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Hannah Theaker

@htheaker.bsky.social
1K followers 565 following 169 posts

Lecturer in History and Politics, University of Plymouth, researching histories of Islam, rebellion and minoritization in China; documenting the contemporary sinicisation of Islam in China

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Hannah Theaker @htheaker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Once again, digital archives are just so very fragile, although this example is particularly idiotic (start-up went bust, taking Heritage England's online archive access with it, all over DRM). I remain convinced that the digital age is making paper archives more important, not less.
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China Law Translate / Jeremy Daum @chinalawtranslate.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I belatedly compiled some of my notes on China's Ethnic Unity Law here. www.chinalawtranslate.com/a-few-notes-...
chinalawtranslate.com
A few notes on the Ethnic Unity Law
This is not an overview of the Ethnic Unity Law, because Articles, like that by NPC Observer, have already done an admirable job of explaining how the law
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Magnus Fiskesjö @magnusfiskesjoe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Latest, on China's settler colonialism in Tibet journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is true of many places - higher education is not only a cultural good, it is a massive driver of economies in otherwise left behind places that politicians and journalists rarely visit. What will happen if/when the financial crisis in HE leads to closures?
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Hannah Theaker @htheaker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I was deep in a start-of-semester migraine when the Edinburgh news came out, but I read with trepidation to discover whether my own undergraduate degree (Chinese and History) was among those cut. Its not - but my sense of sadness at this slashing of choice remains.
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Jan Kooy @kooyjan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“Rather than ending its crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and bringing justice for hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs whose lives have been destroyed, the Chinese government persists in its atrocities and silences critical voices, even abroad.”
hrw.org
China: Decade of Impunity for Crimes Against Uyghurs
The Chinese government’s decade-long severe repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims amounting to crimes against humanity, deserves a stronger response from the international community.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
'A Russell Group university will no longer use ubiquitous anti-cheating tools provided by Turnitin because of concerns that the company might use students’ work to train artificial intelligence.' Maybe time for UK universities to develop and commercialise their own tools?
timeshighereducation.com
Southampton dumps Turnitin over use of students’ work to train AI
Academic integrity giant denies accusations as university declines to renew contract in favour of ‘other options’
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ChinaFile @chinafile.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A Shanghai bookstore was shut down by the Chinese state in 2018. Six years later, it reopened in Washington, D.C. Yangyang Cheng spent months reporting the full, complicated story of Jifeng —
chinafile.com
A World out of Words | ChinaFile
The opening of a bookstore rarely makes international headlines. But when JF Books, known in Chinese as “Jifeng” (seasonal winds), opened its doors in Washington, D.C. on September 1, 2024, the news was covered around the world, from The Washington Post and The Economist, to Der Spiegel in Germany and The Straits Times in Singapore. The stories spoke of repression and rebirth:
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I am hiring a Research Associate to join my team at Scholars at Risk: apply.interfolio.com/191007. Great way to get started in international human rights work, particularly if you have an interest in academic freedom
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
'A prolonged fall in the number of international students applying to study in the UK means “the wheels are rapidly falling off” the student loan-funded higher education system in England, sector experts have warned.' The world's 2nd best university system being killed by malign neglect. 1/3
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
does anyone know of any work that’s been done on career trajectories of (UK humanities) academics who have been made redundant? eg information about how many go into school teaching, early retirement, independent research? appreciate this is complex, sensitive and much data is too recent
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James Leibold @jleibold.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
New in @ForeignAffairs: @tendor and I argue that China’s new ethnic-unity law does not abolish minority autonomy on paper. It does something more insidious: it gives statutory force to assimilation while hollowing autonomy out in practice. www.foreignaffairs.com/china/next-p...?
foreignaffairs.com
The Next Phase of China’s Minority Crackdown
Forced assimilation is now the law.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Congratulations to the government on saving 2700 jobs by nationalising British Steel. Now, about the 18,000 university jobs lost in the last 18 months, with more coming…
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Ignyte Award-Nominated Writer/Editor LP Kindred @lpkindred.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Just a heads up! @khoreo.bsky.social is 5 days from the end of their kickstarter and the mag hasn't funded. L pointed out last month that if we want nice things, we have to communicate that via dollars. Let's retain this important magazine! khōréō Year 6 www.kickstarter.com/projects/kho...
kickstarter.com
khōréō: Year 6
Help us sustain and grow an award-winning magazine of speculative fiction and migration!
