Laura O'Brien
@lrbobrien
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Historian of France, writer, Meathwoman, crafter. Thinks a lot about Napoleon in cinema/theatre; Paris; caricature. She/her. @lrbobrien @mastodon .ie
Navan - Paris - Sunderland
Joined December 2010
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Pinned Tweet
If you’re going to or have been to see
@NapoleonMovie
and want to set the film - and the controversy around it - into context, and learn more about how Napoleon’s been performed, depicted, and remembered here’s a thread of links to my work and commentary
#NapoleonMovie
#Napoleon
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Can the people still defending this person as a feminist and an activist for women please read this and realise that she is, in fact, neither of these things
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I can’t exactly explain why but this is giving the most Cork vibe. He’s just rolled up, put his hands in his pockets, and is ready to judge the ever living hell out of everyone not from Cork.
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Vaccine research be like
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@laurenlquigley
They also look like they’re members of the Soviet elite taking a nice relaxing spa break in Czechoslovakia c.1987
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The President of Ireland, ladies and gentlemen.
Michael D starts with Foucault and then moves on to Heidegger & his concept of dwelling and home is interpreted through migration. Then on to the poetics of space by Gaston Bachelard discussing the phenomenology of home as a series of relationships and intimacies between people
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The most far-fetched bit of The Crown final episodes thus far: a professor at St Andrews *in 2002* telling students they’d find all their information if they log on to “the student web portal”.
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Filing these people with the ones who don’t use a minimum 60 degree wash for towels and bedsheets.
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who wash the bottom of their dishes and those who don't.
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Hostile environment at the National Portrait Gallery, is it?
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@jgro_the
I think the more interesting question is why we class some interests as “lowbrow”, some as “highbrow” (I and many others think this is not a real distinction), and - most importantly - why we assume academics “should” have hobbies that fall into the latter category...
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I find May’s language on ending free movement - particularly the “for once and for all” bit - very upsetting. Which is weird, because it’s nothing new. But it’s the finality of it, and the use of language usually used to describe eradicating a disease or a crime scourge.
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Tiny suggestion that maybe some discussions of covid-related inequalities in academia could *not* start from the assumption that everyone without traditional caring responsibilities is absolutely fine, able to masses of extra work, and knocking out additional publications...?
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I don’t give a flying fuck about “historical perspective” or “look at all the other stuff that’s been destroyed”. People the world over are devastated as Notre-Dame burns. If that’s not a testament to the power of art and architecture I don’t know what is.
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BoJo invoking the New Deal while slagging off “poor value for money” university courses. Proving his ignorance, given than FDR’s government literally funded people to write and make art.
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It really is astonishing how immigrants can simultaneously be on benefits/be low-paid and YET still afford to drive up house prices. 🤔
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T*rfs are obsessed with biology and yet here’s one of the great GC crusaders arguing against a measure that would make one of their biological markers for womanhood easier for millions. Make it make sense??
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Could have just listened to
@MaintenancePod
when they said the BMI is bullshit…
There is growing evidence that being overweight – according to the established body mass index thresholds – doesn’t lead to an earlier death.
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If you can say “Élysée Palace” and “Reichstag” you can learn to say “Taoiseach” (Tee-shock) and “Tánaiste” (Taw-nash-teh).
Do British journalists not say Taoiseach out of principle or is it because they don’t think viewers would know what the word means?
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Solidarity to everyone starting the
#UCUstrike
today. We did not make threshold (barely!) but the problems of overwork, enormous stress, real-terms pay cuts, and constant anxiety about the future are *everywhere* in U.K. HE.
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Fair play to him for turning up to the Napoleon premiere looking like a man at an Irish wedding sometime around 2am. As I’ve just said in the group chat: “This is giving ‘I wouldn’t be into that jiving now meself’ before ripping up the floor as soon as Thunderstruck starts”
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I’m so annoyed by this glib nonsense. Our students at zero risk? People of *all* ages have died painful, lonely deaths from this dreadful virus. Our students are not all 18-21. And as for “lecturers can keep their distance” - and if we can’t, then what?
