Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

Book launched! @lindaaburnett.bsky.social @kathryn-seymour.bsky.social #C18th #race #colonization #ScottishEnlightenment

Edinburgh folks — there’s still time to register for this Wednesday’s book launch of Race and the Scottish Enlightenment: A Colonial History, 1750–1820 and the accompanying symposium at IASH (for more info see below). Warm welcome! #skystorians

👇Don't miss tomorrow's seminar by Stefano Gulizia: “Dispatching Authority: Sovereignty and Natural Encounters with Spanish American Science.” Abstract: instructingnaturalhistory.com/events/yvr14... Please email us for zoom link: [email protected] #skystorians #histsci All welcome

Legacy of Slavery Project Officer Scottish Episcopal Church #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPB351/l...

📢 Upcoming seminar: Dispatching Authority: Sovereignty and Natural Encounters with Spanish American Science Wed 22 Oct, 15:00–16:00 CEST, Zoom Join Stefano Gulizia (Ca’ Foscari Univ.) for a deep dive into how colonial power co-opted indigenous knowledge through science, religion & empire.

We are hiring! Prospective PhD students in environmental history, history of science, history of technology and STS interested in the climate and environmental impacts of AI look here. Please share in your networks. #envhist #histsci #AI #anthropcoene

Our book launch is happening, at IASH in Edinburgh, October 29. It was there that @lindaaburnett.bsky.social and I first met, and had an idea that we might do some work together. That was in 2012! If you'll be in Edinburgh then, please come to our launch. Details below.

For those of you in Scotland, come along to the launch of Race and the Scottish Enlightenment at @iashedinburgh.bsky.social! Bruce and I will be introducing the book, and we’re thrilled to be joined by the formidable Colin Kidd, Thomas Ahnert, Matthew D Eddy, Rosi Carr and Ian Stewart. Programme⬇️

1/6 Another highlight for our 10th anniversary. @brucealexb.bsky.social (Griffith University) who wrote "Travels in Space and Time: Progress, War, and the Historical Mobilities of Scotland’s Enlightenment" with us in 2022 (print 2023). We asked him about this work and its future. His response:

Svenska regeringen, en kommentar?

Proud of my colleagues! 🗃 www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

People say "autism never used to exist" and then you go to the Natural History Museum and the exhibit has a caption like "Born in 1762, The Revd [name] was famously irascible, steadfast in his routine, and dedicated his life to collecting 25,000 rare beetle specimens".

We have two jobs at KCL History! 16-month post in Modern Irish and/or British History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU178/l... And 5-year post in Early Modern Europe & The World: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU182/l... (both to start in January 2026)

Natalie Davis; Arlette Farge (great trans of Allure of the Archives), Rebecca Spang (wittiest academic writer around: esp restaurant bk!); Jennifer Morgan (Reckoning w Slavery; John Merriman (eg Massacre); Judith Walkowitz; Tiya Miles; Will Pooley; Heather Cox Richardson (every single day!);

Due to Academia(.)edu licensing agreement, which permits the use of your likeness, voice, and publications in any manner they choose, I, like many others, have decided to leave the platform. You can now find my research on ResearchGate instead.

EUROPEAN DECLARATION OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION Faculty and staff in European higher education and research declare their conscientious objection to collaborating with Israeli institutions complicit in severe violations of international law. To sign, visit uppsaladeclaration.se/european-dec...

Excellent article from @jamborg.bsky.social about "genetic" mercantilism. Highly recommended

Our book, Race and the Scottish Enlightenment, now published, @lindaaburnett.bsky.social and I were challenged to the ‘Page 99 Test’. The challenge, as defined by Ford Madox Ford, is whether the whole book can be seen in a single page. Here’s our response. page99test.blogspot.com/2025/09/lind...

Hello everyone. Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax has a tenure-track job in Enlightenment rhetoric and / or 18th-century literature. Tell everyone. www.msvu.ca/about-msvu/c...

I love Terry Gross she is a top ten person

▶️ crh.ehess.fr/index.php?10... @ehess.fr @cnrsshs.bsky.social @crh.ehess.fr

Publication alert! Jens's article explores how sheep became geopolitical assets in 18th-c Europe, as France sought to rival British and Spanish wool production. His article introduces "animal mercantilism" to show how animals were entangled in politics, economics, and ideas of race. #skystorians

How bad was slavery? Why does Trump ask that question? @henrysnow.bsky.social and I have a piece up in @damemagazine.bsky.social on that issue, out today! www.damemagazine.com/2025/08/21/t...

