iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful.

Review process

As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking.

This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it.

Feedback on your application

Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is full of absolute bangers and I think a must-read for educators: great in its accessible explanation of the mechanics underlying LLMs & at rearticulating why we write (““Writing tasks are designed not primarily to produce text but to produce /change in the writer/.”). And more!

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Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Shocking news about redundancies in the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire, despite their exceptional research activities. I have signed the petition against these actions: it would be great if you would as well: c.org/kDQynZV7J4 @bbkhistorical.bsky.social @bisa-bkk.bsky.social

c.org

Sign the Petition

Save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Every staff update in every university right now: 1. We are excited to announce a strategic investment of eleventeen squillion pounds in ACRONYM, a new AI-powered centre for the development of strategic acronyms. 2. Staff have until Friday to apply for enhanced Voluntary Death.

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Onni Gust @onnigust.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

And it just gets worse: it looks like there will be no modern language provision at all. No music, no languages. Can a silent university call itself a university at all? Help us resist! Please contribute to @uonucu.bsky.social hardship fund if you can: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

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UCU Essex @ucuessex.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

SMT promised that our pay uplift would come in February, but it didn't. We asked them why, and they responded - a full 17 days after payday! - that they were deferring it again. A clear breach of UCEA's requirement to consult trade unions *in advance* about any deferrals.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Beautiful day for a picket with #UCU members in the Centre for Academic Language and Development, 45 of whom have been put at risk of compulsory redundancy. This is the first of TWENTY ONE days of strike action voted for by these members.

A UCU picket line in front of a glass fronted building. People are standing and talking to one another, holding placards reading ’No Compulsory Redundancies’.

A more oblique camera angle showing the same UCU picket line in front of a glass fronted building. People are standing and talking to one another, holding placards reading ’No Compulsory Redundancies’.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Bristol Common Press is ready to peddle at the @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference. We are printing two issues of the Bristol Mercury, the conference’s very own newspaper, and delegates can get involved by having a go at printing issues & submitting notices for inclusion in issue 2. Come find us!

A table containing various items printed at bristol common press for sale.

A picture of The Bristol Mercury, a single sheet newspaper printed at bristol common press

Two printed items, The Prayer of Jonas and an early modern ‘indulgence’ in Latin

Two posters with the text ‘Book history for printers, printing for book historians: Bristol Common Press’

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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

My piece for History Workshop looks back at what feels, I'm sure to me and so many other academics in the UK, like a decade-long crisis in universities. A crisis of politics, of a particularly venomous form of "education as market" ideology, and now a crisis of desperate, annihilating job cuts. 1/2

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

If you’re attending the @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference in Bristol this summer (or thinking about it), please consider signing up to our (not-really-a-)seminar, ‘Mechanick Exercises in the History of the Book’. You can find a description and sign up link here: www.rensoc.org.uk/rensoc25-sem... 1/3

rensoc.org.uk

#RenSoc25 Seminar Descriptors – Society for Renaissance Studies

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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Don’t forget to sign up for these exciting seminars! Deadline 22 January #RenSoc25 #EarlyModern #Skystorians

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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

So this is very exciting! We have 16 places on our AHRC-funded Print Matters Summer School. There is no course fee, and applicants get 4 nights B&B accommodation and a travel bursary of up to £100. The Summer School is open to all disciplines and career stages. www.thinicepress.org/events/print...

thinicepress.org

Print Matters summer school: Thin Ice Press — Thin Ice Press

What does it mean to think about matter and materiality through the medium of letterpress printing?  We invite scholars of matter, materiality and/or material culture (broadly conceived) in any ...

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Am starting to wonder if some members of UCU HEC are in the pay of Civica Election Services.

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Adam Crymble @adamcrymble.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

18th century historians: if you have an article nearing completion that you'd like a round of detailed feedback on in a friendly London setting, consider applying to join our '4* Society' on 19 February. Funding available to cover childcare, travel, and free lunch adamcrymble.org/cfp-18th-cen...

adamcrymble.org

CFP: 18th century British history papers in need of feedback – Adam Crymble

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

#C18 Given fact I spent much of autumn writing about Swift’s /Lady’s Dressing Room/ and Montagu’s response (‘The Reason’s that Induc’d Dr Swift…’ &c.), I might include them in my unit The Author as Character, because Montagu’s response weaponises the authorial fallacy: Swift = Strephon, etc. 1/2

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Watch out, it’s another handbook: global.oup.com/academic/pro... Come for essays by the luminaries of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century studies, be momentarily distracted by me arguing that ‘Bites and Shams’ are a bit like surprise parties.

global.oup.com

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

A good couple of days work in the print shop at the end of this week.