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Will Tattersdill @tattersdill.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
If I were the King of Universities (which, heaven forbid), I would place this finding at the exact centre of every single policy decision from teaching to research to estates to capital investment. At every level in every process, the question would be: are we as humane as education demands we be?
Screenshot from a Higher Education Policy Institute report. The key sentence is: "students are used to and want human teaching, human feedback, and human connection."
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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Your morning Must-Read thread, history of the 1st national-level report on AI, in 1973. Remains utterly applicable and just as devastating today.
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
#UKHE! You know how we're told that 'students want less choice' against what we know to be reality & against pedagogical & disciplinary needs? Finally found the Nous report that supposedly backs that up, & it's based on a survey that asks about the *choice of major* nousgroup.com/assets/docs/...
FIGURE 12 UNIVERSITY STUDENT PREFERENCES AROUND OPTIONS TO SELECT MAJOR(S)
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
First they came for the languages. In the hope that no one would have the words to say what was happening. 1/9🧵
bbc.co.uk
University of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed' - review
The University of Aberdeen says it accepts there were "missteps" in its process in 2023.
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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · 02/07/2026
from Chapter 27 of Jin Ping Mei: "There are in this world three sorts of people who fear the heat, and three who do not."
burninghou.se
The Heat
Critical support for Comrade The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling
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Hannah Theaker @htheaker.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
As ever, @davidstroup.bsky.social says things more eloquently than I do. This is a great thread, but I would reiterate that this law simply institutionalises much that was already happening - the removal of non-Chinese education, the criminalisation of everyday ethnic and religious behaviours.
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
🧵: This new law, in keeping with previous ones lines the HK National Security Law, asserts that the PRC can extraterritorialize its jurisdiction over speech and actions related to its national unity. Essentially it’s stating that it can police how people abroad speak about ethnic policy. /1
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
This 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
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Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 26/06/2026
Today I am feeling incandescent rage at the way successive governments have absolutely failed higher education in this country and are basically wilfully refusing to do anything about it even though universities are huge employers and economic drivers of so many cities across the country.
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The National Bureau of Asian Research @nbr.org · 25/06/2026
PODCAST "A Hundred Years of CCP Borderlands Policies": How the notions of borderlands, nation-building, and ethnic policies have been intertwined throughout 100 years of #CCP existence with @rollandnadege.bsky.social, @bennoweiner.bsky.social, Robert Barnett, @jleibold.bsky.social: bit.ly/3QzsUdL
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
'It is hard to overstate the role that higher education needs to play. Three-quarters of people working in the creative industries have degrees, and the jobs the audits suggest will be in greatest demand – software developers, designers, advertising executives, architects – are highly skilled.'
timeshighereducation.com
If the UK’s universities wither, so will its creative industries
By neglecting to adequately fund university teaching, the UK government is undermining its own growth ambitions for the creative sector, say Goldsmiths’ interim vice-chancellor David Oswell and, separ...
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Anise K. Strong @anisekstrong.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The Cheese and the Worms is triumphant as a pioneering book in microhistory and narrative history, but I have also especially loved it for Ginsburg’s willingness to remind us that history is _weird._
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Markus Samuel Haselbeck 趙澤煊 @ciaota.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Today, I came across this work on #ChineseArchitecture. Dating to the Republican period, the 中國建築學講義 contains beautiful illustrations of traditional temples, bridges & palaces. For #MarginaliaMonday check especially all the little sketches and notes! #ChinaBooks #Sinology
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 04/06/2026
this is one of the slogans on the square I think often: "let's see who lives longer" even when all other hopes are exhausted, this is the last hope. individuals are fragile and temporary. the demand for justice and freedom will outlive us all. #June4th
photo from the 1989 protests in China. A banner says: 看谁活得长
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利大英 @gblee.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
#Tiananmen #June4 #China #photography #monochrome Photography Mr Chen, © custodian @gblee.bsky.social "Tsinghua University hunger-strikers" Tiananmen Square, Beijing, May 1989
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Yuen Chan @yuenchan.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
A shortage of translators and interpreters, cull of modern languages at UK universities, cuts to East Asian studies and Chinese specifically at Sheffield Uni ...
