Just one more day to send in your paper from #MBS26 if you want to enter our ECR best paper prize modbritstud.org.uk/events-awards/

'Lawyers held a unique vantage point as the law was increasingly used in norm-breaking ways as a tool of campaigners from across the political spectrum.' Katherine Milliken identifies new avenues for understanding late twentieth century Britain through the law. modbritstud.org.uk/why-do-you-n...

Why should historians investigate the legal profession? Katherine Milliken @katie1973.bsky.social argues that lawyers became key contestors of a more powerful 1970s & 1980s political executive. Out today on #MBSA Histories from Here modbritstud.org.uk/why-do-you-n...

If you are an ECR and gave a paper at #MBS26, please do send us your paper and slides for consideration for our 'Best ECR Paper' prize. Details on our website, www.modbritstud.org.uk

For those looking for some longer historical context about white supremacist politics in Northern Ireland, I heartily recommend Daniel Geary’s chapter in this fantastic edited collection: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526147073/

I’m really pleased to see my article on “The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign” in the @jbritishstudies.bsky.social Many thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding this research. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The latest in our 'Histories from Here' series is published today. @beccagold.bsky.social reflects on writing contingent, hopeful histories in today's heated political moment, that assume neither progress nor collapse are inevitable modbritstud.org.uk/history-from...

A really great time attending and speaking at @modbritstud.bsky.social Conference the past few days! Great papers with great speakers #MBS2026

Being a part of this #MBS2026 panel was a real treat! Many thanks to my fellow speakers @drrochellerowe.bsky.social @oliviawyatt1999.bsky.social Aleph Ross @leilarsellers.bsky.social @benjamin-bland.bsky.social and @evemworth.bsky.social and our fantastic chair @tsasson.bsky.social

Biggest thanks to Chika Tonooka for all her posts over the course of #mbs26. It was great to be able to give glimpses of the panels and debate to folks on Bsky

We’ve officially reached the end of #MBS2026! Thank you to everyone who attended, both in person and online. It’s been fantastic seeing so many people here and engaging in these vital conversations across Modern British Studies.

Discussion of passing in relation to race, class, disability, gender & ethnicity raises very pertinent final questions for #mbs26: how modern is the sense of self that underpins ideas of passing? Is the language of presenting more useful? How can we explore sonic and embodied aspects?

#MBS2026 post-lunch panel on social science and government identifies important areas of investigation for historicising the 1990s:

In the last panel of #mbs26 we are keeping our energy levels up with edible cups to nibble as we listen to the brilliant lineup discussing passing in modern Britain

Heading into our final parallel sessions to close out #MBS2026. Here is the final session lineup: 1. Decolonising British Urban History 2. Class and Negotiations with the State 3. Passing in Modern British Studies

Here are the choices for the post-lunch slot #MBS2026: 1. Social Science and British Government in the 1990s: Sex, Deficits, and Futurology 2. Politics, Society, and the Body 3. Energy transitions 4. Political Movements and the Afterlife of Empire 5. Crises of Sexual Health in Modern Britain

Brilliant panel on cultural histories of climate #MBS2026. Papers highlight the potential of focusing on the weather for exploring the environmental, material, embodied, discursive and their intersections.

And here is the lineup for our second morning slot - Day 3 #MBS2026: 1. Encounters with Nature 2. Writing Everyday Whiteness 3. Trauma, Memory, and Care in ‘Oral’ History and Contemporary Archives

Great panel on US writer & activist James Baldwin’s relationship to Britain – Douglas Field highlights Baldwin’s commitment to trans-Atlantic black radicalism and critique of global reach of white supremacy. #MBS2026

Fascinating panel on women's oral history evidence and how it might be used in policy collaborations. Dangers of flattening evidence and policymaker disinterest in slow research. Yet panelists note govt and business strong interest in participatory methods #mbs2026

It’s Day 3 of #MBS2026! We’re kicking off at 9am with parallel sessions and plenty of tough choices to make across a range of modern British studies.

📚 Demystifying Trade Publishing: Some golden advice from Day 2’s #MBS2026 Roundtable on ‘Writing Public Histories of Modern Britain’. 📚 Featuring: Emily Baughan (Sheffield) Kieran Connell (Queen’s University Belfast) Helen McCarthy (Cambridge) Lucy Delap (Cambridge)

Regimes of exploitation, mapped by Nick Draper and Legacies of Enslavement team. Illustrates the power of visualisation to capture racial capitalism and accumulation #mbs26

The highlight plenary of #mbs26, with the legendary Catherine Hall

The #MBS2026 hybrid Plenary Lecture begins at 5:30pm this evening. Catherine Hall (UCL) will present her keynote address, titled 'Laying an axe to the roots: history writing for the present'. Many thanks to @britishacademy.bsky.social for sponsoring this event. www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

Born digital sources panel #mbs2026 is quite pessimistic in tone, despite riches of 'digital heap' of two decades of uk state digital sources held by the National Archives. Digital records management broadly means deletion. Rot or obsolescence affects sources. And ethical parameters unclear.

