Jo VanEvery
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jovanevery.bsky.social
Jo VanEvery
@jovanevery.bsky.social
I help academics protect time for writing and resist overwork. Meaningfulness matters. You are more than your job. I also make things with textiles, read romances, sing alto in a choir. Subscribe to my newsletter: JoVanEvery.co.uk/newsletter
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If writing is what makes this job meaningful for you, it will make a difference to protect time for it, even when things are busy or uncertain. A Meeting With Your Writing can help. 4 sessions weekly. Will 1 of them work for you? academicwritingstudio.co.uk/a-meeting-wi...
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
I had the opportunity to read this already and I can tell you it is *excellent*. A very careful reading, fair and thorough.
So much of the commentary on the FWS judgment has been driven by reflexive responses to the outcome, but there are so many gaps and leaps in its reasoning that it will spawn litigation for years to come - @aoifemod.bsky.social and I flag some failings in judge craft:

nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...
December 15, 2025 at 10:42 AM
If you are managing people (e.g. PI, HoD, etc) the best thing you can do at this time of year is actively help your people let go of false end of the calendar year urgency.

Can that wait until January? Say so. Out loud.

They can decide what to do but relieve the pressure to do it because of you
December 15, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
🎯 To cultivate and maintain an effective self-revision strategy, you need to take into account and manage MINDSET, TIME and SYSTEMS.

💪 My hands-on mini-course will help you build a strategic approach to managing the task, adapted to your needs.

Full details: www.linguaverse.net/erm
Wendy Baldwin | Effective self-revision mini-course
Learn self-revision strategies and tools with a professional editor of academic texts. Practice applying them in a work-in-progress of your choice. Enjoy greater confidence when delivering your work t...
www.linguaverse.net
December 15, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I am struck by the imprecise use of "screens" in a lot of reporting.

Today it seems to mean "smartphone", and specifically social media.

re impact on kids, it often means any kind of screen and the effects of them regardless of what you are using them for.
December 15, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Do you feel like you are in grading jail? Do you have other things you also need to do? The Spotlight on Grading Season might have some ideas that would make your grading season 5% better. There's even audio for easy listening:
Spotlight On: Grading Season - Jo VanEvery
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Spotlight On: Grading Season Grading is one of those things that many academics struggle to find meaningful or enjoyable, but is required by your employer.…
jovanevery.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I guess it’ll fill up the reservoirs. I hope so anyway. They need it.
Yellow National Severe Weather Warnings for rain have been issued for the weekend and Monday, covering northwest England, west and southwest Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of north Wales.

Read more in our latest Press Release 👇
www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
December 12, 2025 at 1:17 PM
If you are a Head of something and there is someone who is so competent you want to nominate them for a big admin/leadership role, maybe first consider whether they have been knocked back from promotion first.

Because if the institution won't promote them ...
December 12, 2025 at 11:53 AM
holiday plans in our house:

This weekend: 2 choir concerts (attending not singing)

Next weekend: Women's Rugby! (Sale v Saracens)

Adult kid will be visiting with cat (and partner only briefly). May be cinema since they've decided to release all the movies of the type we like at once.
December 12, 2025 at 9:54 AM
I HIGHLY recommend Courtney Milan's most recent newsletter to you. There are 2 great tips in here.

1 for planning (with the tea description)
1 for feeling terrible about yourself

And she explains both very well.

view.flodesk.com/emails/69335...
December 12, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
ICYMI 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
This year I’m doing something different - I’m only going to talk about this one appeal.

Please donate at the link here if you possibly can, or share this to beat the far right vigilante groups 👉 www.justgiving.com/campaign/tog...
December 12, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
I made a Chrome extension that swaps Times New Roman for Calibri on every site or just .gov. It also had Open Sans and Open Dyslexic, because f**k these people.

I’m waiting for Google’s approval for it to install automatically, but you can download it and install it in 90 seconds. Instructions 👇
ReCalibri
They always make us do everything ourselves, anyway
Dr.eamer.dev
December 11, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
How many people in England even know that there are hospitalised hunger-strikers protesting their political sentencing, right now?
The UK state would rather allow it's own to die to uninterruptedly continue aiding & abetting the genociding of the Palestinians & avoid accountability of doing so
Tomorrow's front page 📰

'The UK is letting these people die'
December 11, 2025 at 8:56 AM
@smartbitches.bsky.social i think our gang would like this show. I’m kinda surprised no one has mentioned it.
I'm finally starting season 2 of "Finding Mr. Christmas," the Hallmark reality show where the most wholesome, non-toxic men in America compete for the chance to be a Christmas movie star (somehow a real job), judged by a gay man and Barbra Jean from "Reba"

it's the greatest show you're not watching
December 11, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
UK Universities need to urgently provide safety advice for those considering travelling to the US for conferences, placements, or other partnerships.

