Jonna Nyman

Meme showing a worker labelled "academic staff" digging a hole in the ground while 10 others look labelled with management titles such as "Director of Human Resources" look on. The caption underneath reads "The only way we can cut costs is to reduce the number of academic staff..."

A meme for the modern university...

the booker prize judges make a lot of fuss about having to read 153 books. but assuming an average weight of 750g per book, that comes in at 115kg of literature - or just under the weight of a single adult male ostrich

(no title) A Chinese Studies research blog. Let's exchange ideas, tell stories, and keep asking better questions!

we are super excited to launch our student research blog Odd China Out. submissions bridging scholarly work with a wider audience, in English or bilingual, are welcome!
oddchinaout.wordpress.com

think that realistically I would have always been deeply, deeply worried about the rise of far-right ideas in public discourse but I truly never expected this level of blithe elite complacency, turns out I do feel worried but mostly I feel like I'm going insane, watching them do.......nothing at all

❓ What is security in an age of catastrophic climate change?

📖 Our special issue "Critical Climate Security" in Geoforum provides new concepts, approaches, and methodologies for rethinking the climate-security nexus from a critical perspective. www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Lecturers in Politics and International Relations (Teaching & Research) at Cardiff University Apply now for the Lecturers in Politics and International Relations (Teaching & Research) role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

🎉 3 (grade 7) Lecturer positions open Cardiff University in:

🌎 Non-western (espc non US) Foreign Policy/War/Security Studies
📝 Political theory inc history of political thought
📚 History & theory of colonialism & its legacies in politics & IR

Apply here 👉

I miss the days when it was socially unacceptable to talk like a Nazi

I’ll be presenting tomorrow at 14.00 on Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative and then at 16.00 I’m on a Global IR panel talking about my forthcoming OUP book, Securing China: Worlding Security Studies #EISAPEC2025 come join!

Starting off my #EISAPEC2025 with a great panel on women, gender, and sex in the history of international relations 🥳

Worth a read:

South China Morning Post yesterday. Not ideal. Don't think these things aren't noticed around the world: they are. (1/2)

Some thoughts on the UK China research survey:

What strange times, when the commander of RAF Greenham Common is coming out as a liberal supporter of the right to protest

China’s cyber-abuse scandal: is the government unwilling to crack down on exploitation of women online? Secretly filmed images of women are spreading online, yet the authorities seem more focused on censorship than punishing the perpetrators, critics say

China’s cyber-abuse scandal: is the government unwilling to crack down on exploitation of women online?

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a....

this is widely thought to be because on the current trajectory no one believes there will be any people, culture, or environments to measure in 2029

Swedish Defence University advertises two postdoc positions focused on narrative geopolitics, or how emotional and widely circulated narratives shape international security, great power relations & geostrategic rivalry.

fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Deadline: 31 Aug

UK academics studying topics sensitive to China face harassment, survey finds Exclusive: university staff report being pressured to change teaching and are told that Chinese surveillance is rife

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This is a very illuminating essay that compellingly situates Starmer in the post-war human rights regime. It’s almost as much about that latter topic as it is Starmer himself.

is translation undervalued in Anglophone academe? In China, translation is considered proper academic outputs, with both formal (e.g. for performance review & promotion) and informal recognition (reputation in wider society). it reflects (and constitutes)

Israel enforcing Gaza evacuations with grenade-firing drones Israeli soldiers tell +972 they deliberately target Palestinian civilians with drone strikes so others will ‘learn’ not to return.

The IDF reportedly uses Chinese commercial drones for its operations in Gaza:

“Soldiers most commonly use EVO drones, produced by the Chinese company Autel, which are primarily intended for photography. However, with a military-issued attachment, a hand grenade can be affixed to the drone”

Just remembered a friend telling me about how she put herself into chatGTP to see what it would say, and it was hmm not flattering. I’m now mostly bemused:

New from me: How China's clean energy manufacturing boom is helping reduce CO2 emissions overseas. In 2024, China’s exports of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles are shaved 1% off global emissions outside of China.

Terrible. When I got my AHRC PhD funding I applied directly to the AHRC with my own project. Now students are increasingly tied in to what universities and partner organisations want them to do, stifling research independence - plus fewer projects getting funded overall.

Princeton University Press Stumbles Into a Xinjiang Tour Debacle The Soviet-style “Potemkin tour” is alive and well in today’s China – as PUP found out when several of its staff took a controversial trip to Xinjiang.

Interesting read on *that* Princeton University Press tour:

Princeton University Press Stumbles Into a Xinjiang Tour Debacle thediplomat.com/2025/07/prin...

Resisting the Prevent Duty—A Typology of Everyday Resistance Abstract. The British government’s Prevent Duty puts a legal obligation on civilians employed in health, education, and social work sectors to “prevent peo

Check out this fascinating new article on Resisting Prevent, unpacking forms of everyday resistance to #counterterrorism by @amnakaleem.bsky.social in IPS:

academic.oup.com/ips/article/...

Fantastic read on queer life on the margins:

Two new teaching positions for the upcoming academic year @PAIR, University of Southampton:
Politics and IR: 3164325CC Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations
Political Theory: 3165325CC Teaching Fellow in Political Theory and American Politics

Every now and then I have a flashback to the time when a reviewer was incensed I hadn't cited a particular book, after which I spent forever tracking said book down, only to discover that it was only published in German 🫠

BISA at 50: Reflections and perspectives - A historic setting for reconnecting with old acquaintances and meeting new ones Brent J Steele, Professor at the University of Utah, shares reflections from #BISA2025 in Belfast.

RIS is a @mybisa.bsky.social journal, and we are celebrating BISA's 50th anniversary this year. Check out some of the reflections on BISA at 50 from the recent conference:

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