In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women." Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration. It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Our latest.

Late to my own party, but it is wonderful to see my edition of Hortense Mancini’s letters in print, which arrived at the start of the year. If you think your library would benefit from the words of one of the seventeenth-century’s most libertine women, here is the link: iterpress.org/978164959131...

Joan W. Scott calling upon democrats everywhere👇🏽 “The suppression of gender studies is not only an attempt to suppress a critical analytical tool, but also knowledge itself. “Defence of gender studies is… a vital stand (for)…democracy, one based on aspirations for equality and justice for all”.

Violent Waters: Environmental Politics in Early Modern England is out now with Cambridge University Press: www.cambridge.org/core/books/v... This watery, riotous book has been more than a decade in the making, and I'm delighted to see it out in the world to live its own life!

good morning, #linguistics 🐦🐦 pals the University of Essex wants to cut 50% of our Language & Linguistics department, close our foundation programme & our Southend campus, + cut 400 jobs academic departments and professional services jobs across all depts join us in the fight against these cuts!

Jim Ratcliffe, who wants the UK government to fund a new stadium for the football club that he owns (and should pay for himself), says migrants are taking resources from the state. Billionaire logic.

The next @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar is on 3rd March - @conniethomas.bsky.social will be presenting 'Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts' - of (huge) interest to those interested in migration, citizenship & US history. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/3s6yym7t

Friends! We are looking for a visiting assistant professor with expertise in 17th century literature. Help me spread the word? It’s limited term, but I can promise wonderful students and lovely colleagues for a very nice bit of teaching experience… wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...

Did my duty as #Reformazing lecturer and introduced the First Years to the Luther Insult Generator. So making sure you remember to get your dose of insults in for the day as well, #Skystorians: ergofabulous.org/luther/

My new article, 'Selling Education in England, 1650-1715' is now out (open access) in the English Historical Review! academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

We are absolutely thrilled to share our Draft Programme for the Late Stuart Court Symposium - We have an amazing lineup of speakers! If you are interested in joining us in-person or online, sign up now using our Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1980806533...

Excited to be speaking at this about my current book project on libertine women. And even more excited about the keynote on Nell Gwyn’s costumes and performances 🎭

Super grateful to SEMFS for funding some archival work - to Monaco no less! - that was an important part of this research. If you don't know, SEMFS have a wonderful grant called the Amy Wygant Bursary, which funds work by early career/PhD members of the Early Modern French Society. Highly recommend!

JOB ALERT: Lead Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts (1601-1800) at The British Library - closing date: 18th Feb www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH179/l...

A few years late means nothing to a historian! So if you want to find out about our really exciting ongoing global history project, please check www.migration-innovation.org

La revue XVIIe siècle, créée en 1949, revue de référence sur le XVIIe siècle (1580-1720), arrive sur Bluesky. On partagera des infos sur la revue, et on parlera des actualités de la recherche scientifique autour du XVIIe siècle en sciences humaines. @cairninfo.bsky.social @editions-puf.bsky.social

Delighted to announce our research seminar line up for the semester, kicking off with @alexbamji.bsky.social on ephemeral print and lay religious experience in Venice at 1pm on 18 February - www.york.ac.uk/crems/events/ - all seminars are hybrid and open to all, so please do join us! #earlymodern 🗃️

spreading the news about the Cambridge Early Modern Science and Medicine Essay Prize 2026 Competition! Early Science and Medicine and the Early Sciences Forum of the History of Science Society's prize competition for the best essay...

WHOOP! #EarlyModern goings-on @qmulhss.bsky.social! "Francois Rabelais and the Renaissance Physiology of Invention": book symposium with Raphaële Garrod, Kathryn Banks, Richard Scholar, Adrian Armstrong,Thibaut Maus de Rolley 25 Feb, 4pm Free but register cc @frenchhistory.bsky.social #SkyStorians

Another year, another (Mazarine) #BlueMonday. Hortense Mancini says be gentle with yourself, wear what you please, & have as much champagne as you need to get through January x

JOB 💫: postdoctoral fellowship in languages at Oxford: www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/people-life/...

In case you missed this one before Christmas...

Merry Christmas! My gift to you all is this new episode about an old fav - Hortense Mancini, It Girl of the 17th century. And our very special guest @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social is an expert on Hortense, who has just published TWO books about her! pod.link/1489560920/e...

Wonderful news that the UK is set to rejoin Erasmus - but with modern languages departments at risk of closure across the country, the benefits of Erasmus will surely be far more limited. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

The new British Library archives & manuscript catalogue is finally here... my prayers have been answered 😍 searcharchives.bl.uk?utm_campaign...

