Kate Astbury
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury
@100days1815.bsky.social
1.3K followers 500 following 230 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
chadbourn.bsky.social
Everything you need to know about the US’ slow turn against the EU.
Elon Musk @elonmusk • 6год. X The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people 18 тис 2] 26тис 146тис 1l 18млн Д 企 Dmitry Medvedev • @MedvedevRu... . 5 год. ... Exactly
December 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
100days1815.bsky.social
And this in a nutshell is why using AI to look at research funding applications is a terrible idea
eicathomefinn.bsky.social Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19h
Mohammad Hosseini: ‘If AI cannot create really novel ideas, it also is unlikely to detect really creative ideas because it is being trained on existing data. In a manuscript, you are reporting something that has happened, whereas in a grant, you are sharing an idea that still has potential.’ 3/3
December 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
royalhistsoc.org
"Of the 991 history exam questions set in 2023, 357 featured a named individual, but only 31 were women – and nine of those were references to Elizabeth I or her reign."

Dr Natasha R. Hodgson of Nottingham Trent University writes this week in The Conversation bit.ly/49ZqTiq
Women are still absent from how history is taught and assessed in England
Over a third of GCSE, AS and A-level exam papers in 2023 made no mention of women at all.
bit.ly
December 5, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
Another report on how our high visa costs deter top R&D talent
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
"The UK's upfront immigration costs now vastly exceed other leading research nations, so the UK is struggling to compete. EU countries can more easily attract talent from the EU due to free movement, and from non-EU countries due to their relatively low visa costs. "Non-EU countries are also attractive to global research talent due to lower comparative immigration costs than the UK." British scientific institutions are having to spend huge sums on visa costs for cancer professionals they wish to attract and recruit. The Francis Crick Institute, one of the world's leading biomedical research centres, is now spending more than £500,000 a year on visas for cancer scientists. Cancer Research UK institutes are spending almost £690,000 a year, up 44% from £470,000 in 2022-23.
April 22, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
parisnoire.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
nionwomen.bsky.social
📢 NION Women Statement on trans women and girls being excluded from Girlguiding and the Women's Institute.

We are deeply saddened that both Girlguiding and @womensinstitute.bsky.social have been placed under pressure that has resulted in trans women and girls being excluded from their organisations
Today, we are deeply saddened that both Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute have been put in a position that has resulted in trans women and girls being excluded from their organisations. Image of older woman hugging younger girl
December 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
alanlester.bsky.social
This is the first History Reclaimed attack on @davidolusoga.bsky.social’s BBC Empire series, in The Spectator. The thread on its recycled Telegraph version shows how criticisms of the representation of Mike Mountain Horse and the invasion of Ijebu are based on untruths. But else do they argue?
December 3, 2025 at 8:06 AM
100days1815.bsky.social
That’s become my rule of thumb - if I’m doing a project that the right-wing press isn’t going to like, I must be doing something right 😂
arnabdutt.bsky.social Arnab Dutt OBE @arnabdutt.bsky.social · 4d
Annoying the Torygraph is an excellent indicator that one must be doing something that is meaningful.
December 3, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
You can explore the data in this great report. My point is not to set one subject against another but that the stereotypes about humanities employability need a bit of probing, and shouldn’t be the thing that put someone off what they want to study
graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io/graduatemark...
What do graduates do?
December 1, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
How about Languages v Computer Science? Hmm…
Languages - 7.6% unemployed Computer science- 9.7%
December 1, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game.

On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad?

WRONG!
English lit - 6.4% unemployed Maths - 7.5% unemployed
December 1, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
willpooley.bsky.social
in his memoir, written ahead of his trial for parricide in 1835, Pierre Rivière reflected on the histories of Judith and Holofernes, Charlotte Corday and Marat, and women killing men. he vowed a revenge on behalf of all men: that’s right, Pierre Rivière was the first incel.

in this essay
December 1, 2025 at 7:23 AM
100days1815.bsky.social
Enjoying a long, rainy train journey this morning which gives me plenty of time to read this great volume of papers on Revolutionary theatre #Saturdaymorningtreat
A copy of La Révolution et le théâtre des émotions with view of rainy countryside through train window
November 29, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
jenwhy.bsky.social
One of those trick questions for #Frhistory nerds to present to their students: 'Where was Anne d'Autriche from? (along with 'Who ruled France between Napoleon I and Napoleon III?') Find out in this enjoyable biography in a series of five mini #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...
Anne d’Autriche, comment la mère de Louis XIV est-elle devenue régente absolue ? : un podcast à écouter en ligne | France Inter
Quelle est la place d'Anne d'Autriche dans notre mémoire collective ? Avec Joël Cornette, cette série raconte la vie de cette jeune Espagnole timide et maltraitée qui va se métamorphoser en véritable ...
www.radiofrance.fr
November 29, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
This month's Walk Midlands Newsletter has just gone out to subscribers

Ft. new walking routes in Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and much, much more

Check it out and subscribe👇

walkmidlandsnewsletter.substack.com/p/walk-midla...
Walk Midlands Newsletter November 2025
Features new walks in Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and much, much more
walkmidlandsnewsletter.substack.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘linking much-needed support for students to international recruitment – an unstable and overworked income stream - is risky and unsustainable. This measure could further weaken universities’
Read our Budget response here www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
The British Academy's response to the Autumn Budget
The British Academy has responded to the Autumn Budget (26 November 2025)
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
November 26, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
mrspowersdayjob.bsky.social
Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.
A large (maybe 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall) sign on the end of a row of bookshelves that tells the “address” of books that have sensitive content.
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
alanlester.bsky.social
If you’ve appreciated @davidolusoga.bsky.social’s marvellous BBC Empire series, you might be interested in our conversation about the writing of its history:
November 25, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'Ahead of the autumn budget on 26 November, Universities UK (UUK) has calculated that funding per student for teaching in 2025-26 is at 64 per cent of the level it was in 2015-16.' 1/3
University teaching income ‘£6.4 billon less’ than 10 years ago
UUK says shortfall in teaching money is ‘baked in’ to higher education funding system as institutions brace for new tax in upcoming budget
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
katherinemcdon.bsky.social
Happy St Katherine's Day to all scholars, librarians, and Katherines. May you win an argument against an annoying man today, in the true spirit of Katherine herself.
Icon of St Katherine
November 25, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
davelevitan.bsky.social
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
drsepinwall.bsky.social
Hey, can someone who remembers the Olympics opening ceremony on the Seine better than me remember what were the colonial (or pretending to be anticolonial) parts? @1789jam.bsky.social or anyone? 🗃️

I have vid of the Algerians throwing roses but want to show students other parts. Thanks!
November 24, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
melissaterras.bsky.social
Job Alert! DH postdoc at Edinburgh - Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to work on the AHRC-funded project "Voices in Slavery’s Archive: Law, Place and Testimony in British Guiana", which will build a digital archive out of the recorded words of enslaved people. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN147/p...
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh
Explore an exciting academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
Critics of this proposal argue that the problem is not one of unsustainability but of under-resourcing. Language departments are easy targets because they tend to be relatively expensive to run, as they usually offer a large amount of contact hours and need comparatively high levels of staff. Yet the skills and intellectual rigour they foster are worth saving. As Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy argues, we need to 'safeguard' our language provision: 'It would, for example, be geopolitically unwise to find ourselves without capable Russian or Chinese speakers. While it's easy to turn off the tap, it's much harder to turn it back on. Foreign language degrees may not be the most traditionally lucrative, but do we really want to be a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?
November 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM