Very much looking forward to Naomi Pullin @naomipullin.bsky.social talking about 'The Pleasures and Perils of Aloneness' @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social next Wednesday. All welcome, either in person or online, but please register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Pleased to see an article by Bob Shoemaker and myself now out in Social History: The geography of Old Bailey crime prosecutions, 1720–1820 www-tandfonline-com.sussex.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.... The underlying work was supported by @londontopsoc.bsky.social

The way that the decisions have been communicated by senior management to colleagues has lacked transparency and care. Humanities colleagues have not seen any of the metrics used for the decision process, nor been asked for any input. There is no timeline set other than 'as soon as possible'

We will defend our staff and our students. We believe a University that serves its region and its economy needs Humanities degrees. The Humanities subjects also provide the University a huge income through exceptional performance in REF. This decision will result in massive reputational damage.

The current debacle in British universities has multiple causes, but a simple, partial remedy for the disastrous Tory removal of student number caps was for Labour to reverse it. They didn't, and they will reap the economic consequences at a local level across the country.

University of Hertfordshire closes a swathe of Humanities courses, accelerating the sweeping tide against Human-centred disciples in the UK. Because understanding humans is so yesterday today. With such happy consequences, as we see when we look around us.

Aye. Heard today that my university is closing UG History, Philosophy, English Lit, Linguistics, and Creative Writing in one go.

I can't wait for you to read this. Nearly a decade of research has gone into uncovering how Britain’s food shaped its sense of place in the world during the First Age of Nationalism. 'The King's Dinner', out 1 June 2026. uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...

VANISHING CULTURE is out now! From #InternetArchive, this book looks at what is disappearing online. It asks what it means when the record of ourselves starts to vanish 🕳️ 📖 Download: archive.org/details/vani... 🛒 Purchase in print: www.betterworldbooks.com/product/deta... #DigitalMemory #Books

you have to understand that when Richard Dawkins says really dumb things it's because Oxford dons have no natural predators.

🙏 + I am thinking there could be a follow up to the LwM Radical Collaboration book (www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...) that focuses more on this aspect of learning together across disciplines.

In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis. Paywall bypass: archive.is/6RdK9

May Day merrymaking #OTD English Restoration of Charles II 1660 The Milkmaid’s Garland, painted by Francis Hayman, c. 1742 Victoria & Albert Museum #MayDay

'The context here is that many institutions have taken steps in response to the OfS’ decision in the Sussex case, as they were expressly encouraged by the regulator to do.' 1/2

Worth reading the replies to this post: some horror stories and some good advice in them. #DigitalPreservation

Bring back the Arts & Humanities Data Service! So much lost knowledge from short-sightedness... It was at ahds.ac.uk if folks have never heard of it, there's an archived page there now.

And I'm not sure how many of the volunteer transcribers who worked on it would want to download a massive CSV just to see their fruits of their labours again. So much for public engagement and co-creation.

I did some work for a project that was funded to the tune of £750k from 2018-2022. PI has retired since then. The website was pulled without warning last year, just 3 years after end of funding. The data is in Zenodo, but the links to the site in the project's online book are screwed.

Judgment effectively outlines that the OFS was determined to make an example of Sussex to force other universities into submission to its ideological position.

If you've been thinking that website you use a lot must be stable and reliable because it has an ac dot uk domain? It *might* be fine. But it's no guarantee.

I don't think people fully understand yet just how fragile university-hosted digital resources are after external funding ends (especially if the lead academic retires or moves or is made redundant).

Now Assis Mon Marcelin (University of Reading) explores Peddler Ports as "Annihilated" Spaces: Cape Comorin Region in the 18th & 19th centuries. How did trade erase smaller spaces in the Indian Ocean? Liking the concept of 'peddler ports' and the focus on places other than the big beasts. 11/x

Now Sadie Mansfield (Birmingham) @sadiemansfield.bsky.social explores Languages of Dplomacy in Greater Haudenosauneega 1700-75. What did it take to treaty-make in 18th-century North America? (And please, might it help treaty-making in 2026...) 10/x

Claire Richardson (Anglia Ruskin) presents 'The Bones of Subsistence @ Norman Cross Prisoner of War Camp, 1797-1816. Digitised prisoner of war books are enabling her to undertake this research on the world's first purpose-built POW camp. Thanks @clairelanghamer.bsky.social for fixing the sound. 9/x

Celia Atherton @celiaatherton1.bsky.social (Newcastle University and the Coram Children's Charity) is researching 'Nursed at less expense and in the more healthy country: Childhood disability in the 18th-c and Yorkshire's Ackworth Branch Hospital'. Who knew Coram's had 6 branches? 8/x

Up now is Elinor Flavell (Open University) who is researching the mathematical education available to 18th and 19th-century women. (Lots of emphasis in this year's batch of presenters in knowledge formation, which is a theme we'll pick up on I suspect in the Q&Q. 7/x

Emily Green nee Deal @historywithem.bsky.social (UEA, National Trust and HRP) is researching the material biography of Molly Lepell (1699-1768) to illuminate the intellectual world of an early modern woman through both her words and her possessions. 6/x

Gillian Nineham (also at Bristol) is now speaking, about Landscapes of Extraction: Gendered Resistance to Agrarian and Racialised Capitalism in the Caribbean and the Hebrides. Very good to see comparative methodologies on display: an ambitious but productive approach. 6/x

Now we have Emma Mason @emmalrmason.bsky.social (Courtauld) whose work is on Collecting the Counter-Revolution: Refugees, Religion & Anglo-French Politics in Richard Viscount Fitzwilliam's Library. Religious toleration, refugees, cross-Channel flows of ideas & people. Which century is this... 4/x

Now we have Catherine Whiteman (Bristol) 'Thinking about Slavery: Bristol Library Society and the Abolition of Slavery, 1773-1833'. Interesting theme around the circulation of books and archives developing in this year's Lightening Talk. 5/x

And now we have Lucy Snow (Keele University and British Library). She's researching 18th-century Knowledge Work in the BL's Harleian Collection. Today we're all agog about LLMs; in earlier times, much knowledge instead resided in private collections of manuscripts. 3/x

First up is Alisha Ma @alisha-ma.bsky.social (LSE) on Aesthetic Experience and Colonial Wolrdmaking in Queen Mary II's Collection Spaces at Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace 1689-94. A very pery pertinent topic during a certain royal visit across a certain pond. 2/x

We're about to start this year's British History in the Long 18th-century annual PhD Lightening Talks. Live posting once we are under way in case you're keen to know what's happening in our field. 1/x

Just getting stuck into the the annual Lightning talks @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social

A call for papers. This looks like it will be a great conference: www.rmg.co.uk/call-papers-...

The Government ten days ago released a new strategic vision for archives which makes a strong and convincing case for their central importance. Using it as a yardstick shows just how far short of best practice the BBC Written Archives Centre falls. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/new-strategi...

😭😭😭

Very much looking forward to the annual Lightning Talks by early stage PhDs this Wednesday @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome but please register at www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

The suicide rate in Hawaii has increased by 53.9% over the past 20 years. usafacts.org/answers/how-...

Lots of "commentators" are rewarded for spreading lies and convincing you that everything is getting worse and you should be afraid. The good news is it's not: homicides at their lowest level in 50 years and killings involving a knife are at their lowest recorded level www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So, some reflections prompted by the combination of the launch tonight of the 1926 Irish Census exhibition at the British Academy and Suella Braverman's comments earlier in the Telegraph on the teaching of a 'patriotic curriculum' under a prospective Reform government. 1/6 #Skystorians

A reminder that I'm speaking at Conway Hall on Sunday 19 April. Book your tickets here: www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/eve...

Honoured to be a co-editor of this new series with Katrina who has led its development. We’ve got some great titles in progress already but we are keen to receive more proposals which address the series’ broad remit. Feel free to get in touch with me if you have an early modern project in mind.

We're especially looking for books that aim to shape the field, on under-represented places, peoples and sources. Early career scholars welcome.

I'm pleased to announce I'm a founding co-editor of the new @manchesterup.bsky.social book series, Radical Histories. Do let me know if you have a proposal for a book that fits our inclusive remit on radical histories. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/radic...

Must have missed the module on Logic. And sadly didn't inhale if he took any History. 2/2

“It will destroy humanities jobs,” Karp said when asked how AI will affect jobs in conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink....“You went to an elite school, and you studied philosophy—I’ll use myself as an example—hopefully, you have some other skill; that one is going to be hard to market.” 1/2

'As anthropologists, we have been conducting ethnographic research since 2022 on how research culture is understood and experienced within the intricate ecosystem of universities.' Smart piece this: worth a read. 1/2

"The reading room of the corporation's Written Archives Centre (WAC) is now only open to those with a prior appointment and on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The BBC WAC campaign, backed by 600 writers, historians and researchers, said the changes have hurt independent study www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Worse than limited opening hours, it's the withdrawal of 2/3 of the archive for curiosity-driven research that is the real scandal for what is supposed to be a public-service organization.