Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dag van de Wetenschap @dagvandewetenschap.bsky.social · 7d

Wetenschap is overal en we tellen af naar de 15de Dag van de Wetenschap op zondag 23 november 2025.

Vrijdag 10/10 om 10u10 komen honderden activiteiten online www.dagvandewetenschap.be.

Dompel je onder en stippel jouw ideale #dvdw2025 uit met jouw eigen profiel.

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · 8d

Tenure track prof in Contemporary Middle East Studies KU Leuven
Unlike many European universities, Leuven has a tenure track system; university & faculty management are elected. There is a startup fund of 110,000€. Leuven has a sabbatical policy.
www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

Tenure track professor in Contemporary Middle East Studies (Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven)

The East Asian and Arabic Research Unit of the Faculty of Arts at KU Leuven is seeking a full-time tenure-track professor (ZAP) in contemporary Middle East Studies. The professorship will commence on ...

www.kuleuven.be

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 15d

New in #IMMARKUS: when you import a #IIIF manifest, IMMARKUS now imports existing annotations (embedded or referenced) into your workspace.

We'd love to test with real-world examples. If you know of IIIF collections with annotations, let us know. Annotated manifests still seem rare in the wild...

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Ingrid Robeyns @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social · 26d

informatief interview met historicus Beatrice de Graaf waarin ze het besluit van de meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer om Antifa als terroristische organisatie te kenmerken scherp veroordeelt.

www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/antifa/

Beatrice de Graaf: Antifa-besluit Tweede Kamer is ‘een knuppel om tegenstanders monddood te maken’

‘Een schok’, zo noemt Beatrice de Graaf het besluit van de Tweede Kamer om de Antifa-beweging als terroristische organisatie aan te merken.

www.historischnieuwsblad.nl

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · 27d

"This is what it looks like when a society’s elite rolls over in the face of authoritarianism. It never ends well.'

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 28d

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel

Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

www.yahoo.com

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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 28d

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel

Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

www.yahoo.com

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The University of Chicago Press @uchicagopress.bsky.social · Sep 16

RIP Robert Redford, who famously and beautifully brought Norman Maclean’s *A River Runs Through It* to the big screen:

Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89

He made serious topics like grief and political corruption resonate with the masses, in no small part because of his own star power.

buff.ly

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 15

so you can zoom in the tiniest of details and take them with you to do with whatever you want--I added a screenshot of the well-known exam cheat shirt, that you could now read (or in our IMMARKUS service, transcribe and translate with the assistance of a range of AI models). Cheers!

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 15

If you are interested in the history of book, check out this phenomenal exhibit curated by the wonderful Martin Heijdra at Princeton. It is a model exhibit in so many ways, covering different parts of the world, so many languages, and, images are in IIIF
dpul.princeton.edu/global-book-...

Forms & Function

dpul.princeton.edu

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 14

"drastic plans to halve the intake of humanities students at one of China’s most prestigious institutions, Fudan University, divided opinions among scholars." Has anyone seen more on this?

University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Sep 12

China has unveiled a new plan to accelerate highered alignment with national priorities - but some academics & students expressed concern at the sweeping restructuring, Amber Wang reports from Beijing
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

New plan to speed up HE alignment with national priorities

China has unveiled a new plan that goes further and faster in aligning higher education with national economic and strategic priorities. Its issue by ...

www.universityworldnews.com

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 14

From the supposed advocates of freedom of speech and the supposed critics of "cancel culture": target lists continued.

Maia George @maiageorge.bsky.social · Sep 14

"The website also echoes back to Kirk-founded [...] “Professor Watchlist,” whose purpose was to unmask what it called “radical professors,” but often led to harassment and violent threats directed toward people named on that list."

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/13/b...

People are getting fired for allegedly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. It looks like a coordinated effort | CNN Business

Dozens of social media posts and messages about the murder of Charlie Kirk, including some that celebrated his death, are being spotlighted by conservative activists, Republican elected officials and ...

edition.cnn.com

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Maia George @maiageorge.bsky.social · Sep 14

"The website also echoes back to Kirk-founded [...] “Professor Watchlist,” whose purpose was to unmask what it called “radical professors,” but often led to harassment and violent threats directed toward people named on that list."

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/13/b...

People are getting fired for allegedly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. It looks like a coordinated effort | CNN Business

Dozens of social media posts and messages about the murder of Charlie Kirk, including some that celebrated his death, are being spotlighted by conservative activists, Republican elected officials and ...

edition.cnn.com

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University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Sep 12

China has unveiled a new plan to accelerate highered alignment with national priorities - but some academics & students expressed concern at the sweeping restructuring, Amber Wang reports from Beijing
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

New plan to speed up HE alignment with national priorities

China has unveiled a new plan that goes further and faster in aligning higher education with national economic and strategic priorities. Its issue by ...

www.universityworldnews.com

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 9

Very pleased to see The Young Academy's important report on First Generation Academics published as a book. Hoping that this coming academic year will be better for all, including first generation academics!

To read online www.linkedin.com/posts/de-jon...
and
www.dejongeakademie.nl/nieuws/30313...

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · Sep 8

We just released IMMARKUS 1.0 - our first full release!

An open-source tool for semantic image annotation: multi-image workbench, AI-powered selection tools, ontology builder, knowledge graph, #IIIF support.

Runs fully local–no login, no-signups, no data sent to the cloud!

