be frank, REF2029 is driving some to drink.

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

So many untold stories of women's innovation in electronic music still to be brought to light, including this key figure who developed Casio backing tracks that enabled a revolution in reggae. Great profile!

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/08/2025

5. Today I read a paper by @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social and Alexander Mussgnug that I think illustrates this point perfectly. philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24891/1/Phil...

Convenience AI
Sabina Leonelli & Alexander Martin Mussgnug12
Abstract: This paper considers the mundane ways in which AI is being incorporated into scientific
practice today, and particularly the extent to which AI is used to automate tasks perceived to be
boring, “mere routine” and inconvenient to researchers. We label such uses as instances of
“Convenience AI” — that is situations where AI is applied with the primary intention to increase
speed and minimize human effort. We outline how attributions of convenience to AI applications
involve three key characteristics: (i) an emphasis on speed and ease of action, (ii) a comparative
element, as well as (iii) a subject-dependent and subjective quality. Using examples from medical
science and development economics, we highlight epistemic benefits, complications, and drawbacks
of Convenience AI along these three dimensions. While the pursuit of convenience through AI can
save precious time and resources as well as give rise to novel forms of inquiry, our analysis
underscores how the uncritical adoption of Convenience AI for the sake of shortcutting human labour
may also weaken the evidential foundations of science and generate inertia in how research is
planned, set-up and conducted, with potentially damaging implications for the knowledge being
produced. Critically, we argue that the consistent association of Convenience AI with the goals of
productivity, efficiency, and ease, as often promoted also by companies targeting the research market
for AI applications, can lower critical scrutiny of research processes and shift focus away from
appreciating their broader epistemic and social implications.

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Daniel Fountain @danielfountain.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

My University has opened a virtual scholar scheme for scholars from Gaza. Please share widely and help stop scholasticide. www.exeter.ac.uk/faculties/ha...

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Our chapter on ‘Fabricating mice and dementia: opening up relations in multi-species research’ is now OA. @richgorman.bsky.social, Richard Milne and I explore the ways patient data, animal models and plaque concepts are woven together in making dementia www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK615...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Fabricating mice and dementia: opening up relations in multi-species research

This chapter was written during a moment of flux in the unravelling of the plaques, tangles, and tales that characterise over thirty years of research for treatments of dementia involving humans and a...

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

This year’s academic marking season is coming to a close. Assignments used to sing in different voices: some in clarity, originality, creativity, some chaos. Gen AI has layered on an ‘academic autotune’ removing many enjoyable aspects of engaging with authentic student work. #highered #AI #marking

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

PhD studentship at Geography Exeter and Penryn assessing activities, outputs, outcomes and impact of the Isles of Scilly Community Research Network (CRN). Deadline: 25 June 2025. More details: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

exeter.ac.uk

Award details | Funding and scholarships for students | University of Exeter

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Gail Davies @gailfdavies.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Wonderful to spend the day with colleagues in Geography @exeter.ac.uk mapping the complex ways open science intersects with our research across the discipline. We covered experiences of preregistration, open databases, archiving, IP, legal challenges, and more, with more conversations to come 👐

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