Mirela Ivanova
@mirela.bsky.social
Lecturer in History. Pre-modern Balkans, Russia, Turkey. BBC New Generation Thinker. Social climber🎓. Rock climber 🧗. Loves context.
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds
Belief that snack chain’s revenues exceed those of Oxford’s one of many misconceptions about UK’s HE sector
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
"Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn."
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#HigherEd
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Universities continue to brand themselves as 'global' and chase international students whose culture and languages they appear uninterested in.
Take a min to save modern langauges at Uni of Nottingham!
www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
Take a min to save modern langauges at Uni of Nottingham!
www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
Sign the Petition
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
www.change.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Universities continue to brand themselves as 'global' and chase international students whose culture and languages they appear uninterested in.
Take a min to save modern langauges at Uni of Nottingham!
www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
Take a min to save modern langauges at Uni of Nottingham!
www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
People of Oslo! Come about my book on the invention of the Slavonic alphabet next Wednesday at 4.15pm.
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
October 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
People of Oslo! Come about my book on the invention of the Slavonic alphabet next Wednesday at 4.15pm.
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
Details here: www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...
nearly thirty years ago Bill Readings published this prophetic book The University in Ruins. Essential reading today as the sector is on the brink of collapse.
October 21, 2025 at 6:07 PM
nearly thirty years ago Bill Readings published this prophetic book The University in Ruins. Essential reading today as the sector is on the brink of collapse.
"LLMs don’t learn except by going through a whole new training process. ChatGPT doesn’t learn from any of the millions of exchanges it has with human users. It can’t afford to [...] it is frozen to prevent it being contaminated by any new knowledge.."
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Computers that want things
For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
"LLMs don’t learn except by going through a whole new training process. ChatGPT doesn’t learn from any of the millions of exchanges it has with human users. It can’t afford to [...] it is frozen to prevent it being contaminated by any new knowledge.."
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Loved this review of Lea Ypi's new book Indignity by @lilylynch.bsky.social - on class, communism, and family in Albania's twentieth century
jacobin.com/2025/10/lea-...
jacobin.com/2025/10/lea-...
Lea Ypi’s Reckoning With Family and the Legacy of Revolution
In her new book, Indignity, Albanian political scientist Lea Ypi discovers that online trolls are accusing her grandmother of having been a communist spy during World War II. To find the truth, she di...
jacobin.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Loved this review of Lea Ypi's new book Indignity by @lilylynch.bsky.social - on class, communism, and family in Albania's twentieth century
jacobin.com/2025/10/lea-...
jacobin.com/2025/10/lea-...
Istanbul folk - @drvukovich.bsky.social and I will be hosting a workshop on the Byzantine and Ottoman heritage of the Balkans in a few weeks at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul! Come join us and our amazing speakers!
August 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Istanbul folk - @drvukovich.bsky.social and I will be hosting a workshop on the Byzantine and Ottoman heritage of the Balkans in a few weeks at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul! Come join us and our amazing speakers!
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
"To generate knowledge in the context of hunger is to think through pain. To teach students who have not eaten and still tell them their voices matter. To insist, against all odds, that Gaza still thinks, still questions, still creates."
‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza
It is hard to keep the mind sharp when the body is thin and dehydrated, but solidarity is teaching starving students their thoughts still matter
www.theguardian.com
August 20, 2025 at 7:25 AM
"To generate knowledge in the context of hunger is to think through pain. To teach students who have not eaten and still tell them their voices matter. To insist, against all odds, that Gaza still thinks, still questions, still creates."
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
Hello UK friends - please, please could you sign this petition against the job cuts at my place of work - 1 in 4 us will be out of a job by August next year if we don't stop the cuts. And once you've signed it, please share. We need your help! www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...
Sign the Petition
Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable
www.change.org
July 30, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Hello UK friends - please, please could you sign this petition against the job cuts at my place of work - 1 in 4 us will be out of a job by August next year if we don't stop the cuts. And once you've signed it, please share. We need your help! www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...
Excited on route to York for a workshop entitled Multilingual Lives and organised by @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social and Purba Hossain!
June 26, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Excited on route to York for a workshop entitled Multilingual Lives and organised by @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social and Purba Hossain!