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The blurb for that Marie-Antoinette drama the BBC has purchased describes her as “feminist ahead of her time”.
Bracing myself here, guys.
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Contrary to what the THE claims, I’d like to confirm that I am in fact a human being and do in fact speak to humans quite successfully every day.
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Reminder for those who think Ireland needs to pipe down about Brexit: we’re having to stockpile drugs too, so thanks.
Taoiseach admits Ireland is stockpiling drugs & making “contingency plans” to ensure access to medicines in event of ‘no deal’
#brexit
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Happy
#IWD2022
!
Say no to: “girlbossing”, “lean-in” feminism, “inspirational” talks, and nonsense EDI initiatives that reduce the impact of gender inequality to childcare and the amount of women on committees.
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Why are they *obsessed* with earnings? If people in creative arts industries earn less after their degrees than in other sectors, then maybe the issue is with a society that devalues art and creativity rather than the degree they’ve done…
Ministers could limit student numbers on lower-earning arts degrees
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The Saville Inquiry findings were published almost 12 years ago. And yet we’re still getting this kind of passive voice or “neutral” language to describe the events of 30 January 1972.
50 years ago, the horror of Bloody Sunday unfolded in Derry.
The victims left behind families and a community that grieved their loss and struggled for decades to have the truth told about what happened.
I send them my deepest respects on this poignant and significant day.
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More crap coming our way via this absolute hot nonsense on the front page of the Telegraph tomorrow:
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Sometimes I wish philanthropists would give nearly £5m to a university that *isn’t* Oxford, Cambridge, or the University of London.
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(I have been the mortified teenager scrabbling in her bag for enough change to buy (horrible) sanitary products from vending machines at school and in university. A little basket full of pads and tampons would have been a godsend.)
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How do you become a professor without understanding either causality or the fact that political opinion is not like race, ethnicity, or sexuality and therefore can’t be addressed, or a disparity seen as a problem?
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Feeling frustrated, yet again, at seeing another example of the assumption that the research productivity of everyone without kids must somehow be unaffected by the current crisis.
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I’ve noticed the jump in the price of sanitary products in the last while - it’s substantial. If you’re trying to make every penny count then it will make access to comfortable products impossible.
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Also, can the UK please stop being obsessed with “heroes” and the implied self-sacrifice involved? This is a country where healthcare professionals dying of a virus for lack of PPE are described as “fallen nurses”. Like it’s the Western Front.
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There were about six or eight men living here: all homeless, all people who’d had work and then lost their jobs and couldn’t pay their rent. It’s not a “migrant camp”, it was a group of homeless men camping out because they had no other option.
Men with dogs, sticks and baseball bat attack Dublin migrant camp
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Okay
@guardian
, this is terrible reporting - sort out the headline ASAP. He wasn’t jailed for refusing to use the preferred pronoun. His contempt of court was because he’d refused to obey a barring order from his workplace pending an investigation.
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My dudes, this isn’t “quiet quitting”. It’s called “doing the job according to your contract”.
We really are in a bad place if “doing what you were employed to and leaving on time” is considered a form of resistance.
What does quiet quitting look like in practice?
It might be saying no to projects that aren’t part of your job description, leaving work on time, or refusing to answer emails and Slack messages outside of your working hours.
It could be as simple as a mindset shift.
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Isn’t this part of the problem? The father of an ex PM is a “personality”, turning up on breakfast telly, speculating about a comeback. Politics in England (and I use that specifically) is panto, at a time when people really need it to be serious.
'I think he's on a plane.'
Boris Johnson's dad Stanley Johnson reacts to the reports that Boris is attempting to make a comeback.
He tells
@adilray
and
@kategarraway
that he can't say if Boris is coming back early.
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What does it mean if you’re a historian of 19th c France vaccinated on the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Paris Commune?
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Mogg is an evil piece of work, but this is another example of the constant goalpost-shifting Europeans have experienced since well before the referendum from many politicians (including some remain supporters) and media.
