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Vindhya Buthpitiya

@vindi-b.bsky.social
4.2K followers 111 following 289 posts

Anthropologist of War and Pictures. Conflict. Politics. Resistance. Visual Culture. International Development. Sri Lanka. citizensofphotography.org

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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The limits of Pankaj Mishra’s reckoning with Zionism and the Gaza genocide www.himalmag.com/pankaj-mishr... @rahulraothariel.bsky.social for @himalsouthasian.bsky.social
himalmag.com
The limits of Pankaj Mishra’s reckoning on Gaza and Zionism
Pankaj Mishra’s ‘The World After Gaza’ searches for common ground between diverse histories of suffering, but his centring of Jewish trauma leaves Palestine diminished. Esmat Elhalaby, by contrast, re...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Chemmani: Workers came across human remains – and unearthed a mass grave of 572 people www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #SriLanka
bbc.co.uk
Sri Lanka's Chemmani mass grave reopens wounds from the civil war - and families want answers
Workers in northern Sri Lanka accidentally uncovered the country's largest mass grave – and reopened wounds from its civil war.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Mary Slusser’s secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage: A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States www.himalmag.com/mary-slusser... via @himalsouthasian.bsky.social
himalmag.com
Mary Slusser’s secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage
A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States
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wennergrenorg.bsky.social @wennergrenorg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
www.parc-us-pal.org/tanya-baker-... www.parc-us-pal.org/fellowships-... Palestinian American Research Center: www.parc-us-pal.org
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
very happy to be joining the Archivo 2027 Advanced Research Seminar progamme as a mentor. More information on ‘Critical Perspectives: Photography, Archives, and Political Imagination here: www.archivoplatform.com/seminar
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Looking forward to discussing "How Plague Got Rats" @hopkinspress.bsky.social tomorrow with @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social - 15:00 BST
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
a copy of ‘A Volatile Picture’ is also now processed/available in the Jaffna University Library 🙏🏽
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
every word of this. | The university is the crisis - Jason Arday’s death underscores how the neoliberal university rewards conformity and resists transformation by Rinaldo Walcott canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...
canadiandimension.com
The university is the crisis
The crisis of the university is its inability to be honest about the nature of its self-induced crisis. Its leaders or senior managers often share the perspectives of those who wish the university to ...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
very happy that ‘A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka’ is now available at the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies Library in Colombo www.librarycat.org/lib/AISLS-Co...
librarycat.org
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
very exciting Annual Review of Anthropology, ‘The Politics of Appearances: Unsettling the Anthropology of Images’ by Patricia Spyer and Karen Strassler this year! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... also features a photograph of mine from the Mullivaikkal commemoration in 2018.
annualreviews.org
The Politics of Appearances: Unsettling the Anthropology of Images
Recent work in the anthropology of images shares an attunement to the unsettled and unsettling nature of images. Following Spyer's conceptualization of the relationship between images and broader...
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Liverpool Distribution Services at Liverpool University Press @lupdistribution.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
"A Volatile Picture" In the pages of this ethnography, photography shapes #Tamil political life amid war and its aftermath in Sri Lanka. Images become tools of memory, resistance, and visions of liberation. Explore this title *and* the 'Global South Asia' series now: bit.ly/3QtN6ND @uwapress.uw.edu
Promotional graphic for A Volatile Picture by Vindhya Buthpitiya. On the right, the book cover shows a layered arrangement of photographs and documents, with the subtitle about war and the political work of photography in Sri Lanka. On the left, a muted panel features a quote from Karen Strassler reading, “gives us reason to remain hopeful about photography’s political potentials,” with the University of Washington Press logo below.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
had the greatest fortune to have seen P. Ahilan’s exhibition ‘Geography of Absence’ exceeding both art and poetry on at Kalam in Jaffna from 08/08 to 10/08. Can’t say I have seen work this layered, extraordinary and moving in a long while. Not to be missed.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
the book has come home 🙏🏽 there has been a lot about ‘A Volatile Picture’ that has been extraordinarily emotional for me, but nothing quite like bringing it back to where it all began - its home and the birthplace of photography in Lanka, Jaffna.
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Not could, will. AI needs to be treated as what it is: a destructive pilfering, disinformation and plagiarism machine that has no place in democratic societies www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
New Google Earth AI tool could fuel misinformation, experts say
Experts tell BBC Verify Google's new feature which lets people generate fake satellite images could be misused.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 01/08/2026
Sri Lanka's then-chief of police and then-secretary to the ministry of defence have been sentenced to death (these haven't been carried out since the 70s; nowadays it means life imprisonment) for not preventing the 2019 Easter bombings despite advance warning. Fun times
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The disconnect of the REF from academic reality is made again clear in that this survey is released in the midst of the summer holidays. Still unsurprising given that REF blithely continues in the midst of massive redundancies across the sector
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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Because it’s Meta, you can assume that they know very well that the core market for the perv glasses is stalking (and — once they switch on facial recognition — repression) and this concern about ‘misuse’ is just Kabuki to stall calls for regulation futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Meta Desperately Trying to Ban Creeps Misusing Its AI "Pervert Glasses"
Meta is vowing to crack down on creeps misusing its Ray Ban smart glasses. Whether it will be enough to regain trust remains to be seen.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
🙃 last week, it was announced that 35 universities across the UK had founded the "Defence Universities Alliance" (DUA) as part of an £182 million investment by the UK Government in defence research, skills and careers. www.thenational.scot/news/2640197...
thenational.scot
Universities just joined a 'defence alliance'. Here's everything wrong with it
Last week, it was announced that 35 universities across the UK, including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde universities in Scotland, had founded…
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous by Arundhati Roy thewire.in/article/righ...
m.thewire.in
Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous - The Wire
Can all the people be fooled all the time? Can a country with a population of a billion-and-a-half be dragged around like a corpse forever? It cannot. The Cockroaches are out and about.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
22/07/2026: the excavations at Chemmani have now revealed 471 (and counting) skeletons. Even on an island littered with mass graves and tens of thousands of deaths which are yet to be accounted for, these numbers are staggering.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 19/07/2026
Sri Lanka's largest mass grave. The International Truth and Justice Project's report on Chemmani, published last week is very good and detailed. itjpsl.com/reports/chem...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
very happy to see a new review of our #PhotoDemos book ‘Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination’ (DUP, 2023) by Gabby Moser in History of Photography www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9C6Y4... the book can be found OA here: read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3...
tandfonline.com
Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination
Published in History of Photography (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Gaza and the Problem of Moral Stupidity - Abdaljawad Omar: 40 years after Edward Said demanded ‘permission to narrate’, the truth from Palestine has never been more widely known. And yet the annihilation continue www.equator.org/articles/mor... via @equatormag.bsky.social
equator.org
Gaza and the Problem of Moral Stupidity • EQUATOR
Forty years after Edward Said demanded ‘permission to narrate’, the truth from Palestine has never been more widely known. And yet the annihilation continues.
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions
• Durham University
• Newcastle University
• Northumbria University
• Lancaster University
• University of Cumbria
• University of Lancashire
• University of Liverpool
• University of Manchester
• University of Huddersfield
• University of Sheffield
• University of York
• Loughborough University
• University of Lincoln
• University of Nottingham
• Aston University
• University of Birmingham
• University of Warwick
• King's College London
• Kingston University
• Queen Mary University of London
• University College London
• University of Oxford
• University of Portsmouth
• University of Surrey
• University of Bath
• University of Bristol
• University of Exeter
• University of Plymouth
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Glasgow
• University of Strathclyde
• Cardiff University
• Swansea University
• Queens University Belfast
• Cranfield UniversityFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14 July 2026
UK Universities Betray Public Trust by Joining MoD's 'Battlefield Advantage' Alliance
Without Debate
A coalition of campaign groups has accused UK universities of quietly integrating themselves into Britain's defence infrastructure after 35 institutions signed up to the Ministry of Defence's Defence Universities Alliance (DUA).
The Ministry of Defence says the alliance aims to "reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security", strengthen links between universities and the defence sector, and translate research into "battlefield advantage".
