Kavita Ramakrishnan
kavitaurbanist.bsky.social
Kavita Ramakrishnan
@kavitaurbanist.bsky.social
Unruly geographer at the University of East Anglia.

Eviction, resettlement, informality and migration. Currently thinking about embodied experiences of extreme heat.

Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
I once listed on my annual activities report the time I spent on things like

strategizing with a fellow junior prof about how to avoid her harasser at a conference while still getting to network,

etc

just to make a point
Imagine the things we could do with our time if we didn’t have to do this bsky.app/profile/chan...
I did my job. And then I did a job that never should have been my responsibility afterwards, sending emails and having meetings about how this was allowed to happen in the first place. Other women scholars had to spend their time explaining to Aspen leadership why this was not ok.
November 16, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Covid prevents me from being on the picket line but solidarity to everyone there.

An isolated management, censured by its own academic senate, seeks to literally decimate its own staff.

Oh, and it has the third largest uni endowment in the UK.
Pickets all over Edinburgh this morning! From Old College to King's Building, Edinburgh UCU staff are saying NO to job cuts!
November 17, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Ten years ago, Storm Abigail became the first UK storm with a name. Since then, clear warnings have saved countless lives. Here’s how it works and some of the biggest storms we’ve seen since then.

@eastangliabylines.co.uk
Ten years of naming storms and saving lives
The Met Office’s storm-naming scheme marks its tenth year, transforming how Britain prepares for extreme weather
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
I did my bachelor's in Human Geography at Leicester. Best choice I ever made, genuinely some of the best years of my life!

We were on the picket lines with staff then, full support to them now. A lot of my favourite people have left since I graduated due to the state of academia, now more at risk.
Solidarity to colleagues at Leicester Uni:

"all academic staff in the film studies and modern languages departments have been placed at risk, with "large numbers of staff" in chemistry, geography, geology & the environment (GGE) and history specialisms "uncertain if they will retain their jobs"
University of Leicester confirms formal redundancy consultation
The University and College Union's local branch says staff are planning strike action.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Not sure what they’re going to teach at A&M—and why anyone would pay tens of thousands for a censored education.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 14, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
November 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
This is very good and you should read it.
"Historical analysis is fundamentally different and more complex than producing a mass of visualizations and statistics that are the lifeblood of many A.I. programmes."

Gordon McKelvie @gordonmckelvie.bsky.social on the problematic use of A.I. within historical research.
Artificial Intelligence: A Warning for History
Does A.I. have the potential to simplify, and ultimately impoverish, our study of the past? Gordon McKelvie considers the recent explosion in A.I. and what it means for historians facing the current H...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
November 12, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
These posts are gold. They directly show how we already have massive documentation from REF impact case studies re: the value of disciplinary expertise in the real world. We can all dig up local examples and publicize them with political leaders & in communities.
What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation?

Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8
The organ donation ‘opt-out’ has been a fatal failure | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
If Britain is 'sliding "into economic crisis over £85bn sickness bill', what can UK Arts, Humanities & Social Science research tell us about alternative pathways?

Swansea University historians have some excellent answers. 1/4

@torstenbell.bsky.social @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social
Britain sliding 'into economic crisis' over £85bn sickness bill, ex-John Lewis boss warns
The number of people who are out of work for health reasons has grown by 800,000 since 2019.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation?

Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8
The organ donation ‘opt-out’ has been a fatal failure | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Zohran at the rally for trans youth on february 8 ❣️ he was polling single digits.
June 25, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
dissatisfied by the New York Times coverage of Zohran Mamdani?

great news! I talked to the guy Thursday about his campaign’s success at bringing community together beyond this election, and contextualized how it’s potentially shifted youth engagement with politics by simply listening @teenvogue.com
Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People
“What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”
www.teenvogue.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site
dissatisfied by the New York Times coverage of Zohran Mamdani?

great news! I talked to the guy Thursday about his campaign’s success at bringing community together beyond this election, and contextualized how it’s potentially shifted youth engagement with politics by simply listening @teenvogue.com
Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People
“What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”
www.teenvogue.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
“Individuals on the ground sent a message that reached us Monday morning that 1,200 were dead,” Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said. “By that evening, they said 10,000. By Tuesday, we couldn’t reach them anymore. We assume our ground contacts are dead.”
Yale lab reports mass killings in Sudan, calls for student activism
The Humanitarian Research Lab was told this week that over 10,000 people in Sudan were killed within three days.
yaledailynews.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
"The framing of LLMs as preserving the lives of those we have lost distracts from the lost livelihoods, and worsened material conditions, of a generation of writers on whose work the technology of LLM feeds—and the loss of innumerable voices and the stories they won’t be able to tell" bit.ly/48Vv1iT
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
bit.ly
October 31, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
to understand the situation in Chicago I recommend listening to this piece which has a CHILD talking about the TEAR GAS they encountered en route to a HALLOWEEN PARADE

www.wbez.org/public-safet...
Feds say immigration blitz will continue amid Halloween festivities
Families and city leaders are scrambling to make Halloween and the Day of the Dead celebrations safe for children caught up in the debate over aggressive immigration raids.
www.wbez.org
October 31, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.

My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...
October 30, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Emergency funds to foods banks aren’t sufficient — these people are employed and caregivers they can’t afford to stand on long food lines. The way aid is delivered is just as important as the cash itself in terms of who is able to benefit
October 30, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
I just don’t think we’re freaking out enough about this SNAP cut. I have spent my whole career working with people who rely on SNAP for food. People who work multiple jobs. Who have kids. What do you think happens when 1/8th of the population can’t buy food anymore? Everything is going to collapse.
October 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
Here is our panel with colleagues from @bcnuej.bsky.social, consider sending your presentation proposal by DEC 5th via the link below, for the @pollenetwork.bsky.social conference to be held in Barcelona end of June 2026!

nomadit.co.uk/conference/p...
P017: Living with the Weather: Everyday Adaptations, Urban Inequalities, and Justice-Centered Climate Responses
The format intended is a panel of short presentations and a common discussion. We will invite up to 5 panel participants.
nomadit.co.uk
October 9, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
In light of the new Lancet report on climate and health:

"one heat-related death every minute throughout the year"

while

"every heat-related death is preventable".

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals
Biggest analysis of its kind finds millions are dying each year from combined effects of failure to tackle climate crisis
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Kavita Ramakrishnan
As an alumni of Syracuse University, it's appalling that they are capitulating against a right-wing campaign against Professor Farhana Sultana for exercising her first amendment rights. Do consider signing this letter calling on Syracuse University to reinstate her docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana
As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...
docs.google.com
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 PM