Dr Naomi Scott
@drnaomiscott.bsky.social
A.G Leventis Fellow in Greek Studies at the University of Bristol. Julius Pollux superfan. Expert in Ancient Greek jokes.
My research profile: https://tinyurl.com/2fc8fbzh
My book: https://tinyurl.com/2x256h64
My research profile: https://tinyurl.com/2fc8fbzh
My book: https://tinyurl.com/2x256h64
Pinned
Dr Naomi Scott
@drnaomiscott.bsky.social
· Nov 12
Oh wow it’s suddenly all happening over here! Hello new followers! I occasionally post about Ancient Greek jokes (mostly rude) and ancient encyclopaedias (sadly almost never rude, but weird AF so I mostly forgive them).
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
But what if I told you that thinking isn't always efficient and that learning demands grappling with complex ideas in smaller groups, so you can't just "scale up" something like a course on advanced Arabic or Hegel or Feminist hermeneutics of testimony without losing the learning itself.
September 19, 2026 at 2:14 PM
But what if I told you that thinking isn't always efficient and that learning demands grappling with complex ideas in smaller groups, so you can't just "scale up" something like a course on advanced Arabic or Hegel or Feminist hermeneutics of testimony without losing the learning itself.
It’s so depressing to see how many of my peers have minimal or no employment this academic year, when meanwhile every Classics department I know has more work than can reasonably (or safely) be accomplished by the number of staff they have left.
September 17, 2026 at 3:19 PM
It’s so depressing to see how many of my peers have minimal or no employment this academic year, when meanwhile every Classics department I know has more work than can reasonably (or safely) be accomplished by the number of staff they have left.
Afternoon somewhat blighted by being sent on a complete wild goose chase by a long-dead German. Goose eventually located however and I now have a somewhat better understanding of Ancient Greek running socks.
September 15, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Afternoon somewhat blighted by being sent on a complete wild goose chase by a long-dead German. Goose eventually located however and I now have a somewhat better understanding of Ancient Greek running socks.
Busker at TCR station is playing Wake Me Up When September Ends and tbh it feels a bit on the nose 😬😂
Well, it’s the first day of welcome week. I’ve got 20-odd first year personal tutees to meet at 3pm. And my toddler has done his Achilles tendon in (how??) AND all the trains from London to Bristol are cancelled. So I’d say it’s going well.
September 15, 2026 at 8:42 AM
Busker at TCR station is playing Wake Me Up When September Ends and tbh it feels a bit on the nose 😬😂
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
The government’s university funding policy is forcing women out of the academy. The example below is a pattern. This is one of the many ways the whole mess is unjust.
Quick equalities check: across English, History/Politics/War Studies 6 women have lost their jobs and 0.5 men. 4 men and one woman are safe. English goes from 50:50 (6M, 6F) to 1 woman and 2.5 men.
September 14, 2026 at 4:22 PM
The government’s university funding policy is forcing women out of the academy. The example below is a pattern. This is one of the many ways the whole mess is unjust.
Our bus back from urgent care got stuck behind a broken down car and we had to wait for enough people to gather to physically push it out the way all while the poorly child screamed in my lap I would like a nap now please? Can we try the first day of term again tomorrow?
Well, it’s the first day of welcome week. I’ve got 20-odd first year personal tutees to meet at 3pm. And my toddler has done his Achilles tendon in (how??) AND all the trains from London to Bristol are cancelled. So I’d say it’s going well.
September 14, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Our bus back from urgent care got stuck behind a broken down car and we had to wait for enough people to gather to physically push it out the way all while the poorly child screamed in my lap I would like a nap now please? Can we try the first day of term again tomorrow?
Well, it’s the first day of welcome week. I’ve got 20-odd first year personal tutees to meet at 3pm. And my toddler has done his Achilles tendon in (how??) AND all the trains from London to Bristol are cancelled. So I’d say it’s going well.
September 14, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Well, it’s the first day of welcome week. I’ve got 20-odd first year personal tutees to meet at 3pm. And my toddler has done his Achilles tendon in (how??) AND all the trains from London to Bristol are cancelled. So I’d say it’s going well.
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
Our AI-powered timetabling system has become self-aware and resigned from its position with immediate effect.
