Next year we are co-hosting a celebration event with @rshc.bsky.social to mark the 100th issue of History Workshop Journal. 📍Birkbeck, University of London 🗓️Saturday 31 January 2026 ⏱️14:00-18:00 Everyone welcome! Please make sure to book via the link below.

#CfP Call for Papers Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick: Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026 Submit to [email protected]

I’m expecting this new book by Jake S. Richard’s to be amazing: ‘The Bonds of Freedom tells the forgotten story of people seized from slave ships by maritime patrols, “liberated,” then forced into bonded labor between 1807 and 1880.’ yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Some are saying my book on London prisons is the perfect holiday gift AND if you DM me before the end of the year I’ll happily share the discount code so you can get 25% off. #skystorians www.mqup.ca/Books/T/To-D....

Once again: this is not something that "threatens" academic freedom, though it will doubtless be reported that way. This is only possible where academic freedom has already ended.

Some are saying my book on London prisons is the perfect holiday gift AND if you DM me before the end of the year I’ll happily share the discount code so you can get 25% off. #skystorians www.mqup.ca/Books/T/To-D....

Recordings are now available of Jane Ohlmeyer's excellent RHS Anniversary Lecture: 'Visible | Invisible: Voices of Women in Early Modern Ireland' bit.ly/3MdjXEn Jane's lecture was given on 21 November and is available to watch or listen to again. #Skystorians 1/2

CFP: 'Difficult Collections' Special issue of 'Paper Trails' @uclpress.bsky.social. Focus on challenges of working with troubling heritage collections (colonialism, eugenics, representation, etc). Proposals: 31/01/26; Submissions: 31/05/26. Details: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... #GLAM ##HistorySky

In the nineteenth century, British officials became obsessed with collecting and codifying 'secret languages' across northern India. In our latest article, Vipin Krishna explores how linguistics became a tool for classification, surveillance, and control.

Do any #skystorians or #EarlyModern people have experience of publishers asking for an author’s institution to contribute to publishing a monograph? (Not an open access fee) Some people have told me this is increasingly common at uni presses, others say they’ve never heard of it!

New publishing opportunity! The London Record Society are looking for someone to edit a volume based on the archive of the Working Ladies' Guild, which supported impoverished women in late nineteenth-century Britain. Further information and contact details in the text below.

This was a fun recent find: a new book from the library of the Tudor playwright Nicholas Udall, which tells us something about his sometimes elusive religious views. Read all about it in N&Q: doi.org/10.1093/note... #BookHistory #EarlyModern

Really looking forward to Samia Khatun's talk next wk: What is the Human? Recuperating Histories of Textiles Workers in Bengal from British East India Company Archives @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome, online or in person, register here. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Read our response to the Government’s announcement that university maintenance grants will be reintroduced for certain courses, funded through a levy on international student fees https://bit.ly/4gPz7uO

How has paperwork served as a tool of empowerment for people who often find power elusive? In our latest podcast, a group of historians, archivists, and activists met at the Raphael Samuel History Centre (@rshc.bsky.social) to discuss the hidden history of paperwork 🗃️🎙️

Happening tomorrow! Join me and Simon Devereaux. We’ll be chatting about my new book on London prisons and more generally about the history of imprisonment.

I got to talk to @npr.org about sheriffs, jails, and all the ways people have made money from locking up migrants. (Featuring many stories from my book!)

Just back from a trip to Cambodia and I cannot over-emphasize how amazing the Angkor Wat complex is. Look at these outstanding carvings at Bayon temple! Late 12th ce!

Looks like the death knell for academia .edu. Another corner of the internet that is dead. Is it worth creating an account somewhere else? Where do people gather these days? #skystorians #academicsky

Don’t forget to sign up to hear me chat about my book with Simon Devereaux online on 24 September! #skystorians www.nacbs.org/event-detail...

The first term's programme for the IHR Migration and Mobility Seminar is now live! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/.... We're hybrid, so if you're interested in migration and mobility across space and time - but also in how we can write better histories of mobility - sign up from anywhere!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night!

