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Dr Amanda Dillon

@oddityofwings.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.3K following 1K posts

SFF, gothic, time&gender&history, Victoriana. Time travelling women historians are my jam. UEA History, sometimes UEA LDC. FHEA, Expat PA/VA. Wrangler of academics, books, & words. Sometime flutist. #wiasn Views own; she/her.

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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So my frequent flyer points didn’t transfer into my account like they normally do and I decided to hunt down my boarding pass. Couldn’t find it. Cue me having a full on existential crisis thinking, however briefly, my return to the UK was but a fever dream (the cold is better).
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Danny Page @danny.page · 17/09/2026
God bless @atherton.bsky.social for this succinct wisdom
Kelsey D. Atherton - tweet from 2019

Oh, you're experiencing a structural problem? Have you ever considered trying different personal choices instead?
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I frequently wonder if one thing that might help financially in UK HE is a cooperative model - y’know, rotating people in charge, no extra pay, all that. But then I realised that that’s probably how it started, and grifters gonna grift…
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Just a reminder as the new academic year kicks off - the UK government has deliberately, ruthlessly, throttled the recruitment of international students, solely to pander to racists, and the resultant 25%+ fall in numbers can and will only accelerate some universities into bankruptcy.
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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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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Jet lag + bad cold + trying to sort new term. 0/10, would not recommend, would like to speak to a manager.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The loos in the arrivals hall in Heathrow 3 play Elgar at *volume*. This is now a thing you know.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Helpful that TfL doesn't let you top up your Oyster while abroad. Also helpful that Greater Anglia has rail replacement on when I *really* need straightforward travel tomorrow back from the airport as I've of course come down with something since my flight was cancelled. NB: this is sarcasm.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
See: The Orville and Kaylon-1. Also: reasons as a SFF fan I refuse point blank to use AI.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Whilst I am grateful for a few extra days with my parents, could my airline have cancelled my flight back to Blighty BEFORE I’d left for the airport, not when I was 35 mins away??!
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
i love that this has had literally no impact on my day lol
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 31/08/2026
August 31st or, as it is conventionally known amongst academics, À la recherche du temps perdu
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Okay, I didn’t notice it much last summer, but on this trip home, US prices are *bonkers*. When I’m thinking I can get it cheaper in the UK, it just feels wrong, man…. $20 for a paperback. A tenner for deodorant. Sheesh.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
It’s a wonderful special issue, if I do say so myself!
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🍂🪦ℭ𝔥𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔫𝔦𝔵, ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔅𝔯𝔢𝔴 & ℭ𝔬𝔣𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔰🪦🍂 @chthonix.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"Find out who you are and do it on purpose, with purpose." -Dolly Parton Damn straight.
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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I don’t want to hear fake tributes to Dolly Parton from fascist republicans, I’ll never forget them defunding her Imagination Library childhood reading program earlier this year. Spare us the bullshit, we see you.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Meanwhile, the violas are fighting for their lives. As usual.
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
… you’re giving As (and A-pluses?!) to unengaging, boilerplate writing? I think I found the problem...
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Shveta Thakrar @shvetathakrar.com · 20/08/2026
We've let capitalism fool us into believing that every part of life must be efficient. That's not true. Automate my laundry, sure. Wash the dishes for me--yes, please. But dreaming and thinking and learning and just BEING are meant to be slow and meandering. That's where the treasures are found.
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Dr Eleanor Janega @goingmedieval.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This entire disgusting situation with Arday has shown the horrible priorities of a society built for the ruling class. Our press isn't free, and it is used solely and exclusively to pursue the interests of the ruling class which owns it.
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Mark Grimshaw @markgrimshawtism.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I see people lying every day - fearmongering about immigrants, trans people, disabled people, benefit claimants. Do they get hounded to death? No, they get cushy jobs at the Mail, Telegraph, Sun, Times and Express. So spare me the pretending that the press actually give a solitary shit about lying.
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Yell In a War @jelenawoehr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I’m not an overthinker everyone else is just underthinking
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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 12/08/2026
We have never granted a marginalized population "too many rights". Not a thing that has ever happened. You are speaking nonsense.
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Dr Aisling Tierney @irishashyt.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
There is a duty on *all* of us to never behave in a way, personally or professionally or structurally, that causes this much hurt and devastation. If you think this has nothing to do with your role in academia, you are wrong.
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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
They should invent news about higher education that doesn't drive you insane
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Bhagat Singh Appreciator @mirroredreality.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The seething rage resulting from seeing what mediocre white men who were once called out for their incompetence can accomplish is truly indescribable.
