If you missed my @long18thsem.bsky.social talk last week on Lord Mansfield and the Chevalier d'Eon, fret not, as the recording is now up on the IHR website. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Who did what in early modern England? New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️ Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Great to see the recording of Dan Gosling's excellent talk on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' @long18thsem.bsky.social posted on the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social website. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

The Wolfson History Prize shortlist for 2025 is announced. Good reading.

Really looking forward to Richard Ansel's talk on servants during the Grand Tour next Wednesday @long18thsem.bsky.social Here is a quick taster: www.tiktok.com/@long18thcen...

'A steep decline in the number of Chinese students studying abroad is “highly likely” in the next decade but universities reliant on these enrolments for survival remain mostly oblivious to the scale of the coming challenge, experts have said.'

Eighteenth-century precedents and 21st-century threats.

The bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva which was discovered in 1727 during the construction of sewer under Stall Street in Bath. Now part of the museum collections at The Roman Baths in Bath. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Bath

It didn't occur to me that one of the problems with getting older is witnessing the culture debate and process the same things over and over. Like, as a historian it's fascinating and useful to analyze these continuities. As a human it's exhausting.

This Wednesday 24 September, I'm speaking @long18thsem.bsky.social on the various "judgments" made on the Chevalier d'Eon's sex in 1777. To whet your appetite, here's the title slide, and you can register for this (free) hybrid talk via the link. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public. Starting this week:

Very much looking forward to Dan Gosling (TNA) speaking on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' this Wed. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome online or in person, but please register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

'The High Seas Treaty received its 60th ratification by Morocco on Friday, meaning that it will now take effect from January. The deal, which has been two decades in the making, will pave the way for international waters to be placed into marine protected areas.'

£77,816 er annum. What an exciting post.

'The European Research Council (ERC) has announced changes to its grant eligibility criteria for the 2027 calls for proposals, with scholars able to apply for a starting grant directly after finishing their PhD.' 1/3

Next week (24 Sept) I'm speaking at the @long18thsem.bsky.social on the English court cases relating to the Chevalier d'Eon, and whether they really made a legal judgment of d'Eon's sex (they did not, but don't you want to find out what was actually going on). www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

We must unite against those who seek to divide us.

Next week Daniel Gosling will be talking in-person and online about 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon'. Here is a brief taster! www.tiktok.com/@long18thcen...

'Von der Leyen...announced...a global health resilience initiative to combat disinformation and reinforce evidence-based public health.... [and] a broader European Centre for Democratic Resilience, which will provide “capacity to monitor and detect information manipulation and disinformation”.' Good

ICYMI: We are hiring an Associate/Full Professor in Digital Humanities at @camdighum.bsky.social. App deadline Sep 21. The position is for Deputy Director of CDH, and eventually Director on rotational basis. Please circulate/apply and let me know if you have any Qs! www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/about/news/n...

“Can we please just listen to the scientists and credentialed experts…defend the scientific method…”

Redundancies and closures mooted at the University of Leicester in Schools of Education, Chemistry and Geography, Geology and the Environment plus disciplines of Modern Languages, Film Studies and History. Shrinking HE provision shrinks opportunity and exacerbates regional inequality.

New preprint on "Computational Hermeneutics," co-authored by too many people to list in one post. TL;DR: GenAI is a cultural technology, and needs to be evaluated in ways that recognize situatedness, plurality, and ambiguity as the conditions of meaning — not noise to be minimized.

Just about to take off from London to San Francisco. It is pretty clear Trumps policies are working and US tourism is truly fucked.

One of the best pieces I’ve read in ages about where we are now. Does that brilliant and impossibly difficult thing of articulating core truths that you know and have even shouted across tables at people but reframing them so you see them with a different clarity & can redefine your own argument.

The WI has no time for your bullshit.

Records created by overseers of the poor can be of value for #FamilyHistory, #LocalHistory and #OnePlaceStudies in England & Wales. In New Accession: Overseers of the Poor Records🔗, Derbyshire Record Office‬ ‪@derbyshiredro.bsky.social‬ provides a useful overview of these records. #OnePlaceWednesday

Job in British history 1500-1900! www.christs.cam.ac.uk/college-lect...