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
For BBC Future, I wrote a piece for about the Soviet plan (it never happened) to reverse some of the country's great rivers, diverting them south to Central Asia:
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
The Soviet plan to reverse Siberia's rivers with 'peaceful nuclear explosions'
In the 1970s, the USSR used nuclear devices to try to send water from Siberia's rivers flowing south, instead of its natural route north.
www.bbc.co.uk
May 30, 2025 at 11:24 AM
For BBC Future, I wrote a piece for about the Soviet plan (it never happened) to reverse some of the country's great rivers, diverting them south to Central Asia:
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
Intimidating bunting is back at JW! @sheffielducu.bsky.social
May 7, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Intimidating bunting is back at JW! @sheffielducu.bsky.social
"the funding freeze has had a devastating effect on civil society in Central and Eastern Europe"
Excellent on the various agencies and media organisations fighting for civil liberties and rights in Eastern Europe which have been shut down by the USAID cuts.
briefeasterneurope.eu/p/march-31-2...
Excellent on the various agencies and media organisations fighting for civil liberties and rights in Eastern Europe which have been shut down by the USAID cuts.
briefeasterneurope.eu/p/march-31-2...
📩 A world without grants
Plus: Cattle crisis
briefeasterneurope.eu
April 1, 2025 at 11:39 AM
"the funding freeze has had a devastating effect on civil society in Central and Eastern Europe"
Excellent on the various agencies and media organisations fighting for civil liberties and rights in Eastern Europe which have been shut down by the USAID cuts.
briefeasterneurope.eu/p/march-31-2...
Excellent on the various agencies and media organisations fighting for civil liberties and rights in Eastern Europe which have been shut down by the USAID cuts.
briefeasterneurope.eu/p/march-31-2...
Fascinating YouGov poll shows over half of americans 'dislike' the Middle Ages; they like the Renaissance, even more than the Englightenment. Medieval things they do love: castles and chivalry! 16% love the Inquisition. today.yougov.com/entertainmen...
Violent, dark, and dirty: What Americans think about the Middle Ages | YouGov
Americans have favorable views of chivalry and castles, but not the Crusades or the Inquisition
today.yougov.com
March 28, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Fascinating YouGov poll shows over half of americans 'dislike' the Middle Ages; they like the Renaissance, even more than the Englightenment. Medieval things they do love: castles and chivalry! 16% love the Inquisition. today.yougov.com/entertainmen...
"The flavour of crisis we are experiencing in UK higher education is far less about malice, and far more about political indifference."
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/education/a-...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/education/a-...
A Decade of Crisis
The UK's universities are in crisis. Dave Hitchcock on how the sector became 'broken' and why it must be understood as an interdependent system.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
March 13, 2025 at 11:32 AM
"The flavour of crisis we are experiencing in UK higher education is far less about malice, and far more about political indifference."
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/education/a-...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/education/a-...
"Increasingly desperate, universities have made things even worse by taking the one-size-fits-all advice of a handful of consultancies to cut services in each department and centralise everything from recruitment to IT."
www.ft.com/content/0ec7...
www.ft.com/content/0ec7...
The UK’s academic recession is in full swing
This university crisis is a grim scrabble for numbers
www.ft.com
March 11, 2025 at 10:18 PM
"Increasingly desperate, universities have made things even worse by taking the one-size-fits-all advice of a handful of consultancies to cut services in each department and centralise everything from recruitment to IT."
www.ft.com/content/0ec7...
www.ft.com/content/0ec7...
I published a piece in @neweasterneurope.eu on how the history of multiculturalism in the Balkans has been sidelined thanks to nationalism, population exchanges and war.
March 10, 2025 at 10:02 PM
I published a piece in @neweasterneurope.eu on how the history of multiculturalism in the Balkans has been sidelined thanks to nationalism, population exchanges and war.
Essenial reading for historians of nationalism, byzantium and the theory of territory!
Very excited that this article is finally out! I hope it'll be of interest to anyone who: 1) is interested in the history of #nationhood & #nationalism; 2) is into the debate over Romanness in "#Byzantium"; & 3) wants to develop critical #Marxist frameworks before & after capitalism. A short 🧵/1
New on advance access: "Nationcraft and the Origins of Territory: Experiencing Romanía in the Medieval Empire of New Rome"
by Nicholas S M Matheou (@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social)
#OpenAccess
doi.org/10.1093/past...
by Nicholas S M Matheou (@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social)
#OpenAccess
doi.org/10.1093/past...
February 10, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Essenial reading for historians of nationalism, byzantium and the theory of territory!
