I have acquired a precious collectors object from today's proceedings, not yet signed. Folks very generously decided to overlook me attempting to sneak away a copy.

So proud to represent History Workshop Journal @historyworkshop.org.uk at the @socialhistsoc.bsky.social Festival of Social History with @lauracforster.bsky.social! Issue 100, our amazing digital magazine, and Jonathan Saha's wonderful HWJ prints all on display!

"Genocide. I keep turning the word over. It always seems to arrive too late. By the time it reaches us, by the time it becomes part of our soundwaves, our background ambience, countless lives have already gone." suzan meryem rosita on the vocabulary of genocide and war.

How might historians write nonviolently about violence? In this personal essay, suzan meryem rosita reflects on the vocabulary of genocide and war.

A stunning essay from @historyworkshop.org.uk this week - on murder, language, and the burden of bearing witness.

Remarkable. A powerful meditation on the choices that produce violence—and how we tell them.

"Genocide. I keep turning the word over. It always seems to arrive too late. By the time it reaches us, by the time it becomes part of our soundwaves, our background ambience, countless lives have already gone." suzan meryem rosita on the vocabulary of genocide and war.

The beautiful images in this essay are all courtesy of Tammam Azzam. www.tammamazzam.com

If this whets your appetite for #LesbianHistory, I've got two fun open access pieces for you to dive into: A chapter on British lesbian safer-sex activism www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK616... And an article on queer women's health activism in 90s Birmingham! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

How might historians write nonviolently about violence? In this personal essay, suzan meryem rosita reflects on the vocabulary of genocide and war.

To mark Lesbian Visibility Week here is a selection of articles from our queer history archive 🌈🗃️ First up is @sexhistorian.bsky.social discussing the slippery history of the dental dam and lesbian health activism.

To mark Lesbian Visibility Week here is a selection of articles from our queer history archive 🌈🗃️ First up is @sexhistorian.bsky.social discussing the slippery history of the dental dam and lesbian health activism.

The Inner Life of Politics: Grassroots Activism in West Germany, 1962-1983 13 May, Bloomsbury InnerLifeOfPolitics.eventbrite.co.uk Belinda J Davis explores new understandings of where & how change takes place with significant implications for our present @bbkhistorical.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social

In August 2025, our editorial collective spent an afternoon exploring the contents of the History Workshop archive held @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social 🗃️ Marybeth Hamilton, Elly Robson, Mary Katherine Newman, Marral Shamshiri, Vivien Chan and Beckie Rutherford reflect on their radical findings.

OTD in 1970, the first Earth Day took place across the USA, one year after an oil spill off the coast of California killed 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions. Activists and historians discuss solutions to the environmental crisis in this podcast from the History Workshop archive.

OTD in 2019 the Easter Attacks led to mob violence and riots against the minority Muslim community in Sri Lanka. In this piece from the archive, @shamaraw.bsky.social considers the historical roots of these attacks and the genealogy of communal violence in Sri Lanka.

My article on 1970s feminists, spycops, and if feminist historians can use materials extracted by undercover police officers is out in History Workshop Journal doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...

OTD in 1944, a photograph was taken of an Indian woman building a runway on an airbase. Few records exist of the displaced, destitute women who provided the labour fundamental to Allied operations in colonial eastern India during WW2. @urvikhaitan.bsky.social explores these radical photographs.

Another wonderful obituary of Jinty Nelson, this one by @magistraetmater.bsky.social for @historyworkshop.org.uk academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

"Channel Four seemed to really embrace it ... They had a massive plan and they were almost building the television equivalent of the journal." @maryknewman.bsky.social on the 1980s History Workshop television project.

"There’s this real sense of connecting a personal, almost existential crisis with the bigger impetus, of using History Workshop, or the reasons for History Workshop, to generate a personal sense of purpose." @inoutofpractice.bsky.social on the founding mission of HWJ.

"I keep coming back to this tension between the bureaucratised, professional academic work of the journal and the heart and spirit of its politics, what it represents." @marralsham.bsky.social on balancing a radical vision with growing professionalisation.

"It’s interesting that without explicitly knowing the history of the History Workshop movement, we’ve been tapping into that ethos instinctively." @ellydezateux.bsky.social on the lineage between History Workshop Journal and the present-day magazine, History Workshop.

"You can see articles built out of things pulled together from different files. It’s exciting to see it as a creative enterprise taking place in that way." @marybethhamilton13.bsky.social on the creative methods of the early HWJ editors.

"I assumed that their discussions around how to do oral history would feel a bit more uncertain and experimental, but they seem to have known exactly what they were doing with it from the very beginning." @beckierutherford.bsky.social on HWJ and oral history.

