Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Not enough of a fuss is made about Jean Baudrillard and Gary Gygax sharing a birthday (niche post) 010
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Just do a lottery instead at this point. The work hours gone into unfunded research could have carried out the research! 020
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026It is ASTOUNDING that this apparently needs saying. 0114
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I only realised now, while prepping notes for students, that Kurt Danziger died last month. Danziger was not only one of the most influential historians of psychology but also an anti-Apartheid activist and, before that, a child refugee from Nazism. A great loss. humanities.uct.ac.za/department-p...humanities.uct.ac.zaObituary: Kurt Danziger (1926-2026)The Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town mourns the passing of Professor Kurt Danziger, who died on August 11, 2026 at the age of 100. 193
Reposted by Rasmus BirkKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026Every line of this article is just completely stunning 18356130
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026The fact that *Jacob Rees-Mogg* of all people holds on to - and is willing to publicly defend! - a quite inclusive and fluid notion of nationality is quite something to behold. Has anyone in or near the UK Labour party done anything remotely similar to this? 140
Reposted by Rasmus BirkMicah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 22/09/2026So… we just found out that GPT sol can complete a complex online behavioral/cognitive study producing nearly indistinguishable behavior and subjective reports… right as we are about to launch. Is this doomsday for online cognitive testing? 3212569
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Can I shock you? I don’t think writing these applications is a good use of 21000 people’s time 030
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Instead of doing ‘Anton Jäger should write more clearly’-discourse, let me just recommend this excellent review in the LRB on his book: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukWilliam Davies · Easy to Join, Easy to Leave: Politics on SpeedThis is what distinguishes hyperpolitics from the mass democracy of the mid-20th century. Symbolic political gestures... 1228
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 10/09/2026The UK university sector is mired in absolute madness 24415
Reposted by Rasmus BirkSimon Columbus @simoncolumbus.bsky.social · 04/09/2026A lot of this research is really bad. One of these effects people just *want* to be true, so researchers can get away with shoddy crosssectional analyses and handwaving. 2226
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Nearly 5000 researchers applied for an ERC starting grand in the last round. Just over 400 (less than 9%) were successful. Many people applying are spending up to 12 months working seriously on their application. This is absolutely crazy. erc.europa.eu/news-events/...erc.europa.euERC Starting Grants: €705 million to back Europe's next generation of researchersThe European Research Council (ERC) has today announced the winners of its latest Starting Grant competition. The funding, worth €705 million in total, will go to 421 early-career researchers across E... 33620
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Conservatively say that the average applicant spends six months of their allotted research time working on their application. Collectively, more than 2000 years of research time has gone into unsuccessful applications in this round alone. 1183
Reposted by Rasmus BirkJulia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 27/08/2026Psychological Science special issue call 📣 Ever had your research denigrated bc it's "only descriptive", "what's the mechanism though?" and "but what are the theoretical implications?" Now has come your time to shine. Send your best descriptive work! www.psychologicalscience.org/publications... 7244128
Reposted by Rasmus BirkWill Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 23/08/2026‘Ironic’ (or something) that the country can host a Summer of Academic Freedom and Meritocracy Battle Of Ideas focused on the employment of two men, while at least 5000 academics are getting dismissed on the instructions of Chief Finance Officers 15519
Reposted by Rasmus BirkSamantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 23/08/2026A scathing thread about @nathancofnas.bsky.social's intellectual deficiencies started four months ago by Pieter Beck, a history of science senior postdoc @ Ghent University, 'Cofnas has been called an unoriginal thinker before.' 212954
Reposted by Rasmus BirkJonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Worth reading the thread that led up to this. 3842660
Reposted by Rasmus BirkStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026“It’s impossible that Jason Arday could have got his post without DEI,” say people about an industry which can find 200 academics willing to sign a letter in support of David Miller and another 200 academics willing to support Nathan Cofnas. 231592315
Reposted by Rasmus BirkSunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Cofnas had a Leverhulme early career fellowship "I called the Leverlhulme Trust this morning, and was surprised that this was, apparently, the first inquiry they had had about Nathan Cofnas" - Afua Hirsch afuahirsch.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...afuahirsch.substack.comA Tale of Two Racistsand the forever war against black bodies 513026
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 19/08/2026(At the margins, we have to really care about someone's own capacity to do excellent research. But with the sheer material and cultural resources of the Ivy League or Oxbridge, this is much less an issue). 1101
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 19/08/2026(I definitely think people not only underestimate how many chancers there are in academia but also that you're much more likely to find obviously underqualified people in places like Oxford and Cambridge, where tiny elite networks are used to having the power to decide what reality is). 1345