👉 immarkus.xmarkus.org

IMMARKUS

An image annotation environment for the MARKUS platform. Developed by Prof. Dr. Hilde De Weerdt, Dr. Rainer Simon, Dr. Lee Sunkyu, Dr. Iva Stojević, Meret Meister, and Xi Wangzhi with funding from the...

immarkus.xmarkus.org

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 5

On international enrollment in NL: "The decline is particularly noticeable in the Language and Culture sectors (-28.5 per cent), Law (-25.0 per cent), Science (-12.5 per cent), Behaviour & Society (-16 per cent), and Economics (-4.0 per cent)." 😮

University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Aug 29

Will the cabinet reshuffle in the #Netherlands affect #highered internationalisation? Jan Petter Myklebust reports
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

Will the reshuffle affect internationalisation work?

The resignation of several ministers from the Dutch government, including Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp and Eppo Bruins, Minister of Education, Cul...

www.universityworldnews.com

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University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Aug 29

Will the cabinet reshuffle in the #Netherlands affect #highered internationalisation? Jan Petter Myklebust reports
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

Will the reshuffle affect internationalisation work?

The resignation of several ministers from the Dutch government, including Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp and Eppo Bruins, Minister of Education, Cul...

www.universityworldnews.com

Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 28

-- reproducing Yuan paper bills in real time with my LUCA Brussels colleague Peter De Roy.

For now it is in German, English subtitles to follow. You can also try using AI translators for Youtube or use a translation app on your mobile.

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 28

“Stimmt es, dass Tausch die erste Währung war?” (“Was barter the first form of currency?”) is now online in the ARTE Mediathek – and also on YouTube. I had great fun contributing a small part on the first production of paper #money (esp. 12.45-15.15 minutes)

youtu.be/W9f51gaShNI?...

War Tauschhandel die erste Form der Währung? | Stimmt es, dass... | ARTE

YouTube video by ARTEde

youtu.be

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 25

Seminar: An Analytical Bibliography of Web 2.0 Infrastructures

Date: Wednesday, 3 September 2025

Time: 10:00–12:00

More info and reading list:

www.infrastructurelives.eu/events/03-09...

03/09/2025 An Analytical Bibliography of Web 2.0 Infrastructures

The ERC project RegInfra and KU Leuven Early Modern History Research Group are organizing a reading seminar in cooperation with Dr. Javier Cha (The University of Hong Kong). The theme of the reading s...

www.infrastructurelives.eu

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 25

Coming up in Leuven next week:

Workshop: Structures of Descent: Neo4j-Enabled Readings of Intergenerational Mobility and Marriage in Premodern Korea

Date: Monday, 1 September 2025

Time: 15:00–17:00

More info:

www.infrastructurelives.eu/events/1-9-2...

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 23

"Daarnaast heeft het aan elke vorm van toezicht op het functioneren van Hofman ontbroken. Alleen het resultaat telde." Geldt dat niet voor alle decanen en instituutsmanagers die zich in de laatste decennia schuldig hebben gemaakt aan allerlei wangedrag @unileiden.bsky.social? Goed nieuws voor hen.

Mare @mareonline.nl · Aug 22

BREEK: Hoogleraar Caribische archeologie Corinne Hofman heeft zich wel degelijk schuldig gemaakt aan grensoverschrijdend gedrag en schendingen van de wetenschappelijke integriteit, oordeelt de kantonrechter. Maar toch mag de universiteit haar niet ontslaan.
www.mareonline.nl/nieuws/affai...

Affaire Hofman: universiteit mag archeoloog niet ontslaan, ondanks ‘aannemelijk’ wangedrag

Hoogleraar Caribische archeologie Corinne Hofman heeft zich wel degelijk schuldig gemaakt aan grensoverschrijdend gedrag en schendingen van de wetenschappelijke integriteit, oordeelt de kantonrechter....

www.mareonline.nl

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 22

The key lesson: testing and comparing are fun and productive, and make for better research.

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 22

You can get creative and have different models check on each other's work and make suggestions for further improvements.
E.g., openAI ranked its own transcription of a difficult to read handwritten German note lowest, with some clear reasoning as to why.

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 22

I regularly get the question: "Which is the best model?" I usually answer: "You have to test." IMMARKUS (immarkus.xmarkus.org) makes testing across various open and commercial models easy for automatic transcription and translation. You can compare, collate, edit, and save all notes for later use.

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Mare @mareonline.nl · Aug 22

BREEK: Hoogleraar Caribische archeologie Corinne Hofman heeft zich wel degelijk schuldig gemaakt aan grensoverschrijdend gedrag en schendingen van de wetenschappelijke integriteit, oordeelt de kantonrechter. Maar toch mag de universiteit haar niet ontslaan.
www.mareonline.nl/nieuws/affai...

Affaire Hofman: universiteit mag archeoloog niet ontslaan, ondanks ‘aannemelijk’ wangedrag

Hoogleraar Caribische archeologie Corinne Hofman heeft zich wel degelijk schuldig gemaakt aan grensoverschrijdend gedrag en schendingen van de wetenschappelijke integriteit, oordeelt de kantonrechter....

www.mareonline.nl

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 22

For questions feel free to get in touch with the organizers (listed on the left). Submission deadline: Oct. 22, 2025

Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 22

Urban historians working on any part of Asia are warmly invited to submit proposals for the session "Good Governance and Urban Conflict in Late Medieval and Early Modern Cities in Europe and Beyond (13th-17th centuries)" at the 2026 European Association for Urban History Conference in Barcelona.

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Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · Aug 20

REGISTRATION OPEN!

Now more than ever, research is reshaping our view of women’s roles in the early modern book trade. Join us in Antwerp (5–7 Nov 2025) for our conference Women & the Household in the #earlymodern Book Trade.

Register here: tinyurl.com/womenbooktrade

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜

Conference: Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade | Museum Plantin-Moretus

The aim of this two-day conference is to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production which changed the face of home l...

museumplantinmoretus.be

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Aug 14

Abstract:

With thanks to Joshua Wright for organizing.

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