Kinder Institute assistant prof, constitutional and legal history, 1750-1860!

I'm proud to be from a country where students go to university to explore research and knowledge, and I actually think society needs *fewer* crypto-hustling drop-shippers who aspire to live in Dubai

Just smashing the reset button again and again and again as smoke pours out of my computer and flames begin to lick the edge of the screen. One more reset might just do the trick, I think, as the acrid smell of disintegrating hardware fills the room...

Every now and then they just openly say "the value of this brown person is that they'll give us more latitude for our racist policies".

👏

Reminder that Birmingham, second biggest city in the UK, whose city council is led by this man, hasn't had domestic recycling services for 8 months due to a pay dispute. The only way to get to recycling centres is with a private vehicle. #CarBrain

Can I just ask what exactly is up with these Early American Studies spines, @easmisc.bsky.social? My delicate aesthetic sensibilities are shook.

Still can’t believe cutting skilled and experienced frontline admin, hiring a billion Dean level overseers, and passing tasks down to academics who will either do them grumpily or not at all isn’t working? Maybe rolling out a new IT project can smooth this one over

It's my experience (from 25 yrs of teaching) that "learning management" tools like Canvas do nothing to facilitate student learning & make my job MORE, not less, time consuming. That additional time I put in contributes zero to improving the student experience. But Canvas gets our money regardless.

“Many Swedish cities, including #Stockholm, prioritize snow clearance very differently. They now clear walkways & bike paths first, especially those near bus stops & primary schools. Next, they clear local roads, & then, finally, highways.” usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/w...

"Sandstorm" playing in my head all the time and I can only conclude this is a sign of (deadline-related) stress. One week to go!

Delighted to vote for @davehitchcock.bsky.social and @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social for the RHS Council, brilliant colleagues and advocates who also happen to be great historians.

The earliest European representation of a capybara from "A Relation of a voyage" (1698) - a reminder of my fellowship this summer @marshslibrary.bsky.social

"The Historian will be responsible for supervising and shepherding approximately a dozen fellows’ research projects per year... PhD preferred." 😬

For me, the whole art of writing consists in trying to find ways to start paragraphs with something other than the word "the."

We're excited to finally share our fantastic programme: warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his... We are looking forward to hearing from our excellent speakers, covering an array of perspectives and approaches to early modern nonconformity! All welcome! Register to attend: warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his...

Not to mention not great for the students being subjected to said generic skills training! Literally no-one likes that!

At the stage of book-writing where composing emotional "acknowledgements" in my head seems like a normal thing to be doing.

I swear half of editing a draft is just deleting the word "had" over and over.

At Birmingham we've had two fantastic Ottoman historians in the last decade, both trained at Chicago and both committed to spreading language training here. These barbaric cuts at Chicago will have knock-on effects.

For the catalogue of claims that aged poorly:

Thinking of Barbara Clark Smith, inspirational historian of "the freedoms we lost," especially while the Smithsonian is under political attack in the run-up to the semiquincentennial.

Just paid some money to "The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London," which isn't quite as catchy as SPQR but still something that kind of warms my heart.

In case my non-UK followers aren't up to date on our own slide into fascism:

"To our Founders, in contrast, freedom was a collective possession, not a private one. Freedom was only possible in a free state in which the people or their representatives actively made the rules that govern their shared life."

Okay I made a poster about it, will spend some time later this week being a menace. (Link to template in reply if you want a copy).

"violent criminal damage"

Tugging further on this fascinating historical thread... This painting shows Sir Harry Harper with a favourite horse, Furiband, and an unnamed groom, c. 1774: could this be a portrait of "Jockey Jack"? I certainly hope so! #18c

These things I know: a reminder is always stark, a reader is always avid, a swathe is always vast, and smorgasbord is always, always veritable.

Arguably the greatest thing ever committed to print

Essential questions that I want to see someone try to answer.

I don't normally post about university league tables, but...

I'll tell you what Bailyn and Wood got right all the way back in the 60s: pithy title, basically no subtitle.

My Birmingham colleague Hiroki Shin is looking for a one-year, full-time Research Fellow for his project, "The Ascent Of Paper Currency In Britain, 1690s–1920s." Deadline in August! edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Think this is also true (in a less intense way) here in the UK. There was a time when students might have turned out to try and save higher education from government-condoned collapse, but universities have happily helped crush student politics and activism over the last couple of decades.

Shaimaa’s PhD will be funded by @sgsah.bsky.social (supervised by @hannahkateboast.bsky.social Will Tattersdill & me, in partnership with @commapress.bsky.social) - but she is currently trapped in Gaza unless the UK Gov relaxes its requirement for biometric data bsky.app/profile/comm...

This is quite amazing. @whitakeralmanac.bsky.social highlights how a male scholar came along, completely ignoring the previous (& more sophisticated) work of a female scholar, @enwright.bsky.social) - & has gotten raves from popular press & historians with no knowledge of Game Studies.

WE ARE HIRING @edgehist.bsky.social!!! For a PERMANENT American historian (broadly defined). Quite a tight turnaround (institutional processes) but no internal candidate/nefarious intent. GORGEOUS campus, lovely team, amazing students. APPLY! #skystorians 🗃️ jobs.edgehill.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

re: Netanyahu at Monticello, I suppose my only thoughts are that as a longtime museum worker I’m feeling for the many many staff who must be blindsided, devastated, furious, and deeply hurt by the institution’s choice to welcome him

My institution's VC today: "I was honoured to attend the annual awards ceremony of the Royal Academy of Engineering as a guest of Rolls-Royce..." Also today:

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27. Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team. www.historyworkshop....

This is … the best local TV political coverage I’ve ever seen

I wrote this for the 4th of July. The revolution doesn't belong to MAGA, and neither does America: working people in the revolution offer an example for those of us who believe in equality and freedom buttondown.com/anotherway/a...

Does anyone know anyone who can make maps for history books? I'm belatedly realising this might be useful, and also obviously books with maps are always at least 10% cooler.

Look, if a management consultant can't understand and regurgitate your programme of higher education on a single powerpoint slide, it's simply too complex to be of any value.

Stumbled across this neat summary of how most scholars seem to have read and applied The Making of the English Working Class: as a negative argument about the non-existence of a working class in the earlier eighteenth century.

To live in the UK is to be gaslighted daily. We are told that the biggest threat to free speech is from trans rights activists on the day that Palestine Action will be banned and offences for up to 14 years imprisonment can be incurred for expressing support for them.

Wonderful to celebrate eighteenth-century studies at @unibirmingham.bsky.social last week, with colleagues and friends of BECC both new and old. Thanks to everyone who took part!

This is the kind of success story that Yvette Cooper is so terrified you might read, she’s going to try and make sure it vanishes and that publishing anything similar would be illegal palestineaction.org/barclays-div...