Katherine Arnold

It’s rather depressing that when we don’t provide face to face teaching (because lockdown) students are angry, when we do provide face to face teaching, they don’t turn up/say they prefer to catch up on lecture capture/dont want to take part in seminars etc etc. We can’t do right

I wrote a piece for the CDBU blog with some low or no cost things our employers could do right now if they care about precarious staff as much as they say they do.

one of the best things I ever found online

2026 Global History Lecture, with the German Historical Institute, London - RHS On Tuesday 10 February, the Society hosts its annual Global History Lecture, in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London. This year we are delighted to welcome Professor Vinita Damodar...

Join us on Tuesday 10 February for the 2026 Global History Lecture, hosted in partnership with @ghilondon.bsky.social

Prof. Vinita Damodaran will speak on 'Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire' bit.ly/4qLCaYB

Booking for in-person & online attendance is now open #Skystorians

The collections at @nhm-london.bsky.social are full of glorious specimens esp the Flies. But they also come with lots of extra information

Roger Crosskey wrote down his feelings 50 years ago about this species complex - his frustration evident

@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

🚨 TODAY! A seminar from the @collecol.bsky.social CHSTM group at 4pm GMT/11am EST!

Join us in welcoming @nickyrvs.bsky.social (@hunterianglasgow.bsky.social) ✨

More info & Zoom link ⬇️ www.chstm.org/group/collec...

#envhist #envhum #museums #collections #histsci

This trend is giving me life. College is cool, knowledge is great. The liberal arts is rad. Being well rounded is the GOAT.

Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:

1. Forensics of Sherlock Holmes
2. German Fairytales
3. Triathlon Training
4. Contemporary Moral Issues
5. Cultures of Africa

People like to hate on pre-requisites but they were so fun.

Stack of the book ‘In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956’, edited by Daniel Frost and Evan Smith

To celebrate the publication of @d-j-frost.bsky.social and mine’s book ‘In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956’, I am giving away a copy to one randomly chosen person who reposts this post by 11.59pm ACST Sunday 1 Feb.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/

Anyone remember that paper by a bunch of computational social scientists working for Microsoft (lol) that proclaimed happily that a wide range of professions would find that gAI would be "applicable" to their professions, and it included everything from historian to customer service staff?
Anyway.

An email from Martin Peterson to university administrators.

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

Trump says a lot of deranged shit, but, per this Reuters article — and the threats of invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota this morning — he is very clearly exploring how to cancel the midterms.
www.reuters.com/world/us/fiv...

State control of historical memory is a classic hallmark of authoritarian regimes, just FYI.

Kelly Sues Pentagon Over Threats of Punishment From Hegseth Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, asked a federal judge to block the Trump administration from disciplining him for a video warning about illegal military orders.

Breaking News: Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy pilot, sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over trying to reduce his rank and pension. This comes after Kelly reminded military members that they must not follow illegal orders.

Donald Trump Has Declared War On Minnesota—And Tim Walz Is Ready Trump's most devastating war might be the one he's waging right here at home

Trump is turning Minnesota into a test case for federal abuse of power. After lies, raids, and a deadly ICE escalation, Tim Walz is done campaigning and ready to fight back.

States consider suing fossil fuel industry over insurance hikes New York and Hawaii could expand the legal battlefield and seek to hold companies liable for disasters that cause premiums to rise.

Legislators in New York and Hawaiʻi are considering bills that allow their attorneys general to sue fossil fuel companies if climate-related disasters cause residents’ property insurance premiums to rise.

Aloha.

If anyone out there works for a museum (anywhere in the world) that would like to have me give a similar talk about extinction & museums with a local twist, please contact me!

Mamdani is here describing a vision of working-class consumerism that resonates with the 19th century theorists of the “living wage” and shorter hours movements, whom I wrote about in my first book. “Eight Hours for What Will,” very much included the arts, education, and pleasure.

This is the MAGA monoculture - anti-freedom.

Renee Nicole Good may not have fit their view of what an American should be so her life is worthless to them.

The American multiculture does value Good’s life, her freedom to use whatever pronouns she wanted and to love another woman.

Real Freedom.

The fact that four hostile drones tried to hit Zelenskyy’s plane & it’s barely a blip in the news cycle should terrify everyone. We’ve been dragged so deep into the chaos era that an attempted strike on a world leader doesn’t even break through. When this becomes normal, the world is in real danger.

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?

U. of Alabama Suspends Black and Female Student Magazines, Citing D.E.I. Guidance

This is truly awful. I have served in the university media board for 3 years and saw how brilliant and committed the student editors of these magazines were to quality and integrity. This is such a loss for the university community at large. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...

🚨 Don't miss the next @collecol.bsky.social CHSTM seminar on Thursday 4 December at 11am EST/4pm GMT! ✨

This month, we'll hear from Thomas Biskup (University of Hull/Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel)

#envhist #histsci #histstm #envhums #collections #plants /1

This is not true. Musk is endorsing (again) a version of the white nationalist great replacement theory, as told by Stephen Miller.

It is a conspiracy theory and it was confined to the fringes of the Internet until 10 or so years ago.

If true, Harris would’ve easily won in 2024.

I am old enough to remember when the unis forced everyone to return to the classrooms during covid, refused to allow anyone to take a gap year, and endangered us all because they wanted the rent money. But I guess they have a new scam now. Won't even need students soon!

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care? The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...

'The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what "works," but art opens up what is possible' - Pope Leo

And we knew this. This wasn't speculation. We studied it, we had the talking points. We trained volunteers to explain this to people. It's not a surprise. Rich people don't flee places with good quality of life when we increase the quality of life. They might try to cheat us, but they don't leave.