psa: for those who like post-hardcore FJØRT's new album 'belle époque' is absolutely mint. Had a few listens through and I don't think there's a bad track on it.

'I'm a boring old sod'

I'm talking to you, fellow environmental historians

Being miserable isn't being critical and being critical doesn't mean being miserable.

This is so stupid and that person should be banned from reviewing. Surely an editor cannot realistically send a review to an author where somebody has said 'you should have written about something else'.

'We want innovative research'
'Ok so here's this project that tells the opposite story to the one that's currently told'
'I'm afraid that doesn't fit with the scholarship so we won't fund that sorry'
Hmm ok.

LCAB Postdoctoral recruitment The Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity (LCAB) is a major research centre funded by the Leverhulme Trust to increase knowledge of how the relationship between humanity and the natural worl...

TEN post-doc openings at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity. Yes, you read that right. TEN.

I think we are under no illusions there 😂

Excellent thanks so much Annie!!! Thought if anybody knew it would be you!

At the event we'll be hearing from @lsangha.bsky.social, @lauracking.bsky.social, Paul Carter (TNA), @ruthslatter.bsky.social, @isabellajackson.bsky.social, Grace Huxford (Bristol), @lucynoakes1.bsky.social, @beckierutherford.bsky.social & Naomi Tadmor (Lancaster), all at the @ihr.bsky.social!

Cheers Chris! From my end it’s no more than a sentence or two in a smelly book intro draft but I’ve struggled to find more than minor references from historians (obviously can do the work myself and really look into the sources but not sure it’s worth it at this stage!).

(less interested in the origins of bbq here as a mode of cooking and more in the way it becomes popularly connected with a particular time of the year and in a particular setting at a point in history)

Any experts on British BBQ history? From what I can tell the British thing of having a barbecue in a domestic garden when the weather is nice becomes more of a 'thing' in the 1950s and 1960s (though barbecue as a form of cooking had been brought to Britain several centuries before)? Correct?

Absolutely. Ever closer to the circular loop of AI generated papers read only by AI. Burn it with fire before it burns out the planet…

I guess you could also argue that the fact that people are suggesting AI as a suitable assessor is an indication that the REF exercise itself reinforces a discipline-stagnating tendency to value work that ‘fits’ set ideas of quality rather than actually valuing attempts to do genuinely new things.

Why is Aylesbury the county town?

Probably going to have to flesh out the traditional dismissal of Great Man Theory in first-year historiography lectures now it turns out that two to three deranged geriatrics actually can slingshot the entire planet into the sun

Just under two weeks left to apply for this programme! Please share.

Yep. If anything the billionaires are making it worse.

Sounds like a nightmare but glad to hear you’re hopefully on the up! Sending warmest wishes for a swift recovery! May you have a blessedly de-coagulated Easter weekend x

I am convinced. Give the horse the cake!

Students are good at different things and, if we do want an assessed system still, we need one that allows them to demonstrate their learning in a way that allows them to play to their wonderfully rich and varied strengths.

The essay form has been a problem for many students for a long time - for those who struggle for various reasons with writing (I remember sometimes feeling capable students were let down by the rigid obsession with essay based assessment) - but apparently that didn’t matter until gen-AI.

I’m being a bit of a devils advocate here, but one begins to wonder whether assessment itself is the problem. If we didn‘t have assessment and were able to focus on ‘learning’ rather than evaluating the success of said learning?

If you’ve got a Mubi subscription and have never explored the oeuvre of Jafar Panahi now is your opportunity - loads of his stuff on there and they’re such brilliant films.

Or maybe it's actually genius. If people say 'well actually our bills have gone up' a year later then Labour can simply say 'well we said that on April's fool day so you didn't actually believe it did you?'

I think it sums up the quality of Labour's media and communications that they are having a raft of new policies and interventions to help the cost of living come in on April the 1st...

Ah this is what I feared - will try emailing in any case, thank you!

Cheers, will take a look!