This affects my kids and their mother. And many, many other British families. I feel physically sick at the callous attitude of this man.
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Today I did a lecture on French feminism for our first years. This was the general vibe I gave off.
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I am *begging* someone to write something about the aesthetic and image of the contemporary Young Female Writer/Intellectual, if it hasn’t already been done. And it has to be willing to talk about thinness and dress.
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@RottenInDenmark
Also: JD was fundamentally *not* vindicated. That goddamn case has melted people’s minds, they think it was that he was on trial for assault and found innocent, as opposed to the dumpster fire it actually was
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I can’t explain the rage I feel at this. So: if students “aren’t getting the jobs” in a likely global recession, it’s somehow the fault of their universities having to move the final few weeks of teaching online?
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It is wonky in places and I accidentally cut a hole in the back, necessitating an attempt an an invisible repair, but I made an *actual shirt dress* with *pockets* and I am quite proud of it.
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Is anyone else finding themselves *exhausted* by the afternoon, even if the morning hasn’t been particularly strenuous?
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"No-brainer" the apposite term here - as in, you'd need to not have one to think this was a good idea.
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Good morning UK-based university staff! It’s Sunday so that means a national newspaper acting like we’re ripping students off instead of *checks notes* trying to keep them and their communities safe in a global pandemic.
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Sorry,
@ucu
- I’m glad you’re raising the issue of face to face teaching but maybe “reopen” isn’t the best choice of word here. We’ve been “open”, albeit off-site, throughout and working harder than ever.
Plans to reopen universities have been thrown into serious doubt as UCU warns today that it is “too dangerous” for face-to-face teaching to resume, and calls on the government and vice-chancellors to prevent students returning to campuses this autumn.
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Here’s a fun story. In some cases these are repurposed English-made busts of Himself, produced in that brief window of peace between France and Britain after the Treaty of Amiens. When it all went to pot they just...went into pots.
British chamber pot with Napoleon inside 1803.
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Britney and Justin modelling their creations from the
#SewingBee
denim transformation challenge.
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So they’re going to run with their “Thanksgiving” nonsense holiday, then, importing an idea that has no cultural relationship to Ireland and whose historical roots are dodgy to say the least. Why does it have to be November? Why “Thanksgiving”?
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Really enjoying the rising anti-Irish stuff across the entire spectrum of Brexiteer opinion, thanks guys
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Note the para berets being worn by the lads here.
Someone gaffer taped a cushion with Winston Churchill's face on it to the outside of the Winston Churchil box. The British national psyche is a depraved and mysterious thing.
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Amazingly, "woman in position of political power" is - believe it or not - not always "feminist" or good for other women.
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Congratulations to all the new British Academy fellows - but I have to say it. There is, as far as I can see, only *one* new fellow elected from a post-92. I know it’s not as simple as that, but that statistic doesn’t reflect the quality of what people at post-92s are doing…
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Is it time for the regular tournament “Courtois/Young Charles de Gaulle” discussion now?
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They’re only gagging for dead teachers now to fit the narrative. Never mind there are *already* teachers all over the country keeping schools open for children in care, vulnerable children, and the children of key and frontline workers.
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The cat is absolutely *fed up* of hearing about splits in the Historians’ Group of the CPGB.
This photo of Eric Hobsbawm and his cat makes me too happy.
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The Discourse: but what is the VALUE of studying literature, what is its MEANING or USE
Scotland fans:
Scotland fans singing "Yer just a shite Rabbie Burns" to the William Shakespeare statue in Leicester Square. Best chant of the weekend IMO
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All the humanities and social sciences people doing their part for the “rebrand”, complete with remote learning headset.
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@NicholasGuyatt
@Mr_Considerate
I like how he says “something people call ‘colonialism’”, like we all just made that up recently.
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That’s it. Cannot take him seriously any more.
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You are such absolute scumbags. Will there be any reaction from British voters to this, or will they mutely shrug because it doesn’t affect them?
