Alex Wragge-Morley
@wraggem.bsky.social
Science & Medicine Historian @ Lancaster University. Author of Aesthetic Science: Representing Nature in the Royal Society of London http://tinyurl.com/yy4nhqn7
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Please take a look at our latest blog post from @victorianhand.bsky.social about the fascinating sensory world of intrepid 'Blind Traveller' James Holman.
🌎 What happens when a travel writer navigates the world through touch?
This month’s blog explores the journeys of James Holman, the self-described ‘Blind Traveller’, and how his haptic encounters challenged the visual conventions of travel writing.
www.thevictorianhand.uk/gallery/the-...
This month’s blog explores the journeys of James Holman, the self-described ‘Blind Traveller’, and how his haptic encounters challenged the visual conventions of travel writing.
www.thevictorianhand.uk/gallery/the-...
November 28, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Please take a look at our latest blog post from @victorianhand.bsky.social about the fascinating sensory world of intrepid 'Blind Traveller' James Holman.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
What a pleasure to find this book is out now (digitally):
Alice Wickenden 2025 Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge @ doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Congratulations to @awickenden.bsky.social 🥳🎉 -- going straight to ch. 4 "Unreadable Books: False and Foreign Languages" now. 🤓
Alice Wickenden 2025 Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge @ doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Congratulations to @awickenden.bsky.social 🥳🎉 -- going straight to ch. 4 "Unreadable Books: False and Foreign Languages" now. 🤓
Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge
Cambridge Core - Renaissance and Early Modern Literature - Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge
doi.org
November 27, 2025 at 10:54 PM
What a pleasure to find this book is out now (digitally):
Alice Wickenden 2025 Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge @ doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Congratulations to @awickenden.bsky.social 🥳🎉 -- going straight to ch. 4 "Unreadable Books: False and Foreign Languages" now. 🤓
Alice Wickenden 2025 Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge @ doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Congratulations to @awickenden.bsky.social 🥳🎉 -- going straight to ch. 4 "Unreadable Books: False and Foreign Languages" now. 🤓
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
A second book launch, this time at Uppsala University. Thanks to all who came and listened to @lindaaburnett.bsky.social and I outline our next book - on humanity and the history of scientific instructions. It’s a tale of skull collections and the colonial history of ideas.
November 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
A second book launch, this time at Uppsala University. Thanks to all who came and listened to @lindaaburnett.bsky.social and I outline our next book - on humanity and the history of scientific instructions. It’s a tale of skull collections and the colonial history of ideas.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
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
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
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Lancaster University UCU members have beaten back compulsory redundancies.
After weeks of pressure management has agreed to halt all forced job cuts until July 2026.
This is a victory for jobs and every branch fighting cuts across the sector. We are the university.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
After weeks of pressure management has agreed to halt all forced job cuts until July 2026.
This is a victory for jobs and every branch fighting cuts across the sector. We are the university.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Strikes suspended in Lancaster University staff job cuts row - BBC News
The university is trying to save £30m amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Lancaster University UCU members have beaten back compulsory redundancies.
After weeks of pressure management has agreed to halt all forced job cuts until July 2026.
This is a victory for jobs and every branch fighting cuts across the sector. We are the university.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
After weeks of pressure management has agreed to halt all forced job cuts until July 2026.
This is a victory for jobs and every branch fighting cuts across the sector. We are the university.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
A pleasure to welcome Ben to QUB yesterday and to hear his brilliant talk on ‘healing the hospital’ with contemporary French philosophy, literature and film.
I’m in Belfast!! ✈️
So happy to be at Queen’s University Belfast today to deliver a talk at a research seminar hosted by Modern Languages and the Global Cultures of Health and Illness network at Queen’s University Belfast.
So happy to be at Queen’s University Belfast today to deliver a talk at a research seminar hosted by Modern Languages and the Global Cultures of Health and Illness network at Queen’s University Belfast.
November 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM
A pleasure to welcome Ben to QUB yesterday and to hear his brilliant talk on ‘healing the hospital’ with contemporary French philosophy, literature and film.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
I had an AMAZING time Steven!! thanks so much for having me — from the warm welcome and fantastic questions and feedback from QUB colleagues to the famous Tara Lodge sausages, I felt very honored to be there!
November 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I had an AMAZING time Steven!! thanks so much for having me — from the warm welcome and fantastic questions and feedback from QUB colleagues to the famous Tara Lodge sausages, I felt very honored to be there!
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Hurrah! Well done! Small tech history for the win!!
November 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Hurrah! Well done! Small tech history for the win!!
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Really pleased to see my latest article out with @medicalhistory.bsky.social - this article looks at the underappreciaed role habit in the medical thought of 18th century Britain. Drawing on a wide range of works, but focusing on William Cullen, this article 1/6 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Habit, medicine, and society in 18th-century Britain | Medical History | Cambridge Core
Habit, medicine, and society in 18th-century Britain
www.cambridge.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Really pleased to see my latest article out with @medicalhistory.bsky.social - this article looks at the underappreciaed role habit in the medical thought of 18th century Britain. Drawing on a wide range of works, but focusing on William Cullen, this article 1/6 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Really pleased to see my latest article out with @medicalhistory.bsky.social - this article looks at the underappreciaed role habit in the medical thought of 18th century Britain. Drawing on a wide range of works, but focusing on William Cullen, this article 1/6 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Habit, medicine, and society in 18th-century Britain | Medical History | Cambridge Core
Habit, medicine, and society in 18th-century Britain
www.cambridge.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Really pleased to see my latest article out with @medicalhistory.bsky.social - this article looks at the underappreciaed role habit in the medical thought of 18th century Britain. Drawing on a wide range of works, but focusing on William Cullen, this article 1/6 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The takeaway IMO is aggro centrism is an astonishing historic disaster. Not only does it not work - it delivers very little for the public, doesn’t address core problems of the era and disillusions the public with democracy itself - but it actively aids the far right and prepares the way for fascism
November 16, 2025 at 5:55 PM
The takeaway IMO is aggro centrism is an astonishing historic disaster. Not only does it not work - it delivers very little for the public, doesn’t address core problems of the era and disillusions the public with democracy itself - but it actively aids the far right and prepares the way for fascism
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The 2025 Pfizer Award, awarded annually for an outstanding book in the history of science, is given to Adrian Johns for The Science of Reading: Information, Media & Mind in Modern America.
(Apparently he wrote the entire book in ~8 months during COVID!)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #HSS2025
(Apparently he wrote the entire book in ~8 months during COVID!)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 12:28 AM
The 2025 Pfizer Award, awarded annually for an outstanding book in the history of science, is given to Adrian Johns for The Science of Reading: Information, Media & Mind in Modern America.
(Apparently he wrote the entire book in ~8 months during COVID!)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #HSS2025
(Apparently he wrote the entire book in ~8 months during COVID!)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #HSS2025
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
I travelled to NYC to help launch (last night) Joanna Stalnaker's astonishing new book _The Rest is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death_. The book is a treasure, humane and moving: a vindication both of the #18thc philosophes and of what literary studies scholarship can do with them.
November 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I travelled to NYC to help launch (last night) Joanna Stalnaker's astonishing new book _The Rest is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death_. The book is a treasure, humane and moving: a vindication both of the #18thc philosophes and of what literary studies scholarship can do with them.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
It’s not over but when it is I will never, ever forget the “serious people” who buckled and compromised and abetted the torture and crime and murder for a fascist lottery ticket.
I think the core point is that trump had a honeymoon in which capital/media/political opposition all decided he was the one true voice of america. he did a lot of horrible things with that (including murdering 100s of thousands), but didn't consolidate power...
November 13, 2025 at 11:04 PM
It’s not over but when it is I will never, ever forget the “serious people” who buckled and compromised and abetted the torture and crime and murder for a fascist lottery ticket.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Lovely to be at Alison Bashford’s talk @lancasteruni.bsky.social as a part of the @victorianhand.bsky.social project.
November 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Lovely to be at Alison Bashford’s talk @lancasteruni.bsky.social as a part of the @victorianhand.bsky.social project.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
We are so proud of this work. Not only is it the first effort to publish & analyze **open-access data** derived from the entire text contents of digitized @britishlibrary.bsky.social newspapers, it presents a metadata-driven approach to understanding bias in big historical data. #dh #skystorians
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets - Volume 1
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
We are so proud of this work. Not only is it the first effort to publish & analyze **open-access data** derived from the entire text contents of digitized @britishlibrary.bsky.social newspapers, it presents a metadata-driven approach to understanding bias in big historical data. #dh #skystorians
I feel as though this is the right moment to share that I once shared an elevator with Joyce Carol Oates.
November 10, 2025 at 11:16 PM
I feel as though this is the right moment to share that I once shared an elevator with Joyce Carol Oates.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Historians here: Anyone up for joining a panel on early modern translation practices in science and medicine with me and the wonderful Sare Arıcanlı? It’ll be for the 2026 ESHS–HSS Joint Meeting in Edinburgh. Let me know!
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Historians here: Anyone up for joining a panel on early modern translation practices in science and medicine with me and the wonderful Sare Arıcanlı? It’ll be for the 2026 ESHS–HSS Joint Meeting in Edinburgh. Let me know!
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
You can now register for our exciting conference that spans disciplines, time, and place and offers exciting hands-on sessions. Please sign up soon as spaces are limited!!
General registration is now open for our upcoming conference The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment and Identity at London College of Fashion, 8-9 January!
Visit our website to register: www.thevictorianhand.uk/conference
Visit our website to register: www.thevictorianhand.uk/conference
November 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM
You can now register for our exciting conference that spans disciplines, time, and place and offers exciting hands-on sessions. Please sign up soon as spaces are limited!!
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
November 6, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The problem with diagnosing "the electorate have unreasonable expectations around tax and spend" is that those expectations did not develop in a vacuum. They are the product of decades of politicians and the media telling them they can have x services with y tax levels, or not contradicting it.
November 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The problem with diagnosing "the electorate have unreasonable expectations around tax and spend" is that those expectations did not develop in a vacuum. They are the product of decades of politicians and the media telling them they can have x services with y tax levels, or not contradicting it.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
The generation that experienced WW2 knew how bad things could get. The horrors that they had directly experienced in Coventry, on Omaha, at Belsen, Bastogne, Dresden, Nanjing & Tokyo meant that they understood how dangerous THIS was. This is where all that started.
Dutch anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders goes full Trump, claiming on X after he lost the election that there are reports of vote fraud. Also claimed the election authority was not neutral. Tearing down the pillars of Dutch democracy. nos.nl/l/2588722
Gemeenten wijzen aantijgingen Wilders over stemgesjoemel van de hand
Wilders stelt op sociale media dat het "berichten regent" van verdwenen of ongeldig verklaarde stemmen. Experts noemen het trumpiaans.
nos.nl
November 1, 2025 at 11:35 AM
The generation that experienced WW2 knew how bad things could get. The horrors that they had directly experienced in Coventry, on Omaha, at Belsen, Bastogne, Dresden, Nanjing & Tokyo meant that they understood how dangerous THIS was. This is where all that started.
Reposted by Alex Wragge-Morley
Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
‘Lawless London’ is safer than it’s been in decades
Official data suggests the capital may be safer than at any time in the past half century, comfortably beating other major cities
observer.co.uk
October 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...