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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury
@100days1815.bsky.social
1.2K followers 490 following 210 posts
Professor of French Studies, working on the culture of French Revolution and Napoleonic period. Committed to supporting the learning of languages in schools & universities and to public engagement.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
emilybrand.bsky.social
Emily Brand @emilybrand.bsky.social · 5h
V. exciting to see new Marie Antoinette research by
@catrionaseth.bsky.social in the news: hugely looking forward to reading the new book about her portraits

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Marie Antoinette portrait really her sister, Oxford study finds
Oxford researchers believe the painting is actually of the last queen of France's older sibling.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
gregjenner.bsky.social
Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · 9h
You may call it ‘Chatfishing’, but I shall only refer to it as ‘Cyrano de Berger-App’
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder
Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely...
www.theguardian.com
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 1d
It’s funny to be on campus for a @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social open day as a parent rather than as staff! Looking forward to learning more about some of the things my fabulous faculty of arts colleagues get up to!
A carpet of yellow leaves and the faculty of arts building
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 2d
Nobel peace committee calls us all to action: Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
benoitmelancon.bsky.social
Benoît Melançon @benoitmelancon.bsky.social · 2d
Autopromotion 857

La 673e livraison de XVIIIe siècle, la bibliographie de l’Oreille tendue, est servie. La bibliographie existe depuis le 16 mai 1992. Elle compte 78 400 titres. À partir de cette page, on peut interroger l’ensemble des livraisons grâce à un rudimentaire moteur de recherche et…
Autopromotion 857
La 673e livraison de XVIIIe siècle, la bibliographie de l’Oreille tendue, est servie. La bibliographie existe depuis le 16 mai 1992. Elle compte 78 400 titres. À partir de cette page, on peut interroger l’ensemble des livraisons grâce à un rudimentaire moteur de recherche et soumettre soi-même des titres pour qu’ils soient inclus dans la bibliographie. Illustration : «Machines de théâtre», dixième volume des planches de l’Encyclopédie, Paris, 1772, première section, planche I
oreilletendue.com
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
theverge.com
The Verge @theverge.com · May 26
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 4d
A great view of the cathedral from my meeting at Coventry university this afternoon to discuss relaunching the Coventry City of Languages initiative @covlanguages.bsky.social
A view of the new and old Coventry cathedrals from the 5th floor of the George Eliot building, framed by autumnal trees
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
nicolas-soulas.bsky.social
nicolas-soulas.bsky.social @nicolas-soulas.bsky.social · 5d
Si jamais vous êtes de passage à Blois ce week-end...
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
volcanojenni.bsky.social
Jenni Barclay @volcanojenni.bsky.social · 5d
We’re advertising a PhD studentship for folks with good knowledge of Caribbean culture and society, with background in geography, human geography, humanities or interdisciplinary geosciences as part of our @leverhulme.ac.uk funded ‘volcanic histories’ project
Summary of what the PhD student will do. QR code in bottom LHS. Project part of our Leverhulme Trust funded project volcanic histories and the student will examine the cultural markers and response to to volcanic activity across the Eastern Caribbean. Understand local ways of knowing and remembering volcanic activity. Integrate scientific. And community knowledge for DRR - joining an interdisciplinary team from several universities.
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 5d
images.grandpalaisrmn.fr/ark:/36255/8...
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
historianmemory.bsky.social
historianmemory.bsky.social @historianmemory.bsky.social · 6d
To continue to enjoy the fabulous exhibition currently at the V&A 'Marie Antoinette Style', join me in November.
www.vam.ac.uk/event/d10aOY...
Black Joy Day - Marie Antoinette Style and the Afrocentric Wardrobe - V&A Academy Talk at V&A South Kensington · V&A
Marie Antoinette’s image still shapes global culture, yet during her reign, Black elites in France and the Caribbean made vital contributions to the arts, military, politics, and more. Explore how the...
www.vam.ac.uk
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
annieduprat.bsky.social
Annie Duprat @annieduprat.bsky.social · 6d
7 octobre 1789. Journée bcp plus tragique. Retour contraint du roi à Paris. Des gardes du corps massacrés. La radicalisation de la Révolution française passe par l’extrême violence de ventres affamés. Vu par les Anglais c’est drôle qd même.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
smidbob.bsky.social
Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 6d
Fairly amusing to go on the news and say the new government may well fall by 4pm only to be undercut by the PM resigning before 10am!
smidbob.bsky.social
Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 6d
Been on France24 this morning talking about the Lecornu cabinet and the intriguing possibility of it falling before it even sits, as the centre-right react to the appointment of former Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
cforsdick.bsky.social
Charles Forsdick @cforsdick.bsky.social · 9d
Disadvantaged students ‘more likely to miss out on GCSE foreign languages’

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Disadvantaged students ‘more likely to miss out on GCSE foreign languages’
In 2004, language learning ceased to be compulsory at Key Stage 4, aged 14 to 16.
www.independent.co.uk
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
fondationme.bsky.social
Fondation pour la Mémoire de l'Esclavage @fondationme.bsky.social · 10d
Le 2/10/1802, il y a aujourd'hui 223 ans, Marthe-Rose Toto était condamnée à mort. Originaire de Sainte-Lucie, cette femme combattante est une figure emblématique de la lutte contre le rétablissement de l’esclavage en Guadeloupe. Découvrez sa biographie 👉 memoire-esclavage.org/biographies/...
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
markbradley.bsky.social
Mark Bradley @markbradley.bsky.social · 12d
I’m just humbly suggesting that, should the publishing industry want to tackle the crisis in reading for pleasure rates, and we have research suggesting that there’s no crisis in reading for pleasure rates amongst children who read comics, that there’s maybe a relatively simple solution right here.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
martinevanelk.bsky.social
Martine van Elk @martinevanelk.bsky.social · 18d
Giving a boost to our Call for Papers for the 2026 Forum on early modern women and migrancy. Deadline October 15!
The editors of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal invite submissions for the Fall 2026 / Volume 21.1 Forum on the topic of Early Modern Women and Migrancy. In keeping with the Journal's tradition since its third issue (2008), this Forum will comprise short contributions on a single topic by scholars from a variety of disciplines. For Volume 21.1, we invite contributions on women's experiences of migration and migrancy specifically (as opposed to other kinds of mobility) in the early modern world. We particularly encourage submissions that appeal to readers across disciplinary and national boundaries. Articles may cover literature, history, art history, history of science, geography, music, politics, religion, theater, cultural studies, and any region of the early modern world. At least part of our selection process will be focused on assuring geographical, chronological, and disciplinary diversity across the essays ultimately published in this Forum. Submissions are due October 15, 2025 and should be 3,500 words including footnotes; essays should follow the EMW Style Guide (www.journals.uchicago.edu/pb- assets/docs/journals/EMW-style-guide-CMOS18-1735857164913.pdf). Contributions will be peer-reviewed. I If you have any questions about whether your proposed forum essay fits the scope of the journal, please contact us at emw@press.uchicago.edu. Please submit contributions at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/emw/about. See Submissions and Instructions for Authors. For article type, select Forum. For additional queries, please contact the editors at emw@press.uchicago.edu.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15d
For those interested in digital exclusion we did a chunky report on it back in 2022
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...
Understanding Digital Poverty and Inequality in the UK
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
wokestudies.bsky.social
Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 15d
Medieval Rabbit Wars:
"A hound riding on a rabbit and a rabbit riding on a snail battle with shields and lances. The Breviary of Renaud de Bar (Winter portion), Metz, France, 1302-03"
#InternationalRabbitDay
"Some rather more chivalrous rabbits engage in knightly combat with hounds in the margins of the Breviary of Renaud de Bar, made in Metz in France between 1302 and 1303. Here they take up lances, swords and shields and do battle. In one instance a bunny rides on the back of a snail while the opposing hound rides on the back of a bunny who looks like he’s just noticed with some puzzlement that he’s fighting on the wrong side." - BRITISH LIBRARY
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
emilymbender.bsky.social
Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · Feb 13
ChatGPT doesn't "claim" anything, and it definitely isn't "factoring in" anything either. It is a system designed to output plausible-sounding text, given text as input. It is not answering questions, much less answering questions with respect to some knowledge base.

>>
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 15d
And this is why it’s being peddled as essential - they need to recoup the cost of making something we don’t need and can’t really be used because it hallucinates - and to top it all something that has cataclysmic environmental costs- we should not be fooled by those wanting profits over planet
mims.bsky.social
Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 16d
*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history

* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system

* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...
This week, consultants at Bain & Co. estimated the wave of AI infrastructure spending will require $2 trillion in annual AI revenue by 2030. By comparison, that is more than the combined 2024 revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia, and more than five times the size of the entire global subscription software market. Morgan Stanley estimates that last year there was around $45 billion of revenue for AI products. The sector makes money from a combination of subscription fees for chatbots such as ChatGPT and money paid to use these companies’ data centers. How the tech sector will cover the gap is “the trillion dollar question,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Bernstein.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
profdanhicks.bsky.social
Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 15d
💥AUTUMN BOOK TOUR💥

#everymonumentwillfall in Oxford, Brighton, Paris, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Durham, Bristol, London (x3), Nottingham

dates throughout Oct-Nov 2025

details/tickets >> danhicks.uk/talks
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
acyn.bsky.social
Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 17d
OBAMA: It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it.
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 17d
Another important blog from @wadehistory.bsky.social on what senior colleagues can do to support ECRs despite the confines of an ever increasing crisis in university funding
willpooley.bsky.social
will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 17d
“Without the ideas+perspective of ECRs… there will be no new generation of scholars to take up ideas and push them in new directions”

@wadehistory.bsky.social on “What can be done?” for the French History Network’s ECR in 2025 series

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6746/

🗃️#FRHistory
Let me be blunt: senior colleagues, institutions and organisations need to act in accordance with the mentality that French history in Britain is on the verge of extinction, because it is. Based on the nature of the job market today, the majority of ECRs in French history are, realistically, looking for permanent positions in European (or possibly global) history or in a particular subdiscipline of history (e.g. political history, economic history, social history, and so on). This puts them in fierce competition with historians studying other countries, all of whom face the same challenges. If ECRs in French history do not manage to secure permanent positions, the entire French history community will suffer: without the ideas and perspective of ECRs, senior scholars will only be able to have conversations with each other, and there will be no new generation of scholars to take up their ideas and push them in new directions. Put another way, senior scholars who do not wish to see their books merely gathering dust in libraries twenty years from now need to be doing whatever they can to support ECRs on the job market.
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