Christopher Smith

@christophersmith.bsky.social

3.8K followers 1.4K following 980 posts

University of St Andrews; Executive Chair, Arts & Humanities Research Council; International Champion and Creative Industries Sector Champion UK Research and Innovation

All views my own, but none of the poetry.

Videos

Christopher John Smith, FRSE, FSA, FRHistS, is a British academic and classicist specialising in early Ancient Rome.

Source: Wikipedia

History 56%

Art 25%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 2d

"In London #November isn't a month, it's a state of mind."
Antal Szerb, Journey by Moonlight

Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · 2d

"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe

"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees

This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts

bit.ly

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 2d

One of the great satisfactions of #reading is "an ability to join together isolated fragments of knowledge into a meaningful whole"
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst @thetimes.com
#libraries

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

How to get more out of reading — tips from an Oxford don

In Look Closer, the academic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst rattles through literature from Charles Dickens to Sally Rooney

www.thetimes.com

Reposted by Margot C. Finn

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 2d

Here's an excellent piece by Sverker Sörlin on his notion of integrative #humanities..

To solve some of the issues for #science raised in recent posts by @ersatzben.com @richardaljones.bsky.social @profserious.bsky.social we will need more of this thinking

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

www.journals.uchicago.edu

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 2d

Profoundly beautiful account of the history of snow studies, the fragility of snow and the impact of the anthropocene by Sverker Sörlin.

Also an appeal for a different way of doing #science

Book cover, Sverker Sörlin, Snö, a detail of snow covering trees and landscape from a painting by Gustav Fjaestad

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Christopher Smith, Margot C. Finn

profserious @profserious.bsky.social · 2d

'What We Need To Do Now' ... an agenda for universities in the new post-16 system ... set out by @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

What We Need To Do Now

an agenda for universities in the new post-16 system

profserious.substack.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Carcanet Press @carcanet.bsky.social · 3d

⭐Discount Spotlight: Citizen Poet by Eavan Boland, edited by Jody Allen Randolph📘

Carcanet's monthly discount has launched! This month, enjoy 20% off a selection of books from our Lives and Letters collection by using the code LETTERS20 at our website checkout:⬇️
www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017170...

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 3d

Update: we have sold a total of twelve books this month. "The end of the work is the possibility of connection, that the book, if it has been made well, might become 'a site of exchange', that it might have use and value to others, whether the others are many or few."

Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 7d

It may well be the case that small, independent presses are the lifeblood of literature, and a vital feature of our cultural landscape, providing an essential service in a complex ecosystem, like wrasses or shrimps. What is undeniably the case is that we have sold a total of five books this month.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Dave O’Brien, Christopher Smith , and 1 more Diane Coyle, Dave O’Brien, Christopher Smith, Jack Stilgoe

Andy Westwood @andywestwood.bsky.social · 3d

Here is @richardaljones.bsky.social basically telling us how it is. I’ve been thinking about this since listening to him say this stuff out loud at the @royalsociety.org
on Thursday.
softmachines.org?p=3192

UK Science in a post-liberal world – Soft Machines, by Richard Jones

softmachines.org

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Evan Jones (Ευριπίδες Ιωάννου) @evanpjones.bsky.social · 4d

In which a New Zealander writes about a fire likely still burning. From Collected Poems of Bill Manhire, Carcanet Press, 2001. @carcanet.bsky.social @pacificraft.bsky.social

Reposted by Dave O’Brien, Christopher Smith

UKRI Funding Opportunities @funding.ukri.org · 5d

ICYMI: Early career research fellowships scheme coordination and cohort support (invite only) #ahrc #academicsky

Early career research fellowships scheme coordination and cohort support (invite only)

Apply for funding through an invitation only funding opportunity to lead cohort coordination and development for AHRC’s early career fellowships in cultural and heritage institutions. You must be based at UK Independent Research Organisation (IRO) eligible for AHRC funding.

www.ukri.org

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Christopher Smith

Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy @mctd.bsky.social · 5d

NEW REPORT – The Impact of Generative AI and the Novel 📚

Today we've published new research by @clemicollett.bsky.social examining how industry practitioners, from novelists to publishers, are experiencing AI’s significant impacts.

Read now: www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...

The impact of generative Ai on the Novel, Dr Clementine Collett. The logos of BRAID, MCTD, the Institute for the Future of Work, the Uni of Cambridge, and UKRI all feature. The image is a curved wall bookcase filled with books.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 6d

And a very good book it is too! @margaretheffernan.bsky.social

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Andrew Kelly @andrewkelly.bsky.social · 7d

Margaret Heffernan is hosting our Festival of Economics event today on artists and AI. Here’s my recent interview with her on her new book on artists and how they can help us navigate uncertainty. Follow @margaretheffernan.bsky.social for more.

