Dr Matt Barnard
@matthewbarnard.phd
Cat-owning philosophy academic | existentialism | phenomenology | new project: philosophy of AI
- https://matthewbarnard.phd/
UCU NEC/HEC UK Elected Representative
- https://matthewbarnard.phd/
UCU NEC/HEC UK Elected Representative
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
#openaccess Neuerscheinung: Sammelband zu Gernot Böhmes Philosophie, herausgegeben von @rebeccaboehme.bsky.social u.a. In meinem Beitrag verteidige ich den Begriff der #Natur mithilfe der #Ökophänomenologie gegen Positionen, die behaupten im #Anthropozän wäre Natur an ihr Ende gekommen.
#philsky
#philsky
Philosophie als Kritik und Lebenspraxis | E-Book | Online kaufen
Philosophie als Kritik und Lebenspraxis: Zur Aktualität der Philosophie Gernot Böhmes ✔ E-Book von Rebecca Böhme, Ute Gahlings, Dieter Mersch, Alfred Nordmann, Gregor Schiemann ✔ Open Access (PDF) ✔ 4...
www.herder.de
November 18, 2025 at 8:40 AM
#openaccess Neuerscheinung: Sammelband zu Gernot Böhmes Philosophie, herausgegeben von @rebeccaboehme.bsky.social u.a. In meinem Beitrag verteidige ich den Begriff der #Natur mithilfe der #Ökophänomenologie gegen Positionen, die behaupten im #Anthropozän wäre Natur an ihr Ende gekommen.
#philsky
#philsky
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
32 colleges hit the turnout threshold. 90% backed strike action.
Our ballots have already won pay deals at 17 colleges now others must follow.
College teachers are still paid £9,000 less than school teachers. This isn’t sustainable. Pay parity now.
feweek.co.uk/ucu-ballot-r...
Our ballots have already won pay deals at 17 colleges now others must follow.
College teachers are still paid £9,000 less than school teachers. This isn’t sustainable. Pay parity now.
feweek.co.uk/ucu-ballot-r...
UCU ballot results: 32 colleges vote to strike over pay and workload
Pay deals were agreed at a further 17 colleges during the ballot window
feweek.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM
32 colleges hit the turnout threshold. 90% backed strike action.
Our ballots have already won pay deals at 17 colleges now others must follow.
College teachers are still paid £9,000 less than school teachers. This isn’t sustainable. Pay parity now.
feweek.co.uk/ucu-ballot-r...
Our ballots have already won pay deals at 17 colleges now others must follow.
College teachers are still paid £9,000 less than school teachers. This isn’t sustainable. Pay parity now.
feweek.co.uk/ucu-ballot-r...
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
In response to our industrial action, the university proposed a resolution that removed the threat of compulsory redundancies for the next year and introduced a negotiation process over course closures. And at our branch meeting, we accepted this offer.
November 14, 2025 at 3:34 PM
In response to our industrial action, the university proposed a resolution that removed the threat of compulsory redundancies for the next year and introduced a negotiation process over course closures. And at our branch meeting, we accepted this offer.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
This isn’t “efficiency” it’s an ideological shift towards a Little England university system.
Nottingham is set to become the only Russell Group university with no modern languages or music degrees.
48 courses on the line. We’re fighting it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Nottingham is set to become the only Russell Group university with no modern languages or music degrees.
48 courses on the line. We’re fighting it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
University of Nottingham considers axing language and music degrees
Total of 48 degrees could disappear from Russell Group institution, with falling revenues and rising costs blamed
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:26 AM
This isn’t “efficiency” it’s an ideological shift towards a Little England university system.
Nottingham is set to become the only Russell Group university with no modern languages or music degrees.
48 courses on the line. We’re fighting it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Nottingham is set to become the only Russell Group university with no modern languages or music degrees.
48 courses on the line. We’re fighting it.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
This is really tone deaf, and reminds me of Gillian Keegan complaining that no one thanked her for doing a good job during the RAC scandal. Yes, this is a time of 'fiscal challenge', but you can't just tell people who are being made redundant that they didn't think of a better solution. 1/
No one has come up with a better way of convincing the Treasury to bring back maintenance grants, says skills minister
#highered #EduSky
#highered #EduSky
Levy criticism ‘makes me want to run screaming’, says Smith
Skills minister says convincing the Treasury of the importance of maintenance grants was difficult to get over the line
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:17 PM
This is really tone deaf, and reminds me of Gillian Keegan complaining that no one thanked her for doing a good job during the RAC scandal. Yes, this is a time of 'fiscal challenge', but you can't just tell people who are being made redundant that they didn't think of a better solution. 1/
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
New on our Substack: newsletter #4, which includes a link to our report of #UCU NEC on 7 November. Also feat. @matthewbarnard.phd @drgillhistory.bsky.social @hagenilda.bsky.social @matildaf.bsky.social @bparsia.bsky.social @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social
ucucommons.substack.com/p/ucu-common...
ucucommons.substack.com/p/ucu-common...
