Kiron Ward
@kironward.bsky.social
lecturer in modern & contemporary literature at @standrewsenglish.bsky.social
author of _Encyclopaedism and Totality in Contemporary Fiction_
co-editor of @c21literature.bsky.social w/ @kdclewin.bsky.social
LNER superuser
author of _Encyclopaedism and Totality in Contemporary Fiction_
co-editor of @c21literature.bsky.social w/ @kdclewin.bsky.social
LNER superuser
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Very sad news. Arts and Humanities are vital.
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
University of Nottingham students fight 'insane' cull of courses
Traitors composer Sam Watts is among those against plans to cut University of Nottingham courses.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Very sad news. Arts and Humanities are vital.
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Reposted by Kiron Ward
In conjunction with @bacls.bsky.social, we are looking for some proposals for panels at BAAS and MSA! Read more here:
Call for C21/BACLS Panel Proposals
BACLS members are warmly invited to submit proposals for panels for the upcoming British Association for American Studies (BAAS) and British Association of Modernist Studies (BAMS) conferences in coll...
c21.openlibhums.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:55 AM
In conjunction with @bacls.bsky.social, we are looking for some proposals for panels at BAAS and MSA! Read more here:
awesome news!!
Lovely to see that Minimalism and Affect in American Literature, 1970-2020 was shortlisted for the BACLS Monograph Prize! Huge congratulations to winners, @drdominicdean.bsky.social and @dremmaparker.bsky.social, and fellow shortlister @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social
Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social.
bacls.org/news/187/
bacls.org/news/187/
November 7, 2025 at 3:57 PM
awesome news!!
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social.
bacls.org/news/187/
bacls.org/news/187/
News - BACLS Monograph Prize 2025 Winners
bacls.org
November 7, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social.
bacls.org/news/187/
bacls.org/news/187/
looking forward to this!
One of our reviews editors @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social has a book out! Congratulations Denise!
Very happy to have received a physical copy of @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social fantastic new book. @edinburghup.bsky.social @bacls.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 9:53 AM
looking forward to this!
Reposted by Kiron Ward
hOw dO wE wiN YouNg mEn?
please note that answers including "building a multiracial working class majority" will be answered with charges of bigotry but answers including "be racist and transphobic" will be welcomed as Hard Truths that Must Be Heard
please note that answers including "building a multiracial working class majority" will be answered with charges of bigotry but answers including "be racist and transphobic" will be welcomed as Hard Truths that Must Be Heard
Republicans thought they had a permanent hold over young men. They didn't.
Spanberger wins men 18-29 by 14%, Sherrill by 10%, and Mamdani by a stunning 40%.
Spanberger wins men 18-29 by 14%, Sherrill by 10%, and Mamdani by a stunning 40%.
November 5, 2025 at 9:56 AM
hOw dO wE wiN YouNg mEn?
please note that answers including "building a multiracial working class majority" will be answered with charges of bigotry but answers including "be racist and transphobic" will be welcomed as Hard Truths that Must Be Heard
please note that answers including "building a multiracial working class majority" will be answered with charges of bigotry but answers including "be racist and transphobic" will be welcomed as Hard Truths that Must Be Heard
Reposted by Kiron Ward
We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books.
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
Move over for AI - DRB
Katja Bruisch writes: I recently completed a scholarly monograph – an environmental, economic and energy history of peat in imperial and Soviet Russia. After years of thinking and writing, I approache...
drb.ie
October 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books.
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
as a smaller, digital-only journal that is diamond open access and charges no author-processing fees (thanks @openlibhums.org!), we can promise that we will be able to make a decision about your submission much faster than traditional print journals.
We've refreshed out author guidelines for submissions to our journal, including new guidance for anyone looking to submit an interview. We'd love to hear from you!
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
Author Guidelines
c21.openlibhums.org
October 31, 2025 at 11:18 AM
as a smaller, digital-only journal that is diamond open access and charges no author-processing fees (thanks @openlibhums.org!), we can promise that we will be able to make a decision about your submission much faster than traditional print journals.
Reposted by Kiron Ward
We've refreshed out author guidelines for submissions to our journal, including new guidance for anyone looking to submit an interview. We'd love to hear from you!
