A new feed for those working at the intersection of nature and society (ecologists, anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, urban planners, etc.). DM me to be added to the list, then use the 🏡 emoji to post to the feed! 🌎🧪 bsky.app/profile/did:...

A while back Historic England asked for my opinion on which was the oldest pub in London. The result is a new online article that outlines the variables, busts some myths, and points to a couple of genuinely ancient pubs in and around the city... heritagecalling.com/2025/09/25/w...

Dubliners— this is today! 4.30pm, John Henry Newman building ⬇️

It's undeniable - I have become my department's grey-beard loon

This is a great post and a wonderful project, which features a little pub history - I'm fascinated by pubs responding to tourist opportunities in this period - and even a temperance hall. Loughborough was a decent temperance town, and you'd need somewhere to go on holiday!

I’m hearing one academic department has over-recruited 500 students. Double the planned number and not enough staff to teach them. Whilst another department has recruited 2 students even after clearing. Who is going to sort out the shitshow that is UK HE?

We’re delighted to publish a new Policy Paper today by Jonathan Moss & @emilyrobinson.bsky.social. They suggest that Mass Observation @massobsarchive.bsky.social - founded in the 1930s - can help us understand the reasons behind contemporary voter apathy. historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...

love my inspiring geography colleagues!! day one of our four-week industrial action, picketing for @uonucu.bsky.social fighting for the future of our university

Hear me discuss temperance and temperance halls on the Morning Advertiser's podcast! Features another appearance for my argument that 'please drink responsibility' is a temperance mission. Interesting contributions from others too.

I hear 'unboxing videos' are a thing. Matilda decided otherwise. It's really exciting as well as sobering to receive my new book (with Mel Nowicki) Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State. Royalties to @seacharity.bsky.social Please order! www.waterstones.com/book/debt-tr...

Some interesting responses in this discussion of open access book publishing... I decided not to go for an OA version of my book, but have worried about that decision ever since. Either way it's clear that academic publishing (of books *and* journals) is in a pretty unhealthy state in the UK

Strike starts TODAY!!! Branch members will be picketing from 8 to 11 today, tomorrow, and Wednesday at UP's west, south, and north entrance and Jubilee's main entrance on Derby road. Come show your support! #StopTheCuts #SaveHE

Solidarity to these colleagues. Will professional bodies like AAG or RGS speak up, even if universities bend the knee?

Dreadful to see this - Farhana Sultana is a stellar academic, with a commitment to social justice. She repeatedly said she was being targeted on this platform & on others. I note her account is deleted. Shame on Syracuse for not standing up for colleagues ⬇️ solidarity to her & Jenn Jackson

Our work resurrecting ice age #ghostponds in the Guardian today @timholtwilson.bsky.social @hburningham.bsky.social @uclgeography.bsky.social ‘Just add water’: how to bring back ancient plants in a Norfolk ghost pond | Wildlife | The Guardian share.google/kO6HQaC4PAUJ...

Fun fact: there are currently only 4 equestrian statues* of #women in the UK: Victoria in Glasgow and Liverpool, Godiva in Coventry, and Elizabeth II in Windsor. The first (Victoria, Glasgow, 1854) was hugely controversial. 1/ [*narrowly defined as subject-on-horse] www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I haven't posted an update on the petition for a while 👇 Over 3600 signatories to date Folk are still signing Thank you

This wonderful, funny piece perfectly captures my complicated feeling about Eno, who has been a big influence on my thinking - an influence which I question more and more as the years go by. A "yes!" & a "hah!" In almost every paragraph. Free read here (the LRB is well worthy of support) :

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Stansky Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period since 1800. www.nacbs.org/news/stansky... @uchicagopress.bsky.social @oxunipress.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

This is a fantastic project, and these case studies and accompanying illustrations are wonderful. There are so many bad takes on pub closures, so these careful, thoughtful studies are really important. Looking forward to more of this work being published and shared @drinkingstudies.bsky.social

Excited to share the first three case study 'long reads' from the After Last Orders project - funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk. Each case study draws on extensive research to tell the story of a pub and the people and places affected by its closure. after-last-orders.lboro.ac.uk

Friendly reminder that you can still send us your proposals! 📝🩺 The workshop is free and open to all 🙌

You've all booked your places, right? goodchemistrybrewing.co.uk/pages/think-...

"Slavery combined with cheap fish made for cheap labour, which in turn made for cheap sugar. Some of this sugar returned to the Northeast and became rum in New England distilleries." - Sandy Hunter niche-canada.org/2023/01/31/c... #envhist #coastalhistory #labourhistory

Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...

