Oh and it turns out the alphabet was invented by migrant workers... (@ellaalshamahi.bsky.social also tells this story well at the end of her documentary series "Humans", on BBC & HBO)

Helen Kingstone@helenkingstone.bsky.social · 2w ago

My book club read Elif Shafak's "There are Rivers in the Sky" this month, so I had to go back and re-watch the story of cuneiform & more in this wonderful BBC documentary: m.youtube.com/watch?v=9hxy... Thank you @lsmwilson.bsky.social !

My book club read Elif Shafak's "There are Rivers in the Sky" this month, so I had to go back and re-watch the story of cuneiform & more in this wonderful BBC documentary: m.youtube.com/watch?v=9hxy... Thank you @lsmwilson.bsky.social !

From Pictures to Words | The Secret History of Writing | BBC FOUR

YouTube video by Documentary World

m.youtube.com

We’re looking to appoint two lecturers in School of English @universityofleeds.bsky.social: 1) Lecturer in Creative Writing: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/AHCEN1086 2) Lecturer in English Language (with expertise in DH): jobs.leeds.ac.uk/AHCEN1087 Happy to provide more info if you're interested

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lectureship in Creative Writing

Ranked 29th in the world (QS 2026), the School of English at the University of Leeds operates at the leading edge of recent developments in literary studies and creative practice. Located within the F...

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

Crucial point by John Curtis on BBC - Councils flipping from Labour to Reform are because Labour are losing **to the left**, & Cons to Reform Chasing Reform failed Labour; they lost the base & didn’t convince many on the right (Failed Tories too) Watch everyone learn the wrong lesson anyway

Waiting with bated breath today... !

I'm so delighted to have this out - my take on how to move past #ageism, and my first foray into some reflective personal writing about my own #intergenerational friendships. Thanks, History Workshop!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 3mo ago

"What solutions to ageism, then, can we access by reading Victorian fiction? [...] What Oliphant offers us are unexpected ways of thinking, a kernel from which to grow our own thought and action." Helen Kingstone examines the work of novelist Margaret Oliphant.

Read and act!

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Knowledge & understanding grow in university settings when experts disagree with each other, testing each others' claims, adducing different evidence & positing alternative scenarios. That's how change happens. In this thread, I suggest that we take a different approach to that featured here. 1/x

We held a fantastic @rhul-cvs.bsky.social colloquium yesterday, led by Bonnie Liu. Our keynote from Jacob Jewusiak considered how a lens of 'generational warfare' can illuminate the debates on age of consent in colonial India. Such a rich joining together of ideas and arenas!

Dr Lucy Whitehead@drlucywhitehead.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Could not have been a more beautiful day for the @rhul-cvs.bsky.social 19thC Studies Colloquium yesterday! Loved sharing my research on the transatlantic repatriation of Brontë and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ #manuscripts, hearing the panel on global and decolonial pedagogy, & exploring RHUL archives! 1/3

This is such a great scheme! I really appreciated and enjoyed hosting it at @rhul-cvs.bsky.social last year and getting the chance to mentor the fantastic Amy Waterson @ireadoldbooks.bsky.social. Apply to be hosted at LJMU by 11th May.

Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman@drcleoocy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Applications for the 206/27 round of the C19 Matters Fellowship @ljmuofficial.bsky.social are now open! Details and benefits below and here: victorianist.wordpress.com/2026/03/27/n.... Deadline Monday 11 May 2026; please share widely! @bars.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @drhorrocks.bsky.social

Fully-funded three-year PhD Scholarship: Living with Print in the Eighteenth Century Based at @sydney.edu.au (with Nicola Parsons) and @glasgow.ac.uk (with me), working with collections in Australia and Scotland. Deadline April 21st - please circulate! www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships...

This is not just a writing competition - it's a way of thinking about the water crisis & the future of our planet Help us spread the word! @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @katharinehayhoe.com @mrsspalding.bsky.social @xris32.bsky.social @engmediacentre.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social

Text and Language Lab@textandlanguagelab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

On World Water Day, we just announced “Our Future, Our Water, Our Stories.” 🌍💧 Calling all young storytellers! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fgp...

Awestruck to find I've been cited by @naomiaklein.bsky.social in the #Guardian! Turns out that my article about panoramas of the 1857 Indian Rebellion has been useful for several articles about the echoes of British imperial violence in Gaza - including this one: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war

A year later, memorials to the 7 October attacks use art, virtual reality and dark tourism to stir support for limitless violence. But there is a different way to remember

theguardian.com

Wow!!! Relief and astonishment are my main feelings this morning.

