Piers Haslam 🌺

Physical Disability and Deformity in Nineteenth-Century Britain Offering historical primary sources that outline both medical and experiential perspectives of physical disability, this book provides frequently mentioned but rarely provided material and supports re...

I have an edited primary source collection coming out on disability and deformity in c19th Britain. My hope is that you find it useful for teaching (apologies for the abstract, I did not write it! and the cost) #histmed #dishist www.routledge.com/Physical-Dis...

adult learners from the 1950s sitting in a classroom with a teacher presenting

📢Conference Call for Papers📢

An Intelligent Interest: Learning and Education in London

Seeking proposals for engaging and accessible talks or presentations on any aspect of education and learning in London’s history.

royalhistsoc.org/calendar/an-...

#history #historyconference #CFP #education

Kansas has, overnight, invalidated the drivers’ licenses of trans people, a pointless cruelty that upends their lives

If Brits think “it won’t happen here” think again! Groups in the U.K. who want the same thing are routinely invited to consult with Labour and normalised in our press!

Australian historians – I am assuming there must be, but is there an established Australian queer history archive? (Sorry for not knowing- not my area)

My aunt just found a cache of letters from my Great Aunt Elizabeth* to her brother George, who was gay, from 1940s-50s. They may be of interest.

Senate House Library secures future of priceless LGBTQ+ collection with support from the Heritage Fund A grant of nearly £250,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund will open access to a landmark collection of LGBTQ+ literature at Senate House Library.

Further information about the Haud Nominandum collection (a Latin phrase that broadly translates as ‘that which cannot be named’) is here 👇

My talk is up on YouTube! 🏳️‍🌈

Calling all Thomas Hardy scholars - I bought a book for an obscure Algernon Blackwood story only to discover that it appears to be inscribed by Hardy. Can anyone confirm? And who is Caroline (‘Sammy’)? 🧐

And what can one say about the PhD funding situation... As I'm sure you'd attest to, I didn't exactly feel the situation was great back when I started. Look at it now! I guess that's a lesson to anticipate this kind of fragility

My talk is up on YouTube! 🏳️‍🌈

The title page of "London and Paris Through Indian Spectacles" (1897) by G. Paramaswaran Pillai. It features an image of two eyes peering through spectacles between the words of the title itself.

Possibly the coolest title page I've ever seen

LGBTQ+ History Month: 'Scottish trans pasts, useable and otherwise?' | School of History, Classics & Archaeology | History Classics and Archaeology Celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with Dr Sam Rutherford and learn more about the last 150 years of trans history in Scotland.

I am giving the Edinburgh Uni LGBTQ+ History Month lecture on the evening of 27 February, with the title 'Scottish Trans Pasts, Useable and Otherwise'. Details and link to register are here: hca.ed.ac.uk/updates-even... Do come along if you're in Edinburgh!

This two-day workshop will explore several questions. How can environmental history complement or offer alternatives to existing historiographical narratives and periodisations in British history? What new actors, events, or phenomena might come to the fore? How should it foster engagements with places beyond its national borders or with other disciplines? Is environmental history different from longstanding traditions of ‘landscape’ or ‘urban’ histories of Britain? What contributions can historians make to environmental advocacy and policymaking? And how might a focus on the environment reshape teaching in British history? To take part, participants should submit a 300 word proposal for a short ‘position paper’ (approx. 2500 words) that will be pre-circulated at the workshop. These position papers will address the place of environmental approaches and themes within modern British history (1800 to the present) from the perspective of the participant’s own research. Participants will orally summarise their papers at the workshop. The event is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. Submissions are welcomed across a range of perspectives and topics, including but not limited to: energy, extraction, non-human actors, pollution, toxicity, rural and urban landscapes, everyday environmental histories (including how they are shaped by class, gender, and race), imperialism and decolonisation, ‘green’ policy, activism, and the political economy of the natural world. Please send proposals and a one-paragraph biography in a single PDF to andrew.seaton@manchester.ac.uk by 15 May 2026. Please also direct enquiries to this address. This event is organised by Dr. Max Long (Oxford) and Dr. Andrew Seaton (Manchester).

CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'.

A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.

Details in poster below, please share.

Cover of Sex Isn't Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary by Beans Velocci. The cover features a mesh grid pattern in an off white against a black background. The title is written large in a serif font in the center of the cover. Each word is a different color— ‘sex’ is a light orange; ‘isn’t’ is a grey blue; ‘real’ is a teal. The subtitle is directly below in white. The author’s name is above the title also in white.

In their new book "Sex Isn't Real," Beans Velocci traces the history of current high stakes attempts to define sex and to create a world devoid of trans life. Read a Q&A about their bold argument on the blog today. buff.ly/hB1k4Cw

The 1921 census required every household to identify a 'head' - assumed to be a husband - but it offered no way to record same-sex relationships. So how did women and gender non- conforming people record their lives? Often subversively, as some examples show 🧵 (1/6)

#LGBTplusHM
#lgbthm26

Thanks, Tom!

Piers always gives such beautiful talks, and this sounds like an amazing source: gay diaries from WWII-era Norwich!!

I'm excited to present some findings from my placement at the Norfolk Record Office. You can join remotely, so consider hearing about some sexy gay diaries over lunch!

Queer history types! Can anyone recommend scholarship that looks at asylum / psychiatric hospital records through a queer or trans lens?

Director Rosa von Praunheim has died The director Rosa von Praunheim has died at the age of 83. This is reported by "Stern". A few days ago, he married his life partner.

RIP Rosa von Praunheim www.bluewin.ch/en/entertain...

A4 proofs of The Disraeli Myth

In case you were wondering if there was a time when people across the political spectrum used the past to think creatively and constructively about present-day problems, may I present the incontrovertible proof(s)!

📢Call For Papers📢
Sociability & Political life

Marc Jaffré & I are organising a conference! We're asking: can there be politics without sociability? How have friendship, intimacy, socialising & informal attachments been central to political projects & movements?

Get your abstracts in by Feb 14th!

The front cover of Vol. 1 part 2 of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis from 1920.

Attention Cambridge people who like this sort of thing!! G. David currently have a big stack of 20s and 30s psychoanalysis journals in the basement

#CfP for next year’s SHS conference! Drop me a line if you have any Q about the ‘Lifecycles, Families, and Communities’ strand 📣

Pleased to see that our book Writing Politics in Modern Britain: Genre and Cultures of Publishing since 1900 now has a cover and will be out with Cambridge University Press in January!

@richardtoye.bsky.social
@universitypress.cambridge.org

www.cambridge.org/no/universit...

University of Glasgow Library has a remarkably generous visiting research fellowship scheme - come hang out with me in Glasgow! Get funded! www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3

We’re taking on the EHRC interim guidance in court After more than six months of disruption unleashed by the EHRC’s guidance, we’re arguing at the High Court that it is legally flawed.

We're in court today and tomorrow, taking on the EHRC's (now withdrawn) interim guidance, issued in haste following the For (Some) Women Scotland decision.

In accordance with our general practice, we are publishing the Skeleton Arguments of the Parties. goodlaw.social/h3nw

Emma Parker holds a copy of her 2024 book Life Writing and the End of Empire

Over the 🌙 that Life Writing & The End of Empire is joint winner of the 2025 @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 🎉

Congrats to co-awardee @drdominicdean.bsky.social & brilliant shortlistees @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social. I can’t wait to read your books!
bacls.org/news/187/

Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.

Ed Wood Jr and the pain of pronouns Reclaiming the trash filmmaker and trans icon from an era that couldn’t comprehend his shape-shifting forms of self-identification.

A moving little article - it captures the personal feelings that emerge when connecting with the trans past, while also paving the way for a productive reappraisal of Ed Wood's life and work.

lwlies.com/in-praise-of...