iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 13h

He should leave immediately. Presiding over such failure and destruction should not entitle anyone to collect a couple more years of a £440,000 salary before jumping ship 🤢

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marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Harold Rex Interfectus est. Charlotte and I take a look at the (very easy) Latin on the Bayeux tapestry and we wonder about whether you can see a bit of Virgil behind it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yjW...

youtube.com

The Bayeux Tapestry: Britain’s lost Latin masterpiece

YouTube video by Instant Classics

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Carve Her Name @carvehername.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

#OnThisDay, 4 Oct 1936, women join the Battle of Cable Street, in London's East End, protesting against a fascist march through the area. Of the 79 protestors arrested, eight are women, including Blanche Edwards (pictured). #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️ 1/2

A woman is being frogmarched along cobbles by two policemen, with another apparently gesturing to her to calm down.

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 02/10/2026

“We will not stand for it silently. We will keep fighting.” Hundreds gathered at yesterday’s University of Nottingham rally in solidarity with UCU members fighting devastating job and course cuts. From Monday, members begin long-term strike action. Show your support. Stand with Nottingham UCU.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

'A spokesperson for Wolverhampton’s UCU branch said that the loss of staff through voluntary severance at the start of the year meant that “the pressure on remaining colleagues is becoming intolerable”.'

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Katharine Craik @kcraik1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My new book 'Lifelike Shakespeare' will be published by OUP on 29 October. Who is really there, and how do we know? The book offers a new account of Shakespeare's creativity by exploring what lies at the margins of humanness in his works. Discount code below, in plenty of time for Christmas! 🙃

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

... whether thou, to our moist vows denied, Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, Where the great vision of the guarded mount Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold: Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth; And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. #Michaelmas

St Michael's Mount, off the coast of Cornwall, UK.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great news: the School has sacked a third of its academic but we've acquired 2 new interim managers on top of the extra permanent ones. Fine work all round.

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UCU Edinburgh @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Day 1 of the strike by the workers of UCU Edinburgh against the manufactured deficit (which is not really a deficit), and against a senior management earning millions while staff disappear and education suffers. Solidarity against this parasitical form of management of our higher education.

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Baroness Floella Benjamin @floellabenjamin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

These are some of the hairstyles I wore on Playschool and Play Away with my silver heart and polo earrings 50 years ago. The BBC used to send out instructions of how to bead your hair to look like Floella

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Alison Booth @alidancer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Public understanding of what universities actually DO is rock bottom! People who haven't gone beyond GCSEs, BTECs or A levels largely don't understand higher ed (independent learning), transferable skills or how research works, particularly in Humanities. The media have further poisoned their views.

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Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is good & it should challenge the @ucu.org.uk leadership @drjogrady.bsky.social @dyfrigjones.bsky.social @markpendleton.bsky.social to explain why a new website is a better strategy than a national dispute. Would also be good if they followed congress mandates tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/brit...

tribunemag.co.uk

British Academia is Dying. It’s Time for a National Industrial Response

Workers in higher education are fighting atomised struggles to save their jobs. A rank-and-file strategy is needed to unite them.

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 22/09/2026

In our latest branch solidarity update video, UCU vice president Mark Pendleton hears about the latest at @exeterucu.bsky.social ehere members are organising and fighting back against job cuts, high workload and poor management

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Rachel Burch @rachelburch.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I love this video of Bellever in November 2024 I found. It was very cold with a light dusting of frost, there was a beautiful mist over the river and that night snow fell. #Dartmoor, #Devon #photography

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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Allow us to continue to celebrate these five brilliant books. Here's a thread with short videos of our stellar shortlisted authors explaining their book and its intervention. Get to know the excellence of #earlymodern scholarship in five short videos 🧵 #SkyStorians

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becimay @becimay.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My TLS piece on the Exeter cuts ✨

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April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Delighted to say that I have had an abstract accepted by the British Milton Seminar with the opportunity to present at a session next spring. Presenting at the BMS has been a goal of mine since I first attended in 2021 so I couldn't be more thrilled.

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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A calming and serene sunrise this morning here in Glastonbury. Photograph taken from Glastonbury Tor looking out over the Somerset levels.

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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Only 12 signatures away from 40k!! While we may have fought off compulsory redundancies, we need to keep up the pressure on senior management for governance change, and maintain the public visibility of our campaign to use this effectively for the wider sector.

change.org

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I know all university leaders hate trades unions but at Brighton they’re about to find out what happens when their workforce doesn’t have a structure and negotiating team to represent them and to head off trouble. It won’t be pretty. Employees won’t submit - they’ll resist in unpredictable ways.

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Kathleen Stock says the quiet part out loud, apparently

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Sam Kinsley @samkinsley.uk · 11/09/2026

When the choice is between leaving with some money or leaving with very little money; when its contingent on signing NDAs; when coworkers only know half truths & whispered gossip; when senior management are remote & uncaring; & when the union only seems to see what they want: where is the humanity?

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09... University of Bristol students advised to contact homeless charity, Shelter, for emergency accommodation #UKHE

telegraph.co.uk

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Joad Raymond @joadrwren.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I’m speaking in Bath on Monday, if you happen to be near and fancy a couple of hours of utopia. www.brlsi.org/whatson/the-...

brlsi.org

The uses of Utopia, from Plato to the present – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

Discussing Utopia as both a literary genre and a way of thinking

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Ah, yes, look at us all, basking in our “financial certainty”. Thanks, Baroness. #UKHE

Meme from the simpsons where the class is looking at Bart and demands “say the line bart” — here substituted with ‘Jacqui’ for Jacqui Smith — and a dejected bart answers “i’ve stabilised the sector” to loud cheers and jeers from the entire class, including the teacher.

