Today is World Mental Health Day. Through the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), you can research the history of mental health. BBIH’s free reading list on the history of emotions highlights some recent scholarship on the history of mental health in the UK and Ireland buff.ly/OK5HSbu

The inbox when you’ve been away in meetings all day

This week, the Society's President Lucy Noakes wrote in response to Bridget Phillipson's Labour conference speech - and its implications for history and the humanities in UK higher education bit.ly/3KBX7Fw #Skystorians

‘Take us to your leader’ A nice find in an early 1970s’ edition of Nouse, satirising the University’s Central Hall 🛸

Everyone should have the right to go to University. Not because it's superior. Not because a degree should be required for every job. But because everyone should have the opportunity to spend a few years learning how to think critically about a subject they are really interested in.

And breathe…

Why aren’t Police Records in England & Wales covered by the Public Records Act? We've been campaigning on this since 2012 - blog for more info: www.campaignforrecords.org/blog/why-arent-police-records-covered-by-the-public-records-act #publicaccountability of interest @andyburnham.bsky.social ?

I close most of my emails ‘Best wishes, Charles’ but Google’s Smart Compose feature is stubbornly fixated on suggesting ‘Besties’ and ‘Charlatan’. 😤

Yesterday we sent out this briefing to all UK MPs and our press list. It is our response to calls for digitisation of adoption and care records. We believe there is a better - & much needed - solution to make these records more accessible to those that need them. #LongLostFamilies bit.ly/4mBqsxo

A nice article - en français - about the critical and important @internetarchiveca.bsky.social. A few words from me too on how important web archiving is for us all. ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/219...

Thanks to Sally Kent & Eleanor Parmenter for sharing with #RLUKICIL reflections on @theul.bsky.social project w/ Zambian visual artists exploring new ways to engage with problematic material & collaborating outside library’s trad user base 📺 You can watch a recording of their talk at bit.ly/ICILOND

theconversation.com/travel-as-ac... Just out in the Conversation Africa: My take on moving to be free. A study of black working women in apartheid who “travelled to gain ground for the greater cause of freedom, while discovering new versions of themselves along the way.”

Yet more warnings to govt on its plan for a levy on universities' international student fees. Levy would push further 14 universities into deficit, including three Russell Group members, MPs on education committee told. By @sophieatrpn.bsky.social www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

The Campus Kin project is celebrating the wonderful green spaces we have @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social campus - gathering our experiences of nature on our beautiful campus reflecting the changes over the years. Share your stories here: warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/sca...

Very exciting news!! My first book, 'Universities and the Purpose of Higher Education Expansion and Development in Post-War Britain' has appeared on the Routledge website! 📖 Currently anticipating a January 2026 launch! www.routledge.com/Universities...

Remembering sculptor Henry Moore, who was among York’s first honorary graduates (1966) and who generously supported the new University of York with the loan and exhibit of several sculptures in the 1960s.

Our conference is approaching soon! There is still time to book to explore & celebrate the challenges of uncovering the presence of women within archives, libraries, museums & personal collections. Info here: womenshistorynetwork.org/the-womens-h... #WomensHistory #GenderHist #Archives #Museums

It sounds naive, I'm sure, but looking back over the last 20-odd years of discussions about what is wrong with academia and how or how not to fix it, the idea that scholars produce knowledge (not just jobs, tech, or texts), and that that is an important social good, is largely and strikingly absent.

Back in the game. UK is now has the most successful applicant for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and 2nd most for ERC. To a very significant extent, this success rests on and reflects excellence in researchers & in research in universities. Will we squander or sustain them in the next 12 months?

Gowns, pride, and a pioneering spirit— this image captures York’s very first graduates stepping into history. As this year’s ceremonies begin, it’s a thrill to see a new generation pause to celebrate before taking their next steps. #YorkForLife #UniversityofOpportunity

When I pointed out King’s will lose 90% of its AHRC student-led places under the new scheme, I got piled on by the AHRC Chair claiming I was wrong and scaremongering. It wasn’t quite 90%. This year King’s students got 27 AHRC student-led scholarships. Next year they’re giving us 3. So 89% then.

Pulling no punches, outgoing president of the British Academy slates 'confused, if not incoherent' ministerial (DfE) approach to universities and urges action to remove higher education from the 'too difficult box'. With a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers. 1/2 on.ft.com/4kHmNwJ

Oh well I'm sure that's fine. Cool cool cool cool cool fine fine fine fine fine.

New digitised resource! Yorkshire Miners, 1811-1945: 98 documents online in full at wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll... Includes leaflets, pamphlets, photographs and our earliest surviving branch membership records. More to be added in the next 12 months!

As it’s #CowAppreciationDay, reminded of the wager, involving a pedigree heifer, between Lords Mackintosh and Harewood if York’s foundation appeal fund had raised more than UEA’s by the close of 1962.

It was OTD in 1948 that the NHS was formed. This offering relating to the York City Hospital casts a fascinating glimpse back in time to before, during and after this momentous occasion. The records are at the Borthwick Institute. archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archi...

Enjoying Richard Temple’s brilliant and engaging ‘Taken as Red: Highs and Lows of the Labour Party’. A sweeping and insightful chronicle of the Labour Party’s tumultuous century, from its first government in 1924 to the eve of the 2019 general election.

The Norman west door of St. Bee’s Priory in Cumbria. The Benedictine priory was founded between 1120 and 1135 and was subordinate to St. Mary’s Abbey in York. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #Medieval #StBees #Cumbria

As the University of Warwick hits 60, we're exploring our early years through the online exhibition 'Warwick at 60: The changing face of campus' Featuring striking 1960s/70s architecture & some excellently retro library views (+ bonus card indexes & microfilm reader) warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Today is the official start date of our new UKRI funded research project. Looking forward to getting started! www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

What impact does Africa's growing youth population have on the role of archives & libraries that document the continent’s past? Come find out in Oxford next Monday June 30th! Register for SCOLMA's bi-annual conference today: t.co/LQjrV2O61O Ticket sales end this Wednesday 25th at 11pm!

A superb addition to the Canterbury and York Society’s series from Dr Shaun McGuinness, and a timely practical demonstration of the essential role of archives, editions -and Welsh history departments- in understanding the Welsh Church and history in the Middle Ages.

Biology laboratories, University of York. Built with CLASP in 1968, and featuring the iconic concrete clock tower. (Image date unknown).

Micklegate Bar. Built in the mid-14th century and incorporating an early 12th century gate - and even some reused Roman blocks and sarcophagi. The heads of rebels and traitors were frequently set atop the bar, including Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur) in 1403 and the Duke of York in 1460.

2. It's like using a forklift to lift weights at the gym. Those weights don't actually need to be moved, the point is the benefit you get from doing the work. And those undergraduate essays don't need to be written, but the students need to learn how to write them. Using ChatGPT undermines that.

Had such a great time at the #YorkFestivalOfIdeas interactive Printing Sounds workshop today. Loved learning how to typeset, print and (😬) sing tonic solfa! Amazing to explore a musical system with so much history and see the research impact of @uoyborthwick.bsky.social archives.

And breathe…..

This is the content we've all been waiting for

Universities urged in @eua.eu briefing to ‘reclaim’ scholarly publishing system www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

On to the important archives now

An otherworldly view of campus, from the 1960s, taking in the crater that formed the Vanbrugh Bowl, and looking out to Physics, PX001 and the seemingly moated Milner-White Court.

A lovely evening spent finding out more about Eric Milner-White (1884-1963), a WWW1 army chaplain, dean of King’s College and later York, liturgist and collector. Great talk by Allen Warren for #YorkFestivalofIdeas

One of Ripon Cathedral's finest features is the stone pulpitum screen (below) which dates from around 1470. The carvings include kings, archbishops, a saint and angels together with over one hundred faces of ordinary medieval people. The more modern replacement statues are mid-20th century.

'“Serious investment” is needed in UK universities to help them adapt for lifelong learning, as new research shows half of employers plan to increase training budgets in the coming years – but universities are “not the first choice” for provision.' 1/2

Don’t forget to register for our SCOLMA one-day conference. This year it will explore how generational change, digital technologies, and youth engagement are reshaping how Africa’s past is documented. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/through-th...

Yorkshire Miners online! 74 editions from 1977-1983 - read the NUM Yorkshire Area newspaper in full through our online catalogue at mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/YMA/... Possibly the only publication to feature both Arthur Scargill and Dr Who (Tom Baker era)

A long but full day. Time for golden slumbers.

Very sorry to hear of the death of Professor Charles Phythian-Adams, an inspirational scholar and historian who will be greatly missed. May he rest in peace. Obituary at www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/2025/02/1... and a memoir at www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/2025/05/1...