Printed sheets in octavo format hung up to dry in a print shop. 4 sheets are cisible, the camera focussed on the ornamental title page in the background. The title, ‘four sheets to the wind,’ is legible, and there is a linocut engraving of a pile of books beneath it.

Another view of a printed sheet, with a second typeset title page visible. A wooden replica eighteenth-century common press is in the background.

The camera focusses on a sheet hanging on a line, visible between the blurred edges of two sheets hanging on a dofferent line in the foreground. 6 of the 8 octavo pages are partially visible.

A printed sheet in octavo format still attached to the tympan of a replica eighteenth-century common press

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

They’ve put a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in on a trial basis near where I live. It took a few weeks for me to realise that I should probably cycle through it, given fact that it is parallel to the first bit of my normal cycle commute, which was now a bit fuller of angrier-than-usual motorists 1/2

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

On the plus side yesterday I think I cracked paper dampening and inking levels. On the other hand, now the end matter of the book looks nicer than the main text!

Half a sheet of letterpress-printed text is in the foreground, top right. It’s hanging from a drying line in front of a replica eighteenth-century wooden printing press, which is out of focus. On the side of the sheet visible there is the front and reverse of a ‘colophon,’ the text of which is set in an inverse triangle in an attempt to mimic the colophons of early Italian printed books.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

The dog just sniffed the baby and started crying and we were all ‘oh no that must be a really bad nappy’ but it turned out he just had two crusts of bread inside his baby grow.

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BSECS @bsecs.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

You have until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT to apply for one of our bursaries. Details below. HURRY HURRY HURRY! #18thC 🗃️ #skystorians #history

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DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social @drdeclankavanagh.bsky.social · 25/04/2024

🔔 Please share widely! A call for contributions for an edited collection _Reading the Queer Eighteenth Century_ which will be published by De Gruyter in early 2026. Submit a proposal or pass on to interested scholars! #Skystorians #18C #Queer #Disability #Ecocriticism #trans #transnational

Call for proposals:
Reading the Queer Eighteenth Century: Historiography, Epistemology, and Embodiment
Edited by Declan Kavanagh, University of Kent, U.K.
Reading the Queer Eighteenth Century presents essays, which explore queerness broadly conceived in the
anglophone long eighteenth century.
Contributors offer the latest overview of key debates in queer eighteenth-century studies by zoning in on
current trends in queer historiography, multi-scalar queer epistemologies, intersections between queerness
and class, race, indigeneity, as well as engaging in questions of queer pedagogical practice and future
directions for the field. A connective theme of the collection will be the question of ‘presentism’ in queer
engagements with the long eighteenth century period. Essays will explore trans, bi, queer, gay, lesbian and
other approaches to eighteenth-century materials whilst also showcasing the period’s ramifications for
present day debates in LGBTQIA+ studies.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

We’re lucky to have some splendid linocuts by our collaborator Victoria Barton of Press Genepy (www.instagram.com/press.genepy). This is Benjamin Franklin showing off by carrying formes of locked up type in each hand, instead of one at a time like the British Weaklings he worked with

A linocut showing Benjamin Franklin holding a locked up forme of metal type in each hand

A picture of the printed sheet in which the linocut appears, showing the top half of the linocut and half of a page of text.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Our dog Judy x Francis Bacon. Photo credit: our excellent dogsitter, Liv.

A photo of a Vizsla x Cocker Spaniel called Judy, rolling on the floor on some grass next to a stick which she has presumably chewed into oblivion, at a velocity sufficient to mKe her blurred.

More high speed rolling: Judy strikes a different posture, her head thrust at right angles to her front paws.

The rolling continues, in this one she os on her back and her tail is sticking straight up: it’s also blurred.

This one is so blurred it looks like a gen-AI image gone wrong, and a little bit like her head has been drastically shrunk, which was thankfully not the case.

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

We at Bristol Common Press (www.instagram.com/bristolcommonpress) are making a book with some friends. Here are some proofs of the title page. My question to you is: should we have the horizontal rule at the top as well as the middle, or just one?

