Myka Abramson

There's still time to respond to the consultation on the awful proposed changes to settlement rules

Last week to apply to "UK American Studies against the Genocide." Get your submissions in!
⌛6th February 2026
📬 americanstudiesagainstgenocide@gmail.com
🍉CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Had a great time chatting with @drdomdavies.bsky.social about literature, automobiles, infrastructure, and US empire. @ttinfranetwork.bsky.social is a really cool project - well worth checking out.

A student at a UK university lost his visa after pro-Palestinian activism. Some academics urge a reversal | CNN Egyptian student Usama Ghanem took part in pro-Palestinian campus protests, prompting disciplinary action which could see him deported from Britain within days.

Detailed report on the case of Usama Ghanem, indefinitely suspended by @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social for taking part in pro-Palestine protests and now facing deportation back to the Egyptian dictatorship. www.cnn.com/2026/01/23/e...

Birmingham, UK, is answering this call.

Saturday, 1 PM, Victoria Square.

We ride in memory of Alex Pretti and against fascism.

All welcome. Will you join us?

The deadline to submit an abstract to "UK American Studies against the Genocide" is fast approaching. Get your submissions in!
⌛6th February 2026
📬 americanstudiesagainstgenocide@gmail.com
🍉CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Screenshot of email that reads: “This status will remain in place until the University receives notification that you are no longer participating in that action. During this period, any work undertaken will be regarded as voluntary.”

Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...

University of Essex staff vote for strike action in fight against job cuts Staff at the University of Essex have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over plans axe 400 jobs, the University and College Union announced today

“You can’t cut one in ten staff without damaging students and teaching.”

85% of University of Essex staff have voted for strike action over plans to cut 400 jobs and close the Southend campus.

Show your support and solidarity as they prepare to fight back.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1432...

Sad to see that the website, LeftEast is shutting down. It was a fucking great project and taught me so much. Well worth checking out its archive, and checking out the new project, red threads. lefteast.org

New issue of Mediations

mediationsjournal.org

🔊 Upcoming Online Book Discussion

The New Routes in Transnational American Studies series continues with a discussion of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt by Orisanmi Burton.

🗓 29 Jan 2026
⏰ 7–9 PM (GMT+1, Tunisia)
🔗 Register: bit.ly/3LaRS0n

🔊 Reminder: Abstracts for the UK American Studies Against the Genocide symposium are due by 6th February. We are also hoping to extend this into a broader network of scholars committed to organising against the genocide in the field. Please share widely + follow the below account.

boycottindigobooks.com

CFP: UK American Studies Against the Genocide! A symposium on Palestine and American Studies in the UK 9 May 2025 - British Association for American Studies The genocidal war in Gaza alongside the acceleration of ethnic cleansing of the West Bank could not occur without full US and UK support. And yet American Studies in the UK has been largely silent.…

#cfp UK American Studies Against the Genocide! A symposium on Palestine and American Studies in the UK 🇵🇸

Proposals are welcomed for papers & panels on the subject of Palestine & its relation with American Studies. It will take place 9th May.

Deadline: 6th February 2026

What an incredible resource! Immense gratitude to the organisers. I just emailed the prisons and a couple of the email addresses aren't live anymore. Is there a way (#6) I can report this? Feel free to dm me.

The eight Palestine Action hunger strikers have now been held without trial for months, and three have been hospitalised. Here's a toolkit with 11 proposed actions you can take to support them.

UCL BDS group in solidarity with the hunger strikers

Tomorrow's front page 📰

'The UK is letting these people die'

One of our branch co-presidents, Jordan Osserman, talking on BBC Essex this morning about the devastating cuts to our University, and what needs to be done about them. Please share.

We had yet more shocking news this morning - stay tuned.

Loss and Damage funding in the era of Trump 2.0 Donald Trump’s climate-change denial, twinned with his pathological disdain for anything he deems part of a green agenda, is well known.

I've just published my second newsletter on loss and damage - this one reflecting on Trump (urgh) and climate finance. Mostly doom and gloom but also an obligatory note of hope, to paraphrase Jenny Offill
open.substack.com/pub/lossandd...

Calling all UK-based Americanists!! There is no ceasefire. The genocide continues. And we too must continue to speak up, organise, and fight for a free Palestine - in the streets and in our work places. Join us.

The Loss and Damage Newsletter | Sophia Brown | Substack A fortnightly newsletter on loss and damage: the most significant climate change impacts. Click to read The Loss and Damage Newsletter, by Sophia Brown, a Substack publication. Launched a day ago.

Something I've been thinking about for a while and have finally launched: a newsletter on Loss and Damage - do consider subscribing if you're interested in the topic, or more broadly in climate justice and questions of power, geopolitics and accountability
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...

Sign the Petition Save Modern Languages courses at the University of Leicester

In the same week, both the University of Nottingham and the University of Leicester announced closing their Modern Languages departments. Disastrous for the sector as a whole and for the ML landscape in the Midlands: c.org/4X7VMy9MPD

My employer has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme. By the standards of what’s happening elsewhere in the UK it’s really not that bad…

But the fact that the University insists on describing this as an ‘investment’ is mind-boggling.

This campaign needs you now SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

Please support and share this petition to help save American Studies teaching at The University of Nottingham. Staff are facing redundancy. The expertise that would be lost would be monumental. Please sign.
c.org/26qjPmffNy

Unskilled Labour | Everpress There is no such thing as unskilled labour, there is only underpaid labour. These limited edition Unskilled Labour garments are only available here.

Comrades - in a few months I'll be applying for yet another visa, and am trying to get some side cash to fund some of it. So *drumroll* i have made some tshirts which you can order on Everpress. They will ship early December, which means just in time for Christmas.
everpress.com/unskilled-labour

We Can Make an Impact. SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

Petition to save American Studies at the University of Nottingham. Please sign and share!
c.org/7QNchyvcK6 @BAAS

Save Geography at the University of Leicester Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

Petition to save Geography at the University of Leicester

c.org/cdSSY6RXJ7

Some of the participants at the 2025 TAACS international conference in Sousse, Tunisia.

An amazing conference!

Thanks to people like @nedra-abada.bsky.social, @saaar98.bsky.social, @omaimaghezal.bsky.social, @sarrarabhi.bsky.social, @wassimdaghrir.bsky.social, @oussema-othmeni.bsky.social, & @yosra999.bsky.social, @taacs.bsky.social is becoming the space to watch in American Studies.

Football cannot claim to stand for unity while ignoring injustice.

Join us to say

📣 "FIFA FIFA take a stand, Israel football must be banned"

0️⃣6️⃣ Thursday 6th November ⏰️ 6pm
📍 Aston Pavilion, Trinity Rd, Aston, B6 6JD

🇵🇸 💐 Please bring your flags, flowers & torches 🔦

🌧 Dress for the weather 🧣