This year's Christmas book bundle...

We've got a quiet Christmas with everyone (supposedly) in their own beds (mattresses on the floor will be later in the holidays). But I'm loving ##DuvetKnowItsChristmas Follow along and donate if you can.

Twas the night before Christmas, and throughout the land The sleeping arrangements were carefully planned Down in the kitchen, a picturesque scene A mattress, a pillow, a washing machine

'Christmas in Exeter Street' is the ultimate #DuvetKnowItsChristmas... aunts sleeping on the dresser, the vicar in the bath, strangers on the mantlepiece and windowsills, and the baby in the sink!

Took the kids to the panto and gave a little cheer when, after the "two blokes wearing dresses" joke, the fairy said in an aside, "not that there's anything wrong with that. This is an inclusive pantomime." I also enjoyed the joke about the Prince being stripped of his title...

Total gaslighting. Anti-trans activist; chooses to speak in person, provoking students who want to protect trans rights; they exercise their freedom of speech to tell her she isn't wanted; she gets to speak anyway; the BBC dutifully platforms her again; and now she threatens to sue everyone.

the vice president is a klansman

Just impulse-bought interrail passes for the family in the 25% off sale. Looks like we're going on another train adventure next year!

@amyfuller.bsky.social As our first year students now know, thanks to your excellent Christmas quiz

For your collective delectation this holiday season: Quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever written (and definitely the most ridiculous graph I've ever made!) loreandordure.com/2025/12/16/j...

Maybe this is like how Americans say "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care less" because you'd have to work hard to find less of an authority.

An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...

If you're a university-based historian needing advice and inspiration on how to tackle that tricky second book project, this event is for you www.history-uk.ac.uk/2025/12/08/h...

Some excellent, open access, analyses here of History Reclaimed’s counterpart right wing public history campaigns around the world: www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/...

Watching my mate @amyfuller.bsky.social on BBC 2!

Kishwer Falkner in The Times talking about the rights of "biological people". As compared to trans people, who are, of course, non-biological.

Earlier this year, Natasha spoke on this subject in a Royal Historical Society lecture - 'Dangerous Journeys: Framing Women’s Movement in the Medieval World’ - the recording of which is available here bit.ly/3MjdpnS #Skystorians

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game. On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad? WRONG!

1/5 It was entirely predictable that The Telegraph would jump on @DavidOlusoga’s Empire series to fight its right wing culture war for control of our public history. Let’s see what they’ve done:

new favourite New York Times term for a British thing just dropped

One might well also ask what David Lammy, as Foreign Secretary & Justice Secretary, is supposed to have done to farmers, except be Black in public...

I think it's going to be a challenge to interpret this barn as a memorial site to Emmett Till. It's part of the same story but a very different space to the current ETIC and the Sumner courthouse.

The BAAS PG Symposium is happening THIS WEEK! Just 2 days to book your spot! Get your tickets now while they're still there to get! Check the @officialbaas.bsky.social link below for more details! See you soon! baas.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

When I was 14, my dad drove me and my older brother from Durham to Leeds for my first gig. 30 years later (almost to the day), I got to see them on-stage again. Incredible.

When I was 14, my dad drove me and my older brother from Durham to Leeds for my first gig. 30 years later (almost to the day), I got to see them on-stage again. Incredible.

It is indisputable that Brexit has been an economic disaster, and notable that none of its political architects have paid any price.

I am absolutely over the moon that my book “The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and the Transformation of the GOP” is officially published TODAY! After years of hard work, I am incredibly proud. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible 📚🐘🗃️ @uscpress.bsky.social

The petition has reached 1500 signatures but let’s get more!!

Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.

"Given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes."

I'm an American Studies grad from Nottingham, and the beneficiary of an AmStuds/History fellowship that launched me into grad school in the U.S. I literally wouldn't have the career I have without it.

Please support and share this petition to help save American Studies teaching at The University of Nottingham. Staff are facing redundancy. The expertise that would be lost would be monumental. Please sign. c.org/26qjPmffNy

As a graduate of the BA, MRes and PhD programmes, the department has a special place in my heart and has been instrumental in my career.

American and Canadian Studies at Notts have been so important for so long. Our colleagues there have a plan to save jobs and teaching provision and management are not considering it. Please sign and share.

This little creature landed on my parents' window... Looks kind of weird... And then I zoomed in...

There are no words for how evil this is

Loved that Celebrity Traitors final. We weren't sure the 'end game' was gonna bring the drama, but oh boy,it did! My daughter in actual tears at the betrayal and then Nick's "hopeful little face" at the end 😂

Appalling and short-sighted decisions at Nottingham. So sad to see the American Studies programme that saw me through from undergrad to PhD is being closed. Thinking about and sending solidarity to colleagues over the river.

Devastated to share the news that was broken to colleagues in Music (and other departments) at the University of Nottingham yesterday. This is obviously a very difficult time for us and our students. Please contact us on [email protected] if you would like to be involved.

My daughter has been learning languages at school and is loving it. By the time she leaves, I wonder if there will be any language provision left at universities in the UK... Solidarity with colleagues at Nottingham in the wake of these awful decisions.

THIS IS SO GOOD

🚨🚨This is stellar investigative journalism by @kaitlintosh.bsky.social and @michelleinezsimon.bsky.social on how #elonmusk is boosting the #british right. 🧵 news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

Right on. And humanities also teach skills & dispositions which render those trained in them less susceptible to the kinds of propaganda by which powerful interests seek to control populations. They also teach you to write & speak intelligently, which Mamdani is very good at. Come study humanities!

Love that my 12-year-old West Midlander, who has never set foot in the US, gave a little fist pump when I told her Mamdani had won (she mostly knows about him from tiktok!) It's nice to be able to share good news. This is what hope looks like.

The writers brought into Teen Vogue in 2017 (and through now) lit a spark that hit kindling. There IS a market for content that treats young women (and older women) like they are the smart, savvy, engaged and powerful entities they are. Hopefully something will rise to replace that. It’s so needed.

That Britain has a king, that the king's brother has been involved in serious instances of sexual abuse, that the consequence is for him to be stripped of a handful of abstruse feudal titles and that Britain's elite think this is a fitting punishment, is the mark of a truly fucking weird country.

'Rising postgraduate fees combined with the increased cost of living, particularly higher rents, can make it impossible for some students to afford graduate study. Offer holders for these courses may reject places because they cannot secure the finance they need.'

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"