Ronald Hartz

My university received a few years ago the promise of the largest single gift to a public university in U.S. history. It was equivalent to 12 hours of bombing Iran.

Perhaps of interest to anyone want to work with the Anarchism Research Group @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social IRPH is also the home of the journal Anarchist Studies. @anarchiststudies.bsky.social

Blanket evacuation orders in Lebanon raise international law concerns, says UN human rights chief Large-scale evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army for southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs raise serious concerns ​under international law, the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday.

Blanket evacuation orders in Lebanon raise international law concerns, says UN human rights chief reut.rs/4ssKVrg

What a load of bollocks

Parliament president: academic freedom ‘in interest of all Europe’ - Research Professional News Europe cannot “lower our guard” in defence of principle, warns research commissioner

Parliament president: academic freedom ‘in interest of all Europe’.

Europe cannot “lower our guard” in defence of principle, warns research commissioner.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

It’s tiring that we are increasingly stuck organizing our intellectual lives around arguing for the value of having an intellectual life

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say
www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Threads thread: thriller_instinct 3d Is it okay to bully 40 and 50 year olds who are on social media just for being on it, cuz like why are you here - 254 Q 3.1K G 28 746 corporateash 18h ••• My ICQ UIN is 7231680. That number is burned into my consciousness. I inadvertently learned that you could see private conversations in public chat rooms when using Telnet instead of a browser on GeoCities. I can tell you the difference in audible dial-up handshakes between 1200, 2400, 14.4 kbps modems. I needed a edu email address to join Facebook after my university was admitted. We were here at the beginning. We made social media. You wouldn't be in my Top 8. I have usernames older than you. 852 Q62 G6 72

“I have usernames older than you.”.
Holy shit

This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.

The case for gender studies programs has never been stronger.

Rechtsprofessor Kai Ambos über Irankrieg: „Das Völkerrecht ist kein Wunschkonzert von Professoren“ Der Angriff der USA und Israel ist eindeutig völkerrechtswidrig, sagt Kai Ambos. Das kann auch Merz in Schwierigkeiten bringen.

Rechtsprofessor Kai Ambos über Irankrieg: „Das Völkerrecht ist kein Wunschkonzert von Professoren“ taz.de/Rechtsprofes...

University administration in permanent revolution? Try masterful inactivity The only way for academics to cope with the pace of change in universities is to ignore everything

"[I]f you cannot sensibly plan on other grounds, you should at least make sure that what you do is sound in intellectual, scholarly and pedagogical terms." (Jonathan Wolff)

(I'm aware that 'this article is more than 15 years old')

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

Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs Analysis of UK sector accounts shows number of job losses well above predictions, with experts warning cuts are not over yet

Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...

Von wegen Freiheit: Jo Lendle über das Haber-Verfahren unter Weimer beim Buchhandlungspreis „In diesen Zeiten“ sei Literatur unverzichtbarer denn je, behauptet Wolfram Weimer – um dann drei Buchhandlungen von einer Preisliste zu schmeißen.

Jo Lendle: „Ein Hauch von McCarthy weht durchs Land. Kein schöner Geruch. Wer je aus eigener Anschauung erleben wollte, wie gesellschaftliche Freiheit beschnitten wird, kann sich gerade sattsehen.“ www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/jo-le...

“Almost all the 165 people killed in the attack were girls aged between seven and 12, according to local officials. There were around 170 girls at the school in southern Iran’s Minab at the time.“

A double-tap strike on little girls at school.

The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists

Bevor ich es vergesse:

"The threat to languages is particularly ironic given ... Leicester’s “Citizens of Change” agenda, aiming to promote global citizenship and inclusivity."

www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...

Balint to Noem: "You're the secretary of DHS -- for now. And you think you're immune from accountability. But I promise you this: one day he is not gonna be president anymore. And when that day comes, we will still be here. And in hearings like this, we are going to continue to prove your guilt."

Sad and wrong, indeed.

Well that's it: Film Studies and Modern Languages programmes to close at Leicester Uni. Sad and wrong. Every day, the UK becomes a little less outward looking.

Did anyone do any risk assessments on what happens if the international student ‘market’ evaporates? No?
A bubble created by incentivising developers to build cheaper accommodation to lower standards without social housing contributions, paid via the student loan bubble & foreign student fees.

When You’re an ‘Expert’ Reviewing Students’ Work on Grammarly — But You Didn’t Know It The platform offers users AI-generated feedback under the names of scholars by drawing on their accessible publications. Some academics are unsettled.

