My periodic call for pitches to the 19th-Century Networks section of ✨Literature Compass✨: Do you have a state-of-the-field essay to propose on #Romantic or #Victorian topics? a little-known or understudied author to spotlight? Please get in touch! compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1741...

With contract signed and a couple of preliminary meetings today, it feels like time to announce that from October I’ll be joining UPEN as Policy Engagement Coordinator for the UK-wide ARI Programme. I’m looking forward to joining a fantastic team at UCL and getting stuck in! upen.ac.uk

From developing your PhD, adapting to UK higher education structures, or navigating LinkedIn – is there one right way to be an Early Career Researcher? Join Leonie Smith with @deseonu.bsky.social and Burcin Baskurt in Ep 1 of #ConfessionsOfAnECR podcast. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/audio-video/...

We are currently open to receiving proposals for themed issues with @advancesjournal.bsky.social, which is published through Taylor and Francis, and is the official journal of @incsa.bsky.social. If you have ideas for a collection, email me. Details👇 in-csa.com/themed-speci...

Been saying this repeatedly - it's not a 'bit', I genuinely don't understand why we waste our time teaching students about research ethics if we're encouraging them to use tools that ignore every single one of those requirements. If we support skipping ethics why just for genAI? sheer hypocrisy.

in this week's newsletter! an essay on being bad at playing Silksong, and going to watch classics at the cinema and hating them, and more broadly on the wonders of........trying: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/why-not-wa... [free to read!]

Want to sign an apologetic letter? Don't just include your signature, do what Charles Grenfell has done in this 1870s letter: draw a little sketch of yourself and say that you 'feel quite idiotic'.

Discover India's rich humanist heritage from ancient Charvaka philosophy to modern secular ideals. Join our expert panel discussion on 16 October online. humanists.uk/events/explo...

After some delay on the part of yours truly 🙄 the recording of our Sept. #RSVPDigiEvent on grantscrafting is now live on YouTube. And just in time - Curran Fellowships are due in just a few short weeks on Oct. 15! Many thanks to our panelists + to Clare Horrocks for chairing! youtu.be/L5XRtqh1qoE

I have been blessed with some amazing mentors & networks! Here's my bit paying it forward & expressing my gratitude in, "Confessions of an Early Career Researcher: A podcast by ECRs, for ECRs" by @britishacademy.bsky.social & @leverhulme.ac.uk #CityStGSCC @citystgeorges.bsky.social

London's @conwayhall.bsky.social is one of two surviving buildings in the UK built for the non-religious. A humanist building, it was a place where non-religious people could gather and find community. It opened #OnThisDay 1929. Take the virtual tour with @humanismedu.bsky.social ⬇️

Join me next Tuesday to discuss a fascinating paper that reconstructs a group biography of twelve women whose commitment to freethought is evidenced through their wills. All are welcome to join this webinar on history of (non)religion, women's lives, and archives - details below!

Keir Starmer: “we hate immigrants they’ve caused incalculable damage” Also Keir Starmer: “why don’t immigrants want to come and work here? 😌”

The first 3 episodes are now live. Catch up with Episode 1 here: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/audio-video/... And to join the British Academy's ECR Network (it's free for UK SHAPE postdocs within 10 years of the PhD) see www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/early-career...

Check out this new podcast for ECRs - I’m proud to have been one of the guests on episode 3, where we talk about the importance of networks and mentors, and where to find them!

On Tuesday 30 Sept I’ll be the respondent to Nyala Karla Nauwelaer’s paper ‘The feminization thesis under scrutiny: the case of the freethinking women of Ghent (late 19th - early 20th century)’. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating conversation! www.aehrc.es/sfm-nyala-ka...

Any insider information on this, or simply good guesses, welcome!

On Tuesday 30 Sept I’ll be the respondent to Nyala Karla Nauwelaer’s paper ‘The feminization thesis under scrutiny: the case of the freethinking women of Ghent (late 19th - early 20th century)’. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating conversation! www.aehrc.es/sfm-nyala-ka...

I’m delighted to be part of this term’s London 19th Century Studies Seminar line up, and on a periodicals panel with @andrewkingc19.bsky.social no less! Join us at Senate House on Tues 14 Oct - all welcome!

A wonderful opportunity with good financial support for a scholar of British periodicals of the 19th c to have time to research, write, think for a period of 4 mos.

South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories doesn’t just host its own oral histories - it also features interviews from external collections. Dive into these stories at southasianbritain.org/oral-histories/external-collections #SouthAsianBritain #OralHistory @UoBArtsMatter @BL_Learning @QMULsed

I was looking into the famous Birmingham scientist-philosopher-poet Constance Naden and wondered what the address she was born at, 15 Francis Road, Edgbaston, looks like now. I think it might be Dixy Chicken?

Problematic (to put it kindly) on so many levels. 1) there isn't really 'unfunded' research. The REF is there to allocate resources so that research is possible without a grant.

'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”' Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.

