Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 1d

I really think a university that is in Astana and not Cardiff should not be called Cardiff University. Place matters, place names matter.

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 1d

So many Australian colleagues put through a year of worries and uncertainty. All because Nous Consultancy only thrives on a scarcity narrative?

Bit if a reminder that those cuts can never be justified in pedagogical or academic term, whatever the spin.

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 2d

New analysis by The Australia Institute finds the Australian National University has a $90 million surplus, not a $142 million deficit!

The ANU’s hidden $90m budget surplus

New analysis by The Australia Institute reveals there is no financial crisis at the Australian National University.

australiainstitute.org.au

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 3d

Writing Worlds—Geography's Silence on the Genocide of Palestinians by Amanda Thomas in the New Zealand Geographer onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Julie Cupples

Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 5d

Please let this be true.

Have we passed peak social media? - on.ft.com/4pTb1Di via @FT

Have we passed peak social media?

As platforms degrade into outrage and slop, users are turning away

on.ft.com

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 6d

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured

Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

www.theguardian.com

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 9d

Falling in love with pesky foreigners is seriously discouraged

Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 9d

"The conditions that migrants will have to meet to gain indefinite leave to remain include being in work" then this is fundamentally - among other things - another attack on family visas. coming to the uk on a spouse visa means work is *not a requirement of entry*, so will labour be changing that?

Labour unveils ‘good citizen’ test for migrants seeking settlement

Foreign nationals will need to work, pay tax, volunteer and speak fluent English to qualify for settlement under Labour’s tougher rules

www.thetimes.com

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 9d

This is horrific. Shame on whoever thought this was worth spending money on

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 20d

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

A SmartViz monitoring device installed at a university.

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 11d

“The ECHR isn’t Brussels meddling. It’s the foundation that protects you from your own government.” 👏👏👏

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians

The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

#StrikeForMutualAid 🍉 Cockroach Queer Trans Kafka 🦇⚧️ @alexpetrovnia.bsky.social · 16d

I published this piece today, on how the binary gender model and enforced gender roles are a model of hierarchical child abuse that punishes everyone but the capitalists who run the system.

It would mean a lot if you read it. This link is unpaywalled.

Thank you. 💜

medium.com/prismnpen/wh...

Who Gave Cis People Their Gender Identities?

Cis people reading this: you don’t have to be trans to opt out.

medium.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 15d

Another day, another email with a REF task. I’ve been at my institution barely a year and already lost so many hours to this bleak stuff. I know everyone hates it but it’s even more exhausting when you’re fixed-term ECR and doing it for an institution that’ll turf you out as soon as contract ends

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Area @areajournal.bsky.social · 16d

Discussion forum in Area:

'Open access book publishing: A forum for debate'

Read 5 responses to Matthew Gandy's 2023 commentary on OA book publishing and the neoliberal academy, with a further reflection by Gandy on the issue two years on ⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

A graphic advertising a collection of commentaries in Area on the topic of 'Open Access Book Publishing: A Forum for Debate' with contributions from Andrea E. Pia, Clancy Wilmott, Frank Houghton, Gerda Wielander, Jenny Lunn, Julie Cupples, Kate Lajtha, Matthew Gandy, Nicholas Loubere & Simon P.J. Batterbury. These names appear as a list on the pages of an open book with a black background and the Area and Royal Geographical Society logos at the top.

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 16d

It is time for the BBC and the Labour government to stop pandering to Farage and Reform

Shoaib M Khan @shoaibmkhan.bsky.social · 16d

Nigel Farage: "We will abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status", and "We will rescind ILR statuses that have already been granted".

The first sentence is worryingly ignorant. The second sentence is frighteningly fascist.

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 18d

They Helped Oust a Dictator. Now the New Regime Is Coming for Them.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/w...

They Helped Oust a Dictator. Now the New Regime Is Coming for Them.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · Jan 1

Stuart Hall on “Studying the Conjuncture" is so good: “If you don't agree there is a good degree of openness & contingency to every historical conjuncture, you don't believe in politics. You don't believe that anything can be done." youtu.be/bHpht1nNtB0?...

Studying the Conjuncture - STUART HALL: THROUGH THE PRISM OF AN INTELLECTUAL LIFE

Stream the Full Lecture Now on Kanopy:https://www.kanopy.com/product/stuart-hall-through-prism-intellectual-lifAlso Available on DVD:https://shop.mediaed.org...

youtu.be

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 24d

Working in academia = hating Elsevier a little more with each new semester

Elsevier @elsevierconnect.bsky.social · Sep 4

Built with researchers, for researchers.

ScienceDirect AI helps streamline workflows and makes finding trusted insights faster and easier.

See more: spkl.io/63321AOF4D

Quote: "Quickly generating precise summaries and extracting key findings from research papers saved me significant
time and effort."

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 24d

I've been sick all week and feeling horribly let down by the NHS, elected politicians and (especially) university managers, but today it's #Caturday and it is Lloumi's 12th birthday

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 25d

Genevieve Bell resigns as Australian National University vice-chancellor after months of controversy
www.msn.com/en-au/news/a...

MSN

www.msn.com

Reposted by Julie Cupples

Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 26d

With the phrase “unfunded hobbyist research” the new Universities UK President continues a much longer history of contempt that UUK has shown towards the labour of all those who work in universities

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 26d

Can we shift away from low-quality UUK leadership?

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Richard Carr @richardcarr.bsky.social · 26d

Ban consultancy spend by universities then. Seriously. It’s the same spreadsheets recycled and the same downward spiral diagnosis every time. And costs hundreds of millions across the sector.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Lewis Wade 🗃️ @wadehistory.bsky.social · 26d

"Hobbyist" is a truly breathtaking choice of phrase. It encapsulates a profound sense of contempt for the labour of academics in the UK, who already have to navigate an underfunded system dominated by precarity and overwork. "Knows the price of everything but the value of nothing" springs to mind

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 26d

In my university much of the best and highest quality research is unfunded

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 26d

Brazil’s supreme court finds Bolsonaro guilty of plotting military coup www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Brazil’s supreme court finds Bolsonaro guilty of plotting military coup

Former president faces decades-long jail sentence for seeking to forcibly cling to power after losing 2022 election

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Julie Cupples

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 27d

Kevin Glynn’s book, “Tabloid Culture,” now 25 yo(!!!), was the first cultural studies monograph to rock me.

“Audience of One” kind of updates Glynn, but without the CRUCIAL print archive to which TMC refers.

Terry Kirby’s recent book on UK tabloids is good, but you can’t transatlantic this topic.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27d

Anyway a lot of that 80s and early 90s media just doesn’t exist online in a contextual way and now seems at odds with the internet. We talk like history started with AOL, and increasingly we live like that’s true.

But tabloid media, including the trash tv, was so important to our political lives.

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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 28d

Yes we could make REF much worse than it already is. Or we could just abolish it

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 28d

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president.

The president of the Royal Society has suggested that artificial intelligence could ease the burden placed on academics by the Research Excellence Framework and peer review.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president - Research Professional News

Research Excellence Framework is “not best use of human brainpower”, Adrian Smith tells Lords committee

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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