Centre-left politicians worried about anti-car policies polling badly in the short term need to remember: every measure that pushes people to cycle or use public transport ultimately creates more centre-left voters; every measure that leads to more people driving creates more right-wing voters

Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities. It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/

CFP for Slavery North conference on "Rebellion, Resistance, and Refuge: Slavery and Border-Crossing during the American Revolution" @umassamherst.bsky.social 7/9-7/12/2026, abstracts due 12/19/2025 #vastearlyamerica slaverynorth.com/event/call-f... 🗃️

Ok, I finally got around to writing something for the new blog. It's about what else I've been doing with my time lately! buttondown.com/cutterham/ar...

Friends, I could not be more excited to let you know that my book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, is out today from Penguin. I’m super proud of it and super grateful to all the scholars whose work informs it. I hope you’ll take a peek and spread the word! amzn.to/4nHkziG

Not my place, not my period, but I'm looking forward to some "intimate history" in the present tense, in my colleague @tricksterprince.bsky.social's new book.

📣 Calling all PGR students, ECRs, & heritage employees: two weeks left to submit your abstract! With a program of keynote speakers, paper presentations, & 10-minute ‘lightning talks’ to unpack works in progress, we welcome submissions from a range of research interests & disciplinary perspectives.

What it feels like to work in "one of an elite group of School's" these days... 😑

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

An unrivaled opportunity to study in the ‘show me’ state: Thanks to the generosity of the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri, BrANCH is once again pleased to offer a fully-funded place on their MA program in Atlantic History and Politics for 2026-27! www.branch.org.uk/kinderbranch...

Interesting report which resonates with things my students told me when I worked at Birmingham. Proper student journalism is important for holding institutions to account and needs supporting!

Maybe British universities should be treated like failing rail franchises, getting gradually nationalised as they go bust one by one, then run cooperatively, democratically, comprehensively, strategically and collectively for the public good.

Can student journalism survive and thrive? Tanshpreet Kaur and I spent part of the summer talking to student journalists and other interested parties. Our report focuses on Redbrick, the flagship paper here at Birmingham. You can read it here: drive.google.com/file/d/1QiJG...

My interim editorship is over at the end of the academic year and we are hiring a permanent editor of the WMQ! Please share widely!

If you claim “rights” as a citizen that other citizens can’t claim, or rights as a person that other people don’t have, you don’t have rights, you just have privileges

This is, for clarity, exactly my position. A lot of machine learning is amazing (and has been for years!) - you will pry google lens from my cold dead hands f.ex. But poor quality, unnecessary, forced on you, misleading, thieving slopAI is stealing its valour & spoiling the whole brand/concept.

If you're on here you've probably already seen, but there's a 25% discount on these pre-orders at Waterstones, with the code OCTOBER25, until the end of the day on Friday.

If academics could put their energy into one place, it should be toward decentralizing university governance. This won't stop what's about to happen, but it can help make uni restructuring more humane and transparent, and reduce the odds of another HE boom and bust cycle.

I've lived in Birmingham six years. In that time, so far two cyclists have been killed directly along my short commute. Here's wishing big lawsuits on the people who have the power to prevent these results but prefer car owner convenience instead.

In 1776, a Scottish housepainter called James Aitken set out on a secret mission to destroy the British navy and win the War of Independence for the United States. His story is the core of my book, EMPIRE ABLAZE: The American Revolution and the Atlantic Working Class, out next summer with Verso!

UCU hasn't focused on university governance, but it should. Like their Australian counterparts, British universities are "profoundly undemocratic." @markpendleton.bsky.social is right we should learn from those in Australia who are taking the fight forward on this! ucucommons.org/2025/10/03/s...

Meanwhile people are out here writing books in stolen moments, between meetings about steering and assessment, 200 words at a time

Terminal manager-brain, I'm afraid. What's seen as important is not research but the apparatus around research. Partnerships! Capacity-building for these partnerships that you just forced these institutions to form! Assessing and steering!

Tory conference has "8.45am session on the last day of your discipline's big annual meeting" vibes.

📢Call for papers! Benjamin Franklin House is hosting a conference, “Remember the ladies”: Women and Revolution, in London in May 2026! Details are available here: benjaminfranklinhouse.org/event/spring... If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].

Let's make hope normal again. youtu.be/qxt4HCjd7VA?...

Low speeds save lives; asking for higher speeds is a pro-death position, especially for your children and elderly family.

We are building an eco socialist Green Party and we need your help to do that. Still think the party isn’t perfect? Well come help us make it perfect. @frankadlingtons.bsky.social

I'd love to know if the managers of my USS pension are among those now whining for a blank cheque to pollute the country's waterways. Anyone know who's actually part of "London and Valley Water"? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

St John's church, Glastonbury peering out of the mist. Photograph taken this morning from Glastonbury Tor on Michaelmas day.

Every time I open an ebook via the university library I (and therefore presumably my students) get a handy "would you like an AI summary of this chapter?" popup.

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".

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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...