@elystan
German Studies academic at University of Birmingham. Co-editor German Life and Letters. Working on a book on obedience. Interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany, cats, food, film, pottery. Cymro. My views. ๐ณ๏ธโ๐
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of Californiaโor rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence.
The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
Mae un oโr llythyrau yma gan Farage wedi mynd trwy holl ddrysau Cymru. Mae amlen wedi cynnwys i chi allu ymateb gydaโch sylwadau. Gwnewch yn siลตr eich bod yn anfon y llythyr yn รดl gydaโch sylwadau - bydd pob un yn costio arian i Reform UK! Does dim lle iโr dde eithaf yng Nghymru!!
Nothing on the BBC Radio news this morning. Nothing I could find on their website. This is an MP from the party whose lead in the opinion polls normally ensures them wall-to-wall coverage. She spouts racist nonsense for which even she feels obliged to apologise. What on earth are they playing at?
How awful. I'm very sorry to hear this.
I made my students a little โbookโ (just using Google slides) to show them how you all answered my question about how you take notes for research. Just to show the variety.
The hysterical reaction of certain commentators to todayโs UK-EU agreement is something to behold.
The โsurrenderโ of using e-gates when you go on holiday. The contempt for the โwill of the peopleโ of making education abroad more accessible. Rigorous debate is good. This nonsense is a waste of time.
www.economist.com/britain/2025... quite the chart from @archiehall.bsky.social
The gates of Harvard University. The text reads: "Harvard Says It Will Not Comply With Trump Administration's Demands." Photo by Sophie Park for The New York Times.
โNo government โ regardless of which party is in power โ should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,โ Alan Garber, Harvardโs president, said about President Trump's demands. nyti.ms/4jzSS9W
Bone chilling.
A court ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to stay in the United States.
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he was illegally removed. Trump is pretending he won the ruling 9-0.
1/ You may not think this case means anything to you. But let me tell you why it does.
โAmerican government, American foreign policy, and American trade policy are slowly being transformed, not to benefit Americans but to benefit the president, his family, and his friends.โ
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
A response: www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/mode...
I celebrate the 80% of Germans who did not vote for the far right. Do not make 19.6% of German voters into "the" German people (again).
"The" German people don't exist! The German population is diverse and divided, but voted overwhelmingly for liberal democratic parties.
#BTW25 #GermanElection
As Germans head for the polls today, the stakes could not be higher for Germanyโs future and Europe.
My in-depth analysis on Merzโ huge mistakes, but also some hope that the centre will get its act together in light of what happened since Munich.
Hallo zusammen! ๐๐ The Associate of German Studies is now on BlueSky! Follow us for updates on all things German Studies in the UK, Ireland and beyond. Looking forward to building a vibrant community together here! #GermanStudies #BlueSkyLaunch
On Cardiffโs proposals regarding the teaching of languages and cultures
The global examination of culture is not possible without languages at degree level, say Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Charles Burdett and Emma Cayley
www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/card...
A blue/grey pot dvd a mug glazed in copper rose
Three dishes. A larger dish in black with a blue glaze at the centre. A medium dish has a blue centre. The small dish has a brown and white speckled glaze
A brown mug seen from above, revealing a blue base
A few weeks old now, but here are my latest glazed pots and mugs #pottery
Are all the #longcovid people aware that they can contribute to this? @theguardian.com seem to be covering long covid fairly frequently so lets encourage them by ahowing them that a lot of people are affected. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Please spread the word as we have opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social International Fellowships which enable researchers to work for two years at a UK institution. If you fancy being away from your country right now this could be an option!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/inte...
Thirty years ago this fall I published my second book, about the nuclear wars that were supposed to only maybe happen in the future, the Indian wars that were supposed to be in the past--but both were happening simultaneously in a violently contested American west few really recognized. I had been drawn into these stories as an antinuclear activist at the Nevada Test Site, and the first half of the book is about those nuclear wars happening as about a bomb a month exploded there between 1951-1991, the second half about the actual and then representational genocide in what is now Yosemite National Park. At the Test Site, Western Shoshone elders joined us to say that these bombs were being detonated on their land, and they wanted the land back and the bombing to stop. A wonderful alliance was formed, which inspired the people of Kazakhstan not only to shut down the Soviet test site but to form the Nevada/Semipalatinsk antinuclear movement. One of the great transformative experiences of my life came out of this: In 1992 I joined the brand-new Western Shoshone Defense Project supporting Carrie and Mary Dann, leading the fight to gain recognition that the US government had neglected to steal Western Shoshone land in the 19th c. and was stealing it now. I spent a lot of time out at their ranch in remote NE Nevada, writing handouts and press releases for the organization, getting to know Mary and Carrie and the magnificent lands around them, helping document the US government's past and present violence against them. But I also delved into the history of Yosemite Valley--how it was first entered by white men bent on violent dispossession of the Ahwahnee people there, how it was subsequently reinvented in the white imagination as the quintessential wilderness and its indigenous history written out--along with the fact that its original inhabitants, though represented as strictly in the past tense when they were represented at all, had never really left...
Just posted about the publicity nightmare for my 1994 book Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West. Since it's going to stop being its thirtieth anniversary in a couple of days, I'll celebrate its birthday now.
love it. (from SAGA Pottery, Ukraine)
www.etsy.com/shop/SaGaPot...
โDutzende Journalisten und Autoren sowie eine Reihe von gesellschaftlichen Institutionen in Deutschland haben gemeinsam ihren Abschied vom Kurznachrichtendienst Twitter angekรผndigt.โ โ via Sรผddeutsche Zeitung www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/socia...
We watched Aki Kaurismรคki's Fallen Leaves last night. It's a pitch black romantic comedy set in Finland with strong vibes of Fassbinder. I absolutely loved the black humour. The film is on MUBI, in case anyone fancies giving it a go.
Word of the day is a favourite, from old Scots.
To โtartleโ is to hesitate while introducing someone because you have completely forgotten their name.
Wow. Here is one to brighten up your morning. The first images of the restored interior of Notre Dame cathedral. Breathtaking. In just five years France did it
Finally got around to displaying my author copies of Dancing with the Modernist City.
You can use University of Michigan Pressโ discount code HOLIDAY24 to get 50% off any books here (press.umich.edu)!
@uofmpress.bsky.social
AI data centers could end up using more electricity than entire citiesโฆ ๐ฉhttps://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/23/data-centers-powering-ai-could-use-more-electricity-than-entire-cities.html
E9 please. Have fun!
Fantastic, timely article on building a culture of political participation www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