Just discovered that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's open access article on the Politics of Byzantine studies has made it onto the Wiki page for the 'Byzantine Empire'! Thanks to the anonymous editor!
January 31, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Just discovered that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's open access article on the Politics of Byzantine studies has made it onto the Wiki page for the 'Byzantine Empire'! Thanks to the anonymous editor!
Kalyan Minaret (12c.) in Bukhara. The oldest still standing in Central Asia, it was apparently (acc. to local man) spared by Genghis Khan because his hat fell off when he looked up at it. Also apparently (acc. to British spy) it was used for public executions in the late 19th/early 20thc.
January 27, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Kalyan Minaret (12c.) in Bukhara. The oldest still standing in Central Asia, it was apparently (acc. to local man) spared by Genghis Khan because his hat fell off when he looked up at it. Also apparently (acc. to British spy) it was used for public executions in the late 19th/early 20thc.
excited to see that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's aritcle is now in physical print! what is byzantine studies all about?? find out now, open access!
Reflections Article in our 600th Issue: Mirela Ivanova @mirela.bsky.social and Benjamin Anderson @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social on 'The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires'
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires
Byzantine studies is neither the oldest nor the largest of the historical disciplines, but it is among the oddest. Its peculiarities, however, are rarely d
academic.oup.com
January 10, 2025 at 12:14 PM
excited to see that @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social and I's aritcle is now in physical print! what is byzantine studies all about?? find out now, open access!
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
A reminder about the EME/BSR fellowship: a month's stay in Rome for someone doing/recently finished a PhD on early medieval European history. Deadline 31st January.
bsr.ac.uk/second-bsr-e...
bsr.ac.uk/second-bsr-e...
Second BSR/Early Medieval Europe Fellowship - bsr.ac.uk
In partnership with the journal Early Medieval Europe, the British School at Rome is pleased to announce the second BSR/EME Fellowship. Aimed at early career researchers (defined as current PhD stu...
bsr.ac.uk
January 7, 2025 at 9:51 AM
A reminder about the EME/BSR fellowship: a month's stay in Rome for someone doing/recently finished a PhD on early medieval European history. Deadline 31st January.
bsr.ac.uk/second-bsr-e...
bsr.ac.uk/second-bsr-e...
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
Reflections Article in our 600th Issue: Mirela Ivanova @mirela.bsky.social and Benjamin Anderson @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social on 'The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires'
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires
Byzantine studies is neither the oldest nor the largest of the historical disciplines, but it is among the oddest. Its peculiarities, however, are rarely d
academic.oup.com
December 23, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Reflections Article in our 600th Issue: Mirela Ivanova @mirela.bsky.social and Benjamin Anderson @bunyaminanderson.bsky.social on 'The Politics of Byzantine Studies: Between Nations and Empires'
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
academic.oup.com/ehr/article/...
Reposted by Mirela Ivanova
Sorry to say we're closed today (Tuesday) 😔
Someone has bricked our window, robbed the cash drawer and, bizarrely, the Bluetooth speaker 🎶
All the books are safe! Turns out robbers dont read. If you wanna help out this struggling queer bookshop our website is still open
Merry bloody Christmas 😥
Someone has bricked our window, robbed the cash drawer and, bizarrely, the Bluetooth speaker 🎶
All the books are safe! Turns out robbers dont read. If you wanna help out this struggling queer bookshop our website is still open
Merry bloody Christmas 😥
December 17, 2024 at 10:01 AM
Sorry to say we're closed today (Tuesday) 😔
Someone has bricked our window, robbed the cash drawer and, bizarrely, the Bluetooth speaker 🎶
All the books are safe! Turns out robbers dont read. If you wanna help out this struggling queer bookshop our website is still open
Merry bloody Christmas 😥
Someone has bricked our window, robbed the cash drawer and, bizarrely, the Bluetooth speaker 🎶
All the books are safe! Turns out robbers dont read. If you wanna help out this struggling queer bookshop our website is still open
Merry bloody Christmas 😥
Sheffield-area folk who love high quality local journalism: please subscribe to @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social! It's a great paper, and local journalism is more improtant than ever! Plus - an excellent Xmas gift! www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/get-us-over-...
Get us over the line
Our quest for a Christmas miracle
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
December 16, 2024 at 3:58 PM
Sheffield-area folk who love high quality local journalism: please subscribe to @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social! It's a great paper, and local journalism is more improtant than ever! Plus - an excellent Xmas gift! www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/get-us-over-...