This! 👇 Finding someone who can understand a project's often quirky and slightly niche aims (& embrace them) can make all the difference to the final product. And if you use @greenleejw.bsky.social you not only get beautiful maps but you can also sneak eel pictures into your book 😉 #skystorians

The launch of my new @manchesterup.bsky.social book Songs of Seven Dials will be at 6pm, Tues 21 Oct, at Waterstones Covent Garden. I'll be in conversation with the wonderful @julialaite.bsky.social. Please do come along. Free tickets, but register in advance www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/songs-of-s...

Incredibly excited to be able to announce the launch of our London Journal database, compiled by Robert Shoemaker and David Green, with help from @tandfresearch.bsky.social, which offers a valuable insight into how the study of the metropolis's past and present has shifted over the past 50 years. 🧵

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Seminars on 'bad habits', including smoking and drinking (Ivan Markovic, David Beckingham, & some rando ie me), as well as excellent-looking seminars from Olga Petri and James Delbourgo. All available (after registering) via zoom; four can also be heard in person at the IHR, London.

The ENTIRE DEPARTMENT is slated for elimination, but it's still in proposal stage. Here's how to help:

FOR WEDNESDAY: Here is the route of the march against Trump & the far right GATHER: 2pm Portland Place (BBC) MARCH: at 3pm RALLY: 5pm at Parliament Square!!

👀 We’re looking for an Evaluation Consultant! Skilled in quantitative + qualitative research & evaluation reports? Join the Migration Museum to shape the final evaluation of our Collections Project. Budget: £8k | Hybrid (London/UK travel) | Deadline: 29 Sept 2025

CFPs - 'Historicising Commercial Determinants of Health' A workshop as part of the @kthabitproject.bsky.social to be held at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine @lshtm.bsky.social on 15 April 2026 Deadline for abstracts: 13 October #histmed #medhumanities #histSTM

We've had a huge accession of Salvation Army architectural plans covering the whole of the UK. Here are some lovely plans from the new hall at Hendon, designed in 1957 by C Wycliffe Noble

Huge thanks to Gill Hart and Sasha Drennan for the party yesterday evening to launch my book, Gothic Precarity, at @LindumBooks. Lovely to see so many kind friends celebrating publication ❤️ #GothicPrecarity @uniwalespress.bsky.social

📣Calling all new research students in history & historical subjects. Do you want to learn how the IHR can help you during your studies? Join us on the 8 October to find out more. @royalhistsoc.org @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social @historyandpolicy.bsky.social @chppc.bsky.social bit.ly/41UPOyG

This is interesting, on the more detailed thinking behind the ‘improved pub’. I’d add that, at a time of declining volumes, brewers would want to maintain working class pubs as they’d be the ones keeping the mash tuns filled, as the saying went.

EXCL: Reform's first councillor in London is a convicted "slum landlord" who rents out a 33-person HMO. While digging into him I found out one of his former tenants is new Green party leader Zack Polanski. www.the-londoner.co.uk/reforms-firs...

Interesting material about the numbers of people stopping drinking or cutting back - but I wonder about the claim that only about 20% of drinkers are consuming more than 14 units a week, because we know under-reporting is an issue...

With the phrase “unfunded hobbyist research” the new Universities UK President continues a much longer history of contempt that UUK has shown towards the labour of all those who work in universities

Women and alcohol through the life course - @alcoholchangeuk.bsky.social online event, November 12/13 alcoholchange.org.uk/events/chang...

A fascinating read. In "The Unnatural Trade" @brycchancarey.bsky.social shows how almost all early accounts of the slave trade - which British abolitionists later used as evidence - were written by naturalists. And these same natural histories were then used to argue for the colonisation of Africa.

Upshot is that no-longer-quite-so-high tariff universities are continuing to expand student numbers, often while cutting (and certainly not expanding) staff. And they wonder why students don't leave them with high satisfaction scores.

NEW: With a key drinking study reportedly kiboshed by the Dept. of Health & Human Services, Fingers asked 8 major alcohol trade groups whether such political interference in public-health research violated with their stated demands for a process "transparent and free of bias."

Come and work with me - I AM DELIGHTFUL… But, really, this is an incredible opportunity to work with a brilliant team, to innovate and make an impact on an incredible museum.

Fantastic to host the event ‘Pubs in the Community – What Can Be Done to Help Them’ #pubs . Thank you to everyone who attended and supported. And I look forward to working with you soon