Given the state of drought in so much of the UK, @keirwaddington.bsky.social could not be doing more timely work! This is a fascinating and important article. Give it a read #skystorians !!

The Historical Journal@historicaljnl.bsky.social · 2w ago

📘From our latest issue! Keir Waddington @keirwaddington.bsky.social (Cardiff University) on 'Living with Drought in the Long Nineteenth Century' #Water #Environment #Climate #Rural #Weather 👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A super thoughtful post on the way interpretation of literary texts - across time - shapes the stories we tell, even before they make it into a video game. Super interested to see more of @mabinogiongame.bsky.social and how it puts Wales and the Welsh language at its heart! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Historical Games Network@historygamesnet.bsky.social · 6d ago

New post! ✍️ The first for our "Nations" theme, Stevan Anastasoff writes about the ongoing development of Tales of the Mabinogion (@mabinogiongame.bsky.social), translating Welsh history, stories and language into game design through layers of interpretation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 www.historicalgames.net/making-tales...

Are you interested in developing genuinely interdisciplinary piece of research? Applications for the International Interdisciplinary Research Projects, focused on the theme of ‘Mobilities’ are now open. Apply now: https://bit.ly/4y9wiwJ

So that’s both the leader and deputy leader of Reform UK being probed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Standards watchdog investigating Reform UK’s Richard Tice

Party’s deputy leader accused of a possible failure to declare an interest, commissioner says ⁠on ​its website

theguardian.com

This is an absolutely disgusting state of affairs. While only Russell Groups are in the news, the humanities at many other universities are being eviscerated.

Owen Davies@odavies9.bsky.social · 4d ago

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.

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)

I'm so delighted to have this exceptional volume in the series! Thank you for entrusting us with it, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social

Emilie K. M. Murphy@emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social · 7d ago

proofs! 😍

Ignore the Russell Group-fixated headline. The universities with the largest declines are: Lincoln Bishop (down 51.4%), University for the Creative Arts (down 50.5%), Norwich University of the Arts (-40.4%), Falmouth University (-35.1%) and Goldsmiths, University of London (-30.0%). 1/2

Russell Group universities take £10m teaching grant hit - Research Professional News

Funding allocations confirm impact of £51m cut to Strategic Priorities Grant

researchprofessionalnews.com

'History and Archives in Practice' 2027: call for participation now open for our annual gathering of historians and archivists, co-hosted with @ihr.bsky.social and TNA. HAP27's theme is connecting past and future with sessions on advocacy, value and applied history bit.ly/3RGHbWy #Skystorians

'History and Archives in Practice' (HAP), 2027. Call for participation now open - RHS

History and Archives in Practice (HAP) is an annual partnership event, co-hosted by the Royal Historical Society, The National Archives, and the Institute of Historical Research. Now in its fifth year...

bit.ly

PwC (like, among others, KPMG before it) found to be producing 'thought leadership' advice promoting agentic AI use that is larded with AI hallucinations. Worth bearing in mind if they are, for example, one of your university's consultants.

PwC published ‘thought leadership’ reports marred by AI hallucinations

Big Four consultant is latest firm found to have produced slapdash work while marketing expertise on the technology

ft.com

You can get the researcher away from research, but can't get the research away from the researcher. 🧵

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

25 tonnes of nurdles, more than 1 billion nurdles, were spilled into the Tyne last week and are washing up on our beaches, north and south of the Tyne. Likely one of the largest ever plastic pollution events in the UK. There is remarkably little mention of this on here.

If anyone is considering editing something from our collections, we will happily supply a digital copy at no cost. Please contact Kate (archives at ucd dot ie).

Irish Manuscripts Commission@irishmanuscripts.bsky.social · 2w ago

Closing date: Wed 29 July The IMC student prize of €1,000 is awarded to a postgraduate student for editing a short historical document, which will also be considered for publication in Analecta Hibernica. Learn more at: irishmanuscripts.ie/imc-student-prize-2026/

'"I Don't Know How Joan of Arc Felt": On the Limits of the History of Emotions for Medieval Studies.' I mean it's right there for the taking #skystorians.

You think UKHE departmental meetings are bad, let me tell you about the MORE THAN 75 ITEMS on the Agenda for discussion by the East India Company Council at Fort William in August 1804 ... #skystorians

Every speech in 18th-century British debates: "I would not presume to take more time from my fellow, esteemed members than is necessary on this point, and so shall add only in brief that ... " [deep breath] [3 hours later] "And so I come to my final point ... "

A fine example of why the BBC should not publish vox-pops (“‘Bus fare cut is no good for those who drive’ says Durham man” is literally the headline here) without challenge or context. Buses, famously the preserve of the managerial classes.

Another component of the higher education ecosystem overdue for serious scrutiny. Profit levels of 20% should surely be a red flag for systematic scrutiny.

The UK’s biggest university is a private company

Supporters say franchised providers widen access to further education, but others doubt the real value of their ‘no frills’ courses

ft.com

I have a 'History Department in UKHE' joke but it's been reduced from 250 characters to 50 and is now merged with jokes from across ten other largely-unrelated disciplines while still being expected to be Just As Funny.

I've spent a delightful day speaking about #thislittleworld at Norwich History Festival, so I'm late to say how delighted and honoured I am that this happened: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/prof.... It's a real privilege.

Professor Nandini Das FBA

Early modern literature and cultural history; sixteenth and seventeenth century travel writing; cross-cultural encounters, mobility, race, and identity; scholarly editing.

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Total woke cultural victory. We're bringing pronouns back. It is now illegal to be a white male. We're doing May Day parades just for HR ladies.

For all of it, I'm still rather amazed at how few Global Histories extend into early modernity. They're ubiquitous now from 19th c onwards but surprisingly thin on the ground before the late 18th ...

One in four academic history positions in post-92s are gone since 2019 alone. One in four. We don't have data for 2025-6 and I doubt it magically got better.

Dr Dave Hitchcock@davehitchcock.bsky.social · 3w ago

Post-92s have seen a 25% fall in the number of staff teaching history. 25% since 2018-19.

Good thing that our knowledge of the past is both fully comprehensive and stable. No archaeologists or historians needed at UK universities to drive research forward and contribute to heritage industry and tourism.

Dr Tess Machling@tessmachling.bsky.social · 3w ago

There's nothing that says women can't work gold. So many people roll their eyes when I talk about 'craftspeople', not 'craftsmen'. But this is why... There's female goldsmiths with their own marks in medieval London FFS so why not earlier??? #Archaeology 🏺 1/2 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

My favorite Sam Neil fact will always be that he designed a future Australian flag that replaces the union jack with the aboriginal flag for Event Horizon and insisted the film use it.

Indication of how news of natural disasters travelled in the #earlymodern period: A letter received by Samuel Pepys dated 2 March 1687/8 (N.S.) from Jamaica describing the 20 October 1687 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Peru and killed an estimated 5,000 people. #skystorians

what's the best pico - pico de gallo, or pica della mirandola? it is a harder question than it sounds

Indication of how news of natural disasters travelled in the #earlymodern period: A letter received by Samuel Pepys dated 2 March 1687/8 (N.S.) from Jamaica describing the 20 October 1687 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Peru and killed an estimated 5,000 people. #skystorians

Just going to scrap all integrity and call the next book 'The Crimes of the Grindelwald Fluctuation'. Can only assume millions people will have bought it without properly knowing what they're actually getting. #skystorians #earlymodern