Peter Gray

Looking forward to presenting this paper on my current book project @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social on Monday.

Such a shame to lose historic titles that have offered an invaluable insight into regional politics / social change for so many years. The Standard maintained an admirably high quality of journalism in recent years despite immense challenges to local media. Goes out with its head high 😢

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 page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2

<em>The Economic History Review</em> | EHS Journal | Wiley Online Library Click on the title to browse this issue

The @echistsocreview.bsky.social has just published an online virtual issue in honour of Joel Mokyr, featuring a very nice introduction by @mdrelichman.bsky.social, available here:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

#econhist

University course closures leave students unable to study many SHAPE subjects close to home - report A new report shows that students are shut out of SHAPE education in their home regions, as large swathes of the UK are ‘cold spots’ for humanities, social sciences and arts degrees.

We have a whole report on this
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/univers...

image shows a drawing of a flowering potato plant

This is the earliest known representation of the potato plant in Western and Central Europe. Drawn in 1587 by artist unknown. Held in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. You're welcome.

This morning Research England announced the end of its pause to REF2029 bit.ly/4oHh9wJ. The announcement includes changes to earlier plans and resumption of criteria setting by subject panels.

There's much to digest and we'll review and update with reference to the discipline of history 1/3

On Thursday 12 Feb. we will be sponsoring a conference on THE ULSTER PLANTATION, linked to the 'People of Plantation Ulster' database project (QUB/Maynooth). This is a free event open to all, held at PRONI (11-4). Registration and programme is at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conference...

YouTube video by QUB Irish Studies Irish Studies Seminar: Jessica Martell

If you missed Jessica Martell's talk this week on 'Beyond plantation mentalities in Irish literature, film, and culture', a recording is now online at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxR_...

Also with my MA history dissertation student Jon Walker

Delighted to meet up with MA Irish Studies graduates Natalie Boehmer and Brynna Crumley at yesterday’s graduation

On Friday 16 January we will be hosting a one-day conference on LABOUR POLITICS IN WEST BELFAST, 1918-83. Free event - all welcome (in-person and online). www.ticketsource.co.uk/institute-of...

Here’s the link to watch History Reclaimed’s right wing moral, logical and historical arguments being scrutinised. It’s uncomfortable viewing in places as Biggar’s put on the spot.

The truth about the British Empire: Mehdi Hasan & Nigel Bi... youtu.be/SZvkTmNQSy4?... via @YouTube

ULS 67 - 7 Racing : zut alors

Thanks to our MA ‘Belfast’ module students for coming to yesterday’s City Hall visit and Xmas drinks afterwards

Some counter-hegemonic protest from a Limavady Presbyterian in 1889 (from the wonderfully named 'County Derry Liberal', 27 Apr. 1889)

Many thanks to Elizabeth Malcolm for her kind review of William Sharman Crawford in IHS
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Siobhra Aiken (QUB) leads off the afternoon session on the cultural and memory resonances of partition and the boundary commission

Fearghal McGarry opening our ‘From Boundary Commission to Border Poll?’ conference in the grand environs of the Belfast Harbour Offices

We’re having a reception to mark our 60th anniversary (1/3 of the lifetime of QCB/QUB) on Monday 8 Dec.

Irish Studies / Public History Seminar: Jessica Martell

On 8 December we have a joint seminar with the Centre for Public History. Visiting Scholar Jessica Martell (Appalachian State Univ.) will speak on 'Beyond plantation mentalities in Irish literature, film, and culture'. In-person and online.
www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Iris...

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree. Ate it.

Sign the Petition Save the State Library of Victoria!

Melbourne's State Library of Victoria – the third most popular library in the world! – is being threatened with cuts to staff and facilities. Add your name to the petition to save jobs and resources www.change.org/p/save-the-s...

This is an excellent, level-headed, informative piece. I'd kill for a government which could discuss the issue with the same sense of objectivity and calm.

Gloom. Despair. Agony. Illustration from America: A Prophecy in 1795 but very current sentiment as well. By William Blake, born on this day in 1757.

Ahead of Tuesday’s shindig, here’s a video of me talking about MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN and what it means to be shortlisted for the @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social prize.

A big thank you to Gordon, the videographer who somehow made me sitting in my tiny office look cinematic 🎬

DE LA BIBLE IRLANDAISE AU SOUPÉRISME : ÉDUCATION, MISSIONS PROTESTANTES ET NATIONALISME EN IRLANDE (1800-1853) - KARINA BÉNAZEC

[MONOGRAPHIE] C'est non sans émotion que je vous annonce la sortie de mon 1er livre, maintenant @honorechampion.bsky.social. La table des matières et l'introduction sont en accès libre. Des exemplaires presse sont disponibles. #Histoire #Irlande #ESR
www.honorechampion.com/fr/editions-...

Black and white portrait photograph of Benjamin Disraeli. He is sat looking to the side, wearing Victorian morning clothes, with a combed side parting haircut and goatee beard. He is resting a cane against his leg.

Black and white portrait photograph of William Gladstone. He is looking directly at the camera, wearing a dark Victorian-style suit, a bow tie and large stiff collar. He has wavy, slightly dishevelled hair combed with a side parting, and large sideburns.

Unsurprisingly, the Budget statements are typically very long. To date, the longest Budget speech was that of Gladstone in 1853, coming in at a whopping 4 hours and 45 minutes. The shortest was Benjamin Disraeli's budget speech in 1867 which lasted just 45 minutes. (7/10)

'Exiting the market' is such a crap euphemism. It's not like the 'university' will then go and apply all its assets to another market. Those assets (human and non-human) will be dispersed, wasted, destroyed. Un-creative destruction. Which we can't afford as a society.