'For humanities departments to continue to matter, they must challenge the modern world rather than accommodate it. Indeed, the most useful lesson the humanities have to offer today is a profoundly countercultural one: Difficulty is good, an end in its own right.' 2/2

Our deadline is approaching! A reminder that you have until Monday 15 December to apply for our £750 bursary. Good luck everyone!

So delighted to see my first book up online with @oxfordunipress.bsky.social! Huge thanks to @anzamems.bsky.social @memorients.bsky.social @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social. DM or email me for a review copy request form, and ask your uni librarian to buy the book!! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.

📢Here's a fully funded 4-year PhD position at Leiden within the ERC project LangPro led by Dr Alisa van de Haar, and co-supervised by yours truly, on professional opportunities for women in the early modern language sector bit.ly/47Y3hYI Apply by 15 Feb. 2026; starting date 1 Aug. 2026

In case you missed our first announcement, there’s still over a month to submit your abstracts 🪶 We have already received some amazing proposals, and can’t wait to put together a fantastic programme for April!

After fleeing from her husband, #HortenseMancini fascinated #17thcentury Europe as a wealthy duchess, a royal mistress, and a scandalous libertine. 🔒 Annalisa Nicholson’s article from the December issue is now in the archive www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...

It’s December! And I have a piece in this month’s @historytoday.com on (you guessed it) Hortense Mancini’s life, and what I learned about her as I prepared the first ever edition of her letters, which is out with Iter Press later this month. (Lots of other great stuff in HT Dec issue too)

“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?” this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️

I’m so happy that it’s publication day for my monograph! As I’m on leave atm, there’s no book launch (yet…) but I’m celebrating with my little mascot who says it’s almost as good as their favourite Peekaboo Moon, which is towering praise from this fairly fierce book critic.

🖼️ Did exile ultimately give women more freedom? Using the example of French exile Hortense Mancini, Dr Annalisa Nicholson shows how these women played a pivotal role in shaping elite culture in Restoration England ⬇️ buff.ly/2yV89M5 @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social @kingsdllc.bsky.social

📖 @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social A Salon-in-Exile shows how Hortense Mancini’s 17th-century London salon became a hub for French exiles, turning the traditional French salon into a pan-European space of intellectual, literary & cultural exchange. 🔓 www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

I've had an article under review at a journal for over 7 months, which feels like AGES but...is this normal now?! I keep hearing about the difficulties in finding peer reviewers. I don't want to be dramatic and withdraw the manuscript, but also as an fixed-term ECR, I can't help feeling restless

Unboxing my author copies to finally hold the finished book in my hands. What a feeling! I started this research during my MA in 2016, and 1 PhD and 2 research fellowships later it’s finally here. Coming soon to a research library near you! ✨

The Worshipful Company of Curriers essay prize on London for early career scholars, in association with The London Journal Trust and the Institute of Historical Research. The author of the winning submission will receive £1,000, and publication, subject to peer review, in The London Journal.

Early modernists! I'm reading abt the 1662 Russian embassy to London where Pepys records gifts of 'furs, hawks, carpets, cloths of tissue, and sea-horse teeth'. I'm intrigued by the seahorse teeth bc...seahorse don't have teeth, right? Are these other parts of the seahorse's body or something else?🪸

Did anyone else feel their heart leap with the news that the British Library are aiming to relaunch their archives and manuscript catalogue in early December? Can't wait to see you old friend 😭

We are thrilled to share the CFP for our Symposium, Politics and Culture of the Late Stuart Court, 1649-1714. We hope to bring together a range of interdisciplinary research on this complex and understudied period! #EarlyModern #CfP

Delighted to see the open access publication of Crossings: Migrant Knowledges, Migrant Forms -- a superb volume featuring artists, poets, scholars, and a short essay by me on Dutch- and French-speaking women in 16th-century London telling their stories of migration. punctumbooks.com/titles/cross...

Another day, another email with a REF task. I’ve been at my institution barely a year and already lost so many hours to this bleak stuff. I know everyone hates it but it’s even more exhausting when you’re fixed-term ECR and doing it for an institution that’ll turf you out as soon as contract ends

Starting some new writing today on a favourite topic - libertine women - with some motivational libertine treats

Not available until June 2026, but we have a cover! #earlymodern #skystorians

For balance - and for anyone struggling on their first monograph - please know that after I submitted my proposal to the publisher, Reviewer 2's report concluded that 'a book on Hortense Mancini's salon would be welcome but this is not that book.' Luckily, Reviewer 2 was overruled..

✨Excitingly my monograph now has a cover!✨ It’s out in November @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social, which means there will finally be a whole book on Hortense Mancini’s salon, the eager few will be relieved to know. It comes with an academic price tag £££ but will be Open Access. Library orders welcome 🙏