Calum MacGillivray

One million starved children and no shortage of food

this is one of the worst crimes in human history and the entire global north and all of us in it share the responsibility

Precarity in Scottish HEIs This week, guest blogger Taylor Jeoffroy sheds some light on the current Scottish HEI funding crisis, sharing her personal experience as a PhD student at the University of Dundee and reflecting on …

A powerful blog post from one current Dundee University Humanities PhD student on postgraduate study during a time of huge uncertainty at the university sgsahblog.com/2025/07/03/p... #AcSky

Primarily early-career academics have been SCREAMING about the importance of online (or at least hybrid) academic conferences since COVID, and disabled academics well before that. Professional organizations have made every excuse in the book to ignore, infantilize, and dismiss those concerns.

🚨BREAKING: We’re deeply concerned at the use of counter terrorism powers to target protest groups.

This is the latest in a succession of measures taken by the UK government to clamp down on protest in the UK.

Still 4 spaces left, if you’re a PhD student in a Scottish university you should be eligible to come!

Consider coming to my (very accessible) overview of systematic review methods for the social sciences. If you are curious about the choices that build up to a full review this is for you! I’ll be taking people through each step of the process in a hands on way:

social.sgsss.ac.uk/event/a-prac...

A sunny morning, with a mostly clear sky, desaturated by the glare of the sun. A few wispy white clouds hang low in the sky. The sun glitters on the River Tay. In the background the outline of a decommissioned oil rig and the Tay Road Bridge can be seen on the left and spanning the river and the hills of Fife are on the right.

A beautiful morning from the train to Edinburgh. I’m looking forward to the @largesocialsurveys.bsky.social symposium!

Party leader consensus at LGBTI hustings The five Scottish party leaders talk gender-neutral passports and combating bullying at the LGBTI election hustings.

In these times of hostility against LGBTQ+ people, let's remember that it doesn't have to be this way.

Just nine years ago, this was the position. I was there, and it felt like an astonishing celebration of progress.

We got there before. We can get back there again.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scot...

Registration information for the Large Social Surveys symposium in Edinburgh.

Final week to sign up for the annual @largesocialsurveys.bsky.social symposium!
📍 Edinburgh University Futures Institute @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social
💰 Free!
💬 Keynote from Lucy Dean at @natcen.bsky.social /ScotCen too!
✏️ Sign up here: forms.office.com/e/ARDLVnhyU3

Have you registered for #BERA2025 yet? Early bird deadline is 1st May! 🚨

🌟 Get £170 off as a BERA member! 🌟

Find out more and register: www.bera.ac.uk/conference/b...

I've been reflecting some more overnight on the For Some Women Scotland case. 🧵

🚨 The Canadian Association of University Teachers has just advised against any non-essential travel to the United States.🚨

Was doing this anyway, but still shocking to see it officially in writing.

www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...

Conference Announcement:

If you conduct research using large social surveys then we want to hear from you. Do consider attending the LSS 2nd Symposium hosted at the EFI University of Edinburgh on the 27th May 2025.

Blue background with yellow d8s floating like stars across the image. Casting Callout. Panel: Disability Representation in TTRPGs. Facilitated by Kieran (they/them) To be broadcast during diasbility pride month. All information in casting form: https://tally.so/r/wav5PX

CASTING CALL!

Seeking disabled and/or chronically ill TTRPG fans from across Europe for a panel discussing Disability Representation in TTRPGs. Kieran @flightless-heron.bsky.social and we are seeking a diverse panel.

For more information and to apply, please fill in this form: buff.ly/Or17uSB

Education, Children and Young People Committee | Scottish Parliament TV

Yesterday @maggiechapman.bsky.social asked Shane O’Neill about Equality Impact Assessments, which are designed to protect colleagues with protected characteristics during periods of change.

He said that an EIA had not been completed for the recovery plan.

www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/educ...

Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value

I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :(

So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/

I’m very excited to have been accepted to talk about a recently conducted systematic review related to primary-secondary school transitions, academic outcomes, engagement and motivation from the international literature!

Connecting the dots: how does multidimensional (dis)advantage across the life course intersect and shape young people’s attitudes towards school, work and post-school destinations? - Scottish Graduate... The University of Edinburgh is inviting applications from suitably qualified graduates for a fully-funded PhD studentship in Education to research the role of multidimensional (dis)advantage across th...

If you're interested in doing a PhD on inequities and young people, this scholarship led by Dr. Adriana Duta
might be of interest to you: sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/...
@morayhouse.bsky.social
@sgsss.bsky.social

From Message to Movement: Scaling Behaviour Change with the Physical Activity Messaging Framework and The Daily Mile. - Scottish Graduate School of Social Science A unique and exciting opportunity for a PhD studentship is available at the University of Edinburgh. This project will aim to understand, develop and evaluate key messages to increase the fidelity and...

If you know of someone interested in doing their PhD on the topic of physical activity, just direct them to this fantastic opportunity: www.sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/... led by Dr Josie Booth @morayhouse.bsky.social @sgsss.bsky.social

Wes Streeting once again demonstrating that the current Labour leadership absolutely don’t have worker’s backs. Perhaps there are other systemic reasons diagnoses are so prevalent that this government could address, or perhaps continued immiseration is the point.

Research Associate in Educational Inequalities Job Purpose To make a leading contribution to the specific research objectives of the project “Exploring context, factors and approaches to educational exclusions and absences” and the wider resear...

📢📢📢New job alert! 📢📢📢

Please share this widely.

Come work with me on my project Educational Inequalities funded by @adruk.bsky.social. This project uses linked administrative data from Scotland to explore inequalities in absences and exclusions. More info here: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...

UCU comment on announcement of 632 job losses at Dundee University UCU comment on the news announced at an all staff meeting today (Tuesday 11 March) that Dundee University will be cutting 632 jobs, and that they expect to do so including by using compulsory redundan...

UCU comment on the shocking news Dundee University cutting 632 jobs. Jo Grady: “This is a hammer-blow to hard working and committed workers at the university who are being made to pay the price for egregious management failure...” #SaveHE #StoptheCuts www.ucu.org.uk/article/1394...

Newsletter: Microsoft pulled back on over a gigawatt of planned data center capacity, suggesting that they do not think there is a growth future in generative AI. Meanwhile, SoftBank, the only company that can afford to fund OpenAI, has to take out loans to do so.
www.wheresyoured.at/power-cut/

The flyer outlining the event, Ann Burnett is holding a copy of her book, A Last Journey. The event is on Wednesday 26th February 2025 5pm-6pm on Microsoft Teams. Ann and Dr Marianne Cranwell will celebrate the publication of her book and discuss her transitions experiences as a carer for Bill.

Please consider joining the TCELT community compass tomorrow (26/02) at 5pm. Ann Burnett will be talking with Dr Marianne Cranwell about her book regarding her journey with her husband Bill through life and his dementia diagnosis. If you don't have a link let me know and I can send one!

International Conference on Educational and Life Transitions (ICELT), 21-23 August 2025

Join us for an international, interdisciplinary and cross-sector, virtual & free conference.

Read about it here sway.cloud.microsoft/Woy1GTpdx6Og...

Deadline for abstracts - 31.3.25

If anyone is in any doubt about the motives of transphobia, look at this blatant historical revisionism.

It doesn’t stop at everyday bullying, it doesn’t stop at restricting trans healthcare or rights. It’s about the complete erasure of current and historic trans people.

2 of 3 reviewers on my interpretive qualitative paper want intercoder reliability tests, random sample to prevent selection bias, tables w/counts, comparison to those not interviewed, & generalizability. If you are NOT qualified to review qualitative research, please say no to the journal's request.

Oddly, I think cutting 8 words from an abstract has been one of the more mentally taxing things I’ve done for my PhD so far this year!