Interesting & critical review of the new V&A Storehouse by @profdanhicks.bsky.social artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

While the manufactured starvation crisis is the latest horrific tactic in the Israeli government’s genocidal campaign, it is part and parcel of the Zionist strategy of obtaining maximum land with minimum Palestinians.

This is the logical conclusion of Zionism, which aims to build a Jewish-only state on stolen Palestinian land through the displacement and killing of Palestinians.

Well said David. We need to move beyond trying to prove AI isn’t good/smart/able to reason and instead make the case we need humans who are good/smart/able to reason. How do we teach them in a world with LLMs? What kind of job market are we going to fight to create?

This is a fun genera and it is worthwhile testing to see what LLMs can’t do well. But I think Bluesky could use more posts on what the LLMs are suddenly able to do really well. For history , they can transcribe handwriting and produce historiographical overviews better than most research assistants.

Me every time I see a new news piece that ignores the data on how good history graduate careers are.

RFK Jr. Aluminium Claims about a Danish Vaccine Safety are fallacous: The Evidence Explained. Mr. Kennedy got a lot wrong, explains vaccine expert Dr. @helenp-h.bsky.social diplomaticimmunity.blog/no-rfk-jr-th...

I accept this may just be a temperamental thing—but I would so much rather err on the side of being intrigued, exploring a new phenomenon, and accepting the (genuine) risks that come with that territory.

I also think this is right. Practicing the will-not-to-be-impressed seems to me bad for the soul. Even if LLMs were proven to be a social toxin, I would want to allow myself to marvel for a few months before regulating them or whatever.

Also being floated is a return to the old U-5* regime via a new 4*+ score. Seriously stupid idea if we want a functional, viable & meaningful REF2029. There is already much too much churn in the system. Make that better, not worse, if you want 'Excellence' in your Research Excellence Framework. 2/2

Oh, and yeah, can we remove Excellence from the title, please? It won’t make any difference to the thing itself, but it will stop us looking quite as stupid to the outside world. Research Assessment Exercise was perfectly fine. (Though Research-lite might be more accurate.)

13. Historians could do a lot worse than read film theory to understand about narrative history and the construction of history as a process

One like, one history opinion 1. Read the introduction, conclusion and endnotes first - in that order

17. The edited collection is an underrated publication method and is particularly useful for communicating historical research trends

@ihr.bsky.social @lauragowing.bsky.social @carmenmangion.bsky.social @harkaway1.bsky.social ‪@dralanagharris.bsky.social‬

'Rajah quilt' created in 1841 by English female convicts, often poor women who had commited petty crimes, as they were being transported to Australia, sailing from Woolwich to Hobart in Tasmania. The quilt was named after the ship on which they travelled #womensart

We're looking for an Associate Professor/Professor who can contribute to research and teaching at Cambridge Digital Humanities from January 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. This is a permanent role with a closing date of 21 September. Apply now: www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/about/news/n...

Really pleased to see the Autumn programme for @long18thsem.bsky.social is now available @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome - but please do register. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Seeing as I'm always such an Eeyore, what are the big public policy success we can learn from? *Channel Tunnel *Seatbelts in cars *Plastic bag charge *Teaching people to swim *Smoking ban *CFCs and the Montreal Protocol *Banning lead in petrol *Minimum Wage *Covid vaccine *Lottery sports funding

If you're in Aberdeen on 17 September don't miss my colleague Professor Matt Smith's lecture on 'Twice Removed: Slavery, Big Data, and the Cultures of Caribbean Ancestral Histories'. Digital history both opens up new vistas and obscures 'the knotted histories of empire'. #Skystorians

And for the implications of the decline of formal language study for higher education in the UK, a key report and maps that allow this impact to be traced across the 4 nations, visit the British Academy's SHAPE Observatory. 2/2