My ABR essay on Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai is now available for *free* in audio version (29 mins) via Spotify or Apple Podcasts. (Print version behind ABR paywall - subscription always worth it!). katefullagar.com/2025/10/05/q...

A great example of innovative storytelling!

Review of our podcast Unsettling Portraits 😮 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/W4SCS...

"the adulterations to Pepys began with Smith [the diaries' decoder] himself. He imposed his own punctuation and frequently omitted things he found “objectionable.” Very few people after Smith ever learned the code. This means that successive formal editors have only ever worked with Smith’s version"

Another review for Inside Story. On Kate Loveman, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Dairy @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org @kateloveman.bsky.social katefullagar.com/2025/10/31/g...

The war against 'false news' is not 'new', but has been a concern of international organisations for over 100 years. The ever captivating Roland Burke launches a new Guardian column, Past/Present, sponsored by the @austhistassoc.bsky.social.

"What has been too often neglected is the sitter himself—Mai. While most observers of the portrait mention Mai’s two-year stay in Britain from 1774 to 1776, courtesy of James Cook’s second returning Pacific voyage, they usually skip over Mai’s motivations or post-visit life." 🗃️

Shorten reeeeeally grasping for straws here. “Can’t wave a wand.” My man, they’ve been in power for over three YEARS. They just spent 20b on debt relief. The cost of scrapping JRG (they say here) is 1b They have lost the messaging here @australianlabor.bsky.social archive.is/rxSze

Enjoyed this (now rather old) podcast I did with Richard Whatmore on his book, The End of Enlightenment. We discuss eighteenth-century Europe, Trumpian USA, and Australia's Voice referendum. katefullagar.com/2025/08/27/p...

Job Ready Graduates. August 2025. @jasonclaremp.bsky.social #scottmorrisonneverforgive #ALPhardlybetteronhighered

A good piece about the situation in Australia HE (several years ahead of the rest of the Anglosphere in destroying its sector). Consultants must go - but before that happens, knowledge of what they do must increase among uni communities. Many don't even know consultants are involved in the debacle.

Week one Liz Kendall (or maybe Pat McF - not actually sure where unis are right now) earns some big points by banning/using state’s role as funder to massively disincentivise unis hiring these parasites

Enjoyed this (now rather old) podcast I did with Richard Whatmore on his book, The End of Enlightenment. We discuss eighteenth-century Europe, Trumpian USA, and Australia's Voice referendum. katefullagar.com/2025/08/27/p...

Why is Aussie media so bad, shallow, and right wing? archive.is/pNQrm afr. www.afr.com/policy/healt...

@historymatterssyd.bsky.social and I are delighted to see the UNSETTLING PORTRAITS podcast get Highly Commended in these Digital History Awards! www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/nsw-h... (link to the podcast in this linked page)

The @austhistassoc.bsky.social is proud to have initiated this open letter asking for the repeal of the egregious JRG punishment of humanities and social sciences in Australia. Read about the 100 signatories below, and please sign in solidarity yourself: www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

Fascinating story. @newrepublic.com

Me three months ago:

Shorten reeeeeally grasping for straws here. “Can’t wave a wand.” My man, they’ve been in power for over three YEARS. They just spent 20b on debt relief. The cost of scrapping JRG (they say here) is 1b They have lost the messaging here @australianlabor.bsky.social archive.is/rxSze

Thank you @austhistassoc.bsky.social for addressing the abomination that is Job-Ready Graduates and petitioning the Albo Labor Government to repeal it #auspol. We need more grads and esp. lawyers from Indigenous and other minority backgrounds, not fewer!

@austhistassoc.bsky.social taking a lead here. Pls sign this petition and share it around:) www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

Great news. Such a pity Australia was not be a leader on this... a very great shame, in fact.

More media on this. Now me on ABC Lismore radio at the 45 minute mark: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr... See also our list of media growing here on the petition: www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

The government's proposed HELP repayment system puts more female debtors at risk of a lifetime of debt. andrewnorton.id.au/2025/07/29/t...

Now with a signatory Peter Tesch (former ambassador to Germany, Russia, and former Dep Sec Defence) on ABC radio at 35 minute mark, explaining and demonstrating the value of his BA: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Working on fall syllabi? Consider incorporating @ageofrevolutions.bsky.social articles in your courses! Check out Erika Vause's "Teaching Students to Read Secondary Sources with Age of Revolutions" here. ageofrevolutions.com/2022/03/14/t...

‘If Labor won’t act to defend equity in education, what is the point of them – I mean, what do they really stand for?’ Tim Winton in @australia.theguardian.com today. Good question @australianlabor.bsky.social

The @austhistassoc.bsky.social is proud to have initiated this open letter asking for the repeal of the egregious JRG punishment of humanities and social sciences in Australia. Read about the 100 signatories below, and please sign in solidarity yourself: www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

"I can guarantee you no side of politics will justify a quarter of a billion dollars a year on someone’s Cybernetic futures interdisciplinary vanity project, no matter how well meaning they are." @ouranu.bsky.social www.reddit.com/r/Anu/commen...

"Professor Parry has defended the Change Proposals by stating that the ADB could easily have been cut altogether. She appears to regard the ADB as an academic unit within the gift of the dean rather than as a collaborative national institution" inside.org.au/the-jewel-in...

insidestory.org.au/how-to-disap... this is a great article. Let me point out that major major structural reform has happened in our school system before. In the second part of the 19thC all Australian states abolished all state aid to private schools. #histed

An especially good one today on the humanities in Oz. Every word true. graemeturner.org/2025/07/20/w...

Excellent from @chriswallace.bsky.social on the decline of history in Australia. Late Night Live www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

None. Of. This. Matters. Scandal will not help you guys. You gotta know this by now. Find a constitutional way.

Delighted to see this conversation out in J18, reproducing our workshop on #joshuareynolds, #mai and #18thcenturyart www.journal18.org/nq/reflectio...

Quite. Why anyone thinks that trump being revealed in the Epstein files would make the slightest difference is beyond me.

If you agree with our 5 requests to our universities, please sign 🖊️ the open letter and don’t forget to confirm your email! ☺️🙏 openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Wonderful as ever from Patrick Mullins @insidestory.bsky.social insidestory.org.au/richard-ellm...

exactly

Deakin uni postdoc fellowships :) www.deakin.edu.au/faculty-of-a...

Truly imagine if Mamdani had used the word “Shylock.” It would have quite literally destroyed his career and every org and leader calling him out would be making this into a month long news cycle. Trump? Hardly a peep. When you accept antisemitism from the president, you aren’t fighting it.

We're being looked after so well here at JCU Townsville -- even the wallabies are coming out to greet us! It's so beautiful here on Bindal country. #AHA2025 #OzHA2025

#AHA2025 @austhistassoc.bsky.social in Townsville officially complete with last minute salt water croc spotting on the Friday arvo. Thanks everyone for all the inspiration and see you next year at Macquarie!

Interesting that BBC accepted that British were the agents here. They usually like to say it’s just ‘Australians’. In the 1830s.

real glad we spent two fucking years pretending the real antisemitism was students asking their colleges to divest from apartheid

FINAL REMINDER: *JULY 1* deadline for abstracts for the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia / David Nichol Smith conference in Wellington, New Zealand The theme is "Living / Building" w/ keynotes Manu Samriti Chander, Karen Harvey, and Ngarino Ellis ⭐ CFP👇 www.wgtn.ac.nz/fhss/about/e...