Siân Adiseshiah
@sadiseshiah.bsky.social
Prof of Literature, Politics & Performance at Loughborough University. Head of English. Editor of ‘Playwriting and the Contemporary: Critical Collaborations’ @livUniPress. Contemporary theatre, age studies & utopianism.
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Doctoral Researcher, Liam Young, is co-organising the first @bacls.bsky.social graduate conference, held at the Uni of Leeds on 20 May 2026. Participants will be invited to contribute to a special issue of the journal Alluvium. Deadline for abstracts: 4 January 2026. CFP here: bacls.org/news/188/
News - BACLS New Work in Contemporary Literary Studies Conference 2026 CFP
bacls.org
November 16, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Doctoral Researcher, Liam Young, is co-organising the first @bacls.bsky.social graduate conference, held at the Uni of Leeds on 20 May 2026. Participants will be invited to contribute to a special issue of the journal Alluvium. Deadline for abstracts: 4 January 2026. CFP here: bacls.org/news/188/
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
This open letter to COP30 calling for the arts and humanities to be central to responses to the climate crisis chimes with the current research project of our Vice Chancellor’s Independent Research Fellow @hrmilligan.bsky.social
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/op...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/op...
Open letter to COP30: Use storytelling to fight climate crisis - University of Birmingham
Actors, authors, and public figures have signed an open letter calling for the cultural sector to have a prominent role in the fight against the climate crisis.
www.birmingham.ac.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:38 AM
This open letter to COP30 calling for the arts and humanities to be central to responses to the climate crisis chimes with the current research project of our Vice Chancellor’s Independent Research Fellow @hrmilligan.bsky.social
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/op...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/op...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Early today, we were treated to an excellent paper by Dr Frankie Dytor from the University of Exeter. It was hosted by our Cultural Currents: Nineteenth to Twentieth Century research group, and the title of Frankie's paper was 'Edith Lees Ellis and Queer Disability Studies at the Fin de Siècle'.
November 12, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Early today, we were treated to an excellent paper by Dr Frankie Dytor from the University of Exeter. It was hosted by our Cultural Currents: Nineteenth to Twentieth Century research group, and the title of Frankie's paper was 'Edith Lees Ellis and Queer Disability Studies at the Fin de Siècle'.
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Thousands of university workers around the country losing jobs and careers, whole degree programs lost, areas of expertise lost, student opportunities lost. Yes, it's life-changing, and the consequences will be with us for a long time.
As a Safety manager in the NHS, Labour is most likely making me redundant, and I could lose my house. Making NHS patients less safe in the process.
How are Labour policies changing your life?
How are Labour policies changing your life?
Why aren't Labour's life-changing policies connecting with voters - and what can the party do? It's down to messaging, how it's told, and the messengers...
November 8, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Thousands of university workers around the country losing jobs and careers, whole degree programs lost, areas of expertise lost, student opportunities lost. Yes, it's life-changing, and the consequences will be with us for a long time.
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Last chance to register for the #LboroUCU online CPD workshop, "Allyship and Solidarity", open to all LU staff & Masters & PhD students. Taking place online on Tues 11th November from 12 noon.
For more information and to register for the course: ucu.lboro.ac.uk/cpd-course-a...
For more information and to register for the course: ucu.lboro.ac.uk/cpd-course-a...
CPD Course: Allyship and Solidarity – Loughborough UCU
ucu.lboro.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Last chance to register for the #LboroUCU online CPD workshop, "Allyship and Solidarity", open to all LU staff & Masters & PhD students. Taking place online on Tues 11th November from 12 noon.
For more information and to register for the course: ucu.lboro.ac.uk/cpd-course-a...
For more information and to register for the course: ucu.lboro.ac.uk/cpd-course-a...
It’s been ages, but last week I baked #sourdough 146 - an absolute disaster as I’d run out of wholemeal and had a v wet dough with not enough salt and completely flat, and week 147, which was a triumph! 😀
October 26, 2025 at 10:02 PM
It’s been ages, but last week I baked #sourdough 146 - an absolute disaster as I’d run out of wholemeal and had a v wet dough with not enough salt and completely flat, and week 147, which was a triumph! 😀
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
We took our first-year Intro to Drama students to the Birmingham Rep theatre last night to see Deafinitely Theatre's production of Eloise Pennycott's play, 'Barrier(s)' - a queer/deaf love story with a rich interweaving of English and BSL. We were also treated to an excellent post-show discussion.