The Green Party of England & Wales@greenparty.org.uk · 6mo ago

Introducing Hannah Spencer MP 💚

We are advertising 4 jobs at York for historians (1 year medieval, 2 years modern Britain and public history, 3 years modern China, and open ended modern Middle Eastern) features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/

York History Department - Academic Jobs

Uncover the past to define the future. We are seeking research-led historians to join our world-class, collaborative community. Discover career-defining opportunities within one of the UK’s most disti...

features.york.ac.uk

Romanticists and Long Eighteenth Centuryists — there’s an Associate Professorship (or Professorship) being advertised, a joint appointment with St Peter’s College. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK016/a...

Associate Professorship (or Professorship) of English Literature at University of Oxford

An academic position as a Associate Professorship (or Professorship) of English Literature is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportu...

jobs.ac.uk

Reasons why parents don't get enough exercise, no.92: my 4-yr-old just said to me "but you went out to do exercise on *Thursday*! You don't need to do exercise again on *Saturday*?!"

What a great interview! A window into this really important research on textiles and slavery, and the ways the researcher’s body in motion can figure things out that might otherwise elude us. It’s also such a good example of how research and teaching can build each other up.

Yvonne Lam@yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 9mo ago

An interview with a historian who set out to weave a textile of the type that would have been sold to plantations for use by enslaved people, using period equipment. www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...

This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform. Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays

Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

bbc.co.uk

My jaw dropped. This treats people's lives with shameful lack of respect, to spend even more years in limbo. It also treats people's lives as pawns to be traded for an elusive political gain from the far right. "The era of permanent protection for refugees is over." www.bbc.com/news/article...

UK set to limit asylum seekers to temporary stays

Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

bbc.com

I think I need to print copies of this and wave them threateningly at SUVs as I walk around town...

Randall Munroe@xkcd.com · 9mo ago

Car Size xkcd.com/3167/

There should be a tax on ridiculously bloated road boats registered in urban areas, because (a) they cause obvious problems in such areas (b) they are bad for the environment (c) they are dangerous for children (d) they are awful, and driving them should be expensive and socially stigmatised.

Jon Burke🌍@jonburkeuk.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Cars the U.K are up to 55% larger today than they were in the 1970s and there are twice the number of motors on our roads as there were 30 years ago, but anti-Low Traffic Neighbourhood and anti-cycle lane campaigners keep claiming they 'cause congestion'. Okay.

You know what - it would be really life affirming if just for once - THIS 👇 was the story

Otto English@ottoenglish.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC

The government plans to link university fees to institutional "quality". This is a nonsense because there are no metrics that actually measure teaching quality. There is no Ofsted, rather a handful of largely irrelevant statistics to actual quality. The NSS measure satisfaction, not quality.

I'm really proud of this: the latest issue of #VictorianStudies has an article of mine in it! It's on #ageing and #generations, & the insightful ways that Victorian novelist Margaret Oliphant approaches these issues, with takeaways for us now. doi.org/10.2979/vic.... 1/

"The fact that the asphyxiation of British higher education does not instantly count as a national scandal underlines the extent to which the austerity mindset continues to constrain our political imagination" - @robbhawkes.bsky.social & Scott Ferguson's piece is excellent. Also: 1/2

Rob Hawkes@robbhawkes.bsky.social · 11mo ago

As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.

My to-read pile in the British Library today... (Of course I only got through 3 of 7 - I'd better come back next week.) But what luxury to sit with such richness of thought!

Look upon this marvel and delight!

Deanna Kreisel 🌱@doctorwaffle.substack.com · 11mo ago

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

I'm so glad to be able to listen in to today's roundtable on #Humanities and #DataScience at the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Centre for Digital Scholarship. digitalscholarship.web.ox.ac.uk/event/networ... @melissaterras.bsky.social thank you for your wisdom & oomph beamed across the airwaves!

Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration

digitalscholarship.web.ox.ac.uk

Any insider information on this, or simply good guesses, welcome!

Helen Kingstone@helenkingstone.bsky.social · 11mo ago

@aeon.co magazine, I wish I knew why the pitch form has been closed for >6 weeks. Any plans to reopen? I assumed it was summer holidays, but autumn is here & it's still shut. I hope it doesn't mean closure - maybe a backlog. I'd like to pitch an essay and don't know how long to wait... aeon.co/pitch