In the absence of advice staff and students should protect themselves accordingly.

See also ➡️ www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
The US is proposing that foreign visitors provide their social media history over the last five years to enter the country, including those from Australia, Germany, Japan and the UK who can now enter without a visa. Full story: bloom.bg/4q3W0y0

📷️📷️:: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
December 11, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Of all the terrifying things you hadnt known were quite that terrifying
I don't think even the wonkiest high seas policy wonks I work with are ready to grasp the absolute global chaos that will be unleashed if major powers start deciding that they no longer need to defer to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
December 10, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Assign work you will enjoy grading. No really. This thread is a great example
Things my students have submitted for the creative assignment on my Jane Austen's Afterlives module: a Northanger Abbey scene script; an Elizabeth Bennet TikTok make-up tutorial; Emma in the style of Mrs Radcliffe; an exchange of letters between characters from Emma; a painting; a shawl;
December 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Last chance to join us LIVE on Friday for Planning Quarter 3 (Jan, Feb, March) where we'll help you plan for the start of 2026 so you can get the rest you need over the holidays without worrying about what's next.
Planning Q3 of 2024-25 (January, February, March) - Academic Writing Studio
Supporting your research and writing journey
academicwritingstudio.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
Labour as a government is fundamentally racist and xenophobic. Yes, you absolutely can say that a Reform or Conservative government would be worse for people, but you're still arguing over which flavour of racism you are prepared to swallow for a quiet life. 1/7
December 10, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
They're trying to convince us that AI can do job of educators but the thing is AI can't build relationships, motivate and inspire young people, or soothe them if they get dysregulated. That's why imo it's so important to push back against the idea that learning is only about memorising stuff.
December 10, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
REPEAT AFTER ME (but really, after Neil Kraus):

Wage stagnation and underemployment are not problems that education can fix. We cannot "upskill" students into well-paying jobs that do. not. exist.
Do not accept the premise that education is to blame for abysmal jobs outcomes.

“The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
December 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
This is an important grump. And I wonder how much of this is related to increased time pressures on scholars. Both the squeeze on time available for research and the pressure to publish more which means more quickly.
Grumpy medievalist take, but I am gobsmacked by the cheerfulness with which some scholars working in later fields disclose not having the relevant languages for their research, and also having no plans to acquire them. There are many cases in which you've actually gotta read the Latin, babe!
December 9, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
What are the main points to emerge from the Sandie Peggie hearing? A brief expert blog from a specialist KC... goodlaw.social/5o6l
Sandie Peggie: Tribunal rules that employers do not have to exclude trans people | Good Law Project
One of the first cases that follows the Supreme Court’s decision on the definition of sex under the Equality Act has found that the court didn’t decide which changing room a trans person should use.
goodlaw.social
December 9, 2025 at 12:23 PM
As I go through my post holiday email, I came across this. And the title made me think many of you would value it so I took the time to read it.

Great tips in here: researchwhisperer.org/2025/12/02/m...
My mental health protocol: a glossary for the frustrated contemporary researcher
Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash. At times, I feel exhausted and irritable. I might get angry at a petty request to sign another PDF or because I have to send another reminder. I end up trapped betw…
researchwhisperer.org
December 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
If they aren’t a registered charity and they aren’t registered with the Fundraising Regulator (example logo below), it’s probably one of these scammy orgs where the ‘profit’ is a tiny fraction of the money you handed over and some bastard gets rich on your good intentions. Give to a real charity.
December 9, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Jo VanEvery
Love these guides! And there are many more in the BTO's free resource pack... which is well worth signing up for via the Birds in Greenspaces link - www.bto.org/get-involved...

Also worth following @btobirds.bsky.social, whose feed is always interesting and informative.

#birds #wildlife #nature
Know your finches? 🤔 Whether an experienced birder or new to nature we want you to help us count Birds in Greenspaces next year 🪶 Our FREE resource pack provides ID guides to 30 bird species. Sign up to the newsletter to receive it at www.bto.org/greenspaces

Illustrations by @willrose.bsky.social
December 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM