Simon Rushton

Theory: people who have their own private islands are up to no good.
(Only potential exception I can think of to this general rule is St Cuthbert).

Received official notice today that my employer will be withholding 100% of pay for the next three weeks, to myself and all other members of @sheffielducu.bsky.social who refuse (as is our legal right, and our solidaristic duty) to reschedule classes cancelled due to strike action. Outrageous.

Screenshot of email that reads: “This status will remain in place until the University receives notification that you are no longer participating in that action. During this period, any work undertaken will be regarded as voluntary.”

Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...

REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR #BISA2026!!
Take a look at the conference programme and register now via the conference website: conference.bisa.ac.uk
Participant registration deadline: 2 March
See you in Brighton 🌊🏖️
@simonrushton.bsky.social @julietdryden.bsky.social @visitbrighton.bsky.social

Two weeks left to apply for a postdoc position on my project!

I'm looking for historians, anthropologists, STS and Global Health researchers with a broad interest in #Brazil, #rural populations, #health, #medicine, and #zoonosis.

For more information👇

BISA annual prizes nomination call highlighting awards for distinguished contribution, thesis, books, working group, EDI, and teaching with a February 3, 2026 deadline.

Nominations for our annual BISA prizes have opened today! 🎉

Recognising excellence & achievement through research & teaching in the field of International Studies! 🌟

Open until the 3 February & presented at our annual conference find all info here 👉https://www.bisa.ac.uk/members/prizes

More good things for London. Screw the north. 🤬

It’s a dark night when you look at the news and are forced to admit that you no longer believe in the power of the FIFA peace prize

YouTube video by PassionateFriend Kirsty MacColl - As Long As You Hold Me

Unbelievably, it's been 25 years since we lost Kirsty MacColl yet the beauty of her music and her memory still resonate. Here's a song I wrote for her to sing in the 1995 movie 'Mad Love'.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWjl...

Like the Post Office Horizon scandal before it, a story that has been covered for years and years by Private Eye without national newspapers apparently noticing. Lots more money siphoned off while everyone else looked away.

Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders

Nearly every Take relating to this has been done except one, which is - why would the European leaders take advice from Starmer on how to beat the far right? Who among them envies his popularity or admires the sagacity of his advisors?
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

University of Sheffield staff 'intimidated' by pay forfeit warning University of Sheffield to withhold pay if staff do not make up for teaching missed while striking.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sensible universities see their staff as assets to be nurtured and protected.
Foolish universities see them as a cost to be minimised.
Really stupid universities see them as an enemy to be defeated.
@sheffielducu.bsky.social

Check out this post about our current situation from a colleague at another university. @sheffielducu.bsky.social

They’re not. They’re trying to emulate Nigel Farage, who is trying to emulate Donald Trump.
An absolutely pathetic government that for some reason believes performative cruelty against minorities will win them votes, when everyone knows it will just win Reform more votes.

Opportunity for #students : @mcs-medact-ippnw.bsky.social  Holdstock-Piachaud Student #Essay #Prize opens & encourages students to explore the themes covered by the #journal who will be shaping the future. #Disarmament #climate #nowar #medact #competition #research #publichealth #medical

Opportunity for #students :
@mcs-medact-ippnw.bsky.social  Holdstock-Piachaud Student #Essay #Prize opens & encourages students to explore the themes covered by the #journal who will be shaping the future.
#Disarmament #climate #nowar #medact #competition #research #publichealth #publication

The only Legitimate Concerns about asylum seekers are concerns for their well being and safety. For a rich country like ours to incessantly whine about these people as if we are their victims is perhaps the single most pathetic spectacle in British politics over the past quarter century.

From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."

Starmer’s Labour and the BBC both show what attempting to appease the far right leads to: stronger demands to move even further right. Who could have guessed?

#BISA2026 submissions deadline is TODAY at 11:59pm 🌟

We cannot wait to see you all in Brighton as we look at the next 50 years in IR 🎉

Today is your final chance to get your submissions in 👉https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/call-papers-0

VisitBrighton Simon Rushton @julietdryden.bsky.social

Last call for BISA 2026 Conference submissions - get your abstracts in asap. 👇

Academic milestone day.....my first ever CFP, alongside the fantastic @ckweatherill.bsky.social We're putting together a panel looking at Gender and resistance in environmental politics for the @mybisa.bsky.social conference next June. Please share away and get in touch if it's of interest

Kimberly Hutchings headshot

Announcing our #BISA2026 conference keynote as leading scholar Professor Kimberly Hutchings @qmpoliticsir.bsky.social 🎉

The title will be 'Violence and the Meaning of Peace’ and we are very excited! 🌟

Find out more 👉 buff.ly/c46i8zp

@simonrushton.bsky.social @visitbrighton.bsky.social

Absolutely shameful

Authors -it’s worth checking this to see if your work is included, -though seems there’s much less on the eligible works list here than work downloaded from LibGen or PiLiMi -though this might be the beginning of legal action over AI theft of copyrighted work, rather than the end. Good Luck 🤞

I have no objection to ID cards in principle. But I have real worries about the introduction of them in an explicitly racist way in an institutionally racist country. They can and will be used as a pretext for further harassment of people already disproportionately targeted by stop and search etc.

It's time to start planning for next year's conference! Get in touch if you want information on the process, or if you'd like us to share a call for papers!

I feel like putting together a Loss and Damage panel I think. Time to think about it still, but feel free to reach out if you want in.

Brighton here we come! Very excited for BISA2026. Let’s start thinking about panels and roundtables to submit and see if we can reach the 375 that were accepted onto the 2025 programme. See our call below.
@mybisa.bsky.social @simonrushton.bsky.social

BISA logo, #BISA2026, Brighton, UK, 3-5 June, conference.bisa.ac.uk

🎉 Our #BISA2026 call and homepage is OPEN NOW 🎉

Have a look at our call for papers down below - submissions for papers open on the 24th of September 🌟

We are so excited - more here 👉 conference.bisa.ac.uk

@visitbrighton.bsky.social
@simonrushton.bsky.social
@julietdryden.bsky.social