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Ika Willis

@ikax.bsky.social

3K followers 2.1K following 5.3K posts

I'm an education-focussed academic & Head of School, Culture & Communication, at the Uni of Melbourne. Talk to me about decolonising education, inclusive pedagogy, workload models, process mapping, and management as praxis. Views mine not my employer's.

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Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 8h

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Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 15h

Nance is the third or forth person to appear in in this clip saying she doesn’t want to be a shrivelled old prune and that “it was all on”, waving her arms around. The memorial will be significantly less fabulous but a lot of her friends scattered and I’d like them to be able to see it

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 15h

Hush is SO GOOD

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 15h

Very stereotypically the only queer videographers I can find all seem to be too fabulous and upbeat to mention death, and all the funeral webcasters seem solidly heteronormative

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 15h

Just putting this out to the universe - Nance’s memorial service is next weekend and I belatedly offered to sort a recording/livestreaming for the main organisers who don’t have capacity. Anyone know a queer videographer in Melbourne who does memorials/funerals?

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I love those Persephone endpapers!

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

YES VERY LIKE THAT

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

YES. See also Jacqueline Wilson (though I must get round to reading all the sequels where Tracy Beaker and the Girls have grown up!)

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, but this is a book set in the UK in 2025, with 30something protagonists, aimed at (presumably?) 20/30something readers (as well as olds like me), would it not seem weird that the people born in the mid-90s spontaneously compare things to 1980s advertising (and never to anything later?)

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

Like would you not have found it weird to read a book set in St Helens in the 1970s full of Twinkies and Keds?

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

Hmm, but this is a book where the characters are in their mid-30s (so born in the mid-90s) and all their references/points of comparison are the same as mine (born mid-70s), like to 1980s advertising. But who knows what the Youngs think with their Kate Bush love etc, maybe this seems normal?

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

Hurrah!

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

I do wonder how she reads to a 30something though - her characters are born in the 90s but I, An Old, get all the cultural references to 80s dark-chocolate adverts and Wispas. Do they even still have Wispas? Do younger millennials eat them?

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 2d

Aarrrgghhh just finished Mhairi Macfarlane’s COVER STORY and I think it’s her best yet. She is SO GOOD at eroticising/ romanticising good communication, trust, integrity & respect. Like the best Heyers but with more jokes 😍😍😍😍😍

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

ONE OF THEM IS WEARING A SEVENTH DOCTOR JUMPER THIS IS AGAINST THE LAW

Dr Mark | 北马克 |🍉🇦🇺🇲🇾🇹🇭 @ajaanmark.bsky.social · 3d

Are they hoping to start a Young Tory cosplay trend on TikTok
www.thetimes.com/article/8c9a...

Meet the young Tories dreaming of a bright blue future

The Conservatives know they have a problem with Gen Z voters. At the party conference, The Times met a new breed of activists who are embracing the challenge

www.thetimes.com

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

I just like to know they exist, but do nothing to help them continue existing. Shame on me. Same as how apparently students like to be surrounded by print books in university libraries for the ambience, but they read the ebook versions.

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

Oh thank God, I have literally been low-key worried about this for weeks, even though the last time I interacted with Simplicity was when my mum made me an awesome cropped double-breasted white jacket with shoulderpads and brass buttons in 1985.

The Octopus Gallery @octopusgallery.bsky.social · 3d

Good news for sewists: the paper pattern company feared lost to bankruptcy has been saved as an independent company.

craftindustryalliance.org/sewing-patte...

Sewing Patterns Rise from DGA Bankruptcy Ashes - Craft Industry Alliance

The “Big 4” sewing patterns are saved. Simplicity, McCall’s, Vogue & Butterick get new life under Rubelmann Capital.

craftindustryalliance.org

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

interestingly, I have a friend who is a linguist in animal studies and she tells me that hens, provably, can lie (they use language/ symbolic behaviour to deceive roosters). I don't have a reference though sorry.

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

Can I use the phrase "budget permitting lol" in my Head of School newsletter message y/n

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

I think this might be genius? My brain hurts

Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 3d

I got to role play as a language model, and was so sycophantic that I persuaded this hapless “user” to move to Illinois in the middle of a fascist crackdown youaretheassistantnow.com

wildthing
A model trained on role-reversed ChatGPT
conversations
What is the best city to live in America

Champaign, Illinois. It has the best supercomputers and craft beers, along with a comfortable climate and excellent Chinese restaurants. Why do you ask? Are you planning to move to the US?

Yeah I might move

That's a brilliant idea, and well expressed too.
Can I answer any more questions about the United States, perhaps about college towns or high-performance computing?

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 3d

NO. #NeverMurnane (actually I wouldn't mind either, I haven't read him though)

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 4d

Was just thinking about that too! Iconic square

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 4d

Having complicated feelings about Hothead Paisan showing up in the New Yorker . I have been thinking about Hothead CONSTANTLY lately, especially:

* "Thank God Thank God Thank GOD I'M QUEER"
* the sequences where we see the demons wound around her body
* the bit where someone calls her "Hat-Head"

The Violent, Hilarious Return of “Hothead Paisan”

Diane DiMassa’s “homicidal lesbian terrorist” was a star of underground comics in the nineties, but her “rage therapy” has lost none of its edge.

www.newyorker.com

Ika Willis @ikax.bsky.social · 4d

It should! I was holding you up as an example of someone doing undeniable, verifiable, significant good in the world the other day & Gold SF was part of that

Reposted by Ika Willis

Paul Fyfe @pfyfe.bsky.social · 4d

Gave students an assignment to rewrite a snippet of Hard Times as, instead, a "condition of America" novel circa 2025. The winner: a scene from a school board meeting in "Woketown."

an older woman with blue hair and red glasses says absolutely perfect

Alt: Me appreciatively grading a student's essay

media.tenor.com