September 13, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Our AI-powered timetabling system has become self-aware and resigned from its position with immediate effect.
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
A library is such a casually beautiful place.
September 12, 2026 at 6:54 PM
A library is such a casually beautiful place.
I have a question for Shakespeare/early modern theatre people, is that anyone I know??
My Q. is about padding worn by male actors playing female parts. Is there evidence for this?
Long story short re: Greek tragic actors I can find no mention of fake boobs and I’m wondering about parallels 😂
My Q. is about padding worn by male actors playing female parts. Is there evidence for this?
Long story short re: Greek tragic actors I can find no mention of fake boobs and I’m wondering about parallels 😂
September 10, 2026 at 10:23 AM
I have a question for Shakespeare/early modern theatre people, is that anyone I know??
My Q. is about padding worn by male actors playing female parts. Is there evidence for this?
Long story short re: Greek tragic actors I can find no mention of fake boobs and I’m wondering about parallels 😂
My Q. is about padding worn by male actors playing female parts. Is there evidence for this?
Long story short re: Greek tragic actors I can find no mention of fake boobs and I’m wondering about parallels 😂
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
academic timelines are wild.
research: apply for your grant to start in 2028. or let's plan a conference for september 2027.
teaching: no timetabling. no room allocation for next week's teaching. no, students don't know either.
research: apply for your grant to start in 2028. or let's plan a conference for september 2027.
teaching: no timetabling. no room allocation for next week's teaching. no, students don't know either.
Ah, the digital university, where I can be invited to an all-staff meeting next June, but I can't get a response about timetabling for new students next week
September 9, 2026 at 1:13 PM
academic timelines are wild.
research: apply for your grant to start in 2028. or let's plan a conference for september 2027.
teaching: no timetabling. no room allocation for next week's teaching. no, students don't know either.
research: apply for your grant to start in 2028. or let's plan a conference for september 2027.
teaching: no timetabling. no room allocation for next week's teaching. no, students don't know either.
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
Yes, we have gone from the idea that central university management is there to support teaching and research to the idea that teaching and research are there to support ‘the university’. We must bring in more money, and not cost so much in doing it.
…more time, more loyalty, more staff presence, more duties, more obedience, more resilience.
All the product of management teams that define themselves as the university and everyone else as begrudged dependents.
All the product of management teams that define themselves as the university and everyone else as begrudged dependents.
September 9, 2026 at 10:07 AM
Yes, we have gone from the idea that central university management is there to support teaching and research to the idea that teaching and research are there to support ‘the university’. We must bring in more money, and not cost so much in doing it.
🧵
British universities are both thinner and greedier now. They’re thinner in that they’re doing less and offering less (fewer courses, fewer modules, fewer assessments, fewer staff, far less student and staff support). They’re greedier in that they demand more of both students and staff: more money…
'Students are attending less, reading less, participating less, and often treating university as one commitment among many.'
September 9, 2026 at 1:43 PM
🧵
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
I assure you when the pogroms come for us, they won’t be checking our synagogue attendance. And Miliband’s lack of observance sure didn’t protect him from the antisemitism of the right wing press when he was Labour leader.
I went back to listen to it and it’s genuinely quite shocking.
September 9, 2026 at 8:19 AM
I assure you when the pogroms come for us, they won’t be checking our synagogue attendance. And Miliband’s lack of observance sure didn’t protect him from the antisemitism of the right wing press when he was Labour leader.
Excellent & important article. I decided in my 20s to turn away from the insecurity of a career in Classical music for the relative security of academia. Only I discovered that academia is now also pretty much exactly the same as what’s described here.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
September 9, 2026 at 8:10 AM
Excellent & important article. I decided in my 20s to turn away from the insecurity of a career in Classical music for the relative security of academia. Only I discovered that academia is now also pretty much exactly the same as what’s described here.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
While they are calling to maintain normal trade relations with Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, creating one Jewish state between the River and the Sea, the Board of Jewish Deputies once again complains about protestors who shout "from the River to the Sea".
You can't make this up.
You can't make this up.
September 8, 2026 at 4:35 PM
While they are calling to maintain normal trade relations with Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, creating one Jewish state between the River and the Sea, the Board of Jewish Deputies once again complains about protestors who shout "from the River to the Sea".
