On Wednesday 11th of February, I will be giving a talk about my book 'Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration' at City St George's, University of London (where I did my own PhD). If you're in or around London, come along! www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Browsing through Koberger’s 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle in which the #woodcut illustrations do the heavy lifting long before the text gets a chance. #bookhistory #rarebooks 💙📚📜

Who wants to learn more about medieval chivalry AND get to chat to me for an hour live every week (plus plenty of forum-based interaction also)? Of course you do: www.lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/medi... Please share with any friends who might enjoy it!

From tomorrow, Friday 30 January, ballot papers will start to arrive by post for VP (HE and FE), and several key positions on our NEC. We're supporting our own @markpendleton.bsky.social for VP (HE) and independent @suzitoole.bsky.social for VP (FE) & lots of other great people. Please share! #UCU

Great to see that Mark Pendleton is running for UCU VP (Higher Education). Worked with him on the RHS LGBT+ report and he was consistently, insistently and cheerfully simply ace. Learn more from ucucommons.org/about-mark/ . And regardless, don't ignore your ballot.

We are looking for a new Joint Book Reviews Editor to join our editorial board. They would cover the period from 1800, working alongside Kirstin Barnard, who covers the medieval/early modern period. You can check out the full Call for Expressions of Interest here; and please do also share widely.

Wonderful news from Birkbeck's School of Historical Studies. We're hiring not one but TWO open-ended, full-time roles: Medieval Studies, and History of Art! cis7.bbk.ac.uk/home.html#fi...

📣New blog! Sophia Lambert (@sophialambert100.bsky.social) on 'Crossing Borders: Expressing National Identity Through Headstones in the Bradford Reform Jewish Cemetery, 1877 to 1935' #History #Memorial #Migration #Bradford 19thc 20thc 🗃️ 👉Read online here: socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange...

Hi #skystorians i’m preparing to teach a lower level undergraduate course on the history of 20th century American consumerism. Please send me your secondary reading recs. Thank you!

Assistant Professor in Irish History Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences - School of History and Geography- University of Limerick #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/search/histo...

The climatologist told me historians will wonder why we didn’t do more. The epidemiologist told me historians will wonder why we didn’t do more. The activist told me historians will wonder why we didn’t do more. The historian told me that nobody listens to historians.

A renewed plea to scholars of Goethe / the #C18: would "the museum at Weimar" have been understood in 1810 to be Goethe's home? Danke schön!

whilst others still covet an entry positions which are becoming increasingly rare, the ones who have been in it with relatively secure positions are thinking about quitting. This is what corporate jobs used to be like, not academia. Burn it and churn it out logic

I see so so many truly good academics leaving academia voluntarily or working conditions become unbearable or they are fired

by Stuart Redler.

The word armadillo is borrowed from Spanish and simply means “little armored one.” But an even better word for an armadillo, in my opinion, is the Nahuatl ayotochtli. It means “turtle rabbit.”

Rhodes Professorship of American History University of Oxford #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQF092/r...

'The sector is under significant financial pressure, disability services are stretched, and pandemic-era accessibility gains that transformed many disabled students’ experiences are being rolled back to “improve belonging” or drive up attendance.'

Going back to the other day's conversation, this would be a great opportunity for a skewering, gentle interview, with such questions as "But how does it work?"

Outline of the scheme can be found here, with a link to the official JSPS guidelines: www.kyamamoto.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/join-us/

Looking for a postdoc opportunity outside the UK/US? I'm happy to support up to two JSPS postdoc applicants for the coming round for two-year posts starting from Sep./Oct. 2026 onwards at UTokyo. The application to be submitted before the end of March. 1/n

'I suppose I miss the days when watching the toxic right was more of a cod-psychoanalytical pastime: when you could watch the Goodwin of 2024, preaching the superiority of Hungary in openly anti-migrant terms...and say, “wow, this guy’s been on a journey”.'

The British literally locked the Czechoslovak government in a hallway before giving the country to Hitler because they figured we weren't important enough to matter but sure yeah, lecture me about what sacrifices must be made in order to continue to ally with fascists.

British people get online, defend beimg allied with fascists, and then lecture Eastern Europeans about Russia.

The government’s suggestion that rolling out 20 minute courses on writing “AI“ prompts, sponsored by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, is somehow comparable to the founding of the Open University (the Wilson government‘s, & Jennie Lee’s, proudest achievement), is an insult to our human intelligence.

This is a very useful thread. The government is touting this training as ‘the most ambitious training scheme since the launch of the Open University in 1971’. Which is insulting to the OU, quite frankly.

Yes, this is all stupid. Note 'marry early'. Your 9-9-6 day plus gym, running, specialist diet and other activities require support to achieve. A wife in such cases is very helpful. It's more overt here but remains an integral part of much contemporary straight men's lifestyle advice.

