Shahmima Akhtar

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Front cover of the History UK 'Disability and History Project Report' 2025. Full text: "Disability and History Project Report. Lead author: Dr Sarah Holland. Project Research Fellows: Dr Alexandra F. Morris, Dr Sarah E. Hayward, and Tilly Guthrie. Supported by an Advisory Board. Co-funded by the Royal Historical Society." With History UK and Royal Historical Society logos

History UK has today released its 'History UK Disability and History Report' (2025): bit.ly/44PH51Z

The report aims to raise the profile of issues relating to disability and history in UK Higher Education. Its research and writing were co-funded by the Royal Historical Society. #Skystorians

Exhibiting Irishness: Empire, Race, and Nation, c.1850–1970, by Shahmima Akhtar Over the past thirty years, there has been a vast expansion in the literature on Irish imperial sensibilities and belonging, as well as numerous works reco

Michael de Nie reviews 'Exhibiting Irishness: Empire, Race, and Nation, c.1850–1970', by Shahmima Akhtar @shahmimaakhtar.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

@manchesterup.bsky.social

Title screen for Lucy McCormick's video 'The history of social class and the Bibliography of British and Irish History'

In this On History blog, @lucy-mccormick.bsky.social and Jenny Lelkes-Rarugal discuss how the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) can be used to research and teach the histories of social class buff.ly/ZDbRcur

I didn’t realise you were here! Thank you!

Lovely to see Exhibiting Irishness at the @manchesterup.bsky.social table at #NACBS2025

PhD Studentship on Family Separation, funded by ERC - CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - RHS PhD Studentship on Family Separation, funded by European Research Council Call for Applications, deadline - 1 March 2026 This is a call for expressions of interest for a European Research Council-fund...

An excellent PhD opportunity for someone to work on family separation during WW1 or WW2. I've done some research on Italian emigrant families separated when the father was serving in the Italian Army and it's a really fascinating area of study. royalhistsoc.org/calendar/phd...

Looking forward to the first full day of conference proceedings at #NACBS2025 today, and sharing new research with @saimanasar.bsky.social @shahmimaakhtar.bsky.social & Rob Waters. So many brilliant panels to chose from, but come along if you can!

Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine With a focus on how anticolonial social movements can pose solutions to multiple contemporary problems, this essay takes up the Big Ride for Palestine. The principal argument – that the Big Ride co...

I wrote something about #StopDeKindermoord

We are delighted to announce that MBS2026 will be held at the University of Birmingham, 3-5 June 2026!

Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.

For any questions please contact mbs2026@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Email Olivia.Wyatt@ed.ac.uk or Meleisa.Ono-George@history.ox.ac.uk to present online or in-person

Kicking off our fantastic line up with a showcase of new research! Get in touch if you are a postgraduate or early career researcher who would like to introduce their work to the field.

📍 Hybrid: N304, IHR, Senate House, WC1E 7HU and Online
📅 Thursday 16th October, 2025
⏰ 17:30
🔗 bit.ly/3INwCfO

Photograph of the Black People’s Day of Action, March 1981

The IHR Black British History seminar series is now on BlueSky!

Follow us for updates and keep your eyes peeled for information about our upcoming seminars 👀

@ihr.bsky.social #BlackBritishHistory #historians #academia

The IHR Black British History Seminar is now on Bluesky, thanks to @oliviawyatt1999.bsky.social! Give a follow for updates:

A new academic year is here, and so is our autumn term programme! A thread of our speakers follows.

Sign-up links available soon but note dates in diaries now! 📆

Image of 'Trust me, I'm a Historian' badges and text: 'Postgraduate Membership of the Royal Historical Society. Applications invited for next closing dates of 13 October and 15 December 2025'.

If you're starting a postgraduate course in History this autumn, please do consider joining the Royal Historical Society bit.ly/41mTuck

Postgraduate Membership brings access to research funding, events, publications and networks. You'll join an international community of more than 6500 historians.

Vice versa: sex work and drug use during the HIV epidemic in Thatcher’s Britain Abstract. This article traces the origins of the present-day association of prostitution and drug addiction in Britain. Through an examination of a variety

Adding some joy to the timeline!

I’m pleased to announce my first publication, exploring how associations between sex work and drug use deepened in 1980s Britain in the context of the AIDS epidemic.

Read it here in Modern British History’s latest issue:
academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist...

I wrote a book once on the history of debates over free speech, protest and academic freedom at universities, looking at how fascists used the language of free speech to promote themselves on campus and those who argued that fascists should be denied this platform.

www.routledge.com/No-Platform-...

Gender and Sexuality MA - University of Birmingham Course information for prospective postgraduate students on our MA History taught masters degree programme at the University of Birmingham.

