Liesbeth Corens

@onslies.bsky.social

7530 Followers 1372 Following

Historian: mobility & recordkeeping of #earlymodern Catholic minorities. Book: confessional mobility and English Catholics in Early Modern Europe. Also grumpy about the state of UK Higher Education so likely to talk about how it is being failed...(She/Her)

Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. Calvin is looking disillusioned, shoulders hunched, eyes very wide, dark circles under them, watery-on-the-point-of-tears, his mouth similarly looks on the verge of a wail, and there's a confused thundercloud above his head.
Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. Calvin is grimacing, his fists to his forehead, teeth bared, eyes scrunched-up in frustration, and energy radiating out from him. He is making the sound 'rrrrgghhh'
Zoomed in picture of what looks like a Spanish galleon without it sails open in the wide open sea
Here's a letter from his Provincial a grave man upon a very serious matter, and Father Bell was likewise a serious grave Gentleman, but one that now and hten wou'd have his jest. And here his superior was given a fair occasion; e'en let him have it. And so he sits him down and shapes him an answer int he following words.
It is 25 years since the death of Douglas Adams. He was prescient in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in concluding that finding the answer to life, the universe and everything was not that difficult — it was 42. But the hard part was understanding the question. The humanities are here to help us make sense of the questions of our time. Thinking is hard. Reflection is hard. Perhaps we will persist with our collective miscalculation and ignore all that philosophy, literature, classics and history have to offer us. The humanities have a word for this: tragedy.
Given AI’s exponentially growing ability to solve well-defined, data-rich problems, it is plausible that employers will place more of a premium on the skills the humanities offer, such as critical and creative thinking. Anthropic’s co-founder Daniela Amodei recently said: “I actually think studying the humanities is going to be more important than ever . . . this idea that there are things that make us uniquely human — understanding ourselves, understanding history, understanding what makes us tick — I think that will always be really, really important.” It would be ironic if universities cut these subjects just as demand turned a corner — switching from literature to AI-prompt engineering may turn out to have been a poor trade.
Regarding global competition in R&D, O’Neill said the UK should focus on its world-class strengths, such as “advanced manufacturing, alternative energies, life sciences and AI, especially in relation to governance and regulation”. He described the UK’s universities as “arguably our greatest global edge”, adding: “It may be an uncomfortable view, but I think funding bodies should back those globally recognised institutions more than others.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Universities are independent from government and are responsible for managing their own finances, but we are committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers and the economy. “We have taken action to put the sector on a secure financial footing, including raising the maximum cap on tuition fees annually and refocusing the Office for Students to support universities’ financial stability. “Through our ambitious reforms announced in the post-16 education and skills white paper we will restore universities as engines of growth, aspiration and opportunity.”
Being part of a collaborative multi-university programme with universities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the UniForum programme, gave Exeter access to a unique set of cost efficiency and service effectiveness data that enabled Mike and his team to give their stakeholders confidence in the choices that needed to be made. And just as importantly it is enabling the university to more quickly identify solutions to key challenges – for example learning from the University of Auckland around how to implement effective shared services capability.
The documents say a £1.2 million cost-saving target for the year was achieved “mainly through IT driven efficiencies, reduced dependence on external firms to conduct detailed provider financial sustainability reviews, and organisational rationalisation”. Savings were reinvested “in our core regulatory activities”.
But in Quebec, host cuttings also became a popular snack, especially in areas with wafer-making monasteries. “We used to sell them at cathedrals here and in Ottawa,” said Sister Nicole Hamel, prioress of the Montreal Carmelites, a religious order that began making host wafers at its monastery in Mile End soon after its founding in 1875. “It helped to cover the cost of the flour.”
Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. Hobbes is sitting against a tree, with Calvin happily declaring to him "We'll have a secret clubhouse with a secret knock to get in, and we'll do gib, secretive things!" "Why all the secrecy?" Hobbes asks, fairly. A slightly more dejected looking Calvin responds, equally fairly, "People pay more attention to you when they think you're up to something."
