Freddy Foks

📢We are delighted to announce that Jonah Miller (@wminhumanities.bsky.social) has been jointly awarded The Historical Journal ECR Prize for his article 'Suffrage and the Secret Ballot in Eighteenth-Century London Parishes'

✨Hear Jonah explain more in his HJ Highlight!

We are advertising a two-year lectureship in Modern British History at University of Cambridge, please spread the word!
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

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.

I *think there’s nothing written about it’s subject: ‘working holidaymaker’ policy under the provisions of 1962 Immigrants Act- so v happy for references if anyone know one!

And ofc if you can’t come and would like to know more: email me! I love emails

Presenting tomorrow on secret policies for 'Old Commonwealth' mobility during 1960s, when UK govt declared its migration policy was 'colour blind'. Developing a paper I presented at @qmcbs.bsky.social last year. Pls do come along if in Oxford and free at 2pm

I mean I’m open to the idea that there’s an esoteric reading of republic where thrasymachus ‘wins’ but on the face of it he’s the level 1 fighter who gets dispatched pretty quickly before the story moves on

Ok I have to admit I’m no expect but in my amateurish reading once T has expressed his One Big Idea about Justice Socrates has him on the ropes within about 20 lines and from then on T is just being petulant and then gives up

Hmmm not sure about that! He’s practically snivelling by the timr Socrates has done with him. It’s easy on rereading to imaginine him as a sweaty chud guy who starts off all confident and then insists he’s not pwned imo

Agree. He’s Thrasymachus reincarnate- has only one mode of thinking about politics and no conception that physical force alone might not always work to cement rule

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

Surely MAD?

Academics are having their IP harvested and students are having their cognitive capacities siphoned into training data. And we’re all *paying the companies for the privilege of making *them money

Rant over…

At least in the case of my family member, that relationship is remunerated. But the university-wide AI policies are completely topsy Turvy.

The current model seems to be for universities to *pay the AI companies to *use their services on subscription… whereas the economic value being harvested is completely the other way round! The students using gen AI are *training the models and providing a service the companies should pay for

… large amounts to do highly skilled labelling (a family member who is an undergrad is doing this for lots of money rn after being recruited on campus - the high pay is dependent on a very difficult series of entry tests which select for ‘quality’ of labeller’s written English and reasoning skills)

Re both original thread and quote thread it seems amazing to me that the big tech companies aren’t being asked to *pay universities* for access to their students and academics. Some of the large models are now known to be running out of high quality training data and are paying undergrads

Roads to Economization: Valuing Life, Limb, and Leisure in the Social Democratic State Abstract. This article reinterprets contemporary forms of economization in UK government by recovering their emergence in the early nationalized transport

This is a brilliant article in @mbhjournal.bsky.social by Charles Troup on cost-benefit analysis and social democracy. Cosmopolitan in its reference points, rigorous in its empirical grounding, and corrosive to existing views of governmentality and 'neoliberalism'.

academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

Refugee Epiphany is over, the kings have set off home another way. But their arrival has triggered an appalling chain of events. Herod, then as now, thinks nothing of killing the innocent for political end…

This is good malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/r...

Duncan Tanner Prize 2025 The Duncan Tanner Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. Entrants submit an article manuscript.

the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...

A permanent post in my department. Closing date Dec 14th 2025, interviews in March. Please spread #histsci

🚨We’re hiring a Junior Research Fellow in Economic History (Sept 2026–Aug 2029) at Wadham College, University of Oxford. It’s a genuinely supportive place to work. Happy to answer any questions. Spread the word!

www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about/the-da...

📢 Call for Contributions 📢

The Journal of British Studies seeks submissions for a special series of short essays to be published over the course of 2026 on the topic of “1776: Views from the British World.”

Reflecting on publishing and research culture during Open Access week 2025 – with Laura Carter and Freddy Foks - University of London Press At the University of London Press, we have been reflecting on recent conversations in the sector about research culture, what this means for the humanities, the potential benefits of open access, the ...

Our latest #OpenAccess blog by Laura Carter & @freddyfoks.bsky.social, co-eds of Democratising History:

'Libraries – the beating heart of humanities research and also, too often, the unsung heroes of that research – are likely to be at the centre of the good fight.'

uolpress.co.uk/2025/10/refl...

Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.

Tories to pledge to create immigration taskforce modelled on Trump’s Ice Proposed ‘removals force’ will be tasked with deporting 150,000 people a year in bid to tackle illegal immigration

Why would you presume the policy is ‘hope they leave’. Badenoch is on record as saying she hopes for a U.K. ‘ice’ www.theguardian.com/politics/202... with no deportation agreements in place this is clearly a policy to build camps… and they are proposing a budget to do this

We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

Hands painting a sign. Text reads "Nursing and migrations exhibition. Open call for artists"

We're commissioning an artist to co-create an artwork for our upcoming exhibition on migration and nursing. Help us tell powerful stories of identity, home and care.

🗓 Deadline for applications: 19 October 2025
📍 Location: Anywhere in the UK
👉 Find out more and apply: https://bit.ly/3IKaZNA

Imagining Trans Futures Sam Rutherford reflects on how trans histories and historians can work towards building power in the trans community.

How can trans history facilitate knowledge and solidarity beyond the 'existence' of trans people?

Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo argues for trans history as a tool of political education, through the history of access to healthcare:

Come and work with our fab Americanists - a dynamic (and super nice!) group within @camhistory.bsky.social. We're hiring for a permanent position in twentieth century US history.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...