A meme for the modern university...

the booker prize judges make a lot of fuss about having to read 153 books. but assuming an average weight of 750g per book, that comes in at 115kg of literature - or just under the weight of a single adult male ostrich

we are super excited to launch our student research blog Odd China Out. submissions bridging scholarly work with a wider audience, in English or bilingual, are welcome!
oddchinaout.wordpress.com

think that realistically I would have always been deeply, deeply worried about the rise of far-right ideas in public discourse but I truly never expected this level of blithe elite complacency, turns out I do feel worried but mostly I feel like I'm going insane, watching them do.......nothing at all

❓ What is security in an age of catastrophic climate change?

📖 Our special issue "Critical Climate Security" in Geoforum provides new concepts, approaches, and methodologies for rethinking the climate-security nexus from a critical perspective. www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

🎉 3 (grade 7) Lecturer positions open Cardiff University in:

🌎 Non-western (espc non US) Foreign Policy/War/Security Studies
📝 Political theory inc history of political thought
📚 History & theory of colonialism & its legacies in politics & IR

Apply here 👉

I miss the days when it was socially unacceptable to talk like a Nazi

I’ll be presenting tomorrow at 14.00 on Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative and then at 16.00 I’m on a Global IR panel talking about my forthcoming OUP book, Securing China: Worlding Security Studies #EISAPEC2025 come join!

Starting off my #EISAPEC2025 with a great panel on women, gender, and sex in the history of international relations 🥳

Worth a read:

South China Morning Post yesterday. Not ideal. Don't think these things aren't noticed around the world: they are. (1/2)

Some thoughts on the UK China research survey:

What strange times, when the commander of RAF Greenham Common is coming out as a liberal supporter of the right to protest

China’s cyber-abuse scandal: is the government unwilling to crack down on exploitation of women online?

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a....

this is widely thought to be because on the current trajectory no one believes there will be any people, culture, or environments to measure in 2029

Swedish Defence University advertises two postdoc positions focused on narrative geopolitics, or how emotional and widely circulated narratives shape international security, great power relations & geostrategic rivalry.

fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Deadline: 31 Aug

This is a very illuminating essay that compellingly situates Starmer in the post-war human rights regime. It’s almost as much about that latter topic as it is Starmer himself.

is translation undervalued in Anglophone academe? In China, translation is considered proper academic outputs, with both formal (e.g. for performance review & promotion) and informal recognition (reputation in wider society). it reflects (and constitutes)

The IDF reportedly uses Chinese commercial drones for its operations in Gaza:

“Soldiers most commonly use EVO drones, produced by the Chinese company Autel, which are primarily intended for photography. However, with a military-issued attachment, a hand grenade can be affixed to the drone”

Just remembered a friend telling me about how she put herself into chatGTP to see what it would say, and it was hmm not flattering. I’m now mostly bemused:

New from me: How China's clean energy manufacturing boom is helping reduce CO2 emissions overseas. In 2024, China’s exports of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles are shaved 1% off global emissions outside of China.

Terrible. When I got my AHRC PhD funding I applied directly to the AHRC with my own project. Now students are increasingly tied in to what universities and partner organisations want them to do, stifling research independence - plus fewer projects getting funded overall.

Interesting read on *that* Princeton University Press tour:

Princeton University Press Stumbles Into a Xinjiang Tour Debacle thediplomat.com/2025/07/prin...