UCU Commons newsletter #4, 19 November 2025
Our fortnightly round-up of union and sector specific news
ucucommons.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM
New on our Substack: newsletter #4, which includes a link to our report of #UCU NEC on 7 November. Also feat. @matthewbarnard.phd @drgillhistory.bsky.social @hagenilda.bsky.social @matildaf.bsky.social @bparsia.bsky.social @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social
ucucommons.substack.com/p/ucu-common...
ucucommons.substack.com/p/ucu-common...
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
A transphobe said to me the other day in a workshop I was running ‘you know there are people who disagree with you!’. Lady, as if you people don’t spend every waking hour of every day talking about this because you lack hobbies and purpose, lol.
November 18, 2025 at 9:19 AM
A transphobe said to me the other day in a workshop I was running ‘you know there are people who disagree with you!’. Lady, as if you people don’t spend every waking hour of every day talking about this because you lack hobbies and purpose, lol.
So, if GenAI fails it's everyone's fault for not using it now?
No firm is immune if AI bubble bursts, Google CEO tells BBC reut.rs/43D5Zl4
No firm is immune if AI bubble bursts, Google CEO tells BBC
Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said no company would be unscathed if the artificial intelligence boom collapses, as soaring valuations and heavy investment in the sector fuel concerns of a bubble.
reut.rs
November 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
So, if GenAI fails it's everyone's fault for not using it now?
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
Dons #UCU HEC member hat. UK academics on teaching-focused/teaching-only contracts: how, if at all, does your employer support you in doing research? Are there any good local policies on this I should be aware of? My DMs are open and confidentiality assured. #UKHE #academicsky
November 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Dons #UCU HEC member hat. UK academics on teaching-focused/teaching-only contracts: how, if at all, does your employer support you in doing research? Are there any good local policies on this I should be aware of? My DMs are open and confidentiality assured. #UKHE #academicsky
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
I genuinely think there is a case that anyone using an AI product of this kind should face a short prison sentence. It's vandalism, just like painting on a wall or smashing a bus stop.
And you don’t even need an actually good bit of tech, which “Objector” may or may not be, to do this! If you just ask the free version of any genAI to do something plausible it still louses up everyone else’s productivity to work out it is bollocks!
The automated problem factory!
November 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I genuinely think there is a case that anyone using an AI product of this kind should face a short prison sentence. It's vandalism, just like painting on a wall or smashing a bus stop.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
Martin Tyler voice: “LABOUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
November 4, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Martin Tyler voice: “LABOUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
My critical analysis of the anti-trans astroturf group, the LGB Alliance, has just been published in the special edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. I recommend the whole special edition - it's open access, no pay wall.
bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...
bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...
Astro-TERFs - Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies
In the backlash against trans rights in the UK since the late 2010s,
the LGB Alliance has been implicated as a leading exponent of the new
moral panic, typified by its newspaper campaign against GRA r...
bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org
November 4, 2025 at 7:42 PM
My critical analysis of the anti-trans astroturf group, the LGB Alliance, has just been published in the special edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. I recommend the whole special edition - it's open access, no pay wall.
bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...
bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
And because the Right are entirely predictable and completely incompetent at stats they took that to mean “51% of people in adverts are black”
And that’s NOT FAIR because only 4% of the UK population is black so they’re taking WHITE acting jobs (or words to that effect…🙄)
3/
And that’s NOT FAIR because only 4% of the UK population is black so they’re taking WHITE acting jobs (or words to that effect…🙄)
3/
November 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
And because the Right are entirely predictable and completely incompetent at stats they took that to mean “51% of people in adverts are black”
And that’s NOT FAIR because only 4% of the UK population is black so they’re taking WHITE acting jobs (or words to that effect…🙄)
3/
And that’s NOT FAIR because only 4% of the UK population is black so they’re taking WHITE acting jobs (or words to that effect…🙄)
3/
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
One of the best threads I’ve ever read. Such a smart, thorough debunking that the bunkers should just admit defeat, go home and never bunk again.
Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we?
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
November 3, 2025 at 7:23 PM
One of the best threads I’ve ever read. Such a smart, thorough debunking that the bunkers should just admit defeat, go home and never bunk again.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
It's not in this article but the government asserts that the sandwich was thrown at "point blank range", which implies subway sandwiches have defined effective weapon ranges of varying lethality, and I would like to see the government's chart of these ranges.
Trial Begins for Man Accused of Lobbing a Sandwich at a Federal Agent www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...
Trial Begins for Man Accused of Lobbing a Sandwich at a Federal Agent
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:14 PM
It's not in this article but the government asserts that the sandwich was thrown at "point blank range", which implies subway sandwiches have defined effective weapon ranges of varying lethality, and I would like to see the government's chart of these ranges.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
More than five years in the making, my paper about the metaphysics of pregnancy is out today, open-access in PPR 🧵1/7
doi.org/10.1111/phpr...
doi.org/10.1111/phpr...
