Rachel Smith
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Rachel Smith
@valuequestion.bsky.social
1.6K followers 3.5K following 29 posts
Scotland-based Lecturer in Anthropology & Museum Studies. Vanuatu/Pacific; economic anthro, value, labour migration. Co-Editor, Anthropology of Work Review @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
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Reposted by Rachel Smith
rhidaneelolivaw.bsky.social
IT'S '6-7', COOPER. A GENERATION ALPHA TREND. WHAT THEY CALL A 'MAY-MAY'. IT'S AN ORPHANED SIGNIFIER, NO SIGNS ATTACHED. ONE COULD CALL IT DADAIST, BUT SOMME SAY IT'S TOO STUPID TO BE DADA. IT'S ANTI-MEANING, ANTI-HUMOUR, BUT DAMN IF THOSE KIDS DON'T FIND IT A CRACK-UP.
November 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
gylesnamopaleen.bsky.social
Dear Britain:

Your polls look very "European" and NOW would be a really really really really really really really good time to switch to PR.

➡️ RFM: 26% | 170 (+74)
🟥 LAB: 19% | 124 (-110)
🟦 CON: 18% | 118 (-38)
🟩 GRN: 15% | 98 (+55)
🟧 LDM: 14% | 91 (+10)
🟨 SNP: 3% | 19 (+2)
🔲 PLC: 2% | 12 (+7)
graphical illustration showing the distribution of seats under FPTP based on todays yougov poll. under PR there is a wider spread of seats across parties, while under FPTP, it displays a massive landslide of seats for the Яeform Party.
November 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
rebeccawynter.bsky.social
Higher Education, where consultants advocate death as a means for survival and everyone else knows they're simply murdering everything.
ducuuo.bsky.social Dundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 6d
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?
anademedeiros.bsky.social Ana de Medeiros @anademedeiros.bsky.social · 7d
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.
November 11, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
ducuuo.bsky.social
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?
anademedeiros.bsky.social Ana de Medeiros @anademedeiros.bsky.social · 7d
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.
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
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
📢 Varieties of academic precarity across (and beyond) Europe: @easainfo.bsky.social Anthropology of Labour network Webinar TOMORROW w/ Bhargabi Das, Martin Fotta, @mariya-ivancheva.bsky.social , Roberto Mozzachiodi & Aslı Vatansever ! easaonline.org/event/variet...
Varieties of academic precarity across (and beyond) Europe: Anthropology of Labour Network Webinar
Join us for the upcoming Anthropology of Labour Network webinar on experiences of academic precarity. 12 November, 17-19 CET. With Bhargabi Das, Martin Fotta, Mariya Ivancheva, Roberto Mozzachiodi and...
easaonline.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
nilsgilman.bsky.social
A titan. humanityjournal.org/issue7-1/ref...
November 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
berghahnbooks.bsky.social
The latest OPEN ACCESS volume of Museum Worlds has been published! View the TOC for Vol. 13 here: bit.ly/47Gl3zG

Featuring research by:
@jordankistler.bsky.social
@tattersdill.bsky.social
@clairewintle.bsky.social
@fengschoeneweiss.bsky.social
@mnystudio.bsky.social
@tibetcurator.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthroencyclo.bsky.social
New article alert 🔬📚 "...labor management practices associated with soft skills have as much to do with old ways of disciplining labor as new and highlights the co-constitution of labor anxiety and racial ideologies", writes Sydney Pullen in "Don't Complain." @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social 👏 📣
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social Anthropology of Work Review @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social · 11d
In “Don't Complain”: Labor Anxiety, Racial Ideologies, and Moral Micromanagement in Rural South Carolina Sydney Pullen situates the neoliberal turn towards “soft skills” training programs w/in historical context, showing how they represent continuity of racial ideologies and racialized labor regimes
Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library
South Carolina's Black Belt counties are perennial targets of economic development programs. Economic development personnel focus on industrial recruitment and workforce development to remedy the eco...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
easainfo.bsky.social
"Academia is precarious" - a statement most (if not all) of us have come to experience in one way or another. The EASA Anthropology of Labour Network invites you to a webinar on experiences of academic precarity on 12 November.

We encourage you to attend this timely event.
Info in the comments.
November 7, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
In “Don't Complain”: Labor Anxiety, Racial Ideologies, and Moral Micromanagement in Rural South Carolina Sydney Pullen situates the neoliberal turn towards “soft skills” training programs w/in historical context, showing how they represent continuity of racial ideologies and racialized labor regimes
Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library
South Carolina's Black Belt counties are perennial targets of economic development programs. Economic development personnel focus on industrial recruitment and workforce development to remedy the eco...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
maggiechapman.bsky.social
Last chance to save St Fittick's Park!

