Ali Bennett

We are very pleased to be working with @ihr.bsky.social and @findmypast.bsky.social on this new Applied History Fellowship programme.

The launch event on Weds 19 November bit.ly/49vcgCS provides further details of the scheme and how to apply #Skystorians

On flags and ‘patriotism’ in Kent right now 😩 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

Canoes in the Early English Caribbean: The Role of an Indigenous Technology in Making Mercantilism Work* Abstract. The Caribbean, with its focus on cash crop production, played a major role in the rise of England’s Atlantic trading system and the making of mod

Fascinating article by Nuala Zahedieh about the centrality of canoes in early colonial exploitation 🗃️https://academic.oup.com/past/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pastj/gtaf021/8231030

Over 90% of the world's museum collections are locked away in storage. Not anymore.

UofG’s Museums in the Metaverse is bringing hidden treasures to life through 3D technology.

Sign up to be first to hear about the beta launch www.gla.ac.uk/mim

“A Mixed Population of Muslims and Zanj”: Teaching East Africa in World History, c.1000 to Present Discussion of teaching East Africa Africa in World History

After my annual summer break, I'm back with a new series on teaching East Africa in world history. This first post is free and introduces some resources and themes we can use when teaching East Africa.
🗺️🗃️

www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-mixed-popu...

Screenshot of page proofs for an essay titled «So, Who Killed the Elephant?». Tracing African-European Entanglements in the ‘Global Middle Ages’, Verena Krebs, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Two years later, it still feels surreal that I had the (quite literally) once-in-a-lifetime honour of giving a keynote at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds.

Turning that talk into an essay—whose proofs arrived today—is just the icing on the absurdity cake.

With it being #WorldElephantDay #ElephantDay we just had to post a photo of the Seal of the borough of Pwllheli featuring an elephant and castle, as it appears on the ceiling of the wonderful Shankland Reading Room here at Bangor University.

A coloured illustration showing an elephant in motion. Behind is are faint illustrations of people, and other elephants being ridden. Text below reads "Elephant des Indes"

An illustration of a human and an elephant stood close together. Through the silhouette of each animal its skeleton is visible in great detail.

Today is #ElephantDay! Enjoy these illustrations of the largest living land animals from our collections. The first is from C. d’Orbigny's, 'Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle', 1847, and the second from B. Hawkins's, 'A comparative view of the human and animal frame', 1860.

Yale Art Gallery abandons plans for federal grants over anti-DEI rules, funds African exhibit itself "We have a world-spanning collection of art, and it is our mission to represent a diversity of cultures," a Yale Art Gallery spokesman said.

A bit of good news from the Yale University Art Gallery. www.nhregister.com/connecticut/...

Trump and the Commonwealth Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Our latest @jich.bsky.social 'Current Debate' essay entitled 'Trump and the Commonwealth' is now #OpenAccess for a limited time. The journal's former editor Professor Philip Murphy offers some compelling commentary on the US president's ambition of joining the Commonwealth.

doi.org/10.1080/0308...

I *think (though not yet 100% certain) that some of the ships used to carry emigrants to East and West Africa after WW1 may also have been used at some point for carrying ivory to the London docks - the shifting trajectory of a ship!

I have found myself doing a little bit of research into the Union Castle line (re ivory) in case you fancy teaming up for a conference panel some time! I shall keep my eyes peeled for anything interesting 👀

If you find yourself in the Margate area, do check out the Powell-Cotton Museum’s redisplay of some of its East African Collections. Especially useful for those interested in missionary collecting but also a new focus on Ugandan figures- not just the solitary British missionary ‘expert’ or explorer

Congrats Freddy! So pleased to see this in print!

How might ships change the way we understand migration policy in postwar Britain and its empire? My new article in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social
offers an answer to that question. Here's a thread to hopefully pique your interest and maybe get you to read it 🧵🚢
www.cambridge.org/core/service...

