Katie Muth
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kmuth.bsky.social
Katie Muth
@kmuth.bsky.social
Assistant prof of digital humanities @ Durham English, books about work || work about books, she/they, https://krmuth.github.io/
Reposted by Katie Muth
A useful reminder on UCU's position on trans inclusion, while the EHRC undergoes a consultation following last month's Supreme Court Decision. Short version: we're pro-trans inclusion! This is true at the national level, and true at our branch.
Gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination
www.ucu.org.uk
June 7, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
This is absolutely awful. So horribly stressful for the students, who had to convince the invigilator there was actually a problem on top of everything else.

Say, you don't suppose this is connected to the uni moving heaven and earth to shed dozens of PS colleagues during an exam term, do you?
Exams interrupted by incorrect papers, missing data booklets, and typos across the university  - Palatinate
Students have been sent the wrong exam papers and additional resources have been missing as multiple departments have made errors in examinations this year.
www.palatinate.org.uk
June 1, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
May 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
If you're interested in more #ai from H&A at #sjsu, check out our other event recordings:

*Data Feminism in AI @laurenfklein.bsky.social youtu.be/p9vbNA5_t44
*AI in Creative Spaces youtu.be/o84CcpLqmNk
*The AI Con book launch
@emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social youtu.be/1FcD3-FRWD4
Data Feminism for AI: A Talk by Dr. Lauren Klein
YouTube video by SJSUCollegeHA
youtu.be
May 18, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Again, if Cardiff can do this after a much, much worse 2024 than Durham has had, why is the employer continuing to rule out compulsory redundancies?
“This is a significant victory for our members at Cardiff University.” @drjogrady.bsky.social on the agreement at Cardiff university for no compulsory job losses to take place this year.

Solidarity works.

#ucu #protecteducationnow
May 6, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
This is today, everybody! Let's show everyone - our university included - that we're not just going to sit quietly in a corner while people's rights are on the line. #UnionswiththeT
Next Wed (7th), our UCU branch will be holding a rally in defense of trans, intersex and non-binary people's rights, as part of a national day of action among UK trades unions. 12-1pm at The Map.
May 7, 2025 at 6:48 AM
One more day to sign sign sign! ✍️
Hi Bluesky! 👋 @ducu.bsky.social spent the week out on the picket lines in a local trade dispute over proposed staff cuts. Anyone can sign our petition to let DU management know we're not the only ones who think these staff cuts are a big NOPE! durhamucu.org.uk
May 5, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Hi Bluesky! 👋 @ducu.bsky.social spent the week out on the picket lines in a local trade dispute over proposed staff cuts. Anyone can sign our petition to let DU management know we're not the only ones who think these staff cuts are a big NOPE! durhamucu.org.uk
May 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Day four! Striking for our jobs! We are not a drain on the university! We ARE the university!
May 1, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Another sunny day with some big pickets @ducu.bsky.social.

A picket line visit from local MP Mary Foy and the mighty @newcastleucu.bsky.social!

Students also voting for refucing senior management numbers as opposed to cutting professional services staff.
May 1, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Thank you Caleb! This action, along with many others, would be made easier if Unite UCU were being treated fairly and with respect, in the same place way UCU members demand for ourselves. #SettleTheDispute
UCU staff can’t work supporting this strike action til the employer makes a deal with us in our dispute, but Sending huge solidarity to @ducu.bsky.social in their struggle to save jobs the employer rightly recognised as business-critical til about 5 minutes before they jumped on the cuts bandwagon
Rally time! Jamie lays it out!
April 28, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
New picket day, new sign. As cuts go up, services go down. Upset by the cut in library hours? Just you wait until cuts take effect!

Anise pine nut cookies ready to go for the morning!
@ducu.bsky.social #veganpickets
#NoCuts
#SaveOurStaff
April 28, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Day two of the strike, and we've ben getting a lot of questions from students about the action. What's it for, why are we doing it now, and how can they help.

So let's run through some Strike Questions! 🧵
April 29, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Friendly reminder from an HR professor: voluntary severances aren’t really “voluntary” if future compulsory redundancies are still on the table.
#NoCuts #SaveOurStaff
@ducu.bsky.social
April 28, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Great turnout today on @ducu.bsky.social pickets. On strike to protect professional services staff jobs.

An attack on one is an attack on all!

Management tried to pit academics against professional services staff - they've failed!

We are *all* the university!
April 28, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Sign sign sign!
Our jobs are on the line!
ON STRIKE as a member of Durham UCU in response to Durham University management’s proposed staff cuts of £20m. University management has refused DUCU requests to stop compulsory redundancies & to work with us to find non-staff cost savings. Sign the petition: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Join UCU
Why join UCU? Over 120,000 of your colleagues have chosen to belong to UCU - the largest union and most effective voice for people like you working in post-school education.
www.ucu.org.uk
April 28, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
Exactly. The hyperfocus on limitless growth 2017-2022, and now on unplanned-out shrinking, all driven by a sole focus on financial targets does not a university make. Know what we do, make the money support that. The other way round, you just get a monstrosity ever on the brink of failure.
What is happening is honestly shocking. And.. still no sense of what kind of institution will remain if all these cuts go through.

There is no clear sense of the provision of education after the cuts, except to say we know there will be fewer courses and larger courses. Who will pay ££ for that?
QMUL is being transformed by a 1000 cuts without a clear vision and without staff input -- management only opening 'consultations' when it is too late & the only convo is about severance.

Our university deserves a strategy, and deserves staff treated with dignity. Vote in the consultative ballot
April 24, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
. @uniteucu.bsky.social's dispute needs to be resolved.

It needs to be resolved bc Congress voted for @ucu.org.uk leadership to do so.

It needs to be resolved bc it's the right thing to do.

It needs to be revolved bc not resolving it makes things harder for branches in dispute.

Solidarity!
April 24, 2025 at 11:08 AM
We're not surprised to read this reporting, are we @ducu.bsky.social. Wonder if management are bothered?
April 15, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
This is a really important point — when we point out that governments are crippling HE by attacking visas, we also need to a) talk about international students as people not £££ and also b) point out *why* overseas tuition fees have become an apparent panacea for UK universities
Deeply uncomfortable with the "world-leading universities" rhetoric as a justification for doubling down on reliance on overseas student fees.

British universities are world-leading research institutions, but that doesn't necessarily bleed over into providing world-leading teaching experiences.
April 15, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Heartbreaking.
Dissolution of the Office of Digital Humanities is confirmed. #DigitalHumanities
April 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Metaphors are context dependent.
Found poem, WaPo 5 Apr.

Lutnick,
who was clutching
a large poster board sign in
the Rose Garden
ahead of Trump’s remarks,
had been tasked with
the printing of the
visual aids
Trump displayed there —
though the breezy conditions
Wednesday afternoon
prevented them all
from being displayed.
April 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Found poem, WaPo 5 Apr.

Lutnick,
who was clutching
a large poster board sign in
the Rose Garden
ahead of Trump’s remarks,
had been tasked with
the printing of the
visual aids
Trump displayed there —
though the breezy conditions
Wednesday afternoon
prevented them all
from being displayed.
April 5, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Katie Muth
The results are IN for our industrial action ballot! On a 64.0% turnout (our highest ever confirmed %age), 72.2% of voters said they were prepared to strike, with 81.2% prepared to engage in action short of strike.

So what's next? Well. The employer knows where to find us. Time for a chat, perhaps?
April 1, 2025 at 3:49 PM