Jason Dittmer
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realjdittmer.bsky.social
Jason Dittmer
@realjdittmer.bsky.social

Professor of Political Geography at UCL. Posting about geopolitics, popular culture, and cat memes

Political science 29%
Art 22%

The US Senate deal seems a triumph for linking the GOP to the rise in health care costs (assuming there is a vote on it as promised) but colossal defeat for actually maintaining Americans’ health care

A great reflection on masculinity and the shape of the economy
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | Bruce Springsteen’s Father Complicates a Powerful American Narrative
www.nytimes.com
Please sign and share this petition.

I care deeply about geography and want to do everything I can to save our jobs and the school, and protect our students 🌍

#Geography #SchoolClosure

c.org/Z2ZK6fQVgf
Save Geography at the University of Leicester
Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
c.org
Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!
New sign outside the Oval Office..

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

🚨New @ausis.bsky.social book alert! In "Building a Green Wall," @cgallaher.bsky.social and @au-spa.bsky.social's Kimberly Cowell-Meyers explore how the Irish-American lobby worked to defend the Good Friday Agreement and shaped US policy toward Brexit. Read more: www.american.edu/sis/research...
Carolyn Gallaher, Building a Green Wall: Irish America’s Resurgence Post-Brexit
Carolyn Gallaher's new co-authored book with SPA Professor Kimberly Cowell-Meyers explores how the Irish-American lobby reemerged post-Brexit to shape the U.S. foreign policy approach.
www.american.edu
The Department of Geography invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Indigenous Geographies, preferably with a focus on Human–Environment Relationships.

Read more 👉 www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com

Haha - happily so! I am in most Tuesdays though - now ensconced in Russell’s old office

Imagine wanting to pay him $1 trillion for this
on.ft.com/47rYyOG
Elon’s antics may have cost Tesla more than a million vehicle sales
Car key man risk
on.ft.com

Interesting session for the AAG in San Francisco, if you are interested in Diaspora Diplomacy!
www.linkedin.com/posts/jonath...
Diaspora Diplomacy: Mapping Possible Futures | Jonathan Harris
Late in the day, but Francesco Ventura and I are seeking participants in a paper session on #diaspora #diplomacy for next year's #AAG2026 in San Francisco. See call for papers here - deadline 28th Oct...
www.linkedin.com

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

Trump has affirmed support for the nuclear sub deal with Australia and the UK.
Trump affirms support for nuclear sub deal
Australia and the U.K. have feared for months that the U.S. would pull out of the AUKUS pact.
www.politico.com

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

📘 Book Launch: Governing the End
Join us on 5 Nov, 6:30pm @ UCL Bloomsbury for the launch of Prof Lisa Vanhala’s new book on climate change loss & damage.
🎤 Panel experts: UCL, SOAS, LSE, Johns Hopkins & The Loss and Damage Collaboration.
🔗 Register: https://shorturl.at/tUwzL
Book Launch: Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss & Damage
Join the UCL Climate Crisis Grand Challenge on Weds 5 Nov for the launch of Professor Lisa Vanhala's new book.
www.eventbrite.co.uk

Alas, Texas will take it and it will set up a two-tiered system

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

This week in the European Parliamen in Strasbourg, there was a workshop in which you could paint your own garden gnome ... and it makes sense, as gnomes can actually be very political.

In our Declassified humor column, we explain 👇
Game of Gnomes: The politics of small garden ornaments
The European Parliament is the latest in a long line to mix politics and gnomes.
ow.ly

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

My neighbour: isn’t it a little early to have your Halloween decorations up?
Me:
a man wearing an orange pumpkin mask is pointing up
ALT: a man wearing an orange pumpkin mask is pointing up
media.tenor.com

Where was the O-line? Embarrassing job of protecting the QB

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez was stabbed multiple times during a late-night altercation with a truck driver in a downtown Indianapolis alley.
Ex-NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez stabbed multiple times in altercation leading to charges against him
Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez was stabbed multiple times during a late-night altercation with a truck driver in a downtown Indianapolis alley.
bit.ly

An interesting essay that ties in to what @benandersongeog.bsky.social and @ajsecor.bsky.social have been writing about in their book The Politics of Feeling

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...
Opinion | The West Is Lost
www.nytimes.com

[T]he act “was caused by an uproar over the actions of the chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Spencer Clark,” who had “placed himself on a five-cent note and had a large quantity of them printed before it was noticed.” 🤣😆🤣😆

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...
Treasury Plans to Mint $1 Commemorative Trump Coin
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

🎉 Congrats to Caleb Tan!

@ucl.ac.uk Geography student wins the @rgsibg.bsky.social PolGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize for research on transnational migrants’ experiences of National Service in Singapore, exploring mobility, identity, and citizenship.

🔗 Learn more: tinyurl.com/ucl-caleb
Caleb Tan wins RGS-IBG PolGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize
Caleb Tan, a UCL Geography student, has won the PolGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize for his research on transnational migrants’ experiences of National Service in Singapore.
tinyurl.com
Some problems have simple solutions. This new “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is one. The answer is simply saying no.

Simple does not mean easy. But Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, Vanderbilt, Univ of AZ, UPenn, USC, UT Austin & UVA must understand what they’ll lose if they sign on.
Faustian pact on offer. Time for collective courage, if such a thing exists any more.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...
Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference
www.nytimes.com

“We’re living through a golden age for losers who don’t seem to realize how much they keep telegraphing their loserdom to the rest of us.”

Reposted by Jason Dittmer

I love the idea that every professor can spend departmental money. If that was true we would have better coffee.
In Britain, a former far-right Reform party politician has been convicted of taking bribes to promote Russian viewpoints.

Another scandal that should be the end of Reform but will be ignored unless we make a lot of noise about it.
Ex-Reform UK Wales leader Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges
Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.
www.bbc.com