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Ian Webster

@websterij.bsky.social
1.4K followers 445 following 112 posts

PhDed at Exeter: Modernism and the Making of Macroeconomics. Having spent years doing less interesting stuff. Now time to figure out what to do next.

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becimay @becimay.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My TLS piece on the Exeter cuts ✨
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"the pleasure of describing complex things and conveying the joy of understanding" Good Weird or Bad Weird www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Colin Burrow · Good Weird or Bad Weird: Uses of Criticism
Literary criticism is a supremely occasional skill, where you have to be bold enough to operate where there aren’t any...
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Why is 'Ubu Roi' not more in our discourse?
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Well done University of Exeter management. Redundancies, a shortage of accomodation, and now this. A tip top team. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Exeter University approves deal with Saudi Arabia to train military officers and officials
In move that could generate millions, Exeter academics to deliver MA at National Defense University in Riyadh
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The management of the University of Exeter goes from strength to strength.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
It’s difficult. But perhaps a moral imperative to imagine a world “expanded to the limitless dimensions of hope.”
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Derek D. Turner @wiserthanddt.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Excellent letter from the BSPS. Watching what's happening at Exeter with great concern for friends there.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Make sure you make it to the end 16/16 is super important. Congratulations Matt.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Let's not forget that these changes are about remaking the university into a corporate entity... no longer an education, but customers buying products
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Someone's labour theory of value - Ricardo, Sraffa, or maybe Marx www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Elon Musk says he got ‘carried away’ with Trump – but still holds on to contentious political views
In interview, billionaire says instead of running ‘Doge’ he should’ve ‘worked on my companies’ and shares extreme predictions
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
What a crass vandal
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
And I thought Burnham should have kept Jones as he seemed a capable minister and his previous chairing of Select Committees was brilliant. But now I understand Burnham's reasoning
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Easy win @lucympowell.bsky.social
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Congratulation to @lucympowell.bsky.social. You've been brilliant as deputy leader and can you now please sort out the mess in higher education?
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Looks like Burnham’s going for the Poincaré option: ‘The Rentiers of the Right could entrust him with their purses, and the Puritans of the Left could entrust him with their principals’
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
It's something that The Guardian is supportive, but it needs to be longer and louder in that support www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial
Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
More evidence that the Exeter cuts make no sense.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
My heart is heavy that we are making a collective miscalculation in undervaluing the humanities - from my FT piece www.ft.com/content/fbde...
Thinking is hard. Reflection is hard. Perhaps we will persist with our collective miscalculation and ignore all that philosophy, literature, classics and history have to offer us. The humanities have a word for this: tragedy.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Though not about the cuts in humanities in the UK this piece wonderfully explains the inadequate thinking, reading, and analysis done by those making decisions with "the credulous use of social-science or scientistic [or economic] methods for the concerns and objects of the humanities"
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Maybe there is some economic value in English after all.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Kudos to Bristol www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Florence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’
Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Good to see that University of Exeter has its priorities right. Cutting humanities, and cozying up to the defence industry.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Succinct and brilliant
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
So much for universities cutting humanities departments. It is naive and will back fire.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This analysis of the crisis at British universities, using Exeter as the prime example deserves a wide audience. johnheathershaw.substack.com/p/the-crisis...
johnheathershaw.substack.com
The Crisis in Britain’s Universities
The cuts that have been proposed at the University of Exeter demonstrate the crisis of purpose in Britain’s universities. Should not universities also be places to prepare for "eternal dwellings"?
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Only when big names shout out do the media pick up the story. The story is not Exeter or their supporters it is about the dismantling of humanities: 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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Venus Bivar @vbivar.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
In solidarity, always, while simultaneously aware that I am extremely lucky to be where I am. c.org/2nzpctxpmF
c.org
Sign the Petition
Save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
This is one of the reasons why Exeter's decision to make cuts to the English department doesn't make sense. Even in a world where universities are solely for getting a job for graduates, English manages to do that rather effectively.
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
@steveracemp.bsky.social any comment on what's happening at the university?
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Unbridled vandalism www.timeshighereducation.com/news/i-thoug...
timeshighereducation.com
‘I thought we were safe’: shock at Exeter’s humanities ‘gamble’
Leading department being in the firing line shows how changing student preferences are fundamentally reshaping universities
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
It might just help change the senior management team's minds
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Don't let the senior management at Exeter play silly financial games with the brilliant academic staff c.org/XDMSfwtvw5
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
It's made it to the FT giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Why young academics are leaving academia
As more PhD holders compete for limited university jobs, many are reconsidering the appeal of industry careers
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
T.S. Eliot described by Golding as a 'silly old twit'. It's a wonderful review. www.the-tls.com/lives/letter...
the-tls.com
Darkness visible
In February 1955, William Golding wrote to Charles Monteith, his editor at Faber & Faber, the firm that had published his first novel, Lord of the Flies, a few months earlier: “The other night I sat u...
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Well that's all clear then
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Tony Cuda @ajcuda.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
We're overjoyed to announce next summer's star-studded line-up of scholars. Join us at Merton College, University of Oxford, 4-12 July 2026, for an unforgettable week of poetry!
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
This tells us what a Reform government would be like
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The International T. S. Eliot Society @intleliotsociety.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Why is the Eliot Summer School ALWAYS FUN? We think it's thanks to Director Cuda and all the students! Sign up, join, come or come again to nerd out at Eliot Camp this summer 💪🤓🌻
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Perhaps if we think of AI as a market it might give us a reasonable guide on how to regulate it
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
An excellent, and to my mind, compelling read
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
It's the time of the philosopher
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
be gone analysis, examination, and determining... it is time to wonder
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Tony Cuda @ajcuda.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Why is this mysterious woman ALWAYS RIGHT? She's the skeleton key to T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land... register for the 2026 International Summer School and let's talk about why! tseliotschool.com. @intleliotsociety.bsky.social @tseliotfoundation.bsky.social thanks @benjuhmuhn.bsky.social art,
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Ria Banerjee @ria4983.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Hey what could be better on a chilly Thursday in November than to edit those abstracts destined for MSA/BAMS? Doing so with the Eliot Society grad reps, of course!
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Tony Cuda @ajcuda.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
The Waste Land, Halloween edition!
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Tony Cuda @ajcuda.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Help me get this word out? Thanks! Scholarships available, full schedule soon
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
From the FT "Joel Mokyr is known as an economic historian rather than someone who stuffs their papers with whizzy maths. And this is the fourth Nobel in a row to feature a substantial economic history element." Some hope for the economics profession?
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⚔️🎀 𝔉𝔦𝔞𝔡𝔥 🎀⚔️ @fiadh.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
a bunny holding a spiked morning star by lily seika jones
text: we must remain whimsical to survive the horrors of this world
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Always an fascinating award to following. Congrats to the winners. societyofauthors.org/prizes/the-s...
societyofauthors.org
Eric Gregory Awards - The Society of Authors
For a collection by poets under the age of 30
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Ian Webster @websterij.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Shout it from the rooftops...
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