Festival of Ideas 1: Margaret Heffernan on Artists and Navigating Uncertainty

An interview with Andrew Kelly

festivalofideas.substack.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith, Margot C. Finn

Ben Johnson @ersatzben.com · 7d

The government has talked about organising R&D into three 'buckets' - discovery research, research aligned to government priorities, and business support. This is a good idea that could fail in the implementation. Here are my 10 tests for success:
www.ersatzben.com/p/the-three-...

The three-bucket problem

Ten tests for the UK’s new R&D funding framework

www.ersatzben.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 7d

The St  Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social from 21 November to 7 December
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...

A sixteenth-century handwritten book, lying open on a dark grey-blue cushion. Cloth-covered weighted cords hold the book open to display the text, including a section underlined in red and a paragraph starting with a large, red capital M.

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 7d

Completely agree with @richove.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social; we have woefully underinvested in the #digital #research infrastructure for Arts Humanities & Social Sciences.

AHRC continues to work with #libraries & #archives but the funding model has to give greater weight to Digital Humanities

Richard Ovenden @richove.bsky.social · 7d

Good to see the problems facing our colleagues @britishlibrary.bsky.social being raised here by @hetanshah.bsky.social (of @britishacademy.bsky.social). If this had happened in France it would be considered a national problem to be urgently addressed! www.cityam.com/the-british-...

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?

The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

www.cityam.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith, Peter Gatrell, Adrian Vickers , and 3 more Christopher Smith, Peter Gatrell, Adrian Vickers, Catriona Seth, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Lorna Hughes

Richard Ovenden @richove.bsky.social · 7d

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?

The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

www.cityam.com

Reposted by Steve Peers, Dave O’Brien, Christopher Smith

School of Advanced Study, University of London @sas-news.bsky.social · 9d

👋 Hi Bluesky!

The School of Advanced Study, University of London champions the arts and humanities. Working through our renowned specialist institutes and centres of excellence, we offer a rich interdisciplinary environment for researchers to collaborate.

Let's connect: 🔗 sas.ac.uk/

School of Advanced Study

Uniting research institutes and centres at the University of London to form the UK's national centre for the support and promotion of academic research in the humanities.

sas.ac.uk

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 9d

Important reflections from Jo Ritzen and Job Zomerplaag on next steps for Europe's universities

www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....

Dutch vote gave universities a reprieve. Will they use it?

The outcome of the recent elections in the Netherlands offers universities breathing space from threatened cuts but reveals a challenge facing many un...

www.universityworldnews.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Carcanet Press @carcanet.bsky.social · 9d

Looking for an November read? Why not check out our monthly discount? Use code LETTERS20 at checkout for 20% of selected titles in our Lives and Letters collection:⬇️
www.carcanet.co.uk/

Carcanet Press

One of the outstanding literary publishers of our time, Carcanet Press has a special emphasis on poetry from around the world.

www.carcanet.co.uk

Reposted by Tim Bale, Christopher Smith

Richard Ovenden @richove.bsky.social · 9d

Delighted to have been given the chance to review ‘Don’t burn anyone at the stake today’ the new and thought-provoking book from @naomialderman.bsky.social (published by Penguin/FigTree) in today’s @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 9d

I tried to do something that was (for me) quite a challenge: describe precisely how the word "that", in the right place, can make "all the difference" to a poem someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/that-vase

That Vase

Thinking about what "that" can do in a poem

someflowerssoon.substack.com

Reposted by Charles West

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 10d

Delighted to see Corinna Riva's outstandingly innovative essay on the 1st millennium BCE now published

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Multi-scalar Lenses on the Mediterranean in the First Millennium BC - Journal of Archaeological Research

In the current era of global approaches in archaeology and, more broadly, in the social and historical sciences, questions on the benefits, modes, and challenges of addressing multiple analytical scal...

link.springer.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith, Shadreck Chirikure, Margot C. Finn

The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social · 12d

Achieving technological and economic growth sustainably is seen by many as key if we are to meet the needs of a growing global population.

Professor Shadreck Chirikure explores whether the cosmologies of past advanced civilisations can help us address present challenges. https://bit.ly/43rMb40

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 19d

What a super gift to give ... great books give back to us over our lives don't they....

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 19d

That is a lovely outcome; thank you for sharing

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 19d

Such a good idea from @orkneylibrary.bsky.social

#GreenLibraries #LoveLibraries #BrilliantLibraries

Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 22d

Another week, another new thing at Orkney Library & Archive! 🛠️

Libraries are not just about books and this week we're launching our loanable TOOL collection! 🔧

We have 3 different toolkits available and we'll be adding more items very soon. 🪛

#GreenLibraries #LoveLibraries

A toolbox opened up to show tools inside

Reposted by Margot C. Finn

Christopher Smith @christophersmith.bsky.social · 19d

It's always sad to see a church sold, but maybe this piece will encourage a few new readers of A Scots Quair

@asls.org.uk

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sunset Song: Church that inspired Grassic Gibbon novel up for sale

Arbuthnott Church inspired Lewis Grassic Gibbon and is for sale for offers over £45,000.

www.bbc.com

Reposted by Christopher Smith

Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 22d

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