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
Author Guidelines
c21.openlibhums.org
October 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
We've refreshed out author guidelines for submissions to our journal, including new guidance for anyone looking to submit an interview. We'd love to hear from you!
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
c21.openlibhums.org/site/authorg...
Reposted by Kiron Ward
NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.
My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...
My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...
October 30, 2025 at 4:52 PM
NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.
My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...
My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...
Reposted by Kiron Ward
You can now download the book on the publisher's website: press.umich.edu/Books/P/Publ... (open access of course)
September 1, 2025 at 8:46 AM
You can now download the book on the publisher's website: press.umich.edu/Books/P/Publ... (open access of course)
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Thrilled and delighted to say that my new book, Utopian Variations: Utopia in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture, is now out! Thanks to the University of Essex's open access fund, it's available via open access too. You can download the full book for free here: www.peterlang.com/document/156...
Peter Lang Verlag - Utopian Variations
Utopian Variations is a comparative critical study of a variety of kinds of utopia and utopian discourse. Rather than focusing on more familiar forms ...
www.peterlang.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Thrilled and delighted to say that my new book, Utopian Variations: Utopia in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture, is now out! Thanks to the University of Essex's open access fund, it's available via open access too. You can download the full book for free here: www.peterlang.com/document/156...
one of the ironies of the push for open access in the uk is that article processing charges mean actual open access publishing is ever more unaffordable and ever more restricted to wealthy institutions, and basically impossible for colleagues between contracts. open indeed!
As part of the @openlibhums.org C21 never charges authors processing charges. One of the many positives of open access publishing
the costs that the academic publishing industry extract out of universities are not sustainable and present a substantial barrier to publication for precarious colleagues (and, in the future the govt is making, colleagues at smaller/less well-off institutions)
October 27, 2025 at 12:25 PM
one of the ironies of the push for open access in the uk is that article processing charges mean actual open access publishing is ever more unaffordable and ever more restricted to wealthy institutions, and basically impossible for colleagues between contracts. open indeed!
the costs that the academic publishing industry extract out of universities are not sustainable and present a substantial barrier to publication for precarious colleagues (and, in the future the govt is making, colleagues at smaller/less well-off institutions)
'New proposals by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and Sage were sent to universities this week after their initial offers were decisively rejected by institutions in a sector-wide consultation run by Jisc,...negotiating jointly with Universities UK on behalf of universities.' 1/3
New offers from big five ‘still too costly’ for UK universities
‘Significant’ number of institutions predicted to drop deals with main scholarly imprints, leaving journal access much reduced
www.timeshighereducation.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:33 AM
the costs that the academic publishing industry extract out of universities are not sustainable and present a substantial barrier to publication for precarious colleagues (and, in the future the govt is making, colleagues at smaller/less well-off institutions)
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Solidarity with the @pcsunion.bsky.social workers at the British Library who are on strike this week and next. I've been going to the library for over a decade, the staff are the ones who make it the space it is - they need to be respected and, importantly, paid enough for the all the work they do
October 27, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Solidarity with the @pcsunion.bsky.social workers at the British Library who are on strike this week and next. I've been going to the library for over a decade, the staff are the ones who make it the space it is - they need to be respected and, importantly, paid enough for the all the work they do
Reposted by Kiron Ward
this is such a damning graph and it should be obvious that these cuts are the beginning of the end not some kind of new start
I’m old enough to remember when everybody agreed that higher education was a “market” and offering “choice” was how the universities were meant to grow
on.ft.com/3WTwBue
on.ft.com/3WTwBue
October 27, 2025 at 7:38 AM
this is such a damning graph and it should be obvious that these cuts are the beginning of the end not some kind of new start
i doubt many people working or recently employed in universities was expecting anything good from this government, but the extent to which it is actually going to deliver the shrunken university estate that tories yearn for is nonetheless pretty staggering
So I've been reading the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper. There's some good things in there. But when it comes to universities there's very little to cheer. The situation is very tough and will get worse. The last chance to preserve what we've got has passed. Let me explain why. (1/?)
October 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
i doubt many people working or recently employed in universities was expecting anything good from this government, but the extent to which it is actually going to deliver the shrunken university estate that tories yearn for is nonetheless pretty staggering
Reposted by Kiron Ward
efficiency.
The amount of work that goes into applying to these grants is insane -- the academics writing it, the academic colleagues commenting, the Professional Service teams finetuning and sorting out all the costings etc.
