Gillian Shorter PhD
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gwshorter.bsky.social
Gillian Shorter PhD
@gwshorter.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.4K following 200 posts
Reader in Psych @QUBelfast
President @kettilbruunsociety.bsky.social
Alcohol/other drugs, #HarmReduction, drug consumption rooms, OPCs, SCS #AddictionSci
Loves: dogs, dance, run, sea, joy
Views own (she/her) bi #BeMoreLyra
In my own time and space
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
katiew.bsky.social
We have at least TWO postdoctoral fellowship openings on our @unm.edu @casaa.bsky.social T32 NIAAA Training Grant, best consideration date for applications is Nov 15 2025. Join our phenomenal community and enjoy incredible quality of life in beautiful New Mexico. casaa.unm.edu/training/ins...
Application Process :: Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (CASAA) | The University of New Mexico
casaa.unm.edu
November 5, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
statsepi.bsky.social
*Cries in applied statistician* www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors
Researchers welcome the initiative, but say it doesn’t go far enough to capture the nuance of researcher productivity and impact.
www.nature.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
draimeegrant.bsky.social
📢 New research: how Autism charities talk about Autistic people.

TLDR: they say we're a problem.

Summary in The Conversation: theconversation.com/autism-chari...

Full text: https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0335132

@helenabnett.bsky.social @kat-williams.bsky.social @willowholloway.bsky.social
Screen shot of The Conversation headline: Autism charities portray Autistic people as helpless and a burden - our research shows why it matters
October 25, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
profalexstevens.bsky.social
We need two new full-time lecturers in #criminology here at @sheffielduni.bsky.social. One permanent share.google/RuTNSJWfvkuK... and one 12 month maternity cover share.google/xzf5icskztO9...
Lecturer in Criminology at University of Sheffield
Apply for the Lecturer in Criminology role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
share.google
October 18, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
ryanmarino.bsky.social
“For more than 3 hours, officers can be seen walking past while he lay on the floor in his urine in obvious distress…noting he was foaming at the mouth & having seizure-like activity…mistaking his medical emergency for a drug overdose…”

Except a drug overdose is also a medical emergency...
phillewis.bsky.social Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Oct 11
A lawsuit alleges a Black postal worker died after officers ignored clear signs he was suffering from a massive stroke, believing his medical emergency was drugs

The suit says guards left him helpless on a jail cell floor in his own urine for hours
KARE 11 Investigates: Postal worker died after police mistook stroke for drug impairment
Kingsley Bimpong was jailed instead of hospitalized; video shows guards ignored his suffering for hours.
www.kare11.com
October 11, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
colinmurray.bsky.social
A new Explainer out from @aoifemod.bsky.social and me detailing the UK's ECHR commitments under the 1998 Agreement in response to recent speculation. It is short, because there is very little to say - the UK's obligations are evident on the B/GFA's plain text:

caj.org.uk/wp-content/u...
September 16, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
colinmurray.bsky.social
Important to hear Hilary Benn affirm, in his Labour Conference Speech, that the official position is that the UK leaving the ECHR would indeed undermine the UK's commitments under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 1998:
September 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
guyfelicella.bsky.social
HIGH RENT means MORE TENTS! ⛺

BUILD SUPPORTIVE HOUSING.
September 28, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
ben-scher.bsky.social
I’m glad to share a new article published as part of HRJ’s special collection: "Harm Reduction in Europe: Histories, Choices and Hopes."

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@gwshorter.bsky.social @dkhumphreys.bsky.social @bchrisinger.bsky.social 1/2
September 19, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
drugscience.bsky.social
Festival drug-related deaths are rising, but they don’t have to.

In memory of Ellie Rowe and others who have tragically lost their lives at Boomtown in years past, a new blog reinforces the critical role of harm reduction services like The Loop at UK festivals.

drugscience.org.uk/b...
What can Boomtown 2025 teach us about responding to drug use?
In 2013 Wendy Teasdill’s daughter, Ellie Rowe, died at Boomtown festival as a result of taking a combination of ketamine and alcohol. Neither were taken in excess but the combination was fatal. She did not know what she was doing.
www.drugscience.org.uk
September 9, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
olivia.science
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
beaukilmer.bsky.social
🚨Pls spread the word!

