Les Back
@academicdiary.bsky.social
I teach sociology at the University of Glasgow and my interests are learning, teaching, books, ideas, culture and music.
This is wonderful, Jimmy Reid and Billy Connolly on Parkinson in 1979. I have finished my first piece of writing set in Glasgow called ‘In the Big Yin’s Footsteps’, which retraces Glasgow’s social history through Billy’s favourite streets today. youtu.be/KApI5kksOuM?...
Classic Parkinson: 1979 - Union Leader Jimmy Reid, Billy Connolly, and Lauren Bacall
YouTube video by George Fairbrother - DEC4 Podcast
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 9:24 PM
This is wonderful, Jimmy Reid and Billy Connolly on Parkinson in 1979. I have finished my first piece of writing set in Glasgow called ‘In the Big Yin’s Footsteps’, which retraces Glasgow’s social history through Billy’s favourite streets today. youtu.be/KApI5kksOuM?...
Reposted by Les Back
Annual Lecture: The Paradox of Home by Les Back (11.12.25)
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Annual Lecture: The Paradox of Home by Les Back (11.12.25)
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
Reposted by Les Back
This coming Black History Month's edition of the JMS Network series will see Dr Shantel George in conversation with JMS PhD Scholar in History, Taylar Carty. Join us from 6-8pm on Thursday 30 October in Kelvin Hall.
@uofgartshums.bsky.social
@uofgartshums.bsky.social
September 22, 2025 at 9:13 AM
This coming Black History Month's edition of the JMS Network series will see Dr Shantel George in conversation with JMS PhD Scholar in History, Taylar Carty. Join us from 6-8pm on Thursday 30 October in Kelvin Hall.
@uofgartshums.bsky.social
@uofgartshums.bsky.social
Reposted by Les Back
Paul Gordon has just joined his son Montel as a UofG PhD scholar. Both are part of the James McCune Smith PhD Scholarship programme, pursuing research shaped by lived experience and cultural insight.
More: gla.ac/4hzMvne
Photo: Martin Shields
More: gla.ac/4hzMvne
Photo: Martin Shields
Father and son students hoping to build a legacy of Black scholarship and storytelling
Montel Gordon, one of the James McCune Smith PhD programme’s inaugural 2022 scholars, is being joined by his father, Paul, in a family journey of academic exploration.
gla.ac
October 24, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Paul Gordon has just joined his son Montel as a UofG PhD scholar. Both are part of the James McCune Smith PhD Scholarship programme, pursuing research shaped by lived experience and cultural insight.
More: gla.ac/4hzMvne
Photo: Martin Shields
More: gla.ac/4hzMvne
Photo: Martin Shields
Reposted by Les Back
We’re excited to launch the 5th round of applications for the JMS Scholarship. 12 scholarships are available in any research area which can be supervised at the University.
Register your interest here: forms.office.com/e/k2bkPz4ekB
#PhDScholarship #Scholarships2026 #UKScholarships
Register your interest here: forms.office.com/e/k2bkPz4ekB
#PhDScholarship #Scholarships2026 #UKScholarships
November 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
We’re excited to launch the 5th round of applications for the JMS Scholarship. 12 scholarships are available in any research area which can be supervised at the University.
Register your interest here: forms.office.com/e/k2bkPz4ekB
#PhDScholarship #Scholarships2026 #UKScholarships
Register your interest here: forms.office.com/e/k2bkPz4ekB
#PhDScholarship #Scholarships2026 #UKScholarships
Reposted by Les Back
Really looking forward to this lecture with @academicdiary.bsky.social. Register now before all the tickets are gone!
Annual Lecture: The Paradox of Home by Les Back (11.12.25)
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6
November 11, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Really looking forward to this lecture with @academicdiary.bsky.social. Register now before all the tickets are gone!
Beautiful night in South London looking north x
November 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Beautiful night in South London looking north x
This is a beautiful story that will warm your heart. Congrats to Paul, and Montel is already doing important work. Wonderful people and meaningful change www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2556955...
Father and son make history through shared academic journey
A father and son are making history through a shared academic journey
www.glasgowtimes.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 9:52 AM
This is a beautiful story that will warm your heart. Congrats to Paul, and Montel is already doing important work. Wonderful people and meaningful change www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2556955...
@jenniewren.bsky.social I love you profile picture Jennie
November 6, 2025 at 10:05 AM
@jenniewren.bsky.social I love you profile picture Jennie
I really loved being interviewed for this edition, Spare a Thought on Stuart Hall and the historic Open Door episode It Ain’t Half Racist Mum spareathought.podbean.com/e/it-aint-ha...
It Ain't Half Racist Mum | Spare a Thought
In today’s episode Tom speaks to Professor Les Back, a lecturer of Sociology at the University of Glasgow about 1979 TV episode of Open Door called It Aint Half Racist Mum.
Together Tom and Les discus...
spareathought.podbean.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:23 PM
I really loved being interviewed for this edition, Spare a Thought on Stuart Hall and the historic Open Door episode It Ain’t Half Racist Mum spareathought.podbean.com/e/it-aint-ha...
