SAVE BBK Psychosocial Studies

#NomadicFutures Call for papers for the conference being organised by our graduate students on 19 June. Get involved! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Now the poem that Amanda Gorman read at President Biden’s inauguration, entitled “The Hill We Climb,” has been banned from curriculum through 5th grade in Miami-Dade County, for not being suitable for elementary students. For those who listened to the poem, you would know the the poem was a lecture on peace, love, unity, and freedom. This is why laws banning critical race theory from schools are a problem. People begin categorizing anything that talks about race as falling into the realm of CRT. Or they use the law to justify removing books and curriculum that can teach real history. This isn’t free speech. This is using the law to chill the free speech of others, in my opinion.

BREAKING🚨: A new joint statement between @UCU and @UniversitiesUK has confirmed that USS pension benefits are on course to be restored in full All cuts imposed in April 2022 will be reversed, pending the 2023 valuation History makers ✊ #ucuTOGETHER ucu.org.uk/article/12962/…

Psychosocial and British Politics Centre present: In-conversation with @DawnButlerBrent + drinks reception 23 June 6pm Chairs/discussants: Jan Etienne (@bbkpsychosocial), Dr @benworthy1 (@bbkpolitics) Book In-person bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_… Book Online bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_…

@SOSBBKPsySoc @BBKFMACSResists @SaveBirkbeck @BirkbeckU0L @BbkETCWResists please share!

We are excited for what dialogue could come from this space, and would like to invite you all to join us on Mon 19th June, 1-5pm, details can be found in the poster below! eventbrite.co.uk/e/disintegrati…

Hello! Our twitter account has been quiet for a while as the department has been awaiting, grappling and negotiating with the topic of departmental restructuring. Alas, it is confirmed that the Psychosocial body of staff and students will be lose to status as a department 😞

📢Calling all Birkbeck students! It's time to demand that SMT #SettleTheDispute - ✍️sign and share this open letter demanding accountability and an end to their silence! 🔥 Our Staff's Working Conditions Are Our Learning Conditions 🔥 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Sounds enormously familiar - @BirkbeckUoL have been doing this to us and @BirkbeckUnison for months. Lots of issues including staff on long term sick leave getting deducted because they didn't log into work emails to fill in a form they didn't know about. Grim behaviour.

They were given feedback and alternative plans, they were shown how the figures could work, they were shown how to save jobs, and how to grow. Senior Management have opted to do none of these things, and governors back them. Vandals, destroyers, thieves. #SaveBirkbeck

We have been informed that @GoldsmithsUoL have decided to move to an extremely punitive “opt-out” system of deducting pay for strike days: from 9 Feb, ALL staff will have to submit a form indicating that they are NOT on strike or face deductions. This is completely unacceptable.

IT'S CRUNCH TIME! 💥 In 4 days the Governors vote on the future of Birkbeck. If you are a student this is your final opportunity to have your voice heard, to stand up for working class and black/brown education! SHARE SHARE SHARE! docs.google.com/document/d/1WA…

We don't want to strike. Universities can end this. But it's important to be honest. Staff are the only ones who give a damn about students. We are the ones who answer the emails, provide the advice, do the work. And all of us are exhausted. #UCURising

They think you are deserving of nothing more than free labour. Your essays are £2. Your emails are irrelevant. They rely on staff to work above their minimal pay out of a mix of duty and embarrassment. Because if they didn't your degrees would collapse. 10/

Universities are awash with these temporary contracts. These are the staff who deliver huge swathes of teaching to you if your a student (or do your child if your a parent). They are the embodiment of *exactly* what the institution thinks of you. 9/

If you go to a lecture or a seminar and are ready to participate, often the staff member delivering it will have been barely paid to prepare it. Universities will pay around an extra hour to do prep work including all of the readings. That staff member prepared it for free. 8/

So if the staff member doing that work takes more than about 5-10 minutes to read it, consider the arguments, mark it, and write useful feedback - they are doing it for below minimum wage. They are now effectively working for free. 7/

You will likely work for hours on an assignment and submit something you are proud of and want to be properly read and assessed. Depending on the word length, the university values that essay at about £2. That's how much reading and marking it is worth to them. 6/