'Posts like the one about Ravensbruck undermine the work of memorial institutions. Because they often refer to real historical persons or circumstances, they promote forms of remembrance based not on learning and reflection but on affect and artificially generated emotion.'

Reminder for all UK dual nationals: As of the 25 Feb 2026, dual nationals will not be able to travel to the UK on their 'other' passport. If, for example, you or your dual citizen children live abroad & currently don't hold a UK passport, you need to get one (for them) in order to re-enter the UK.

What we all need to see is a red squirrel in a power pose. You're welcome.

And not only the US. It serves a fairly nefarious purpose too. The technocratic subtext is 'stop trying to understand the society you live in.'

When I think about measles I think about the number 1,000. Thats the number that epidemiologists use to explain harm from measles in children. With 1,000 cases, about 200 children will require hospitalization, 50 will develop pneumonia, and one to three will die. South Carolina is at 789.

🎓Less than a week to go to submit your abstract for 'Marital Breakdown in the English Common Law World 1801-1969'. We've had some cracking submissions & (along with a keynote from the inimitable Lady Hale) it is shaping up to be a brilliant event! 💰speaker bursaries available Details below 👇

Another brilliant far-right review: My "arguments are illogical, irrelevant and historically illiterate." And who should we listen to instead: Nigel Biggar, of course!! LMAO. Threatened much by the facts?? @alanlester.bsky.social par for the course...

Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.

In case you are unaware: -it’s not illegal to have a group chat -it’s not illegal to film anyone in public (and it’s important, bc otherwise people just disappear) -it’s not illegal to tell people when you see masked officers -it’s not illegal to collect and distribute food ICE must leave MN.

A masterclass in deeply unserious comment on universities, scaremongering over "woke" teaching, "woo-woo" courses, "up-themselves" academics and fees "spaffed" every which way. Annabel Denham would rather fewer folk got a degree to let her be one of the elite able to write to this exulted standard.

… even setting aside the weird pro-empire messaging (which I guess could be clumsily understood as “all the best Brits came to America anyway), the UK is hardly a backwater of left-behind inbreds? We’re a nation of immigrants many of whom came from the empire but none of whom live in stolen land

to be fair to him (shudder) I think Yglesias has been generally vocal in support of immigration so this isn’t a completely weird take, but it is *pretty* weird when 16 per cent of British people in the last census were foreign born compared to 15.5 per cent of US citizens…

jesus christ almighty, who in their right minds thinks this is a moment to pitch community colleges/higher ed as a "training ground" for ICE? Who thought publishing this tripe was a good idea?

We're delighted that our very own @markpendleton.bsky.social is running for VP (HE) this year, with our members @drgillhistory.bsky.social, @matthewbarnard.phd, @profalexp.bsky.social and a bunch of like-minded independent candidates. Ballots start to arrive by post at the end of this week. #UCU

Out today: THE CROWN'S SILENCE I'm delighted to share that my new book is officially out! It traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery over hundreds of years. Please buy a copy, tell your library, & spread the word. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

I'm joining Dr Brooke Newman at Waterstones Gower Street on Friday evening for the UK launch of her new book, 'The Crown’s Silence'. The Monarchy’s leading role in the enslavement and colonisation of African people is really important history that needs to be much more widely understood. Join us 👇🏾

Finally, yes, I am an intellectual, I read abstract texts, cite Bourdieu, write "smart essays" myself, but god I hope I can step out of my ivory tower & talk with people of all walks of life. Reading the FAZ or the NYRB does not make you a better or kinder person. That is solely in your practice.

I go hike, by myself, observe the light, climb the tiny English hills, ponder matters, call my brother or dad. I remind academics that yes, grants and publications are good, but they will be a bit useless if we are in a gulag. (I know for a fact, I have written about academics in a ghetto!)

Where do I take comfort in these dark months? in conversations with people I like and respect. It is good to listen to different opinions, to reason why I stand where I do. It is important to take time, have a glass of good wine, eat that pizza, do something silly, see myself laugh on the way home.

Here is where we, Holocaust historians, Jewish studies scholars, experts on Nazi Germany can, and I think also should, weigh in. That should not be about our bonus points in the limelight (I can think of a few!), but making a real difference in educating. Showing solidarity to those who need it.

So I think it is fair to say that I have a decent understanding of society in extremis and how much we need difficult histories - warts and all - in order to cultivate our democratic, inclusive present.

I work on death, suffering, erasure, violence, and loss. My first book was on the society in Theresienstadt, and how people learned to navigate even the most glum of circumstances. My second on love, intimacy, and homophobia, on permitted and erased histories, in layers over layers.

Talking to my dad, I hear him say, he, the optimist, that it takes struggle to get through the news. My wife and I started the year with heartbreaking private news. And yet there is no other way: we need to get out of bed & carry on, read news, maintain nuance, educate, be kind, do the right thing.