October 24, 2025 at 11:40 AM
We took our first-year Intro to Drama students to the Birmingham Rep theatre last night to see Deafinitely Theatre's production of Eloise Pennycott's play, 'Barrier(s)' - a queer/deaf love story with a rich interweaving of English and BSL. We were also treated to an excellent post-show discussion.
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
October 24, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Professors *never* supply information. Students aren’t paying premium prices for ‘information’ at all. How can people who presumably have attended universities misunderstand their role so badly?
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Professors *never* supply information. Students aren’t paying premium prices for ‘information’ at all. How can people who presumably have attended universities misunderstand their role so badly?
"Do we want to live in a world where books and culture flourish? Or in a purely functional world where the value of education is solely measured in expected earnings? Perhaps Kemi would be a better leader if she’d dropped engineering for religious studies or psychology."
"Any “soft” arts subject such as history, English, theology, foreign languages, teaches how to think critically, research effectively, and deepens your understanding of the world: vital skills in our time of disinformation, cults and AI."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Kemi Badenoch wants to end ‘rip-off degrees’ – but I wouldn’t have created Horrid Henry without mine | Francesca Simon
I studied Old and Middle English. Although I didn’t know it, I couldn’t have chosen a better subject to train me to become a children’s author, says author Francesca Simon
www.theguardian.com
October 18, 2025 at 6:32 AM
"Do we want to live in a world where books and culture flourish? Or in a purely functional world where the value of education is solely measured in expected earnings? Perhaps Kemi would be a better leader if she’d dropped engineering for religious studies or psychology."
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
A really interesting piece about the indebtedness of the University of Chicago and how it is destroying its academic reputation - killing the humanities subjects - so it can finance prestigious buildings by top architects.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities?
The answer is simple: to spend untold sums on useless buildings by starchitects.
www.thenation.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:31 PM
A really interesting piece about the indebtedness of the University of Chicago and how it is destroying its academic reputation - killing the humanities subjects - so it can finance prestigious buildings by top architects.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Our own Nick Freeman has contributed a chapter, ‘The Ghost Story 1870-1900’, to The Victorian Ghost Story: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh UP). There’s spooky fun for all the family with Dickens, Kipling, Stoker, and various other practitioners of the ghostly tale ...
The Victorian Ghost Story
The Victorian Ghost Story
edinburghuniversitypress.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Our own Nick Freeman has contributed a chapter, ‘The Ghost Story 1870-1900’, to The Victorian Ghost Story: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh UP). There’s spooky fun for all the family with Dickens, Kipling, Stoker, and various other practitioners of the ghostly tale ...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
The Brontë Society's Annual Lecture was delivered this weekend by @drclaireocall.bsky.social 'A happy Heathcliff and Cathy': The influence of Emily Brontë on Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes. Claire is also Editor of Brontë Studies, the journal of the Brontë Society. www.bronte.org.uk/events/bront...
October 5, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The Brontë Society's Annual Lecture was delivered this weekend by @drclaireocall.bsky.social 'A happy Heathcliff and Cathy': The influence of Emily Brontë on Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes. Claire is also Editor of Brontë Studies, the journal of the Brontë Society. www.bronte.org.uk/events/bront...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
These cases of extreme, far-right racist violence targeting Muslims and people seeking asylum are being blithely ignored by most media and politicians because they see no political capital in addressing them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Man arrested after fire at London asylum seekers' hotel
The blaze is being treated as a hate crime by officers investigating.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 8:24 AM
These cases of extreme, far-right racist violence targeting Muslims and people seeking asylum are being blithely ignored by most media and politicians because they see no political capital in addressing them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Men in balaclavas set fire to a mosque in East Sussex last night. It's only appearing on the BBC's local coverage, rather than its main national headlines, despite coming just a week after the (also under-reported) firebombing of an asylum hotel in London last week
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Peacehaven: Fire at East Sussex mosque probed as 'hate crime'
Video appears to show two people in balaclavas at the mosque before a large blaze spreads.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Men in balaclavas set fire to a mosque in East Sussex last night. It's only appearing on the BBC's local coverage, rather than its main national headlines, despite coming just a week after the (also under-reported) firebombing of an asylum hotel in London last week
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Pleased to announce @univeng.bsky.social small funding scheme now open to members. UE will fund up to 20 projects up to £250 each to support research/pedagogy/continuing professional development activities in Lit, Lang, Creative Writing. See details here: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...