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This stuff seems so patronising to students, most of whom organise their own work experience, paid work, and can attend work-based learning modules if they want to. It's hard to imagine how they made it to university without "punctuality, resilience, and communication" skills. 🤪

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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Why is the answer to employers wanting more work ready graduates always that universities should provide more workplace training, rather than employers providing more training in the workplace?

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Exeter UCU @exeterucu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

What a MAMMOTH result. 100% the product of everyone's efforts over the summer.

RECORD-BREAKING BALLOT RESULT
EXETER UCU VOTES FOR ACTION
90.53% VOTE YES TO STRIKE
73.85% TURNOUT

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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Incredible mobilisation across the institution, in all faculties and PS divisions. This is a resounding statement of industrial strength. Now we have to decide what to do with it!! 😂 With compulsory redundancies off the table already, tomorrow’s EGM will be interesting. There’s power in the Union! ✊🏻

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is cool because Andrew Marvell described Paradise Lost as a bird of paradise: it has no feet but glides effortlessly.

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Lee Raye @leafyhistory.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Happy release day from me and my new book! CREATURES OF STORY AND SONG is out today with @reaktionbooks.bsky.social . What do you think of my book cake?! (thanks Laurie!)

Photo of the author with curly hairs and glasses holding out a plate with a slice of cake with 'happy book release day'written over the top

Cake with my book's cover on the top! The title is 'Creatures of Story and Song: Tracing Britain's Lost Species' by Lee Raye. The cover is turquoise blue with wolves walking with people

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Professor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I don't usually compare government attention to job losses in higher education to job losses in other industries, but this time I will because this has me utterly raging. JLR are in a mess due to their own market strategy and the cyber attack they weren't prepared for www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Business secretary to meet Jaguar Land Rover boss as thousands of job cuts expected

The company is struggling with the impact of tariffs as well as the fallout from a major cyber attack last year.

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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Amethyst and ruby red sky. Absolutely gorgeous sunset last night here in Glastonbury.

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Getting ready for the new academic year: 17th century undergraduate Simon Sloper writes his term dates into his commonplace book in 1619 Bodleian MS Eng. poet. f. 10: Fol.52r

Manuscript page from Bodleian MS Eng.poet.f. 10

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Kate Littler @palaeoclimate.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Confirmed there will be no compulsory redundancies at Exeter for now because enough staff took ‘voluntary redundancy’ over the summer. (Is it really ‘voluntary’ with a metaphorical gun to your head of being in a small compulsory redundancy pool though? 🤔 ) We have lost so many good colleagues 😞

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Francesca Stavrakopoulou @proffrancesca.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who stood up for us, wrote letters, signed the petition, and told the university exactly why what we do actually matters ❤️ 3/3

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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A victory of sorts. We may have lost around 100 colleagues, who left ‘voluntarily’, but no one was sacked, our ballot closes on Wednesday and not all our conditions have been met (eg workloads), and we are in a very different place as staff and Union. Time to #ReclaimExeterUni @ucu.org.uk

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Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This was my question, and then I thought who do you have on your staff who would be very much against this and why are some of these people up for redundancy…

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

"Lisa Roberts ... was present for the sciences graduations but didn’t show her face for the humanities subjects that she has a clear ideological bias against." #DefendExeterUni

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Dr. Niall Allsopp @niallallsopp.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Thanks @profalexp.bsky.social an honour to work with a large, self-formed group of colleagues (and with UCU support) to put these together. Uni managers are out of touch with the core activities of their institutions, front line academics need to be in the room—that should be a baseline expectation

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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

We have to reform our governance structures to avoid this being sprung on us again. We are not a corporation. VCs don't deserve that pay. Universities are a non-profit, educational instituons. We need to prioritse academic freedom to pursue curiosity-led research and world leading education.

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

It makes me so sad to see the depths to which the university has sunk since the days of Steve Smith (who apparently at least spoke to academics) & the inspiring Floella Benjamin. It seemed such a hopeful place. But I doubt the VC even knows what is symbolised by its coat of arms.

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 29/08/2026

🎥 We are putting together a package to support and amplify every single dispute in the union. Today is our first ever local dispute video from the brilliant Glasgow Caledonian UCU Branch who are fighting to protect jobs. Please give it a watch and share.

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Aidan McGlynn @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This whole thread about Exeter is worth reading, but this point jumped out - the justification for enormous salaries was based on leadership capacities, and we're now watching them all pay a further fortune for cookie-cutter recommendations from external consultants (often the same consultants).

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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

A thread on the dispute at Exeter Uni. #ucu #defendexeteruni @ucu.org.uk On 15 June HR called Exeter UCU into a confidential meeting and informed us they would be putting over 500 colleagues at risk of redundancy and expected to loose around 200 staff. The number of c.150 you’ll have seen is FTE.

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Julie Sanders says employers want students with humanities skills. She "modelled Royal Holloway’s research strategy ... on the university’s areas of research strength, on close analysis of its research impact studies." Exeter's VC is cutting Hums departments, its greatest research strengths, by 25%

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The accommodation crisis preceding the teaching crisis, with fewer teachers than usual after redundancies. And, possibly, industrial action. #DefendExeterUni

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Dr Philippa Earle @uncouthswain.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Love this photo. Especially the leg splodges. I bought postcards of this from the Martin Parr exhibition--on now--at Lacock, depicting his time there from the 80s, but mostly in 2025, his last project. Also spotted a lovely one of my school art teacher in her garden!

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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I just temporarily de-escalated an actual fight on the top floor of the night bus by the active standby training kicking in and asking a neutral question. I confused everyone (including myself) into temporarily stopping with the question "does anyone knows the lyrics to Sunshine on Leith?".

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