The year is 1508, and to do your math properly, you needed two companios with nice hats. This calculating group was on the title page of a 'how to calculate correctly book' aimed to help merchants doing the trade. #skystorians

Fellowships! The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam has published a call for proposals to conduct research into its maritime historical collection. More information, including the English translation of the call texts, can be found here www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/collectie/on... #skystorians

Misread the subject line of the promo email from an online streamer as "A gender for every mood." If only, eh? Anyway, today is Trans Day of Visibility. Support trans folks in your life & charities. If you do not think natal genitals = destiny, then you are on our team, team human autonomy!

The programme is now available for the British Commission for Maritime History New Researchers Conference in April at Southampton. Full details and booking here: www.maritimehistory.org.uk/new-research...

Applications are open for the 2026 Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Creativity in Digital History, the signal prize in the field. Due May 15. www.historians.org/award-grant/...

I missed #2, but the 1st of these lectures included a fascinating discussion of how to assess literacy in China, and just how many people read the cheaply printed "myriad treasure" genre. #bookhistory

Actually existing AI is making people's lives measurably worse bsky.app/profile/trya...

Are you a historian working on slave revolts/resistance? There is only one week left to submit your abstract for the workshop Reinterpreting the Caribbean Age of Revolutions on 23 October 2026 at the KITLV, Leiden. 👇 Deadline for abstracts (1 page): 30 March 2026, please send to: [email protected]

We are wrapping up a very stimulating series of talks just as spring is springing. Hope to see you Friday (March 27, in person)!

As of March 20th, claims have been made for 264,809 works. Roughly speaking, that means that if attorneys are given the full requested award, the settlement amount per work is $4,456 (divided between author & publisher).

This is your reminder that if you are a class member and have NOT yet filed a claim in Anthropic v. Bartz, the AI copyright lawsuit, you have 9 days to do so.

The Carney government brings us destruction. A full-frontal assault on Indigenous peoples, the integrity of the tax collection system, foreign aid, and, apparently, the country's rail system, among many other things.

The gap between what most Canadians think Carney is doing (strengthening the country so we can stand up to the US) and what he's actually doing (hollowing out our best chance at standing up to the United States) is something to behold.

Excited for Joan Judge's Rosenbach Lectures next week! Common Knowers: Readers, Books, and the Making of Vernacular Knowledge in China (In Philly but you can also attend on Zoom)

There's a great story by Khadra Ahmed about the detective work, incl in the latest Foyer newsletter. readfoyer.com/article/meet...

It is lovely that the Art Gallery of Ontario can now name the Black woman in the gorgeous #18thc portrait they acquired 6 yrs ago & also date the painting. It's from 1775. She is Eleonora Susette, enslaved by the Dutch governor of Guyana, accompanying his widow on her return to the Netherlands.

Do you know a Canadian who helped a threatened foreign writer? Over the next few months, consider nominating them for the 2026 Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize. The winner will receive $3,000 CAD and be recognized at the PEN Canada awards ceremony later this year.

But The Caine Mutiny is an intense & compelling book in its own right, as well as one of many important American novels set on ships. So this week for The Caine Mutiny's 75th anniversary I’ll AmericanStudy Wouk's book & four other nautical novels! 🗃️

Starting with today's post on our most iconic nautical novelist, Herman Melville, & two things that make his posthumously published final novel Billy Budd one of his most interesting works, including its multi-stage composition & its real-world inspiration! blackwhiteandread.com/march-16-202...

We're excited to present some aspects of our project at #AAS2026 -- looking forward to a great (hybrid) conversation about 'New Approaches to Colonial Archives in S. Asian #DH' -- w @electrostani.bsky.social, @shreethorat.bsky.social , @christinawelsch.bsky.social & @schottemargaret.bsky.social

McMaster university is hiring an Associate Professor or Professor with Tenur of History and Medicine. They are looking for someone whose work bridges humanities-based historical inquiry and contemporary infectious diseases scholarship. #histmed #histstm

Join Richard Stursberg and Stephen Marche as they discuss what's at risk when a nation loses the infrastructure that sustains its stories. 🗓️ Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at 7 p.m. 📍 Emmanuel College Chapel (75 Queen’s Park Cres E., Toronto) This is a free event, register on Eventbrite: buff.ly/qLwaXMX

What is the future of publishing in Canada? English Canada once forged a confident literary culture. For decades, books shaped the national conversation and anchored a shared sense of who Canadians were. But now, publishing in Canada has collapsed.

Oh, I almost forgot: it’s got an art gallery, too!

Hey #envhist! Parks Canada is ending its library services+ “decommissioning” its collection. We stand to lose a valuable set of materials that reveal if and how the Agency fulfilled its mandate (or didn’t). Read more here+write the Minister @juliedabrusin.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2026/03/10/c...