A proof of a title page for a book-in-progress called ‘Four Sheets to the Wind’. It’s in an eighteenth-century style (or is attempting to be!). This version has no rule at the top.

This version has a rule at the top of the page.

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Dr. Emily Friedman @ecfriedman.com · 10/11/2024

For those who are new, clearsky.app will show you what lists (including starter packs) you have been added to in case you’re wondering. Note: it also displays anyone blocking you, which I strongly encourage you to ignore as a general rule (all of us use socials differently, especially right now)

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Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 28/10/2024

i want to create a starter pack of ECRs and grad students in humanities fields (all above terms broadly understood). if that’s you, and you’re into it, like this skeet and i’ll include you. if that’s not you, please reskeet (and do not like), so we can collect accounts we could be following!

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 29/10/2024

"It is not merely that we have been here before: we have seldom been anywhere else."

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

12-month MHRA postdoc working on digital edition of the letters of Hannah More at Bristol: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find-in...

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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

im sure at this point this isn’t a novel observation, nor limited to universities, but it is striking that the generative models being marketed as ‘labour-saving’ technology are proving to be the opposite. generated text is creating a huge amount of work and strife for publishers, markers etc

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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 26/09/2024

All these proposals and op-eds about saving higher education in the UK floating around and not one of them, not one, has given *any* thought to the likely distribution of the money being pleaded for if it just 'follows the student' and then they go to fewer universities. Elephant in the room.

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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 21/09/2024

if you’re interested you’re welcome to hear me and deanna koretsky talk about the bonkers novella “the black vampyre” (1819) this thursday at noon on zoom you can register at odsecs.org/future-semin... and access the novella at jto.americanantiquarian.org/wp-content/u...

odsecs.org

Future seminars — Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 13/09/2024

#ucu I don’t understand the staging of UCEA pay offer. Why pay a flat £75 then have to make up the difference next March, given budgets are annual and financial years run from 1 Aug? Or are they saying they will pay £75 p/m and only raise that increase to 2.5% from March? 1/2

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ODSECS @odsecs.bsky.social · 11/09/2024

#c18 I am being told our speakers will be appearing in costume. events.humanitix.com/odsecs-36-de...

events.humanitix.com

ODSECS 36: Deanna Koretsky & Manu Chander | Humanitix

ODSECS 36: Deanna Koretsky & Manu Chander

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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 10/09/2024

get to talk to deanna koretsky about romanticism, race, and vampires

odsecs.org

Future seminars — Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies

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Elaine McGirr @emmcgirr.bsky.social · 01/03/2024

Ever wanted to know how to solve a problem like Calista? Wondered how Lothario became a household name? You can find out *FOR FREE* by downloading and reading my new book. #18thc 🎭🗃️ Free Open Access from today through 15 March! Don't miss out!! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

cambridge.org

A Performance History of The Fair Penitent

Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - A Performance History of The Fair Penitent

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/01/2024

I wrote something: “Male Historians Explain Things To Me: masculinity, expertise and the academy”. With a huge debt to Rebecca Solnit, Sara Ahmed, Siri Hustvedt, Professor Lucy Robinson and many other feminists before me. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

manchesterhive.com

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 09/11/2023

My band continues to reject the bourgeois concepts of ‘lead singer’, ‘musical and thematic coherence’ and ‘doing gigs’. Third EP:

open.spotify.com

Asterisk

Autocorrect · Single · 2023 · 3 songs.

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The Rambling @therambling.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

Jason Pearl meditates on Samuel Johnson's memorable claim that "much happiness is gained, and...much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body." #18thc #c18th #c18

the-rambling.com

Tropical Landscape with Skaters - The Rambling

Jason Pearl writes a personal essay about being a professor of eighteenth-century British literature who also happens to play ice hockey in Miami, FL.

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ODSECS @odsecs.bsky.social · 01/10/2023

October is here, so get ready for Ian Calvert covering Alexander Pope as translator for our first #18thc seminar this autumn in just a few weeks: 19 Oct @ 11am EDT/4pm BST. Free registration for the zoom below, #bookhistory 🗃️ folks please join us, spread the word.

eventbrite.co.uk

ODSECS 30: Dr Ian Calvert

Intervening in Pope's Homer

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John McTague @johnjoemctague.bsky.social · 06/10/2023

Marking ten years teaching at Bristol by discovering at 1040 that my eleven o’ clock lecture was actually a ten o’ clock lecture in a cunning disguise.

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