Liesbeth Corens
@onslies.bsky.social
Historian: mobility & recordkeeping of #earlymodern Catholic minorities. Book: confessional mobility and English Catholics in Early Modern Europe. Also grumpy about the state of UK Higher Education so likely to talk about how it is being failed...(She/Her)
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
The long, doleful story of how the University of Kent sank. Can't vouch for all the details, but apparently it took 7yrs, £29m in restructuring and £2m in consultancy to accept the inevitable: effective takeover. My view? You can delay, but not avoid, the inevitable. shepwayvox.org/2026/08/05/u...
University of Kent Financial Crisis: Cuts, Consultants and Merger with Greenwich
For six years the University of Kent cut jobs, closed subjects, sold financial breathing space and promised recovery. It spent £29.4 million restructuring itself and awarded at least £1.9 million o…
shepwayvox.org
🎉 Congratulations to Dr Chloe Ireton on the forthcoming publication of Plotting for Freedom this November! 📚 A powerful new contribution to the history of slavery, resistance and the Atlantic world. Congratulations, Chloe! 👏 shorturl.at/TsSpH
Plotting for Freedom: New book by Chloe L. Ireton
Congratulations to Dr Chloe Ireton, Associate Professor in the History of the Iberian World, 1500–1800, on the forthcoming publication of Plotting for Freedom in November 2026.
shorturl.at
I am SO very excited about this one, having heard Chloe talk about its process and purpose. Simultaneously important stories to tell, and caring ethics to navigate. Congratulations @chloeireton.bsky.social , can’t wait to throw champagne over this! 🍾
UCL History@uclhistory.bsky.social · 5h ago🎉 Congratulations to Dr Chloe Ireton on the forthcoming publication of Plotting for Freedom this November! 📚 A powerful new contribution to the history of slavery, resistance and the Atlantic world. Congratulations, Chloe! 👏 shorturl.at/TsSpH
Super interesting discussion with @brettrushforth.bsky.social and Chris Hodson about their new book about the French Atlantic: archives, collaboration, writing, organizing your research, questioning big narratives, history from below, and more #earlymodern
Drafting the Past@draftingthepast.bsky.social · yesterdayWe'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... 🗃️
look, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up but I think I may have discovered something incredible on worldcat
Excited to see my forthcoming book (PhD dissertation) on @routledgebooks.bsky.social: Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade. The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700). It will be published in December 2026. www.routledge.com/Silver-Spice...
Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade: The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700)
Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade: The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700) explains how Amsterdam entrepreneurs, specifically the Coymans family, built prof...
routledge.com
OOOOOO! Excited to see this is nearly there! #LowCountries #SkyStorians
Ramona Negrón@ramonanegron.bsky.social · yesterdayExcited to see my forthcoming book (PhD dissertation) on @routledgebooks.bsky.social: Silver, Spices, and the Slave Trade. The Coymans Family and Dutch Entrepreneurship in the Spanish Americas (1580-1700). It will be published in December 2026. www.routledge.com/Silver-Spice...
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
Economist. And once again I wonder how our colleagues see us and the work we do.
Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · yesterday"History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts" I remain astounded by how loud and wrong people are about what history actually is.
The third round of formal reflection for for Karin and I (along with a lifetime of constantly talking about it)! Please share widely. Please circulate widely to anyone who might be interested. We will be welcoming people who would like to attend and join the dialogue as well as paper givers.
John Carter Brown Library@jcblibrary.bsky.social · 2d agoCall For Proposals: Conference on Families in Early American and Atlantic Worlds April 15-17, 2027 Hosted by the John Carter Brown Library (Co-chairs Julie Hardwick and Karin Wulf) Details at: forms.gle/QWcB23XGbwu6...
Currently wondering how one applies to become Ozzy's catsitter, and realising it must be the most competitive Oxbridge competition out there. (I'm being yelled at from the floor for failing to break this damn weather all day, and think the black-and-white specimen would understand her grey friend.)
Dinah Rose KC@dinahrose.bsky.social · yesterdayThe latest from Sophie Fischer, holiday cat carer. I don't quite know what to make of this one, to be honest...
