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Matt Charles

@mattcharles.bsky.social
173 followers 299 following 60 posts

Critical theorist, philosopher of education, lecturer in London

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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Finally got around to reading this, a prolonged elaboration of Benjamin's note on revolutionary 'loosening' in 'The Work of Art', & it's really good.
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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 02/10/2026
Solidarity with all the colleagues on strike across higher education at the moment Another university is possible and this is what this manifesto is about While I'm at it, solidarity with French students too obviously and anyone fighting for better sites.google.com/view/manifes...
sites.google.com
MANIFESTO TO SAVE HIGHER EDUCATION
The Manifesto to Save Higher Education arises out of the ongoing attack on jobs and programmes across UK campuses. It was coordinated by members of UCU and Unison branches from around the country. C...
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Best take yet on Nolan's Odyssey discourse
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Currently on a sabbatical to undertake research for my next project on Walter Benjamin. Pleased to report I've figured him all out.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Five corporations control 90% of the US media. Airlines have merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today. A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry. Four giants control 80% of meat processing. The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.
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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 21/09/2026
Friends in many other institutions have reported the same stripping out of interesting research-led academic content for generic skills & subject material. I see it at my own too. Often, these courses are team taught because growing stress & workloads are increasing sickness levels.
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Chris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Universities have managed staff costs significantly below inflation,[between 2016-17 and 2023-24] increasing only 14% compared to the 41.2% increase in RPIX [measure of inflation]” Substantial real terms pay cut, which continues a trend existing years before that…
gov.uk
Cost of undergraduate provision and qualifications in England
A study of the full economic cost of providing undergraduate-level higher education and other qualifications in England.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Is it ok for management to phone students asking them to take modules not validated on their degree because they’ve sacked people and can’t staff the modules listed? A working day before teaching starts? Hypothetically, obviously.
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"The man... who knows himself to be in accord with the most ancient heritage of his class or nation will sometimes bring his private life into ostentatious contrast to the maxims that he unrelentingly asserts in public..."
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Does everyone want to hear the latest twist in my compulsory half-sacking that is simultaneously a 'new post' and a 'variation of contract' that doesn't attract any compensation for my income being halved in two weeks time, and for which I got a congratulations letter?
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Maybe the ex-citizens of Piddington could be Ed Sheeran's support acts? Kills two birds
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Daniel 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:
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Whether it's legal or not, HR doctrine in universities these days appears to be that an employment contract is binding only for one party, and that party is not the employer. (Below is the list of agreements that the University of Brighton have unilaterally decided to cancel.)
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Excuse me for my naivety here but might a possible reason for the coordinated AI "slow-down" response be that, having hyped up AI for investment, these companies are now jointly hyping down the expectations of ROI?
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
James Orr. Peter Thiel. Race science. Tech authoritarianism. We've spent years tracing the networks behind Britain’s ‘Dark Enlightenment’. Help us launch an urgent new investigative project to follow the money and map how it operates. #LightUpTheDark subscribe.bylinetimes.com/lightuptheda...
subscribe.bylinetimes.com
#LightUpTheDark – Byline Times
Dark Enlightenment: The US Far-Right War on British Institutions Help Byline Times Fund aN URGENT New INVESTIGATIVE SERIES #LightUpTheDark What is the Dark Enlightenment? The extraordinary anti-DEI me...
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Maybe HEIs could ask employers to help with graduate outcomes/premium by employing more people and paying them higher wages?
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Chris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
ok so the minister responsible for UKRI doesn't know he has responsibility for humanities research? and thinks that the Culture Media and Sport minister does the humanities research stuff instead? have I got that right?
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
'If a funding model recognises laboratory costs but not the diseconomies of small-cohort regional delivery, it may miss one kind of structural cost... unclear assumptions about teaching costs can lead to blunt cuts or the withdrawal of provision that is structurally expensive but publicly important'
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Educational materialist accounts of pedagogization
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 07/08/2026
New from me: Britain’s graduate earnings premium is falling, cue “too many go to university!” But non-university outcomes are also bad, cue “we must reform vocational routes!” Both miss the point: people used to think education drove economic outcomes, but the economy drives educational outcomes.
Chart showing that US workers who are functionally illiterate earn roughly the same per hour as the average British worker
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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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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
My review of Peter E. Gordon's biography 'Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver' - in which I attempt to "out-aquatize" Gordon - has been published! Thanks to Sara Dominici, Robin Mills, and Kerstin Wright for help in editing. Here's a (limited) link to a free eprint: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WCTNU...
Image of the front cover of Peter E. Gordon's biography 'Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver', which features a black and white photograph of the philosopher Walter Benjamin in his mid-30s with round glasses, a black moustache, wearing a suit and tie
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Dundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
The Scottish Funding Council waved through the University of Dundee's Strategy to Recovery, even though it broke their funding conditions. The Scottish Gov need to ACT NOW and ask the SFC to reverse their decision, and stop the redundancy process TODAY. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...
thecourier.co.uk
EXCLUSIVE: Funding council waved through Dundee University £20m cuts plan despite own concerns
The strategy is crucial to the university unlocking another £20 million in rescue funds.
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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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Andrew Defty @adefty.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Yesterday 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'.
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Jeff Spencer @revjss.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Graphic offering advice on “How to survive the global heatwave.” It says:
Stay hydrated.
Treat yourself to an ice cream.
Dismantle the fossil fuel industry which is literally burning the planet for the short term profit of a vanishingly small capitalist class.
Loose fitting clothing.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
