Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 6h

Ha! Stretching the brief but I’ll allow it. (Saw Amitav Gosh in conversation with Natalie Zemon Davis once and things have been downhill from there, really.)

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Amalia S. Levi @amaliasl.bsky.social · 7h

Though technically not historians: Amitav Gosh's The Nutmeg's Curse, and Sara Johnson's Encyclopedie Noire are both stunning takes and writing on hist subjects.

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 6h

We’ve got a group chat with a bunch of UCU social media managers which is LOVELY: sharing templates, amplifying, getting clarification. Qs are often about a new manager who arrived from another uni. Then the horror stories begin.

As a sector we’ve got to get better at getting good people in charge.

QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 19h

Goldsmiths's VC is booted out??? GOLDSMITHS'S FRANCES CORNER IS OUT???

The 'with immediate effect' and these three sentences being the full extent of the webpage is quite revealing of just how much drama we're not being told about: www.gold.ac.uk/news/2025/vc...

👀 @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social #UKHE

screenshot from Goldsmith's webpage.
title: Professor Frances Corner OBE has stepped down with immediate effect as Vice-Chancellor of Goldsmiths.
text: Professor Corner will begin a period of research leave and will undertake existing commitments including her support of the University of London.

Professor David Oswell has been appointed as Interim Vice-Chancellor while a permanent leader of the university is recruited.
that's the full extent of the entire webpage, which is raising way more questions than it answers.

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 7h

Many thanks for these! Lovely memories as well as teaching plans :)

Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Quistote @kquist.bsky.social · 21h

So late to this but recently obsessed with Jill Lepore's These Truths. Wish I could give it to my highschool students. May make them read at least something from it.

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Quistote @kquist.bsky.social · 21h

Coming here to just say I had Leon Litwack as an undergrad at Berkeley (and so did MY DAD lol) and his class was great and I'm still sad I didn't keep my copies of his US history text books (which my high school also had used in the 90s).

Parents sent me the clipping of his obit when he passed 💜

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Dave Fortin @davidwfortin.bsky.social · 23h

Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, William Cronon, Robert Caro (esp. Master of the Senate), James McPherson, Donald Miller (his Vicksburg book is excellent!), David Walker Howe....

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Quistote @kquist.bsky.social · 23h

Uh-oh. Danger. My reading list is gonna blow up.

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 25d

I’m having intro chats with dissertation students this fortnight, and one of them asked which historians I’d recommend for beautiful writing they could absorb to further develop their own writing style.

So, gang, which are your favourite *writers* among historians, any time, any topic, any place. 🗃️

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 18h

honestly, the checks out with the whole Last Days Before The Fall Of Rome vibes we've got going on these days.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 19h

A number of popular protein supplements contain levels of lead that could pose health concerns, according to a new report that tested samples of 23 powders and shakes.

Report Finds Lead in Naked Protein Powders and Other Popular Brands

Experts said the levels were not high enough to cause immediate harm, but raised the risk of long-term health effects.

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

Boo!

Happy looking ghost annotation at the top right of a printer page.

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

Would be nice if the actual university stuff would actually work, if our job is made to depend on it.

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

Fucking hell. Faculty “Town Hall” that links getting in the QS Top 100 directly to having the range of disciplines and continuing research alongside teaching.

THOSE LEAGUE TABLES ARE BOGUS. They’re built on the hope other universities with centuries or prestige & investment somehow decline.

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

A bunch of us are being chase by our linemanager as well as our head of department to fill in a form to get people to tell QS that QMUL is good. All so that the QS rankings look a bit less shit and the Principal can show that he succeeded in that KPI so he gets renewed in December.

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

(It's not as if those Heads of School and Heads of Department have better things to do; like trying to make the clusterfuck that is a merger + PS reorgansation + VSS within the space of two months work...)

(My 'this is all so absurd it's creating a healthy distance for me' shield is cracking.)

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

Issue is (apart from the gaming of a system & waste of time of a bunch of academics for the promotion objectives of one guy): the stupid app doesn't work. So now we're all emailing each other that the app doesn't work & how much we tried after the chasing emails.

This is that vaunted 'efficiency'?

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

A bunch of us are being chase by our linemanager as well as our head of department to fill in a form to get people to tell QS that QMUL is good. All so that the QS rankings look a bit less shit and the Principal can show that he succeeded in that KPI so he gets renewed in December.

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Jane Winters @jfwinters.bsky.social · 2d

Come and work with us! We have a two-year, half-time postdoctoral research associate position working on the @storymachine-ht.bsky.social project www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai.... If you’re interested in #DigitalHumanities and/or folklore, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date 27 October.

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Project StoryMachine:London Senate House - Hybrid

The School of Advanced Study (SAS) comprises eight internationally renowned research institutes as well as centres in Digital Humanities and Public Engagement. It has four nationally and internationally recognised specialist research libraries. An important component of the humanities national infrastructure and part of the University of London, this is a really exciting time to join the School of Advanced Study as we are at the start of a new strategic plan.

www.jobs.london.ac.uk

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, proficiat!!!

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Kristof Smeyers @kristofsmeyers.bsky.social · 1d

he he he

een hand houdt een felrood boek, het is 'uitdrijven: een beknopte geschiedenis van het exorcisme'

een hand houdt een felrood boek, het is 'uitdrijven: een beknopte geschiedenis van het exorcisme' (achterflap)

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 19d

(You have no idea how grumpy I am about the pressure on employability rates. (1) That's YOUR JOB, STARMER. Unis can't solve the economy. (2) SORT OUT THE CLASS SYSTEM IN THIS COUNTRY, STARMER. It's incentivising unis to pick privileged A-Level students who have the networks to for quick job access)

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 19d

So, all that pressure for universities to give government stupidly high employment rate 18 months out of graduation, does that mean we all have to train posh nannies?

That's how much of the current logic in chasing metrics goes in UKHE these days...

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 1d

And, fwiw, how is the labour market universities’ fault? It isn’t, and it would be very useful if people understood this.

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 1d

'A “challenging” graduate labour market in the UK could further erode trust in the higher education sector, with the “bad times” showing little sign of ending.'

All the more reason to have a serious, nationwide discussion of what universities do and what they are for.

Faith in universities ‘at new low’ as graduate jobs dry up

Challenging economic conditions may have led to bump in student recruitment numbers this year but experts fear long-term damage after institutions pegged futures to employability agenda

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · 1d

It's got a terrific opener: "I began writing ''The Name of the Rose'' in March of 1978, prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk."

Whomst among us, etc

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

GET READY FOR FRIDAY! Make plans to get to lovely Bloomsbury if you're in the neighbourhood, or sign up for the zoom link by Thursday evening.

(or, if you like to live on the edge, get a picture of a Good Tree ready to bribe me for the clandestine zoom link on Friday)
#LowCountries #ArtHistory

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 15d

PROGRAMME! Excited to be welcoming Alexander Marr, Dirk van Miert, and @ebenbow.bsky.social this term -- and David Hopkin, Jeroen Puttevils, Feike Dietz, Sam Geens, Valika Smeulders, and Gloria Moorman in Spring.

All welcome @ihr.bsky.social or zoom! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #SkyStorians

programme of hte Low Countries Seminar, Institute of Historical research, Fridays 17:30
17 October: Alexander Marr: Three Renaissance ‘Grotesques’: Holbein, Dürer, Massys
31 October: Dirk van Miert: The Synod of Dordrecht: binding the Anglo-Dutch orthodox Republic of Letters
17 November: Eliot Benbow: Low Countries Merchants in and around London c. 1350-1550: Specialising in the Trade of Everyday Goods
programme of hte Low Countries Seminar, Institute of Historical research, Fridays 17:30
17 October: Alexander Marr: Three Renaissance ‘Grotesques’: Holbein, Dürer, Massys
31 October: Dirk van Miert: The Synod of Dordrecht: binding the Anglo-Dutch orthodox Republic of Letters
28 November: Eliot Benbow: Low Countries Merchants in and around London c. 1350-1550: Specialising in the Trade of Everyday Goods

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Reposted by Liesbeth Corens

The Prize Papers Project @prizepapers.bsky.social · 2d

I am happy to announce that our dear colleague and associated researcher in the Prize Papers project Alejandro Salamanca @desvelandooriente.com has just published a new book: A Microhistory of Early Modern Transatlantic Migration
The Frigate Agata (1747). Congratulations!
#earlymodern #history

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

No, but, where *IS* the money though?

Not taking out too many stupidly large loans with harsh demands attached to them by any chance, have now, management?

QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 2d

Where is the money? @qmul.bsky.social haven't paid many cleaners their overtime since August; unions haven’t had their Facilities Time paid since August; many Teaching Associates & Teaching Fellows have not had any pay in September. All since the new financial year.

Where is the money? Cleaners, teaching associates, and trade unions haven’t had any of the money that isn’t part of the regular payroll since the beginning of the new financial year

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 1d

oh, helpful thread for the #EarlyModern #Skystorians! New faces have arrived since the starter packs were big about a year ago, so good to give the feed an update.

Thanks for compiling this, @ctcallisen.bsky.social!

Christian Callisen @ctcallisen.bsky.social · 3d

A (long) thread of (anglophone) #StarterPacks and #feeds of interest to #EarlyModern #skystorians.

The first two posts list a sample of hashtags for which Bluesky feeds currently exist. The following forty-two(!) posts list starter packs for scholars of various aspects of early modern history.

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