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Kayleigh Donaldson @ceilidhann.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The Times wrote literally dozens of articles on Jason Arday, including one only a few hours ago saying he "may want to get himself a nice pair of orange trousers" that has since been deleted. The story was as much about academic accountability as GamerGate was about ethics in games journalism.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
its worth asking whether this ending would have happened without the endless, gleeful, hunting and dismantling of Arday's choices on Twitter, where he represented all the sins of DEI made flesh for a range of assorted disgruntled academics who once had to go to a training and hated it
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I also think that if you're excited about co-authorship with AI you've probably disqualified yourself from the plagiarism convo
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Catherine Fletcher @catherinefletcher.info · 14/08/2026
Well
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
lies are lies and plagiarism is plagiarism. but institutional incentives right now are, to use a technical term, completely fucked, and media coverage of academia is effectively a branch of the culture war
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Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Whatever Jason Arday did or didn’t do, the unrelenting bullying by the media, by the race baiters, by the far right, hounded him to death. Will they learn any lesson … will they what! They and their hate filled little souls will move on, without a thought or any regret, to the next target.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Indeed. SS embodies the whole sorry mess, in that hardly anyone in it ever saw Arday as a person. For Cambridge he was a way to buff their credentials, to be discarded when he became embarrassing. For Sodha he was a prop to air grievances about “gender ideology”.
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Kirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Important point - another resource is Education Support which has a helpline for anyone working in education www.educationsupport.org.uk
educationsupport.org.uk
Education Support
The only UK charity dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff.
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Blacklikewho @blacklikewho.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The university is a killing field. It is fully culpable. It must be said. Regardless of his deception. The neoliberal university made that happen. We don’t have to excuse his behavior to see how unevenly distributed resources and fucked star systems makes the university a killing machine.
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Nick Gould @profng.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The VC of the Uni of Greater Manchester has just been sacked for misuse of over £1m of university funds. Hardly a mention in the media. Not black so not newsworthy.
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geoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
plagiarism is bad and it is also, critically, not a multi-week national and international story
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 14/08/2026
Cambridge University should have known better, Fleet Street should have known better, the people hungrily absorbing every bit of news about it, making newsrooms feel like they had to keep going with it as a story, should have known better, horrible horrible horrible
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Rachel Willie @racheljwillie.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I hope those tutting at the media also recognise that this includes social media.
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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
All I would ask is if you work or study in a uni, check in with colleagues who may need help. And continue to do so. A duty of care should apply to ourselves and each other. Help here www.papyrus-uk.org www.thecalmzone.net anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-inform... blackbritishacademics.co.uk
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
None of this shit is worth our lives.
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Lucy Betteridge-Dyson @lmbd1418.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Ok how many of us with poorly regulated nervous systems feel totally mental after that alert ? I need a warning if there are gonna be warnings like that
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Ah yes, my favourite time of year: fighting with federal student loan stuff season. This year’s fun: website stuck on penultimate screen for IBR recertification. Sigh. (Yes, I’ve printed and uploaded the paper form for my services but dang it, the FASFA people ought to get it together!)
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Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Apropos of nothing, I’ve realised I’ve suddenly started pronouncing ‘water’ like a Pennsylvanian. Lived there from 6 months till about age 24. Been in Britain more or less continuously for 20 years. Never once said it ‘wodder’ previously, because I’m weird. I blame this on the lack of rain.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
(paywalled) the FT coming out in favour of more research funding for science at Uk universities we might want to add more funding for ALL subjects, but actually it would be a net good on many levels for gov to reverse course on the existing real terms funding cuts www.ft.com/content/1419...
ft.com
Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science
Waning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions
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Glenn Mackin @glennmackin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Yes, yes, yes. By its very nature, an LLM is a-contextual; it tears words out of any framework that could lend them meaning. It cannot possibly do historical work.
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Corey @kh0rish.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
"Everything is just data so we can computer it" has broken so many brains I swear
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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
And if people want to make it about bad supervision practices and so on, that's cool we can absolutely have that talk, but may I also introduce you to academic workload models while we're chatting.
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 04/08/2026
Thank you to all who attended today's meeting on the 'Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History'. Very valuable proposals in difficult times for history in HE / UK HE more widely. We've also a new guide bit.ly/4z1fAjO listing 100+ UK #history societies & networks supporting historians #Skystorians
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