University English Funding
universityenglish.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Pleased to announce @univeng.bsky.social small funding scheme now open to members. UE will fund up to 20 projects up to £250 each to support research/pedagogy/continuing professional development activities in Lit, Lang, Creative Writing. See details here: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇
🚨Call for Papers!
❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day
🗺️Loughborough University
📅27 March 2026
💷 FREE
For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for...
Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for more information
❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day
🗺️Loughborough University
📅27 March 2026
💷 FREE
For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for...
Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for more information
October 2, 2025 at 12:55 PM
CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
I am genuinely baffled and distressed as to why the UK government is intent on destroying UK's genuinely world-leading universities, who bring £265 billion into the economy and support more than 250,000 jobs.
This tax will kill us.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...
This tax will kill us.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...
Student visas crackdown and new levies to cause ‘£1.8bn loss’ to UK economy
The Government has proposed a 6 per cent tax on international student tuition fees and a reduction in graduate visas
www.standard.co.uk
September 27, 2025 at 9:38 AM
I am genuinely baffled and distressed as to why the UK government is intent on destroying UK's genuinely world-leading universities, who bring £265 billion into the economy and support more than 250,000 jobs.
This tax will kill us.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...
This tax will kill us.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
It was a real pleasure welcoming English and Liberal Arts students to our department today. After a welcome from @justin-waring.bsky.social, @sadiseshiah.bsky.social, Barbara Cooke, Rachael Grew, and our English Committee, some of our academics shared their favourite text to teach! #EscapedAlone
September 26, 2025 at 6:45 PM
It was a real pleasure welcoming English and Liberal Arts students to our department today. After a welcome from @justin-waring.bsky.social, @sadiseshiah.bsky.social, Barbara Cooke, Rachael Grew, and our English Committee, some of our academics shared their favourite text to teach! #EscapedAlone
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Helpful summary in @timeshighered.bsky.social about why portability matters to humanities and social science scholars at every stage of career with a quotation from me at the end about exceptions expected for "long form and/or longer-process outputs”. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/use-ref...
Use REF pause to review non-portability of outputs, urge scholars
Breaking the link between researchers and their outputs harms academic mobility and disciplinary excellence, argue professors
www.timeshighereducation.com
September 23, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Helpful summary in @timeshighered.bsky.social about why portability matters to humanities and social science scholars at every stage of career with a quotation from me at the end about exceptions expected for "long form and/or longer-process outputs”. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/use-ref...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
Fantastic to meet prospective students and their families and friends at our Open Day today. There was a real buzz and the sun was shining! ☀️
September 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Fantastic to meet prospective students and their families and friends at our Open Day today. There was a real buzz and the sun was shining! ☀️
"the cumulative impact of this silence is a deepening sense that Palestinian suffering is institutionally unrecognisable: too controversial to name, too politically fraught to mourn, too inconvenient to address."
wonkhe.com/blogs/gaza-h...
wonkhe.com/blogs/gaza-h...
Gaza, higher education, and the ethics of institutional neutrality
Institutions are wary of speaking about Israel's actions in Gaza, but that silence has consequences, argues Aneeza Pervez
wonkhe.com
September 17, 2025 at 8:40 AM
"the cumulative impact of this silence is a deepening sense that Palestinian suffering is institutionally unrecognisable: too controversial to name, too politically fraught to mourn, too inconvenient to address."
wonkhe.com/blogs/gaza-h...
wonkhe.com/blogs/gaza-h...
Reposted by Siân Adiseshiah
A polite reminder that some of the most fundamental and field-shaping research is UNfunded—or rather core-funded through institutional research leave—precisely because it doesn’t have to abide by the fickle trends and tickboxes that govern UKRI & Co. Frankly, this is an insult to the profession.
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...
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
September 12, 2025 at 8:52 AM
A polite reminder that some of the most fundamental and field-shaping research is UNfunded—or rather core-funded through institutional research leave—precisely because it doesn’t have to abide by the fickle trends and tickboxes that govern UKRI & Co. Frankly, this is an insult to the profession.