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 19/08/2026This is a very common and telling objection to claims around ‘social construction’ and I think it is time we retire the term ‘social construct’ which brings much more confusion than clarity. 001
Reposted by Rasmus Birkmaybe: leif weatherby @leifw.bsky.social · 24/06/2025Language Machines is out today, can be ordered from @uminnpress.bsky.social www.upress.umn.edu/978151791932... - gathering a few parergonal writings below 1/ 511928
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Den Mamdani/Nyrup crossover du ikke vidste, du havde brug for 150
Reposted by Rasmus BirkWill Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 18/08/2026'What is diagnosis For?' - Nikolas Rose, 2013 nikolasrose.com/wp-content/u...nikolasrose.com 3113
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 18/08/2026<literally thousands of social and historical studies precisely explaning a phenomenon> Psychiatrists: no one understands this phenomenon 🤷 www.theguardian.com/society/2026...theguardian.comRising number of people seeking ADHD diagnosis without treatment, say expertsPsychiatrists in Channel 4 documentary argue it is more a ‘social construct’ than a medical condition 1134
Reposted by Rasmus BirkSteve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 17/08/2026The "major public interest" claim, which is being used here to justify the hysterical RW moral panic, presumably rests on an assumption that one individual appointment was somehow typical of university hiring. As I have pointed out, this is a ridiculous claim, initially pushed by a full-ass racist. 1323450
Reposted by Rasmus BirkKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 14/08/2026This is the coverage of Arday **just in the Telegraph** in the UK. This is only the first four pages of results, just in one outlet. 17455962065
Reposted by Rasmus BirkRichard Carr @richardcarr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026This 1-2 (from when the plagiarism story first broke) really struck/still strikes me. The schoolyard bullying that followed an unusual (though, re plagiarism, not unique) story was appalling. Criticism of his practice was clearly fair, but it tipped over into something else - particularly on X. 1456975
Reposted by Rasmus Birklastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Basic contention is academia used to be about inquiry, and not just a finishing school for elites as it is nowadays. But my impression is academia has always been to a large extent a finishing school for elites and by historical standards there's an unusually high emphasis on intellectual merit now? 3780866
Reposted by Rasmus BirkNvidie @dervine7.bsky.social · 13/08/2026if there’s one thing every autistic person with a hyperfixation loves it’s constant and vituperative debate 3355
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 11/08/2026AI as an addictive cognitive ‘scaffold’ is really not theorized properly, yet. You’d think all the posthumanists and 4E cognition people would be all over this! 230
Reposted by Rasmus BirkBrandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Axios writer: I melted my brain with AI. Not only can I no longer read, but I don't even understand the purpose of reading anymore. Here's how you can also do this. www.axios.com/2026/08/11/r... 49372171667
Reposted by Rasmus BirkMusa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Just a disaster from every angle. Shame on Cambridge - the damage they have done to every black student in their care and who was thinking of applying to them. And, beyond that, to the academic credentials of black students more generally. Awful on all counts. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comCambridge academics reject university’s attempt to end row over Jason ArdayGroup calls for ‘thorough and transparent investigation’ of hiring of professor who resigned after his claims came under scrutiny 2250189
Reposted by Rasmus BirkHanna Kienzler @hannakienzler.bsky.social · 08/08/2026The unleashed racism in (social) media over the Arday case is horrendous. It has nothing to do with the case itself. Rather the latter is abused to voice white supremacist ideologies without filter and with self-righteousness. It is dangerous. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comCambridge academics reject university’s attempt to end row over Jason ArdayGroup calls for ‘thorough and transparent investigation’ of hiring of professor who resigned after his claims came under scrutiny 032
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 07/08/2026I can’t believe Patti Smith could be *this* wrong 010
Reposted by Rasmus BirkSarah Osment @smosment.bsky.social · 06/08/2026this is the future of education we're headed toward—governesses for the 1%, AI slop for the rest 86019
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 06/08/2026"Arday was treated [by Cambridge] not as a scholar but as a mascot, one who was particularly expedient for an institution that had been regularly embarrassed by its historic record on race." Really good piece by Jason Okundaye. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThe takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason OkundayeThe Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality, says Guardian columnist Jason Okundaye 2288
Reposted by Rasmus BirkDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 22/07/2026A hill I will die on is that it makes no sense for big disciplinary conferences to have a theme. Either you exclude loads of people pointlessly (because they don't work on 'utopias' or whatever) or people awkwardly shove the keyword into whatever they actually work on, or they just ignore it. 6402
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 15/07/2026New research topic for sociologists with interests in science and/or gender just dropped: 220
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Is this infrastructural violence for non-England fans? 010
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 08/07/2026There are reasonable debates to be had about AI and higher education (and education more generally) but it is absolutely clear to me that exams are useless if are not in person/oral. Take home exams are not viable anymore, unfortunately 032
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Imagine the unending headlines if this were Biden 041
Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Wake up, a new form of neoliberalism just dropped 010