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We need to talk about the cultural/societal equation of “intellectual woman” with thinness.
I loved Normal People and I like Conversation with Friends but Rooney’s female protagonists are always thin, thin, thin. Thin and vulnerable looking. They forget to eat because they are so clever and they are thin. It’s like Victorian authors coveted sickly women. Sort of icky.
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For anyone who thinks it’s remotely easy to enter the UK as an international student (especially if you’re from certain countries and/or a PoC):
Sulav Khadka arrived in the UK with a place to study at university, a valid visa and proof he had paid his first year fees in full. But he was detained at the border, accused of being a fake student, and held in custody for 12 days.
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Striking is incredibly hard and please believe me when I say I would really rather not be going out again.
But: this is CLEARLY part of the union-busting, “enemy within” type shtick that SMTs, UCEA, and UUK have been pushing this last while.
BREAKING:
Universities UK, which represents University employers, said the
#UCU
union union has an "ideological fixation with strike action and is determined to pursue it, no matter the cost."
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Très into the fact that the strap on my new bag makes me look like a local French maire
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And he’s done. Je vous présente
#YarnBernie
, chilling with a fine selection of books (including
@ParisNoire
!)
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@LMcAtackney
This is probably a very minor thing to say about the whole thing but I am a bit surprised at how *fast* the report became a point of historical research discussion as opposed to a contemporary report with implications for many people still living.
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When you’re on the millionth essay and there appears to be no end in sight
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@BenBGDalton
My mental health was destroyed by trying to cope in a shared office. They’re like anti-collaboration measures in that you end up wanting to never see your colleagues.
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Gonna get in good and early on this. Half of fees are going on support services and library resources. You know, libraries. The places students go to to complete their work. To do the research and writing that forms the core of their degree in my field and many others.
'Less than half' of tuition fees spent on teaching at English universities
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I’m not going to signal-boost The S*n or its political editor. But if you’re a parent and you’re wondering:
- universities have to encourage and facilitate voter registration BY LAW
- your student child should be on the electoral roll at uni for non-election reasons
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British national media (hi, Radio 4) having a go at university staff for “not doing their job” with no input from the actual staff working flat out, is it?
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Ah, we’re back to blaming foreigners again! If you’re relying on *Prime Time* for your public health communication, and not recognising that you need specific work to ensure all communities are reached, then you’re in trouble.
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I’m feeling legitimately heartbroken at the idea that there won’t be a BBC Four by the end of the year. The people snarking about the lack of new content, and the age of the viewers, might want to look around and see where else you can get good documentary content on TV.
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Lads.
Breaking news.
There’s this thing and it’s called the Vendée, right, and it’s been “hushed up” by them crazy French historians. WHO KNEW.
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@aislingmarron
Sudocreme is eternal. There are houses in Ireland where the same tub has been on the go for about a decade or more.
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I made these last night and printed them for today’s pickets - I’ll hopefully get to use them tomorrow but in the meantime, have at it (with credit, thank you very much)
#ucuRISING
#strikingvalentines
@ucu
@UCUNUbranch
@UCUNorthern
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Good morning, and welcome to "man who did extremely prestigious degree at extremely elite institution slags off university education" (part 484884)
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Bear this in mind if it’s suggested to you that you can wear a visor in lieu of a mask in your workplace.
Face shields ineffective at trapping aerosols, says Japanese supercomputer
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I don’t know how else to put this, but: it is not okay to realise you’ve fallen behind with your work just because you *took a weekend off*.
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Particularly unsettled by the stuff about universities not reflecting “British values”.
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Number one lesson from that Cambridge news: there are a load of people out there who don’t get how university teaching, online or in person, works. Or the time and resource investment. Why does everyone assume online delivery is cheaper?
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Over the last couple of days I’ve started to wonder whether some academics in self-proclaimed “prestigious” or “elite” institutions know that colleagues outside the chosen few can see what they’re suggesting or advising re entry.
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So this is a *wild* suggestion, I know, but maybe just...don’t recruit more students than you have physical space for?
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