This is a stunning project - the chain links encapsulate strands of hair. Particularly interesting for those of us fascinated by Victorian hair work jewellery!

📢Call for Abstracts: PPE for Public Policy Graduate Conference at King’s College London 📅 Date: 26th Nov 2025 ✍️ CfA: 400 words (by 29th Sep) ➡️ Details & Application Form: tinyurl.com/5n7xv5cr #CfA #CfP #PPE #Econsky #Philsky #Polisky #Policysky

Uruguay now produces up to 98% of its electricity from renewables Today, the country has almost phased out fossil fuels in electricity production. Depending on the weather, anything between 90% and 95% of its power comes from renewables. In some years, that number has crept as high as 98%.

This is a brilliant opportunity. Happy to answer any questions if anyone is interested in applying!

We have a wonderful line up of keynote speakers for RSVP-Dublin: KATHERINE BODE (Australian National University) will deliver the Wolff keynote and ANDREW LEWIS and TEJA VARMA PUSAPATI will be in conversation for the Colby keynote! And you too can be there - submit a proposal by Nov 1.

So @theturing.bsky.social has decided they no longer need Humanities (!) - so the The Alan Turing Institute’s Humanities and Data Science Interest Group are having one final event: "Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration" In person and online, Oxford, 25th Sept. Pls share!

Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913) was an intellectual icon of the Victorian era ✍️ Alison Stone has created a fantastic #openaccess resource containing many of her diverse writings, inc lots of newly attributed journalism, plus a short biography and comprehensive bibliography. www.juliawedgwood.org

Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913) was an intellectual icon of the Victorian era ✍️ Alison Stone has created a fantastic #openaccess resource containing many of her diverse writings, inc lots of newly attributed journalism, plus a short biography and comprehensive bibliography. www.juliawedgwood.org

I'll be running a workshop on 'thinking about impact' at the EC Festival in Derby on 18 Sept. Join us to explore how #EcologicalCitizenship is practised through creativity, community, and collaboration. 📣 Register now - attendance is free & incs lunch! ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/upcoming-eve...

I'll be running a workshop on 'thinking about impact' at the EC Festival in Derby on 18 Sept. Join us to explore how #EcologicalCitizenship is practised through creativity, community, and collaboration. 📣 Register now - attendance is free & incs lunch! ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/upcoming-eve...

Some words of support for the UK’s Black and Asian populations - 1 in 6 people - that racism won’t be tolerated might be useful from our government right now but no they’re waving 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 flags.

This time last year I co-organised a public history festival on the secular freethought movement at @conwayhall.bsky.social. Great to see that the fascinating panel about the @thefreethinkermag.bsky.social (est. 1881 and still going today) is now online - check it out! m.youtube.com/watch?v=I5KJ...

Spent the morning seeing if I could map some of London pornographers' addresses during the mid-19th century w/ the National Library of Scotland's georeferenced maps. Did I need to do this? Probably not. But very neat to see some of them laid out spatially.

We're delighted to be hosting another interdisciplinary conversation with @nonreligioncf.bsky.social! Join us on Wed 29 October for a discussion of the relationship between science and nonreligion, from the perspectives of historians and social scientists. Sign up: uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

If you have published anything, please consider doing this. The window is closing and you should get your details registered now for a chance at a settlement. The form works wherever in the world you are based.

For German speakers (readers), there is an article about the project in taz, with some comments from Carolin Kosuch: taz.de/Atheismus-an...

We are proud to be a partner in the project European Entangled Atheisms, funded by the German Research Foundation and led by Carolin Kosuch, Göttingen. Next month, the group will meet to discuss the first steps in what will be a digital source edition on the history of atheism. tinyurl.com/38rzwrmk

Just sharing the “Xtreme endnotes” assignment @parisnoire.bsky.social mentions here in case anyone else finds it helpful as we begin a new academic year. FWIW, it’s a purely analog exercise in an AI-freaky world & my students have never not had fun doing it.✌🏽 www.historians.org/perspectives...

If your research centrally involves the 19th-c. British press, you should for sure consider applying for a Curran Fellowship. Anybody can apply, and the process is blessedly straightforward. My late friend Eileen Curran would be proud to see all the fine projects that her generosity has assisted in.

Full text here:

refugees are being housed in hotel rooms that do not meet their basic needs: families are being housed in rooms with no cooking facilities, nowhere for children to play, frequent reports of mould, damp, vermin. if an MP can’t explain that to constituents what are we doing here.

pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social ! July 2026, Loughborough University. www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...

Following on from my last post, do any of my followers know the original source of this woodcut? Again, I don't need easy to find Google search information. I'm after the original reference only.

teachers! excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone. take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE against-a-i.com

Interesting & critical review of the new V&A Storehouse by @profdanhicks.bsky.social artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

My book is out! Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile, with Cambridge UP @universitypress.cambridge.org. I am so grateful to the friends, family, colleagues, librarians and archivists who helped along the way. Nervous and excited to see it in the world! www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...