Wheelchair Access, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets

If you’re at @edfringe.bsky.social, do go and see Morag Fullarton’s Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut. Hugely affectionate but also extremely funny tribute to the film, with inventive approaches to doing a lower budget version. Runs up to this Saturday.

www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

UK sociologist explores Greenock through the lens of playwright Peter MacDougall A leading UK sociologist is set to launch a new study exploring Inverclyde through the lens of famous playwright Peter MacDougall.

Article in the Greenock Telegraph about my research trip looking into the society there in the 1960s and 1970s. If anyone else who was around there or Glasgow or nearby during this time would be prepared to speak to me, do get in touch.

www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/2535852...

The horror of ‘cutting season’ It is ‘cutting season’. Every year, African women living across the world will take their pre-pubescent daughters to suffer FGM.

Horror of the school holiday trips taking girls abroad to undergo female genital mutilation. Since the introduction of the FGM Act in 2003, there have been just 8 prosecutions and 1 conviction (and 1 for conspiracy).

www.spectator.co.uk/article/stop...

Depoliticising the academy | Ian Pace | The Critic Magazine The final guidance was issued by the Office for Students on 19 June 2025 for implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. This guidance is effective from 1 August 2025.

How HE institutions can implement the Office for Students guidance on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act - my suggested three-stage process for doing so over the 2025-26 academic year, based upon my Westminster HE Policy Forum paper last month.

thecritic.co.uk/depoliticisi...

Sir Roger Norrington, conductor who championed period instruments and called vibrato a ‘modern drug’ A Norrington concert was an unusual experience, the performance often peppered with chummy asides and mini-lectures from the conductor

RIP Roger Norrington (1934-2025). Truly a trailblazer for period instrument performance. I can’t pretend I liked everything he did, but the impact of his innovations is undeniable.

www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...

And the 2025 Pascall Medal goes to William E. Caplin (McGill University) whose pioneering work on formal functions is well-known to all analysts.

Congratulations to all! (5/5)

As announced earlier, the TAGS prize goes jointly to Ardi Echevarria (University of Durham) for his paper ‘Mendelssohn's New Development Themes and their Reappearances' and François Cloete (University of Oxford) for his paper "Transient Forms: tonality and migration politics in Berg's Wozzeck'. (4)

The Adele Katz Early Career Award goes to Peter Asimov, University of Cambridge.

The Anthony Pople Mid-Career Researcher Award goes to @nicoleegrimes.bsky.social , Trinity College Dublin. (3)

The PhD thesis goes to George K. Haggett for his thesis on 'Medievalism in Contemporary Opera', undertaken at the University of Oxford. (2)

News in my role as Awards Officer for the Society for Music Analysis:

The undergraduate award goes to Tom McConnell for his thesis on "The Beatles' transformative use of major II', undertaken at the University of Liverpool. (1)

Will universities accept academic freedom? | Abhishek Saha | The Critic Magazine English universities face a reckoning on academic freedom. Last month, the Office for Students (OfS) published its final guidance on implementing the landmark Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act…

Really important piece by my @lucaf-london.bsky.social colleague @abhisahalib.bsky.social on the contradiction between academic freedom and highly politicised job titles.

thecritic.co.uk/will-univers...

How universities went to war with biological facts Alice Sullivan on the suppression of gender-critical research.

Excellent interview with @profalices.bsky.social

www.spiked-online.com/2025/07/06/h...

Sociology has been blamed for a lot of things, but this one is new to me.

This is from the newly published Sullivan report on academic freedom. I wonder on what grounds anyone would defend this.

Important new report from UK. "It is clear that academics and students who have insisted that sex is a real and socially significant category have experienced barriers to research. This includes campaigns of harassment and intimidation." Same happens in USA, too. www.sullivanreview.uk/barriers.pdf

UK universities have failed to protect gender-critical academics, report finds Report’s author raises ‘stark concerns about barriers to academic freedom’

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

Another great piece of work by @profalices.bsky.social

Universities pay a price for selling out gender critics They have created excessive bureaucratic processes which have become levers for activists seeking to stifle dissenting voices

Well done @profalices.bsky.social

www.thetimes.com/article/0e02...

Many thanks to all those academics and others who contributed their stories to this report.

‘Excessive bureaucracy’ used to block ‘gender-critical’ research Research ethics and events management processes can stifle debate and restrict academic freedom, claims government-commissioned paper

“Excessive bureaucracy” that has built up around academic processes has been used to stifle research and discussion on sex and gender issues, according to a new report by gender critical sociologist Alice Sullivan. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/excessi...

In my capacity as Awards Officer for the Society for Music Analysis, I am very pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Pascall Medal is William E. Caplin, pioneer of the school of music analysis known as 'form-functionalism'.

Consultation on the OfS’s proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech Consultation on the OfS’s proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech

One of the most basic facts is wrong here - LUCAF is not AFAF. LUCAF members have expressed a view on Article 10 in their submission to the consultation. lucaf.org/viewdocument... AFAF have not, to my knowledge.

Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: ‘We found too many slaves’ When the extent of the university’s involvement with slavery was unearthed, a scholar tracking descendants of enslaved workers was suddenly fired

Those who dismiss academic freedom as an issue should look at this case. A primary reason for AF is to stop sponsoring institutions placing boundaries around the findings of research.

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

And whatever you might hear within your woke bubble, AFAF are not a ‘right-wing pressure group’ (nor are LUCAF), but contain many of all political persuasions.

On the contrary, it is precisely to stop hiring on the basis of cultural comfort, and all the other processes which have undermined academia, rather than merit, that we are so in support. Corrupt hiring processes have institutionalised all types of frauds who spout the right approved politics.

The OfS’ new free speech guidance will transform English campuses The beefed up document could temper the influence of anti-rational ideologies and restore public trust in academia, say Ian Pace and Abhishek Saha

Academic freedom has been interpreted both as the right for academics to question received wisdom in their discipline and as the right for disciplinary gatekeepers to shut out academic heretics. Current policy is swinging towards the former, thankfully. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/ofs-...

Hey guys - at LUCAF we are a bit disappointed not to have made your list! May not be too late to add us?

The OfS’ new free speech guidance will transform English campuses The beefed up document could temper the influence of anti-rational ideologies and restore public trust in academia, say Ian Pace and Abhishek Saha

Here Abhishek Saha and I note how the OfS have rejected the Waltham-Smith/Murray interpretation of ECHR Article 10, and look at the far-reaching changes the guidance will bring, in terms of politicised appointments, EDI, reputational clauses, etc.

www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/ofs-...

The OfS’ new free speech guidance will transform English campuses The beefed up document could temper the influence of anti-rational ideologies and restore public trust in academia, say Ian Pace and Abhishek Saha

Opinion: The OfS’ beefed up guidance on free speech could temper the influence of anti-rational ideologies and restore public trust in academia, say @ianpace.bsky.social and Abhishek Saha

#AcademicSky #highered

The guidance does allude to specific hypothetical examples relating to a) pro-Palestinian protests; b) a blog from a trans activist.

The universities are in trouble.
In lots of ways.
Spending ages explaining to students they can't get universities to fire lecturers they don't like, and it's a waste of admin and academic time replying to made up "offences".