Campaigners say the move represents a significant shift in the role of higher education and has taken place without meaningful public debate.
Among the founding members are the University of Oxford, University College London, King's College London, the University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University and Queen's University Belfast.
"We are witnessing the formal incorporation of Britain's universities into the defence ecosystem," said Jinsella Kennaway, Founder and Executive Director of Demilitarise Education.
"The Ministry of Defence is explicit about its intentions. Universities exist to advance knowledge and foster critical inquiry, not to become pipelines for military research and defence recruitment.
Students and staff deserve to know who agreed to this and why."
Campaigners are calling on all 35 universities to publish the governance documents and board minutes relating to their decision to join the alliance, and to explain whether staff and students were consulted.
Many UK universities already maintain relationships with major defence companies, including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo, Thales, Lockheed Martin and QinetiQ. Critics argue that the DUA formalises and accelerates the integration of academia, industry and the state.
The coalition warns that, at a time of rising defence spending, universities risk becoming increasingly aligned with governme…
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
new report from the International Truth and Justice Project on the Chemmani Mass Grave ‘We Are Still Searching’ itjpsl.com/reports/chem... #SriLanka
itjpsl.com
ITJP - ITJP
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Let's remember for a sec the role of philosophy in one of Dundee's (and the world's) greatest scientists in the 20th century: D'Arcy Thompson. This mindless vandalism of academia needs to stop
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Looking forward to welcoming the speakers, discussants and audience of the Endemic Transformations workshop tomorrow morning @standrewsanthro.bsky.social for 2 days of discussion on how approaches to diseases as "endemics" has transformed social and multispecies relations since the 19th century
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JDS @jdslanka.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
@peninternational.bsky.social raises concern over Sri Lanka using national security, customs & public order provisions to censor literary & journalistic works and calls on authorities to release all remaining copies of P. Theepachelvan's books. www.pen-international.org/news/sri-lan...
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
"The arts and humanities are fundamental to the flourishing of our society; knowledge gathering, critical thinking and creativity should be defended as sacred things” www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Fury over Exeter University plan to scrap dozens of humanities posts
Rowan Williams and Mark Kermode join campaign against proposed cuts for arts and social sciences
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
delighted that the @himalsouthasian.bsky.social Southasia Review of Books podcast with @shwethasrikanthan.bsky.social is back! | Joe Sacco discusses ‘The Once and Future Riot’ and the controversy surrounding Penguin India’s decision not to distribute his book www.himalmag.com/podcasts/joe...
himalmag.com
Joe Sacco on the book Penguin India wouldn’t distribute: Southasia Review of Books #39
The acclaimed comic-journalist discusses ‘The Once and Future Riot’, violence as a political tool, and the controversy surrounding Penguin India’s decision not to distribute his book
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Vandalism against HE in the UK escalates with a speed and viciousness that leaves no doubt as to the ideological motives behind it
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
could not have envisioned a better reviewer for ‘A Volatile Picture' than Shyam Tekwani who has lived this book & its photos. Enormously grateful for these words 🙏🏽 | How Photographs Defied All Attempts to Bury the Memory of Sri Lanka's War thewire.in/books/how-ph... @thewire.in
thewire.in
How Photographs Defied All Attempts to Bury the Memory of Sri Lanka's War
A groundbreaking study of how everyday photographs became instruments of memory, mourning and political resistance in the aftermath of Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
on researching difficult pictures in post/war Sri Lanka, how photographs are used in the fight for truth and justice, and the “volatile” nature of images, whose meanings and political uses shift over time uwpressblog.com/2026/06/22/t... @uwapress.uw.edu
uwpressblog.com
The Political Work of Photography: A Conversation with Vindhya Buthpitiya
Author Vindhya Buthpitiya shares insights from the in-depth fieldwork behind her book, A Volatile Picture and discusses how photographs are vital tools for protest, solidarity, and the realization …
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University of Washington Press @uwapress.uw.edu · 23/06/2026
Read our Q&A with Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social, author of A VOLATILE PICTURE, on photography as witness and weapon amid civil war. She shares more about her in-depth fieldwork in Sri Lanka and reflects on the "volatile" nature of images, whose meanings and political uses shift over time.
