Mark Collard

Archaeology prof at @SFU.

BA from Sheffield Archaeology (since destroyed by the management). PhD from Liverpool Anatomy.

Trainee Canadian. From Essex, UK.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

We attended a cracking performance of ‘Tosca’ by @VancouverOpera this evening. Well worth going if you can get your hands on a ticket. Three thumbs up.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

@peter_sarris Yes, very nice. Thanks for sharing it.

[Peter Sarris @peter_sarris]

A wonderful obituary of Chris Wickham https://t.co/LngU09c9MA

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

@baylissbaghdad And a black lab at your feet?

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Females shape hunting of vertebrates in wild bonobos: Current Biology https://t.co/iv7rvI2dCn

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

@DStrungk Ha!

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

Healthcare in this province is such a mess.

[Jordan Armstrong @jarmstrongbc]

WATCH: “I think they’re killing people.”

Same PET scanners used for private and public cancer scans yet @BCCancer only using a fraction of its available slots.

Patient who paid got a refund after complaining to his NDP MLA.
#bcpoli
@GlobalBC
@CUrquhartGlobal

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Stash of hundreds of human teeth reveal surprising Maya burial practice https://t.co/Bpf1jt3lbs

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Very useful review of Chinese palaeoanthropology by C. Bae..https://t.co/2DDaWj5PjL

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Upper Palaeolithic mariners? Evaluating experimental evidence for intentional early seafaring | Antiquity https://t.co/jAHKLEcB0y

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

I agree that they aren't the same thing. They are related but separate concepts. However, I disagree with your suggestion that academic freedom is limited to an academic's area of expertise. It's much broader than that. Otherwise we'd potentially run into trouble when we try to do interdisciplinary work, or even just change topics within our own field. Also, more or less none of us is an expert in running a university and yet it has long be accepted that academic freedom covers professors who choose to criticise the senior management of their university (collegial governance would fall apart if this were not the case). So, academic freedom is a much more capacious concept than your post suggests.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

What on earth are the senior admin of @LancasterUni doing? Criticising universities’ marketing efforts would clearly be covered by academic freedom even if Dr. Ryder were, say, a lecturer in microbiology or nuclear physics. That he’s a lecturer in MARKETING makes the academic freedom case so obvious that even a primary school kid could understand it.

[Mike Ryder @RobotTheory]

Just had a meeting with the Dean of my Faculty alongside the Head of Employee Relations... Apparently I am under official investigation for writing a blog about how bad universities are at marketing. You literally couldn't make this stuff up.

[Committee for Academic Freedom @ComAcFreedom]

“An academic who criticised universities’ marketing efforts as ‘bad’ is under investigation by his institution after fellow staff members raised complaints.”

As reported in Times Higher Education, CAF is currently supporting the academic in question, Dr Mike Ryder, following Lancaster University's decision to investigate him over criticism of its marketing practices.

We have secured specialist external legal counsel to advise on the case, and a formal letter challenging the basis for the investigation will be sent to the University on Dr Ryder’s behalf early next week.

Full story in @timeshigher:

https://t.co/TC5UcnLpRP

If you’re an academic facing an investigation or disciplinary action over your lawful speech, please get in touch: [email protected]

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

This thread links to a THE article on this stupid incident and the ‘offending’ blogpost.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

🤦‍♂️ A marketing professor is being investigated for criticizing his university’s marketing strategy.

The university cites the “potential impact that [his] comments have had on colleagues.”

This should get Lancaster University more publicity than its marketing team ever could.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

Some road-testing of the new uni-focused free speech/academic freedom law about to happen, by the look of it.

[Abhishek Saha @ObhishekSaha]

1/ Assuming the facts below are accurate, the university appears to be in violation of its legal duties to secure free speech and academic freedom for its staff.

If not quickly resolved internally, this seems like a good case for the new OfS free speech complaints scheme.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

What are the odds on Mr Britcliffe working in Lancaster University’s marketing department?

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

Is there a name for this type of insult-then-block posting?

[Commonwealth War Graves @CWGC]

In 2021, workmen digging a rainwater cistern in Hazeweidestraat, St Juliaan, Belgium spotted human remains in their trench. A few days later an archaeological excavation was undertaken by the Flanders Heritage Agency. Artefacts recovered alongside the remains showed them to be those of a soldier who had served in the 5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment.

The Ministry of Defence’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), launched an investigation to name him. Research identified twenty men from the regiment missing in the area, all of whom died in the Spring of 1915.

Following genealogical investigation, living descendants of the missing men were traced one by one until eventually DNA testing proved that the remains were those of Lance Corporal Claude Stanley Dell. He was laid to rest last week at Poelcapelle British Cemetery in Belgium.

🔗Discover more on our website
📷Eric Compernolle

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Horned dinosaurs’ weapons evolved to handle the forces of combat. 3-D skulls reveal biomechanics of ceratopsians’ headgear, giving new insight into combat methods https://t.co/bmLvxsvPnP

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

It's long been accepted within academia that 'having a pop' at the management of one's university is covered by academic freedom. Given that he's an expert in the field, the marketing team should have reached out to him for advice not tried to get him censored. And now they've got lots of negative publicity from their actions. So, a genius move on their part.

[Mark Collard @profmarkcollard]

@RobotTheory @LancasterUni It's possibly the wildest one of these incidents I've come across, although it has some stiff competition, sadly.