The Wolfson History Prize shortlist for 2025 is announced. Good reading.

Great opportunity for Early Career Researchers and PhD students led by the GIS Sociabilités/Sociability Network: 'Sociability and the Travelling Letter: Message, Medium, Mobility in Europe and the Colonies in the Long Eighteenth Century'. Brest, March 2026 gis-sociabilites.org/cfp-young-re...

I should identify the Geo-locator expert as Steven Batty at Sheffield Hallam in case you want to acknowledge him in any way in future

For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

Lecturer in Irish/British History King's College London - Department of #History #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU178/l...

This deserves *way* more attention than it’s getting Reform’s former Wales leader admits he received corrupt payments in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

Stoke-on-Trent heritage job!

Anybody in the Stevenage area have available an accessible room or studio flat to rent? My daughter is starting a PhD next week and the flat that we hoped she be in by now looks like it is going to fall through. Thanks

If you write professionally in the UK, make sure to sign up to ALCS for your fair share of royalties

Great news in era of disappearing/disappeared archives: 'Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust combine support for the Humanitarian Archive Emergency (HAE) project based at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at The University of Manchester.' @leverhulme.ac.uk @wellcometrust.bsky.social

The financial realities of university life for some students; how do we imagine this funding system is fair, or conducive to a positive university experience for many?

A real, honest to goodness, entry-level, permanent, academic job in Economic History! #Economic #history #ecr #academic www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT480/a...

Check out the Sutton Trust's Elitist Britain 2025 report. Link to report: www.suttontrust.com/our-research... @suttontrust.bsky.social

'The OfS said providers rated bronze had little incentive to improve under the previous system. Under the proposed changes, their student number growth would be restricted until they could demonstrate higher quality.' 3/3

'Published ratings would be linked to a new “strengthened set of incentives and interventions”. Institutions that deliver the highest quality – those rated gold or silver – could be eligible for certain funding streams, such as world-leading specialist provider funding.' 2/3

'The English regulator is planning to limit the number of additional students universities can recruit if they perform poorly in a revised version of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).' 1/3

(Chorlton does have the Unicorn though, which I defy any London suburb to out-middle class)

'More generally, the university funding model has become a lot more complex....Significant implications arise from factors such as the win or loss of a sizeable grant and the number of international and domestic undergraduate and postgraduate students recruited each year.' 2/2

'All of this is happening as the traditional sources of cross-subsidy are coming under pressure from policy shifts and economic volatility. That is particularly true of international student income: this is now needed to help plug the shortfall in the teaching of UK students as well'. 1/2

'Based on the outcomes of this super-TEF and prioritised based on assessment of risk, OfS will make interventions (including controls on recruitment and the conditions of degree awarding powers) and targeted investigation. This is a first stage consultation only, stage two will come in August 2026.'

Sutton Trust report: 'Only three categories were below the national average – male professional footballers at 5%, female professional footballers at 4% and the Northern Ireland assembly, where nobody attended a fee-paying school.' 1/2

'From 2027, researchers will be eligible to apply for a starting grant immediately after receiving their PhD and for up to 10 years afterwards. Currently, the eligibility criteria require applicants to have two to seven years of experience since their PhD completion.' 2/3

'The European Research Council (ERC) has announced changes to its grant eligibility criteria for the 2027 calls for proposals, with scholars able to apply for a starting grant directly after finishing their PhD.' 1/3

Angela Lansbury at 100: Celebrating her Stardom and Legacy Conference registration now open angelalansbury100.wordpress.com

CW: Rape Reporting this absolutely horrific story as an ‘isolated incident’ in the same week we’re seeing such extensive coverage of far-right rallies is doing far more than not connecting the dots. Meanwhile, I hope this woman finds justice and peace. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Professor Christopher Duffy was greatly admired and is greatly missed but I had no idea about this. www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/histori...

🎨 Apply by 29 Sept 2025 for a £10,000 Artist Residency at Mount Stewart, Co. Down! Part of the Historic Houses, Global Crossroads research, the 6-week residency (May–June 2026) invites artists to explore global plant networks & reimagine the site’s ecological legacy🌿See link in thread.

'Analysis of almost 45,000 courses in Times Higher Education’s Courses 360 databases found that roughly 3,900 had shut down between 2024-25 and the upcoming academic year.' 1/2

The privatisation of children’s social care has been a policy catastrophe - matched by the equivalent catastrophe in adult social care. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

UC-Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names “related” to anti-semitism, mostly for voicing support for Palestinians. Judith Butler is among them, she calls this “McCarthyism” UC Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names in antisemitism probe www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Some 'believe more radical action [than simply reducing the % from 25%] is on the cards. That could include the scrapping of PCE altogether, with research culture becoming a regulatory matter in which universities are required to hit minimum standards as a condition of funding.' 2/2

'Pausing the Research Excellence Framework (REF) amid concerns over its controversial environment section could signal the start of more fundamental shift away from an institutional focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, say experts.' 1/x

There’s nothing traditional about a “tradwife”, writes Victoria Bateman. “Women have always been at the heart of the economy, doing everything from building pyramids to mining coal and brewing beer.”

Thank goodness term doesn’t start till next week so there won’t be a massive queue in IT support to help with my broken laptop. Oh.

Major new book edited by Manchester University experts asks whether addressing climate change requires stability or conflict northwestbylines.co.uk/region/great...

UK business schools take a hit in FT's rankings. Another financial pressure for the university sector to absorb, without a discernible plan from above about how to do so. Specialise out of the problem? Collaborate out of it? Hmmm.

'The Centre for Cities’ work is valuable because it reminds us that universities are not ivory towers. As well as being home to libraries and laboratories, they are civic hubs with myriad ties to the towns and cities in (or near) which they are based.' 2/2

'Changes to visa rules and a new levy on international student fees threaten to undermine the sector – with alarming knock-on effects in places where universities play an especially important economic and cultural role.' 1/2

Farage is completely wrong. Universities are poisoning students’ minds by teaching them business and management.

Sounding the #jobklaxon for my esteemed colleagues @stsucl.bsky.social and paging the #STS #HistSTM #EnvHums feeds!

Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

🎉📣 Announcing the IHR Research Training Courses for October - December 2025. Visit the IHR website to register and find detailed information on each course: www.history.ac.uk/study-traini...

One month left to submit an abstract for our conference 'Bound for Devotion: The Prayer Book as Object and Practice, 1300–1800', 1-3 July 2026 in Leiden: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20... #medieval #earlymodern #bookhistory

“We reject the far right’s racist lies about ‘protecting’ women and girls. They are not defenders of women – they exploit violence against women to fuel hate and division." Words that very much need to be said.

'Right now, while UK universities are focused on financial survival, they are neglecting their equally vital role of supporting academic excellence. A large part of the problem lies in the breakdown of constructive communication between leadership and those on the ground.' 2/2

'universities are not companies...their leaders do not play a direct role in fulfilling the academic mission. Their role is twofold: to ensure the financial solvency of the institution, and to create the conditions in which academic staff and students can pursue excellence. Both are essential.' 1/2

Imagine the message it would send if Gary Lineker won 'Presenter of the Year' at this year's National Television Awards Standing up for compassion & the right to speak out And, the feathers it would ruffle My lovely followers, you know what to do: nationaltvawards.com/vote 🗓️ Deadline: 12th Sep

Job Opportunity! Hong Kong History Centre Research Associate: Oral History University of Bristol - Department of History (Historical Studies) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOL945/h...

Almost £1bn of goods from the Chinese region of Xinjiang, known for widespread reports of forced labour against Uyghurs & other Muslim minorities, have been imported into the UK in the last 12 months - despite UN warning of potential crimes against humanity in the region inews.co.uk/news/uk-800m...

We have just started taking bookings for 2026, so if you are looking for a truly special venue to host your wedding, please contact our Wedding organiser, Michelle Hill, at [email protected], or complete the form using the link below: www.theportico.org.uk/weddings