As far as I know, farm archives have never really been used to track queer histories before. Given they mostly record the financial ongoings on a given farm, you can understand why. However, my year of research at The MERL has proved their potential. Find out more in this blog:

Check out the latest #handoftheweek

More news on our upcoming events 👐

We are very excited about our upcoming workshops 🙌

Barriers preventing working class talent from succeeding include class-based discrimination, low pay, a lack of connections and exploitative practices. Over 150 hours of interviews with artists ranging from teenage musicians to globally recognised playwrights were conducted.

A huge thank you to all our delegates for joining The Hand: Emotion, Embodiment, Identity! Your ideas, questions and conversations made the conference such a rewarding and inspiring event. We are grateful to everyone who contributed and helped make it a success 🤝

🙌 Two weeks on from The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment and Identity conference, we reflect on the stimulating contributions of scholars, artists and makers who explored the hand across historical, cultural and creative contexts. Read our latest blog here: www.thevictorianhand.uk/gallery/conf...

🤩 This is how it's done, folks! 'A lesbian couple at the centre of their community and a pair of brothers said to have been among the first people to medically transition are among the people whose stories are told in the Queer Norfolk archive.' 🏳️‍🌈📚🏳️‍⚧️📜🗃️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #queerhistory

The bad news rolling in from across Britain's universities seems endless. Very little of the traditional infrastructure outside the top-ranked 25 or so institutions will survive at this rate. Especially in the Arts and Humanities.

Read this thread for the lived experience of what it's like in almost all UK universities now - just an internal implosion. Organisationally, morally, in terms of capacity and morale.

Still thinking about the Carney speech today. It is also interesting that the first inkling I had of this was from Michael Ignatieff in a @financialtimes.com piece. Canadians get it and yes, due to our proximity we have no choice but to.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 The UK Govt has quietly published - without announcement - the Joint Intelligence Committee/DEFRA report it suppressed last October. They tried to sneak it out in the midst of crisis. Read and share: “Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse & National Security.” (link below)

'The report highlights that at 16 providers, once the international student fee levy has been implemented, the exchequer will collect more in revenue that these providers received in grants from the Office for Students in 2023-24.' LSE could pay £7M levy, receiving less than £500k direct grant. 3/3

Delighted to be presenting today at @victorianhand.bsky.social conference "The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity" part of @jbhist.bsky.social and @medhistoryman.bsky.social exciting AHRC project 😀

Really great workshop at @jbhist.bsky.social and @medhistoryman.bsky.social conference @victorianhand.bsky.social to think about textile making and sense of touch with artist and curator Ruth Singer. Very interesting for those of us not makers to think through its implications for our understanding.

It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.

This is very good and goes in front of my MA students next term for sure. It's a lot better than the various medium posts I've written but it's reassuring to see so many people arrive at the same answer after checking. No, AI is not capable of "replacing" historians. Not even close, wrong timezone.

Resharing our #Handoftheweek posts

'Founded in 1878 by the City of London and a group of 16 livery companies, the original institute developed a national system of technical education, offering qualifications and apprenticeships in fields ranging from manufacturing and mechanical engineering to hairdressing and horticulture.' 1/2

✋ This 1845 daguerreotype captured the branded hand of Jonathan Walker - marked ‘SS’ for ‘slave stealer’ after he tried to help enslaved people escape Florida. Intended as punishment, it became an abolitionist symbol, though his story often overshadowed those of the enslaved people he sought to aid.

Hands can be subject to punishment and agents of resistance or in this fascinating case, both at the same time.

Another #Handoftheweek - exploring marks inscribed on the hand and their capacity to be read in multiple ways. Please share more widely.

⚔️ Götz von Berlichingen lost his hand to a cannonball in 1504 and commissioned an iron prosthesis with hinged, lockable fingers for use in battle. He later adopted a more advanced model - one of the earliest functioning mechanical prosthetic hands - which he used across his military career.

What an amazing #Handoftheweek 👏 👏

Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.

Solidarity with every trans person struggling to keep their heads in the game today. Along with everything else, this is absolutely a war against our collective and individual mental and emotional health - against our very sense of self. It's expected to feel the blow. But we stay fighting.

Annual shameless Xmas or other seasonal holiday gift suggestion for those interested in any of material culture, empire or British country houses. Over 500 pages & 100 illustrations. Paperback a mere £30. (Alternatively, free to download from @uclpress.bsky.social or @jstor.bsky.social ).

Rachel Reeves says on Laura Kuenssberg that she's asking working people to pay a little bit more. This was all under the cover of a made up "black hole" whilst refusing to tax the super rich. This Labour Government showing again exactly who they are and who they serve.

What do UK graduates do? Lots of information in this annual report. A reminder that Humanities graduates are quite employable. Compare unemployment rates for Biology (8.4%), Chemistry (5.9%) and Physics (8.0%) with English literature (6.4%), History (7.6%) and Languages (7.6%) for example.

I wrote a bit about touch and travel writing over on @victorianhand.bsky.social - read more at the link below!

Read @rosscmrn.bsky.social's fabulous blog post! And please repost 😊

⬇️⬇️

This is spot on and so important: we have to change the language we use to talk about what universities are and their purpose.

7 x 3000+ students + 17 smaller institutions must mean 30,000+ affected students. That’s about the same size as Sheffield uni, which employs 8000ish staff. Why is the government tolerating the impending collapse of up to 24 related employers and 8000+ more lost jobs? Where is the sense of crisis?

You can still register for this amazing conference in an amazing venue. Please check it out and share widely!

'It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise the Department of American Studies at Nottingham was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham.' 1/2

Our #Handoftheweek

Our #Handoftheweek

In 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered mysterious ‘X-rays’. His image of his wife’s hand - bones and wedding ring visible - captivated Europe. X-rays transformed medicine, revealing the body’s interior without surgery. Early radiologists paid a price, as missing hands became a mark of the work.

Just a reminder that if you're attending our seminar in person rather than online this evening, we're in the Institute of Education rather than at the IHR (which is closed for Founders' Day). All welcome! #Skystorians

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

I was just thinking the other day that it is mad that if this continues then the book I'm writing, about London 1560-1630, will contain basically no British Library manuscript material. Would have been unthinkable to me but there hasn't been a manuscript catalogue for two years now!

Join @hetanshah.bsky.social at De Montfort University’s Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Thursday, 27 November, as he explores how the humanities and social sciences can support policymaking. Register for your free ticket below ⬇️ www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/ev...

🧵 We are delighted to be partnering with The Quilters’ Guild! The Guild aims to give quilt-making the status it deserves as a craft and an art and its Quilt Collection preserves our patchwork and quilting heritage. Stay tuned for more information about our collaboration and how to get involved!

A terrible policy.

Such an exciting collaboration 😍

Can confirm the talk was wonderful! Can also recommend the book, which would make a fab Christmas present for anyone you know who loves history!

Lovely to be at Alison Bashford’s talk @lancasteruni.bsky.social as a part of the @victorianhand.bsky.social project.

We were thrilled to welcome Professor Alison Bashford to @globalaffairslu.bsky.social yesterday to discuss her new @uchicagopress.bsky.social book, Decoding the Hand. Thank you to everyone who came along to hear insights into the entangled histories of science, medicine and magic!

🚗BEEP BEEP🚗 Reminder that next Tuesday (18 Nov) Dr Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social will be giving the annual Carantes Samain talk online, this time on the extreme right and medievalism! See the link below about how to RSVP. All are welcome! Fáilte roimh chách! carantes.org/2025/10/15/o...