"Something ineffable happens when you write down a thought: You think something you did not know you could or would think and it leads you to another though. The process of writing itself leads to previously unthought thoughts [and] crystallizes half-formulated or unformulated thoughts" - Lynn Hunt

"The feature will be deactivated starting March 12, 2026. We're sorry, and we appreciate you holding us to a higher standard." Of course it doesn't "surface" the work of experts. It SLOPIFIES their voice and VOMITS things it's fished out of the barrel. 2/

Result! Just received from Grammarly: "Hi, Thank you for reaching out. After careful consideration, we have decided to deactivate Expert Review while we reimagine how to make it more useful for customers and more respectful of the experts whose work it surfaces." 1/ 🧪💙📚 🗃 #academicsky

with comments by Dr. Guldana Salimjan. Hope to see folks there (panel 827, Sat. 2-3:30pm)! 🗃️

I think if I were to send the head of legal at Grammarly a note that said I broke into his house and took his wallet, but in future, he could opt out of me stealing his wallet, that would go great and they would be fine with that 👍🏻

As someone whose second book is forthcoming, I'm still smarting from how hard it was. So here's a new addition to #teamsecondbook resources: the Omohundro Institute's summer workshop for second (etc) book writers, The Historian's Writerly Craft. Apps due 4/20 (lol) oieahc.wm.edu/events-overv...

To celebrate #InternationalWomensDay we've created a Library display to highlight the incredible lives and experiences of women in maritime. ✨

Announcing our final seminar of this year -- please join us in person on March 27th, 4-6 pm, for Dr. Katie Edwards' talk "Reforming the Republican Empire." More info and registration link here: munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/reform... 🗃️ #frenchhistory #indochine #colonialism

Hi #EarlyModern Bluesky - did you know that someone brilliant has built working printing presses using Lego and they are trying to get enough supporters so that Lego will release it as a kit? They look so cool! beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Did everyone catch @nimishabarton.bsky.social's incredible essay on the DEI debacle in Academe Magazine? If not, here's your chance to catch up on an essay we badly need academeblog.org/2026/02/04/t...

Around the world, women writers face risks because of what they write, where they write, or simply just *because* they write. On #InternationalWomensDay, we encourage you to learn more about women writers at risk, and read some of their words. pen.org/we-must-reme...

New ideas need old buildings. In today’s @globeandmail I showcase a vision for Toronto’s Old City Hall as a space for contemporary culture - opening this year. Let’s go. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

On Monday, at 1 PM, we welcome Casey Schmitt to our Ships & Seafaring Talk, where she will present her book "The Predatory Sea", a full-length study of the entangled history of captivity and colonialism using Spanish, French and English archives. Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seaf...

Last week the Ford gov't announced new #university and #college funding. But it still leaves Ontario students at the bottom of the pack and with worse per-student funding than in 2018 when Ford took office. #HandsOffOurEducation #onpoli

Here's a map showing how the #Ontario post-secondary #education funding shortfall affects students living in different census divisions. For fun, it also includes corporate tax breaks in each of those areas. #HandsOffOurEducation #onpoli www.datawrapper.de/_/QLXpO/

Today I reactivated Atlantic Digital Scholarship, a project I began with Elizabeth Mancke in 2019 to support building research and community networks. I’m excited to bring the platform back, and to add new tools and databases including my ongoing work transcribing Saint John customs records!

Did these experts agree to be used in this way? Were they compensated? Or is this just more theft?

Leaving Substack, where we had both built up communities with thousands of followers, was incredibly hard, & restarting our own site even more so. Please check it out, subscribe for free, & support the phenomenal work @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social has done to create this space! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com

How can you be talking about HISTORY with everything that's going on. 18th century history? Women's history? Waves hands. Friends, it is precisely because of everything that's going on that we need to talk about history much, much more.

Also at Berkeley, on Wednesday, catch me talking about my 14 years of experience in Opting Out of Big Tech, and why the world needs more of this right now! besi.berkeley.edu/event/how-to...

It's been a long time coming. Canadian independent bookstores have banded together to create an online book buying source so you can avoid the behemoth in the room. (Here are the titles published by CMU Press, which I run.) Spread the word #booksky! www.booksellers.ca/publisher/cmu-press-18021

The same is true for some of the big ones. The University of Waterloo is still gutting the Faculty of Arts.

As an NS author, I’m outraged. Funding for ALL NS book publishers, many museums and others has been stripped. This will have devastating longterm impacts on our communities and culture. Don’t brush this off. Literacy is important to critical thinking skills, problem solving, and community building.

#NovaScotia PC Govt announced devastating cuts to the Arts for its 2026/2027 budget, including ending the Publisher Assistance Program. This core investment helps protect our culture from the onslaught of books coming in from across our borders. How-to #DefendNSbooks : mailchi.mp/ddb43d514227...