Luke Seaber
@thelong1930s.bsky.social
Senior Teaching Fellow in Modern European Culture, UCL. Proudly Cornish and quasi-Italian. Interested in the 1930s (1848-1950). Biographer of Celia Fremlin.
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel.
December 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
If you see this please share (i.e. repost, not just like)! The Barbellion Prize is a unique award for writers with disabilities. We need to raise £20k to secure its future, so please make a donation, no matter how large, no matter how small, here: barbellionprize.org/donate/ Thank you!
donate | The Barbellion Prize
barbellionprize.org
December 6, 2025 at 2:38 PM
If you see this please share (i.e. repost, not just like)! The Barbellion Prize is a unique award for writers with disabilities. We need to raise £20k to secure its future, so please make a donation, no matter how large, no matter how small, here: barbellionprize.org/donate/ Thank you!
Reposted by Luke Seaber
Tom Waits, Songwriter, Musician, Actor, #BornOnThisDay in 1949, in Pomona, California
🎶 All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed-limit signs and they hire cops
I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need we can get anywhere 🎶
🎶 All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed-limit signs and they hire cops
I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need we can get anywhere 🎶
Tom Waits - "Take One Last Look" (Live On David Letterman, 2015)
YouTube video by Tom Waits
youtu.be
December 7, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Tom Waits, Songwriter, Musician, Actor, #BornOnThisDay in 1949, in Pomona, California
🎶 All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed-limit signs and they hire cops
I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need we can get anywhere 🎶
🎶 All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed-limit signs and they hire cops
I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need we can get anywhere 🎶
Reposted by Luke Seaber
the reason its bad to run universities like businesses is that almost all businesses fail on any reasonable timeline of evaluation.
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
the reason its bad to run universities like businesses is that almost all businesses fail on any reasonable timeline of evaluation.
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
Reposted by Luke Seaber
This. “Businesses” get destroyed by bad decisions, changes in consumer fashion, hostile takeovers, or just plain bad luck.
Business is about risk. Institutions need to be about stability, otherwise everything is at risk, all the way down.
Business is about risk. Institutions need to be about stability, otherwise everything is at risk, all the way down.
the reason its bad to run universities like businesses is that almost all businesses fail on any reasonable timeline of evaluation.
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
hudson's bay made it the longest and even they only got to about half an oxford of longevity
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 7, 2025 at 8:39 AM
This. “Businesses” get destroyed by bad decisions, changes in consumer fashion, hostile takeovers, or just plain bad luck.
Business is about risk. Institutions need to be about stability, otherwise everything is at risk, all the way down.
Business is about risk. Institutions need to be about stability, otherwise everything is at risk, all the way down.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
this this this this this this this
one small lesson to take away from the crumbling HE sector, btw, is that there is no such thing as meritocracy here and the only thing that matters is doing work that is meaningful to you and the people you care about and to make friends and collaborators in the process
December 7, 2025 at 7:47 AM
this this this this this this this
Reposted by Luke Seaber
the reason i love working in a university is because i love working amongst people who are really really curious about (some small section of) the world — which encompasses everyone who works and studies there
December 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
the reason i love working in a university is because i love working amongst people who are really really curious about (some small section of) the world — which encompasses everyone who works and studies there
Reposted by Luke Seaber
i think a lot about this post by Hannah McGregor, ‘friendship is the work […] skip the panel, go to lunch. make lunch the panel’ www.hannahmcgregor.com/blog/blog-po...
a manifesto in progress — Hannah McGregor
a manifesto in progress
www.hannahmcgregor.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
i think a lot about this post by Hannah McGregor, ‘friendship is the work […] skip the panel, go to lunch. make lunch the panel’ www.hannahmcgregor.com/blog/blog-po...
I think I may have to print this out and put it on my door.
one small lesson to take away from the crumbling HE sector, btw, is that there is no such thing as meritocracy here and the only thing that matters is doing work that is meaningful to you and the people you care about and to make friends and collaborators in the process
December 7, 2025 at 9:22 AM
I think I may have to print this out and put it on my door.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
PHOTO OF THE DAY. Sophia Loren trying Whelks in a fish bar, near the River Thames (1960). 📷 Bob Hope and Alisdair MacDonald
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 AM
PHOTO OF THE DAY. Sophia Loren trying Whelks in a fish bar, near the River Thames (1960). 📷 Bob Hope and Alisdair MacDonald
Reposted by Luke Seaber
I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too.
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too.
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Modern art or the setting-up of the staff-student Christmas party?
December 5, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Modern art or the setting-up of the staff-student Christmas party?
Reposted by Luke Seaber
Mind you I was just rereading Pterry’s “The Truth” and was struck (& chastened) by Mr Tulip’s purgatorial experience in Death’s desert.
“‘Is this the bit where my life passes before my eyes?’
NO. THAT WAS YOUR LIFE. THIS IS THE BIT WHERE YOU SEE YOUR LIFE AS YOU APPEARED TO OTHERS.”
(From memory)
“‘Is this the bit where my life passes before my eyes?’
NO. THAT WAS YOUR LIFE. THIS IS THE BIT WHERE YOU SEE YOUR LIFE AS YOU APPEARED TO OTHERS.”
(From memory)
December 5, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Mind you I was just rereading Pterry’s “The Truth” and was struck (& chastened) by Mr Tulip’s purgatorial experience in Death’s desert.
“‘Is this the bit where my life passes before my eyes?’
NO. THAT WAS YOUR LIFE. THIS IS THE BIT WHERE YOU SEE YOUR LIFE AS YOU APPEARED TO OTHERS.”
(From memory)
“‘Is this the bit where my life passes before my eyes?’
NO. THAT WAS YOUR LIFE. THIS IS THE BIT WHERE YOU SEE YOUR LIFE AS YOU APPEARED TO OTHERS.”
(From memory)
Reposted by Luke Seaber
I know Pterry was a humanist (and preferred Tolkien) so I have no idea what he’d make of the comparison, but he does occasionally have a sort of morally/ spiritually astringent quality that remind me of Lewis.
December 5, 2025 at 9:20 AM
I know Pterry was a humanist (and preferred Tolkien) so I have no idea what he’d make of the comparison, but he does occasionally have a sort of morally/ spiritually astringent quality that remind me of Lewis.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
December 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
Reposted by Luke Seaber
when you're a colonial bureaucrat in 1905 who's supposed to be collating regional censorship returns but instead you're fantasising about using some government cash to fund a camping and stargazing holiday ⛺️🔭
December 4, 2025 at 12:14 PM
when you're a colonial bureaucrat in 1905 who's supposed to be collating regional censorship returns but instead you're fantasising about using some government cash to fund a camping and stargazing holiday ⛺️🔭
Reposted by Luke Seaber
The WI has been trans inclusive since the 70s, before I was born. Do you see who in this scenario was innocently minding their own business, coming to their own arrangements locally? Do you see who is forcefully imposing themselves and their demands upon others, via threats.
December 4, 2025 at 8:30 AM
The WI has been trans inclusive since the 70s, before I was born. Do you see who in this scenario was innocently minding their own business, coming to their own arrangements locally? Do you see who is forcefully imposing themselves and their demands upon others, via threats.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
There was a time when this was perfectly legal, and according to the people who want to keep it illegal, that was a better time.
Make it make sense. You can’t.
Make it make sense. You can’t.
Controversial take but: I don’t find it unthinkable to imagine an American citizen should be able to make the informed decision to purchase and use cocaine in a harm reducing environment, and the fact that it is nearly unthinkable in public discourse speaks to our implicit authoritarianism
December 4, 2025 at 7:48 AM
There was a time when this was perfectly legal, and according to the people who want to keep it illegal, that was a better time.
Make it make sense. You can’t.
Make it make sense. You can’t.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
If people value their own degrees, encourage their kids to go to uni, live in cities where the uni is an anchor of the local economy, enjoy products from cancer medicines to podcasts that come from uni research and *still* don't see universities as valuable, you can only do so much to join the dots.
December 3, 2025 at 2:19 PM
If people value their own degrees, encourage their kids to go to uni, live in cities where the uni is an anchor of the local economy, enjoy products from cancer medicines to podcasts that come from uni research and *still* don't see universities as valuable, you can only do so much to join the dots.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
I see posts calling on unis/academics to do more to make their case in public. I'm 100% open to strategies to do so...but it's not as though there's a lack of info about HE's value, whether in the form of data-rich analyses or eloquent articulation. At some point you do need those with ears to hear.
December 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I see posts calling on unis/academics to do more to make their case in public. I'm 100% open to strategies to do so...but it's not as though there's a lack of info about HE's value, whether in the form of data-rich analyses or eloquent articulation. At some point you do need those with ears to hear.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
The people driving the dismantling of the sector seem to believe that academic capacity is easily replaceable. Maybe that's understandable, when they're currently getting hundreds of applications from over-qualified mid-career scholars for paltry part-time and fixed term contracts.
But --
But --
I have a lot to say, including that it's despicable to drop this news 3 weeks before Christmas. I am devastated for my friends and colleagues. Butchering 20% of the university's staff poisons the working environment in ways that will linger.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
University of Essex to shut Southend campus and cut 400 jobs - BBC News
The Southend-on-Sea campus is home to the award-winning East 15 drama school.
www.bbc.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The people driving the dismantling of the sector seem to believe that academic capacity is easily replaceable. Maybe that's understandable, when they're currently getting hundreds of applications from over-qualified mid-career scholars for paltry part-time and fixed term contracts.
But --
But --
Reposted by Luke Seaber
if you gut higher education successfully, it will take decades to recover. Subject experts, skilled pedagogues, and experienced research leaders don't pop off a factory line for next-day delivery. Once it's gone, it's going to be very hard work to get it back, even if everyone decides we want to.
December 3, 2025 at 8:51 AM
if you gut higher education successfully, it will take decades to recover. Subject experts, skilled pedagogues, and experienced research leaders don't pop off a factory line for next-day delivery. Once it's gone, it's going to be very hard work to get it back, even if everyone decides we want to.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
Universities *are* the modern equivalent of the heavy industry or manufacturing sector that used to accompany most large towns and small to mid-sized cities. You can't escape this.
December 3, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Universities *are* the modern equivalent of the heavy industry or manufacturing sector that used to accompany most large towns and small to mid-sized cities. You can't escape this.
Reposted by Luke Seaber
Not to sound like a stuck record, but '400 jobs to be lost in city as car plant/steel works/aerospace facility closes' would be treated somewhat differently, I suspect.
Every sympathy for University of Essex (and pressures facing them) but this is very bad news for Southend.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Essex university to cut 400 jobs as overseas student numbers plummet
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Essex university to cut 400 jobs as overseas student numbers plummet
Essex university to cut 400 jobs as overseas student numbers plummet
Roles to be lost are part of wave of redundancy programmes across UK’s higher education sector
giftarticle.ft.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Not to sound like a stuck record, but '400 jobs to be lost in city as car plant/steel works/aerospace facility closes' would be treated somewhat differently, I suspect.
This is wonderful.
🚨Some personal news.
I'm thrilled to announce that I've just filed my first copy for The New Yorker.
A profile of Jonathan Gullis.
"You get the sense that offstage, Jonathan Gullis struggles with being Jonathan Gullis."
open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...
I'm thrilled to announce that I've just filed my first copy for The New Yorker.
A profile of Jonathan Gullis.
"You get the sense that offstage, Jonathan Gullis struggles with being Jonathan Gullis."
open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...
Jonathan Gullis, The Seagull's Lament
A New Yorker Profile
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:10 AM
This is wonderful.