A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

Getting close to the end with our final panels. Wonderful papers from Dr Anna Elisabeth Gehl (Frei Universitat Berlin),Dr Mike Reeve (Open University), Tiago Rocha e Melo (University of Lisbon) and Dr Otman Bychou (Sultan Moulay Silmane University) #milwelfhist

✊ From the late 19th century, socialist movements adopted the raised fist as a symbol of unity and strength. One of the first depictions was by Hungarian artist Mihály Biró in 1912. His image of a fist emerging from factories toward parliament in Budapest visualised the power of collective action.

General registration now open!

General registration now open!

Very much looking forward to speaking at this conference about #GeorgeMallory #Mountianeering #QueerAesthetics #HapticModernism ‘But there is Art and ART’: Winckelmann, Pater and the Haptic Aesthetics of Mountaincraft.' ABSTRACT: shorturl.at/DjkJ3

Halloween Reading 👻

Check out @victorianhand.bsky.social new blog post on the unsettling evidence of hands in the archives of the Society for Psychical Research.

Why not indulge yourself on this spooky Halloween by reading our blog post about how hands could form a bridge between the living and the dead in late Victorian Britain?

A plate from “Engravings, Explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints” by Scottish surgeon-anatomist John Bell FRCSEd, published in 1794. Bell illustrated his own works based on dissections he carried out in his Edinburgh anatomy school.

Thank you to the @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social for sharing this article of mine on John Bell, surgery, and embodied emotion. It is available to read completely open access and is one of my favourite pieces.

The next Ethics of Medical Photography Network seminar will be on Mon 8 Dec, 2 pm UK time, online and we'll discuss a very hot topic: consent! We couldn't have better speakers: @duncanwilson78.bsky.social, Dr Chimwemwe Phiri and Dr Arya Thampuran. Book your place here: forms.gle/QUxL41SwixUH...

I have Issues with the concept of writers block, such that I wrote a post on it. kjcharleswriter.com/2019/11/13/w... There are a ton of things you can do if you're struggling to write, and none of them require using the theft-based environment-ruining plagiarism machine.

Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I'm really pleased to see that this volume, to which I contributed a chapter, has a web presence. Jane Ewbank's 'diary' is a fascinating historical document and it was a real pleasure to revisit the familiar world of healthcare in early nineteenth-century York. boydellandbrewer.com/book/gender-...

We are very excited about this event and all the amazing speakers who will be presenting. Also, check out the lovely poster courtesy of @helenvmurray.bsky.social!

That is William J Herschel, the son of John, grandson of William, and great nephew of Caroline en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Wil... #histSTM

The Victorian Hand's #handoftheweek is all about the fingerprint and the handprint and roots in racialised ideologies. Do check it out and follow us!

Make sure to check out our #handoftheweek as we bring you intriguing, exciting, and touching stories of the hands of history!

“When an emergency sitting was called to (basically) nationalise a steel plant at Scunthorpe to save 2500 jobs, the [House of Commons] was packed. When about 14,000 people have left or been laid off in less than a year from one of this country’s biggest sectors, that gets a parliamentary yawn.”

I wrote about the stupid white paper. In summary, with these people in the driver's seat and apparently unbothered by consequences, we're so cooked.

This is the current reality of the Higher Education sector. Set this literal "P & O Ferries nuke pensions from orbit and put all staff on worse conditions" behaviour against the white paper, and you know why I'm so angry with the government.

Home Sec describes a widely held public perception (UK is the destination of choice for asylum seekers in Europe) + endorses it as true. Home Office data shows it is not true. Whatever merits of her policy change, should not make false factual claims www.thesun.co.uk/news/3709465...

For weekend readers:

Do you want to read about the weird and wonderful history of hands? Check out @victorianhand.bsky.social and our #handoftheweek series, starting today!! Please share widely.

Check out this talk on a great new book, hosted by @victorianhand.bsky.social and @lancasteruni.bsky.social

We’re launching our #handoftheweek series! This week is Dr Hippolyte Baraduc, who tried to photograph the human soul via 'the most perfect organ after the brain', the hand. Baraduc’s photos blend science and occult, showing how hands were seen as windows onto the inner self in the 19th century.

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Looking forward to this exciting event!

How might hands reveal an inner self – a soul, a character, an identity? Join us on 12 November at Lancaster University to explore this question with Professor Alison Bashford (University of New South Wales) as she presents her book, Decoding the Hand. Tickets: thevictorianhand.uk/alison-bashf...

We're super excited to be hosting Prof. Alison Bashford at @globalaffairslu.bsky.social to hear her talk about her fascinating new book on the history of reading the hand. You can imagine why we'd be interested and we are sure you will be too. Please sign up for free tickets at the link below.

This week the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced the return of maintenance grants for students in greatest need. In a new blog post, RHS President Lucy Noakes considers the state of access to history and the humanities in UK HE bit.ly/3KP5WMe #Skystorians @artsandhums.bsky.social

Wonderful series of talks from Lancaster PhD students. Kind of makes you think everything will be ok.

We are thrilled that @rosscmrn.bsky.socia has joined out team. We're now able to share our exciting research more fully. Follow @victorianhand.bsky.social to keep up to date!

We are super excired about Ross joining the team and can't wait to get started on all our exciting engagment activities. Stay tuned!

We are pleased to annouce that Dr Ross Cameron @rosscmrn.bsky.social has joined The Victorian Hand team as a Public Engagement Fellow at @lcflondon.bsky.social! Watch this space for upcoming annoucements about public engagement activities and ways to get involved with The Victorian Hand.

"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning" www.media.mit.edu/publications...

Please read and share if you are interested in art, emotions, material culture and more!

I have to acknowledge that this by @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social does an excellent job of proving its own point, by being appallingly badly researched (mostly random and inaccurate/misleading snippets from X, I think). I blame the Times more than Oxford, though. archive.ph/kYfps

Please read our amazing RA @helenvmurray.bsky.social's evocative blog post on the @victorianhand.bsky.social website, which conjures the tactile, time-spanning qualities of G F Watts' affecting hand casts. As she points out, they were a big influence on the conception of the whole project.

Get your abstracts in today!

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Please do submit something if hands are your bag!

Don't forget to submit to [email protected] by Monday 22 September!

Touch transcends time... Last week, @helenvmurray.bsky.social was getting some haptic shivers whilst exploring spiritual hands in the archives of the Society for Psychical Research. Meanwhile, we're levitating with excitement to receive your abstracts for The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity.

Not sure what 'secure' even looks like for most of right now, be it early, middle, or late career.

Does anyone out there, anyone at all, recognise this government as a LABOUR one? In chasing the far right, all they will do is hand them victory by collapsing their established base of support among social and economic progressives. How many academics would vote Labour now?

This is a desperately ignorant position from UUK that endangers research that benefits grassroots communities and ignores the fact that much knowledge-building is incremental and begins with small investigations that provide proofs of concept and space to develop ideas:

One of the things that really grinds at the “elite” is that RAE/REF has shown for 30 years that research excellence really IS spread far beyond their narrow vision. They absolutely HATE it.