Another fascinating episode!

Drafting the Past@draftingthepast.bsky.social · yesterday

We're back! @brettrushforth.bsky.social and Chris Hodson joined me to talk about two decades of collaborating on BEYOND THE OCEAN, using visual and material culture to tell a different story, and more. Plus a cameo by Eminem! Listen here: player.captivate.fm/episode/f2ca... 🗃️

does anyone know of any work that’s been done on career trajectories of (UK humanities) academics who have been made redundant? eg information about how many go into school teaching, early retirement, independent research? appreciate this is complex, sensitive and much data is too recent

⏰OPEN HOUSE - THIS SEPTEMBER ⏰ A self-guided journey through spectacular heritage spaces, including the General Committee Room, Grand Hall, Boardroom and libraries! 🗓️19th September 2026 📍 Self-guided entry available between 10:00am and 4:00pm ⏰ Last entry at 3:45pm

1954, cars driving along a flooded Old Glenn Highway. Before 1967, Lake George annually flooded the road and cut the connection between Palmer and Anchorage. The Knik Glacier no longer advances to block the Lake George outlet. Via Anchorage Museum #alaskahistory #alaska

A brand new steamship. Hundreds aboard. A late season hurricane. The wreck of the San Francisco (1853) remembered through music. www.historicmusicofnewport.org/blog/the-3rd... #MaritimeHistory #SteamshipHistory #HistoricMusic #ShipWreckStories #19thCentury

Anyone near St Luke's Church, at Haslar Hospital, Gosport, Hampshire? Wall tablet there to an RN officer I'm interested in. The text is on the Maritime Monuments Database, which is great, but without a photo of the tablet. Have emailed the Haslar society, but just in case... #MaritimeHistory

#maritimehistory

The English Historical Review@enghistrev.bsky.social · 2d ago

New article! Matthew Evenden @arts.ubc.ca on 'Deptford Stones: London, the River Thames and the Circulation of Ballast in the Age of Sail, c.1750–c.1850' academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

snap poll: is it worse when you get the feedback and it confirms the weaknesses you already worried about in your writing or when it says nothing about those but suggests ones you’d never thought about?

1. historians don't get the luxury of "slow work" in this day and age. 2. Many of our objections are centered around the fact that WE need to be the ones reading and thinking about our sources, not some LLM. Its about understanding and owning the process. 3. Using gAI is cutting corners.

(paywalled) the FT coming out in favour of more research funding for science at Uk universities we might want to add more funding for ALL subjects, but actually it would be a net good on many levels for gov to reverse course on the existing real terms funding cuts www.ft.com/content/1419...

Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science

Waning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions

ft.com

UK history is at a crisis point in academia. More & more people are going freelance on a part time basis, or as a whole new form of employment. IHN is creating support network for all historians who work independently. We aim to bring people together, promote your work, and be a hub of information.

Lucy Delap@lucydelap.bsky.social · yesterday

Great discussion at the 'crisis in UK history' meeting hosted by @ihr.bsky.social, @royalhistsoc.org, @histassoc.bsky.social and History UK. Horror stories of closures and redundancies, balanced by new resources. Check out for ex. the new Independent Historians Network independenthistorians.org

Very short notice (deadline 18 August) but we're advertising a 0.5fte lectureship in public history for next year. Covers my 3rd year undergraduate course on public history of Rome (ancient to modern) plus some MA public history teaching.

Love this

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 6d ago

"Details, in their singularity and idiosyncrasy, point to the capaciousness of human experience." New today in the Society's journal 'Transactions': Joe Moran 'On Detail in Historical Writing': bit.ly/44UMi8C Now available OA @joemoransblog.bsky.social @massobsarchive.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Do also spread the word about the @britishacademy.bsky.social Early Career Researcher Network for those in the UK 10 years of less from award of doctorate www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/early-career...

Early Career Researcher Network

An inclusive, researcher-led network for UK-based early career researchers working in the humanities and social sciences

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Thank you to all who attended today's meeting on the 'Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History'. Very valuable proposals in difficult times for history in HE / UK HE more widely. We've also a new guide bit.ly/4z1fAjO listing 100+ UK #history societies & networks supporting historians #Skystorians

Lucy Delap@lucydelap.bsky.social · yesterday

Great discussion at the 'crisis in UK history' meeting hosted by @ihr.bsky.social, @royalhistsoc.org, @histassoc.bsky.social and History UK. Horror stories of closures and redundancies, balanced by new resources. Check out for ex. the new Independent Historians Network independenthistorians.org

This was important meeting to attend today. I tried to articulate my belief that we must defend universities as engines for social mobility, soft power, and local economies. It was encouraging that some attendees are thinking about the current HE crisis in practical, realistic terms 🗃️

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · yesterday

Thank you to all who attended today's meeting on the 'Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History'. Very valuable proposals in difficult times for history in HE / UK HE more widely. We've also a new guide bit.ly/4z1fAjO listing 100+ UK #history societies & networks supporting historians #Skystorians

Joe's article also features in selection of recent 'Transactions' articles which consider 'The Historian's Craft and Practice: new writing on history teaching and historical research' bit.ly/4bPGJvW All 15 articles are published Open Access and free to read #Skystorians 2/2

The Historian's Craft and Practice: new writing on history teaching and historical research - RHS

The Society's academic journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, publishes a wide range of content from historians of all disciplinary backgrounds and career stages, worldwide. This inclu...

bit.ly

This is devastating for universities - it will be devastating for British culture and society - and I think it will finally be devastating for the Labour government itself, stupidly and shortsightedly destroying our successful cultural sector for shits and giggles

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 6d ago

Creative & performing arts subjects received £16.8 million SPG 2024-25; £12.9 million in 2025-26; £ O million in 2026-27. The University of Creative Arts will thus lose half of its government funding this year; Art University Bournmouth 40.7%, Norwich U of Arts 40.4% and Leeds Arts U 30.3%. 1/2

Really appreciated a piece that lays out the multiple horrors of UK HE in humane detail.

Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 3d ago

Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...

Our research and writing, if it happens, happens in a pedagogical vacuum with the result being that we don’t get to sit with ideas, arguments, and research questions in the same way. But those structural inequities don’t mean we’re exempt from being judged by the writing / research we produce 5/5

Thanks, Dave!

So, we're raising a gull fledging who is picky about her food (chips? no! Kippers, yes!) and loves to stare at herself in the mirror. At least her limp is improving and she's growing bigger! No tail feathers on her left side yet.

Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

If you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...

Call for Participants for IHR Women's History Seminar Lightning Talks to be held Friday, 20th of November 2026.

I can suspend my disbelief while watching film in most respects except for when people use microfilm to look at old newspapers AND QUICKLY LAND ON THE EXACT PAGE THAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR. Without slowly scrolling through countless pages, without having to nudge the image or adjust the contrast.

Adrian Vickers@avick.bsky.social · 4d ago

Ah, microfilm; the joys of trying to move it slightly in the right direction so you could read the next section

In late 2023, the Society spent a day with Hertfordshire’s historians. We saw the quality, creativity and distinctiveness of teaching, research and engagement. We were told by a (now departed) senior manager that History was ‘a portfolio the university will guard very carefully’. bit.ly/4hLediN

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

Thinking through the unedifying, un-evidence-based rush to an undefined, apparently unmodelled paradigm of 'specialisation, what's being lost/threatened? Herts History was an excellent example of performing to a top standard in REF, but also much more than that. Questions to think with include: 1/4

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.

Sorry I've been a bit absent the last few days. I'm in that stage of writing when I have to cut even more, but have already cut out the obvious bits. My D-day is in two more days and I'm still not happy with my talk. #AmEditing