🚨New Substack🚨 As former Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, prepares to become Prime Minister, @jhdavey.bsky.social has been thinking about other moments in Britain’s past when Manchester — and the surrounding area — played a pivotal role in shaping the political agenda.

Delighted to say that the PARISH database of Irish Catholic Church inscriptions is now live. New data being added all the time. We will have a launch at the Catholic Historical Society conference on 19 Sep. All welcome. See link in next post. parishproject.nd.edu

Professor Whittle is one of four colleagues in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty at the University of Exeter elected to Fellowship of the British Academy this year. 🗃️ ALL FOUR of these outstanding scholars were placed at risk of redundancy last month. Here's their statement:

My episode on informing has been released for the TWTUD podcast! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Just published this co-authored article with my brilliant colleague @kathrynrix.bsky.social on the controversial 1835 election of the Commons Speaker! @histparl.bsky.social @victoriancommons.bsky.social historyofparliament.com/2026/07/17/s... 1/4

Call for Chapters!! @historywill.bsky.social and I are looking for chapters on visual displays of monarchy for our edited volume! Please circulate widely!

I’ll be force feeding my piece down your throats bit by bit for the next few days. This is about why loss of research capability in universities isn’t just a linear bit of market forces but a messy process of universities sometimes doing panicky short term cuts

Newsletter - July 2026 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 New & Forthcoming Titles Go to: bit.ly/3TEYasL #EarlyModernSky #RenaissanceSky #EarlyModern #Renaissance

New article today in 'Transactions of the RHS': 'Men, Emotions and the Sickbed in a Sorcery Trial from Seventeenth-Century Germany', by Alison Rowlands bit.ly/453Xe3F A story and its meanings of illness, harmful magic and bewitchment in 1660s Rothenburg. Now available OA #Skystorians 1/2

🚨We’re seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe. Deadline for applications: 7 August 2026. Please share in your networks!👇

I wrote a book about how Liverpool’s modern history helps us think differently about Britain’s twentieth century - how it demands histories of wagelessness, environment ruin, obsolescence and new forms of resistance. It’s out in paperback today!

We are very pleased to welcome 223 historians who join the Society today - as Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members: bit.ly/3TEhyWM Our Fellows and Members teach, research, write and promote #history, within the UK and internationally, in and beyond education #Skystorians 1/2

The Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History Open, online meeting for historians in UK higher education on what is needed to best support and protect the profession and discipline in a time of crisis. 2-4pm BST, Tuesday 4 August 2026 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-crisis...

Alison's new article is available free Open Access, as is all content published in 'Transactions': bit.ly/486BF5d TRHS editors warmly welcome submission of research articles and comment pieces, on historical practice and debate, from historians working within and outside education 2/2

My first book is finally out! Here's a blog post about it: cambridgeblog.org/2026/07/fren...

Now in print, issue 52:3 of the Journal of Medieval History.

We have another job opening at our Cluster: a full-time, fixed-term postdoctoral position for three years, dedicated to an independent research project on written artefacts in the history of science. More info on the position and how to apply here 👇

In addition to today's data on staffing in UK HE, @britishacademy.bsky.social has produced several briefings, including one on the very significant decline in early career academics, 2012-24: bit.ly/4wGBTcl History has seen a 32% decline in early career staff numbers since 2012/13 #Skystorians 1/2

University English, @englishassociation.bsky.social and @ies-sas.bsky.social Emergency Action On … the State of English, Thursday 16.07, 10-12. All arts and hums colleagues welcome too. Please sign up here : forms.office.com/e/PN4MNv5T6G

You might be wondering how this decline in the number of people entering academic disciplines in the humanities affects something like a project devoted to researching, writing, and publishing histories of place (or local histories)? These early career researchers are essential to our work. 🗃️ 1/5

Today at ESHS-HSS conference: @sebastianfelten.bsky.social organizes the session “Religion as Knowledge Matrix: Earth Science & Resource Management” and presents “Epistemic Virtues and Sustainability Narratives in 19th c. German mining.”🏔️⛏️ ⏰14:30 GMT 👉Info: bit.ly/4f6fMFh #histSci #Scarce #ESHS-HSS

Also recently published in our current issue of #PER is this study of French usage, language rights & policies in Canadian parliaments between the late C19th and late C20th by Marcel Martel (of York University, Toronto 🇨🇦) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A new resource from @britishacademy.bsky.social, out today, maps changes in UK academic staff numbers and contract types between 2012/13 & 2024/25 for the arts, humanities & social sciences bit.ly/4w47SmP You can search by subject (incl history), provider, region & forms of employment #Skystorians

Early career researchers are the lifeblood of any discipline. Their entrance into academia is at the heart of its renewal. What happens when those arteries are blocked? That's one of the questions the British Academy's SHAPE Observatory is asking. 1/3

The Society will write up a summary for History for next week. Key points at this stage include: > 11% decline (-440 FPE) across all History staff between 2018/19 and 2024/25, compared with a 7% decline across all humanities > loss of 140 FPE History roles 2022/23 to 2024/25 #Skystorians 1/3

New article! Nivedita Joon's 'A Tribunal Only in Name: Anarchic Sensibilities at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women, 1976', OA, doi.org/10.1111/1468...

Join us for a bilingual panel discussion to celebrate the centenary of the 1926 Women’s Peace Pilgrimage! Learn about this in a Welsh context as we hear contributions from our panellists Dr Siân Rhiannon Williams, Annie Williams and Heather Aspinwall on the history of the north Wales march.

Easily over 30,000 signatures. Do we already have a Parliamentary petition for all of #UKHE? Now would be the time to get parents, employers, local communities, as well as students & staff to tell Parliament that if they want growth & regional revival, they're going to have stop cutting the engines.

The UK is soon to have its sixth Prime Minister in five years. In the latest entry for Scribble Book, @jhdavey.bsky.social has looked back over Britain's political history for previous moments of executive instability, to understand why some prime ministerial tenures can be so short...

At last - Routledge have set a publication date for my book on their website:

Scotland's Suffrage History: Education Pack share.google/ZouGwVaawJ7C...

New article klaxon! Harry Parker's 'Folklore Studies, Fieldwork and the Making of a Domestic Anthropology in Fin-de-Siecle Britain', OA, doi.org/10.1111/1468... Enjoy!

There was a similar associational culture across the border in Katanga, DRC. The Collectif des ex-agents de la Gécamines was formed on the basis of what the members used to be, as this article explores: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Umeå University is advertising two assistant professor positions in the humanities: www.umu.se/en/work-with... I was a postdoc at Umeå and it's a great place to work! @ethannowak.bsky.social would back me up on this.

We're hiring! We're looking for passionate, skilled people to help us preserve and share Scotland's cultural heritage. #Jobs #LibraryJobs #HeritageCareers #ScottishCulture #EdinburghJobs

Great explainer article from our colleague @martinspychal.bsky.social on the history of 'taking the Chiltern Hundreds'.

Highly recommended!

🤓 Teaser trailer! #HistIR 👉 The introduction of my book is freely available on Google Books: books.google.be/books?id=m-3...

#Skystorians Double review drop! First, Kristin Hay on @hannahcharnock.bsky.social's 'Teenage Intimacies: Young Women, Sex, and Social life in England, 1950-80' (MUP, 2025), doi.org/10.1111/1468...

Both The Guardian and Times Higher Education are highlighting the devastating effects that closing our modern languages courses will have on the UK and the midlands. A similar argument can be made for every one of our courses on the chopping block. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cold-sp...

Glasgow is hiring a lecturer in medieval history (c.800-1500) on an open-ended basis. We are a lovely bunch in the medieval area, would be great to have a new colleague! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSF052/l...

Of interest to historians of modern British politics....

🚨 JOB KLAXON #skystorians #envhist #envhums Cover for some of my teaching next year - 0.5 FTE at University of Liverpool. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSE899/l...

Come and spend the next academic year embedded in our curatorial teams Two exciting fellowships are open to postdoctoral, early-career researchers which can be undertaken over 12-months full-time or part-time equivalent, as part of the Joanna and Graham Barker Fellowship Scheme Find out more👇

Of interest to UK university #Skystorians: Royal Historical Society open online meeting on 'The crisis in UK higher education: The future for History'. 4 August 2-4 pm.

Hurrah! A very important resource is now available once more!

📣New CFPs added for #histmed events in September📣 Call for proposals deadline July 2026 Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) Virtual Student Conference The Difficulty of Empathy: Rethinking the Literary Arts and Healthcare Online Symposium

🚌 Interested in a social history of secondary education in Britain? Historians Peter Mandler, Laura Carter, and Chris Jeppesen have an ongoing project exploring experiences and attitudes from 1944, and have made plenty of resources available on their website. Check it out 👇️

A career and project highlight to see our @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social special issue 'Medicine, Race, and Slavery' appear - the result of workshops, conversation and many, many emails over the past four years. So grateful to the inspiring contributors and the editorial team. #EarlyModern #HistSTM 🗃️

Now available for just £12 with @plutopress.bsky.social summer sale @strikemap.org @iassc.bsky.social @keithbeard.bsky.social www.plutobooks.com/product/labo...