(Southwest transport gripe): it is also so nice to be simply getting on the Elizabeth line to Heathrow as opposed to the many hours of endless bus usually needed to get to an airport from Plymouth)
I really like this as a theory. I am a talking academic: writing makes me feel so very self-conscious and exposed. And it is an exposure that endures, as then all the mistakes you make are in print forever.
Just occasionally, I am reminded of why I chose to be in this field in the first place, and this is one of them.
I also have the honour of serving as discussant on a panel in memory of Prof Dru Gladney, a scholar whose approach to the Hui has strongly shaped my own work. Slightly intimidated to be doing this, but I'll pull through.
So many wonderful people! All at once, and in a city I've never been to, but which is famously nice! And I get to be a proper historian for a wee bit; I'll be talking about 19th century Gansu and Islamic networks on my own panel.
Taking a short break from my regular dire posts (my areas of expertise/interest are Chinese ethnic politics, UK migration policy and UK academia, there's just so much dire), as I am about to take off for the Association of Asian Studies conference in Vancouver and I am really very excited.
That Starmer keeps Mahmood in post shows this is not just the actions of an inhumane Home Secretary, but a deeper rooted ideology of hostility and xenophobia within this government. No-one benefits from blocking Chevening scholars. This is cruelty for sake of it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
It does still make me sad, though, to see all this elevated to the level of national law. The PRC state is doubling down on its stances.
Am I surprised? No, not in the slightest; this is everything I've been observing in Xinjiang and sinicisation policy more broadly for years now. I've been warning people for years that these policies were not exceptions, but rather the rule.
#China law to be passed this week lowers status of other languages at the expense of Mandarin; encourages intermarriage between the dominant Han Chinese and other ethnicities; requires parents to "educate and guide minors to love the Chinese Communist Party"… CLICK LINK www.bbc.com/news/article...
This is partly technological change as well, surely? A musician who died in 1927 would is unlikely to have had their music recorded in high fidelity (if at all), whereas Elvis's songs remain instantly reproducible.
#China’s new “ethnic unity” law, to be passed this week, will accelerate the attempted forced assimilation of the country’s ethnic minorities into the dominant Han culture, according to academics and human rights groups. A piece by me:
CLICK LINK TO READ
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Good morning! I'm into some light relief, with Sarah Rees Brennan's Long Live Evil. Calling it light relief probably doesn't quite do it justice - its twisty and fun, in love with fantasy as a genre, and quite thoughtful beneath the evil.
They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.
"One clause says that only the state has the right to promote “a system of symbols of Chinese civilisation”"
civilisational discourse in action: as I've been saying, it's about claiming difference internationally and erasing difference internally.
You’re not going to believe how dumb the origin story for this is
I had really thought that with a Labour government, I might be done hating Home Secretaries, but no. Here we are again. When did performative viciousness to the vulnerable become a part of the role description?
Claiming asylum is a right; getting a UK student visa is also both expensive and quite hard in the first place. This is punishing folks from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan for daring to dream of studying here, and daring to wish to be safe. This is, once again, so needlessly cruel.
I actually don't have words as to how angry I am.
Wonder what happened in these countries that people on student visas in the UK found themselves needing to apply for asylum instead of going home post 2021.
UK Labour are heartless bastards & apparently have bo idea whats happening in the world.
Benno Weiner, a historian of modern China, Tibet and Inner Asia at Carnegie Mellon University:
“such policies, if enforced, meant there was ‘no way’ that non-Han people would be able to safely express ‘any type of discontent without being accused of being essentially separatists or terrorists’.”
I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.
'there is a demon that lives underneath Downing Street and possesses every Home Secretary' remains a pretty strong theory tbh
Reflecting on this and the fact that the UK is actually very good at economic and social outcomes for immigrants…
What if we built our immigration policy around the fact we’re GOOD at this stuff? And used the lessons of what has worked well to talk about national identity, welcome and integration?
Utterly cruel, pointless and harmful. It does not minimise how bad Conservatives were to say Labour are now the most anti-asylum government in most people's living memory. This prevents people feeling any sense of safety and security after fleeing persecution.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
I'm just returning to Luminous. Its wonderful, but so much about grief that I had to put it down for a couple of days following some happenings in my own life.
It feels like the sharks have had chainsaws attached to their dorsal fins and are swiming with purpose and determination toward my personal lifeboat. I am nevertheless very aware how fortunate I was to clamber aboard at all.
I'm not sure if ppl outside academia realise that if you quit a permanent post in this job market you will amost certainly never get another one, esp in arts & hums. All that post graduate training, the years of precarity, not being able to choose where you or your family live. Pffft. For nothing.
Didn't expect but Hell Yeah!
High court rules proscription of Palestine Action unlawful!
Shabana Mahmood, Starmer & the rest of the gov't can shove it.
"“a very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association"
Only 24 hours left for people to fill in the consultation on the "Earned Settlement" proposals.
Join other 130k people and make your voices heard.
Settlement should be a right for everyone not a privilege for few high earners.
ukhomeoffice.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Did this yesterday. I was furious about the proposed changes to begin with; wasn't expecting to wind up quite so incoherently furious about the survey itself. Appallingly loaded design. I ranted in all the text boxes.
