Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
@rhiannone.bsky.social
Classicist, reception and theatre person
So tired I just started talking about Christmas baking with “marmozan”, which I can only assume is a portmanteau of marmoset and marzipan or is maybe is marzipan made out of marble?
November 26, 2025 at 3:20 PM
So tired I just started talking about Christmas baking with “marmozan”, which I can only assume is a portmanteau of marmoset and marzipan or is maybe is marzipan made out of marble?
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Here's the DfE consultation document on international student fee levy, just gone live.
"Providers will pay a simple flat fee of £925 per student per year, which will not be introduced until 2028/29."
consult.education.gov.uk/internationa...
"Providers will pay a simple flat fee of £925 per student per year, which will not be introduced until 2028/29."
consult.education.gov.uk/internationa...
consult.education.gov.uk
November 26, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Here's the DfE consultation document on international student fee levy, just gone live.
"Providers will pay a simple flat fee of £925 per student per year, which will not be introduced until 2028/29."
consult.education.gov.uk/internationa...
"Providers will pay a simple flat fee of £925 per student per year, which will not be introduced until 2028/29."
consult.education.gov.uk/internationa...
Looking forward to this tonight!
We're excited to welcome Prof Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social to Royal Holloway tomorrow for his talk: ‘Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting’, chaired by CVTRC Senior Fellow Dr Patrick Doyle.
Attendance is open to all.
📆25 Nov, 5:15-6:30pm in Shilling Lecture Theatre
Attendance is open to all.
📆25 Nov, 5:15-6:30pm in Shilling Lecture Theatre
November 25, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Looking forward to this tonight!
Just have the need to share that I achieved new PBs for squats *and* bench press yesterday
November 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Just have the need to share that I achieved new PBs for squats *and* bench press yesterday
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
😬🫣🤪
November 20, 2025 at 10:23 PM
😬🫣🤪
If you witnessed a hate crime against a member of staff but the victim said they weren’t going to report it because they said it wouldn’t be taken seriously, what would you do? Asking for me.
November 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
If you witnessed a hate crime against a member of staff but the victim said they weren’t going to report it because they said it wouldn’t be taken seriously, what would you do? Asking for me.
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Can I quietly ask we stop talking about what "AI" *could* do in education and identify instead what's actually happening with AI in education? I'll start...
November 15, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Can I quietly ask we stop talking about what "AI" *could* do in education and identify instead what's actually happening with AI in education? I'll start...
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
November 14, 1152 BCE: the first recorded workers' strike occurred in ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses III. Artisans and laborers working on the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina stopped working in protest of delayed and insufficient rations, a form of wages. collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/materi...
November 14, 2025 at 12:33 PM
November 14, 1152 BCE: the first recorded workers' strike occurred in ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses III. Artisans and laborers working on the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina stopped working in protest of delayed and insufficient rations, a form of wages. collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/materi...
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
November 14, 2025 at 9:13 AM
"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
Took such pleasure in sitting under a berry-laden tree while a busy squirrel dropped half-eaten fruits on me. So nice not to be inflicting problems on the more-than-human world, but instead be mildly inconvenienced by animal enjoying autumn fruitfulness.
November 11, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Took such pleasure in sitting under a berry-laden tree while a busy squirrel dropped half-eaten fruits on me. So nice not to be inflicting problems on the more-than-human world, but instead be mildly inconvenienced by animal enjoying autumn fruitfulness.
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.'
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Want a younger brain? Learn another language
A vast study suggests that being multilingual can slow down cognitive ageing.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:58 AM
'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.'
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
November 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
Was feeling really rubbish and tired and grumpy and foggy earlier but it turned out all I needed to do was deadlift 90kg for the first time in months and now I am a New Woman.
November 7, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Was feeling really rubbish and tired and grumpy and foggy earlier but it turned out all I needed to do was deadlift 90kg for the first time in months and now I am a New Woman.
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
November 6, 2025 at 6:32 AM
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
Onedrive I do not have time for your jests. I need to access my files!
November 3, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Onedrive I do not have time for your jests. I need to access my files!
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Call for (post-PhD) historians and cultural scholars for the pod! We have a specific wishlist of scholarship we’re looking to add to the lineup:
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe
Pitches to: podcast@thisguysucked.com
🤗🤗🤗
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe
Pitches to: podcast@thisguysucked.com
🤗🤗🤗
November 3, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Call for (post-PhD) historians and cultural scholars for the pod! We have a specific wishlist of scholarship we’re looking to add to the lineup:
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe
Pitches to: podcast@thisguysucked.com
🤗🤗🤗
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe
Pitches to: podcast@thisguysucked.com
🤗🤗🤗
My grandad getting on the post-war Emergency Training for Teachers scheme and leaving the coal mines was the best thing that happened to my family; it literally saved his life.
“Humans can just go get manual labor jobs if desk jobs are repaired with AI” is both not going to suffice to provide enough jobs and is also going to result in massive societal anger because manual labor jobs often *are terrible*, which is why people have worked hard to avoid them for generations.
Even if society provided the food/shelter level needs for everyone, humans also need to perform useful work just for basic fulfillment. The vast majority of people cannot sit around all day letting AI and robots do everything.
(The definition of “useful work” here is malleable but still essential)
(The definition of “useful work” here is malleable but still essential)
November 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM
My grandad getting on the post-war Emergency Training for Teachers scheme and leaving the coal mines was the best thing that happened to my family; it literally saved his life.
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Whoever wrote in the blurb for this edition of Edward Said’s Out of Place that the book reveals “an unimaginably rich world of colorful characters and exotic eastern landscapes” desperately needs to read some Edward Said
November 3, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Whoever wrote in the blurb for this edition of Edward Said’s Out of Place that the book reveals “an unimaginably rich world of colorful characters and exotic eastern landscapes” desperately needs to read some Edward Said
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC
November 2, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC
A movie you have seen more than 7 Times with a GIF
November 1, 2025 at 11:30 PM
A movie you have seen more than 7 Times with a GIF
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
Last chance to turn it off.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Last chance to turn it off.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
Seeing young people out this evening and I’m not sure if they are wearing their usual clothes or doing Y2K as Halloween fancy dress. Either way, I’m being haunted by my youth.
October 31, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Seeing young people out this evening and I’m not sure if they are wearing their usual clothes or doing Y2K as Halloween fancy dress. Either way, I’m being haunted by my youth.
So I’ve just seen that the new Lanthimos film is called Bugonia and features BEES. I guess a classical reception trip might be in order.
October 31, 2025 at 10:08 AM
So I’ve just seen that the new Lanthimos film is called Bugonia and features BEES. I guess a classical reception trip might be in order.
Reposted by Dr Rhiannon Easterbrook
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
October 25, 2025 at 5:05 PM
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”