@issdrugpolicy.bsky.social continues to support & expand #drugpolicy research in the global south

We have a new working group (led by Bisi Akintoye, Gideon Lasco & Rosario Queirolo) & are offering 25 free memberships for ECRs in the global south

www.issdp.org/new-issdp-in...
New ISSDP initiatives to increase global south participation
The ISSDP Board is delighted to introduce two new initiatives to increase global south engagement in the Society. These were announced at the 2025 ISSDP Annual General Meeting and received strong s…
www.issdp.org
August 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
theloopuk.bsky.social
This weekend at Lost Village we’re testing confiscated/found drugs & urgent samples from medics. Findings help spot trends & keep people safe. Alerts shared here & on the LV app – please spread the word.
August 21, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
homelessconnect.bsky.social
The housing crisis in NI is worsening, with over 32,000 households now facing homelessness, up 136% in the last decade. Without urgent funding for social housing, more families will be left behind.

Full statement from Homeless Connect: bit.ly/41iUnm9
August 21, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
pamplemoussepam.bsky.social
Please help. Please sign & share. I work on a degree programme known as ELCE for mature students who didn't or couldn't do a degree at 18. Bristol uni has decided to close it. Bristol was set up to serve this community & now we are losing our most accessible degree.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Save our pioneering widening participation undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement at the University of Bristol
19 August 2025 Dear Evelyn Welch (Vice-Chancellor) cc Judith Squires (Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost), Tansy Jessop (Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students) The School of Humanities has ...
docs.google.com
August 19, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
harmreductionintl.bsky.social
Your voices have value! If you are someone who uses c0c4in3, our partners from @echelecabeza and @institutoriamx would like to hear from you as part of the research to develop a public policy proposal for c0c41n3 regulation.

Fill the survey: https://forms.gle/JTW89nTqQZQYmYrW6
August 19, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
maiasz.bsky.social
Non-abstinent recovery is more common than recovery that excludes all psychoactive substances other than caffeine & nicotine. So why don't we talk about it? In light of new attacks on harm reduction, it's critical to do do.... my latest www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/o...
Opinion | I’m in Addiction Recovery and I Still Drink Wine
www.nytimes.com
August 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
gwshorter.bsky.social
This is a horror show. Shame. Absolute shame. Those poor individuals in that tent. Undoubtedly traumatized from living on the streets and then this. Disgusting and inhumane and cruel. What is wrong with these people. How are they so dead inside.
guyfelicella.bsky.social Guy Felicella @guyfelicella.bsky.social · Aug 16
This is someone's home.
This is all they have.
This is how homeless people are treated.
This is cruel.
August 16, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
clairezagorski.bsky.social
Before you say “ugh, just go to drug treatment”, I request that you do a trial run. I don’t say this to be smug. It’s just worse than you know.

Figure out where you would go to access buprenorphine and/or methadone. Without health insurance. When can they see you? What will it cost?

🧵
August 14, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
drgailsaltz.bsky.social
Shame, discrimination and stigma have been linked to adverse health outcomes — and pride could be the antidote
Pride is good for you, science says
Shame, discrimination and stigma have been linked to adverse health outcomes — and pride could be the antidote
buff.ly
August 14, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
ladyjenpool.bsky.social
Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:

Our funding depends on usage.

So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.
August 12, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
thiagokrause.bsky.social
As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview.
cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...
August 14, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
drugwise.bsky.social
RADAR alert issued on nitazenes and contamination of the drugs supply - publichealthscotland.scot/news/2025/au...
August 12, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
drcaitlinhughes.bsky.social
#DrugPolicy folk - Spread the word - the ISSDP 2026 Conference is coming to Australia! 🦘🥳🌏🥳🦘
#ISSDP2026
issdrugpolicy.bsky.social ISSDP @issdrugpolicy.bsky.social · Aug 7
Hold the date: The 19th annual International Society for the Study of #DrugPolicy Conference will be held in Perth, Australia hosted by the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)!
Conference dates are 30th June to 2nd July 2026.
More details to come. www.issdp.org

#ISSDP2026
August 7, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Gillian Shorter PhD
shaapalcohol.bsky.social
🔊Register now for our upcoming seminar on Scotland's first Managed Alcohol Programme.

12.45 - 2pm, Mon 1 Sep 2025 @sarnalcohol.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alcohol-oc...
Alcohol Occasional 3: Scotland’s first Managed Alcohol Programme
Join us online for our third seminar of the 2025 series, delivered by Dr Emma King, Dr Hannah Carver and Jessica Greenhalgh.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
August 8, 2025 at 3:28 PM