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Reposted by Peter Mandler

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 20h

A rare chance to hear from Dipesh Chakrabarty from Chicago in London (or online) on 28 October as part of our Living with the Planet season www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/livin...

Global Perspectives with Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty FBA

What does it mean to be human when our actions have become a force that shapes the planet itself? Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty FBA joins Professor Harriet Bulkeley FBA to explore the history and chall...

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 1d

For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research.

Reposts welcomed.

Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...

Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research

observer.co.uk

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think 'banning' is going to be much help with AI.

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Jeannine Baker @nenieb.bsky.social · 3d

Fantastic piece by Kate Murphy responding to the devastating change of policy at the @BBC Written Archives Centre, which will make it impossible to undertake new independent research using the collection. cstonline.net/defending-th... #mediahistory

DEFENDING THE WAC: RECOVERING THE INVISIBLE WOMEN OF THE BBC by Kate Murphy

My first visit to the BBC’s Written Archives Centre was in 2002. I was working as a producer on Woman’s Hourand had applied for a three-month attachment to what was then the Diversity Centre…

cstonline.net

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Joe Moran @joemoransblog.bsky.social · 3d

From Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans: Oliver Twist is translated into Chinese as Orphan in the Capital of Fog

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 3d

The closure of the Iowa State Historical Society archive in Iowa City is a travesty. And part of a now-decades-long campaign of resentment and retaliation by state government against Iowa City and the University of Iowa 🗃️

Laura Belin @laurarbelin.bsky.social · 4d

Marian Wilson Kimber: It’s painful to realize the people in charge of Iowa’s history apparently have no idea how history works. If they did, they'd know there is no way to predict what parts of the collection will be of interest 5, 20, or 100 years from now. www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/10/10/t...

The theft of history

Marian Wilson Kimber: I have wondered if the box of women’s club programs that changed my life will end up in the dumpster.

www.bleedingheartland.com

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4d

Jenrick is absurdly incoherent on principles of free expression because he wants immediate arrests for "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) while turning up to court to defend shouting "Fuck Islam" while burning a Quran

www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

Robert Jenrick criticised for saying people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ should be arrested

Tory leadership candidate’s comments around far-right protests described as nasty, divisive and ignorant

www.theguardian.com

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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 5d

Today is World Mental Health Day. Through the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), you can research the history of mental health. BBIH’s free reading list on the history of emotions highlights some recent scholarship on the history of mental health in the UK and Ireland buff.ly/OK5HSbu

Engraving of an 18th century building in a pastoral landscape

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Chris Havergal @chrishavergal.bsky.social · 5d

Bit of a coup for Switzerland, and worrying signs for the US, as married Nobel prize-winning economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, currently full-time professors at MIT, join the University of Zurich www.timeshighereducation.com/news/married... via @patrickjack.bsky.social

Married Nobel prize-winning economists move from US to Europe

Other recent departures from Trump’s America include expert on antifascism who fled to Spain after receiving death threats

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5d

'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'

Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens

University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 5d

Join us for a roundtable on 'The Modern British City' in January at Senate House, London, with Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna, Owen Hatherley, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, followed by wine! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Roundtable: 'The Modern British City'

www.history.ac.uk

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 7d

Plus everyone (including the Tory party leader) has forgotten that the Conservatives *designed* the current funding system to subsidize degrees with the RAB charge: it was a feature then, not a bug, and now it is a 'rip off'.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7d

Something grimly predictable about the way that the conversation about 'ripoff degrees' in the UK is always about degrees that aren't rip-offs, but are instead fairly obvious 'this student has chosen something unlikely to pay off economically' rather than the short tail of crap business degrees:

Everyone needs educating in the fight over university degrees

Political confusion over the purpose of these institutions means the obvious fixes are being neglected

www.ft.com

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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 7d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Rebecca Goldsmith @beccagold.bsky.social · 8d

Delighted to be admitted as a research fellow at Lise Jardine’s (and Raymond Williams’) college today, in excellent company @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social

A woman in a black gown stands in front of a portrait of Lisa Jardine, smiling

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 8d

Higher education as defined in these statistics is almost entirely university education. I don't know what else you are thinking about. It does not include (non-degree) apprenticeships, FE or other kinds of post-school 'training'.

Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 8d

They now use a different measure, CHEP, for participation in higher education to age 25, and as of 2023 it was at 49%. Little of this comes from government targets and most of it comes from consistently high demand over the past 40 years. It may be that demand is now slackening.

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 8d

Not that it matters much, since the participation rate was going to go up to these levels pretty much regardless of policy, but there was a supposed 'target' for 50% participation in higher education and it was hit, by Blair's chosen measure of HEIPR (which aggregated participation from 17-30).

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 9d

The RHS is a membership organisation of 6500+ historians. We welcome applications to join us at any time. Our next closing dates are 13 October and 15 December.

We offer categories for all kinds of historians and at all stages of research, from Postgraduate to Fellow: bit.ly/46V8WOQ #Skystorians

Closing dates for next application rounds:
Mondays 13 October and 15 December 2025

The Royal Historical Society represents the interests of historical researchers in universities, libraries, archives, museums, heritage and broadcasting, as well as those engaged in public, community and family history research.

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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 9d

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government....

On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames

time.com/7323442/sout...

House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze

Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.

time.com

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 10d

Proportional representation then?

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 10d

Perfectly defensible as a moral principle, but democracies can function pretty well with a fair amount of inertia and/or small-c conservatism.

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 10d

How so? Opinions like this were more common a generation or two ago when everyone thought democracy was in rude health.

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Martin Hewitt @vicmanch.bsky.social · 11d

I might have solved the mystery of Sarah Lewis, author of *Woman's Mission*, key text of Victorian separate spheres ideology. The ODNB states nothing is known about her, but I have evidence to suggest she was Sarah Lewis (1807-1878), headmistress of a girls' boarding school in Putney in the 1840/50s

A picture of the title page of Sarah Lewis's "Woman's Mission"

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 11d

oh wow. this finally happened to me. a piece I wrote lifted wholesale by the Daily Mail, lightly rewritten and without any links back to my original piece of writing.

most amazingly, a weird use of the word 'pacing' suggests to me that they did it with ChatGPT.

archive.ph/LFmzR

archive.ph

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Phil Tinline @philtinline.bsky.social · 11d

For the latest on George III's response, see next post

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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