The deadline for this funded PhD is this Fri 23 Jan, for anyone interested in housing, heritage, and climate change (especially if you're an enthusiast for Scottish tenements!) ⬇️

A good thread on chaotic mismanagement at the University of Edinburgh. Solidarity to my colleagues and friends there.

Perhaps you were wondering about this year's Wolfson History Prize shortlist. - Cambridge (UG, PGT, PhD), Oxford (postdoc) - Cambridge (UG, PGT, PhD, JRF, job, 'bye-fellow') - Birmingham (?, PGT, PhD) - Lancaster (UG), Nottingham (MA, PhD) - Cambridge (at least UG) - Cambridge (UG), Oxford (PhD)

This is so problematic. Creating big-money grants (7m EUR!) is such a travesty. Instead of funding 1 researcher, why not fund 25 with smaller grants? It would create more ideas, secure more careers, and create so much more innovative knowledge. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Perhaps you were wondering about this year's Wolfson History Prize shortlist. - Cambridge (UG, PGT, PhD), Oxford (postdoc) - Cambridge (UG, PGT, PhD, JRF, job, 'bye-fellow') - Birmingham (?, PGT, PhD) - Lancaster (UG), Nottingham (MA, PhD) - Cambridge (at least UG) - Cambridge (UG), Oxford (PhD)

📢 We are thrilled to announce the #CfP for the Sixth International Seminar in Historical #Refugee Studies, which will be held at the University of Vienna, Sept 28-Oct 1, 2026! Deadline is December 20, 2026. For more information, see rhs.hypotheses.org and CfP below:

This afternoon an incredibly important principle is being debated in the House of Lords We know people die at our border & in our asylum system at a horrifying rate, but shockingly the govt does not record how many, who, or how. @asylummatters.bsky.social are campaigning to #KnowTheirNames

the amount of academic research now using llms in research (synthetic data generation, to classify, annotate, or analyse large scale data, etc) is astounding. remember, just cus use of llms in research is becoming normalised does NOT erase the fact it degrades the research & undermine your results

Rhys Machold in Jewish Currents on the myth of Israeli "security innovation": jewishcurrents.org/the-myth-of-...

New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d

Amazing resource just in time for dissertations this year.

This PhD on a reparatory history of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, exploring the legacies of empire is open for applications. It features a great supervisory team (moi, Kerry Pimblott, and Sadia Habib) and fabulous public history opportunities. Please share. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I have a new article out. TLDR: Actively courting deportation by air is a way to claim rights as a stateless person and even as a refugee. academic.oup.com/past/advance...

📣 New post on RefugeeHistory.org! As UNHCR prepares to appoint a new High Commissioner, @jfcrisp.bsky.social looks back on how the process played out 25 years ago and asks: has anything changed? ⬇️ refugeehistory.org/blog/2025/10...

Lawyers and NGO's are calling for Nicole de Moor's candidacy for the position of UN High Commissioner for Refugees to be rejected. After having significantly weakened refugee rights in Belgium during her term of office, it is inconceivable to allow her to lead @unhcr.org tinyurl.com/yx5jp257

📣 New post on RefugeeHistory.org! As UNHCR prepares to appoint a new High Commissioner, @jfcrisp.bsky.social looks back on how the process played out 25 years ago and asks: has anything changed? ⬇️ refugeehistory.org/blog/2025/10...

'Key Isssues in Global Refugee Policy: Analysis, Commentary and Advocacy, 2015-2025'. A compilation of e-links to around 80 articles I've published over the past decade, most of them brief and easily readable! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I can't be the only person to have thought of this.

I very highly recommend this article on genocide, historicide, and the archives of UNRWA. doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...

How can trans history facilitate knowledge and solidarity beyond the 'existence' of trans people? Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo argues for trans history as a tool of political education, through the history of access to healthcare:

A first post of the new academic year for RefugeeHistory.org: refugeehistory.org/blog/2025/9/...

A first post of the new academic year for RefugeeHistory.org: refugeehistory.org/blog/2025/9/...

