Graduation Day and a chance to cheer on some brilliant students.

Congratulations to Professor @matthewgbell.bsky.social from @kingsdllc.bsky.social, who has been elected as a @britishacademy.bsky.social Fellow 🙌 He was recognised for his work on the history of the literature and ideas of modern Europe, especially Germany 👇 www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-a...

King's academics elected to prestigious British Academy Fellowship | King's College London

Professor Katherine Brickell and Professor Matthew Bell from King’s College London have been elected as British Academy Fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and ...

kcl.ac.uk

(1/)The special issue of @scottishhistreview.bsky.social on smell history and heritage that I co-edited with Xuelei Huang is out! www.euppublishing.com/toc/shr/curr... There’s an introduction by the both of us followed by some cracking articles.

Edinburgh University Press Journals - Table of Contents - shr: Vol 105, No 2

euppublishing.com

Replay now available: vastearly.am/4eUuSPf Valérie Capdeville presents The Digital Encyclopedia of British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century, an open-access project for 18th-century studies and the digital humanities. @univrennes2.bsky.social

Wonderful time at Wimbledon yesterday. First time entering the public ballot and we got centre court tickets for the final day. Now just need the same kind of luck when playing Euromillions.

Call for Papers! Especially welcome are proposals (in French) from doctoral students and Early Career Researchers working on Voltaire or Diderot. voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/ca...

Call for Papers: Journées internationales jeunes chercheuses et chercheurs Diderot-Voltaire 2027

Doctoral students and Early Career Researchers working on Voltaire or Diderot are warmly encouraged to submit proposals in French (by 30 September 2026) for the next Journées internationales jeunes…

voltaire.ox.ac.uk

Really enjoyed Sociability and Political Life conference in York on Friday and Saturday, masterminded by @lauracforster.bsky.social and Marc Jaffre. As much as I love my 18thc. communities, it was great to hear from historians specialising in a whole range of topics from medieval to contemporary.

The next Eighteenth-Century Ecologies Network (@e-cen.bsky.social) seminar will take place on Tues 23rd June, 5-7pm at HG/09 (Heslington Hall, York) and online. Dr. Rowan Boyson (KCL) will be speaking about 'The Shared Air: Atmosphere and the Right to Breathe in Enlightenment Britain'. Join below

🚨RADICAL PRINT CULTURE SYMPOSIUM 🚨 The Programme is now live (see 🧵), and the symposium will also feature two amazing keynote speakers, a print exhibition and a handling workshop. Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @bsecs.bsky.social @cecs-york.bsky.social @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social

Rilo Kiley were immense at the Roundhouse yesterday. Hard to imagine trekking up to north London on a tube strike day for anything else.

Back to Bluesky to signal boost this as a UH grad. My heart goes out to everyone. Absolutely grim.

University of Hertfordshire UCU@uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

When I served as one of Hertfordshire's external examiners a few years ago, I was always so impressed by the work being done in the Humanities there. Consider signing the petition to protest the closure of these excellent programmes. c.org/yFV2TndWxn

Sign the Petition

Save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire

c.org

Calling A-level English teachers! Do you teach Austen, Brontë, or other 18thc stuff? Could you use a set of free research-informed teaching materials, which support students' historical, literary, & linguistic understanding, & foster debate about misogyny, consent, & healthy relationships? (1/?)

The latest special issue of the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies has now been published online, guest edited by Jolene Zigarovich and Doreen Thierauf: New Approaches to Rape Studies in the Long Eighteenth Century. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17540208...

A pleasure to represent the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Wiley’s executive seminar today. Interesting conversations about AI, open access and the future of academic publishing.

#NewBlogPost: @emrysdjones.bsky.social, @elementaladam.bsky.social, and Stenke discuss their new collection, what it means to "read for rudeness" in eighteenth-century literature, and how we could all benefit from reading against the political grain. To read: tinyurl.com/mvbheywa

Loving Michael Frayn's Copenhagen at the Hampstead Theatre tonight. A chance to see Richard Schiff in performance - the actor who is at least partially responsible for my son being called Toby.

