MUNFA President Dr. Lisa Moores, VP Internal Dr. Russell Williams, and VP External Dr. Erika Merschrod met with the @nlndp.bsky.social caucus today to discuss the current situation at Memorial, including job losses among Teaching Term Appointments and the future of Memorial University. 1/2
This is my department. I may lose many of my colleagues, who are excellent teachers and have taught almost all of our first year courses for years and years.
Proposed cuts in Mathematics & Statistics would eliminate 7 of 8 teaching positions and reduce first-year course sections students depend on. As the provincial budget approaches, faculty are urging government to reinvest in Memorial. 1/2
Newfoundland & Labrador deserves a comprehensive university that serves the people and the lands, not an administration whose only interest is tearing it all down. www.mun.ca/evolve/decis...
How is cutting 7 jobs “contracting with care”? ntv.ca/news/mun-facul…
@munfaculty.bsky.social
Four talks in three days done. Lots of fun talking about SETI in 1 talk and why space exploitation is bad in others. Now to relax with a well-earned meal.
About to give my first talk out of 10 (I think) over the next 6 weeks on Space and Indigenous Rights or Indigenizing the search for life in the Galaxy. Should be fun and way too hectic.
This is the enshittification of the institution. If we starve resources students will participate less and less. MUN can be so much better if we had a vision for the university other than just shrinking it.
Here is MUN’s take cbc.ca/news/canada/ne… where they have cut the Newfoundland and Labrador studies certificate.
Unsurprisingly MUN is not honest about why programs are being cut. The cut was due to a lack of resources not enrolment. themuse.ca/letter-austeri…
The second considers how Indigenous rights are important for the continued discussions about Space governance and activities www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The first article considers how we might look to Indigenous methods as a path for governance with respect to Outer Space instead of the current goal of unrestrained exploitation www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
I’m so happy to see that two articles I wrote for the IAUS 385: Astronomy and Satellite Constellations is published. These articles are now a couple of years old but I think they continue to be relevant to how we engage with Outer Space exploration and exploitation.
Time for the second attempt to propose new courses at MUN @memorialu.bsky.social @memorialuscience.bsky.social on Indigenous Astronomies and on Outer Space and Society. Hopefully the proposal won’t be thrown out like last time with the reason that they aren’t “sufficient physics”
Currently listening to a seminar on burnout and stress in academia while having multiple textbooks open to write notes for my math methods course and surfing social media. Am I doing this right ?🙄
Image of the Sun using Unistellar EVscope 2 from St. John’s Newfoundland with one sunspot standing out.
Another Image of the Sun using Unistellar EVscope 2 from St. John’s Newfoundland with one sunspot standing out.
Astronomy is hard in St. John’s #yyt. Taken today in windy conditions and just above freezing #nlwx with the Unistellar EVscope 2. @memorialuscience.bsky.social.
Can’t wait to read this.
The Moon over St. John’s taken using the DwarfLab3 telescope
Well, 2026 is starting with a lovely almost full moon over St. John’s #yyt
Congratulations!
That event was followed by the Canadian Science Policy conference 2025 where we heard a lot of the stories issues that Canada is facing at the moment and the need for science policy to engage with AI issues, Canada’s goals in the Arctic, standing against misinformation and more.
Me meeting with Senator Oudar and a staff member
Me meeting with Senator Petten standing in front of the flags of Canada and of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Me just outside the senate chambers.
Science meets parliament attendees meeting with MP Morin.
What a week. Started with Science meets Parliament #SciParl2025 organized by the Canadian Science Policy Centre where I got to meet a group of fantastic scientists from all other Canada. Then meetings MPs and Senators where I got to learn about their work and how they relate with science and policy.
Text: We're hiring. the Department of Political Science at Memorial University invites applications to the highly prestigious Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program with a specialization in Comparative Democratic Resilience in the Global South. Closing Date: December 14, 2025. QR code and image with a picture of the Memorial University campus in the background.
Job - please share widely!
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Comparative Democratic Resilience in the Global South.
Research focus - grassroots movements, Indigenous sovereignties, and racial justice campaigns contesting and transforming public institutions
www.mun.ca/vpacademic/m...
The discussion is ongoing about creating these course with the undergrad head wanting more and more details, explanations and justifications under the guise of having to convince a small group of senior faculty. Just more bad faith academia.
Thank you.
Thank you
So really any course should just be traditional physics with smattering of other stuff. Indigenous sciences is physics. They missed the point of the courses… likely on purpose.
Why? The feedback was simply “insufficient physics”. When pressed, they said that the course should be “Something like 75-80% of the course was a ballpark figure, with the remainder devoted to differing worldviews, societal impacts, historical contexts, etc.”.
These courses would be for a breadth of students in different programs to learn about space and astronomy in courses that are grossly rare in universities. The Physics Dept officially rejected them.
I submitted new course proposals to the Physics Dept at MUN @memorialu.bsky.social @memorialuscience.bsky.social. They are: “Indigenous Astronomy & worldviews” and “Space & Society”. #Academia #Astronomy
Disappointing but not surprising. People here aren’t interested and the best they can do is to make Land Acknowledgments sound like a marginally interesting grocery list.
