James Baker
@jwbaker.bsky.social
Professor of Digital Humanities · University of Southampton · Programming Historian · Historian of various things · Likes watching football and cycling · He/Him · Born at 342 ppm · #COYW
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
Independent Historians Network
The place for independent and freelance historians to connect
independenthistorians.org
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
The Tour de France Femmes starts today and as ever I'll be cheering for Kasia Niewiadoma (though if I had to guess, my pick for 🟨 would be Paula Blasi or Anna van der Breggen, depending on how the Stage 4 TT goes)
Anonymous GitHub is a remarkable, brilliant thing anonymous.4open.science
Anonymous Github
anonymous.4open.science
Looks like my 'AI Utopias and the Climate Crisis' module (reworked from this sas-dhrh.github.io/dhcc-toolkit... in response to student interests) is full next year. Pleased about that. The kids are alright etc.
Teaching
Teaching # Workshops # The Digital Sustainability Game # This is a card-based game, loosely based on the contents of the DHCC Toolkit. A guide to running a DHCC Workshop based on the Sustainability Ca...
sas-dhrh.github.io
New CILIP website is a mess of AI slop images. Check out the images of senior professionals and try and imagine the prompt that generated them. All backed by walls of fake books that look like the ones sold by the yard to furnish pubs www.cilip.org.uk/learn-develo...
Chartered Fellowship - FCLIP
A mark of highest distinction and visionary leadership. You’ve shaped the profession. Now, join its most prestigious ranks. Fellowship (FCLIP) is the highest level of professional registration awarde...
cilip.org.uk
Royal Historical Society open meeting (online) for historians working in universities, 4 Aug 2026 - ‘The crisis in UK higher education: the future for history’ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-crisis.... It’s a definite sign of the times that places are almost gone.
The Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History
An open meeting for historians in UK higher education on what is needed to best support and protect the profession and discipline.
eventbrite.co.uk
This is something we also pick up on in this @copim.bsky.social post -- profit-driven inflation of the quantity of published research is bad for research and for researchers: copim.pub/wileys-acqui...
Wiley’s Acquisition of Emerald: Some observations from Copim - Copim
Copim reflects on Wiley’s acquisition of Emerald and the issues of scale and corporate consolidation in academic publishing.
copim.pub
Martin Paul Eve@eve.gd · 2w ago"Springer Nature [... issued] an ultimatum about a year ago that we needed to increase the number of papers we accept per year immediately, and by a significant amount". Academic freedom and peer-reviewed quality control at its finest.
If today on 6 is anything to go by this new Indie Forever station sounds so dull and safe.
"Within this context, open science becomes a litmus test: will it evolve as a tool of digital constitutionalism, safeguarding pluralism and reflexivity? Or will it be absorbed into a regime of metric-based visibility, instrumental rationality, and platform-driven utility?" By @raffaela.bsky.social
Between democratization and instrumentalization: A constitutional perspective on open science
Abstract. Open science is a hotly debated issue. Initially emerging as a grassroots effort to enhance the global accessibility of scientific knowledge, it
academic.oup.com
Sigh. A call for papers on the legacy of Aaron Swartz. A most worthwhile topic. But ACM charging APCs for this special issue? Is that in keeping with AS's legacy? In any case, I will not write for it, as I cannot afford the APCs. I will choose a diamond venue instead. dl.acm.org/pb-assets/st...
dl.acm.org
Again and again I find myself coming back to the most recent Orielles record. Such a special collection of music. And it sounds *so* good. open.spotify.com/album/1pnhhu...
Only You Left - Album by The Orielles | Spotify
The Orielles · album · 2026 · 11 songs
open.spotify.com
And an equally enormous loss: EThOS remains down, with plans to resurrect only a hugely degraded version, without downloads. Access to the PhD theses here was crucial. I would always search it on a topic, because these PhD works can be really good. And they don't need to be a book to be cited.
Simon@simonxix.com · 2mo agoMeanwhile the UK Web Archive has been unavailable since the British Library cyberattack in October 2023. Our already-spotty digital preservation infrastructures are falling into disrepair along with our universities. www.webarchive.org.uk
Sparks. The best live band out there. Another curious encounter.
Here I am! 🤗 - what is the point of #digitalhumanities in a world which is on fire? and how has DH changed over the past 20 years? My personal take:
Adam Crymble@adamcrymble.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf you missed the @ucldh.bsky.social Susan Hockey Lecture by @melissaterras.bsky.social this year, we've got a recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbtK...
An unexpected treat of DH Benelux was a chance to close to the women's and men's pro peletons at De Ridderronde Maastricht!
So here we are in 2026 and for a lot of us working in the sector, advocating for some systemic changes to protect and preserve it for *years on end*, it is more than a little rich to see a HEPI report sail in and discover a problem that has been visible for almost a decade.
I'm still kinda baffled - in a good way, I've got tickets! - that Anna von Hausswolff is coming to Southampton.
Great news, we've reached 50% of our year 1 funding target! But we need the support of more libraries to support community-owned diamond open access journals. Please come and join us! Message us, visit openjournalscollective.org or email thomas.shaw@openjournalscollective.org
📢 Just over two weeks left to nominate your work or work you love for the 2026 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/12/the-richard-deswarte-prize-in-digital-history/ #dhist
The 2026 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History - Digital History Seminar
SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION HERE BEFORE 31 MAY Richard Deswarte (1965-2021) was one of the founding convenors of the Digital History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of Lon...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
Another excellent Great Escape. Highlights this year (in order we saw them): Annie Dog, THEATRE, Westside Cowboy, PISS, Twat Union, SLAG, Girl Tones, The Orchestra (For Now), Alice Costelloe, Pollyfromthedirt, Lemonsuckr, Shtëpi, Y, Home Counties, Bitterfly.
The latest issue of History Workshop Journal is out now, and it marks two exciting milestones: 50 years and 100 issues of innovative radical history. You can read the journal on the HWJ website through the link below! academic.oup.com/hwj...
Bitterfly. No festival is complete without a semi-naked drummer.