Now moving into the last parallel sessions of Day 2 at #MBS2026: 1. Mass Observation and Vernacular Understandings of Crisis 2. New Legal Histories of Late Modern Britain, c.1970-2010 3. Colonialism, Belonging, and the British Empire

We’re halfway through the #MBS2026 (3-5 June, University of Birmingham) and celebrating with 30% off a curated reading list of key titles in the field. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/05...

'Does thinking about your research in terms of absence/presence change your orientation to it?' Innovative workshop underway at #MBS2026: audience identifies absences in historical evidence and fills them with (other participants’) imagination.

Post lunch #mbs26 panel on environmental history. @julialaite.bsky.social puts extractivism and imperialism into the shared frame of the global commons, witnessed through Beothuk Newfoundland.

Refuelled after lunch. The afternoon sessions of #MBS2026 Day 2 are now underway: 1. Post-Feminism and Gender Politics 2. Environmental Histories of Britain and the World 3. Reflections on Radical Public History

#MBS2026 in full swing now. Fantastic to see a great turnout.

CUP editor Liz is at #MBS2026 today (only) - she's happy to chat!

Make sure to check out the publisher stalls during the breaks! #MBS2026

#MBS2026 continues with 6 more parallel sessions (aka more impossible choices) before we head into lunch: 1. Belonging in Post-War Britain 2. Rethinking 20th Century British History through New Histories of the North 3. Race, Mobility and the Migration State

What makes international political solidarity possible? A great panel discussion this morning #MBS2026 making the case for taking sensory experiences (esp. music), intimacy (via international visits) & friendship (challenging its gendered associations with women) seriously in international history.

Panel discussing expansion of private security in postwar Britain, highlights many commercial challenges to state security provision. Police under-recruitment left space for bouncers, bailiffs, labour infiltration, immigration guards. #MBS26

Welcome to Day 2 of #MBS2026! If you’re just joining us, yesterday marked the official launch of the Modern British Studies Association @modbritstud.bsky.social. Check out the website modbritstud.org.uk to find out how the Association will be supporting the study of modern Britain.

We are breaking into parallel panels for Day 2 of #MBS2026. We are spoilt for choice, with 24 panels and over 70 speakers showcasing a phenomenal range of modern British studies research.

‘Polycrisis' is the theme of #MBS2026 and our keynote panelists reflected on it yesterday in various ways: Is it a useful term? What approaches help us make sense of it? Is it inherently global, or a particularly British phenomenon? Is there a way out? Looking fwd to seeing what emerges from Day 2.

Really enjoyed this conversation - and a pleasure to be in such excellent company. We had a lot to say about how we read histories of capitalism and where we see them. We also talked about the usefulness (or not) of the term 'polycrisis' as a widely applicable concept.

We're very pleased to be attending the 2026 Modern British Studies Conference this week. If you're also in Birmingham please stop by to say hello to our staff members, Hannah and Charlotte, pick up a badge, and learn more about the Society. @modbritstud.bsky.social #MBS2026 #Skystorians

That brings us to the end of Day 1. Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation—both in the room and watching online. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for Day 2 #MBS2026.

A fitting way to end Day 1 of #MBS2026! The new Modern British Studies Association is officially launched.

Now heading into the final panel of the day #MBS2026: Teaching and the Future of British Studies in the Academy Featuring: @tomhulme.bsky.social (Tom Hulme, Queens University Belfast) @sarahcrook.bsky.social (Sarah Crook, Swansea) @eicathomefinn.bsky.social (Margot Finn, UCL)

Great to see all the publishers exhibiting at #MBS2026. Wonderful to browse the exciting research coming out in Modern British Studies.

Join the #MBS26 hybrid keynote tomorrow June 4, 5.30pm: Catherine Hall, 'Laying an axe to the roots': history writing for the present. Sign up link below, free to all www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

We are now turning our focus to the 'Environment and the Global' Panel featuring: Chris Otter (Ohio State) David Gange (Birmingham) @rohandroy.bsky.social (Rohan Deb Roy, Reading) #MBS2026

Concluding a brilliant panel on the history of capitalism with a lively Q&A touching on the fundamentals of modern history: archives, contingency & causality, categories (is neoliberalism still useful?), ideas vs materiality

Great questions on causation in capitalism panel #MBS26. Concepts of accumulation and cascades to capture systemic effects. But also Rappaport reminds us to still see power holders and their agency