In #UKHE, these very same consultants do not (yet?) demand these eye-watering sums. It might be a way of first getting their claws in, or it might be because they know there simply isn't that amount of money. Either way: none of these prices are determined by the value they actually provide.
Catherine Gander@catgander.bsky.social · 3d agoA deeply damaging, unethical model designed to dismantle the university and rebuild it as a corporation. It’s caused a crisis in Australia and its causing a crisis in the U.K. Sad to see Irish universities watching the chaos and happily following suit. youtu.be/quc24Ot9Qwgr
If you're a library worker or if you love libraries (surely all of you) then please do add your name to the open letter here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.
Call For Proposals: Conference on Families in Early American and Atlantic Worlds April 15-17, 2027 Hosted by the John Carter Brown Library (Co-chairs Julie Hardwick and Karin Wulf) Details at: forms.gle/QWcB23XGbwu6...
Oh man! You couldn’t be in better hands there!!! #earlymodern #histgender #VastEarlyAmerica #Skystorians
John Carter Brown Library@jcblibrary.bsky.social · 2d agoCall For Proposals: Conference on Families in Early American and Atlantic Worlds April 15-17, 2027 Hosted by the John Carter Brown Library (Co-chairs Julie Hardwick and Karin Wulf) Details at: forms.gle/QWcB23XGbwu6...
Seriously, please watch this. And make your non-academic friends and family and neighbours watch it. Only 45 minutes, free, and SO revealing about the people making money off squandering what is a public good.
Catherine Gander@catgander.bsky.social · 3d agoA deeply damaging, unethical model designed to dismantle the university and rebuild it as a corporation. It’s caused a crisis in Australia and its causing a crisis in the U.K. Sad to see Irish universities watching the chaos and happily following suit. youtu.be/quc24Ot9Qwgr
Please write to your MPs. All this questionable data and denying access to data is rife across #UKHE, and the Department for Education likes to hide in plausible deniability. Make that impossible. Suggested template to get you going: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
UKHE MP template
docs.google.com
John Heathershaw@jheathershaw.bsky.social · 4d agoI never thought that I would have to write this piece about my university. But after weeks of demonstrating privately to senior managers that their case is based on a false prospectus, that their data are inaccurate and their claims misleading, there was little choice. substack.com/@lucasamin/n...
Really appreciated a piece that lays out the multiple horrors of UK HE in humane detail.
Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 2d agoBehind 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...
the amount of money that universities have given to management consultants is eye-watering. Where does that money come from? Have my son and daughter gone into terrible debt to fund this bullshit?
Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 2d agoBehind 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...
Lowest number of graduate job openings since 2020. This is a core labour market problem that universities cannot fix, but routinely get the blame for.
UK graduate job openings fall to lowest level since pandemic
Indeed’s findings point to challenge facing Andy Burnham to boost youth unemployment and cut welfare bill
ft.com
If we spend money supporting research, education and practice in areas we're actually good at, there might not be enough money to throw at the long shot of being 'world leaders" in AI.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 6d agoCreative & 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
Kentwich. Also note that even in this puff piece, the senior managers have to admit that it took 20 years of collaboration. The Office for Students’s wet dream of just smashing some institutions together and somehow all is magically solved in #UKHE isn’t even upheld by this “blueprint for others”.
Matthew L Reznicek@drreznicek.bsky.social · 2d agoIt's a bird; it's a plane; it's a SUPER-UNIVERSITY www.theguardian.com/education/20...
To celebrate her 1648 election as grand mistress of Ghent's St. Elisabeth Beguinage, Maria vanden Haute commissioned a monstrance w/her patron, Mary, at the center. She died in 1675 and was buried in the beige robe of a Dominican tertiary. Want to know more? Check out my new book! h1.nu/1uO-T
My new book, Unconventual Women in the Habsburg Low Countries: 1585–1794 Visual Culture at the Court Beguinages, is officially available for pre-order from Routledge! An absolute must for your university library, if you ask me 😉. www.routledge.com/Unconventual...
Unconventual Women in the Habsburg Low Countries, 1585–1794: Visual Culture at the Court Beguinages
This book examines the Court Beguinages, a fascinating group of semi-monastic female communities that were endemic to cities of the Southern Low Countries from the thirteenth century into the…
routledge.com