Who is this eighteenth-century Spanish reader marking up English dramatic criticism in an early C18 Tonsons editions of the works of #Addison?

Another highlight of the Easter vacation was getting to the Samurai exhibition at the BM. Kids were most impressed by Darth Vader's guest appearances. Now wondering if it's too early to show them The Hidden Fortress...

Samurai

This major exhibition reveals the real story of the samurai, from medieval battlefields to modern blockbusters.

britishmuseum.org

Shakespeare Bought One Property in London. Now We Know Exactly Where. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/w...

Shakespeare Bought One Property in London. Now We Know Exactly Where.

nytimes.com

What an incredible honour to interview Lady Snowblood herself - Meiko Kaji - during her first NYC visit in decades. Thanks so much to @japansociety.org, @wewantsounds.bsky.social & @arrowvideo.bsky.social for helping bring this dream feature to life! www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2026/0...

The Japanese ‘first lady of vengeance’ who inspired Kill Bill

Meiko Kaji’s headstrong action heroes have shaped films from Star Wars to Aliens – and earned adoration from Tarantino

telegraph.co.uk

Made it back to Edinburgh last week for the first time since ISECS 2019. Lots of fond memories. But this was the first time I made it up Arthur's Seat.

Professor Kélina Gotman, Professor of Performance and the Humanities in @kingsenglish.bsky.social, explores some of the strands that have underpinned ‘performance’ discourse over the past 150 years at this Inaugural Professorial Lecture on 18 May. 🔗 Register ⬇️

Performance: a tentative unravelling, a commons | King's College London

Professor Kélina Gotman explores the strands that have underpinned ‘performance’ discourse over the past 150 years.

buff.ly

I used to do a research skills class where I told the History undergrads why they shouldn't use Wikipedia for their essays. Now it's probably better than where they are getting their information from

Emanuel Maiberg@emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

after much deliberation and giving AI the benefit of the doubt, Wikipedia editors have had enough of AI slop. New policy bans LLM generated content, periodt www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...

Last seminars of term yesterday and we were discussing William Henry Ireland's "Authentic Account" of forging Shakespeare documents. I always love its bizarre combo of apology and self-aggrandisement - the essence of eighteenth-century celebrity culture.

🏆️ Congratulations to this year's winners of the @kingsdllc.bsky.social A-Level writing competitions! The winners' pieces were published in the department's student magazines on Comparative Literature, French, German, and Spanish and Portuguese. 🔗 Read more ⬇️

Winners of A-Level writing competitions announced | King's College London

The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures announced the winners of its annual A-Level writing competitions, with the successful writers seeing their work published in the Department’s…

buff.ly

I hope all BSECS members are enjoying their copies of JECS 49.1. A privilege, as ever, to edit the journal. This issue has a real pan-European feel, with articles on British novel-reading in 18thc. Sweden, depictions of card games in German visual satire, and the Swiss author, Albrecht von Haller.

If you find yourself in Paris on the 10-12 June 2026, you might like to attend @isecs-sieds.bsky.social 'Reframing the Enlightenment: intellectual & political disputes today', at the Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris Details ⬇️ #skystorians #18thC 🗃️

Been enjoying teaching some pretty obscure stuff this week: Vanella in the Straw, anyone? It's a deeply nasty poem from 1732 about Prince Frederick's mistress, Anne Vane. Next week back to more canonical territory courtesy of Lord Byron.

In a few hours I’ll be reading live from the Overture of my next book in a virtual talk at U Edinburgh’s History & Games Lab. This is the first time any part of the book has been read in public, or by anyone outside of my circles of trusted first readers (& MIT’s peer reviewers)

More Fun With Games@morefunwith.games · 5mo ago

Team #MFWG looking forward to this talk from the #History & #Games Lab at #Edinburgh University tomorrow on #RPG #ActualPlay by @friede.bsky.social free and online, info at historyandgames.shca.ed.ac.uk/events/