Some big news: the University of Birmingham is launching a new MA in Gender & Sexuality. It's interdisciplinary, with a focus on combining theory & practice. It's going to be amazing. I'm convening it: message or email with questions. www.birmingham.ac.uk/study/postgr... @unibirmingham.bsky.social

And you can now read the (just published) book for free on the @uolpress.bsky.social website uolpress.co.uk/book/democra... !

JOB ALERT: amazing 4-year post in postwar British history and refugee studies at @uniofreading.bsky.social Humanities!

A post perfectly suited for someone working on political and social histories of race and migration in late 20c. Deadline 5 September.

jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Using BBIH online: a help pack for students and lecturers For the academic year, we've a help pack offering guides to BBIH in undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. With embeddable content for VLEs.

Studying, researching or teaching in the histories of Britain or Ireland? Try using the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), it contains 650,000+ resources from 55 BCE to today! Find out how to use BBIH

Screen shot of word document detailing information about the “power couples” conference. Please email z.thomas@bham.ac.uk for more info.

Call for Papers, please share! “Power Couples? Collaborations at work and at home, c.1750-1914” workshop to be held at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany 11-13 May 2026. Deadline for expression of interest 1 Sep 2025. Please see more info in the attached & email me if any questions.

The Summer Sale starts now ☀️

Get 50% off EVERYTHING until the 7th July. Yep, we said everything.

Unlock with code: Sun50

Had your eye on any of our newest hardbacks, or Academic New in Paperbacks? Now's your chance 👇

Browse by subject at the link in bio 🔗

#booksky #academicsky

A new phase of activism: women’s occupational organisations and married women’s paid work after the Second World War in Britain Focusing on the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) and the National Association of Women Civil Servants (NAWCS), this article looks at activism and campaigning for married women workers after ...

Pleased to see that my article 'A new phase of activism: women’s occupational organisations and married women’s paid work after the Second World War in Britain' is now in the current issue of @womenshistoryrev.bsky.social.

Open access so free for all to read.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Book cover for Vanished. Features a nineteenth-century print with a fossilised mastodon skeleton, Asian elephant being ridden by a turbaned man, Native and colonial figures looking on. In the background is a mountainous landscape and there is also a single passenger pigeon in the sky. The whole scene is framed by an ornate frame and foliage. Below the book is the following text: A love letter to the astonishing ways of being that have survived past extinctions, and an exhortation to create a worthwhile world.

Love’s Labour Launches with a roar! Thanks to many roarsome people I’ve gone from peasant to PhD, to Professor, and Penguin author with Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction out today. 🐅

Pls share, read, and help create a worthwhile world.
#WorldEnvironmentDay
#BookSky #HPS #Skystorians 🗃️

If you’d like to know more about extinction and empire, some upcoming book events:

18 June, with Gary Younge, KCL
www.kcl.ac.uk/events/vanis...

26 June, Linnean Society, London
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-unnatu...

9 July, with Helen Macdonald, Cambridge
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vanished-a...

South Asian Bodies at British Borders in the 1970s: From the Ugandan Asian ‘Stateless Husbands’ to ‘Virginity Testing’ This article looks at two critical moments in British immigration – the case of the ‘stateless’ Ugandan Asian husbands, whose wives successfully argued for their entry in Britain in 1973 and the ‘vir...

My latest article with Jinal Parekh: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... In this we look at how the British state shifted its focus from worrying about young South Asian men as a source of immigration fraud to South Asian women, and the consequences of this.

Image of an open book with the text: Funded Book Workshops. For historians writing a second or third monograph, 2025-26. Closing date 11 July

Support for historians at mid-career: the Society invites applications for its 'Funded Book Workshop' programme bit.ly/4fYQcRC

Workshops enable authors of a 2nd or 3rd monograph to hold a day-long discussion of a book MS with 6 readers of their choosing.

Closing date: Friday 11 July #Skystorians

Historians for Trans Rights - Open Letter to MPs In light of the recent and incessant attacks on the trans community in the UK by the UK government and legal system, a group of UK-based historians have drafted the letter linked below. Our aim is to ...

OPEN LETTER: HISTORIANS FOR TRANS RIGHTS

Are you a historian in the UK or working on UK history fed up at seeing the history of LGBTQIA+ discrimination repeat itself? Sign this open letter to MPs demanding they stand up for trans rights now!

Letter: tinyurl.com/879vuver
Sign: tinyurl.com/4p7wktrn

Thank you ACIS for awarding me the Michael J Durkan Prize for Books on Language & Culture and an Honourable Mention for the Donald Murphy Prize for Best First Book for Exhibiting Irishness: Empire, race and nation, c.1850-1970