Join us, at 6.30pm on Friday 12 September, for our next RHS Lecture: Professor Yasmin Khan on 'Mars and Britannia: the British Imperial Way of Warfare' bit.ly/3Hv2jK8 Booking for in-person and online attendance is now open. All are very welcome #Skystorians

There are only a few tickets left! 🏃‍♀️ 📅Wednesday 3rd September 🕠5:30pm 📍The London Archives

This Wednesday! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/to-detain-...

Blackberries!

If you love women's history, sign up for the Women's History Network ‪@womenshistnet.bsky.social‬ annual conference. Running over 4-5 Sept, it's free, online, & packed with great panels on activism, archives, the arts and fashion, economic life, sexualities womenshistorynetwork.org/the-womens-h...

Haven’t made time to go to an art gallery in a while but so glad I finally got to the Tate Britain’s Edward Burra exhibit. Interesting life and fun art.

If you needed another excuse to spend an evening at the lovely London Archives and enjoy the delights of Exmouth Street:

I’ll be speaking about my book online with Simon Devereaux on 24 Sept (not the 25th as it says in some places - completely my fault for confusing the lovely @thenacbs.bsky.social organisers!). RSVP! #skystorians www.nacbs.org/event-detail...

the idea that “DEI” is to blame for racist assumptions about the ability of nonwhite people and not actual racism is such a perfect example of racecraft www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

This looks excellent!

🚨NEW: Local jails & police departments are playing a key role in Trump’s mass arrest & deportation agenda The actual scope of this collaboration – and the true scale of immigrant arrests and detentions – has not been publicly available, until now 🧵

A reminder to book in to hear me talk about London’s prisons (1750-1850) on 3 September at @thelondonarchives.bsky.social (Link below) www.thelondonarchives.org/whats-on/to-... #skystorians #prisonhistory #archives

Reading through some prisoner petitions at the @thelondonarchives.bsky.social this week and came across this great defense of a prisoner’s illicit marriage (c.1690)

On the one hand, this is great. But I feel about this like I do about heartwarming "go fund me" campaigns. It's great that people are stepping up, but public goods should be supported with public funds.

Today’s tube reading is really really good

sort of half wonder if "being able to read an entire book" is going to make you a philosopher-king in 30 years musgrave.substack.com/p/at-the-coa...

@historyworkshop.org.uk is looking for new editorial fellows! For early career historians with an interest in radical, public and digital histories: paid, part-time work commissioning and editing on our digital history magazine. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/article/hist...

Prisons across the U.S. rely on incarcerated labor, often paying people cents per hour—or nothing at all. Historian Robert Chase answered readers’ questions on how this system developed, how it works today, and efforts to challenge it. boltsmag.org/the-pas...

Came for the prison history; leaving with a questionable book recommendation #skystorians #archives

Sorry but who wrote these “Pause for Reflection” sections at Gloucester cathedral??? They are incredible.

I know I should be grateful because this Gloucester clerk had such clear handwriting. But could he have written just a tiny bit bigger? My poor eyes.

In Gloucester for a few days to trawl through some prison records

Talking @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference tomorrow. Come along to hear about how one early Tudor scholar got interested in a mythical rock-eating worm… #EarlyModern #skystorians

And what's more, it's published open access by @amsterdamupress.bsky.social , so you can read it now and easily teach with it in the autumn if so minded.

Last call for the @ihr.bsky.social #London #SummerSchool - bookings close this evening! Join us for lectures, workshops, special visits and a week exploring London's rich #history through its #Rebels. From medieval uprisings to punk & much, much more... www.history.ac.uk/ihr-london-r...

If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029: - $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion - $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million - $8 billion for hiring/retention - Billions more.

We're excited to be starting a series called #DiscoverTLA where we'll looking in-depth at some of our most important documents. Stay tuned for our first post on one of our iconic LGBTQ+ records 🏳️‍🌈 #Archives #Skystorians #LondonHistory