University of Bolton vice-chancellor Professor George Holmes suggested that his own success could inspire students who pay £9,000-a-year in tuition fees - to get high-paying jobs. The vice chancellor, who drives a Bentley and has a yacht in the Lake District, suggested the salaries of university bosses should rise. Prof Holmes, who took up his position at the university in 2006, earned £222,120 in 2016, up from £202,500, according to the Financial Times. He told the paper: “I have had a very successful career. I hope students use their education to get a good job and then they can have a Bentley. Do you want to be taught by someone who is successful or a failure?”
Politicians from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages have told the university’s executive “in the strongest possible terms to reconsider” the plans, in a letter seen by Times Higher Education. “The University of Nottingham must show leadership as a leading Russell Group university with a strong international remit and Global Engagement strategy to preserve its own reputation,” the politicians, MPs Darren Paffey and Tonia Antoniazzi, as well as Jean Coussins and Stephen Sherbourne from the House of Lords, write. They add that a counterproposal put forward by the local University and College Union (UCU) branch is “credible, academically robust, and a financially sustainable model that would allow Nottingham University to retain a meaningful modern languages presence while delivering the savings required by the university”. Nottingham is one of the largest providers of modern languages degrees in the UK, they note, with 500 students studying languages, and a further 2,000 students enrolled on language courses through its language centre. “Cutting languages would be of national and strategic importance…If Nottingham abandons languages, it will mean there are no language degrees anywhere in the East Midlands. “The emergence of such a large ‘cold spot’ in the heart of the country will be of immense national importance, affecting local skills, the regional teacher pipeline, and removing access to languages education to thousands of young people.” Cold spots “disproportionately affect” students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, they note, adding that “over half of young UK students study locally”. Allowing such cold spots to emerge is “counter” to the government’s “mission ‘to break down barriers, opportunity’ and appears incompatible with the university’s own access
Calvin and hobbes cartoon. It is Hobbes grinning at the viewer, holding a flower and doffing his party hat
We are delighted to be working with Oriel College, Oxford, in seeking to elect a new Provost. Applications are invited from individuals with a distinguished record of achievement in their chosen field and the ability to offer inspiring leadership to a close-knit community of scholars. Oriel is one of the ancient and distinctive colleges of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1326 as a royal foundation, it is located in historic buildings occupying a central site in the heart of Oxford. The College is an independent, self-governing charity dedicated to the advancement of education, learning and research. It is home to approximately 50 Fellows, 320 undergraduates and 240 graduate students. Oriel is characterised by warmth, intimacy and a strong sense of shared identity, a collegiate community united by commitment to academic excellence and mutual support. The Provost is the head of the College and is charged by the Statutes with ultimate responsibility for the effective operation of the College as a place of education and scholarship, for its discipline, and for the safety and well-being of all its members. Candidates should be enthused by the academic and intellectual life of the College and be committed to building community across all its constituents. The role requires exceptional communication skills and the and the ability to lead through influence, persuasion and consensus, rather than through the exercise of formal authority. To download the full further particulars for this role, including detailed information on how to apply, please visit: https://lnkd.in/g7ZC-qf6, quoting reference 8287. The closing date for applications is Monday 14th September 2026 at 9:00am BST. Location: Oxford
calvin & hobbes cartoon. Hobbes is sitting on the floor showing his paw to a curious-looking calvin. In the next frame, hobbes is showing his claws and frowning. Calvin looks suitably worried
screenshot of a facebook post with a picture of the Red Devils doing that silly hand movement that passes for a dance in Trump's world. With the text: [translation: after the victory of the Red Devils we all danced the Trump 'dance'. So later the Carillon will play YMCA after the Belgian national anthem and We Are The Champions]
table 5: rates of high-cost subject funding for price groups per student FTA bands a to d. The final two get zero. band a gets 11,580
97. High-cost subject funding recognises that providers will face additional costs when teaching certain subjects. Funding rates are informed by the assignment of subject areas to six price groups based on the course characteristics and associated teaching costs, and strategic prioritisation. a. Price group A. The clinical years of study for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science, and undergraduate pre-registration dental hygiene and dental therapy courses. This price group is only relevant to providers offering training for students seeking a first qualification that enables them to register to practise as a doctor, dentist or veterinary surgeon, or who are already qualified in those professions, and to students studying for a first registrable undergraduate qualification in dental hygiene or dental therapy. b. Price group B. Laboratory-based science, engineering and technology subjects, and pre-registration courses in midwifery and certain other allied health professions.31 31 These allied health professions are dietetics, occupational therapy, operating department practice, orthoptics, orthotics and prosthetics, physiotherapy, podiatry, radiography (diagnostic), radiography (therapeutic), and speech and language therapy. Price group B also includes postgraduate pre-registration courses in dental therapy. 21 c. Price group C1.1. Intermediate-cost subjects in computing and information technology, archaeology, and pre-registration courses in nursing. d. Price group C1.2. Intermediate-cost subjects in performing and creative arts. Media studies are still included in this price group but are no longer funded. e. Price group C2. Other intermediate-cost subjects with a laboratory, studio or fieldwork element, such as geography, mathematics, languages or psychology. This price group also includes all students on work experience placement years of sandwich courses (sandwich year out). f. Price group D. Classroom-based subjects such as humanities, business or social sc…
That meme with a guy in a cape saying 'my job here is done' and a woman saying 'but you didn't do anything', upon which the guy wiht the cape swoops away, self-satisfied. With the text overlaid 'I have stabilised the sector'. but you didn't do anything. 'stabilised it.'
screenshot of a shopping basket on the Manchester University Press website. It shows the book 'early modern war narratives adn teh revolut int he low countries' which normally costs £85 and now is reduced to £42.5
calvin & hobbes cartoon. Hobbes is sitting on the floor showing his paw to a curious-looking calvin. In the next frame, hobbes is showing his claws and frowning. Calvin looks suitably worried.
Blurry picture of a cathedral in the background, bunch of people on the grass in front, and in the middle a crucifix with Jesus wiz bro g hauled up.
Blurry picture of a cool scroll with drawings of the weapons used to punish crust and the poem to accompany it.
Blurry picture of a court yard full of people and a bunch of actors in nice theatre costumes. Two ar holding a cross…
calvin & hobbes cartoon. Hobbes has squared up, fists balled, and frown firmly on his face and asks 'so we go on the offensive'. Calvin, with an evil glint in his eyes says 'right. here's a notepad and pencil'. A delighted hobbes looks straight at the viewer and says 'oh boy, blackmail!'
The Lefebvre influence extends well beyond the francophone world. There are Lefebvrist seminaries in the US, Germany, Australia and several countries in Latin America (thus Williamson's congregation in Argentina). Marcel Lefebvre's antisemitism and anti-Islamism lie firmly in a modern French tradition, from the coarse racism of Gyp's fin-de-siècle novels to the shrill attacks on Dreyfus in the French press and to the more contemporary pronouncements on the threats to civilisation posed by Jews and Muslims. At issue is not just monarchism, the Latin Tridentine mass, or even schism within the Catholic church, but the exploitation of religious faith for inhumane social and political policies.
Lee, who is also an emeritus professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, said the cuts would set “a savage and alarming precedent for the dismantling of disciplines, which matter profoundly and vitally to the welfare and future of the country”. She said: “If the leaders of Exeter University carry through these cuts, others will follow. This is not only a local or regional issue. All who value the humanities and their value to the nation should join in protest.”
That meme with a guy in a cape saying 'my job here is done' and a woman saying 'but you didn't do anything', upon which the guy wiht the cape swoops away, self-satisfied. With the text overlaid 'I have stabilised the sector'. but you didn't do anything. 'stabilised it.'
