Kiron Ward

A Pilgrimage to Monk’s House, Where Virginia Woolf Found a Room of Her Own I can’t say how long it’s been there, but I have an image in my mind of the place where writers work. I picture the writer; I picture the space; I conjure an atmosphere of quiet calm in which someo…

@kdclewin.bsky.social on Virginia Woolf’s room of her own and the role of writing spaces in the creative lives of literary icons.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for we live in the UK

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

i have to say, as a trans journalist who has covered the "trans debate" for about a decade now, there is no daylight between how the trump administration and conservatives lie about tylenol and autism and how they've lied about youth trans care.

you know what's great for teaching excellence, a whole sector in a spiral of austerity trying to pack in as many students as possible while employing as few staff as possible

All UK HE news talks of contraction. Bronze TEF providers will be defunded. Research funding is to be more "targeted". Total continuation of the Conservatives' vision for HE, under Labour.

Bar chart with blue bars: Privately educated people dominate the UK's most influential roles Professions with the highest independent school attendance Armed forces* 63% Senior judges 62% Cricketers, men 59% Young power list** 54% Diplomats 53% House of Lords 52% Shadow cabinet 52% Cricketers, women 50% Columnists 50% FTSE 100 chairs 47% Political commentators 47% Permanent secretaries 47% Whole UK population 7%

UK meritocracy and social mobility update from The Guardian

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I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

absolutely horrific x

(the rule is that using speech to advocate for fascism is just doing good old liberal politics, the right way, but on the other hand, asserting that a fascist is a fascist is violent anti-speech and there is blood on your hands for it)

Can we shift away from low-quality UUK leadership?

we can tell what that robust good research is because it reaffirms the marketing narratives of big tech corporations

The last REF found that 98% of UK research was either "internationally recognised", "internationally excellent", or "world-leading". If you think low-quality research is the noteworthy challenge in UK higher ed right now, you are wilfully looking in the wrong direction

congrats to my forever-comrade @kdclewin.bsky.social ✨💃

The Writer's Room by Katie Da Cunha Lewin

excellent mail

What they said! 👇 We are stronger together (but in a 'solidarity' way, of course) - so have a coffee and a chat with colleagues & invite them to join UCU if they haven't already www.ucu.org.uk/join

Plot showing pay at a UK university (Edinburgh) in real terms (by CPI/RPI/CPIH and by UK average weekly pay, all as a percentage of how it was in 2008. All the lines go downwards from about 2010 onwards.

I remind readers of my plot of pay at the University of #Edinburgh in real terms, and of the blog post showing how I calculated the results: blogs.ed.ac.uk/hughpumphrey... (and its linked predecessors)

The Edinburgh connection to London's tax-evading gift shops Plus: A chat with the Transport for London boss running the tube strike negotiations — and how the "hardworking businessman" putting up flags in south London tried to scam an insurer.

Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

First book spot in the wild (Foyles at St Pancras) 😱

"A boycott is in place until further notice."

Utrecht University becomes first Western academic institution to announce an academic *boycott* of Israel.

This is the result of strategic, ethical work by students & university staff.

“I don’t want asylum seekers to live on my street” is genuinely a wild thing to say as a notionally progressive politician

If correctly written:

"Ministers are to announce a tightening of migration rules as the government hands over the political agenda to Nigel Farage"

Both immoral and politically inept. Well done Yvette Cooper.

My new book - co-edited with Loïc Bourdeau - is now out with @edinburghup.bsky.social! Use code NEW30 if buying on the EUP site. Please ask your libraries to order this in, we’d really appreciate it!

The entire establishment right now is like “I’m sorry but only the bigotry we’re actively whipping up from fucking NOTHING can win elections”

Swallowing a World - Nebraska Press Swallowing a World offers a new theorization of the maximalist novel. Though it’s typically cast as a (white, male) genre of U.S. fiction, maximalism, Benj...

possibly Ben Bergholtz www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978...? or Gabriele Lazzari www.bloomsbury.com/uk/new-globa...? neither are that interested in DFW though, so maybe—David Letzler www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978...?

Who is Keith Starmer lol - @NICKIMINAJ

The front cover of Katie da Cunha Lewin's book The Writer Room

The back of the book

Thrilled and terrified in equal measure to receive a finished copy of my book, out on 11/9/2025 from @eandtbooks.bsky.social

Google Scholar Is Doomed Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared