Dave O'Brien

Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige 14 March – 15 November 2026 Step into Japan’s floating world and explore the art of Hokusai and Hiroshige, two visionary artists whose images have shaped how we see nature, landscape and everyday life. Beneath the Great Wave brings together exceptional ukiyo-e prints from Edo-period Japan. Ukiyo-e — meaning “pictures of the floating world” — were colourful woodblock prints that captured scenes of travel, nature and popular culture during a time of peace and creativity in Japan’s history. From towering waves and rushing waterfalls to quiet roads and distant mountains, these works reveal moments of beauty, drama and movement that still feel strikingly modern today. At the heart of the exhibition is Under the Wave off Kanagawa — widely known as The Great Wave — one of the most recognisable images in the world. More than a masterpiece of Japanese art, it’s become a global icon, continuing to influence fashion, design, film and popular culture across the world. Alongside this celebrated image, the exhibition explores the wider world of ukiyo-e, tracing stories of artistic ambition and innovation against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Edo Japan. Whether you’re discovering ukiyo-e for the first time or returning to works you already love, this is an unmissable opportunity to step into the floating world and experience Japanese art that continues to shape how we see the world today. Image: Kanagawa oki nami ura (Under The Great Wave off Kanagawa) [“Great Wave”] Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) On loan from a Private Collection. © 2023 Christie’s Images Limited. (detail) Exhibition credit: Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige is organised by the Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

It'll be great. We're so lucky to have the Whitworth.

Banner at the top of the exhibition page on the Whitworth Art Gallery website, showing a section of Hokusai's Beneath the Great Wave.

Really looking forward to this exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, from 14 March:

Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige

www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exh...

A really important article by friend&colleague @drmorgan.bsky.social continuing to make waves in the world of museum studies and practice!

'But when it comes to master’s level courses, the only actor who anyone can currently imagine taking a view is the Home Office – and it’s to the detriment of the system’s health that no-one is really setting out a vision for what progress would look like.' 2/2

The MRes boom isn’t just an issue of visa policy Rumours of Home Office action on the dramatic growth in research master’s provision continue to swirl. Yet for Michael Salmon there’s a wider question about where responsibility lies for postgraduate-...

'The industrial strategy is heavily concerned with the UK workforce’s readiness to engage at the cutting-edge of science and technology. Skills England wants provision up to level 8 to be considered as part of local skills needs.' 1/2

Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility Negotiating class based tensions and the politics of friendship

Please join us online on Wednesday March 11 (tomorrow!) at 3pm for @samfriedman.bsky.social (LSE) and Rose Butler (Deakin) for our next online seminar "Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility'

Research Assistant / Post-Doc Researcher, Music - Maynooth, Ireland job with MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY | 408256 The Music Department at Maynooth University invites applications for a 12-month position as either a Research Assistant (Level 2) ...

The ERC-BROKENSONG project at Maynooth University, Ireland, is hiring (two positions - this is the second)! I'm also looking a new research assistant/postdoc to conduct image analysis of the medieval Insular music corpus recovered within the project. See: www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list...

Mass Observing British politics - British Politics British Politics - The current political moment in Britain is characterised by disaffection, affective polarisation, and populist mobilisation of these (dis)affections. How best to research these...

New paper:

Mass Observing British Politics

On what Mass Observation might contribute to political studies (and what political studies might contribute to Mass Observation). With @jmoss88.bsky.social and Alex Hill. Also paging @massobsarchive.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

👏👏👏👏👏👏 congratulations!

The financial resilience of DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries - NAO report This National Audit Office report reviews how well the 15 DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries and DCMS have manages financial challenges.

DCMS must ensure that it has structures in place to identify early warning signs, should museums and galleries start struggling to manage their financial risks, so it can intervene early – potentially before additional funding is required. New @nao.org.uk report
www.nao.org.uk/reports/the-...

UK’s performing arts industry ‘inhospitable to parents’, research warns Long hours, lack of flexibility and last-minute scheduling driving parents, particularly mothers, from industry The performing arts industry in the UK is “inhospitable to parents” and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research. The report, titled “the Motherhood penalty”, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out. Continue reading...

UK’s performing arts industry ‘inhospitable to parents’, research warns

Is Glasgow losing the spaces that made it an arts powerhouse? The closing of a cluster of leading creative venues has led to dismay and intensified fears the hubs that fostered Glasgow’s celebrated arts scene are disappearing

'with hindsight, some have suggested that Glasgow’s capacity to punch above its weight on the international arts stage resulted in a perception that all was well when development funding and coherent strategy were desperately needed.'

‘Why the hell am I doing this?’ The man navigating Manchester’s biggest job Students cheating via AI and international applications ‘tanking’ – Duncan Ivison is at the helm of a big ship in stormy waters

Over the past few months, I've been meeting Duncan Ivison, who in my view has the most important job in Manchester. I wanted to ask the vice chancellor of @officialuom.bsky.social about its reliance on China, the threat of AI and its relationship to the city.

manchestermill.co.uk/why-the-hell...

New report calls for return of human remains – but UK museums lack the resources to act Even with the best of intentions, restitution is not a fast process.

Wrote this on human remains in British museums this time last year and stand by it: it’s a slow process that many collections have been trying to deal with for a while and—above all else—one that needs time and resourcing: theconversation.com/new-report-c...

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Project Manager at University of Stirling Explore professional services job openings, including the Project Manager position, on jobs.ac.uk. Apply today and discover more about this role.

Come and work with us at the University of Stirling! We're recruiting a research Project Manager to work on our new international AHRC project 'Transforming Cultures of Language-Learning'. 0.4 FTE for 28 months. Details below; closing date 24 March www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQS878/p...

POST-DOC!

3-year job in history of political thought / visual culture / art history
Department of Politics & International Studies
University of Cambridge
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/54724/

Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect by H. S. Jones

H. S. Jones

Head to @trinityoxford.bsky.social next week, 12 Mar at 5:00pm GMT to celebrate the launch of @stuartjones.bsky.social's new book, Liberal Worlds! Grab a drink and learn more about this incredible work—plus use code P327 to get 30% off your copy!

RSVP for this free, in-person event: buff.ly/KAVSCf2

Will you be in Bristol on 11 March? Could you be? Well if you are, do come along to @uwebristolofficial.bsky.social's Frenchay Campus at lunchtime to hear me talk all things New Labour. Should be fun!

Artificial Weather: Mining the Language and Visual Culture of Weather and Climate Modification (CreativeAI Studentship) at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Artificial Weather: Mining the Language and Visual Culture of Weather and Climate Modification (CreativeAI Studentship) at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com

We are advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship for the computational study of vernacular cultures of weather and climate modification at the University of Manchester.

More details here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

#DH

Amazing, will do!

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We should podcast!

Vice-chancellor calls for review into student loans for those without A-levels Adam Tickell, of University of Birmingham, says money is loaned to people who ‘are not really capable of graduating’

My dad (a sheet metal worker) was made redundant in his 50s & went on to pursue a degree in the history of fine & decorative arts. His life was transformed as a result. Restricting access to HE for those without A-levels would deny others of the same opportunities www.theguardian.com/education/20...

New Labour, New Britain? How the Blair governments reshaped the country In this talk Professor Glen O'Hara discusses his new book New Labour, New Britain? How the Blair governments reshaped the country. The New Labour governments of the 1990's and 2000's seem a long…

What could the current Labour government learn from the Blair years?

In this talk @gsoh31.bsky.social discusses his new book 'New Labour, New Britain?: How the Blair governments reshaped the country' at @yorkstjohn.bsky.social. Watch it on YouTube here:

Congratulations 👏👏👏👏👏

FULLY FUNDED PHDs IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

I'm looking for *two* PhD students to join my ERC project on refugee-led approaches to displacement justice. The positions are funded for four years, and you get to join our lovely community in Bristol. Please share widely!

philjobs.org/job/show/30997

“We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher” is coming to @edincollegeofart.bsky.social.
Delighted to welcome co-director Simon Poulter for this screening on 20 March - all welcome. Book your tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-mak...

PhD Funding!

University of Leeds

The School of History invites Black, Asian and other minoritised ethnic scholars who wish to pursue a PhD to apply for the Access to Research Scholarship.

Scholarship is open to those who are eligible to pay UK fees.

phd.leeds.ac.uk/funding/387-...

You star, will do

We should do a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast!