Nick Bingham

Farewell to William E. Connolly We are very sad to learn of the death of William E. Connolly earlier this week at the age of 88. Connolly was the author of six books with Duke University Press, the subject on an edited collection…

We were very sorry to learn of the death of political theorist William E. Connolly this week. He published six books with us. Here is our appreciation.

Sixty years ago, Jennie Lee's vision created The Open University 🎓 Welcoming all backgrounds, millions have started life-changing journeys. #OUfamily #TheOpenUniversity #OU60 💙

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings From climate change to geopolitics, the knowledge, skills and insights of geographers have never been more relevant, say five professors

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uk-u...

With @jennypickerill.bsky.social @peterhopkins.bsky.social Beth Greenhough & Jamie Woodward

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings From climate change to geopolitics, the knowledge, skills and insights of geographers have never been more relevant, say five professors

important commentary!!!

www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uk-u...

African Decolonial Theory: A Conversation Antipode has become a key platform for engaging with decolonial and anticolonial scholarship, as well as adjacent fields such as Black geographies, Indigenous studies, Latin American feminism, and wo...

African Decolonial Theory: A Conversation (with an incredible lineup). A longread of 68 pages @antipodeonline.bsky.social
#geosky @demonicgrounds.bsky.social @udadisi.bsky.social @roapejournal.bsky.social @africamultiple.bsky.social @pollenetwork.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Graphic reading 'the UK Government-commissioned 'Sullivan Review' of sex and gender in data and research collection threatens British research and trans inclusion. Here's why.'

📣 Today @felicitycallard.bsky.social and I have published the first peer-reviewed response to the 'Sullivan Review' of research and data on sex and gender.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...

The Review could threaten trans rights and inclusion, erode academic freedom, and undermine research quality.

Screenshot of the front page of an article published in the journal Social and Cultural Geography called Remapping the body: an autoethnography of pain, paraesthesia, and the co-production of functional neurological symptoms

New paper outlining a spatial account of #FND and proposing an approach to the co-production of functional symptoms. It draws on my longstanding work on geographies of health knowledges, my recent health experiences, and emerging interdisciplinary conversations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

AI models are trained on books, journal articles, teaching materials without agreement of academic authors who then have to redesign their courses to try to minimise inappropriate use of AI models embedded in software provided by universities for students to use. Go figure

A non-existent paper attributed to ‪Ben Williamson‬ has already been cited 42 times.

It's like Scholarly Communication has been injected with misinformation bombs. Events are totally out of control. No one has a handle on its extent. And, there's no plan to stop it.

@benpatrickwill.bsky.social

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

“When people try to sell you on the idea that the future is already settled, it’s because it is deeply unsettled.”

Hard no to this: French publisher Harlequin has told translators that their work will now be done by AI. They can ‘revise’ AI translations at much lower rate. It’s a subsidiary of Harper Collins so treat this as a test for rollout elsewhere

‘Beware trade-offs’ of removing REF funding for 3* outputs Review of formula used to allocate £2 billion QR funding could downgrade or withdraw money for ‘internationally excellent’ research, some fear

;Eliminating funding for 3* research in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) would benefit Russell Group institutions by about £50 million a year, suggests modelling into how potential changes to funding formulas may play out.' 1/3

OFFICIAL Statement from AAUP-TNS on Cuts to Faculty and Staff 12-9-25 The New School - Austerity Cuts to the Bone A Statement from the Leadership Council of AAUP-TNS On December 3, 2025, New School President Joel Towers and Provost Richard Kessler issued voluntary sep...

Last week, the New School issued voluntary separation & early retirement offers to 40% of the full-time faculty & the majority of non-union staff. These cuts to the bone are an ideological attempt to decimate historic spaces of critical inquiry & social justice. Share our statement tr.ee/qQBIDCpIuj

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Excited to announce @leverhulmecal.bsky.social posts - we are looking for 7 interdisciplinary fellows to join our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, closing date 30 January 2026 (1/3) durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

Huge congratulations to the wonderful Donna Haraway for winning the 2025 Erasmus Prize:
erasmusprijs.org/en/laureates...

Sign the Petition Request for the Removal of Divisive Flags from public lamp posts in Birmingham, UK

Join us in calling for the removal of the divisive flags from Brum lamp posts.
www.change.org/p/request-fo...

As set out in this thread, the causes of the court backlog are chronic lack of funding and absurd inefficiency.

The government has made no proposals to address either. Their answer is to remove juries.

Rather than fix the leaking roof, their solution is to burn the house down.

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.

Via "discussions of figures such as Toni Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Édouard Glissant, Paul Gilroy, Nina Simone, and Sylvia Wynter [it] spans McKittrick's investigations into scientific method, liberal modernity, the cycles that perpetuate racial violence, and the poetics & sonics of black livingness."

Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...

Many here followed Prof. Farhana Sultana, very outspoken on social media on issues of climate coloniality, global environmental justice, and the genocide in Gaza. She was suspended by Syracuse university in Sep over a throwaway skeet about Kirk. Consider signing this letter asking to reinstate her:

Sign the Petition Save Geography at the University of Leicester

SAVE GEOGRAPHY at Leicester University (UK) - We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider the proposal to dissolve Geography. This is direct attack on the discipline of Geography at Leicester with likely loss of Geography staff. Please sign + share

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

📣 Next GCSJ Seminar
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025 | 12–1PM | online
🔎Rearticulating archives: still thinking with Doreen Massey — exploring how Doreen Massey’s archive invites new questions about our troubled present.

Register to join the critical and creative dialogue: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rearticula...

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Benjamin Newman (2025) entitled: 'Making geography move: The Royal Geographical Society and the exchange of periodical knowledge, 1830–1900' with a black banner at the top. This paper explores the decisions of the Royal Geographical Society's (RGS) Library and Map Committee in conditioning and constraining the circulation of Britain's first geographical periodical publication. Principally drawing on the committee's minutes in the last half of the nineteenth century, the paper unpicks the unwritten rules that shaped the flow of geographical knowledge to other institutions. As well as documenting the extent and reach of the RGS's periodical, the minutes also reveal the places to which the journal did not travel and the reasons for limiting the movement of geographical ideas and information. Uncovering the journal's travels in this way makes several important contributions to the history of geography and the geographies of knowledge. First, it contributes to new understandings of the RGS and its actors in conditioning the circulation and accumulation of nineteenth-century geographical knowledge. Second, it draws attention to the specificity of the periodical as a printed medium and illustrates its value in understanding the circulation of geography. Third, it makes clear the intricate processes that facilitate or disrupt the flow of geographical knowledge that should demand attention in the context of our modern-day scholarly practice.

New in Area!

'Making geography move: The Royal Geographical Society and the exchange of periodical knowledge, 1830–1900' by Benjamin Newman

This paper examines how the RGS's Library and Map Committee controlled the circulation of the Society's journal in the 19th century.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

This is what all teaching is supposed to be, foundationally

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

Generating a 5 second video is the energy equivalent of running a microwave for an HOUR

Cardiff set to tackle SUV 'carspreading' in UK first Cardiff Council is set to become the first local authority in the UK to introduce higher parking charges for SUVs and other heavy vehicles, in a move campaigners say will make city streets safer and f...

Cardiff will be the first UK city to introduce a surcharge for oversized SUVs and trucks, "while very large vehicles – those over 3,500kg – will be excluded from residential permits entirely."