Best news !! @csloan.bsky.social

Beautiful trees and blue sky for Boxing Day in Birmingham

This is such an insane situation, we are driving regularly Oxford to Birmingham to (amongst other things) help mother-in-law with her rubbish at the moment

Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google. My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence! go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT

Outlook to stop sending 'note to self' when I want to follow up with a second reply to an email challenge. I do not, and have never, wanted to reply to myself in that way.

The @histchild.bsky.social conference is coming to the @sheffielduni.bsky.social in July 2026. Call for papers has been extended until Monday 22nd December. Please share - especially with research students and ECRs! www.histchild.org/pages/sheffi...

Let's be very clear what's happened: the BMA has been trying to negotiate with the govt for months (when there was no flu epidemic). As late as November the BMA were trying to get round the table & wrote a letter to Wes Streeting. He didn't bother replying.

@lewisgoodall.com ??

How come the media isn't reporting what is going on in universities? The implications of this (and this is just 1 of many universities doing the same) are terrifying. For the local populations, for the towns affected, for the next generation, for research & development, for the future! #academicsky

V cool to be hearing paper from Luisa - who I met in very early days of our PhDs in Cambridge, when we were both lost while trying to find the CamPop seminar

V cool to be hearing paper from Luisa - who I met in very early days of our PhDs in Cambridge, when we were both lost while trying to find the CamPop seminar

Oxford friends - beware this hellish cold/flu so many ppl have got; wish I’d worn a mask and brought my hepa filter to seminars last week. In bed since Thursday, high high temps, shivering, body aches, nausea, sore throat, testing neg for Covid but this is v nasty

Fancy joining us in Oxford? The Koch History Centre is inviting applications for next year's fellowships and senior fellowships, on the theme 'Scarcity and Abundance'. Applications close at noon on 17th Dec. For details, see: www.history.ox.ac.uk/vacancies#ta... Image: Valentin_21, Pexels

🚨 Applications are now open for the 2026–27 Koch History Centre Fellowships at Oxford! We are seeking 12 historians (9 junior, 3 senior) for a one-year fellowship at Wadham College & the Faculty of History. This year’s theme: “Scarcity and Abundance” Deadline: 17 Dec 2025 Please share widely!

@oxfordcitycouncil.bsky.social - how about it?

What an amazing offer!

@brepols.net Hello - I'm trying to use BBIH but everytime I click on a title, I just get the blank screen of doom (see screenshot). I've checked my safari settings and don't have any obvious content or popup blockers that would lead to this - any insight? It's making BBIH unusable for me.

Very excited for @sarahknott.bsky.social inaugural lecture this evening

Really looking forward to hearing Matilda's paper on Anders Zorn this week

Exciting talk in Oxford this coming Friday!

“Seven women told Bloomberg about alleged rapes or sexual assaults across the university in the past five years, while more than 30 described direct experiences of harassment or bullying over the past 20 years.”

Pretty pretty pretty good

Come along this week for what promises to be a very interesting discussion

council offloading maintenance of municipal underpass (currently flooded and unuseable, forcing kids onto road) to school that is the main, but definitely not the only, user by calling it ‘flood preparedness’ is next level shittiness, esp in a city that claims It’s a bike haven

This was such an important and devastating read and a really interesting conversation; @evemworth.bsky.social @drdaveobrien.bsky.social lots to think about for downward social mobility too

If you're a student who works with radio or podcasts, take a look at the Charles Parker prize. Brilliant opportunity for oral historians www.cpatrust.org.uk/prize

Join us for what promises to be a fascinating session this week

Such a pleasure and privilege to sit and listen to a friend and colleague talking at length and fascinatingly about a subject they are so expert on. David's work is so original in its sources and approach, and so powerful in its commitment to thinking hard about social history

David Hopkin at Long 19thC this week

Looking forward to this later today

This calls to mind Lizabeth Cohen’s MAKING A NEW DEAL: INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN CHICAGO, 1919-1939, which demonstrates that voluntarism and charity were insufficient when things got tough and that working people turned to the state, which proved far more effective. www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...

Repost for non-insomniacs. For avoidance of doubt I am 💯 pro-vax & I know that LCers and others can have immune system reactions

Looking forward to this - join us!

#LongCovid ppl - I got a Pfizer booster on Sat & feeling pretty ropey for the first time in a while - insomnia, aches, fatigue, feverish, tight chest ‘thrumming body’ - trusting its just a brief reaction but freaking out slightly, any anecdata on other ppls reactions?

Looking forward to this!

Great start to the term! Octavia Young talking about collaborative work & the weavers, dyers, and dye-makers who are obscured by the focus on Morris & Burne-Jones, opening questions around definitions of art/craft/vocation/amateur/professional /technical knowledge/book knowledge and design

Very much looking forward to the first seminar of term! join us.

The Leo Baeck Institute London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to explore intersections between German-Jewish and British history, including the history of the British Empire. www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies

Looking forward to this term's Long 19thC seminars on Arts, Crafts and the People at Exeter Cohen Quad: first up, Octavia Young on @exeter.ox.ac.uk 's own William Morris, Weds 15th Oct at 11.10

Very much looking forward to this term's seminars - can't wait to get started.

Please consider a donation; Sawsan is a friend living in Oxford, trying to help her family in this desperate situation: gofund.me/7e53805d2

We are at risk of losing a generation of researchers. It’s worse than the 1980s. I’d say: only do a PhD for its own sake. The work you do s as an ECR is itself important work. But this period of contractions is going to be incredibly hard for all career stages, & impossible for ECRs.

Some of these made me cry laughing

@drdaveobrien.bsky.social @evemworth.bsky.social

Don‘t think b sky saturation is at local Oxford intell level yet but just in case any of you are in cutteslowe and know - where and what is the party that’s been playing banging tunes since this afternoon? Has Water Eaton manor been taken over?

Apart from the BBC & Independent media coverage of our Rural Racsm report findings has been predictably abysmal, attempting to dismiss & discredit it rather than to engage with its serious, robust findings. You can read our reports here: le.ac.uk/hate-studies...

'underpinning all of this is an inescapable truth. Government policy, particularly on international students, risks destroying economic activity in the places that desperately benefit from university.'

🎉📣 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...

My online short course Wars of the Roses runs 3x per year and is always popular. It's flexible and asynchronous so you can study when suits you: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/the-...

Random thoughts from someone who accepts there could be positives to come from adoption and use of AI but hates the current situation. At minimum there should be: