Julie Cupples
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juliecupples79.bsky.social
Julie Cupples
@juliecupples79.bsky.social

Geography, media and cultural studies, Latin American studies. Co-author of Transmedia Geographies: Decoloniality, Democratization, Cultural Citizenship, and Media Convergence (Rutgers University Press). Witness to the destruction of the UK university 🏳️‍⚧️ .. more

Political science 43%
Communication & Media Studies 22%

So sad to learn of the death yesterday of Nicaraguan singer Norma Helena Gadea
www.articulo66.com/2025/11/07/f...
Fallece la cantante nicaragüense Norma Helena Gadea
Los familiares de la artista revelaron que Gadea padecía una isquemia cerebral severa. Tras su ingreso a la UCI solicitaron apoyo para cubrir la hospitalización
www.articulo66.com

Reposted by Julie Cupples

Today’s the day! Cordillera de fuego (Mountains of Fire) – co-produced by the Ixchel research project – has its world premiere 🌎at the 40th Mar del Plata International Film Festival📽️

Read on for the back story of this fascinating new feature >

1/7
Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?
SAVE GEOGRAPHY at Leicester University (UK) - We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider the proposal to dissolve Geography. This is direct attack on the discipline of Geography at Leicester with likely loss of Geography staff. Please sign + share

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...

This is so wrong, utterly heartbreaking.
Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!
Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

Taylor and Francis really are reaping what they sow. Selling our work to train AI without our consent, no longer providing funds for human translators because AI. They are promoting AI slop in the world so it's hardly suprising that this has happened.
"Following publication, concerns were raised by a third party regarding the accuracy and validity of many of the references in this article ... the Editor and the Publisher no longer have confidence in the content presented".

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Retracted Article: Strengthening Caribbean Intelligence: Education and Training for Enhanced Intra- and Inter-Agency Collaboration
We, the Editor and Publisher of International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, have retracted the following article:Smith, T., & Short, A. (2025). Strengthening Caribbean Intelligen...
www.tandfonline.com
Amid many a silly “free speech” panic, here is a genuinely chilling case …

Sheffield Hallam professor accuses the institution of negotiating “directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.co.uk

From the University of Woeville: Alternative FAQs for British academics facing redundancy
juliecupples.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/f...
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl

This is nowhere near enough. I just finished Nobody’s Girl and I can’t get what he did to her out of my head
LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace says King Charles III will strip Prince Andrew of remaining titles and evict him from royal residence.

Nicaragua: UN Group of Experts urges international community to hold Government accountable for rights violations and protect Nicaraguans in exile www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
Nicaragua: UN Group of Experts urges international community to hold Government accountable for rights violations and protect Nicaraguans in exile
NEW YORK – The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua called on the international community to hold Nicaragua’s Government accountable for serious human rights violations and international crim...
www.ohchr.org
LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace says King Charles III will strip Prince Andrew of remaining titles and evict him from royal residence.

Delivery from Aotearoa 😊

I've lost all faith in Labour, but it is good at least that Bridget Phillipson has not been rewarded given her abysmal record on trans kids' right and her total failure to address the crisis in universities.

Reposted by Julie Cupples

"In the end, generative AI might be a blip in tech history, over-promising and under-delivering until finally the cash runs out. But it seems it’s arrived just in time to shove universities over a cliff edge..."

defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy - a tale of significant fortunes made and how their investments percolated into the Scottish economy and wider society.
Free to download from Univ of London press.
#Glasgow #skystorians #Scotland 📚🗃️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
uolpress.co.uk/book/the-gla...
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI
Del Toro's new Frankenstein adaption reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel. Frankenstein was like a tech bro: "creating something without considering the consequences," he explains.
www.npr.org

Well this is exciting- same band, same venue

Counting Crows, Newcastle City Hall

28 years 5 months 17 days apart

I was there on 7 May 1997 and today 23 October 2025

I wish I could get through a whole working day without someone foisting AI on me as if it's a good thing.

Conflictos en el archipiélago de San Andrés y Rincón del Mar
by Ethel María Bent Castro
www.xn--elisleo-9za.com/index.php?op...
https://www.elisleño.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32295%3A2025-10-19-08-57-10&catid=41%3Aambiental&Itemid=83&fbclid=IwY2xjawNiJuBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHiJ-E2eUVIrJo2Fjo7HYRGAvUznqb3SXOMRYwvDMnfVWJzno_bBwtwSphn8p_aem_ZDogKn5duaZrmG1g4I9-mw

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
'YouGov asked voters for their views after prime minister Keir Starmer recently scrapped the 50 per cent higher education participation target, saying it was not “right for our times”, in favour of a new target encompassing apprenticeships as well.' 1/3
Nearly half of UK public say university participation is too high
YouGov survey finds big differences in support for universities across different political parties
www.timeshighereducation.com

Reposted by Julie Cupples

La escritora nicaragüense Gioconda Belli, exiliada en Madrid, ha ganado el Premio Carlos Fuentes por “su capacidad de renovación de la poesía. “Me siento honrada por recibirlo de uno de los eternos de las letras hispanoamericanas”, afirma social.elpais.com/ohmos16
La escritora nicaragüense Gioconda Belli gana el Premio Carlos Fuentes: “Me siento honrada por recibirlo de uno de los eternos de las letras hispanoamericanas”
El jurado ha destacado en su fallo “su capacidad de renovación de la poesía hispanoamericana y la fuerza de su diálogo entre la sociedad, la historia y la literatura”
social.elpais.com
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org

This is so idiotic. Students get exceptional, competent (the vast majority) and mediocre teachers in every single institution. And success depends not on the teacher but on the student and how hard they work
Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...
Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching
Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met
www.thetimes.com