Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 3d

´It’s not about knowing. It’s about being present.´ Devastating essay on the power of gaps, errors, mishearing in the way we teach.

Simon Kövesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 3d

This beautiful, honest, tender essay is the best rebuttal of AI infected teaching and learning, by Sean Cho A. The happy accident of the seminar - best when it's a bit of a mess.
therumpus.net/2025/10/02/h...

Human Error Is the Point: On Teaching College During the Rise of AI - The Rumpus

My syllabus is a mess of half-remembered intentions. I re-use icebreakers that I know don’t work. I forget to grade the first assignment until Week Four. I write emails that begin with “So sorry for t...

therumpus.net

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 4d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 8d

Free Gothic event alert! Panel discussion on Gothic Italy, in person at Goldsmiths or hybrid, Tuesday 7 October: bads.gold.ac.uk/gothic-italy

2025: Gothic Italy — BADS

BADS Jeudis 2025

bads.gold.ac.uk

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 10d

My new novel, The Heist Of Hollow London, is published TODAY. The hardback may not be out in the UK yet - it's listed for the end of October here - but the ebook is certainly available now. Here are some links but please feel free to buy wherever you can find it: amzn.to/3IOGJRw

The Heist of Hollow London

The Heist of Hollow London eBook : Robson, Eddie: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

amzn.to

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 13d

I am genuinely baffled and distressed as to why the UK government is intent on destroying UK's genuinely world-leading universities, who bring £265 billion into the economy and support more than 250,000 jobs.

This tax will kill us.

www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Student visas crackdown and new levies to cause ‘£1.8bn loss’ to UK economy

The Government has proposed a 6 per cent tax on international student tuition fees and a reduction in graduate visas

www.standard.co.uk

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Scarred For Life @scarredforlife.bsky.social · 19d

ANIMAL GHOSTS (1980): Spooky short story anthology centred around, well... animal ghosts. The cover is particularly striking - those animals are freaking out, man!

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

🦇🎶It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

Kevin Corstorphine @drkevcorstorphine.bsky.social · 22d

Heads up @igagoths.bsky.social - delighted to announce the CFP for IGA 2026: 'Gothic Selves/Artificial Others' hosted at the University of Hull 28-31 July! hullgothic.wordpress.com

Gothic Selves/Artificial Others

18th Biennual Conference of the International Gothic Association: 28-31 July, 2026. Hull, UK

hullgothic.wordpress.com

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

Wrong emoji! 😢

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

😥

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

My sense is that there are still jobs to be had if you work in digital, medical or environmental humanities. Universities are thinking strategically about growth areas. None of this helps you or me!

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

But this was early 2000s - then fixed term lectureships were regarded as a prerequisite for longer term employment. This has changed simply because there are no jobs in our field at the moment - see comment about redundancies above. It’s the wider economic situation rather than ECRs at fault.

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 22d

Hi Sam, my own career trajectory started with hourly-paid teaching then fixed term lectureships before my current post at Lancaster - I would hesitate to call it ‘permanent’ as 25% of academic staff are about to be made redundant.

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 27d

Thanks Jen - and congrats on the great placing. ♥️

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 27d

Warwick English came 5th in The Guardian today, which is great for us.
But also notice that Lancaster came 3rd for Creative Writing & 7th for English - but the university is decimating programmes & firing 1/3 of academic staff over the next six months 🤔🤔🤔 @lancasterucu.bsky.social
#saveartsandhums

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 27d

Started the day with a free gig at the Lancaster Jazz Festival - Johanna Burnheart at the Herbarium cafe, in a rammed side room I didn't know was there until today. She was superb. tidal.com/browse/artis...

Woman in black performing on violin for an audience in a stone walled room

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · 27d

Early 20C Marxist Gothic. Here for it.

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 27d

Victims of capitalism. Hell before death. 1908.

archive.org/details/hell...

column of skuls
the victims who were crushed under capitalism

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · Sep 10

Thank you so much for including me - OGOM conferences are always among the most rewarding to attend and our conversations have really helped shape my thinking over the years! I can’t wait for whatever you decide to do next! ✨

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · Sep 9

Right?! He was writing like 5x1000-page novels concurrently at his peak.

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Catherine Spooner @catherinespooner.bsky.social · Sep 9

When you’re researching in the British Library and you discover the copy of the 1853 novel you’ve called up is inscribed by the author…

Flyleaf of novel with handwritten message reading ‘with the author’s just compliments’.

Title page of The Seamstress by G. W. M. Reynolds.

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Katie Garner @kgarner.bsky.social · Sep 9

As usual forgot to take photos, but here's a couple from @catherinespooner.bsky.social's and @coffinboffin.bsky.social's wonderful keynotes 🩵

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Katie Garner @kgarner.bsky.social · Sep 9

So grateful to @ogomproject.bsky.social for bringing us together for the dream mermaid conference. A brilliant three days thinking about submarine fantasies 💦🧜‍♀️🩵

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Professor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · Sep 7

This frontispiece in my book just made me laugh a lot. Is this Buddhist reincarnation, or some other form of afterlife?

Bram Stoker
1847-1912
A PENGUIN SINCE 1979

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Martin Lewis @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com · Sep 5

Worrying long term hidden fiscal drag

The family income threshold at which English students maintenance loans start to get reduced is just £25,000/yr.

It has been this level since the 2008/2009 academic year. We have had 64% (CPI) inflation since then. So it's been slashed hugely in real terms

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Reposted by Catherine Spooner

Sexy Andrew Hickey Costume @andrewhickey.500songs.com · Aug 31

Gender began in 2015
(Later than it might have been)
Between the end of Ed Miliband
And Minions on the big screen

Kip Manley @kiplet.bsky.social · Aug 31

New copypasta just dropped.

"Gender" did not exist in 1998. This demented concept is from 2015, or at least that's when it did what Scientology did and go "mainstream".

You are delusionally trying to rewrite history, likely only in your own head, which is a form of self brainwashing.

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