Still time to submit abstracts for Life Histories in Mind in Manchester in July. Keynote Prof Catharine Coleborne sshm.org/history-of-m...

cfp Life Histories in Mind: Mental Ill Health and Learning Disability in Context Manchester 21 July 2026 deadline 15 January royalhistsoc.org/calendar/lif...

It's publication day! My new article in Northern History builds on work by @millieqed.bsky.social to produce a study of the League of Hospital Friends in Halifax mostly using local newspapers. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Two #histmed CFPs with deadline for abstracts Jan 2026! Life Histories in Mind: Mental Ill Health and Learning Disability in Context (Manchester) & Blood is the price of coal: Coal communities, health and welfare in Britain and beyond from the 19th century to the present (Warwick) For more details 👇

I’ve be co-editing a special issue of @histhum.bsky.social with @sarahvmarks.bsky.social on Recovery and rehabilitation in mental health: historical perspectives Our Intro article is available now! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Check out new new #histmed CFPs added to our page: 'Life Histories in Mind: Mental ILL Health and Learning Disability in Context' Manchester Metropolitan University, 21 July 2026 Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2026 Organised by Rob Ellis and Rebecca Ball @re-histories.bsky.social #DisHist

LD Club meets the Heritage Open Day at Pennine Heritage. Thanks to @mctom.bsky.social, Penny and the pottery team for a fun, interesting and inclusive session.

I’ve received another enquiry about the mental health resource kit developed with @suemoffat.bsky.social @nvborderlines.bsky.social. The ‘Bag of Tricks’ was such a great project but I had forgotten about the website we put together. An incentive to write this up! rflight7.wixsite.com/bagoftricks/...

Our international conference "Who Cares? Psychiatry in the English-speaking World : Theories and Policies" will be taking place on 19-21 March 2026 at @uparisnanterre.bsky.social, with @creananterre.bsky.social CFP - ⏰ extended deadline 8 Sept ➡️ whocares.hypotheses.org/call-for-pap...

So I've written a book! Waterscapes is about how impactful our need for water is on the environment and people. It's also about the ways in which infrastructure projects can impact place for good or bad.

Drumroll please🥁🥁 For announcement of the SSHM Roy Porter Essay Prize 2024/5 winning essay! Congratulations to Charlotte Stobart, studying at University of Manchester @manchstm.bsky.social (1/2) #histmed #histSTM @rebeccawynter.bsky.social

🎉📚 Our newest publication is now available! "In Our Own Words: Creative Approaches to Inclusion through an Arts and Humanities Intellectual Disability Project" by @rehistories.bsky.social #Inclusion #LearningDisability #Arts #Humanities #OpenAccess #UniversityPress @huddersfielduni.bsky.social

A bit more detail on ‘In Our Own Words’. Not really meant as a detailed academic contribution but it explains our rationale in aligning knowledge taken from the histories of LD with the needs of everyone involved. unipress.hud.ac.uk/news/163/

A public history project, a student project, and a co-produced LD project all rolled into one. Primarily a reminder for everyone involved but some insights into what worked for us and some of the ongoing challenges. unipress.hud.ac.uk/plugins/book...

Save the date! Our international conference "Who Cares? Psychiatry in the English-speaking World : Theories and Policies" will be taking place on 19-21 March 2026 at @uparisnanterre.bsky.social, with @creananterre.bsky.social CFP - deadline 1 Sept ➡️ whocares.hypotheses.org/call-for-pap...

Some co-produced art from the final LD club of the year. Inspired by @ionamurphy.bsky.social and input from everyone inc @mctom.bsky.social and @lucyorkate.bsky.social. Might be of interest @roryduplessis.bsky.social

sshm.org/notices/ Vacancy: Social History of Medicine journal is seeking a Co-Editor. Please consider applying!

Exciting news from Jozefien, one of the Research Fellows on the Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health project. More to follow but I’m jealous of a trip that included the former asylum at Amiens.

A view of Manchester from MMU’s Oxford Road campus.

If you are in Liverpool on Thursday and are interested in how history can help solve the mental health crisis, please come along! www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event...

Congrats to @leoniechesworth.bsky.social who has been awarded hugely competitive funding by www.nwcdtp.ac.uk to study towards a PhD. Her focus will be on post war mental health services and she’ll join @manmetuni.bsky.social later this year.

Your semi-regular reminder that registration for this year's conference is currently open! Get your FREE tickets, and browse our programme, at www.ridingsofyorkshiresociety.co.uk/register2025/

The Aliens Act of 1905 created a new type of immigrant to the UK and a new means of controlling them. 🔓 This archive article is free for 7 days buff.ly/scsyrT1

In Göteborg at an event organised by the wonderful Verusca Calabria at the city’s Medical History Museum. Lots of lovely presentations and workshops and a chance to showcase the ‘bag of tricks’, which resulted from a collaboration with the brilliant @suemoffat.bsky.social and New Vic Borderlines

A quick update on the latest project with @yorkshireccc.bsky.social from @manmetuni.bsky.social undergrad, Jamie. Thanks as ever to Charlotte, the Heritage Manager, the cricket foundation and the club. yorkshireccc.com/news/hidden-...

Attention #skystorians! Do you work on public history, memory or Tudor history (broadly understood)? @estelleprnq.bsky.social and I are launching a new project on the Break with Rome and want to hear from you 1/2

This week’s theme at LD club was crime and punishment (not Dr Who!). A great session with Laura leading on and helping with the building process.

Fantastic venue for the #lcc60 conference and great line up too!

Municipal guide of the day: the former Metropolitan Borough of Hackney. This one dates from 1960 and features an evidently scintillating lecture on public health.

I co-authored a v.short piece in the Creative Health volume that covered our learning disability group (LD club). It includes contributions from student volunteers.

📣Call for participants: History UK is continuing its focus groups on disability and history in HE in April. Any students/staff with experience in teaching disability history OR studying history with a disability, come and talk to us! #DisabilityHistory #DisHist www.history-uk.ac.uk/projects/his...

In 1811 textile workers in Britain attacked factories. By the time the #Luddites hit Yorkshire in 1812, it had become a genuine mass movement. ⌛ 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 buff.ly/exLJVTA

Another pic from our LD group, hosted by Pennine Heritage. At the end of last year, Trustee Judith helped us plant some bulbs. Nice to see them starting to flower in the spring sunshine.

No Grade II listed buildings were harmed in the making of these… things…

An undated but early 20th century view of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, before it was quite the seaside destination it is today. Oysters, fresh from the beds anyone!? Image from the South Pennine Archives, hosted by Pennine Heritage.

It’s pancake day at LD club. We didn’t have the right equipment or even the right ingredients but we muddled through and ended up with an approximation of Yorkshire puddings. Might not look like it but they were very tasty.

Keep fighting to be heard, historians. Be relevant. Be bold. Be ambitious. royalhistsoc.org/more-than-ev...

A long but productive day at the Mental Health Museum and a chance to revisit the labyrinth too!

A view of Manchester from the moors of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

🚨Help #HistPsych folks🚨 Crowdsourcing examples of British police officers in asylums and mental hospitals - do you have one? Answer here, or email: r dot i dot wynter @ uva dot nl. #HistSTM #HistMed

Lots of great panels at #WhoCares2025. This one included Hilary Marland, Len Smith, Han Dee and two of the organisers! Thanks to Cécile Birks @clairedeligny.bsky.social @laurencedubois.bsky.social @embfauquert.bsky.social and Laetitia Sansonetti for a great couple of days.

Final day at #WhoCares2025 and an opportunity to think about old and new paradigms of ‘care’.

Great panel on art and creativity at #WhoCares2025. Papers by Rachel Wilson and Fabienne Moine. This slide from the latter maybe of interest @valbold.bsky.social

Great to be at the #WhoCares2025 conference at Paris Nantererre. An interesting programme kicks off with a key note by an old friend, Rory Du Plessis. Thanks to @clairedeligny.bsky.social, @laurencedubois.bsky.social and the organising committee. @sshmedicine.bsky.social

Some history inspired building work with our learning disability group this week. A team effort to recreate some of the scenes that can be found in Hebden Bridge.

A vision of London. The old, including the Bishopsgate Institute, and the new, including 30 St Mary Axe (the Gherkin) between Liverpool Street and Spitalfields.

Nutclough Wood at Hebden Bridge

Fantastic Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health project team visit to Ally Pally yesterday. Great to see behind the scenes at such an interesting venue.

I co-authored a short piece in this with lit scholar, Dr Iona Murphy, and three of what turned out to be my final, final-year undergrad cohort at UoH. We reflected on our motivations for being involved in a public history of Learning Disability. Looking forward to seeing the full copy.