Andrew Frayn
@afrayn.bsky.social
2.2K followers 840 following 460 posts
Academic. Work on First World War literature (Assoc Ed., FWW Studies); modernist studies (former BAMS Chair); non-canonical literature; rural modernity; late style. Grumbles my own.
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afrayn.bsky.social
Environmental protections are there for a reason, and shouldn't be disregarded for commercial efficacy.
afrayn.bsky.social
Wild to live in a country where the names of the two major parties bear zero relation to their agenda. Labour regularly acts against workers. The other lot has no interest in conserving anything. So here we are.
lottelydia.bsky.social
“we’ve got a good relationship with the developer” you are the LABOUR PARTY you have got NO BUSINESS having a “good relationship” with a private developer
Reposted by Andrew Frayn
manchesterup.bsky.social
MUP and @thejohnrylands.bsky.social are thrilled to announce that Bulletin of the John Rylands Library is now fully #OpenAccess🔓

Throughout October, the Bulletin's Editorial Board are highlighting journal issues or articles of particular importance on the MUP blog.
Image of a cover from an issue of The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. Blue banner sits across the centre of the image reading: Now Open Access.
afrayn.bsky.social
Douglas > Middlesbrough > Buxton > Cumbernauld on consecutive days from 30 Sep, in what will be the dog days, is an absolutely insane sequence.
afrayn.bsky.social
God, I just assumed he was in his mid-50s...
afrayn.bsky.social
Wee reminder that you can have some 11 Nov @fwwsoc.bsky.social action with the Dennis Showalter Lecture by @juliarsct.bsky.social. bsky.app/profile/fwws...
fwwsoc.bsky.social
We are delighted to share the details for this year's Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture 'Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War' to be delivered by @juliarsct.bsky.social on 11th Nov 2025

You can book to attend in person or online:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remembranc... 🗃️
Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War

5.30pm, Tuesday 11 November 2025

Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University

What did the First World War do to poetry? What did poetry do during the First World War? In this lecture, Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz will explore a brand new corpus of war poets to interrogate not what is a good or bad war poem nor what war poems say about the war, but rather the social and cultural functions accomplished by poetry in 1914-1918: inventing itself, creating social links, anchoring the war in relation to a poetic past and multiple imagined futures, mediating the experience of war, and producing knowledge about the conflict. She will explore how the expansion of our definition of war poetry allows us to ask new questions about the First World War, as well as future possibilities to continue broadening our understanding of what war poetry was and, above all, what it did and continues doing for those writing and reading it.

Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz is a postdoctoral researcher at Université de Lille. She completed her doctorate, on French poetry of the First World War, at Université Paris Nanterre. Julia has already published widely in academic journals, and is a Fellow of the International Society for First World War Studies.

This lecture continues the annual series of Remembrance lectures at Edinburgh Napier University, marking the historical significance of Craiglockhart as a War Hospital during the First World War, famously the meeting place of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. We also remember our late colleague Catherine Walker, who was for many years curator of the War Poets Collection. Funding comes from the Centre for Arts, Media and Culture and the Centre for Military Research, Education & Public Engagement. This year the event is also the Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture, selected by the International Society for First World War Studies. Named after Dennis Showalter, the leading historian of Germany during the war and a longtime friend and supporter of the Society it is delivered each year by a leading early career researcher in First World War Studies.

The event is held in the Rivers Suite at Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart Campus (Google map | travel info). There will be a wine reception from 5.30pm; the lecture will start around 6pm. The event will also be streamed online via Zoom.

If you have any queries about the event, please contact Dr Andrew Frayn (a.frayn@napier.ac.uk).

