Philip Seargeant
Language / Politics / Dystopian narratives
Professor of Language & Communication, Open University
Recent books:
The Future of Language
Political Activism in the Linguistic Landscape
The Art of Political Storytelling
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- Our ‘Radicals of Russell Square’ map on sale at Waterstones in Gower Street
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- Here's the link to last week's Word of Mouth, in which I discuss the language of street names with @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
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- A short piece I wrote for the Bloomsbury blog www.bloomsbury.com/uk/discover/...
- To accompany the @openuniversity.bsky.social's collaboration with Radio 4's Word of Mouth with @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social, here's a short quiz about the bewildering world of idioms connect.open.ac.uk/education-de...
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- Reposted by Philip SeargeantEnjoying this morning's #R4moreorless about #freespeech? Join us online tonight as we look at free speech, #translation + #Censorship www.mklitfest.org/translation @oupolitics.bsky.social @monicacure.bsky.social @sawadhussain.bsky.social
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- Here's the podcast of the most recent event in our series on literature and free speech, run in collaboration with the @mklitfest.bsky.social Author Charlotte Gordon discusses the 'cancelling' of Mary Wollstonecraft with @jupiterjonz.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/4d4v...
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- Here's the podcast of my talk for @mklitfest.bsky.social with @juliahbell.bsky.social the other night on freedom of expression in the age of the algorithm open.spotify.com/episode/68r4...
- The next of our sessions on literature and free speech is next Monday (24 March) with the author Charlotte Gordon talking about Mary Wollstonecraft and the fall and rise of her reputation Free to attend (though donations for the running of the lit fest welcome) www.mklitfest.org/historical-c...
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- Reposted by Philip SeargeantFor our event on Monday 17/3 with The Open University, @juliahbell.bsky.social discusses #freespeech and #algorithms with @philipseargeant.bsky.social Tickets (free): mklitfest.org/the-age-of-t... #ai #ArtificialInteligence #writers #fiction #creativewriting #Birkbeck @oupolitics.bsky.social
- Depressingly inevitable www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n...
- The very clearly ideologically biased anti-ideological bias movement www.wired.com/story/ai-saf...
- Out in paperback in a couple of weeks @bloomsburyling.bsky.social
- Blog post by Santosh Mahapatra reporting on the findings from India from our project on the future of English www.open.ac.uk/blogs/Modish...
- Here’s the recording of the first in our series on Literature and Free Speech. Playwright Mark Rosenblatt talks about his play Giant, which is transferring to the West End next month open.spotify.com/episode/3Bub...
- Reposted by Philip SeargeantThe podcast of the first episode of our Free Speech and Literature series with the Open University is now available to listen again: open.spotify.com/episode/3Bub... #literature #markrosenblatt #drama @oupolitics.bsky.social #freespeech #literature Series details: www.mklitfest.org/free-speech-...
- At the Romanian Cultural Institute for a discussion about literary translation
- I'll be interviewing the author Julia Bell about being a writer in the era of the algorithm next Monday, as part of the OU's Language, Literature and Politics research group and the MKLit Fest. Free to attend (though donations welcome) www.mklitfest.org/the-age-of-t...
- Here's an interview with David Crystal from last week's Future of English event which the @openuniversity.bsky.social were a part of www.youtube.com/watch?v=64HR...
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- Pop will eat itself
- Big Brother is watching you
- Mike kicking off Day 2 of the British Council’s Future of English symposium
- We’re running a series of online talks about Free Speech and Literature in association with the MKLit Festival. The first is next Monday. Full details below
- David Crystal opening the British Council’s Future of English colloquium
- If only Zelenskyy had been a University of Bedfordshire alum
- Surely it was Vance & Trump doing all the `Ukraine-splaining’ in that exchange? Unless xxx-splaining now just means talking about something you are an actual expert on
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- ‘A White House summary of the order said the goal was to “promote unity, establish efficiency in the government and provide a pathway to civic engagement”’ In the same way Bezos is promoting freedom of expression and Musk transparent government presumably www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
- V nice to see the map that Emily Kaye and I made about the Radicals of Russell Square featured as the @openuniversity.bsky.social's research image of the month research.open.ac.uk/news/image-m...
- I was going to say that the irony of this being, in the popular imagination, the paper that broke Watergate, is almost too much. But then I suppose that that’s precisely how the game plan works
- And yet somehow they found a way to release the Tate brothers
- Posted by @acnewsitics.bsky.social on another platform: “Why is Pam Bondi taking so long to release the Epstein files? What is she hiding?”
- Presumably to take up some high ranking position in the administration 😬
- So ‘personal liberties’ don’t include freedom of expression??
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- Of course he does
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- Managing to co-opt the meaning of two phrases in one go here: firstly the ‘Gulf of Mexico’; secondly ‘misinformation’
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- This is the first in our series of events on literature and free speech, run in association with @mklitfest.bsky.social A conversation with the playwright Mark Rosenblatt, whose play Giant transfers to the West End this spring @oupolitics.bsky.social @openuniversity.bsky.social
- The Orban-ification of the US is proceeding at breakneck speed arstechnica.com/science/2025...
- "the Gaza thing has not worked" Proof that dehumanizing and offensive language doesn’t need to include slurs and repellent metaphors. It can just as easily take the form of ignorant and dismissive bullshitting
- Reposted by Philip SeargeantA relevant article here for OU #L161 students who are currently learning about stereotypes and how accents often link to that: BBC News - UK's hierarchy of accents: 'I thought mine made me sound stupid' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- And sadly the BBC doing almost the precise same thing: ‘Elon Musk's gesture at Trump rally draws scrutiny’
- Community notes don’t really work when the community itself is fascist-apologist
- Ever so subtly different takes on events 😔
- So the BBC decides the best way to cover the slide into fascism is by treating it as a fashion show 🙄
- I mean, sure, riveting stories, happy customers and money-making are pretty much synonymous with the traditional pillars of 'truth, accuracy and objectivity'
- Unhinged use of the etymological fallacy by Peter Thiel in his excessively unhinged op-ed which sets out to liken the apartheid South Africa of his childhood with the woke-vs-populist polarisation he's decided is ravaging US culture today.
- Or ‘JAQing off’, as I believe it’s known
- This strikes me as a sensible way to proceed as it avoids giving the Muskites a chance to propagandise it as anti-Musk prejudice and instead just positions the platform as meaningless
