📣 #jobalert #medievalsky #OldEnglish 📜 Curator for Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts 🏛️ British Library, St Pancras ⏳ Full Time, Permanent 💷 Salary: £35,993 per annum ⏰ Deadline: 12 July 2026 📲 Application details: tinyurl.com/25fs9kun

🏆 We're delighted to announce the winner of the 2026 BSHS Pickstone Prize! Congratulations to David Singerman, whose book Unrefined has been awarded this year's prize! Check out the judging panel's decision and more on our website! 🔗https://bshs.org.uk/the-bshs-pickstone-prize-2026-winner/

🆕 From the latest issue of BJHS: 🥔🦠 How did potatoes become a matter of scientific authority? João P. R. Joaquim examines Redcliffe Salaman's efforts to create virus-free seed potatoes in interwar Britain, tracing the rise of plant virology, agricultural regulation and scientific authority. 🔗 👇

🆕 From the latest issue of BJHS: 🇮🇳🔬 How did one vision for a national scientific academy result in three? George Bailey explores the founding of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the intertwined roles of imperialism, nationalism and scientific internationalism in shaping modern Indian science. 🔗 👇

My longstanding complaint about this term: if you're at university, studying for a degree, you are clearly 'employable'; you probably already have a job; the relevant question is not whether you are employable, but for what jobs you will be qualified by the end of your degree.

Some people didn't spend enough time doing logic puzzles / playing Cluedo/Clue when they were children, and you can't normally tell... But then the annual ritual of Timetabling occurs...

Periodic reminder: I am looking for people to review digital projects at the MAA's Database of Medieval Digital Resources! I'm looking for (PhD) medievalists, not just DH specialists. MAA membership not required! You can sign up through the form below (pick MDR reviewer) or contact me! #medievalsky

An initiative by my brilliant colleagues in Modern Languages; feel free to share. www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office...

🆕 From the latest issue of BJHS: 💊🌍 Who controlled access to penicillin at the dawn of the Cold War? Daniele Cozzoli examines negotiations between Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union over the knowledge and technology behind penicillin production after the Second World War. 🔗 👇

Finally, an explanation for all that 'delving' in the archives that UG history students love to describe...

Occasional reminder that the human brain finds meaning in the shapes of clouds and lunar craters. Of course it can find meaning in a kaleidoscope rearrangement of human-authored text mimicking human patterns of argument.

🆕 The June digital issue of BJHS is out now! This issue explores topics ranging from silk networks and museum politics to Cold War genetics, penicillin diplomacy and the history of science in India. All the articles are Open Access 🔓️ Over the coming weeks, we'll highlight each article in turn

I've not read the fine-print, but I'm assuming that the plan is for UKGov to recruit 14- and 15-yr olds as spotters so that adults in their family who've been red-pilled by Facebook and Xitter nonsense can be identified and brought back to sanity. Not sure I'm keen on the precedents, but could work.

Sense check, #skystorians -- I'm reviewing a work that has co-opted the idea of the Black Legend of C16 Spain for another purpose, and in response I want to suggest that the issue with the Black Legend wasn't its falsity, but the hypocrisy of those who used it to criticise the Spanish state...

Go and hangout in the Palazzo Alberti in October! CFP: Tuscany and the Iberian Empires: Migration and Knowledge Transmission in the Early Modern Period 30 October, Florence Deadline: 15 July All info: rensoc.org.uk/announcement... #EarlyModern #Skystorians

Keep 👏 indie bookshops👏 thriving 👏

One of my favourite features in Outlook is the proximity of the 'flag this message for follow-up' icon to the 'put this message in the trash' icon. That extra quantum of jeopardy really brightens my work day.

#cfp Mineral Expertise: The Rules of Knowing Earthly Matter in the Early Modern World -- 4-6 February 2027 in Bologna. Deadline for Submission: July 10th 2026 […]

We ask our students to declare use or non-use of AI in their submissions; I declare my non-use of AI in my feedback.

📢 Freelance opportunity: Cultural Programmer Strawberry Hill House & Garden is seeking an experienced freelance cultural programmer to help shape our future public programme. 💼 Up to £26,000 flat fee (3 days/week, 12 months) 📅 Apply by 6 July, 12 noon www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/wp-content/u...

If you compel me to do something from 12-2 -- whether that's attend a meeting or run a teaching session -- then I do consider it my sacred duty to civilised behaviour to conspicuously eat lunch at some point in the 2-hour slot entirely encompassing lunchtime that you have selected for this activity.

It’s Pride 🏳️‍🌈 Spare one repost for a small creator? 🥺 My science and sci fi pins raise money for homeless LGBTQ+ people. Just sent another £800 to @aktcharity.bsky.social bringing total to £47,521 New for Pride 2026: 🌈Scientist🌈 🏳️‍🌈🐥🦜🦅🏳️‍🌈 🌈pronouns🌈 www.jamiebgall.co.uk/shop

This week, we were also pleased to learn that historians perform well in a new @yougov.co.uk poll on the trustworthiness of experts bit.ly/49I9NV7 77% trust historians' expertise, placing them third in a listing of professions. This is a 6% increase on a similar poll in 2017 #Skystorians

A slightly shy Venetian flag for Pride Month: Happy Pride!

If anyone's worried about losing out on private schooling, our analysis of over 8000 kids found that, other things being equal, living in Wales or Northern Ireland improves your GCSE scores more than going to private school bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/3...

Sadly, CIO Views Magazine doesn't appear to have made it to Bluesky, but I'm sure they won't mind me informing you all that being featured in their 10 Most Impactful Leaders in Education issue costs $3500 and is worth nothing.

University rankings are deeply problematic in all sorts of ways. Also (unifresher.co.uk/uni-prep/ran...)

JOB ALERT: Early Career Fellow in Covid Commemoration Oral Histories (21 months, The British Library) ce0752li.webitrent.com/ce0752li_web...

Makes sense. Books can be deadly weapons in the right hands...

Developing my skills as a landscape historian by, er, looking out of the train window at northern Italy's scenery. That counts as work, right?

The Republic of Letters would like to repatriate all these remains. Please respect our cultural traditions, which reject digital necromancy, and allow for communication with the dead only through the writings and recordings they generated when alive.

>> Venezia

If the US is safe for you... A fantastic place to be.

Northern History is supporting this workshop on environmental history, which will take place in Leeds on 10 Sept. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 17 July - see below for more information. We’re planning to publish a special issue on the topic too. Please repost!

A major careers event aiming to keep Welsh graduate talent in Wales is coming to Swansea's Albert Hall for the first time 🎓 GradCon South Wales runs on 1-2 July, connecting students and graduates with employers across the region. Tickets are free.

Engaging the public in humanities & social sciences feels more important than ever. So we are offering £8k grants for researchers to work with galleries, libraries, archives, museums or performing arts organisations to do this. Please help spread the word! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

The Battle conference is going to Swansea! Book your place, it’s going to be brilliant! 👇 #MedievalSky #NormanConquest #1066andAllThat battleconference.wordpress.com/2026-battle-...

European alternative to Google Docs and Microsoft Office launches on 9 June: free, open source and online, using existing building blocks. An important step in freeing ourselves from US control. www.zdnet.com/article/euro...

We are stronger, and better historians, together. Historical societies abound in the UK, and we've listed 150 with BlueSky accounts in this updated Starter Pack. go.bsky.app/AZaYQDd Other societies appear on a new listing of subject societies on the RHS website bit.ly/4ebwP9r #Skystorians

So this what seances look like now... I think I prefer the table-rapping variety...

Okay Blueskyers, hit me with your suggestions for evening dining in Edinburgh in July! (The last two times I was there were in Dec/Jan, and really all I cared about then was quantity of warm carbohydrate...)

We still need Lead Authors for these Resource Assessments for the South West Archaeological Research Framework (UK): Late Bronze Age & Iron Age Romano British Post-conquest medieval Post medieval - Industrial & Modern Honorarium offered Register interest here: forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

Bit of a weird one this. Back in the International Year of Astronomy (2009), I attended the International Astronomical Union Congress in Rio to give a paper on Kepler.* Can't think why I signed up for that... Anyway, I've started receiving the IAU Monthly Circular email...

I have a prize lecture about extinction this Thursday evening at the Royal Society. I’ll also receive a medal. Tickets are free and it will also be steamed on YouTube. Booking and watching details here: royalsociety.org/science-even...

Read the room, people: critical comments on digital necromancy and LLM-nonsense are not invitations to do digital necromancy or prompt a chatbot and post the result in the replies.

- working with curious, engaged, thoughtful people (colleagues/students) - preparing new teaching - thinking up ways to make learning fun - finding out new things about old stuff - solving problems - translating, writing, editing - working with and in GLAM orgs - hunting chortlemuffins