uwpressblog.com
The Political Work of Photography: A Conversation with Vindhya Buthpitiya
Author Vindhya Buthpitiya shares insights from the in-depth fieldwork behind her book, A Volatile Picture and discusses how photographs are vital tools for protest, solidarity, and the realization …
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JDS @jdslanka.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Phase 3 / Day 31: The total number of skeletons identified at Sri Lanka's largest mass grave in Chemmani surged to 412 on Monday (22), following the discovery of 7 more skeletal remains by the forensic team working under Prof. Raj Somadeva.| 📷 © Sumithi Thangarasa
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JDS @jdslanka.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Phase 3 / Day 27 As 14 more bodies were discovered from the Jaffna mass burial site by the forensic team led by Prof. Raj Somadeva on Wednesday (17), Chemmani-Siththupaththi has now become the LARGEST MASS GRAVE ever found in Sri Lanka, with 380 bodies. | 📷 Kumanan Kanapathipillai
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
It’s ‘A Volatile Picture’ day!   This is a book born out of war, and its pages are steeped in immense pain and loss which continue to haunt my home. I did not set out to write with hope or to gesture towards resilience and reconciliation.
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Congrats to @vindi-b.bsky.social on the publication of this path-breaking book on how "in the context of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war and its turbulent aftermath, photography has become bound to the Tamil political imagination"
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
happy Friday ☺️ A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295... (US/Canada - summer sale!), liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/... (UK/rest of the world including Sri Lanka).
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
the book has made it home (house, family and island 🥹🙏🏽♥️) to Lanka - hard not to get a bit emotional 😭
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Shwetha Srikanthan @shwethasrikanthan.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Got my hands on @vindi-b.bsky.social’s book! 📖✨ Less than a week to go until publication day. Order your copy of 'A Volatile Picture': uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295... @uwapress.uw.edu + liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/... @livunipress.bsky.social
uwapress.uw.edu
A Volatile Picture
Photography as witness and weapon amid civil warThis groundbreaking ethnography explores how, in the context of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war and its tu...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
more marvellous tetrapod reptile material from Deraniyagala! 🐊
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
'If you use AI, it reveals your orientation toward writing. Do you want to make art, or just turn in text? Do you want to actually learn how to write, or just pretend to do so?' www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment | Micah Nathan
The problem wasn’t just the perfectly polished, yet mediocre prose. It’s what’s lost when we surrender the struggle to translate thought into words
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
starting 🐊 summer with this beautiful 1939 first edition of ‘Tetrapod Reptiles of Ceylon’ by Deraniyagala 😍
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Very happy to be sharing the programme of the "Endemic Transformations" workshop held on July 9-10 @standrewsanthro.bsky.social - Registration (free & in person only) is open till June 26 www.st-andrews.ac.uk/social-anthr...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
‘A Volatile Picture’ month at last! The book is shipping out in the US via @uwapress.uw.edu (summer sale on now! ) / UK distributor @livunipress.bsky.social Out in the world on the 16th of June uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295... | liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Syria’s Damascus rose has survived empire, crusade, and civil war. Now it faces a heating planet, and the question of who gets to claim it. atmos.earth/art-and-cult... via @atmosmag.bsky.social
atmos.earth
The Ancient Flower That Survived Syria’s Wars Faces A New Threat | Atmos
Photographer Emily Garthwaite documents the farmers, distillers, and communities trying to protect a rose central to Syrian history.
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Very happy to be sharing this conversation about my new book "How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic" @hopkinspress.bsky.social with Miranda Melcher on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/how-plague-g...
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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Such appalling way to treat staff and run Universities - all boiling down to the disastrous neoliberal dogma of approaching education and research in market and entrepreneurial terms
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
we really are sitting atop a lit pyre - how dire the situation in UK HE is cannot be overstated. | Squadrons of Pigs - Stefan Collini www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... via @lrb.co.uk
lrb.co.uk
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
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