Most of you will already know about this, but just in case that not:
 
King's College London (KCL) apparently is not only cutting jobs in contemporary philosophy (see here), but also poised to eliminate its chair in palaeography (which seems to be the only one in the UK): see e.g. here.
 
Or, if you want a shorter version: here is something (by Jeffrey F. Hamburger and/or Richard Raiswell) which I received via the FICINO email distribution list:
Quote:

 
The email addresses of the two persons mentioned above (professores Trainor & Palmowski) seem to be principal@kcl.ac.uk and jan.palmowski@kcl.ac.uk .
I mailed there, but up to now I have received no response.
 
If you are using twitter and want to tweet about this: suggested hashtags are #savepalaeography and #KCL.
 
There's a facebook group ("Save Paleography At King's London") on this at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=303202385890&ref=nf .

Now see also http://blog.pecia.fr/post/2010/01/30/Pal%C3%A9ographie-au-King-s-College-%3A-le- clash-avec-l-Histoire .

Now there is a statement by the Medieval Academy of America: http://www.medievalacademy.org/pdf/KingsCollege.pdf .
 

---

 
Found thanks to http://twitter.com/kindofpalejewel/status/8516636688 .

Thanks to http://twitter.com/kindofpalejewel/status/8583328978 I learned about the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/spkcl10/ - and just signed it.

Some statistics: today at 16:26h GMT+1 this thread here had 315 "views" via the web interface (plus an unknown number of readers via the RSS feeds).
 
Mary Beard's 2010-01-28 text which probably was extremely influential in starting reactions to King's College London's plans to eliminate their chair for palaeography when last visited by me (a few minutes ago) had received some 50 comments (the last one yesterday).
 
There were several dozen tweets on twitter with the hashtag #savepalaeography. Sever new ones seem to be added (almost) every hour, but #savepalaeography has not (yet) made it into the "trending" topics.
 
The facebook group "Stop Philosophy Faculty Cuts at King's College London" at 16:33h GMT+1 had 2556 members, the once dedicated to the threat to palaeography ("Save Paleography At King's London") had a few more: 2577.
 
I don't know how many mails opposing the plans to cut the palaeography chair Prof. Trainor has received by now (electronically and/or on paper and/or via fax <and/or via owl post>).
 
The probably most successful platform for and means of protest against these plans that I know of is the electronic petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/spkcl10/petition.html , which hasn't been active for a very long time (I learned about it near noon today, almost immediately signed, and am listed there as signatory number 141), and which as of now (16:54h GMT+1) has received 1151 signatures - and quite a number of splendid persons, great scholars, etc. amongst the signatories.
Both facebook (via normal interpersonal relations and via the above mentioned group) and twitter have been used (successfully) as tools to point people to this petition.
 
 
 
Whatsoever the outcome will be: There are several lessons about coalition building in a virtual world and the use of more than just one tool for the dissemination of information and for discussion that can be learned from this. And I myself am still continuing my learning process.
Perhaps in the end we will find out that palaeography at King's was saved by a single letter written in Latin and on parchment in a 21st century imitation of a highly abbreviated early 15th century "gothic" script?
 
 
 

Now there is also an article by Ken Mondschein on this affair (and the protests) at http://thefastertimes.com/academicpolitics/2010/02/03/a-bunch-of-pissed-off-medi evalists/ .
 

A letter to The Principal of King's College London and Jan Palmowski by/on behalf of the International Center of Medieval Art  can be found at http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/6173563/ .

Letters by members of the Comité International de Paléographie Latine can be found at http://www.palaeographia.org/cipl/actu/paleoatkings.htm .
 

---

 
Found thanks to a posting by Adam Ganz in the facebook group which has now been renamed to "Save Palaeography At King's London".
 

---

 
BTW: The petition which can be signed at http://www.petitiononline.com/spkcl10/petition-sign.html now has 5204 signatures.

Probably from a classicist's perspective: John Crace: Writing off the UK's last palaeographer ("The Guardian", 2010-02-09).
 

---

 
Found thanks to a pointer by Heather D. Baker in the facebook group "Save Palaeography At King's London".

Macy Halford: It's Tuesday. Why Not Post Some Sad Paleography News ("The New Yorker", 2010-02-09)
 
i.a.:  
Quote:

 

---

 
Found thanks to http://twitter.com/krisrich/statuses/8862619800 .
 

Now there is also a (somewhat strange?) 2010-02-10 entry at Nugatorius scriptor: King’s Palaeography Gets Press:
Quote:

 
 
 
On Apilist you can read at http://www.palaeographia.org/apices/apices.htm?P=apilist :
Quote:

Brian Leiter by now has obviously decided to get rid of any velvet gloves he might ever have used when typing his blog entries on what is or might be happening at KCL: see The King's College, London Scandal Deepens: Using a Budget Crisis to Impose an Administrative Agenda and Attack Academic Freedom (2010-02-11) (palaeography is mentioned in the comments section), and especially Jan Palmowski of King's College, London: The Most Disgraceful Academic Administrator Alive? (2010-02-11) (no comments visible to that posting up to now (2010-02-12, 13:15 GMT+1), but comments at Leiter's blog are moderated, and hence do not appear immediately).
 

Quote from hck on 12.02.2010 at 13:19:50:

 
Jan Palmowski of King's College, London: The Most Disgraceful Academic Administrator Alive? seems to be no longer available.