Dr Cathryn Pearce
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cathrynpearce.bsky.social
Dr Cathryn Pearce
@cathrynpearce.bsky.social
British historian. Author: Cornish Wrecking, 1700-1860 | Researching c18th-19th shipwrecks, the Royal Navy & coastal communities. #CoastalHistory #NavalHistory #MaritimeHistory #SussexCoast
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For those who post on #CoastalHistory topics, please let me know if you'd like to be added to our starter pack. Coastal History involves the history of coastal communities, both urban and rural, or those who live between land and sea around the world. Coasts connect! go.bsky.app/Pfa95p7
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
What do UK graduates do? Lots of information in this annual report.

A reminder that Humanities graduates are quite employable. Compare unemployment rates for Biology (8.4%), Chemistry (5.9%) and Physics (8.0%) with English literature (6.4%), History (7.6%) and Languages (7.6%) for example.
graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io
November 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
One of the books in my office is 290 years old. It’s still in excellent condition and easy to read. I wonder how easy it’ll be to read electronic texts 290 years from now. I expect it’ll be rather trickier.
November 28, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
“Scholarly effort is in decline everywhere as never before. Indeed, cleverness is shunned at home and abroad. What does reading offer to pupils except tears?”

this guy has his finger on the pulse amirite

www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p... 🗃️
‘Doing the Readings’
Dr Will Pooley (Associate Professor in Modern History), University of Bristol The students, we often grumble, don’t read the secondary readings we set for class. Every year, we find ourselves press…
www.history-uk.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Less confident in what they're presenting, but also uncertain about their professional and personal ethics. It makes me wonder if they care about the environment. Ironically lots of these presentations are focusing on rights, justice, empowerment, wellbeing, or good pedagogical practice.
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
I'm very pleased to formally launch "Yankee Pensioners in Ireland 1845-1905: An Interactive Map" with location/bio info on 720+ women & men receiving U.S. pensions in Ireland-significantly more than previously thought: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4e3d...
Yankee Pensioners in Ireland 1845-1905: An Interactive Map
An interactive map with biographical info and addresses of 700+ women, men and children who received U.S. pensions in 19th century Ireland.
storymaps.arcgis.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
“This isn’t about choosing between the economy and the environment. It’s about recognising that the economy is embedded within the environment.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Scientists warn of severe climate-related risks to UK economy and security
Experts lay out scale of changes needed in ‘first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing’ in Westminster
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Quiet light
November 28, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
The UK has become one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

In this set of discussion papers, funded researchers discuss examples and approaches to deepen our understanding of place-sensitive nature recovery, exploring the links between people and nature.
Place-sensitive understandings of nature recovery
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Fishing the Kiddles #fishweirs at #Foulness (1900). Foulness Island in #Essex coast of #England. Local fishing tradition of fixed fishweirs made with removable nets used in #MerseaIsland area. using the tide and current to push fish into on every tide. #coastsinmind #coastalhistory
November 28, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
I work at CCCU so I can add a bit of detail. The huge majority of these additional students for us are not on-site, typical full-fee paying, they are 'partnership' students where the actual degree they study is franchised or validated from CCCU, but taught elsewhere.
'11 universities expanded by more than 11,000 students over the past decade, while the three institutions with the biggest growth expanded by more than 20,000 students – BPP University (28,915 more students), Canterbury Christ Church University (22,410) and UCL (21,490).' 3/3
November 28, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
What secrets does a pirate graveyard keep? What stories are buried in one of the world’s most famous pirate cemeteries on Sainte-Marie Island, Madagascar – once a major 17th–18th century pirate hideout? Join us on Monday and find out: www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seaf...
#earlymodern #history
November 28, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
'Bols and Maguire trace the current financial problems higher education institutions are facing back to the government’s decision to remove the limit on student numbers in 2015-16 and deregulate student recruitment, while maintaining caps on tuition fees, thus limiting universities’ income.' 2/3
November 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
27 Nov 1703 (O.S.) // The Great Storm of 1703 swept across southern England from the Bristol Channel to the Thames Estuary during the night of 26/27 November. Damage was widespread and many ships were lost, wrecked, and sunk, including the following 13 vessels of the #RoyalNavy. [1/9]
November 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Extraordinary description of #Coastal #erosion and the #SpanishArmada #MaritimeHistory
November 27, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Pictures of the wood #fishweir at the Sales Point, Blackwater Estuary Essex. In continuous as early as the 7th century, right up until the 15th or 16th century. With mentions in the Doomsday Book associated with a local monastery in the 12th century. #coastsinmind
#coastalhistory
November 27, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
We have reviewed a magnitude 6.0 event that occurred at 08:11 AM AK time, northwest of Anchorage and at 43 miles depth.
This event was felt widely throughout south-central Alaska, and as far as Fairbanks.
For more information, please visit
https://earthquake.alaska.edu/event/ak2025xjbvhj
Willow M6.0 | Alaska Earthquake Center
Alaskan Earthquake Center
earthquake.alaska.edu
November 27, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
from an Inuit song originally translated
into Danish by Knud Rasmussen —
English version by Autumn Richardson,
Heart of Winter (Xylem Books, 2018)
November 25, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Wholeheartedly recommend any historians & especially PhD/ECRs think about submitting an abstract.

In a dark, isolating & stressful field SHS conferences have always been welcoming beacon of light. They're full of great research & actually really fun.
🚨 Call for Papers! 🚨

📣Join us @lancasteruni.bsky.social 1-3 July 2026 as we return to our original home to celebrate our 50th anniversary!

We welcome proposals from historians at all career stages across 8 thematic strands.

📅 CfP deadline: 16/01/26
🔗 socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

#CFP 🗃️
SHS Annual Conference 2026
Our 50th anniversary conference will be held at Lancaster University, the academic home of the Social History Society. A Significant Milestone The Social History Society was founded at Lancaster Un…
socialhistory.org.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
We're looking forward to Sunday and the Newhaven Lifeboat Christmas Fayre.
Hope to see you there!
November 26, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
"this government has now given certainty to the universities about their funding"

NO YOU HAVEN'T, you are LITERALLY raiding the international fees income TOMORROW
November 25, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Dave watched this government Education Committee meeting so you didn’t have to. But you do have to read his summary (if you have any interest in the future of HE)
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.

per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
This is spot on and so important: we have to change the language we use to talk about what universities are and their purpose.
Partly an effect of the business speak (and approach) applied to universities. “Providers” “exit markets” all the time. It’s how The market works! Collective institutions of public good…now those are different things.
7 x 3000+ students + 17 smaller institutions must mean 30,000+ affected students. That’s about the same size as Sheffield uni, which employs 8000ish staff. Why is the government tolerating the impending collapse of up to 24 related employers and 8000+ more lost jobs? Where is the sense of crisis?
November 26, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
The @royalhistsoc.org is running a charitable donation campaign to fund the research of historians who lack support. The number of applications we're seeing is way up. I've been very lucky to have a career as a historian, I've donated, and I think this Christmas you should too. Pay it forward.
royalhistoricalsociety2.beaconforms.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Dr Cathryn Pearce
Reacting to the presence of chatbots with assignment that ask students to look for mistakes in something they got a chatbot to spit out is not a sound approach to teaching your course material.
"GenAI allows seemingly limitless possibilities for assignments that
cultivate crucial literacies. For example, here’s the same old assignment caper that everyone and their AI dog has been suggesting for the past three years.”
#genai+writing
November 24, 2025 at 11:50 PM