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Richard Taws

@richardtaws.bsky.social

18th/19th-century visual culture, history, politics, technology. prof and head of dept @uclhistoryofart.bsky.social https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/20767-richard-taws

15 Posts382 Follower582 Folgt
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

Great to see the Guardian champion the SHAPE (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) subjects, but this piece gives impression that they are expensive, whereas many are 'cheap to teach' subjects subsidising more expensive subjects, mainly in STEM and medicine. The crisis demands better understanding.

The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial

Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed

theguardian.com

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w ago

‘The British Academy’s analysis also found that regional cold spots were accelerating, and some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities... With more than 1,000 further job losses proposed at Russell Group universities… these cold spots will only increase.’

Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · 4w ago

Indeed we do! docs.google.com/document/d/e... I would add a line about the stupidity of cutting even further in the Strategic Priorities Grant, but may need to stop seething about that first. Do contact your MPs, many of them are too reliant on deeply stupid briefings from the DfE.

UKHE MP template

docs.google.com

Will Tullett@willtullett.bsky.social · 4w ago

(1/2) Does anybody have a good standard email template that offers keys stats, links to information, that could be edited and sent to (clearly often clueless) Labour MPs about the financial, jobs, and broader crisis with UK higher education?

Emma Monk@monkemma.bsky.social · last mo.

It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

Telegraph headiline: "Heatwave hysterics wouldn't have lasted a day in 1976", overlaid with a bold “MONK DEBUNKED” stamp.
Ned Richardson-Little@historyned.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Gotta love how academic books don't earn you money, but LLMs can make money off of stealing them in the aggregate and if you write enough, they can also profit from stealing your personality after you are dead.

Claire E. Aubin@ceaubin.com · 5mo ago

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

UCL History of Art@uclhistoryofart.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Tomás Harris Lecture with Lamia Balafrej (UCLA)✨ Technical Marvels and the Making of Difference in Medieval Islam explores automata, “hidden labor,” frontier talismans, and the making of medieval race, from idols to Gog and Magog. 🗓 17–19 Mar 2026 ⭐ Open to all ⭐ 🎟 Book here: shorturl.at/xin9b

Tomás Harris Lecture 2026: Lamia Balafrej

We are delighted to welcome Lamia Balafrej (UCLA) for a lecture series on 'Technical Marvels and the Making of Difference in Medieval Islam'.

shorturl.at

UCL History@uclhistory.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🌍 Haiti’s ‘Double Debt’: from Commemoration to Reparation Join the 5th Elsa V. Goveia Speaker Series from the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, honouring Elsa V. Goveia 💬 🎤 With Charles Forsdick (University of Cambridge). ⭐ Open to all – free tickets: shorturl.at/N6zjn

Haiti's 'Double Debt': from Commemoration to Reparation

The fifth instalment of the annual Elsa V. Goveia Speaker Series from the UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.

shorturl.at

UCL History of Art@uclhistoryofart.bsky.social · 7mo ago

A massive thank you to everyone who came along to ‘Curating Kerry James Marshall’ last week 🎉 A packed lecture theatre, great conversations, incredible energy and an unforgettable surprise visit from Kerry James Marshall himself! 🌟

A group of six men and women stand together smiling
UCL Institute of Advanced Studies@ucl-ias.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Gail Day & Steve Edwards discuss their much-anticipated book on Allan Sekula, 'Amphibious Realities'. 30 Jan, 5:30–7:30 pm Join this @marxisminculture.bsky.social seminar on Allan Sekula, the award-winning, anti-capitalist artist, photographer, filmmaker and theorist. www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

Gail Day and Steve Edwards discuss their much-anticipated book on Allan Sekula

Join this 'Marxism in Culture' seminar with Gail Day, Steve Edwards, Alex Fletcher and Stephanie Schwartz.They will be discussing Allan Sekula (1951–2013), the award-winning, anti-capitalist artist, p...

ucl.ac.uk

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The Spring programme for the London Group of Historical Geographers is now live. We start again on 13 January with Thermal Horizons: Energy and Infrastructures of British Global Power, c. 1830-1900. In person at the IHR, London and on Zoom. Free and open to the public. All welcome, please register.

London Group of Historical Geographers

Since 1989, the London Group of Historical Geographers has organised fortnightly themed seminars that are interdisciplinary in focus.

history.ac.uk

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?

The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

cityam.com

UCL History of Art@uclhistoryofart.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Join us for the Past Imperfect seminar with Jack Hartnell (Head of Research, National Gallery, London) discussing his new book Wound Man: The Many Lives of a Surgical Image 🩹📚 In conversation with Bob Mills followed by Q&A 💬 Signed and discounted copies available! 👉https://shorturl.at/amiRW

Past Imperfect Book Launch: Jack Hartnell

Please join the Past Imperfect seminar to hear Jack Hartnell reflect on his new book Wound Man: the Many Lives of a Surgical Image.

shorturl.at

D
Dr. Penelope K Hardy@pkhardy.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New on H-Sci-Med-Tech: Check out Edward Gillin (@ucl.ac.uk)’s review of @richardtaws.bsky.social (@uclhistoryofart.bsky.social)’s book _Time Machines: Telegraphic Images in Nineteenth-Century France_, pub 2025 @mitpress.bsky.social Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social

h-net.org

H-Net Reviews@hnetreviews.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New book review: Gillin on Taws, Richard: _Time Machines: Telegraphic Images in Nineteenth-Century France_. MIT Press, 2024. Published by H-Sci-Med-Tech. Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20128764

Richard Taws@richardtaws.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Stellar new issue of Oxford Art Journal in honour of @carscott.bsky.social feat. essays by Alex Potts, Thomas Hughes, Steve Edwards, Katie Scott, Clare Pettitt, Jeremy Melius, Susan Siegfried, Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, T.J.Clark…and of course Caroline herself! academic.oup.com/oaj/issue/48/1

Volume 48 Issue 1 | Oxford Art Journal | Oxford Academic

Publishes innovative critical work in art history from Antiquity to contemporary art practice, with a commitment to the political analysis of visual art and material representation from a variety of t...

academic.oup.com

Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · last yr.

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Evan Torner@guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · last yr.

There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university. University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.

Dr. Emily Friedman@friede.bsky.social · last yr.

Sometimes it feels like my whole career has been a chain of gatherings where UK & US academics trade stories of the particular kinds of stress & grief & short-sightedness that shadow our work. I want better for all of us.

Oli Mould@olimould.bsky.social · last yr.

The UK car industry contributes £22bn to the economy and employs c 35k people. Universities contribute £265bn and employ nearly 400k, over 10x as much. Yet he seems ok to let that sector implode.