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Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social Profile picture
Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social
@PollyWilkins
Associate Professor. Author of the “fabulous and delightfully rad” ‘Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives’ by Verso Books. She/Her.
Jan 7, 2021 • 32 tweets • 22 min read
OK so flag thread... amongst the usual suspects of US flags, Gadsden (Don't Tread On Me) flags, TRUMP flags there were Thin Blue Line flags OK not surprising, but hang on what's that green tree on a white background flag...? Well... #CapitolInsurrection #CapitolRiots #CapitolHill That is the Washington Cruisers flag, or the Appeal to Heaven flag used by the nascent US Navy during the Revolutionary War. Is the person flying it trying to say this is a revolution. #CapitolInsurrection #CapitolRiots #CapitolHill
Jan 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Love to receive some unsolicited orientalist travel gubbins during a global pandemic. Image Seriously the imagery in this is just straight up racist. Exotic women from the ‘east’, elephants denoting whole continents, bare chested Polynesian men, Māori with tā moko doing haka... while everyone in the walking and cycling section are white.
Sep 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
So basically the new #CoronavirusNL rules are having bars close a bit earlier... at 1am.

That’ll do it. In the Netherlands #Coronavirus looks like this... Like Vladislav here it only comes out at night.
Aug 17, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
For all those who’ve just discovered UK A-Levels and are shocked at the inequity of the UK school-univeristy journey... wait until you see the Dutch system. This shit gets decided at 11. The education system upholds and reproduces the hierarchies of race and class under the fake narrative of progressive equality.

You’re not supposed to point to the quite parts and say them out loud.
Aug 13, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Can we for once stop crapping on university staff who have worked their arses off to move online, and instead see how such moves put the most vulnerable in our communities first amid a global pandemic that’s killed at least 3/4 of a million thus far! I was meeting with students online to ensure continued supervision all through last semester, days after my dad died from Covid, the day after his funeral, I’ve worked all summer and had no holiday because of Covid changes, so fuck you Jessica.
Jul 24, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The cat has brought us a stick. Said stick. Said cat. Image
Jul 18, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
When you realise there is less time between Radiohead releasing Pablo Honey and Kid A than there is between when you started collecting data for your book and the final edits... When you also realise Pablo Honey to Kid A is less time than you’ve been at your current institution and you realise things in music change A LOT faster than institutional culture...
Jul 11, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
All respect & solidarity ✊🏾 to my amazing colleague & friend @darshanvv for having to deal with the frightened, angry men scared of losing their privilege in an anti-racist academy & the racist trolls they drag in their wake. I am proud of our statement. folia.nl/international/… The level of discourse by a so-called research institute in the Netherlands... white supremacy all the way down. Image
Jul 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
And session 4 of @aces_for #DecolonisingEurope series kicks off with @AnwarTasniem and @saramsalem discussing Sara’s new book “Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony”. Image Tasniem and Sara are now having a fascinating discussion about Edward Said’s travelling theory. #DecolonisingEurope
Jul 4, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
This still has to be the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had on this hellsite... ImageImageImageImage I am still angry that someone who claims to be an academic thinks it’s OK to attack the work of an MA student like this and make sweeping assumptions about their work, motivations and identity. These aren’t good faith questions, this is nothing more than trolling. ImageImageImageImage
Jul 3, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
I've spent the day discussing MSc thesis grades. I'm so proud of what they've achieved with #Coronavirus meaning they had to change their research plans and I want to celebrate them a little... I'll update this thread as I finalise other grades but for now here goes... So the first thesis discussed today took a critcial race theory approach to volunteer tourism in Uganda, inspired by the activism of @nowhitesaviors and anger about the crimes of Renée Bach...
Jun 26, 2020 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
The technocratic violence of recording and accounting for your time in EU-funded projects: a thread... ...The attempts to squeeze your professional life into pre-determined boxes that do not cover the breadth of what you do... 2/n
Jun 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Let’s see this struggle against outdated academic structures that have no place in the contemporary academy through! Let’s tear down the pyramid. Promote on the basis of merit! Give us a chance.
Jun 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Critical humanitarianism scholars have entered the chat...

There’s a good reason why I and others include abolition when we teach about the politics of humanitarianism.

It’s to counter narratives like this and show how humanitarian norms and practices can be tools of control. That these humanitarian practices (re)produced racial hierarchies and aided white supremacy under the language of universal humanity is really really important to understand.
Jun 7, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Lord help me with this one... Image William Wilberforce infantilised emanciapted Black folk thinking they were undeserving of full subjecthood. He was anti-union and women's rights. So no let's not have a statue to Wilberforce, the hagiography of the man has to stop.
Jun 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So it took an anti-rascist demonstration for people in the Netherlands to suddenly care about social distancing and wearing masks. The hatred of anti-racist activism combined with the mobilisation of concern in the service of white supremacy... #BlackLivesMatterNL Do not be fooled, this is not concern for public health it is racism and the defence of white supremacy dressed up in the language of public health. #BlackLivesMatterNL #CoronavirusNL
May 28, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
So I’m awaiting an ergonomic standing desk & laptop stand (6 weeks & counting... because everyone’s bought everything) but here’s the small corner I’ve carved out of our bedroom with a temp €35 desk from the second hand store... This is working from home. Yay! #AcademicTwitter Image I have a neurological condition, so...
May 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Before this pandemic I used to be able to carve out whole days to write undisturbed. Now there are meetings every day which break concentration and are exhausting. Just because we’re at home it doesn’t mean we’re always available. I used to retreat to home to read and write in solitude, now I feel like my department, my teaching, my management tasks have all invaded my home space and there is no space left for me. It’s exhausting and unsettling and makes me really anxious.
Dec 24, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
OK so I’m going to say something about the Twitter reactions to Paul Stott’s racism towards Stormzy and his wider UKIP, Henry Jackson Society thing... hang in there, I have some skin in this game being a @SOAS PhD. 1/ I find it fascinating that people seem to see a middle aged white dude with Dr in front of his name and assume he is a Professor, someone important etc etc. 2/
May 30, 2019 • 53 tweets • 20 min read
CW: harassment/violence:

A thread...

So there’s been a lot of talk at my institution recently about harassment and the lack of response from the institution. 1/n #MeToo #MeTooUvA There is now much collective hand ringing, promises of more robust complaints procedures, and we are being urged to report incidents. 2/n