Dr Sarah J Young
@sarahjyoung.bsky.social
Russophone culture & history, prison/gulag writing, and C19 literature. Also cats. And needlework. Author/translator of Writing Resistance: Revolutionary Memoirs of Shlissel’burg Prison, 1884-1906 https://uclpress.co.uk/products/173021
Pinned
Dr Sarah J Young
@sarahjyoung.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Writing Resistance
In 1884, the first of 68 prisoners convicted of terrorism and revolutionary activity were transferred to a new maximum security prison at Shlissel´burg Fortress near St Petersburg. The regime of indet...
uclpress.co.uk
Greetings to new followers! One of the things I’m going to be using this account for is posting about the revolutionary populists imprisoned in Shlissel’burg Fortress from 1884-1906, the subject of my open access @uclpress.bsky.social book Writing Resistance uclpress.co.uk/book/writing...
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
'“During that roundtable, we heard that a provider could collapse before the end of the year,” she [Helen Hayes] said. As the hearing was in late November, this was “essentially a warning of an imminent collapse of a higher education institution”, she added.' 1/3
MPs told collapse of UK higher education provider could happen by Christmas
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
MPs told collapse of UK provider could happen by Christmas - Research Professional News
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:41 PM
'“During that roundtable, we heard that a provider could collapse before the end of the year,” she [Helen Hayes] said. As the hearing was in late November, this was “essentially a warning of an imminent collapse of a higher education institution”, she added.' 1/3
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
How do cultural organisations in the UK engage with the new cultural discourse of decolonisation that has gained momentum in response to Russia’s aggression against #Ukraine? Join us for this roundtable discussion to find out more.
🗓️ 8 December at 6pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
🗓️ 8 December at 6pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
November 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM
How do cultural organisations in the UK engage with the new cultural discourse of decolonisation that has gained momentum in response to Russia’s aggression against #Ukraine? Join us for this roundtable discussion to find out more.
🗓️ 8 December at 6pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
🗓️ 8 December at 6pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Climate change IS everything, because we won’t fix it unless we build a more just politics, and if we don’t fix it, nothing else will matter.
“Climate change isn’t everything“ is becoming a go-to justification for delaying action.
This is - deliberately or inadvertently - a misframing of the issue. The point isn’t CC is everything, it’s that it’s essential to deal with.
1/
This is - deliberately or inadvertently - a misframing of the issue. The point isn’t CC is everything, it’s that it’s essential to deal with.
1/
November 24, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Climate change IS everything, because we won’t fix it unless we build a more just politics, and if we don’t fix it, nothing else will matter.
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees
Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says its app is most popular with young people
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Colleagues and UCU members from UoN's Department of Modern Languages have put together this wonderful guide on supporting their programmes. A lot of what they suggest is also helpful in challenging the 48 courses at risk across the university
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
savenottinghamlanguages
The University of Nottingham has suspended applications to all languages degree programmes, with a view to permanent closure of all of its undergraduate languages degrees. Under the proposals, it…
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
November 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Colleagues and UCU members from UoN's Department of Modern Languages have put together this wonderful guide on supporting their programmes. A lot of what they suggest is also helpful in challenging the 48 courses at risk across the university
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
French authorities are taking X to court because Grok is now doing straight up holocaust denial. Gas chambers intended for disinfection, cyanide residue tiny, ‘story’ persists because of taboo against critical examination. (Full translation in alt text)
November 20, 2025 at 1:03 PM
French authorities are taking X to court because Grok is now doing straight up holocaust denial. Gas chambers intended for disinfection, cyanide residue tiny, ‘story’ persists because of taboo against critical examination. (Full translation in alt text)
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Save Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
savenottinghamlanguages
www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
November 19, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Save Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk
This is completely inadequate. Where are double-decker buses?
November 18, 2025 at 11:58 PM
This is completely inadequate. Where are double-decker buses?
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
This is an excellent article by @danhancox.bsky.social on the @casadelamemoria.bsky.social and the legacies of francoist terror:
observer.co.uk/style/featur...
#HistoricalMemory #MemoriaHistoria
observer.co.uk/style/featur...
#HistoricalMemory #MemoriaHistoria
November 18, 2025 at 8:14 AM
This is an excellent article by @danhancox.bsky.social on the @casadelamemoria.bsky.social and the legacies of francoist terror:
observer.co.uk/style/featur...
#HistoricalMemory #MemoriaHistoria
observer.co.uk/style/featur...
#HistoricalMemory #MemoriaHistoria
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
"Brown people can only be safe if white people don't feel threatened by them" is a HELL of an argument to be selling.
Especially since we know damn well that "Feeling threatened by brown people" is a whole ideology nobody is going to quietly give up.
Especially since we know damn well that "Feeling threatened by brown people" is a whole ideology nobody is going to quietly give up.