A final repost for this:

For the evening crowd.

Archaeology’s tools were forged in war: from spy planes to satellites, the line between research and militarisation has always been thin. Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the role of Antoine Poidebard in pioneering aerial archaeology.

I’ve heard much about this project as it develops, and it is amazing! A preview of the bigger story here.

From spy planes to satellites, archaeology has long shared a sky with empire. What does that mean for the knowledge it produces? Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.

I've written a piece about the bomber's view of the past: how aerial archaeologists of the Middle East have looked at the region's past through the eyes (and lenses) of people who bomb it in the present. In fact they're sometimes the same people. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decol...

I've written a piece about the bomber's view of the past: how aerial archaeologists of the Middle East have looked at the region's past through the eyes (and lenses) of people who bomb it in the present. In fact they're sometimes the same people. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decol...

Aerial archaeology began not in neutral curiosity but in the violence of colonial Syria. Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) traces its entanglement with empire.

I think I won't.

A super helpful thread for anyone updating course materials etc ahead of the new academic year.

"As ever, my goal is not to measure fantasy against historical accuracy as some sort of purity test. But rather to challenge us to interrogate the meaning behind the design." This is a FANTASTIC watch. Highly recommend. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGr5...

Just sharing the “Xtreme endnotes” assignment @parisnoire.bsky.social mentions here in case anyone else finds it helpful as we begin a new academic year. FWIW, it’s a purely analog exercise in an AI-freaky world & my students have never not had fun doing it.✌🏽 www.historians.org/perspectives...

Very few people seem to understand university finances and, distressingly, this includes many academics and most policymakers. This is an attempt to condense the key points you need to know. open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

To my astonishment, my new book Vanished has been shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Trivedi Science Book Prize. Thankful to all the roarsome people who helped make it happen, from the Royal Society and judges to many beloveds. Roaring! 🐯 #Extinction #BookSky #HPS #Skystorians

How can the entangled histories of asylum denial help us to understand the politics of exclusion? Niro Kandasamy on the struggle of Tamil asylum seekers denied entry to Britain. www.historyworkshop....

Some strong history opinions here ⬇️

In the latest bulletin of the Syrian Studies Association there's a report by Michael Provence on the current state of the Syrian national archives. They'll be an important resource for any future Syria, but they're in a precarious state. www.syrianstudiesassociation.org/ssa-bulletin

Thanks to the @financialtimes.com for this lovely review of my book Vanished. ‘The history of extinction, she points out in her dark and persuasive narrative, is bound up with concepts of race, empire and colonisation, and the Darwinian concept that some species are fated to outcompete others.’

Brilliant opportunity, do consider applying!

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27. Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team. www.historyworkshop....

I hear that Macron has been talking about how the UK needs to do more to remove the pull factors of welfare and work in order to stop small boat Channel crossings. This is an analysis which doesn't event flirt with reality. What are the pull factors?

Last repost for this, from over the weekend.

the RHS does a lot of good, democratising work - as far as “UK” academic bodies goes it’s better than most in terms of engaging with us over in Northern Ireland - but… this does not look good.

A powerful blog post from one current Dundee University Humanities PhD student on postgraduate study during a time of huge uncertainty at the university sgsahblog.com/2025/07/03/p... #AcSky

You may be wondering about the winners of this year's Royal Historical Society book and article prizes. The answer, in no particular order, is: Oxford (PhD Cambridge) Oxford (current doctoral candidate) Oxford (current doctoral candidate) St Andrews (PhD Cambridge, MSc Oxford)

"The Nazis... imagined their targets would self-deport. Once the myth of self-deportation collapsed, they turned to more punitive measures. On Tuesday, Noem similarly noted the Everglades camp was meant to frighten immigrants into self-deporting. 'If you don’t,' she said, 'you may end up here.'"

I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.

I’m sure this is all excellent and deserving work and nothing against the winners. But I’m just so depressed about ‘pedigree’ and elitism in our field.