In the Taybridge Bar, Dundee watching the old firm game and making a little musical pilgrimage for the late great Michael Marra… 💔
November 2, 2025 at 2:20 PM
In the Taybridge Bar, Dundee watching the old firm game and making a little musical pilgrimage for the late great Michael Marra… 💔
Reposted by Les Back
We're hiring an outstanding Assistant Professor whose core research is in the field of cultural sociology with demonstrable expertise in the sociology of #culture and #technology.
📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025.
➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025.
➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
October 24, 2025 at 3:34 PM
We're hiring an outstanding Assistant Professor whose core research is in the field of cultural sociology with demonstrable expertise in the sociology of #culture and #technology.
📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025.
➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025.
➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
With dear friend Professor Lez Henry (aka Lesley Lyrics) at the farewell for Dj and world builder June Reid.
October 24, 2025 at 5:32 AM
With dear friend Professor Lez Henry (aka Lesley Lyrics) at the farewell for Dj and world builder June Reid.
Saying goodbye today to Queen June Reid who wore the ‘crown of righteousness’. June chose a poem by David Harkins to be read as a farewell -“smile, open your eyes (and ears), love and go on.” A beautiful generous soul gone but not forgotten.
October 24, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Saying goodbye today to Queen June Reid who wore the ‘crown of righteousness’. June chose a poem by David Harkins to be read as a farewell -“smile, open your eyes (and ears), love and go on.” A beautiful generous soul gone but not forgotten.
@darkpublisher.bsky.social I’m working on the book idea Tom. I really like your punk anniversary series idea… really tempted to put something in on punk and reggae!!
October 21, 2025 at 5:52 PM
@darkpublisher.bsky.social I’m working on the book idea Tom. I really like your punk anniversary series idea… really tempted to put something in on punk and reggae!!
A important new talk from Gargi Bhattacharyya
October 21, 2025 at 9:54 AM
A important new talk from Gargi Bhattacharyya
Reposted by Les Back
I met her when we were both studying the Linguistics MLitt in 1988-9 at Strathclyde and we were friends ever since. Brilliant writer and undervalued in the UK but not elsewhere. A truly wonderful friend
October 14, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I met her when we were both studying the Linguistics MLitt in 1988-9 at Strathclyde and we were friends ever since. Brilliant writer and undervalued in the UK but not elsewhere. A truly wonderful friend
@patthomson.bsky.social I stumbled on the review you wrote of Academic Diary, Pat. Thanks for such a thoughtful take. I have been thinking again about form working on a new project. Feels like the world of HE is a very different place now. Be great to be in touch again. Warm best wishes.
October 14, 2025 at 1:29 PM
@patthomson.bsky.social I stumbled on the review you wrote of Academic Diary, Pat. Thanks for such a thoughtful take. I have been thinking again about form working on a new project. Feels like the world of HE is a very different place now. Be great to be in touch again. Warm best wishes.
Reposted by Les Back
Latest post on writer voice and identity complete with exercises patthomson.net/2025/07/30/w...
writer identity and voice
Still reading. This month it’s Schmit, John S (2022)The sociolinguistics of written identity, Constructing a self. Cham, Switzerland: PalgraveMacmillan. Schmit is a writing and linguistics professo…
patthomson.net
July 30, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Latest post on writer voice and identity complete with exercises patthomson.net/2025/07/30/w...
Reposted by Les Back
Use little windows of time to progress your academic writing patthomson.net/2025/08/30/f...
Five steps towards writing in fragments
The myth of ideal academic writing time persists. We all long to be in a quiet office, surrounded by books, with hours of uninterrupted time to craft elegant arguments. But the reality is very diff…
patthomson.net
August 30, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Use little windows of time to progress your academic writing patthomson.net/2025/08/30/f...
Reposted by Les Back
Dealing with a toxic review? Write a Dear Reviewer letter… patthomson.net/2025/09/27/d...
Dear Reviewer
Every academic writer knows the sting of a harsh review. Every one. Including me. We’ve all had them. The review that is scathing, brutal and toxic. The immediate impulse is often to fire bac…
patthomson.net
September 27, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Dealing with a toxic review? Write a Dear Reviewer letter… patthomson.net/2025/09/27/d...
This is such a thoughtful review by Pat Thomson - have been a huge admirer of Patter for a long time. patthomson.net/2016/07/21/o...
on form and function – and Les Back’s Academic Diary
So you want to write a book which examines everyday life in the contemporary university. You want to show the ways in which academic work is constrained, but also what freedoms are still possible. …
patthomson.net
October 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM
This is such a thoughtful review by Pat Thomson - have been a huge admirer of Patter for a long time. patthomson.net/2016/07/21/o...
@kirsteen-paton.bsky.social amazing tips as always, Kirsteen.
October 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
@kirsteen-paton.bsky.social amazing tips as always, Kirsteen.
Reposted by Les Back
September 26, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Les Back
History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."
October 14, 2025 at 2:48 AM
History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."