Faith in the Town: Lay Religion in Northern England, 1740–1830 Abstract. Faith in the Town explores the ways in which religious faith affected the lives of men, women, and children in the increasingly urban and industr

So excited to see ‘Faith in the Town’ (co-authored my me, @kategibson Jeremy Gregory and Carys Brown & published in Open Access form (free to read) today by @oxfordunipress.bsky.social. Want to know how religious faith was woven through urban life in northern English towns 1740-1830? Then read on …

Manchester have posted 14 more postdoc positions in 'SHAPE' disciplines - 4x simon fellowships and 10(!) hallsworth fellowships. Simon eligibility is 'within 4 years of PhD award', except career breaks
www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/fun...
Happy to discuss these via email

Such excellent and important work, @zoecormack.bsky.social and team!

Investigation shines fresh light on British Museum’s looted, Dürer-inspired diptych The piece, one side of which is an enamel copy of a 16th-century woodcut, the other side crafted in Ethiopia, reveals how European icons became incorporated into the African country’s traditions

A piece of Ethiopia's Maqdala plunder comes under the spotlight

A diptych linking Dürer and Christian Ethiopia likely taken from Portugal to Ethiopia by Jesuit missionaries. Quotes @zoecormack.bsky.social @alulapankhurst.bsky.social @krebsverena.bsky.social www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/21/i...

Exterior view of the British Academy, viewed from the small park to its north, looking south, with trees in front of the building on Carton House Terrace.

Are you a postdoctoral (or equivalent) researcher in the UK within c. 10 years of your PhD? If so, the @britishacademy.bsky.social 's Early Career Research Network (ECRN) is designed & funded for you. North West & North Wales cluster is now live. 1/2 www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/early-c...

Call for papers for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures International Conference @portsmouthuni, 10-11 June 2025. Submit your 300-word abstract by 19 January 2025 to pcmc@port.ac.uk for @UoP_Maritime's inaugural conference

www.port.ac.uk/news-events-...

Oh Dominik this breaks my heart to read. Obviously it would be wonderful to have you back, but not for this reason ☹️

Global Connectivity in Maritime Perspective – International Fellowships DSM 2025 | Deutscher Museumsbund e.V. Do you also think that the global impact of our relationship with the sea has so far been little addressed? The German Maritime Museum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History (DSM) offers you the oppo...

The German Maritime Museum invites applications for 3-9 month-long fellowships to work on interdisciplinary object-based research focussing on the cultural & political significance of the relationship between humans and the sea. Deadline 31 January 2025. More info: www.museumsbund.de/stellenangeb...

Ruling the World argued that governance of the British Empire should be examined everywhere & all at once. For example, the decision to make the East India Company sovereign and the Act Abolishing slavery in the Caribbean are usually examined in isolation, but they were directly connected:

Curzon’s cases: making a museum at Kedleston Hall In 1916 Lord Curzon inherited his ancestral home, Kedleston Hall, and set about planning its renovation. Part of this work was the creation of a new museum in which to display his collection of ‘Ea...

Very pleased to share that my first article is now online www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Material Cultures of Eastern Africa: New Historical Perspectives from the Local to the Global Bringing together scholars from a wide range of academic fields, disciplines and locations, the event will explore eastern Africa’s cultural and creative past from local, transnational and global pers...

2/2 we had panels on gender, religion, conflict, empire, museums, & regional/global mobilities. Programme can be found here: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

YouTube video by The British Academy Material Cultures of Eastern Africa - conference day one

Interested in the histories of material culture, museums, and/or East Africa? Our recent conference supported by @britishacademy.bsky.social & @paulmelloncentr.bsky.social is now available to view:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Zz... [youtube.com]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMVf... [youtube.com]

carpet appreciation post

Funded PhD in photographic history: please share widely! With The Story, Durham and @durhamhistory.bsky.social, 'Images and Empire in British Military Collections' will examine the photo archive of the Durham Light Infantry regiment over its 90-year history. Apply by January 31st! 🗃️📜📷📸

Antoinette Burton, "Gender History: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2024) New Books in Gender · Episode

This just out: Antoinette Burton in conversarion about Gender History: A Very Short Introduction #skystorians open.spotify.com/episode/53Nz...