I stand by what I said in this article: "Look, nobody enters academia to get rich, but I think business models that are built on basically extracting other people’s work without attribution or consent are fundamentally predatory".

cc @janerosenzweig.bsky.social @hpsvanessa.bsky.social @ceaubin.com

University of South Wales cutting 200 jobs to reduce costs The university said compulsory redundancies would be avoided

'It said a voluntary redundancy process had now opened for staff in professional services and in some academic areas.' Plans to lose 200 staff do 'not include course or department closures, and could equate to savings of £11m.' Total staff count is currently 2,040.

The student loans crisis hollowing out Britain’s university towns Vacancy rates are rising as undergraduates increasingly choose to stay at home while studying

'The mantra of developers may have been: “If you build it, they will come.” But there’s a problem: increasingly, students are not.'

Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Leicester vacancy rates up as international students discouraged and home students stay at home. 1/2

None of this — Al-Khatib’s statements, the keffiyehs or the flags — is against the law in Germany. How a new Berlinale code of conduct will be made compatible with Germany’s free speech laws remains an open question. Bild reports that the German Culture Ministry also wants Tuttle to “attract more Hollywood [stars] to Berlin.” How enforcing political censorship will achieve that goal is also unclear.

Wow. Der einflussreiche Hollywood Reporter nimmt sich Wolfram Weimers Kulturkampf gegen die Berlinale vor. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

US House Speaker Mike Johnson: “We're not at war right now.

“We're four days in to a very specific, clear mission, an operation, Operation Epic Fury.”

A Special Military Operation, say, just like your pals in the Kremlin.

"You could look into noise-cancelling headphones and soundproofing rooms to help with your daughter's panic attack symptoms."

Where on earth are we heading?

Bild von der Bühne beim Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis 2024. Man sieht einen roten Vorhang und eine Präsentation, auf der "Beste Buchhandlungen" steht. Darunter der Text: "Hat man als Buchhandlung nur noch eine Chance auf finanzielle Förderung, wenn die politische Linie stimmt?"

Ich war 2024 in der Jury für den Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis. Wir haben 118 Buchhandlungen ausgezeichnet, die einen besonderen Beitrag in ihrer Gemeinschaft leisten, für die Leseförderung, für die lokale Kultur. Aus terminlichen Gründen konnte ich 2025 nicht erneut Teil der Jury sein. Nun habe ich aus der "Süddeutschen Zeitung" erfahren, dass der neue Kulturstaatsminister Wolfram Weimer drei Buchhandlungen, die von der Jury ausgewählt wurden, den Preis verwehrt hat. Als Grund nennt ein Sprecher "verfassungsschutzrelevante Erkenntnisse". Alle drei Buchhandlungen gehören politisch dem linken Spektrum an.

Ein ungeheurer Vorgang, erst recht, wenn man bedenkt, dass alle drei Buchhandlungen schon einmal den Preis gewonnen haben. 2024, unter der damaligen Kulturstaatsministerin Claudia Roth, durften wir den Buchladen zur schwankenden Weltkugel in Berlin auszeichnen, dem der neue Kulturstaatsminister nun die Auszeichnung verweigert. Auch die zwei anderen Buchhandlungen, Golden Shop in Bremen und Rote Straße Göttingen, haben in der Vergangenheit den Buchhandlungspreis gewonnen, zuletzt 2023.

Als studierte Buchwissenschaftlerin, Autorin und Person, die in einer Buchhandlung aufgewachsen ist, hatte ich mich sehr gefreut, Teil dieses wichtigen Preises zu sein. Der Buchhandlungspreis bringt den ausgezeichneten Läden nicht nur finanzielle Unterstützung, sondern auch Prestige und Sichtbarkeit. Was jetzt passiert ist, ist ein skandalöser Eingriff in die Presse- und Kunstfreiheit. Unabhängige Buchhandlungen sind ein unverzichtbarer Teil unserer Kultur, unserer Medienlandschaft, unserer freien Gesellschaft. Sie sind ein Ort für Diskurs, für Bildung, für Gemeinschaft. Sie zu fördern ist wichtig für unsere Demokratie. Dieser Eingriff steht alledem entgegen.

Kulturstaatsminister Wolfram Weimer hat drei Buchhandlungen den deutschen Buchhandlungspreis verwehrt, obwohl sie von der Jury ausgewählt wurden. Die Läden gehören politisch dem linken Spektrum an. Ein skandalöser Eingriff in die Presse- und Kunstfreiheit! Mein Statement als ehemaliges Jurymitglied.

I've started adding this very basic logo to all my lecture slides seeing as the senior managers who don't understand what AI is are trying to force it on everyone. Feel free to re-use it.

The international boycott of ChatGPT has absolutely exploded.

2.5M people have already joined, and this is just the beginning.

Go to quitgpt.org.
Cancel your subscription, delete your account.
And tell at least one person why.

My op-ed: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...