Indeed. It has become clear that the only possible passage for a formal reconciliation would entail for Rome and those in communion with Rome something like a repudiation of Vatican II – and not just on the liturgical reform but on all of it: from the constitution Dei Verbum on the interpretation of the Bible to the declaration Dignitatis Humanae and its rejection of antisemitism by the Catholic Church.
logo of 'Just Flip 'Em!', with a graphic showing a hand flipping a horseshoe crab that had been stuck upside down with its legs in the air, so that it can safely return to the water.
screenshot of a wordpress page for the ukhe shriking page published on 23 March 2024
the angry good meme. In the top frame, we see a close-up of a good with squinting eyes asking 'who achieved that?' In the bottom frame, we see the goose chasing a person in a nice goose-feather-filled bommer jacket while asking 'whose labour made that achievement possible in the first place?'
screenshot of Rory Stewart posting on socials 'worrying from Exeter -- the university it seems planning to slash humanities teaching while telling colleagues it is 'in line with government's industrial strategy'.
Picture of a hand holding up three lip balms. The package names them “lip saviours” and the tubes look like a nun, a priest, and a bishop.
Picture of a hand holding a cartoon like figure of a bishop clad in white and gold with a mitre.
Nor is it true that these courses exist without common purpose. Well-designed general education programs establish shared learning outcomes precisely so that different courses can cultivate similar habits of mind through different intellectual pathways. Faculty may teach different content, but they are often working toward common goals: helping students ask better questions, communicate more effectively, reason quantitatively, engage ethically, or integrate knowledge across contexts. The coherence lies less in identical readings than in shared educational aims.
At the same time, that diversity reflects something genuinely valuable. Universities are communities of scholars, and one of the distinguishing features of any institution is the particular expertise of its faculty. Students benefit from studying with historians, chemists, philosophers, artists, and sociologists whose scholarship shapes the questions they ask in the classroom. That variety also increases the likelihood that students encounter courses that resonate with their own identities, experiences, or curiosities. We know that helping students see themselves reflected in the curriculum can deepen engagement and persistence. Variety, then, is not merely an administrative inconvenience; it is often one of higher education’s strengths.
Where quality is lower, providers should focus on improving quality for existing students before expanding. This is why we are working to ensure that the Office for Students can impose recruitment limits on providers rated Requires Improvement or Bronze. Every student deserves the best possible outcomes from their investment in higher education. However, new analysis published today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that 25% of students do not see a positive return from their studies, with negative returns concentrated in certain subjects. That is why on Monday, the Secretary of State announced that we will legislate to limit the growth of some courses that lead to poor earnings returns at some providers, when parliamentary time allows. This will not be a blanket cap on student numbers, but a focused measure to support the sector to prioritise provision where it delivers good value for students and the taxpayer. We will engage a wide range of stakeholders to inform the development of these options.
tweet from Pope Leo XIV: Dear writers, we need your imagination, your narrative creativity and your lively thinking. We need these to create spaces of freedom and authenticity, within which divine grace can make the promise of consolation and peace resound.
screenshot of an excel sheet on 'cash generation'. it's the FOI request to QMUL on cash generation budgeted and actual for the three faculties (humanities & social sciences, science &engineering, medicine & dentistry), between 2027 and 2024
Calvin and hobbes cartoon. The pair is outside, lying against a tree. Calvin looks despondent, shoulders sagging, eyes on middle distance, frowning like the woes of the world are on his little person. “You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place.” He says to his friend. Hobbes consoles not by denying the awfulness or trying to distract from it but with a much more supportive “that’s why animals are so soft and huggy.” In the final panel Calvin is enveloped in his friend’s comforting embrace as the look out at the world a bit.
FIGURE 12 UNIVERSITY STUDENT PREFERENCES AROUND OPTIONS TO SELECT MAJOR(S)
screenshot from a social media conversation. There's a picture of Rishi Sunak standing at a LECTERN, he looks diminishingly small next to the enormous podium. I ask if the poster had photoshopped the podium bigger, the 'NotPodium' account replies correcting me that it is, in fact, a lectern.