In further time-filling news, my university's Frankfurt School Critical Theory reading group now turns its attention to accounts of cartel capitalism in Neumann's 'Behemoth' and Otto Kirchheimer's 'Changes in the Structure of Political Compromise', in response to Pollock's state capitalism thesis
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Waiting to pick my son up from his school production so time to let you know I'm working for the rest of the year on a project on Walter Benjamin's theory of fascism: article on fascist/antifascist mimicry, chapter on the temporalization of modern barbarism, book on 'The Slave Revolt of Technology'
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
'The proposed industrial action is over plans to cut 200 jobs as the Brighton facility attempts to save £35m annually. It comes after more than 600 staff were put at risk of redundancy across academic, technical and professional services departments.'
bbc.co.uk
University of Sussex staff vote whether to go on strike over job cuts
Hundreds of people face redundancy as the Brighton-based facility tries to save £35m.
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
"Academia is not alone here, but research in 2021 found that, in the UK, HE staff have lower wellbeing than average for other sectors across all of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) psychosocial hazard categories and more than half of staff report working over 40hrs a week" (1/2)
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
"A teacher who teaches teachers nothing teaches no one"
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵
technosphere.earth
The bonfire of the humanities
150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences
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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A depressingly long list of universities who are implementing cuts and redundancies, as well as the petitions and actions against them (via @onslies.bsky.social) qmucu.org/qmul-transfo.... This is a national emergency that should be responded to with national policy.
qmucu.org
UK HE shrinking
a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.
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becimay @becimay.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
In case you didn’t know, Exeter uni, where I work, has announced a plan to make 25% of staff in my English department redundant. Left-over staff will do double the teaching while their research time will be shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile admissions for English at Exeter are HIGH, and on the rise this year
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Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
It makes sense to share this text again. "Good managers are those who gets things done, which tends to mean that they are not hampered by either sensitivity for others’ feelings or democratic scruples.“ (David West, 2016) demosjournal.com/article/the-...
demosjournal.com
Demos Journal - The Managerial University: A Failed Experiment?
Recent decades have seen a protracted attack and painstaking demolition of the traditional or ‘old’ university and an associated purging of academics. The rise of managers and ‘man...
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
The crisis in UK higher education is worsening week by week — Exeter University is one of the best in the UK, with superb lecturers (and several You’re Dead To Me guests), but it’s planning massive job cuts in History, Archaeology, Classics — see the petition below to lend your voice in support
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Katherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Ok, look, what's been particularly infuriating about the redundancies at Exeter (and Nottingham and Newcastle and and and) is this weird idea that it only affects those individuals and institutions. It harms us all because we are so closely interconnected.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
It's not the worst aspect of the University of Exeter news, but the fact that the scale, focus and timing of the planned redundancies came as such a shock to staff says something quite fundamental about the staff of staff/management relations in UK HE today. Where is respect? Collegiality? Teamwork?
dictionary.cambridge.org
poleaxed
1. past simple and past participle of poleaxe 2. to hit someone so hard that…
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Rev. Dr. Liz Gloyn @lizgloyn.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
As meetings start to take place which reveal the extent of proposed damage, do take a moment to sign this petition against compulsory, unnecessary cuts at Exeter that disproportionately target the humanities.
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Iain Soutar @isoutar.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Many are following this. Those at risk here on Exeter's Cornwall campus include myself and colleagues in Geography, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Maths, Humanities, and 1/2 the Environment and Sustainability Institute. I really hope this can be resolved.
bbc.co.uk
University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff
The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".
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Katherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Colleagues at Exeter have asked me to circulate this petition as widely as possible: www.change.org/p/stop-redun...
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It's much too late now to save large parts of Higher Education, but there's lots that can still be done if we stop and pause this madness. Otherwise most HE will just be concentrated in SE England at Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Kings and a few others. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...
timeshighereducation.com
University of Exeter cuts an ‘existential threat to humanities’
Russell Group institution cites changing student demand as it puts 500 staff at risk of redundancy, with 150 jobs set to go
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Unis as critical parts of national infrastructure have been passed over to ill-equipped management teams with very narrow remits - to smash and ruin. Is that a good idea in the era of national competition, economic stagnation and Cold War 2.0? 🤔 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
researchprofessionalnews.com
University of Exeter plans to cut 150 jobs - Research Professional News
Staff consultation underway, with UCU claiming 14 per cent of academic workforce is at risk
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
What's happening at the University of Exeter is a disaster for both the region and the country. The way the sector is set up, it is *inevitable* and *unstoppable* that this will continuously happen everywhere. We need to stop, get out a blank sheet of paper and start again.
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I'll also be given a keynote speech on why the real crisis of universities isn't their current underfunding but their overcapitalization in 2010s. (Joking, joking)
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
The cuts at Exeter University won't work. They never work. The high-ups will be back for more in a year or two, then even more a year or two after that. Unis just keep doing the same thing consultants tell them to do, over and over again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff
The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
"Growing Humanities" @wminhumanities.bsky.social London on Monday (29/06/26) bit.ly/4euUYIw Translating/(Re)Valuing/Frontline Hums, Histories & Environments & workshop Plenary by @cnewf.bsky.social on "The Future of Literary knowledge as a University Institution” Do join us (and say hello)!
eventbrite.co.uk
Growing Humanities: Flourishing Futures in Challenging Times
This conference celebrates the enduring importance of Humanities disciplines and collectively plans for flourishing futures.
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Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Please sign to help support Philosophy at Dundee (and non-analytic philosophy, which is under threat of extinction across the UK)
c.org
Sign the Petition
Save the Philosophy Programme at Dundee University
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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it.
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