Why are you even framing this as a matter of debate, Daily Mail? Totally irresponsible.

Love this from English graduate Amy Hunt! ‘You can be an academic badass and a track goddess’ www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/s...

A govt of philistines so deep in denial about the nature and purpose of higher education that it chastises university students for pursuing research and knowledge… 🤯

“If the Government was really serious about growth, they would be promoting international students and international education, and decoupling them from the immigration debate and treating it as a growth industry.” (James Pitman, chair of Independent Higher Education)

conference.rs4vp.org RSVP @rs4vp.org conference in Dublin at Trinity @tlrhub.bsky.social in 2026. So exciting!

Saturday mornings always feel immeasurably brighter when they come with the Guyliner‘s forensic take on an awkward Guardian blind date!

The reading packs produced by the @vpfa.bsky.social's third sex reading group are always gorgeous, and the discussions are always great. What's not to love! Join us Wed 17th Sept @ 5.30pm UK time to discuss the highly problematic "Lodore". Everybody welcome... message for more details.

Beautiful medieval floor tiles at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the building was converted into a mansion by Thomas Wriothesley (of ‘Call-Me Risley’ fame for fans of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy).

Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

“We reject the far right’s racist lies about ‘protecting’ women and girls. They are not defenders of women – they exploit violence against women to fuel hate and division." Words that very much need to be said.

Don't forget to join us next week Friday (5 September) for our first #RSVPDigiEvent post-conference. We'll learn some tips + tricks on crafting a *standout* grant application to fund your next book project or archival research trip. Say, aren't Curran Fellowships still open? 😏 tinyurl.com/yc5fsdva

Why is this the top story on BBC News at One??

The famous beetle-wings dress worn by Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, now on display at Terry’s former home, Smallhythe Place in Kent. The picture doesn’t quite do it justice - the colours are so much deeper and more iridescent in real life! 🤩 #19thCentury #FashionHistory

If your research centrally involves the 19th-c. British press, you should for sure consider applying for a Curran Fellowship. Anybody can apply, and the process is blessedly straightforward. My late friend Eileen Curran would be proud to see all the fine projects that her generosity has assisted in.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the gorgeousness of Rudyard Kipling’s dining room wallpaper? #Bateman’s #19thCentury #Art #InteriorDesign

Regular as clockwork

Conference Announcement: Tennyson 2026: Ecology, Landscape, Environment - cfp and details attached. Victorians scholars please circulate @lindakhughes.bsky.social @victorianreview.bsky.social @victorianpoetry.bsky.social @thevicsoc.bsky.social @victorianmasc.bsky.social @jofvictculture.bsky.social

Also: we’ve sent the email with instructions about how to access the new platform to the new platform that you can’t access until you’ve read the instructions 🙃

Great to see the @bavs-uk.bsky.social newsletter out in the world 📰 Featuring a review of Jessica Campbell’s new book on “The Brontës and the Fairy Tale” from @ohiostatepress.bsky.social 🧚‍♀️📕 Thank you, as always, to all our amazing reviewers for bringing this issue together ✨

I can still recite every word of this by heart … 🥹 RIP Allan Ahlberg

This looks fantastic! Very tempted indeed. >> Workshop: ‘Power Couples? Collaborations at Work and at Home, c. 1750-1914’ – CALL FOR PAPERS - due 1 Sept. #skystorians 🗃️ Thanks to @georgianlords.bsky.social for the heads-up! royalhistsoc.org/calendar/wor...

Call for papers: (Un)natural Stevenson: Wild transgressions across literature, ecology, science & gender Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 11–12 May 2026 This conference aims to explore the concept of nature/natural in Robert Louis Stevenson’s work #C19th #litstudies docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Wonderful to see so many old and new faces at BAVS’ 25th anniversary conference! #BAVS2025 It was particularly inspirational to hear from so many of our past presidents at the event’s closing panel. A fitting ending to a fantastic 3 days! #19thCentury #BAVSTRAVAGANZA

Job alert! We're advertising for a full-time, permanent Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in 20thC American History at Edge Hill. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNX206/l...

See also the speaker who deliberately avoids eye contact with you as you hold up a sign saying ‘time’s up’ …

Happening later today at #RSVP2025 - panel 1B. Come along if you’re in Chicago!

Ahead of a talk I'm doing, I'm looking for examples of quackery and health adverts from this or last year. If you've seen any ads for products claiming to cure something that seems suspicious, please reply to this thread with a screenshot!

Love to see the Welsh flag flying in South End, Boston! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇸

It’s absolutely not a matter of “just saying no” — not only because the repercussions of refusal are inequitable, but also bc it’s wrong to create individual responsibility for increasing systemic dysfunction: more + more service work spread across fewer folks in a guilt-powered volunteer economy

Our next DACH Victorianists workshop will happen in December (see below). Yay! Consider submitting a proposal and spread the word!

Re-engaging with Sally Mitchell’s classic *The New Girl*, and love her account of how she got the sabbatical to write it!

Really looking forward to this! Just realised my last time at RSVP was 14 years ago!!

I’m travelling to Boston next week, armed only with a pre-2020 guide book. Does anyone have any more up-to-date recommendations for things to see, places to eat etc.?

What’s high quality research, who gets to do it and why? Is this discipline, theme or problem led? There’s already a vast disparity in research funding in UK. Why is this attitude is coming from some senior leaders in UK research, especially without any clear context? #HE #skystorians #AcademicSky

Day 1 of the INCS 2025 Conference in Genoa has not disappointed! Great panels and an amazing city 🤩

Having spent a LOT of time marking/ despairing recently, this rings true 😩

ENGLISH LIT JOB! A rare beast spotted in the wild! Come work with us! I’ll provide snacks! jobs.edgehill.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Did a (belated!) Chelsea chop over the weekend so now have lots of lovely blooms to bring some colour to the house 😊

Is it right that all men who make anything should be deprived of the pleasure of making beautiful things intelligently? Or, to put it in other words, is it right that only a very few men should have pleasure in their daily work? -William Morris, Art and the People

A quick reminder that there's still time to register for the free @dickenssociety.bsky.social Dickens and Death Online Event on Saturday 7 June! 3 talks and discussion on topics including the death of Steerforth, VR representations of Dickensian deaths & Dickens's afterlife:

Bookings for the British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS) 25th Anniversary Conference are now open! For further information and to book, please visit: english.web.ox.ac.uk/bavs2025

Recently read an AI-generated piece of writing with a mostly hallucinated reference list, and it was awful but … I now really want to read the made-up books it falsely attributed to my favourite scholars!

“If universities start to fail, it will be disastrous for Labour MPs and their constituents. It would be the modern equivalent of the factory closure, or the end of the pit. “And despite how some Labour MPs seem to imagine their voters, it would be Labour’s core supporters who were most affected.”

Thinking of every academic who has had to apply for grants to cover the cost of requesting and licensing images for their books with zero assistance from a publisher

May is winding down, but #RSVP2025 is just heating up! We're hosting special pre-conference digital events each Friday in June as we count down the weeks until #VoicesandVisions in July. Register today and join us for some fun and field-shaping work. No travel required! rs4vp.org/june-digital...

On 23 May 1861, a dinner was organised by the King of Hawaii, Kamehameha IV, in honour of Lady Franklin's visit. Here is the menu: [British Library]

#Skystorians! Join me & the @historylabplus.bsky.social‬ team online on 19 June @12:30 to explore how historical researchers (across all periods) can make themselves more visible to UK policy makers. For details👉 www.history.ac.uk/events/historical-research-and-policy-making & 🧵

My book is out now in paperback and on sale for (the bargain price of) £26! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/victorian...

💯 this

The Digital Victorian Poetry Project is pleased to announce some exciting updates on their work to digitize #19thC poetry, including over 3,000 new poems. Thanks for #SharingYourNews!