Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
@mirandaemmerson.bsky.social
Novelist (4th Estate); dramatist (BBC); and academic looking at radio, BBC history and British national identities. Currently exploring narratives around women's boxing at University of South Wales. 🏴🏴🇫🇷🇵🇱
This makes me think of Benedict Anderson and the idea that, historically, aristocracies/elites didn’t need an imagined community because they all knew each other & intermarried & loaned each other money before modern banking. I feel like Epstein was nurturing an irl elite where they didn’t have 1/
I just can't get my head around a lot of it, in quite a fundamental way - we obviously know elites are cynical but I don't understand what a lot of those people even gained from their connection to Epstein, especially after he was convicted, I'd love to hear about it in their own words
February 2, 2026 at 3:39 PM
This makes me think of Benedict Anderson and the idea that, historically, aristocracies/elites didn’t need an imagined community because they all knew each other & intermarried & loaned each other money before modern banking. I feel like Epstein was nurturing an irl elite where they didn’t have 1/
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Oh look, it’s a female director, shall we go with an emotional or intellectual driving narrative? Oh, go on then! Emotional it is…
Despite her success, the Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao has a fear of rejection — something that’s exacerbated by awards season. “Can you have pleasure in losing and being criticized and failing?” she asks on “The Interview.” Watch, read or listen to the full conversation. trib.al/IievDS0
January 24, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Oh look, it’s a female director, shall we go with an emotional or intellectual driving narrative? Oh, go on then! Emotional it is…
Intrigued by the idea that Marty Supreme isn’t a sports film. It’s a movie about working-class immigrants trying to trade dedication and sporting talent for a tiny bit of leverage in their lives and discovering that old money will always keep them out of the circles of power. How is that not sports?
January 24, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Intrigued by the idea that Marty Supreme isn’t a sports film. It’s a movie about working-class immigrants trying to trade dedication and sporting talent for a tiny bit of leverage in their lives and discovering that old money will always keep them out of the circles of power. How is that not sports?
Sorry to state the obvious but Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku essentially having to work in the US to get interesting parts and enough of them to live is yet another reminder that we produce A LOT of exceptional black actors in this country and then fail to adequately employ them.
January 22, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Sorry to state the obvious but Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku essentially having to work in the US to get interesting parts and enough of them to live is yet another reminder that we produce A LOT of exceptional black actors in this country and then fail to adequately employ them.
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
The best way of describing someone who’s all talk and no action that I’ve ever heard in the UK, by far, is “they’re all wardrobe and no Narnia.”
* read on for fun ways of saying “all talk and no action” in other languages (a thread)
* read on for fun ways of saying “all talk and no action” in other languages (a thread)
January 22, 2026 at 12:44 PM
The best way of describing someone who’s all talk and no action that I’ve ever heard in the UK, by far, is “they’re all wardrobe and no Narnia.”
* read on for fun ways of saying “all talk and no action” in other languages (a thread)
* read on for fun ways of saying “all talk and no action” in other languages (a thread)
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
WOW, this is the earliest known group of chess pieces in the world! 🤩
It includes two foot-soldiers, two mounted riders, an elephant with rider, a figure driving two horses, and a figure driving a three-horse chariot. Ivory, AD 700s.
Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Uzbekistan. 📷 me
#Archaeology
It includes two foot-soldiers, two mounted riders, an elephant with rider, a figure driving two horses, and a figure driving a three-horse chariot. Ivory, AD 700s.
Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Uzbekistan. 📷 me
#Archaeology
January 21, 2026 at 4:40 PM
WOW, this is the earliest known group of chess pieces in the world! 🤩
It includes two foot-soldiers, two mounted riders, an elephant with rider, a figure driving two horses, and a figure driving a three-horse chariot. Ivory, AD 700s.
Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Uzbekistan. 📷 me
#Archaeology
It includes two foot-soldiers, two mounted riders, an elephant with rider, a figure driving two horses, and a figure driving a three-horse chariot. Ivory, AD 700s.
Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Uzbekistan. 📷 me
#Archaeology
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
I'm bothered by the idea that we are bypassing the education of parents and going straight to banning mobile phones. 8/10 years ago we understood the dangers early phone and social media use posed. We could have been educating parents pre-pandemic to hold phones back until later. We could 1/
January 19, 2026 at 9:46 PM
I'm bothered by the idea that we are bypassing the education of parents and going straight to banning mobile phones. 8/10 years ago we understood the dangers early phone and social media use posed. We could have been educating parents pre-pandemic to hold phones back until later. We could 1/
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
Brooklyn Beckham: it's time to address the shadowy shape that's difficult to photograph in the room
January 19, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Brooklyn Beckham: it's time to address the shadowy shape that's difficult to photograph in the room
I'm bothered by the idea that we are bypassing the education of parents and going straight to banning mobile phones. 8/10 years ago we understood the dangers early phone and social media use posed. We could have been educating parents pre-pandemic to hold phones back until later. We could 1/
January 19, 2026 at 9:46 PM
I'm bothered by the idea that we are bypassing the education of parents and going straight to banning mobile phones. 8/10 years ago we understood the dangers early phone and social media use posed. We could have been educating parents pre-pandemic to hold phones back until later. We could 1/
It does at least feel novel to see the British right fully succumb to the People’s Front of Judea seat dance.
Even if it is driven by ambition rather than imagined purity.
Even if it is driven by ambition rather than imagined purity.
January 16, 2026 at 11:00 AM
It does at least feel novel to see the British right fully succumb to the People’s Front of Judea seat dance.
Even if it is driven by ambition rather than imagined purity.
Even if it is driven by ambition rather than imagined purity.
When 93+% of your population is educated in state schools *obviously* the majority of the talent, high IQs, exceptional/creative thinkers are going to come from the state sector. It couldn’t be any other way. And yet…
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Cambridge college to target elite private schools for student recruitment
Exclusive: Trinity Hall’s new policy described as a ‘slap in the face’ for state-educated students
www.theguardian.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:14 AM
When 93+% of your population is educated in state schools *obviously* the majority of the talent, high IQs, exceptional/creative thinkers are going to come from the state sector. It couldn’t be any other way. And yet…
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
I used to water Daniel Day Lewis’s plants. Never met him.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
December 29, 2025 at 10:44 PM
I used to water Daniel Day Lewis’s plants. Never met him.
Oh man. John Carey. I once sat in a room with him having the world’s worst Oxford interview. I felt completely out of place; was wearing the wrong clothes; forgot the name of *every single character* in my set text Hard Times. And he was so nice to me, so kind… You remember things like that.
December 12, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Oh man. John Carey. I once sat in a room with him having the world’s worst Oxford interview. I felt completely out of place; was wearing the wrong clothes; forgot the name of *every single character* in my set text Hard Times. And he was so nice to me, so kind… You remember things like that.
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
For fans of Elena Ferrante, the four volumes of My Brilliant Friend have been collated into a single tome.
Order it quickly, I don’t have the upper body strength to keep holding it. - Michael
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/my-b...
Order it quickly, I don’t have the upper body strength to keep holding it. - Michael
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/my-b...
December 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
For fans of Elena Ferrante, the four volumes of My Brilliant Friend have been collated into a single tome.
Order it quickly, I don’t have the upper body strength to keep holding it. - Michael
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/my-b...
Order it quickly, I don’t have the upper body strength to keep holding it. - Michael
bertsbooks.co.uk/product/my-b...
Went to see @rfkuang.bsky.social last night with youngest. Such an interesting mind and so brilliant on the possibilities and limitations of academia. It was just a delight to hear her work through things and explore ideas.
December 9, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Went to see @rfkuang.bsky.social last night with youngest. Such an interesting mind and so brilliant on the possibilities and limitations of academia. It was just a delight to hear her work through things and explore ideas.
I want to go and stay in this hotel 👇❤️
Wait, what? My son’s friend, traveling in China, is staying at a hotel chain called ‘James Joyce Coffetel’, and instead of a Gideon Bible, they leave a copy of Ulysses by the bedside.
December 6, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I want to go and stay in this hotel 👇❤️
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
Oxford Brookes University has a huge raft of AHRC-funded PhD studentships in the Arts, Humanities and allied subjects! Both fees and a stipend covered. Take a look at the ad below - the closing date is 30th January 2026. Anyone interested at all, get in touch!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM937/p...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM937/p...