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Alison Killing @alisonkilling.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
NEW: Xinjiang has the highest detention capacity in the world, according to FT analysis - enough space for almost 1 in 40 people in the region - more than five years after the Chinese govt announced the camps had closed.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
‘The region currently has capacity to detain around 627,000 people without overcrowding — almost one in 40 of the local population — making it the world’s largest detention system relative to population’ Shocking piece on the treatment of the Uyghurs in China www.ft.com/content/119d...
ft.com
How China is breaking apart a people and its culture
The campaign of repression against the Uyghurs has entered a new phase
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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/05/2026
and a very happy Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May to you all
An illustration of the Glorious Twenty Fifth of May, with a banner saying Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably priced love! And a hard-boiled egg!

the background is a lilac blossom, a hard boiled egg and an ankh-morpork city watch badge
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Turquoise Roof @turquoiseroof.org · 24/05/2026
New by Jarmila Ptáčková & Uddhab Pyakurel: the #China–Nepal frontier has become an increasingly asymmetrical space of control: pandemic-era closures enabled Beijing to tighten border mobility rules, w/ consequences for Himalayan frontier communities journals.openedition.org/ebhr/3675 #surveillance
journals.openedition.org
Hierarchies of cross-border mobility on the Sino–Nepalese border
Introduction More than 5,000 kilometres of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) border passes through the Himalayas, separating the PRC from India, Nepal and Bhutan. Nepal and the Tibetan territo...
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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Reader, it didn’t
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Chris Newfield @cnewf.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
the FT has two pieces on the slow-motion collapse of UK higher ed. 4/5ths of unis are doing voluntary layoffs; 38% are doing compulsory. Meanwhile Britain and its flatlined productivity growth sleepwalks through its unprecedented loss of advanced capabilities www.ft.com/content/8097...
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Dan Tappin @oitappin.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Timid librarian in plea to save my workplace from making a huge mistake. A whole floor of Cardiff University's main library is under threat of being repurposed to teaching facilities with the removal of 7km of shelving holding valuable books. Pls share x you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Save the second floor of Cardiff University's Arts and Social Studies Library (ASSL)
Dear current patrons, past patrons, and future patrons of Arts and Social Sciences Library (ASSL) at Cardiff University. On Friday 17th of May, library staff of the ASSL were informed by University Li...
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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I suspect that within a year or two MPs will increasingly hear from A level students and parents finding that degree courses they want to take have vanished. Those who banked on being able to stay home for cost reasons, especially those living in areas with only one local uni, will be badly hit.
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Hannah Theaker @htheaker.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This was translated by a friend of mine, and I can confirm, you want this book.
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Emily Feng @emilyzfeng.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Absolutely not surprising but a limited leak of a Chinese local surveillance platform drawing off an apparently large national one has a special drop down for tracking for tracking foreign journalists in China… including me. @netaskari.bsky.social found the data open.substack.com/pub/netaskar...
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I don’t know what to tell you, man. I’m a medieval historian, and, in my field, if you don’t check your sources (and your sources’ sources) you are just asking to be taken for a ride by some bored 19th C. aristocratic English antiquarian with a penchant for inventing history.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 19/05/2026
Not that this should be a prerequisite for survival, but I DON’T KNOW GUYS SEEMS LIKE CHINA MIGHT BE IMPORTANT MAYBE WE SHOULD KNOW STUFF ABOUT IT
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
It’s also worth noting while redundancies at Russell Group unis often make headlines, redundancies outside Russell Group often pass without much fanfare. This is not a plight unique to Sheffield and all of our colleagues facing their departments being eliminated or their jobs cut deserve solidarity!
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
My colleagues in East Asian Studies at Sheffield produce world class research and so many of the UK’s leading experts in Asian Studies have gotten MAs or PhDs there. This is an incredibly shortsighted choice that will diminish this country’s knowledge exchange with a vital region of the globe.
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
This is a shocking example of one of the big reasons why, right now, there is no way I’d use AI for any of my historical work. If you don’t look at the documents yourself, and if you don’t know how the AI you’re using was coded, you have no idea what it may be leaving out – or adding in.
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Dr. Holly Walters @manigarm.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?
The reactions of some researchers on Twitter finally being held responsible for not having read the very paper they submitted are... something. Mainly, they don't think they should have to check every citation or make sure the data is real and accurate. Because it's too hard, I guess.
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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.
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