Today, Aberdeen's Planning Committee will be discussing the latest planning application for the development and industrialisation of St Fittick's Community Park - Torry's last remaining green space.

I strongly oppose the development. Read more in the thread
Banner with the words "Last chance to Save St Fittick's Park" and a picture of protesters against the industrialisation of the park
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
derek.bike
good morning specifically to the FBI agent who introduced Mamdani’s dad to Marx
guy said, “Do you like Marx?” I said, “I haven’t met him.” Guy said, “No, no, he’s dead.” “Wow, what happened?” “No, no, he died long ago.” I thought the guy Marx had just died. So then, “Why are you asking me if he died long ago?” “No, he wrote a lot. He wrote that poor people should not be poor.” I said, “Sounds amazing.” I’m giving you a sense of how naïve I was. After they left, I went to the library to look for Marx. So that was my introduction to Karl Marx. BS: The FBI. MM: The FBI. Then, of course, I took a class on Marx. Couldn’t just get Marx out of the library. But,
November 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
karengregory.bsky.social
The university is threatening cuts on a massive scale with little to no justification. Truly surreal moment in HE.
October 29, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
Congratulations to the winner of 2025 @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize
Hector Beltran's
@teflonbeltran.bsky.social
Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands!
@princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Code Work
How Mexican and Latinx hackers apply concepts from coding to their lived experiences
press.princeton.edu
October 27, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
visualplague.bsky.social
Review of William Max Nelson's new book Enlightenment Biopolitics: A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
A Baleful Legacy | David A. Bell
Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism.
www.nybooks.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
We are excited to announce the winner of the Eric Wolf Prize for the Best Graduate Paper (2025).
The winner is: Yanping Ni "China’s Dust Archives: Black Lung, Testimonial Surplus, and the Ghosts of Reform."
October 20, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
"AI returns to the university as part of a broad effort to further corporatize universities, vocationalize higher-education instruction, and diminish both research and research-based pedagogy."
October 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
... and for Honourable Mention from the judges of the @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize! Congratulations to
Hemangini Gupta!
ideasonfirephd.bsky.social Ideas on Fire @ideasonfirephd.bsky.social · Dec 26
Join us in congratulating Ideas on Fire author Hemangini Gupta @hgupta.bsky.social on her new book Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India, out now from @ucpress.bsky.social!

https://buff.ly/3OGaNOP
Cover of Experimental Times, with bright multicolored shapes and textures
October 20, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
clairezagorski.bsky.social
A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:
A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues. An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”. An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg. An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.
October 11, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'Despite AI’s widespread use, 62% of the students said it has had a negative impact on their skills and development at school, while one in four of the students agreed that AI “makes it too easy for me to find the answers without doing the work myself”.' 1/2
Pupils fear AI is eroding their ability to study, research finds
One in four students say AI ‘makes it too easy’ for them to find answers
www.theguardian.com
October 15, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
rebeccasear.bsky.social
“More than half of the work done by women in the period between the 16th and 18th centuries took place outside of the home, and around half of all housework and three-quarters of care work was conducted professionally for other households” [England]

phys.org/news/2025-10...
A woman's place was not in the home: Challenging the assumptions about women's work in early modern history
New research has revealed that women played a fundamental role in the development of England's national economy before 1700.
phys.org
October 12, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
axdouglas.bsky.social
Why not combine the two worst things ever created?

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president - Research Professional News
Research Excellence Framework is “not best use of human brainpower”, Adrian Smith tells Lords committee
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
September 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
ebharrington.bsky.social
Rothbard is a patron saint of the Broligarchs' efforts to establish their own personal empires offshore-which is why the subtitle of my new(ish) book is "The New Colonialism."
Rothbard-inspired techbros are styling themselves as imperial potentates.
See also, @raycraib.bsky.social's cool history.
October 11, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
kbgraubart.bsky.social
Moving quickly to a world where students use AI to complete work, profs use AI to grade it, no one learns anything and we will live in a world of mediocrity and incompetence where only the billionaires benefit.
biblioracle.bsky.social John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · Oct 10
I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...
The Dangers of using AI to Grade
Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains
substack.com
October 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Rachel Smith
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'prime minister Keir Starmer...confirmed that the University of Lancaster and the University of Surrey had been given approval to open new campuses in India while on a trade mission to Mumbai, joining six more institutions already in the country.' (Lancaster is mooting 20% academic redundancy) 1/3
October 11, 2025 at 9:36 AM