Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 19/09/2026So 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). 001
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDanny Page @danny.page · 17/09/2026God bless @atherton.bsky.social for this succinct wisdom 273862898
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I 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… 140
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Just 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. 8411171
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDaniel 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: 13598709
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Jet lag + bad cold + trying to sort new term. 0/10, would not recommend, would like to speak to a manager. 030
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 12/09/2026The loos in the arrivals hall in Heathrow 3 play Elgar at *volume*. This is now a thing you know. 000
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Helpful 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. 010
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026See: The Orville and Kaylon-1. Also: reasons as a SFF fan I refuse point blank to use AI. 011
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Whilst 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??! 000
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonPreeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 03/09/2026i love that this has had literally no impact on my day lol 2376641727
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonKieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 31/08/2026August 31st or, as it is conventionally known amongst academics, À la recherche du temps perdu 729656
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Okay, 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. 120
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 29/08/2026It’s a wonderful special issue, if I do say so myself! 110
Reposted by Dr Amanda Dillon🍂🪦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. 08525
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonRicky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I 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. 331441408
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Meanwhile, the violas are fighting for their lives. As usual. 010
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... 020
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonShveta Thakrar @shvetathakrar.com · 20/08/2026We'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. 212733
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDr Eleanor Janega @goingmedieval.bsky.social · 15/08/2026This 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. 101423320
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonMark Grimshaw @markgrimshawtism.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I 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. 423567
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonYell In a War @jelenawoehr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026I’m not an overthinker everyone else is just underthinking 623557
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonTalia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 12/08/2026We have never granted a marginalized population "too many rights". Not a thing that has ever happened. You are speaking nonsense. 6943211
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDr Aisling Tierney @irishashyt.bsky.social · 14/08/2026There 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. 131
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonRyan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026They should invent news about higher education that doesn't drive you insane 118137
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonBhagat Singh Appreciator @mirroredreality.bsky.social · 14/08/2026The seething rage resulting from seeing what mediocre white men who were once called out for their incompetence can accomplish is truly indescribable. 1224
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonKayleigh Donaldson @ceilidhann.bsky.social · 14/08/2026The 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. 322063
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonAparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 14/08/2026its 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 381708451
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonTed McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I also think that if you're excited about co-authorship with AI you've probably disqualified yourself from the plagiarism convo 17812
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonTed McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 14/08/2026lies 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 114119
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Whatever 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. 518333
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Indeed. 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”. 261727202
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonKirsten the Goblin Keeper @librarykirsten.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Important point - another resource is Education Support which has a helpline for anyone working in education www.educationsupport.org.ukeducationsupport.org.ukEducation SupportThe only UK charity dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff. 085
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonBlacklikewho @blacklikewho.bsky.social · 14/08/2026The 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. 219261
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonNick Gould @profng.bsky.social · 12/08/2026The 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. 2394148
Reposted by Dr Amanda Dillongeoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social · 14/08/2026plagiarism is bad and it is also, critically, not a multi-week national and international story 541668
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 14/08/2026Cambridge 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 1564208674
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonRachel Willie @racheljwillie.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I hope those tutting at the media also recognise that this includes social media. 0112
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonPetra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026All 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 14317
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026None of this shit is worth our lives. 11347225
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonLucy Betteridge-Dyson @lmbd1418.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Ok 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 8222
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Ah 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!) 000
Dr Amanda Dillon @oddityofwings.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Apropos 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. 000
Reposted by Dr Amanda Dillonwill 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.comTime for Andy Burnham to smile on UK scienceWaning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions 1216
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonGlenn Mackin @glennmackin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Yes, 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. 0125
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonCorey @kh0rish.bsky.social · 04/08/2026"Everything is just data so we can computer it" has broken so many brains I swear 557669
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonDr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 04/08/2026And 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. 2201
Reposted by Dr Amanda DillonRoyal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 04/08/2026Thank 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 12316