Luke Windsor

Fist punching the air - box with text saying polarisation, trust and social cohesion

We are Leeds Institute for Societal Futures – find out what we do at societal.leeds.ac.uk

#Leeds #InstituteForSocietalFutures #LISF #HealthInequality #Polarisation #Trust #SocialCohesion

Father and daughter riding a Bakfiets down a Swedish gravel road.

Holiday, holiday, I declare a holiday.

I love this so much. Something to think about…

YouTube video by The 1752 Group Addressing harassment and sexual misconduct experienced by postgraduate researchers - Toolkit launch

youtu.be/BDQbfHTgdxk @ukcge.bsky.social @the1752group.bsky.social #phdsky

bsky.app/profile/ukcg...

It’s been quite a day - my highlight was listening to two PGRs from this wonderful city talking about their experiences earlier today, but it was good to catch up with peers to discuss some current challenges. #UKCGEAC

How much does the UK spend on welfare?

🇪🇺 Relatively little compared to Europe: just 10.8% of GDP in 2023 (including sickness & disability benefits, pensions, etc.).

Meanwhile, 🇫🇮Finland spends 25.7% of GDP & 🇫🇷France 23.8%.

#ChartOfTheDay #Welfare

Every UK resident is £355 better off per year as a result of international students.

Even for those who are not convinced by the immense cultural and intellectual contribution of international students, even for those unaware of the cross-subsidy ground breaking research they allow, 1/

Adam Rutherford at a podium in front of a screen saying: Data is never neutral. Science is always political.

Data checklist Who is acquiring the Data? How is it being acquired? Who owns and curates the Data? Who is using the Data and for what purposes? Whom does it represent and were they involved in its collection? Who vendors from its use?

@adamrutherford.bsky.social finishes our day with a flourish, with a history of people giving their most personal data, their genome, to private organisations, and how data is manipulated for racism & eugenics. "Data is never neutral. Science is always political. Race is social construct" #LKFS2025

He didn’t disappoint - really highlighting the importance of politics in how knowledge is collected, disseminated and interpreted.

Adam Rutherford (@adamrutherford.bsky.social) I had a marvellous time ruining everything. Scientist. President of @Humanists_UK Lecturer in Genetics @UCL Genetics, race, eugenics, books, cricket, +–=÷× @kbjmanagement adamrutherford.com

Now @adamrutherford.bsky.social is back to provoke us #LKSF2025 looking forward to this…

I’ve been finding today a bit much so in an unusual step I have been playing along with Masters of Reality in a break between sessions… (the seminar is great BTW it’s the other stuff ;-))

Knowledge Futures I want to start in a singular place of culture, the British Museum. From the Great Court one can now peer into that symbol of human knowledge, the round reading room.  We all somehow have it i…

here's my presentation to the super #LKFS2025; super important conversations. Many thanks to @masudk.com and colleagues for showing the way to knowledge futures. and here's Allan Ginsberg on the library dancefloor!

anatomiesofpower.wordpress.com/2025/06/27/k...

The final panel session on “International Perspectives on Knowledge” starts now. Chaired and beautifully started by @jsendall.bsky.social and with wonderful panel members including Jonathan Bengtson, Dr. Rangashri Kishore, Patti Cheung, and Lindiwe Soyizwapi. #LKFS2025

This has been great, sadly I have had to dip in and out but my dips in have been good!

This talk was the highlight of my day.

Hugely entertaining talk from @adamrutherford.bsky.social at #LKFS2025

“Information transfer is definitional human”

(unlike e.g. toolmaking, use of fire)

I am delighted that @leedsunilibraries.bsky.social and @lulgalleries.bsky.social are hosting the inaugural Knowledge Futures Symposium today. An amazing speaker lineup discussing the future of knowledge in a world full of mis/dis-information, fake news, and other contemporary challenges. #LKFS2025

Fantastic to see this - wonderful to work with @whiteroseuc.bsky.social on delivering this exciting programme - and with such a lovely group too!

Let’s compare notes next week after I attempt to get to Glasgow and back. Although I’m quite hardened by my daily experience of TransPennine glory so my tolerance is high :-(

The Doctoral Debate The Doctoral Debate: commentary and analysis on trends in doctoral education

Professionals who work to support doctoral candidates, whether in managerial or academic roles, have key roles to play in embedding inclusive practice to support gender equity in universities.

Read this EUACDE #DoctoralDebate article at buff.ly/tTpzYjO

@uniofnottingham.bsky.social

IMS alumnus Dr Yinwen Mai reflects on the International Medieval Congress 2024 The International Medieval Congress for 2024 took place 01-04 July. Here, Institute for Medieval Studies alumnus Dr Yinwen Mai discuses his experience of attending and participating in the Congress.

Our PhD alumnus Dr Yinwen Mai reflected on his experience of the International Medieval Congress last year ahc.leeds.ac.uk/medieval/new.... Attendance is free for our students. Looking forward to seeing everyone this year. Come to the IMS reception on 7 July at 6 pm #medievalsky #IMC2025

I may be revisiting the recording of today’s launch - which was packed full of insights… @ukcge.bsky.social @annabull.bsky.social @the1752group.bsky.social

UKCGE | Annual Conference 2025 Higher education is undergoing a period of significant change, accelerated by the current financial crisis, declining international student numbers, new…

Have you booked yet for our Annual Conference: Transitions and Transformations in Postgraduate Education? It takes place in Glasgow in July and the programme is now available online. ukcge.ac.uk/events/a...

PhD students face high risk of sexual harassment — can universities stop perpetrators? Nature - A toolkit outlines how academia can prevent various forms of misconduct.

Read Dr Anna Bull's comment piece in Nature about the toolkit for addressing harassment and sexual misconduct experienced by PGRs (it's available for free download on both the UKCGE and the 1752 Group websites). www.nature.com/artic...

A Rough Guide to Leeds International Medieval Congress Normally on the blog we try to pitch our posts to a reasonably broad audience. We want what we write to be interesting and useful to people inside and outside the academy. Whether we always succeed…

With Leeds IMC 2025 less than a month away, this rough guide I wrote a couple of years ago may be of use to some of the new faces #IMC2025 #medievalsky

salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2023/05/18/a...

And in the UK it disproportionately comes from international fee income, not from public investment (we are nearly right at the bottom in terms of public funding)

bsky.app/profile/robs... (from a conversation about the relative investment the UK makes in HE, which is much more relevant than absolute spend per student)

Generalization bias in large language model summarization of scientific research | Royal Society Open Science Artificial intelligence chatbots driven by large language models (LLMs) have the potential to increase public science literacy and support scientific research, as they can quickly summarize complex scientific information in accessible terms. However, when ...

doi.org/10.1098/rsos... < user beware

Long green grass out of focus. Group of flowers in the centre (from one stem), each with four white petals.

Cuckoo flower (I think) has spontaneously appeared on our unmown lawn along with quite a lot of cuckoo spit. No actual cuckoo so far. #wildflowerhour