David Brenner

Opinion | Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students

Learning to write an essay was more than an academic rite of passage. It was about learning to make an argument, support it with evidence, and articulate it clearly and maybe even with style. Many students still want to learn how to do that for themselves, despite AI.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Move over for AI - DRB Katja Bruisch writes: I recently completed a scholarly monograph – an environmental, economic and energy history of peat in imperial and Soviet Russia. After years of thinking and writing, I approache...

We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books.
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drb.ie/move-over-fo...

Close-up of a vintage typewriter with the word 'Deadline' typed on a white sheet of paper.

This weekend is the LAST WEEKEND for #BISA2026 conference submissions! 🚨

Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions 🎉

Make sure to submit your papers now 👉 https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/call-papers-0

VisitBrighton Simon Rushton @julietdryden.bsky.social

Back in Business: Zahkung Ting Ying Tries To Rebuild His Empire Over the past decade, the military-aligned warlord and his associates amassed wealth from Kachin State’s rare earth mining boom until the Kachin Independence Army took their territory last year, but.....

For over a decade, warlord Zahkung Ting Ying and his allies exploited the rare earth mining boom in Kachin State, Myanmar.

@emilyfishbein11.bsky.social & Jauman Naw report, for @frontiermyanmar.bsky.social, on how they have continued doing business even after losing their territory. bit.ly/47JC0JB

Responding to Threats to Academic Freedom Around the World. Oct 28, 2025. 10:30 AM-11:30 AM (ET). ISA logo. Background: University courtyard with autumn trees and buildings.

The ability to #Teach, #Research, & speak on important topics is what #Academics do, but what do we do when academic freedom is threatened? Join ISA & @aaup.org to discuss the global threats to #AcademicFreedom & what resources exist to support #Faculty in the fight to preserve it: buff.ly/95exrLj

Decolonizing Peace and Conflict Studies? Webinar. Oct 24, 2025. 8:30-10 AM (ET). Logos of Kennesaw State University, FLACSO Ecuador, Eastern Mennonite University, and ISA. Background: Cracked concrete wall.

Is it possible to rethink Peace and Conflict studies? Join us for a discussion on the possibilities and constraints of decolonizing the field, challenges to mainstream assumptions, and how to promote a broader critical analysis of #Peace and #Conflict in these unprecedented times: buff.ly/l2NW9kB

My former PhD student, Zizhu Wang, published her first journal article. Check it out here: Licensing: Why is there no conceptual history of ‘international’: a semantic and translingual reinterpretation www.tandfonline.com/action/showC...

Police urged to seek clarity on whether hate crime fire at mosque was terrorism The Green Party has called on police to seek clarity over the motives of the hate crime fire at Peacehaven’s mosque.

It's a miracle nobody was hurt. Sending solidarity to the Muslim community in Sussex and across the UK, as well as the Jewish community who are still grieving from the appalling attack in Manchester. No one should EVER feel unsafe in their place of worship
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

BISA + Brighton = perfect combo! Come and join us next year.

Making Myanmar: humanitarianism amid revolutionary state-building This in-depth study calls for a profound rethinking of humanitarianism amid contested governance, with relevance for many contexts beyond Myanmar that face such realities.

"We cannot do a project-based revolution."

odi.org/en/publicati...

Looking forward to this one by @jamesstout.bsky.social
Should be a really interesting read.

Why is our trade union emulating the worst behaviour of our employers towards UCU staff? How many of our letters, motions, attempts to bring motions from lay members pressing for resolution have been ignored now? Solidarity with all @uniteucu.bsky.social #UnionStrong #ReclaimUCU

Congratulations to Dr Claudio Montesi on successfully defending their PhD.

Many thanks to @davidbrenner.bsky.social and Professor Alice Hills who examined the PhD.

Also many congratulations and sincere thanks to my co-supervisor at Sussex IR dept, Professor Fabio Petito.

I’ve never been one for commas but this here pretty much sums up the brave new world of marking.

Yvette Cooper: Fly your country’s flag anywhere — I do at home The home secretary’s comments follow the raising of the Union Jack and St George’s flag across the UK as part of a social media campaign called Operation Raise the Colours

Absolutely, and Labour's paddling to the far right seems even worse than what happened under Biden in the US. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

As England drowns in Union Jacks and St George’s flags, local politicians’ statements of solidarity with ethnic minorities are welcome. But their mantra-like claims that far-right nationalism is supported by only a small fraction are irresponsible, especially with Reform UK 8 points ahead in polls.

KontraS #StopGenocide @KontraSupdates ALL EYES ON INDONESIA'S DYING DEMOCRACY From the misuse of tear gas to the open fire of live bullets. From ‘foreign henchmen’ narratives to 'paid protests’ narratives. From promises of respecting dissent to silencing journalists #ProtectEachOther #StopPoliceBrutality

KontraS have posted this on twitter. Things are bad in Indonesia. Live ammo has been authorised by the chief of police against protesters.

Very nice explainer from twitter user normelpeople on what's happening in Indonesia this week and how people are feeling

Classic UK govt move: there is a useful fiction of the separation between arms companies and governments. So the UK gets to look like it did something good while materially enabling the bad stuff to happen and letting the Israeli govt cry wolf about how badly it’s treated.

Time to use your university library again. Academia will survive without citation counts and h-indexes. Could be worse 🤷‍♂️

I was seriously puzzled as to why this is happening. Makes a whole lot of cynical sense now.

UNHCR welcomes Royal Thai Government resolution providing long-term refugees the right to work UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, today commended the Royal Thai Government’s adoption of a resolution that will grant long-staying refugees from Myanmar the right to work in Thailand.

This is good (though doesn't go far enough). Thai Government will grant long term refugees in the displacement camps along the Thai-Myanmar border the right to work in Thailand.

It doesn't seem to cover the many Myanmar refugees since coup. Nor will it likely stop deportations back to Myanmar.

Satellite images and videos reveal 19 rare earth mines in NDAA-controlled area of eastern Shan State near Mekong River - Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) Satellite images from May 2025 and recent video footage reveal nineteen rare earth mining sites under the control of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA or “Mong La” army) in Mong Yawng townsh...

Important new Shan Human Rights Foundation report reveals 19 rare earth mining sites in territory controlled by the National Democratic Alliance Army, aka Mong La army, in Shan State's Mong Yawng township near the Mekong River & China border (short thread).
shanhumanrights.org/satellite-im...

I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers

Hpaji hte Shălawt (Education for Liberation) YouTube video by Kachinland College

Most universities compete for students with individual career and lifestyle promises. Informal higher education providers in war-torn Kachin State, Myanmar, appeal to a communal desire of national liberation: “lead the nation with truth and knowledge!”

www.youtube.com/watch?si=Q9f...

It's simple, if you throw paint on a plane then you get proscribed and any 80 year olds defending you get arrested.

If you ask people to burn down hotels, and they try, you get an interview in the Telegraph and positive coverage in the BBC.

That's sensible, proportionate policing.

Lots of good events happening this weekend #MilkTeaAlliance! So as usual here is our roundup of what's coming up.

1st our thanks & congratulations to @myanmar-now.bsky.social for their 10 year anniversary!

Like many media outlets they have suffered to report on #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar 🙏

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The story of Kachin rare earths becoming more bizarre by the day.

Gotta appreciate the honesty.

I clearly remember from history class how it really was the fault of Germans that weren’t friends with NSDAP voters… if they had only reflected on their behaviour!