Of course it also means that every time someone is made redundant or takes VSS, they are de facto leaving academia — nobody is hiring, so losing a job means never working in academia again. Which is never part of the official discourse about “new beginnings” etc.
When people retire it’s a huge fight to replace them (we’ve been on “no new hires” for years, and had to really fight to replace two retiring professors with one more junior position in a field central to our department image). It’s so, so stagnant and it’s really stagnating scholarship.
The lack of history jobs anywhere at any level has effects all the way up the pipeline (though ofc it’s worst for people navigating from unemployment). But there’s no movement between institutions, either: nobody getting promoted from one place to another, nobody moving to a better intellectual fit.
The problem when I graduated was that there were 200 modern British history PhDs putting in applications for every job, you had to apply for like 50 jobs to get one, and a fair few people left academia before they did. That was unpleasant in its own way, but it wasn’t a death spiral like it is now.
We had a mass longevity movement in the 20th century. It was called public health. It included vaccines, antibiotics, nutritional programmes, maternal support, cancer research.
Palantir technology is aimed at ‘disrupting’ (read: discouraging and disabling) humanities education, which has had an important role in education systems democratic nations for good reason. Humanities education teaches empathy, helps develop processes of understanding, and enables critical thinking
Reported on 12 March: ‘Palantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men.’
newrepublic.com/post/207693/...
This is *not* a company that deserves good faith partnership or access to our sensitive data. Palantir leadership is open about their motives and they are anti-democratic, intolerant, regressive and totalitarian.
I'm looking for colleagues in the UK, #HistSTM, #HistMed, or #STS who work in institutional settings where they find it is difficult to place them in the right Unit of Assessment for REF2029. DM if that's you?
I have spent EIGHT YEARS working at Peterborough library, because that's where the inquests are.
Tomorrow, at 2:30pm, I am going to TELL EVERYONE all about what I found.
Plz come, John Clare Theatre inside the library, £5 on the door.
My chapter 'The end of the typing pool: New technologies,
old stereotypes, and emotional reactions to workplace change in British print media' is out this week and open access.
www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7...
Add to this, of course, the 100s of previously employed academics who are now out of work or whose jobs are at risk and the 100s of academics in fixed term positions trying to find permanent roles.
The EU’s Court of Justice has just ruled anti-LGBTQ+, including anti-trans, laws are ‘contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails’.
"It is unclear what Reform politicians think this kind of change would achieve, but for a party which claims to favour minimal state interference it is baffling that they think politicians should dictate the content and presentation of an exhibition."
Join @bronwenmanby.bsky.social, Sharon Cowan, Ruvi Ziegler & me today at IALS for the launch of Devyani Prabhat’s fantastic new @uolpress.bsky.social book Migrating Borders and Citizenship in Law. Chaired by IALS Director Carl Stychin. @ials.bsky.social
All welcome!
ials.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
Thanks so much! 😀
This is a wonderful source for cultural history!
Recently I delved into the cultural history of the mirror and found this great blog on this image of Marcia from Giovanni Boccaccio’s book, De Claris Mulieribus (Concerning Famous Women, ca. 1404).
artmirrorsart.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/d...
It makes the 2010s look like paradise
I'm so incredibly sorry to hear this.
#PhotoShare
Paris
1932
So sad this film about a Ukrainian diaspora parade in Washington DC in 1964 has not even 2,000 views. It was a big deal and is a very important historical document.
youtu.be/0YT1wsV_VTE?...
"Proud to have contributed to the development of the Subject Benchmark Statements 2025/26"
Today marked the official launch of the 6 new @qaa.ac.uk Subject Benchmark Statements for 2026! I was delighted to be part of the Sociology SBS Advisory Group (link below) - it was a 100% positive experience and would strongly recommend to anyone if you get the chance
www.qaa.ac.uk/the-quality-...
Ahmed Shafick - 25 - Egypt - Mohammedan - Doctor Lewis Brumberg - 23 - Cape Town - Hebrew - Student Monis Shapiro - 24 - Cape Town - Hebrew - Student
Best part of the 1926 Irish census (apart from everyone having 11 kids) has to be the boarders. Look at these lads
Excited to be in Newcastle for the Broken Bonds conference at Northumbria organised by @drjenniferaston.bsky.social. I’ll be talking history of legislation with ref to parliamentary divorce alongside brilliant speakers and Lady Hale’s keynote.
Just thought I'd mention again that I once wrote this book about the history of 'no platforming' and free speech debates at UK universities.
www.routledge.com/No-Platform-...
The Government: expect to be shocked to your core at Uni
Me: next week I’d like you to read two texts for seminar
Students: THEY TRIED TO WARN ME BUT I NEVER KNEW HOW OUTRAGEOUS THIS WOULD BE
Opening page to the RHS guide to becoming a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. With full abstract: :Fellowship is one of several ways to join and belong to the Royal Historical Society. Fellows are elected to this position by the Society in recognition of their work for the historical discipline and profession. There are many different routes to Fellowship, just as there are different kinds of contributions and careers within the discipline of history. Today’s RHS Fellows are history practitioners from a very wide range of backgrounds (within and beyond higher education) who have contributed to historical understanding and knowledge through a body of work. These contributions take many forms: from academic publications of different formats, to editorial and curatorial work, history programming and public history. This post addresses common questions asked by those considering applying to join the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society. If you are interested in making an application, we hope this helps."
The Society's Fellowship is a UK / worldwide gathering of historians who've contributed to historical understanding and knowledge through a body of work.
If you're interested in joining them, we've a brief guide to the many activities of RHS Fellows and how to apply bit.ly/3OzhoxK #Skystorians 1/2
www.widowedandyoung.org.uk/news/bereave... A lot of people assume that I am still in receipt of state benefits following Kieran's death, but in fact nowadays widowed parents receive financial support for only 18 months. This has huge financial implications! Kieran earned 60% of our household income.
Call for papers for Law, race and empire conference: By popular request, we are pleased to offer an extended deadline of Tuesday 28th April for proposals for this exciting event. The law and its authority has always been a contested space. From the adversarial trial and debates on legal reform to discretionary decision making on who was tried, and pleas for clemency, the way people have navigated legal landscapes has always been both fraught and multi-faceted. This complexity is exacerbated in the imperial context, where the law could be both a symbol of the metropole’s control and, conversely, a safeguard against oppression. Over the last half century studies of legal practice, race relations and the maintenance of empires have flourished, deepening our understanding of these aspects of 18th and 19th century life. Yet this was an age where the abolitionist movement ensured that race and the law were a key part of the social agenda. Simultaneously, European militaries engaged in imperial expansion and policing, often forming racialist attitudes in the process which were both adopted, and influenced, by the metropole. Race, law and empire, therefore, should not be considered in isolation. This conference, which forms part of the Leverhulme Trust Funded ‘Sepoys and Slave Soldiers’ Research Fellowship, aims to take a holistic view of the intersections between race, law, armed forces and imperialist projects. In doing so, it seeks to widen our understanding of constructions of race, the rule of law and the operation of empires. This international, hybrid conference welcomes proposals for 20 minute papers, or full panels of three papers, which explore any two of the conference’s three core themes of race, empire and law between 1750 and 1850. 300 word paper proposals, with a 150 word biography and a stated preference for in person or online attendance, should be submitted to Dr Zack White (zack.white@port.ac.uk).
Race, Law and Empire, 1750-1850 Conference
University of Southampton AND online
17th - 18th July 2026
Call for Papers extended by popular request.
Full details below. Please share widely.
Established, emerging researchers are very welcome.
Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk
Just re-upping this for a Monday even though I hate my voice, because it was such an interesting and enlightening conversation: