My favourite moment was in a staff meeting in the midst of a redundancy crisis where someone said 'Imagine having to find another job for next year! The market's horrific!' and all the fixed term employees just looked at each other.
Very excited to be one of the Eccles Institute Visiting Fellows this year! I’ll be looking through the BL’s collections to find more examples of early modern Indigenous language lists for a monograph-in-progress (any leads welcome!) www.bl.uk/stories/blog...
the underside of a carpet, showing a green parrot
a carpet viewed from the side, with a raked light highlighting its raised profile
Sign reading: The work taking place is part of the ‘Knotted Histories’ project, a collaboration between the National Trust, the University of Oxford, and the Ashmolean Museum. The project is examining sixteenth and seventeenth century carpets to reevaluate what we know about them and what they tell us about England’s global connections in the period. Today we’re taking samples from the carpet in the King’s Room. We think that this carpet was made in England around 1615, copying designs from Turkish and Persian carpets, but there are few archival records documenting its creation. The fibre samples we take will be sent for dye analysis, which should give us more information about how old the carpet is and where it was originally made.
a floral carpet on the floor lit by a bright white lamp
A very fun day yesterday on Knotted Histories, taking samples from the carpet in the King's room at Knole and uncovering the hidden parrots underneath @researchnt.bsky.social
the underside of a carpet, showing a green parrot
a carpet viewed from the side, with a raked light highlighting its raised profile
Sign reading: The work taking place is part of the ‘Knotted Histories’ project, a collaboration between the National Trust, the University of Oxford, and the Ashmolean Museum. The project is examining sixteenth and seventeenth century carpets to reevaluate what we know about them and what they tell us about England’s global connections in the period. Today we’re taking samples from the carpet in the King’s Room. We think that this carpet was made in England around 1615, copying designs from Turkish and Persian carpets, but there are few archival records documenting its creation. The fibre samples we take will be sent for dye analysis, which should give us more information about how old the carpet is and where it was originally made.
a floral carpet on the floor lit by a bright white lamp
A very fun day yesterday on Knotted Histories, taking samples from the carpet in the King's room at Knole and uncovering the hidden parrots underneath @researchnt.bsky.social
✨Speech/less in the Early Modern World✨
Research Workshop, 23-24 April 2026
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Places limited. Please register as an attendee by 12 April: forms.gle/k9Xnz4gVFhe2Syez9
Thank you event sponsors! @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social @socialhistsoc.bsky.social
Scholars of #mobility, #travel, #exploration, #colonialism. Do remind your PhD students and ECRs about the @hakluytsociety.bsky.social annual essay prize! 🗃️We are accepting entries until 1 March. More details here: www.hakluyt.com/hakluyt-soci...
Amnesty International have put together a handy guide if you're against these hostile environment changes but don't quite know what to say! media.amnesty.org.uk/documents/Am...
The UK government has launched a consultation on 'earned' settlement with the aim of making immigration more difficult and, if you wish, you can tell them what you think of those plans before 11.59pm on Thursday (12 February). www.gov.uk/govern.../co...
This made me genuinely laugh out loud.
📢 Excited to announce this Call for Papers for ‘Clio Reframed’, a conference at Oxford on 18-19 June 2026 exploring early modern women as writers of history. @engfac.bsky.social @oxfordcems.bsky.social
Abstracts due by 28 Feb! clioreframed.hcommons.org/call-for-pap...
The thing about both the WI and the Guides is that transphobia is best countered by like, meeting trans people and talking to them. It is far easier to stoke hatred when you have shut down avenues for normal daily interactions.
Due to the funding we have received from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, we are delighted to be able to offer a limited number of fee waivers for online attendance on a first-come, first-served basis! This means that you can attend all our conference events ONLINE for FREE!
Currently being passive aggressively sassed by Outlook while it refuses to work
We're proud to be a partner on this project, which is bringing the stories of carpets to life - they're much more than just somewhere to put your feet 👣
Thank you - that would be fantastic!
To start with the project will be looking at two properties - Knole and Ham House - but if anyone wants to talk more about carpets or has any interesting threads to pull, do get in touch!
The website for Knotted Histories is now up at tinyurl.com/2tszcc2f 🧶✨🧵The project is run between @engfac.bsky.social, @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social and @researchnt.bsky.social, and will be looking at the creation of early modern carpets as well as their role in global networks.
A meme of 'Is this an archive?' showing a grid with various classifications of things that might be archives based on their content and structure.
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
📣Call for Papers 📣
I am delighted to announce that 'Speech/less in the Early Modern World' will be held 23 April 2026 at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.
Please share far and wide and do consider submitting a proposal! 🙊
Link to PDF version: bit.ly/4lZz80R
AI proving once again that there's still undiscovered knowledge for us to mine.
Screenshot of a certificate from AdvanceHE confirming Fellowship
🥳🥳🥳
Interested in travel writing? Want to learn more about editing historical travel writing? Come to the FREE Hakluyt Society editorial workshop!!
4 July, 9:30-18:00, Royal Asiatic Society, London
FREE but must register:
#travelwriting #travel #skystorians 🗃️
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future...
No, it's down as part time though the percentage of FTE isn't specified - but with the teaching load and responsibilities of a full time Lecturer.
🎉🎉🎉
The Prime Minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening.
That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk.
Shame on you, Keir Starmer.
🥳🥳🥳
So basically just sort of banning people who enjoy a sport for fun really?
Recently I found myself on Antipope Instagram, where there are endless reels of the current Antipope of the Palmarian Catholic Church.
This is, of course, extremely my jam, and I started reading up on them hoping to find some wild theology, but instead I found something WAY better...