It's less maddening to confront the written form of Shabana Mahmood's presentation…
"I know that some of these measures will face opposition. But this is a moral mission for me. I know that a country without secure borders is a less safe country for those who look like me."
… but still…
#R4Today
"I know that some of these measures will face opposition. But this is a moral mission for me. I know that a country without secure borders is a less safe country for those who look like me."
… but still…
#R4Today
This is now a familiar rubric for ideas that are hard to sell on merits.
2019: Boris Johnson’s agenda is the only way to stop Nigel Farage’s.
2024: Nigel Farage’s agenda is the only way to stop Tommy Robinson.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
2019: Boris Johnson’s agenda is the only way to stop Nigel Farage’s.
2024: Nigel Farage’s agenda is the only way to stop Tommy Robinson.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM
"Brown people can only be safe if white people don't feel threatened by them" is a HELL of an argument to be selling.
Especially since we know damn well that "Feeling threatened by brown people" is a whole ideology nobody is going to quietly give up.
Especially since we know damn well that "Feeling threatened by brown people" is a whole ideology nobody is going to quietly give up.
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Please join us on Monday to hear more about
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Please join us on Monday to hear more about
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Nothing makes me stop paying attention quicker than hearing or reading 'I asked ChatGPT...'
November 14, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Nothing makes me stop paying attention quicker than hearing or reading 'I asked ChatGPT...'
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Petition started by students in Modern Languages at the University of Leicester. The department has been told it will close despite its stellar NSS record and brilliant teaching and research - the same devastating short-term thinking as elsewhere. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/save-moder...
Sign the Petition
Save Modern Languages courses at the University of Leicester
www.change.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Petition started by students in Modern Languages at the University of Leicester. The department has been told it will close despite its stellar NSS record and brilliant teaching and research - the same devastating short-term thinking as elsewhere. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/save-moder...
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Centuries before Virginia Woolf dreamed of a “room of one’s own,” Li Qingzhao(1084 – ca. 1155) already claimed hers in the Song Dynasty. While most women were bound to the household, she built a library of 4,000 volumes and wrote with a voice both lyrical and defiant. 1/2
#poem
#poem
November 9, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Centuries before Virginia Woolf dreamed of a “room of one’s own,” Li Qingzhao(1084 – ca. 1155) already claimed hers in the Song Dynasty. While most women were bound to the household, she built a library of 4,000 volumes and wrote with a voice both lyrical and defiant. 1/2
#poem
#poem
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
What does it mean mean to write through war? Please join us for an evening with Ukrainian writer and war reporter Myroslav Laiuk, who will reflect on the challenges of representing violence and suffering.
Moderated by @odrekhivska.bsky.social.
🗓️ 14 November at 5pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/WqZKbU6
Moderated by @odrekhivska.bsky.social.
🗓️ 14 November at 5pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/WqZKbU6
November 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM
What does it mean mean to write through war? Please join us for an evening with Ukrainian writer and war reporter Myroslav Laiuk, who will reflect on the challenges of representing violence and suffering.
Moderated by @odrekhivska.bsky.social.
🗓️ 14 November at 5pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/WqZKbU6
Moderated by @odrekhivska.bsky.social.
🗓️ 14 November at 5pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/WqZKbU6
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Excellent article here. Our students are our greatest advocates. Counter proposals will be put forward, and we are supporting colleagues in Music, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham with their campaigns www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
University of Nottingham students fight 'insane' cull of courses
Traitors composer Sam Watts is among those against plans to cut University of Nottingham courses.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Excellent article here. Our students are our greatest advocates. Counter proposals will be put forward, and we are supporting colleagues in Music, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham with their campaigns www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
AND HE WAS LIKE, BUT NOT MY FACE, RIGHT? AND I WAS LIKE WELL IT'S A FACE, SO
November 7, 2025 at 12:20 AM
AND HE WAS LIKE, BUT NOT MY FACE, RIGHT? AND I WAS LIKE WELL IT'S A FACE, SO
Reposted by Dr Sarah J Young
Please consider signing against this nonsensical absurdity! c.org/vGgNqmXhNx
Sign the Petition
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
c.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Please consider signing against this nonsensical absurdity! c.org/vGgNqmXhNx
AI absolutely nailed by the brilliant @stephencollins.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Give peas a chance – even AI peas: the Stephen Collins cartoon
AI can transform all areas of our lives – even boiling a bag of frozen veg
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:31 PM
AI absolutely nailed by the brilliant @stephencollins.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
This really is horrendous news. I did my PhD at Nottingham and the whole school of modern languages was an important and vibrant contributor to arts and humanities. It’s taken a few knocks since then, but this move is beyond shortsighted. Really feel for colleagues there. This has to be fought.
Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 12:44 PM
This really is horrendous news. I did my PhD at Nottingham and the whole school of modern languages was an important and vibrant contributor to arts and humanities. It’s taken a few knocks since then, but this move is beyond shortsighted. Really feel for colleagues there. This has to be fought.