Maria Scott

Dublin-born, Bristol-dwelling, Exeter-working.

[Research Fortnight @ResFortnight]

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president.

The president of the Royal Society has suggested that artificial intelligence could ease the burden placed on academics by the Research Excellence Framework and peer review.

https://t.co/KICAGwpCfK

[Maria Scott @MariaClareScott]

New special issue on Stendhal and cognition... All articles free to read! https://t.co/sOJpy0GBZc

[SDN @UK_SDN]

🚨Grants available 🚨

Early career researcher grants of up to £500 are available to members of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes to assist with research projects related to 19th French studies. These are awarded on a competitive basis, and normally only 1 to 2 are awarded per year

[Maria Scott @MariaClareScott]

Very much enjoying this new (free, funny!) substack by 19C French studies scholar Scott Carpenter. Today's one is particularly brilliant: on MAFA (Make America French Again) and Flaubert and "le happy end" (not) https://t.co/bfdo2ULcGQ

[SDN @UK_SDN]

If you, like us, have felt like there was something missing in your life since our conference in Cardiff concluded, fear not! You can do it all again next year… our 25th annual conference will be in Dundee on 14-16 April on the theme of Craft and Industry.

[Maria Scott @MariaClareScott]

@njw16 @UK_SDN @CJGoring @CorpusCambridge It was a brilliant paper.

[Nick White @njw16]

@UK_SDN Congratulations to @CJGoring of @CorpusCambridge, who is in only the first year of his doctoral work on Zola and allegory. It has been a delight to start this project with Chris, and I look forward to its future progress. Many thanks to @UK_SDN for recognizing Chris's work.

[Russell Williams @rwilliamsparis]

"Sand, who died 150 years ago this year, was well aware of her own life as something she invented as a woman during a period of dramatic political and social change"

Belinda Jack on George Sand in this week's @TheTLS

https://t.co/MpQLtMqdx4

[ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network @ECRFrenchArt]

Here's a reminder to get your submissions in for our Summer Symposium by the 8th May!

[SDN @UK_SDN]

Congratulations to Christopher Goring (Cambridge) who is this year’s winner of the SDN Postgraduate Prize 🎉🎉🎉

The prize is awarded for the best postgraduate conference paper submitted for the Society’s Annual Conference (#SDNCardiff2026)

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

BBC BROKE EQUALITY LAW AND GOT CAUGHT

Carrie Gracie spent 30 years at the @BBC. She spoke fluent Mandarin. She ran the Beijing bureau. She was one of four international editors, two men and two women.

Then in 2017 the BBC was forced to publish salary data. Gracie looked at what her male equivalent, the North America editor, was earning. He was on nearly double her salary. She had explicitly said equal pay was a condition of taking the China role. The BBC agreed. Then quietly paid her far less anyway.

She asked for equal pay. The BBC offered her a raise that still left her below the men. She turned it down. She resigned from the China post in January 2018 and published an open letter telling the licence fee public exactly what their broadcaster was doing.

The BBC then put her through nearly a year of an internal grievance process that went nowhere. It took three meetings with the Director-General and the threat of an employment tribunal before she got a public apology and the backdated pay owed to her. The total came to £361,000.

She donated every penny to the Fawcett Society (@fawcettsociety), the gender equality charity. She said the fight was about principle, not the payout.

A publicly funded institution, legally obligated to follow equality law, paid women less than men in identical roles, got caught, dragged it out for a year, and only coughed up under threat of a tribunal. That is not a pay oversight. That is a policy.

Gracie did not ask for a favour. She asked for what she was owed. The BBC made her fight for it like it was a privilege.

Sources: @BBCNews, @guardian, @thetimes, @Independent.

[SDN @UK_SDN]

🚨 New SDN Officer 🚨

We are pleased to welcome Dana Vuckovic (Oxford) as our new PG and ECR Rep.

Dana will take over from Helen McKelvey @mckelvey_helen. Thank you, Helen, for all of your amazing work in this role! You’ve made a real difference to so many PGs and ECRs!

[Max McGuinness @MaxMcGuinness4]

Praise for The Irish Proust in today's Irish Times:
'The Irish Proust is what Proust would call a “livre de chevet” – a book to keep on a nightstand, to be read slowly and thoughtfully as a strange but enthralling exploration of the unexpected origins of modernism in Ireland.'

[Maria Scott @MariaClareScott]

@MaxMcGuinness4 Lovely review, congratulations Max and all involved.

[SDN @UK_SDN]

Sharing for all our members who are interested in Zola:

On 23 and 24 October, the Emile Zola Society will host the ‘Sensation !’ Symposium in London. If interested, please send your abstracts to Susan Harrow and Ye Xu by 27 April.

[SDN @UK_SDN]

We have two SDN Publication Prize winners this year! Claire Dupin de Beyssat, Musée d'Orsay, and Rachel Coombes @r_coombes, Downing College, Cambridge. We also awarded a Highly Commended to Zofia Litwinowicz-Krutnik. See https://t.co/kbVr16ppg3 for article titles and references.v

[SDN @UK_SDN]

Delighted to announce the winners of the SDN Publication Prize, as announced at the SDN conference dinner last Thursday! This prize is for the best journal article published by an early-career member of the society in the previous calendar year...

[SDN @UK_SDN]

“Decapitating God: Revolution in Victor Hugo’s Le Livre des Tables and Dieu” by Katherine Lunn-Rockliffe of Oxford University, which appeared in volume 29, issue 2: https://t.co/CetxAtYBXs

[SDN @UK_SDN]

We are pleased to announce the winner of the second annual Dix-Neuf Prize, which recognises an outstanding article published in each year’s volume of the journal (drumroll please…):

[Maria Scott @MariaClareScott]

@yueparkinson @AnnelieseDodds @CalumMillerLD @cammaynard Good for Annelise Dodds. That looks like Justin Trudeau in the picture (when he wore suits).