I'm so pleased to see that this chapter has been published. It's in a wonderful open access collection, Sexual Violence in Medicine and Psychiatry: Addressing Harms Through Interdisciplinarity which emerged from the SHaME project at Birkbeck. Link here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Note: relatively stable institution; HAPP's a supportive (even harmonious) School; there's another Ancient History colleague; and pay at Queen's is now relatively high (starting salary is junior; post confirmation-in-post, lecturer starts c. £52k, SL starts c. £66k). www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRP030/l...

New blog post! Speculative fiction set in the London Blitz, at the late Elizabethan court, and across the span of six future centuries drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/05/18/m... #booksky #sff #amreading

Every single member of the History Department at Uni of Nottingham is at risk of redundancy. Every single one of us.

#skystorians Please sign and share. Petition to save the Humanities at University of Hertfordshire c.org/kK5v9MTdNr

Celebrating in the pub after the London launch of WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED at @gowerst-books.bsky.social #skystorians #histchild #coldwar

12 May is Mass Observation Day in the UK! If you want to be part of this cool ongoing social history project, read more here - massobs.org.uk/12th-may/

Looking forward to my London double bill this week - I'll be at the IHR tomorrow and Waterstones Gower St on Wednesday. London friends, do come along! #skystorians

Really looking forward to talking with @lauratisdall.bsky.social this Wednesday about her fab new book at Gower St Waterstones - book below if you fancy coming!

Our next seminar is on 12th. May from 17:30 BST. We are looking forward to welcoming back @lauratisdall.bsky.social to hear about her new book, We Have Come to Be Destroyed. @yalepress.bsky.social have given me a discount code for the book to share with attendees! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Crucial point by John Curtis on BBC - Councils flipping from Labour to Reform are because Labour are losing **to the left**, & Cons to Reform Chasing Reform failed Labour; they lost the base & didn’t convince many on the right (Failed Tories too) Watch everyone learn the wrong lesson anyway

Great to see Aditya Chakrabortty pulling apart the language of 'grown-up' or 'adult' politics here, & how 'childish' is used to discredit politicians like Corbyn who dissent from the status quo. Why the language of age matters! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

Excellent opportunity! Hannah is fab! #skystorians

Oooh the second Modern British History job in two days!

Next Tuesday, 12th. May, we will hear from @lauratisdall.bsky.social. Laura will speak about their new book, We Have Come to Be Destroyed. Same time as usual - 17:30 to 19:00, at the IHR or online. Details on registration are in the link. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

HAPPY MAY DAY✊🟥 For Radical May, 'Friends in Common' is half price! Treat yourself! It's a book about friendship & radical struggle, historically & today. It argues that friendship has revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system (1/8)

My best craft advice is "Put a giant worm in it." You can never go wrong with a giant worm. Sci-fi: Giant worm on an alien planet Fantasy: Giant worm in mountain sitting on a pile of gold Horror: Giant worm (eats people) Romance: Giant worm causes third-act breakup Mystery: Giant worm investigates

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

On protecting what matters. @ihr.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @histassoc.bsky.social History UK www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

New blog post! Three books that didn't quite land for me, ranging from epic SF to faux-speculative fiction to contemporary historical fiction set in 90s Tokyo: drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/t... #booksky

The programme's out for @chalkefestival.bsky.social, and I'm so excited to be speaking on 24th June, as well as contributing to the schools programme the day before! All in my old haunt of Wiltshire. See the programme & get tickets here www.chalkefestival.com #skystorians #coldwar #histchild

I may as well reshare it myself 😇

I am so looking forward to chatting with the brilliant @lauratisdall.bsky.social about her ace new book at the Gower St Waterstones on 13 May - book below if you fancy coming!

New link for my London book launch for WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN at Waterstones Gower St on Weds 13th May at 6.30pm - because I'm now in conversation with the fantastic @nataliethomlinson.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/events/we-ha... #skystorians #histchild

The Office for Students was only ever the "I want to be wildly offensive and not face any consequences for my bigotry" office (cf: Toby Young being handpicked to lead it) but, dear god, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social, you don't have better things to do? Multiple universities on the verge of collapse.

bookjotter.com/2026/04/18/winding-up-the-week-467/ #Booklovers #AmReading #Books #BookReview #Reading #bookbloggers @buriedinprint.bsky.social @lauratisdall.bsky.social

London-based #skystorians (and other interested parties!). My London book launch for WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN is at Waterstones Gower St on Weds 13th May at 6.30pm, and I'd love to see you there! Book tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/we-ha... #histchild

London-based #skystorians (and other interested parties!). My London book launch for WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN is at Waterstones Gower St on Weds 13th May at 6.30pm, and I'd love to see you there! Book tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/we-ha... #histchild

New blog post! I review three books about tricky relationships between women: drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/w... #booksky

Also the assumption that all female readers want romance 🙁

While killing dozens of people in Lebanon (MOPH says 112, civil defense counts 250+, until now), Israel still found time to kill another one of our colleagues in Gaza.

Delighted to spot my book in the wild at Collected Books Durham, where I'm doing an event on 7th May! #booksky #histchild

Academics, is there an article or paper that you've published that you feel has slipped under the radar? Reply or quote this post with your overlooked piece! Here's mine... www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

'The number of English language and literature academics fell by 8 per cent to 4,680 – among the largest decrease of all disciplines. And the number employed in modern languages dropped 7 per cent to 4,890. This is 17 per cent below peak levels in 2015-16.' 1/3

Lots and lots of thoughts about Eliana Ramage's debut TO THE MOON AND BACK, but although I had Things To Say, this is definitely a better lesbian/aunt/astronaut novel than ATMOSPHERE drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/p... #booksky

Steen has managed in this article to mis analyse the gender pay gap- it’s not only the care issue, it’s a systemic gendered hierarchy which has existed forever.Even women without children are paid less than their male colleagues! Do better Ms Steen it’s just not about you,it’s the patriarchal system

INCREDIBLY EXCITING BUT ALSO TERRIFYING NEWS. this series is my heart, don't mess it up www.avclub.com/animorphs-tv... #booksky #90skid #animorphs

I finally return to my neglected blog, with reviews of some recent reading plus updates on my own forthcoming book drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/i... #booksky #amreading

Publishing today! A beautifully illustrated compendium of LGBTIQ+ life. 'A queer scrapbook' is a rich archive of histories from across Britain & Ireland. Featuring interviews, photographs & flyers, it captures the diversity of queer & trans lives since WW2. Out now. #booksky

If the estimates were right, there were about 9 million people at No Kings rallies today. That would mean this protest was THIRTY TIMES AS LARGE AS THE TEA PARTY PROTEST which we were told, over and over again, was a massively important sign that US politics had shifted dramatically to the right

Framing here in relation to MS is bizarre but at the same time not unexpected from this government. MS has no cure. RRMS can be treated *to some extent* with DMTs but this is highly individual. Progressive MS is, by definition, progressive. It's *lifelong* /1 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

📣 Call for papers: Caring Communities: Rethinking Histories of Care, Class, and Kinship, 1800-present Newcastle University, Thursday 3 - Friday 4 September 2026. Deadine for submissions: Friday 24 April 2026. caringcommunities.co.uk/conference/

@newcastleuni.bsky.social will be hosting the British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research conference on 7-8 May. Tickets (no charge) for the event go live today at 9am. We have an excellent programme of speakers. Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk @sslh.bsky.social @ialhi.bsky.social

Every time I make the (correct) statement that social media use is not universally bad for teenagers, or state that the best consensus is that it's beneficial-to-neutral for many and any negative effects are a small subset of teenagers, people demand citations (and then refuse to believe them, sigh)

On Tuesday, MPs voted 379 - 137 to decriminalise women accused of ending their own pregnancies. This is a landmark moment for women’s rights and the most significant change to our abortion law since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed. Thank you to all who worked with us on this essential change.

On Thursday I will be chairing our online session on writing history aimed at a wider audience with guests Elliot Prior and Sabhbh Curran from Curtis Brown Literary Agency. All welcome - sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

This was so great! And I don’t THINK anyone could tell that I was quite desperately trying not to cough in the last five minutes.

I'm live on Start the Week this morning on BBC Radio 4 at 9am with two other fantastic guests, being interviewed by the legend that is @naomialderman.bsky.social!