Honesty about the claim matters. Burnham is not, strictly, the first Catholic to lead Britain. Boris Johnson was baptized a Catholic, confirmed later as an Anglican, and married his third wife in Westminster Cathedral — a tangle that makes him a technicality more than a believer. Tony Blair waited to be received into the Church until after he left Downing Street in 2007, wary of the old convention against a Catholic premier.
Rothko: red white and brown
A shitton of those stupid ebikes taking up a lot of the pedestrian tunnel under the Thames
Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. The pair is outside, sitting against a tree, Calvin is looking very downtrodden, shoulders rounded and eyebrows up in his hairline, eyes stuck in a middle-distance stare. “You know,” he tells his buddy, “sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place”. Hobbes looks softly at his friend and with a gentle smile on his furry face says “that’s why animals are so soft and huggy.” We zoom out and see the pair in an embrace, Calvin is still staring in the middle distance and the problems are no less, but the hug fortifies him as he says “yeah…”
[Bloch, Historian’s Craft (MUP, 1992), p. 59.] transcription: Every historical book worth of the name ought to include a chapter, or if one prefers, a series of paragraphs inserted at turning points in teh development, which might almost be entitled: 'how can I know what I am about to say?'. i am persuaded that even the lay reader would experience an actual intellectual pleasure in examining these confessions. The sight of an investigation, with its successes and reverses, is seldom boring. It is the ready-made article which is cold and dull.
Cover of the Visions of History book, which has interviews with radical historians, including E.P Thompson, Natalie Zemon Davis, C.L.R. James, Wric Hobsbawm,, Vincent Harding, etc.
Marc Bloch’s Strange defeat, highlighted sentences: flame by the crowd of hangers-on inevitably surrounding each boss with a complexity of flattery and intrigue… where the number of senior officers is too large, responsibility becomes so diluted that it never felt as an urgent personal preoccupation by any of them.
Marc Bloch’s Strange defeat, highlighted sentences: The wise man, says the proverb, is contented with little. In the field of information, our middle class has certainly been, in the sense intended by sober Epicurus, terribly wise.
Marc Bloch’s Strange defeat, highlighted sentences: All I beg of them is that they shall avoid the dry inhumanity of systems which, from rancour or from pride, set themselves to rule the mass of their countrymen without providing them with adequate instruction, without being in true communion with them. … Our people deserve to be trusted, to be taken into the confidence of their leaders .
Marc Bloch’s Strange defeat, highlighted sentences: our system of government demands the participation of the masses… I see no reason for believing that they are not perfectly capable of choosing rightly. But what effort had been made to supply them with that minimum of clear and definite information without which no rational conduct is possible?
Highlighted section from Marc Bloch’s Strange defeat: I should be a poor historian indeed if I had not always taken a particular interest in information and evidence. But just just because I was an historian, the methods which I found in use soon filled me with alarm and despondency.
The scholar and his cat, Pangur Bán (Translated from the Old Irish by Robin Flower. Click here for the original with a literal translation.) I and Pangur Bán my cat, 'Tis a like task we are at: Hunting mice is his delight, Hunting words I sit all night. Better far than praise of men 'Tis to sit with book and pen; Pangur bears me no ill-will, He too plies his simple skill. 'Tis a merry task to see At our tasks how glad are we, When at home we sit and find Entertainment to our mind.
Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. They pair is outside, Calvin is holding a black-and-white football. He explains to his friend 'in soccer, you can't touch the ball with your hands or arms. See, you can use any other part of your body...' and he kicks the ball in the air, and runs after it with face turned upwards '... even your head!' Hobbes looks consternated straight at the viewer 'Yeah, but your FACE?? Doesn't that HURT??' 'RRRRRGHH!', Calvin gurgles, 'That's not what I meant to do!' He holds his eyes in his hands with stars and swirls around his poor hurt face. The offending ball has long since left the frame.
Picture of the double spread comic book page on the rural history by Marc Bloch
The double speed of the comic book on Marc Bloch, the page in which he is writing his Témoignage, which would be published later as L’Étrange Défaite”