This event is both in person and online. If you wish to attend online, please buy an 'online Ticket'. Zoom information will be found in the email confirmations.
afrayn.bsky.social
Chris is one of the best.
chriskempshall.bsky.social
Now that I'm back home and (sort of) recovering from all the fun of last week, it might be time to do some reflecting on the conference itself and my time (as it draws to an end) as President of @fwwsoc.bsky.social 1/
fwwsoc.bsky.social
Last week during the (wonderful) Society conference at the University of Macedonia, we announced the outcome of our recent elections at our AGM. With both @chriskempshall.bsky.social standing down as President & David Monger doing the same as Treasurer those 2 positions in particular were open.
afrayn.bsky.social
That's it - until another tbc but potentially very exciting location in another couple of years time. Meanwhile, I'm home.
A view down a suburban road. The Forth Bridge is visible in the distance over the modern housing, under leaden grey skies.
afrayn.bsky.social
Huge thanks and congratulations to outgoing @fwwsoc.bsky.social President @chriskempshall.bsky.social, who has done a great job in making the society a real community, with programming that speaks to the 21stC academy and its precarity. He hates being praised and I will keep embarrassing him by it.
afrayn.bsky.social
A couple of personal shout outs: well done to my PhD student Lisa Aref (who has more sense than to be on social media), who gave a really good paper at her first major conference. Her paper was on naval FWW magazines, but her thesis is on British/French/German POW camps.
afrayn.bsky.social
Enjoyed walking round Thessaloniki a bit more yesterday - a fascinating range of cultures colliding.
The minaret next to the Thessaloniki rotunda, which at times has been a Muslim and Christian faith space. The minaret is pale white against a clear blue sky. The Rotunda, only part of which is shown in the photo, is built of red tile and stone. Looking up at the Arch of Galerius against a clear blue sky. The top part is red tile masonry. The bottom part of faced with carved marble, which is eroded over approximately 2000 years. Pigeons are sitting in the marble carvings in the shade of the arch. The inside of the Church of Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki. Looking up from the aisle between rows of seats, a lavish, large gold chandelier hangs on large supports from an ornate ceiling. The decoration is fine and gilded all around. The Arch of Galerius. The top is of red tile masonry, and the lower parts are faced in white marble, carved but eroded over approximately 2000 years. A modern white apartment block with balconies is framed by the arch.
afrayn.bsky.social
Appreciated the trip to the Zeitenlik (military cemetery) in Thessaloniki, led by Vlasis Vlasidis. It was interesting to see the different decisions made about the politics and iconography of memorialisation in the different parts of the cemetery - English, French, Italian, Serbian, etc.
A war cemetery consisting of rows of pale stone crosses either side of a wide, paved central walkway, with perpendicular paved areas between rows of crosses either side. Large conifers (or similar evergreen trees) divide the cemetery from bright blue skies with just a hint of cloud. A war cemetery cross with only the name Abdou, and an S (for Senegal) rune in the top part of the cross. Rows of crosses are in the background, and the sky is clear blue. Rows of rounded top British tombstones, each with individual engraving, separated by grass and wit individualised planting between them. In the same cemetery as other pictures, the general aesthetic is strikingly British. A large mausoleum in shadow, with a central dome and steps up to a stone platform on either side. It is surrounded by evergreen trees against a cloudy but bright sky.
afrayn.bsky.social
There were topics covered from Hawaii to Japan and many countries in-between (going the long way round), including strategy, diplomacy, social history and literary and cultural work. A reminder: @fwwsjournal.bsky.social is very keen to have more literary/cultural papers (email me if interested).
afrayn.bsky.social
I'm on the final leg of my journey back to Fife from the @fwwsoc.bsky.social conference at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, so here's some pics and thoughts. Firstly, well done @sdanisimova.bsky.social and local organisers for putting on a great, truly international, collegial event!
A busy conference room, with a panel of three presenters at the front.
Reposted by Andrew Frayn
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Andrew Frayn
evansmithhist.bsky.social
From The Times, 4 April, 1974
Newspaper article from UK Times, 4 April, 1974

‘Universities “Exploiting Students as Cheap Staff”’

from Tim Devlin, Education Correspondent, Liverpool, April 3

Postgraduate students, it was alleged here today, are being exploited as cheap labour by the universities and their ‘appalling’ rates of pay are being used to keep down the wages of other staff, particularly laboratory technicians
Reposted by Andrew Frayn
fwwsjournal.bsky.social
📢 🧵 This year the International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social is hosting a conference in the University of Macedonia! If you can't attend in person, you can still take a look at the work that has been published in First World War Studies by some of this week's speakers.
afrayn.bsky.social
Sounds sensible, not least as "highly racist caricature and also jam mascot" is probably too obscure for your international listeners.
afrayn.bsky.social
Just an appalling government.
theipaper.com
The Home Secretary is understood to be considering applying the policy to deal with concerns about the so-called ‘Boriswave'.

Read more: trib.al/WewVODg
afrayn.bsky.social
Likely about the Alexander Isak signing.
afrayn.bsky.social
Still less M & F (Edinburgh environs).
Reposted by Andrew Frayn
fwwsjournal.bsky.social
We’re very excited to share that First World War Studies Volume 16, Issue 2 was recently published and is now available from Taylor & Francis (tag). This new issue brings together fresh perspectives and critical reviews that push forward the study of the Great War.

📝Articles include: ⬇️⬇️⬇️