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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I feel you Little Willie Foster

Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

A country that is determined to destroy its own economy, and to make everyone's lives greyer and grimmer into the bargain. Peanuts, with vast multipliers. Unbelievable. www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/dfe-sla...

artsprofessional.co.uk

DfE slashes creative and performing arts teaching grants for universities - Arts Professional

Performing and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of "difficult decisions" about

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Wonderful that @shteyngart.bsky.social has posted about my academic talk today on his fantastic and latest novel - Vera, or Faith

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Dr. Niall Allsopp @niallallsopp.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Please sign & share @exeterucu.bsky.social petition on wholly unjustified, hugely damaging cuts to humanities staff at uni of Exeter (including, potentially, mine). Help us defend the humanities! And stick up for higher ed in the South West! c.org/RFqMvrKb6z

'EXETER UCU: OUR SIX KEY MESSAGES

1. EXETER UNI'S FINANCES ARE STRONG. WE'VE LARGE CASH RESERVES (£200M IN 24/25). NEVER HAD A BUDGET DEFICIT. THIS 'CRISIS' IS MANUFACTURED.
2. EXECUTIVE PAY AT EXETER IS OUT OF CONTROL. IF JUST THE 16 HIGHEST-PAID EXECS CAPPED THEIR SALARY AT £120K, WE'D SAVE MORE MONEY THAN ALL THE CUTS TO ARCHAEOLOGY & HISTORY!
3. NO MEANINGFUL CONSULTATION, BUT A CONFUSED MESS: FAULTY AND INSUFFICIENT DATA, NO REAL DISCUSSION, AND AN IMPOSSIBLE, INSULTING AND UNREASONABLE TIMETABLE TO PUSH THIS THROUGH OVER THE SUMMER.
4. AN ALL-STAFF MEETING OF 600 STAFF RESOUNDINGLY VOTED NO CONFIDENCE IN VICE CHANCELLOR LISA ROBERTS (WHOSE PAY IS PUSHING £400K). WE BELIEVE THIS IS THE BIGGEST SINGLE VOTE BY ANY UNI STAFF IN THE HISTORY OF UK HE.
5. REDUNDANCIES ARE A MANAGEMENT CHOICE, NOT A FINANCIAL NECESSITY. THEY EVEN HAVE ALTERNATIVE COSTED PLANS WITH NO CUTS, BUT THINK IT'S EASIER TO GO FOR JOB LOSSES.
6. EXETER IS A FANTASTIC UNI, WITH WORLD CLASS RESEARCH, CREATIVE AND INSPIRING TEACHING, THOUGHTFUL AND IMAGINATIVE COMMUNITY OF STAFF AND STUDENTS. LET'S KEEP IT THAT WAY.'

At the bottom of the poster:
#DefendExeterUni
Instagram handle @uniexeterucu
QR link to sign the petition

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

A wonderful episode of a podcast that is a must-listen for me. Pushing my four-month old son in his pram while listening to the ending, about a father and son relationship and how we meet this unbearable historical moment, was deeply profound and moving.

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Very excited to have two pieces published today! First a long essay on Joshua Cohen's 'The Netanyahus' that will be of interest to those working on Zionism, decolonialism, or Jewishness but also genre and/or the role of institutions in literature: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/sajl/ar...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Jews on Campus: Zionism, Postcoloniality, and History in Joshua Cohen’s The Netanyahus

Abstract. This article builds on the institutional turn in literary studies by reading Joshua Cohen’s 2021 novel The Netanyahus through the lens of the feedback loop between the institution of the uni...

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

We need leaders who can spell out what's happening clearly and with force.

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Colm Murphy @colmpm.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I have to say, listening to the Today programme dedicate an entire (context free) section about whether migrants are more likely to be convicted criminals *the morning after* hundreds of non-migrants of my own ethnicity committed a pogrom is blood boiling.

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

AkivaMCohen @akivamcohen.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

That's a pogrom. She's describing a pogrom

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 09/06/2026

This is such an important point: we rightly bemoan the ‘corporatization’ of higher ed but the irony is that many of the corporate managerial practices being imposed on us were discredited and abandoned by for-profit corporations long ago.

Screenshot from Glenn O’Hara’s article, with the following text highlighted: “ Heavily metricised, buried in audit and groaning under the weight of paperwork, no one seems to have told universities that these techniques were tested and found wanting by most private sector companies in the 1980s and 1990s, and by the UK’s central government in the 2000s and 2010s.”

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

ft.com

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question

The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

A wonderful read this - bringing an institutional literary studies approach to bear on the criminally understudied area of English as taught in schools

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

taps sign

"IF YOU OFFLOAD YOUR CREATIVE & CRITICAL CAPACITIES IN EXCHANGE FOR CONVENIENCE,
THE ONLY THING
YOU'LL HAVE LEFT TO OFFER THE PREVAILING SOCIAL ORDER IS YOUR OBEDIENCEL"

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Sarah Bull @sarahebull.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

An actual conference nightmare: "[Kuhn] spied me in the conference lobby and said he’d like a word after he checked in. The word turned out to be that in his comments the following morning he would ‘have to destroy’ me." From one of my favourite book reviews: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Steven Shapin · Paradigms Gone Wild

Philosophers of science had long accepted their role in justifying science, making the case that scientific knowledge is...

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Reposted by Nicolas Turner

Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Look, does our university fee system create an active market in higher education? No. But does it function to incentivise investment in your education and encourage aspiration? Well, also no. But at least it does fund the universities? Ha, you're not going to believe this.

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

If this outcome holds it seems hard to see a way forward unless VVD will work with GL/PvdA. The key question then seems to become - does the VVD hate the left so much they would prefer to be in a coalition with JA21 to keep them out? Based on past performance, I would say yes... #netherlands

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Looking forward to my first @histmat.bsky.social conference next week, where I am going to be speaking on "Historicizing Jewish identity and global capital in Gary Shteyngart’s 'Absurdistan'; or, re-periodizing the contemporary in American literary studies."

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Scoured the bookshops and managed to find what was seemingly the one copy in Utrecht...

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Wonderful to have overseen my first issue of the Netherlands American Studies Review as editor-in-chief, which features many excellent examples of the student work being done here in the Netherlands on North American history, culture, and literature! www.netherlands-america.nl/netherlands-...

netherlands-america.nl

Netherlands American Studies Review 2025 no.1 – Netherlands American Studies Association

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Looking forward to my inaugural @jewishstudies.bsky.social conference presentation today, on Joshua Cohen’s fascinating novel 'The Netanyahus' - at 10.30 (EST)/4.30 (CET) today for those interested in joining!

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Very happy to be presenting today at the European Association for Jewish Studies conference, talking about Joshua Cohen's novel 'The Netanyahus' in relation to questions of race, postcoloniality, and the American campus.

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Nicolas Turner @nicturner.bsky.social · 01/02/2024

New here, so re-upping my recent publications: An article on race, identity, and Jewishness in Philip Roth: shorturl.at/iEY03 A piece on nostalgia and identity in Saul Bellow and Derek Walcott: shorturl.at/vyFNP A recent article on Asian American identity and the Vietnam War: shorturl.at/bcoz4

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