PhD Studentship : AHRC Landscape Award PhD Studentship in the Arts and Humanities at Oxford Brookes University
Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...
www.jobs.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Oxford Brookes University has a huge raft of AHRC-funded PhD studentships in the Arts, Humanities and allied subjects! Both fees and a stipend covered. Take a look at the ad below - the closing date is 30th January 2026. Anyone interested at all, get in touch!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM937/p...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM937/p...
Tom Stoppard came and taught us on the Playwriting MA at Birmingham in the 90s. I was a huge Stoppard fan so was given the job of leading a discussion about the playwriting in Coast of Utopia with him in the room. Coast of Utopia is flawed and I was slightly terrified about discussing these 1/
November 29, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Tom Stoppard came and taught us on the Playwriting MA at Birmingham in the 90s. I was a huge Stoppard fan so was given the job of leading a discussion about the playwriting in Coast of Utopia with him in the room. Coast of Utopia is flawed and I was slightly terrified about discussing these 1/
Some days it feels like we’re living in a country where nobody is quite up to doing their job.
Individually, of course, I know lots of incredibly brilliant, hardworking people and yet it often feels like we’re living in a hastily-improvised, rolling shambles.
I’m sure I’m wrong, but…
Individually, of course, I know lots of incredibly brilliant, hardworking people and yet it often feels like we’re living in a hastily-improvised, rolling shambles.
I’m sure I’m wrong, but…
November 26, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Some days it feels like we’re living in a country where nobody is quite up to doing their job.
Individually, of course, I know lots of incredibly brilliant, hardworking people and yet it often feels like we’re living in a hastily-improvised, rolling shambles.
I’m sure I’m wrong, but…
Individually, of course, I know lots of incredibly brilliant, hardworking people and yet it often feels like we’re living in a hastily-improvised, rolling shambles.
I’m sure I’m wrong, but…
A movie that takes place where you’re from
November 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
A movie that takes place where you’re from
This whole thread is spot on…👇
Please hear me when I say that
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
1) these anti-medical woo birth movements have been a primary feeder into anti-vaxx eugenic movements
2) they pre-date the age of social media
3) they exist because we have not addressed medical sexism and specifically obstetric violence
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
November 22, 2025 at 6:09 PM
This whole thread is spot on…👇
Youngest went with friends in school to get her flu shot.
“Time to get our autism updated” she called loudly to the general hilarity of her (very ND) friend group and the *absolute horror* of one random girl they hadn’t noticed was with them.
Public health husband listening to this story: 😳
“Time to get our autism updated” she called loudly to the general hilarity of her (very ND) friend group and the *absolute horror* of one random girl they hadn’t noticed was with them.
Public health husband listening to this story: 😳
Breaking news: The CDC revised its website to contradict the long settled scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, sparking an uproar among medical professionals and autism advocates.
CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on debunking vaccines-autism link
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who voted to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he pledged not to remove language stating vaccines do not cause autism from the CDC website, condemne...
wapo.st
November 20, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Youngest went with friends in school to get her flu shot.
“Time to get our autism updated” she called loudly to the general hilarity of her (very ND) friend group and the *absolute horror* of one random girl they hadn’t noticed was with them.
Public health husband listening to this story: 😳
“Time to get our autism updated” she called loudly to the general hilarity of her (very ND) friend group and the *absolute horror* of one random girl they hadn’t noticed was with them.
Public health husband listening to this story: 😳
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
My granddad was a refugee, my wife, our close friends and those of our kids are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Do ministers ever think about the message their rhetoric on "handouts" and "golden tickets" for migrants sends about whether this is a government for people like us?
Do ministers ever think about the message their rhetoric on "handouts" and "golden tickets" for migrants sends about whether this is a government for people like us?
November 16, 2025 at 4:02 PM
My granddad was a refugee, my wife, our close friends and those of our kids are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Do ministers ever think about the message their rhetoric on "handouts" and "golden tickets" for migrants sends about whether this is a government for people like us?
Do ministers ever think about the message their rhetoric on "handouts" and "golden tickets" for migrants sends about whether this is a government for people like us?
Reposted by Dr Miranda Davies/Emmerson
Being compared to Enoch Powell and endorsed by Tommy Robinson - I wonder if this is how Starmer was hoping things would go
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Being compared to Enoch Powell and endorsed by Tommy Robinson - I wonder if this is how Starmer was hoping things would go