Joanne Begiato

Check out the latest #handoftheweek

More news on our upcoming events 👐

We are very excited about our upcoming workshops 🙌

Radical measures needed to close arts class gap in Greater Manchester, inquiry finds Working class creatives are struggling to break into and are leaving the arts, a new inquiry has warned. Class Ceiling, led by Chancellor of The University of Manchester Nazir Afzal OBE and Avis Gilmo...

Barriers preventing working class talent from succeeding include class-based discrimination, low pay, a lack of connections and exploitative practices. Over 150 hours of interviews with artists ranging from teenage musicians to globally recognised playwrights were conducted.

A huge thank you to all our delegates for joining The Hand: Emotion, Embodiment, Identity!

Your ideas, questions and conversations made the conference such a rewarding and inspiring event. We are grateful to everyone who contributed and helped make it a success 🤝

A patchwork quilt features vintage, monochrome portraits of women, accented with embroidery. A blue fabric piece and beige, circular embroidery are in progress. Emotive and historical feel

🙌 Two weeks on from The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment and Identity conference, we reflect on the stimulating contributions of scholars, artists and makers who explored the hand across historical, cultural and creative contexts.

Read our latest blog here: www.thevictorianhand.uk/gallery/conf...

Archive reveals hidden stories of Queer Norfolk Figures such as Barbara Ross and Anna Gurney were ahead of their time, says archivist Adam Baker.

🤩 This is how it's done, folks!

'A lesbian couple at the centre of their community and a pair of brothers said to have been among the first people to medically transition are among the people whose stories are told in the Queer Norfolk archive.' 🏳️‍🌈📚🏳️‍⚧️📜🗃️

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #queerhistory

an aerial view of a city with lots of tall buildings and a building that says ' chinese ' on it ALT: an aerial view of a city with lots of tall buildings and a building that says ' chinese ' on it

The bad news rolling in from across Britain's universities seems endless. Very little of the traditional infrastructure outside the top-ranked 25 or so institutions will survive at this rate. Especially in the Arts and Humanities.

Read this thread for the lived experience of what it's like in almost all UK universities now - just an internal implosion. Organisationally, morally, in terms of capacity and morale.

Read Mark Carney's full speech on middle powers navigating a rapidly changing world | CBC News Read the full text of Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech about a shakeup of the global order and role of middle powers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Still thinking about the Carney speech today. It is also interesting that the first inkling I had of this was from Michael Ignatieff in a @financialtimes.com piece. Canadians get it and yes, due to our proximity we have no choice but to.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨
The UK Govt has quietly published - without announcement - the Joint Intelligence Committee/DEFRA report it suppressed last October. They tried to sneak it out in the midst of crisis. Read and share:

“Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse & National Security.”
(link below)

'The report highlights that at 16 providers, once the international student fee levy has been implemented, the exchequer will collect more in revenue that these providers received in grants from the Office for Students in 2023-24.' LSE could pay £7M levy, receiving less than £500k direct grant. 3/3

Ah no, not me. I'm from Durham!

Conference programme for "The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity" held at London College of Fashion, 8-9 January 2026.

Delighted to be presenting today at @victorianhand.bsky.social conference "The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity" part of @jbhist.bsky.social and @medhistoryman.bsky.social exciting AHRC project 😀

Range of historic and contemporary textiles on display in front of screens displaying first slide of a PowerPoint presentation

Really great workshop at @jbhist.bsky.social and @medhistoryman.bsky.social conference @victorianhand.bsky.social to think about textile making and sense of touch with artist and curator Ruth Singer. Very interesting for those of us not makers to think through its implications for our understanding.

It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.

This is very good and goes in front of my MA students next term for sure. It's a lot better than the various medium posts I've written but it's reassuring to see so many people arrive at the same answer after checking. No, AI is not capable of "replacing" historians. Not even close, wrong timezone.

Resharing our #Handoftheweek posts

City & Guilds to shrink UK workforce amid £22m cost-cutting drive Training and qualifications body, acquired by private Greek firm in October, to become ‘leaner organisation’

'Founded in 1878 by the City of London and a group of 16 livery companies, the original institute developed a national system of technical education, offering qualifications and apprenticeships in fields ranging from manufacturing and mechanical engineering to hairdressing and horticulture.' 1/2

✋ This 1845 daguerreotype captured the branded hand of Jonathan Walker - marked ‘SS’ for ‘slave stealer’ after he tried to help enslaved people escape Florida. Intended as punishment, it became an abolitionist symbol, though his story often overshadowed those of the enslaved people he sought to aid.

Hands can be subject to punishment and agents of resistance or in this fascinating case, both at the same time.

Another #Handoftheweek - exploring marks inscribed on the hand and their capacity to be read in multiple ways. Please share more widely.

A vintage prosthetic arm lies on a textured surface. The metal hand, detailed with joints, is palm-facing up. A strap extends from the arm's base. Historic, mechanical.

⚔️ Götz von Berlichingen lost his hand to a cannonball in 1504 and commissioned an iron prosthesis with hinged, lockable fingers for use in battle.

He later adopted a more advanced model - one of the earliest functioning mechanical prosthetic hands - which he used across his military career.

What an amazing #Handoftheweek 👏 👏

The Wolfson History Prize - Celebrating Outstanding History The Wolfson History Prize is awarded annually to promote and recognise outstanding history written for a general audience.

Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.

Solidarity with every trans person struggling to keep their heads in the game today. Along with everything else, this is absolutely a war against our collective and individual mental and emotional health - against our very sense of self.

It's expected to feel the blow. But we stay fighting.

The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 explores how empire in Asia shaped British country houses, their interiors and the lives of their residents. It includes chapters from researchers based in a ...

Annual shameless Xmas or other seasonal holiday gift suggestion for those interested in any of material culture, empire or British country houses. Over 500 pages & 100 illustrations. Paperback a mere £30. (Alternatively, free to download from @uclpress.bsky.social or @jstor.bsky.social ).

Rachel Reeves says on Laura Kuenssberg that she's asking working people to pay a little bit more.

This was all under the cover of a made up "black hole" whilst refusing to tax the super rich.

This Labour Government showing again exactly who they are and who they serve.

What do UK graduates do? Lots of information in this annual report.

A reminder that Humanities graduates are quite employable. Compare unemployment rates for Biology (8.4%), Chemistry (5.9%) and Physics (8.0%) with English literature (6.4%), History (7.6%) and Languages (7.6%) for example.

I wrote a bit about touch and travel writing over on @victorianhand.bsky.social - read more at the link below!