You can't make this up.
You can't make this up.
Reposted by Dr Naomi Scott
Universities are cutting jobs and courses while senior pay rises and management chases new campuses and shiny buildings.
UCU vice president Mark Pendleton is right: while lower-paid staff face stagnant pay and insecure contracts, “that is not what is being experienced at the top of the sector”.
UCU vice president Mark Pendleton is right: while lower-paid staff face stagnant pay and insecure contracts, “that is not what is being experienced at the top of the sector”.
The seven elite universities losing millions of pounds… while bosses' pay rises
Russell Group universities are axing jobs and cutting courses as the sector faces a financial crisis fuelled by a drop in international students
inews.co.uk
September 7, 2026 at 10:22 AM
Universities are cutting jobs and courses while senior pay rises and management chases new campuses and shiny buildings.
UCU vice president Mark Pendleton is right: while lower-paid staff face stagnant pay and insecure contracts, “that is not what is being experienced at the top of the sector”.
UCU vice president Mark Pendleton is right: while lower-paid staff face stagnant pay and insecure contracts, “that is not what is being experienced at the top of the sector”.
Talk to me about your e-readers! I’m a full convert (you can read in the dark! You can hold an e-reader and a baby at the same time! YOU DON’T NEED SPACE IN YOUR TINY LONDON FLAT FOR ALL THE BOOKS) but my kindle is on its last legs and I want out of the Amazon ecosystem. How do ppl find the Kobo?
September 6, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Talk to me about your e-readers! I’m a full convert (you can read in the dark! You can hold an e-reader and a baby at the same time! YOU DON’T NEED SPACE IN YOUR TINY LONDON FLAT FOR ALL THE BOOKS) but my kindle is on its last legs and I want out of the Amazon ecosystem. How do ppl find the Kobo?
I mean also massive props to the man for making my deeply fucked up and ‘needed more boundaries frankly’ time as a Cambridge choral scholar look comparatively healthy and normal by comparison. Not a turn I thought things would take tbh.
Orr teaching ethics (ETHICS! ETHICS!!!!) is giving me strong ‘the cobbler’s children always go barefoot’ vibes 😳
September 4, 2026 at 11:02 AM
I mean also massive props to the man for making my deeply fucked up and ‘needed more boundaries frankly’ time as a Cambridge choral scholar look comparatively healthy and normal by comparison. Not a turn I thought things would take tbh.
Orr teaching ethics (ETHICS! ETHICS!!!!) is giving me strong ‘the cobbler’s children always go barefoot’ vibes 😳
September 4, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Orr teaching ethics (ETHICS! ETHICS!!!!) is giving me strong ‘the cobbler’s children always go barefoot’ vibes 😳
No I can’t make you a pterosaur that actually flies out of a piece of A4 paper and a pritt-stick also when does nursery open again is it soon please say it’s soon.
August 28, 2026 at 2:14 PM
No I can’t make you a pterosaur that actually flies out of a piece of A4 paper and a pritt-stick also when does nursery open again is it soon please say it’s soon.
I realise this is a deeply unfashionable statement at the moment, but I hate rain, even after a summer of drought and even knowing how much we need it nothing ruins my day faster than having to go out in the rain.
August 27, 2026 at 9:26 AM
I realise this is a deeply unfashionable statement at the moment, but I hate rain, even after a summer of drought and even knowing how much we need it nothing ruins my day faster than having to go out in the rain.
Trying to explain to the littles why I’m suddenly sobbing along to Working Girl in the car 😭 Always my fave of hers, a true anthem to female solidarity across classes.
August 26, 2026 at 8:40 AM
Trying to explain to the littles why I’m suddenly sobbing along to Working Girl in the car 😭 Always my fave of hers, a true anthem to female solidarity across classes.
Caught the 6yr old reading an hour after lights out and my god the effort of performing being cross when all I could think was yeah I’d do that too if you handed me a new novel then only gave me 30mins, fair play to you my girl 😂
August 24, 2026 at 7:39 PM
Caught the 6yr old reading an hour after lights out and my god the effort of performing being cross when all I could think was yeah I’d do that too if you handed me a new novel then only gave me 30mins, fair play to you my girl 😂