Kate Spowage
@katespowage.bsky.social
Critical interdisciplinary sociolinguist working on the politics of language, capitalism, and colonialism. Shamelessly plugging Language as Statecraft, which thinks about all those things. Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Own views, reposts ≠ agreement
They also have this genuinely excellent rendering of intellectual labour and it's subsumption to capital (but maybe now I am overdetermining things) 🤙 #CognitiveCapitalism
September 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
They also have this genuinely excellent rendering of intellectual labour and it's subsumption to capital (but maybe now I am overdetermining things) 🤙 #CognitiveCapitalism
Working at the BNF in Paris, and came across this fabulous cartoon from L'Élongé (May 1968). Will show students on my new Language Policy & Politics module - De Gaulle, in a hospital bed, is schooled on French grammar by a nurse. A satire on conservativism and verbal hygiene perhaps? 🤔
September 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Working at the BNF in Paris, and came across this fabulous cartoon from L'Élongé (May 1968). Will show students on my new Language Policy & Politics module - De Gaulle, in a hospital bed, is schooled on French grammar by a nurse. A satire on conservativism and verbal hygiene perhaps? 🤔
Entirely on brand photo in the 90s diorama at the Computerspielemuseum Berlin, on the day Against the Game was published (🔗 👇)! Playing something linked to my upcoming project with Adrienne Mortimer and @openlibhums.bsky.social ... Any guesses!? 💥🚗|🩹🥺 #Dingbats 🐶
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
June 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Entirely on brand photo in the 90s diorama at the Computerspielemuseum Berlin, on the day Against the Game was published (🔗 👇)! Playing something linked to my upcoming project with Adrienne Mortimer and @openlibhums.bsky.social ... Any guesses!? 💥🚗|🩹🥺 #Dingbats 🐶
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Groups are coded as Herderian nations. Hammurabi leads Babylon. He even has voiced lines in Akkadian! But here language is only a kind of national flavour. Conquering Babylon triggers no sociolinguistic change, and Civ does not link toponymy to power, control, conquest or colonisation.
June 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Groups are coded as Herderian nations. Hammurabi leads Babylon. He even has voiced lines in Akkadian! But here language is only a kind of national flavour. Conquering Babylon triggers no sociolinguistic change, and Civ does not link toponymy to power, control, conquest or colonisation.
In 'Civ', players nurture human groups from the dawn of time into the giant-death-robot-ridden future. Controlling cities is central to success, and the standard path to victory involves destroying other cultures and seizing their lands. Games play out on these maps, always in Herder's shadow...
June 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
In 'Civ', players nurture human groups from the dawn of time into the giant-death-robot-ridden future. Controlling cities is central to success, and the standard path to victory involves destroying other cultures and seizing their lands. Games play out on these maps, always in Herder's shadow...