Man, this is so incredibly cool. www.popsci.com/environment/...

Really happy to see this one materialised — it’s been a real pleasure working on it with @vbateman.bsky.social , Tom Quick, and a wonderful group of contributors. Should be available in print and (OA) electronically by May 26!

@upittpress.bsky.social currently has a discount of 40% on their books, including my Nature's Diplomats. The discount code is 29INT40, and the landing page is here: upittpress.org/intersection....

Kan niet helemaal overzien wat hier de gevolgen van zijn maar het zal wel een verkapte aanval op sgw zijn

I still remember watching the Dutch "jeugdjournaal" as a kid (as there was no Belgian equivalent). Fun to now make a brief appearance there. Particularly when it is for talking about a topic like Pablo Escobar's hippos!

Hypothesis: techno-pessimists often travel by train.

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE My home department at Uppsala University is advertising an endowed professorship in the history of science. This is the best position in the field in Sweden, and probably in all of Scandinavia. Apply before 30 April 2026. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

And here finally my contribution to this conversation doi.org/10.1017/S174... in @globalhistjnl.bsky.social. I trace the origins of #corporateenvironmentalism to heterogeneous, private #governance networks in the 1970s that served as alternatives to official UN settings. Also, great title, yes?

Our Faculty kestrel is a beacon of Enlightenment.

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

just a reminder - job opening in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social, deadline February 8

we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social! deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly. vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

A report by 'Microsoft researchers' indicates that historians are the professional group whose work is one of the easiest to replace by AI. The article below shows what's wrong with the report.

Vacancies: Post-doc in Disinformation & European Democracy: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric... Ass. Prof European Political History since 1900: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric... Ass. Prof Political and Social Philosophy: www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3566...

You can probably blame the Dutch royals for lots of things, but not for their choice in Erasmus Prize winners. Hooray for Donna Haraway!

Seeking adventure! Trying to get to Amsterdam from Leuven. By train. During a national railway strike.

*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social! Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30% www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...

Pre-discussing the Dutch elections @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social

Today IUCN has officially declared the Slender-billed Curlew extinct, marking the first known global extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species whose range included mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. Read more here ⬇️ www.unep-aewa.org/fr/node/6632

Just read that the doctoral thesis of Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Niko Tinbergen was 32 pages long. Efficient.

Not so long ago, I wrote about the history of human interactions with (wild) hamsters. A coda in the news today: the Flemish populist right makes the (no longer existing) “hamster coaches” a culture-war target - seemingly to discredit wider biodiversity efforts. www.standaard.be/politiek/de-...

@fasosmaastricht.bsky.social is mooi vertegenwoordigd op het Weekend van de Wetenschap!

I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Grant. Over the next five years I'll be directing the research project "Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health".

My neighbors' red maple. Although considered highly adaptable, this one individual has been suffering under increasingly hot and dry summers. Still, every October, it is my favorite non-native species.

RIP Jane Goodall — she forever transformed what it means to do fieldwork. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

"The report stresses that climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to Europe’s competitiveness." Framing environmental policy in this way may well be strategic, but still sad to see the value of nature primarily expressed in terms of geopolitical and economic competition.

“Ik vind het echt schokkend dat in principe rechtstatelijke partijen als de VVD en de SGP meegaan met de populisten in de Tweede Kamer, die op deze manier de democratische rechtsorde willen inperken.” Beatrice de Graaf is ook vernietigend over hun gedrag: www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/antifa/

On my way back from the "Planetary Futures" conference in Manchester, organized by @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and @duncanwilson78.bsky.social Two days of vibrant discussions on how the humanities can help us understand extinction.

We are seeking a PhD candidate with an interest in East–West European relations (1970s–1990s) to work with me and Aline Sierp. The deadline for submitting proposals is 28 September. vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

Impressions from #eseh2025: a speech by Linnaeus himself, grandiose academic architecture and a quaint natural history museum. But, above all, wonderfully engaging panels and workshops. And, abover all, catching up with old and new friends. Many thanks to the organizers!

Good morning Sweden! On the train towards #eseh2025

Raf De Bont (@rafdebont.bsky.social) discusses how computers changed zoos, touching upon databases, ‘infrastructural globalism’ and transcontinental flows of Siberian tigers! Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S174...

1/ Happy to share that my article “Beyond Homecoming: The Reintroduction of Seven Przewalski’s Mares in the Gobi Desert” has been published in Environmental Humanities. It is the story of seven mares flown from Australian zoos to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in the 1990s doi.org/10.1215/2201... #envhist

Make sure to read @monicavasile.bsky.social's wonderful new article in Environmental Humanities - arguing we should think of reintroduction projects not as a form of 'homecoming', but as 'homemaking'. #MovingAnimals read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta...

New special issue of OSIRIS: "Animal Mobilities" 🐫🐠🐛 The volume was edited by MPIWG Research Scholars Tamar Novick, @lisaonaga.bsky.social, and Gabriel N. Rosenberg of the working groups "Out of Place, Out of Time" and "Proteins and Fibers." 🔗 bit.ly/amv4025 #HistSci #EnvHist #STS #Zoology

📸🪶 Congrats to Pauw Vos on securing an #NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant! His project: "Narratives of the Nest: Early Dutch Bird #Photography and the Visual Construction of Conservation (1890-1940)”. Supervised by @rafdebont.bsky.social & Miriam Meissner.

Warning: DB rant approaching.

The imagined student-professor relationship at Basel university looks rather, uh, Leninist.

"It amounts to misleading your readers scientifically and – pardon me – it is rather questionable as human behaviour." Ethologist Rudolf Schenkel, unhappy about a reference to his work in a book by Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, expresses his frustration in an angry letter in 1968.

New article in Osiris, entitled 'Flying Rhinos', in which I follow two northern white rhinoceroses to discuss the entanglement of mid-twentieth century zoo conservation, colonialism and celebrity culture: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

🤩🤩🤩 Tweede Kamer stemt tegen taaltoets voor anderstalige studies – universiteiten en hogescholen verheugd www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Academische vrijheid staat onder druk en moet beter worden beschermd. Die conclusie lees je vandaag in dit KNAW-rapport: www.knaw.nl/nieuws/knaw-... Aanbevelingen o.m.: meer vrijheid van onderzoek, bescherming tegen intimidatie en minder inhoudelijke overheidsbemoeienis.

Spent the morning in Heerlen at Studio Europa's presentation of a new policy brief on the Digital Services Act. Interesting (and sometimes) sharp discussions on an important topic.

Tiny me buying Puffin books would never have believed I would grow up to write a book for Penguin. I still have several puffin books in my library. Not only did I write a book for Penguin, but it has finally arrived in roarsome real life form. Great time to preorder for 5 June launch (T-26 days).

The Flemish government is condemned for the (near) extinction of the European hamster: www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

Our Annual Research Report is there! It gives a general sense of what the FASoS Research Institute has been up to, and highlights the work of some of our early career Researchers. Have a look! 👇

"At the same time that borders are strengthened, the need for humans and other animals to migrate is being supercharged by climate breakdown. It is a worrying future in multiple respects.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

We don't just need universities to train doctors and engineers... We also need humanists, to help us to understand the world we live in. I am striking because we need to educate the next generation of teachers, journalists, and opinion makers. @tullioviola.bsky.social #WOinACTIE #StakingHO

Check out this great new initiative from my colleagues Darryl Cressman and @masssimons.bsky.social - Society for the History of the Philosophy of Technology. bsky.app/profile/hpts... | @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social | @ccmmody.bsky.social | @rafdebont.bsky.social | @sallywyatt.bsky.social