Surely that time could be used more efficiently *for actual research*?
The amount of work that goes into applying to these grants is insane -- the academics writing it, the academic colleagues commenting, the Professional Service teams finetuning and sorting out all the costings etc.
Surely that time could be used more efficiently *for actual research*?
After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
October 23, 2025 at 11:38 AM
efficiency.
The amount of work that goes into applying to these grants is insane -- the academics writing it, the academic colleagues commenting, the Professional Service teams finetuning and sorting out all the costings etc.
Surely that time could be used more efficiently *for actual research*?
The amount of work that goes into applying to these grants is insane -- the academics writing it, the academic colleagues commenting, the Professional Service teams finetuning and sorting out all the costings etc.
Surely that time could be used more efficiently *for actual research*?
Reposted by Kiron Ward
It shouldn't take an FOI request to see grant success rates. UKRI has a duty of care to researchers to supply this from the outset. We are judged, compared, promoted (or not) according to unbelievably bad odds.
After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
October 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
It shouldn't take an FOI request to see grant success rates. UKRI has a duty of care to researchers to supply this from the outset. We are judged, compared, promoted (or not) according to unbelievably bad odds.
Reposted by Kiron Ward
apropos of absolutely nothing, and definitely not recent FOI reports, UKRI are soliciting YOUR views on how well they work, their priorities, whose interests they best serve, etc.
www.ukri.org/news/ukri-se...
www.ukri.org/news/ukri-se...
UKRI seeks your views in 2025 stakeholder survey
In our third annual survey, we are asking for feedback on what we do, how well we do it and what our stakeholders think about UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
www.ukri.org
October 23, 2025 at 2:59 PM
apropos of absolutely nothing, and definitely not recent FOI reports, UKRI are soliciting YOUR views on how well they work, their priorities, whose interests they best serve, etc.
www.ukri.org/news/ukri-se...
www.ukri.org/news/ukri-se...
Reposted by Kiron Ward
After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 AM
After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Why is a Labour Home Secretary perpetuating this myth in The Sun?
Asylum applications in the UK are significantly below the average for all European countries. The only person helped by spreading this falsehood is Nigel Farage
Asylum applications in the UK are significantly below the average for all European countries. The only person helped by spreading this falsehood is Nigel Farage
October 23, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Why is a Labour Home Secretary perpetuating this myth in The Sun?
Asylum applications in the UK are significantly below the average for all European countries. The only person helped by spreading this falsehood is Nigel Farage
Asylum applications in the UK are significantly below the average for all European countries. The only person helped by spreading this falsehood is Nigel Farage
Reposted by Kiron Ward
The Future of Totality
coming next june from @dukepress.bsky.social
www.dukeupress.edu/the-future-o...
coming next june from @dukepress.bsky.social
www.dukeupress.edu/the-future-o...
The Future of Totality: Fredric Jameson and the Prospects of Critical Theory
www.dukeupress.edu
October 22, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The Future of Totality
coming next june from @dukepress.bsky.social
www.dukeupress.edu/the-future-o...
coming next june from @dukepress.bsky.social
www.dukeupress.edu/the-future-o...
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Actual Parliament also said that the Office for Students isn't fit for purpose: committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...
But, sure, let that ideological bullwark decide on the future of universities. Why not. How much more harm can this government do.
(much more. so much more. Somebody release us)
But, sure, let that ideological bullwark decide on the future of universities. Why not. How much more harm can this government do.
(much more. so much more. Somebody release us)
October 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Actual Parliament also said that the Office for Students isn't fit for purpose: committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...
But, sure, let that ideological bullwark decide on the future of universities. Why not. How much more harm can this government do.
(much more. so much more. Somebody release us)
But, sure, let that ideological bullwark decide on the future of universities. Why not. How much more harm can this government do.
(much more. so much more. Somebody release us)
Reposted by Kiron Ward
Totally unserious comment from a totally unserious minister. Every bit as bad as her Tory predecessors. Except, perhaps, they might have acknowledged the huge job losses we're seeing across universities.
October 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Totally unserious comment from a totally unserious minister. Every bit as bad as her Tory predecessors. Except, perhaps, they might have acknowledged the huge job losses we're seeing across universities.