Cathy Elliott

Completely unoriginal thought but: it's frustrating that the actual experience of living in large cosmopolitan multicultural city (London Uk in my case) is actually pretty dope, but a lot of politics is organised around this being a nightmare scenario that must be apologised for and avoided.

Haha, I think so, though my tongue is a bit in cheek of course. Do come along tomorrow to hear more.... (I may also do a blog because a good slacker never wastes work by only presenting it once!)

Our own @profcathyelliott.bsky.social is talking about careers for slackers tomorrow for @aspirenetwork.bsky.social. Even if you do not self-identify as a slacker.... you might hear some good tips! All Aspire members welcome

Do come and see me talking about enjoying your life and not poring endlessly over promotion criteria tomorrow for @aspirenetwork.bsky.social!
(Spoiler: I think you might even be successful on the education-focused route, too, if you follow my tentative advice for slackers....)

Flight Free UK Fight climate change: make the pledge to be flight free in 2026

The last long-haul flight I took was in December 2019 and the last short-haul in January 2011. My life has been all the better for it with lots of trains/boats!
I am taking the flight free challenge again this year.... Could you join me? #FlightFree2026 @flightfreeuk.bsky.social www.flightfree.co.uk

Teaching Britain and Britishness: challenges and dilemmas A Centre for Modern and Contemporary Britain round table discussion on how contemporary understandings and practices of British values, citizenship and belonging are being addressed in education with ...

I'm talking this afternoon at the UCL Centre for Modern and Contemporary Britain about teaching about Britain and Britishness. I thought throughout making my presentation that I would be talking about anger and ambivalence but in fact it turns out to be a presentation about love. Do come along!

The role of pedagogical research in education-focused careers: Getting started in learning and teaching scholarship and why you should do it
@alpsblog.bsky.social
@profcathyelliott.bsky.social
t.co/ue8GMSPdhs

pedagogical first: diligent student asks permission to skip concluding lecture because (with a bunch going on this week including possible city occupation) they're worried they won't finish novel in time and really really don't want spoiler of Moll Flanders

Rainbow over RHUL halls of residence

Happy to be at @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social Teaching and Learning Network conference at RHUL! And by appropriate and lucky chance I can also share @rosegann.bsky.social's @alpsblog.bsky.social blog on pedagogical research in education-focused careers!
activelearningps.com/2025/09/03/t...

Screenshot of article abstract, accessible at this link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02633957251370594 The title of the article is 'Spacious learning: A critical reflection on active learning in political science'. The abstract reads: "Active learning is often understood as students ‘doing and producing’ academic work. This approach has a tendency to promote learning as a project of dynamic knowledge acquisition rather than one of being and becoming. In this article, we propose a more capacious understanding of active learning that makes room for spacious learning. Spacious learning invites students into slower spaces that centre ‘being’ rather than rushing to do or produce. This approach treats learning as a process rather than a means to an end, allowing students time to sit with ideas and to relate them to their own lives and experiences. We then offer practical examples of invitations to spacious learning in political science, highlighting transformative everyday practices that sustain spaciousness in the classroom: micro-communities of learning, relational scaffolding for research and creative projects, and reflective writing."

Kate and I are delighted to see our article on spacious learning published in @politicsjournal.bsky.social. In it, we advocate for slower spaces that centre ‘being’ rather than rushing to do or produce. We share three practices from our own teaching as examples: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The role of pedagogical research in education-focused careers: a short series Following on from the new innovation of the ‘SoTL roundup’ at the start of the month, which Jeremy got the ball rolling with yesterday, we’re also going to start the new academic …

This week on @alpsblog.bsky.social, we are publishing a short series on the role of pedagogical research in education-focused careers. My intro to the series is here: activelearningps.com/2025/09/02/t...
@aspirenetwork.bsky.social

Nature is Not Going to Cure You: On Raynor Winn’s Fabricated Memoir Like many writers, I have been following the unfolding revelations about Raynor Winn and The Salt Path with great interest, and a degree of self-interest. I am a memoirist and nature writer, and I …

I keep getting asked for my salty thoughts about the Salt Path as my position on nature cure narratives is v clear! A mere fraction of those thoughts published here @literaryhub.bsky.social, with thanks to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and @nicwilson.bsky.social for their earlier pieces linked below.

Early ripening of berries in UK shows nature is under stress, say experts Hot summer also causing trees to shed their leaves as concerns raised over ‘food gap’ for wildlife in autumn

“Nature is under stress.” The signs are all around us. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
#climatechangeseasons

"Ecologists are only just beginning to grasp the full threat that extreme heat poses to the world’s wildlife populations, and how quickly it can drive species towards extinction.
...It has become a driver of biodiversity loss on a par with – or worse than – deforestation and habitat loss."

"Kathy, Ich am lost," Ich seyde, thogh methoughte she was sleepinge,
"Ich am hollowe and hurtinge and knowe not wherfor"
Countinge the cars on the Newe Jersey Turnpyke
Thei have all come to looke for America

Hope and Dystopia: Learning from Climate Fiction A new literary prize asks how storytelling can drive greater optimism – and action – in the face of climate change.

We're so excited to share our first book review, part of a new series here at EHN. Kate Prengel discusses #clifi and the new Climate Fiction Prize shortlist envhistnow.com/2025/07/22/h...

I teach this! It's a seminar for first-year undergrads called The Science of How to Study and they love it. (But it only reaches a very small number of students, would be great to have as a regular part of the curriculum)

Everyone is secretly hoping someone else will be the one to yell DO YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS at them.

AIPedagogy.org from Harvard's metaLAB was already the best-designed introduction to AI for educators I knew of.

I return to it again and again for creative, critical assignment ideas.

Now it's even more user friendly and offers a space to compare chatbots and change their settings.

Frogsong by Polly Atkin Today, I don’t want to write about abandonment / or anger, about the limits of love, / or the invisible border where our worlds meet that dissolves / all mutual care – how to shed it – to go on /

Hear me read 'Frog Song' through the Aftershock Review substack

Along with my other new poems given a doorway to readers by @maxwallis.bsky.social, Frog Song is going to be in my 3rd collection Emergency Dream, publishing with @serenbooks.bsky.social in March 2026. #Swims #PondLife #BeMoreFrog

Slightly diminish a band: symptomatic relief

Slightly diminish a band: Cumbria Constabulary

(In honour of your current listening, @jeremymoulton.bsky.social)

Slightly diminish a band: PET NICE TO HAVES

Slight diminish a band: Public Service Podcast

Slightly diminish a band: Arcade Ashes

... process, effort, practice, engagement with 'real world' or 'authentic' skills.

.... a set of source materials and so on. So, how are our students going to learn how 'to critique' in a world where AI is everywhere? (And don't get me wrong, I wish to God it wasn't, as it goes....) I don't have easy answers to this but I have a lot of sympathy with ideas about focusing on....

.... articulate what we mean by 'an argument' or 'critique', for example. Then once we are clear on that, there is the question of how we get students to practice those skills and get better at them. It strikes me that 'critique' is an applied skill: you do it *with* or *to* a text, an idea....

Yeah, I don't disagree – I do think we all need to do more thinking about what 'foundational skills' are (there will be disciplinary differences...) and how we articulate them to students. It's not obvious to me that when I meet third year students for the first time they are able to ....

This is a useful read - not on board with everything here (section 2 gives me pause) but "students need to be prepared and ready to unlearn and rebuild" is such an interesting point I've not seen noted: the ability to deconstruct and reorientate when necessary is key to academa, and rarely explicit.