My first lot of marking has arrived but so has the cover of the book!

If any journalists would like a copy of Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain to review, please get in touch w me /MUP. It's a rigorous history of wind energy written for a wide audience, with plenty to say about today's energy challenges. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

Delighted to be at the proofs stage with this. Out in April with CUP!

Teaching the histories of slavery and keen to inform your students with insights from the most recent research? Just a month to go before @uclpress.bsky.social publishes this open access (free to download) expert volume. uclpress.co.uk/book/teachin...

A policy this expansive would certainly mean mass stripping of permanent residence status from people with ILR (including pensioners and parents of British children) on a scale far beyond anything any democracy has ever done before. There is no public support for such an extreme policy.

There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London. I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from. 1/15

A must-read for environmental historians, labour historians, & historians of embodiment, trade, Britain, the Thames, and more. Conceptually ambitious & a really good story with an unexpected & dramatic denouement. #envhist

And here is the table of contents.

✨ call for proposals ✨ - "Digital Humanities Today: Critical Inquiry with and about the Digital", London 23-26th June 2026 - coinciding with 25th anniversary of @kingsdh.bsky.social. deadline: 30th September 2025. further details here: jonathangray.org/2025/09/11/d...

The latest in our Creative History in the Classroom cluster, edited by @luciejones83.bsky.social and me. Great piece.

Trailer for The Lowdown-->Ethan Hawke, Sterlin Harjo, Tulsa history. YES. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE9b....

Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign: tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

Fund. Cataloguing. Hire. Cataloguers.

When did Tony Blair first use the internet? New evidence from this file: Information Technology Policy Part 1, 2001-2002

This was entirely predictable in an environment where there is little to no spare cash in universities to cover research expenses.

It's pretty bleak, but this is a useful visualisation of UK HE finances... wonkhe.com/blogs/what-t...

Does a ChatGPT query really use ten times more energy than a Google search? Does training any AI model emit as much CO2 as 5 cars? and can AI help us reduce global GHG emissions by 10%? 🤔 We tracked down the origins of these numbers 🕵‍♀️ and wrote a paper about it! arxiv.org/abs/2506.15572

This is fantastic.

The regional newspaper has a live feed going, btw. Might be geolocked, but if it isn't you can see the progress (or lack of it) pretty well.

We are pleased to share the details for the Annual Gender & History Lecture, which will be given by Dr Onni Gust. Their talk is titled 'Kin: transgender history with and beyond the human'. May 15, 2025, 15:00 - 16:30 (In person and Online) Register here 👇 ticketpass.org/event/ELMPHJ...

Heartened to see that close to 900 fellow academics and educators have already signed our letter in support of trans rights, trans wellbeing & trans inclusion, and against essentialist, anti-scientific, racialised & regressive views of womanhood. Please do read, share & sign! tinyurl.com/mud7va29

Don't be sorry

Shout out to Carleton who calls it like they see it on Poilievre. And I'm here for Mark Carney's crinkly eyes and economic acuity.

Both intrigued and apprehensive of what could possibly populate the Guardian's live-blog of the Canadian election.

Oh for the moments when tariffs made up the stuff of dull history jokes.

It looks like they just fed their 'model' into a standard dataset to get the tariffs - hence they have ended up 'recognising' Taiwan and tariffing uninhabited islands. It looks like this is the dataset they used www.census.gov/foreign-trad.... And it's certainly the one ChatGPT links to ;)

Beautiful piece on Linda Williams (1946-2025 💔) in the NY Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/a...

For folks without institutional log in, some details of the conditions under which universities are supposed to emergency notify Research England:

Lecturer in Digital History  UCL - History Department #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMI974/l...

T-80 days, but roaring and ready to land! A huge thanks to some truly roarsome peeps for reading and sharing their kind words: @davidolusoga.bsky.social @hjm.bsky.social @historianmemory.bsky.social @alanlester.bsky.social Please do share. Info & preorder links @ www.penguin.co.uk/books/309254...

Do you like humanities data? Do you like project documentation that goes into quite a bit of detail about what that data is/are*, the methodologies used, the decisions that were made, and the alternatives that weren't? Then hoo boy do we have the pdf for you! *delete as appropriate

This week, we are launching a new series on "History & Higher Education in Crisis". We are inviting articles on: 🎓 the history & origins of this crisis 🔮 its impact on research, methodologies, specialisms & teaching ✊ building solidarities & collective action www.historyworkshop....

UK universities are in crisis. Dave Hitchcock (@davehitchcock.bsky.social) on how the sector became 'broken' and why it must be approached as an interdependent system. www.historyworkshop....

Right. Some rather terrifying/bat-shit crazy insight from the NY times into thinking on Canada's border and US-Can 1908 (!) agreements on the great lakes. I hate this moment so much. web.archive.org/web/20250308...

Already a time capsule, but back in January a bunch of us working at the intersection of the humanities and AI/ML came together to sketch out eight provocations from the humanities for genAI research. Here's a 🧵 1/ arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190

**Call for Papers** Public History in an Age of Anxiety CPH Annual Conference, Belfast, 2025

ICYMI: the many-headed monster has just launched a new mini-series on Visual Culture in #EarlyModern England. Over the next month we celebrating the relaunch of British Printed Image to 1700 by publishing guest posts on the theme. 1st post tomorrow (Thurs)!🗃️ manyheadedmonster.com/2025/02/24/a...

Our PhD Placement Scheme is BACK! Call for applications for 3-6 month placements at The British Library. All current PhD students registered with a UK university are eligible. Deadline 21st Feb, 5pm. For more information, & how to apply, please see our temporary website: www.bl.uk/more/researc...

Big corporations own a lot of Canadian Media Here's a Starter Pack of independent Canadian media outlets go.bsky.app/7ce9PDR Some of my favourites in here include @thenarwhal.ca @nationalobserver.bsky.social @canadaland.com @canadahealthwatch.bsky.social , @thehilltimes.bsky.social

The new school into which the remaining Humanities departments are to be merged is going to be the School of Global Humanities. Meanwhile, global languages will no longer be taught there.

Here’s a great job opportunity at my alma mater, with a focus on pre-20th century history and a commitment to recognizing digital/public facing projects. Someone go help this amazing department continue building the best rural history program in North America! niche-canada.org/2025/01/27/j...

Some sobering data here and an obvious path forward it seems.

"Using LLMs for historical research requires careful attention and disciplinary expertise." Can't find it again but someone asked about AI and historical research, and someone else recommended this @cblevins.bsky.social blogpost -- indeed interesting & helpful. cblevins.github.io/posts/llm-pr...

So pleased my article on geo-coding addresses of 121 million + people in British censuses 1851-1911 is now out with Historical Methods! #openaccess - map any census info (ages, occupations, birthplaces etc) by address - link census to other spatial datasets Get the code and data 👇

@kalexand.bsky.social @jesspclark.bsky.social !!!

We are deeply concerned to hear about proposed cuts and programme closures at the University of Northampton and the University of Sheffield. In solidarity with our colleagues, please join us and sign and share the two petitions below requesting URGENT action. 🚨 1/3

This is both an incredibly niche thing but I think it should be more of a thing. Caffè Nero subscribes to the British Newspaper Archive so it’s all free on their wifi. There. I said it.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan (Matt Clifford report), trailed in today’s morning news is now out in full. I’ve read it, and here’s a few observations 1/10 Link to full report assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6784eb...

Digital History Klaxon: Looking for collaborators to submit a session to @historians.org on digital history projects for broad audiences. My team is looking to present on Searchablemuseum.com and are looking for other projects, theme/region/period agnostic!

The University of Northampton is making significant cuts that put many programmes at risk, including our MA in History. Our Union branch has started a petition about these cuts in general, please sign and share. chng.it/HmQLFK8Lry We also have letters from learned socs & groups supporting History. 🗃️