Liesbeth Corens

This research opens new avenues for studying democratic organisation in the EU. It shows how national parties shape and are shaped by the multilevel polity they inhabit.

And why understanding EU democratic politics requires looking *inside* the party!

🚨 New publication alert!

Excited to share my latest article with @audreyvdleene.bsky.social, just out in @govandopp.bsky.social:

"Transcending the National: QCA Insights into Multilevel Party Organization in the EU"

Full open access 👇
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/gov....

With every Flexigrant entry for just doing the basic stuff of what’s supposed to be on my contract, I get more and more ready to just set fire to it all.

Unfortunately, every late-night convo musing about solutions ends with “we need a very rich guy who wants to fund a university outside of this”

Very pleased to have expert confirmation!

Can confirm.

That’s a lot of expensive hours wasted on stuff that has a 5% success rate, and stuff that doesn’t need millions to begin with.

Just put universities on stable funding, and stop the madness of pretending we’re only valuable in capturing thousands of students, I beg of you.

If government wants to hear about “efficiency”: as all of us have to buy out time to do any research, since unis overload other work & often don’t even notionally cover research, we’re ALL made to apply to those things. So we’re all spending weeks writing apps rather than doing actual research.

📌

(having an exceedingly cool Sunday Evening) (#SundayEveningThoughts)

Hang on, just clocked that it's the centenary of Michel de Certeau. Are there any cool conversations to mark that in the making?

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. The pair is lying on the floor reading a newspaper

Any top tips for Oxford tomorrow? Great places to visit? Top spots to eat?

Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. Calvin and his neighbour and classmate Suzie are in the corridor of their school, by the lockers. Calvin asks "do you hate being a girl?" Suzie, in the middle of taking something out of her locker doesn't miss a beat and confidently (eyes closed, without interrupting what she's doing) responds "It's gotta be better than the alternative." Not visible: The Discourse this weekend. #SubCalvining

Thanks! Starting to really hope the weather remains mild!

I AM HERE FOR FRIARS ENTRIES. (ahem). Thanks, that sounds excellent!

oh big yes! Though there was also a lingering assumption of popularity (which some big accounts could reach but definitely not us with a couple of followers). This one just merrily embraces "couple of nerds having a giggle and an occasional rant" and I enjoy that horizon of expectations.

Anthony Grafton on Greg Jenner's radar makes me dream of a You're Dead To Me episode with Anthony Grafton chuckling mildly at the jokes, and give at least one completely deadpan delivery of the most killer erudite joke.

Please let him wear the fluo pink-and-green headphones he used in lockdown.

Be ready to be shocked and offended at university, students told Guidance has been published by the Office for Students on new free speech rules coming into force this year.

*first year lecture, academic strides in*

“right you sickos, im here to tell you once and for all THE FOOTNOTE GOES AFTER THE PUNCTUATION”

*students wail, gnash teeth, vomit*

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Exhibition Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, Château de Chantilly, Summer 2025: tomb effigy of Jean de Berry from Bourges Cathedral (photo: A. Willemsen, Leiden, 2025)

Exhibition Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, Château de Chantilly, Summer 2025: bifolium of calendar, miniature of September with castle by Barthelémy d'Eyck (photo: A. Willemsen, Leiden, 2025)

Exhibition Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, Château de Chantilly, Summer 2025: calendar page of January with festive meal by Limbourg brothers (photo: A. Willemsen, Leiden, 2025)

Exhibition Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, Château de Chantilly, Summer 2025: meeting & adoration of the Magi (f51v-52r) by Limbourg Brothers (photo: A. Willemsen, Leiden, 2025)

Possibly the most famous medieval #manuscript in the world on show 🤩 Until Oct 5, at #Chantilly castle (30 mins north of #Paris): unique occasion to see all calendar pages of Très Riches Heures de Duc de #Berry, early 15thC, amongst 50 other superb books etc. Truly astonishing & well worth the trip!

Oh this is additionally excellent intel! (Though will have to check on my niece’s current relation to dogs…)

A photo taken through the window of a train. The name of the station "Newton for Hyde" can be seen on a sign. Inside the train a piece of paper is held up to the window with a sketch of a bewigged gentleman holding up a sign saying "Leibnitz for Jekyll"

Nerdy joke warning. 😁 I've been planning this since I first saw the Newton for Hyde sign.

I do love how we’ve all collectively decided this is the site for nerds. All the non-nerds keep screaming and crying we should be opening ourselves up to the bullying, bad-faith takes, and fascism of the other place. And we’re just here giggling at a good nerdy joke executed to perfection.

Thanks for all these! superhelpful!

<cackles from behind her replaced ReMarkable>

Given all this, is it surprising that many look upon AI as a tool not to aid thinking but to replace it? After all, if knowledge is merely a commodity, the purchasing of which allows one to pass an exam or land a job, why should it matter if we cheat or use AI to bypass the need to think?

On why so many academics think "let's just reintroduce in-person hand-written exams to avoid cheating" is entirely missing the point. Any policy about AI that solely focuses penalising cheating is blind to the broader harm. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Brilliant! thanks so much for all this! My niece & sister-in-law aren't nerdy about coffee, but my brother very much is, so I think I'll have to pass on his thanks and their glares 😅

many thanks! And depending on the weather a bit out of the centre might not be a bad move :)

oh this is EXCELLENT intel. Thanks!!

Thanks! Brother, sister-and-law, and niece are in the Cotswolds so might encourage them to include a walk to the Trout later this week.

ha! feeling like that's a challenge now! Thanks all three, that's a very warm endorsement!

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. The pair is lying on the floor reading a newspaper

Any top tips for Oxford tomorrow? Great places to visit? Top spots to eat?