Publication Day! How was race taught to students during the Enlightenment? Our book traces how Edinburgh-trained students carried their education into colonial contexts and forged race as a central category of Enlightenment thought. #History #Enlightenment #Colonialism #YaleUniversityPress

There is now a German version of the #uppsaladeclaration Here, you can declare your conscientious objection to collaborations with Israeli institutions complicit in illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide, and other violations of international law. uppsaladeclaration.se/germany/

Bettina Brandt & Daniel L. Purdy eds. Colonialism and Enlightenment: The Legacy of German Race Theories - Oxford University Press, November 2025 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

So much to look forward to in the programme for #ESEH2025! You should of course all come to our double panel on "Colonial climates and environments" on Fri AM with @poxygraduate.bsky.social, @nphellstrom.bsky.social,‬ @gianamar97.bsky.social, @lindaaburnett.bsky.social, @jamborg.bsky.social & more 🎙️

I'll say it a thousand times -- any account of the past that only celebrates the good parts of a nation without reckoning with the bad is not what we call "history" It is propaganda, pure and simple.

Very useful on James Cowles Prichard and 19th-century race science.

Why were human skulls collected for science? Who instructed their collection? What responsibility does C18th Enlightenment bear for 'scientific racism' in the C19th? How are we to interpret this legacy of trading in human flesh? Find out here! Open access journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Israeli forces bulldozed Palestinian seed bank in Al-Khalil/Hebron, home to 22 years of seed collection efforts to preserve heritage varieties and plants with valuable traits: e360.yale.edu/digest/hebro...

Den förstörelse av det palestinska samhället som just nu kulminerar inför öppen ridå har pågått ända sedan 1948, när Palestinas infödda befolkning fördrevs för att ge plats åt judiska överlevare från Europa. www.dn.se/kultur/pette...

It took shape over many years, written in Edinburgh, Uppsala, Brisbane, Paris, Copenhagen, and Adelaide. Now, at last, @lindaaburnett.bsky.social and my book is finally here! #18thCentury #Enlightenment #Race #Colonisation

Words fail. Look at that.

Our (@brucealexb.bsky.social) new article in History of Science traces the transnational legacy of 18th-c. natural history instructions in the making of race science. We address James Cowles Prichard and his education at Edinburgh University, skull collecting, & colonial violence

This is the Washington Post (yes, that one): names in Arabic and English, and ages, of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, plus portraits and stories where available: www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Edinburgh University has just released a report on its very long history of intellectual support for #racism. The report cites my own research with @lindaaburnett.bsky.social, among many others. It highlights the connection between racism and #Enlightenment... www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Suffering does not ennoble the human spirit. Affliction does not make us any more or less human. But history teaches again, and again, and again, that our humanity only subsists in recognising ourselves in the most vulnerable among us, never in the impunity of force.

The surviving papers of Andrew Brown (1763-1834) are now a sad wreck. They're the disordered remains of his unfinished history of America's colonisation, prioritising First Nations people. Encountering this archive haunts me still. Read about it here. #C18th www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Now publ OA in Annals of Science "Writing history into the economy of nature: Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and Lars Montin (1723–1783) on the Reindeer Warble Fly" Co-written article (with @hannahod.bsky.social and Staffan Muller-Wille) on colonial history writing through animal & nature descriptions.

Our book Race & the Scottish Enlightenment: A Colonial History 1750-1820 can now be pre-ordered (publication date is in August). @brucealexb.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... #skystorians #colonialhistory #enlightenment #histsci

#uppsaladeclaration now has more than 1,300 signatories. We refuse to collaborate with Israeli state institutions complicit in human rights violations including illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Faculty and staff in Swedish higher education and research can sign at uppsaladeclaration.se

Uppsala universitet uppmanar regeringen att fördöma Israels krigsbrott i Gaza – och att verka för att förhindra ett folkmord. Detta mindre än en vecka efter att ett upprop samlat över tusen akademiker i protest mot invasionen av Gaza. Artikel av @jacob.flamman.se och @mindyourlizness.bsky.social:

There is still time to register for @nathanbossoh.bsky.social talk: Making Colonial Laboratories: Investigating the Role of Suggestions and Instructions in Managing the Aburi Botanic Gardens. 21 May, 15.00-16.00 CET. Please note time dif. To register please email [email protected]

The talk will explore the creation and early years of the Garden in the 1890s, the role of the first curator, William Crowther, and two plants of significance - cotton and cocoa. Date: Wednesday 21 May 2025 Time: 15:00 16:00 Link: Email [email protected] or see website for more info

I am giving a talk tomorrow for the INH series online, where I am looking at the origins of the Aburi Botanic Gardens in the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) and the role that instructions and suggestions played in its management and early "success" #botany #ghana.Bsky #HistSTM #aburibotanicgardens

Don't miss tomorrow's seminar by the fabulous @nathanbossoh.bsky.social: Making Colonial Laboratories: Investigating the Role of Suggestions and Instructions in Managing the Aburi Botanic Gardens. 21 May, 15.00-16.00 CET. Please note time dif.To register please email [email protected]