Hi Claire - check out Brayshay, B., Papadakis, S. (2026) The Archive as Activism History Workshop   www.historyworkshop.org.uk/environment-... and the link to and link to a more extensive article in History Workshop Journal 100th edition

The Inner Life of Politics: Grassroots Activism in West Germany, 1962-1983 Belinda J Davis (Rutgers) 13 May, Bloomsbury InnerLifeOfPolitics.eventbrite.co.uk What is the nature and timeline of political change and how should its success be assessed? And why do stories matter in grassroots politics?

"Channel Four seemed to really embrace it ... They had a massive plan and they were almost building the television equivalent of the journal." @maryknewman.bsky.social on the 1980s History Workshop television project.

"There’s this real sense of connecting a personal, almost existential crisis with the bigger impetus, of using History Workshop, or the reasons for History Workshop, to generate a personal sense of purpose." @inoutofpractice.bsky.social on the founding mission of HWJ.

"I keep coming back to this tension between the bureaucratised, professional academic work of the journal and the heart and spirit of its politics, what it represents." @marralsham.bsky.social on balancing a radical vision with growing professionalisation.

"It’s interesting that without explicitly knowing the history of the History Workshop movement, we’ve been tapping into that ethos instinctively." @ellydezateux.bsky.social on the lineage between History Workshop Journal and the present-day magazine, History Workshop.

"You can see articles built out of things pulled together from different files. It’s exciting to see it as a creative enterprise taking place in that way." @marybethhamilton13.bsky.social on the creative methods of the early HWJ editors.

"I assumed that their discussions around how to do oral history would feel a bit more uncertain and experimental, but they seem to have known exactly what they were doing with it from the very beginning." @beckierutherford.bsky.social on HWJ and oral history.

In August 2025, our editorial collective spent an afternoon exploring the contents of the History Workshop archive held @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social 🗃️ Marybeth Hamilton, Elly Robson, Mary Katherine Newman, Marral Shamshiri, Vivien Chan and Beckie Rutherford reflect on their radical findings.

OTD in 1757, magistrate John Fielding published an advertisement for Henry Win, a young man who had escaped from his enslavers in Wales. From the HW archives, read more about the racist origins of modern policing in the US and UK. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/shackles-and...

And the officer commanding was Irish. It's important we remember that we participated in the horrors of the Empire as well as suffered them. There are no magic people in this world.

OTD in 1919, troops of the British Indian Army fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians in Amritsar, Punjab, killing 400 and injuring over 1000 more. From the HW archives, an episode of our podcast explores that event. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/s2-e5-the-vi...

I have a new article in @historyworkshop.org.uk that explores the resourcing of feminist activism in the 1970s. Come for the rants about typing, stay for the study of jumble sales as feminist praxis! 🗃️ academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

many women participated in the revolutionary movement... joined underground networks, manufactured explosives, and participated in acts of political violence, however, remain largely absent from both public memory and archival records.

Such a great read!

"Radical acts did not occur only in moments of armed rebellion but in the everyday decisions that brought women into the orbit of political struggle." Oyeshi Ganguly sheds light on the Agnijug Archive, an oral history project documenting India’s revolutionary movements.

Such a pleasure to edit this fascinating article on gender, surveillance, revolution and colonial rule!

How did radical women navigate Bengal's 'age of fire'? Oyeshi Ganguly explores what oral history can tell us about the female revolutionaries who took up arms against British rule.

How does cinema convey historical knowledge for popular education? Viviane Saglier on Annemarie Jacir’s film, ‘Palestine 36’ (2025).

'Its pedagogical strategy is not only to illustrate but to cite, and in doing so, to be in conversation with Palestinian forebearers through a cinema-led revolutionary education'. Viviane Saglier discusses Annemarie Jacir's recent film, 'Palestine 36' (2025).

How does cinema convey historical knowledge for popular education? Viviane Saglier on Annemarie Jacir’s film, ‘Palestine 36’ (2025).

Must-watch film.

'Its pedagogical strategy is not only to illustrate but to cite, and in doing so, to be in conversation with Palestinian forebearers through a cinema-led revolutionary education'. Viviane Saglier discusses Annemarie Jacir's recent film, 'Palestine 36' (2025).

More publication news!! @sashahandley.bsky.social and my new co-authored article, 'Sleep, Scent, and Household Medical Care in Early Modern England', is now available open access in @historyworkshop.org.uk ! Based on research for @sleepingwelluom.bsky.social academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

History Workshop is a great podcast btw