Lady Parts and Baby Parts: What Is a Fetus?
A common-sense view of mammalian pregnancy treats the fetus as (a) an organism and (b) co-extensive with the approximately baby-shaped entity developing in the uterus. In this paper, I draw on metabo...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 12:30 PM
More than five years in the making, my paper about the metaphysics of pregnancy is out today, open-access in PPR 🧵1/7
doi.org/10.1111/phpr...
doi.org/10.1111/phpr...
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
Really interesting thread on the use of ChatGPT as tutor for #students
If you want to implement an AI tutor, you need to study it’s performance in naturalistic settings with the kinds of context windows that student learners will provide. You can’t begin with a well formulated question about a single topic.
Students don’t know how to formulate questions well at first.
Students don’t know how to formulate questions well at first.
October 30, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Really interesting thread on the use of ChatGPT as tutor for #students
So true. Everything about the apps makes you treat it as a conversation partner, but if you stick in the same chat for too long it breaks down. If only these app were designed around what the technology *is* rather than what they’re trying to convince VC funders it is.
Sounds great in principal. But as I’ve been exploring how this actually works, it reveals an under-discussed failure mode. ChatGPT 5.0, for example, is readily confused by the context of an ongoing chat and midway through fails to answer easy questions that it can get at the start of a new session.
October 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
So true. Everything about the apps makes you treat it as a conversation partner, but if you stick in the same chat for too long it breaks down. If only these app were designed around what the technology *is* rather than what they’re trying to convince VC funders it is.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
Our Annual Conference next year is on the question “is there still a god that can save us?”.
This marks the 50th Anniversary of Heidegger’s death, but non-Heideggerian submissions also welcome and encouraged!
It’s with the Uni of Sussex so looking forward to visiting Brighton!
1/4
This marks the 50th Anniversary of Heidegger’s death, but non-Heideggerian submissions also welcome and encouraged!
It’s with the Uni of Sussex so looking forward to visiting Brighton!
1/4
Abstract Submission Open Now for "#Heidegger 50 years on: Is There Still a God That Can Save Us?"
BSP Annual Conference 2026 with the Philosophy Department, University of Sussex, UK
Brighton UK | 21 – 23 May 2026
www.thebsp.org.uk/2025/10/27/b...
#phenomenology #philosophy #BSP26
BSP Annual Conference 2026 with the Philosophy Department, University of Sussex, UK
Brighton UK | 21 – 23 May 2026
www.thebsp.org.uk/2025/10/27/b...
#phenomenology #philosophy #BSP26
October 28, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Our Annual Conference next year is on the question “is there still a god that can save us?”.
This marks the 50th Anniversary of Heidegger’s death, but non-Heideggerian submissions also welcome and encouraged!
It’s with the Uni of Sussex so looking forward to visiting Brighton!
1/4
This marks the 50th Anniversary of Heidegger’s death, but non-Heideggerian submissions also welcome and encouraged!
It’s with the Uni of Sussex so looking forward to visiting Brighton!
1/4
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
When beds malfunction bc of a DNS failure, I think there's some overly poor/over-optimistic engineering at play. Anybody should be able to sleep even with a failed DNS infrastructure (except for the engineers who screwed it up). PSA: Jailbreak your bed! github.com/throwaway312...
October 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When beds malfunction bc of a DNS failure, I think there's some overly poor/over-optimistic engineering at play. Anybody should be able to sleep even with a failed DNS infrastructure (except for the engineers who screwed it up). PSA: Jailbreak your bed! github.com/throwaway312...
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
Cnut. He's forgotten about Cnut, who went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. Oh, and Edward I, who spent 2 months at the court of Gregory X in 1273. Otherwise, all over the detail, as per.
October 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Cnut. He's forgotten about Cnut, who went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. Oh, and Edward I, who spent 2 months at the court of Gregory X in 1273. Otherwise, all over the detail, as per.
Reposted by Dr Matt Barnard
deepseek-drops-open-source-model-that-compresses-text-10x-through-images venturebeat.com/ai/deepseek-dr… #AI #DeepSeek
October 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
deepseek-drops-open-source-model-that-compresses-text-10x-through-images venturebeat.com/ai/deepseek-dr… #AI #DeepSeek
One of my growing pet peeves is the phrase “in the age of AI”. I don’t deny that #GenAI is disruptive, but I also don’t see it as an epochal break with extant information technologies. It’s a clear advancement, but the essence remains the same: beset, extract, distribute, stand in reserve. 1/2
October 22, 2025 at 3:40 PM
One of my growing pet peeves is the phrase “in the age of AI”. I don’t deny that #GenAI is disruptive, but I also don’t see it as an epochal break with extant information technologies. It’s a clear advancement, but the essence remains the same: beset, extract, distribute, stand in reserve. 1/2