James Harriman-Smith

It's not Masquerade Monday, BUT! 'The Masquerade: A History of Extravagance and Intrigue' is now available for pre-order & you can get 25% off through Friday!

www.waterstones.com/book/the-mas...

If you think Bridgerton will be juicy, just wait til you get your hands on this 😏🤫 #18thc

We are in the process of working our way through HUNDREDS (no exaggeration) of fabulous CFPs.

If you have submitted a proposal for #BSECS2026, we will be in touch on or before the ***15 October 2025*** to let you know if you've been successful.

#skystorians #18thC 🗃️

Front cover of the booklet created for the opening of the Percy Building.

Photograph of the front of the Percy Building facing onto the Quadrangle.

Group of attendees at the official opening of the Percy Building.

#OTD in 1958 @newcastleuni.bsky.social Percy Building was officially opened by Professor J. Dover Wilson, and named after the first Rector of Kings College, Lord Eustace Percy.

Browse the brochure for the opening event on CollectionsCaptured: collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...

BSECS Annual Conference BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

Today should have been the deadline for #BSECS2026, but we are extending it by a WHOLE EXTRA WEEK! Share your research with us @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social, 7-9 January 2026 by sending us your proposals before MONDAY 22 SEPTEMBER #skystorians #18thC 🗃️
www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

BSECS - Submit a Proposal Submit a Proposal. BSECS welcomes proposals for the Annual Conference. The deadline for submission of papers and panel proposals is usually November.

***The #CFP for the #BSECS2026 conference closes on the 15 September 2025***
Submissions are welcome on any aspect of #18thC history, culture, and literature, but particularly on our conference theme 'Big and Small'.
@pembrokeoxford.bsky.social, 7-9 January 2026
www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

so anyway I've been thinking about how Chicago style is the historian's secret weapon in a war of AI slop and the blithe, social media spread of unattributed misinformation.

CMS requires attribution of quotes, paraphrases and any fact not commonly known. 1/?

On Peformances and Playing Cards After attending Brecht's 'The Threepenny Opera' in Berlin, James Harriman-Smith reflects on what performance is today and what it used to be.

This is me!
🃏&🎭: valuepast.hypotheses.org/4666

Vielen Dank an @valuepast.bsky.social and @newcastleuni.bsky.social!

#18thC

On Peformances and Playing Cards After attending Brecht's 'The Threepenny Opera' in Berlin, James Harriman-Smith reflects on what performance is today and what it used to be.

What is performance? And what was performance? For our latest blogpost @jharrimansmith.bsky.social (ourformer fellow at @zfl-berlin.bsky.social) thought about these questions and continue that thinking here with the help of a peculiar pack of cards and a trip to the @blnensemble.bsky.social

Vacancies - BSECS Vacancies on the Council This page gives details of any current vacancies on the BSECS Council. Vacancies are normally advertised in the autumn of the year and appointments are made or elections held ...

***Engagement Officer Vacancy***
We're looking for an engagement officer to act as primary point of contact for #18thC centres across the UK, and to oversee our outreach and engagement. It's a voluntary role, but associated travel & accommodation expenses are paid...
www.bsecs.org.uk/the-society/...

Anna Brewer, me, and Aanchal Vij (L to R) at the ceremony.

Belatedly posting a photo from the Theatre Book Prize ceremony! 📸
Thanks again to the STR (@theatreresearch.bsky.social) and Bloomsbury (@methuendrama.bsky.social). And well done to all the other shortlisted authors too! 🥳

Copies of my book, What Would Garrick Do?, on sale at Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare

With big thanks to the staff there, I'm pleased to announce that you can now buy copies of my What Would Garrick Do? at David Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare in Richmond (www.garrickstemple.org.uk) - another reason to check out this amazing little place!

MY BOOK HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR THE THEATRE BOOK PRIZE!!!! www.str.org.uk/grants-prize...
I am very excited about this!! #18thc #theatre #acting

BSECS Annual Conference BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

IMPORTANT #BSECS2026 NEWS!
Registration for #BSECS2026 opens on Sunday 1 June!
Submit your CFP on the theme of 'Big & Small' and join us for our 55th annual conference 7-9 Jan 2026 @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social
#18thC #skystorians 🗃️
Click on the link for the full CFP

www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Applications are now open for the BSECS-Northumbria Fellowship - up to £4000 to research the culture, history, and identity of the North East of England and the Scottish Borders in the long eighteenth century. Find out more at www.bsecs.org.uk/prizes-and-a...

Revels Office: New Voices in Early Modern Material Culture, Theatre, and Performance - Society of Antiquaries of London This June, the Revels Office, an international network of early career academics, will hold its first conference with the Society of Antiquaries of London. The conference showcases early career schola...

This June, we have an exciting conference! It will showcase early career scholars working on the intersections between text, materiality and performance, both in and beyond the commercial theatres in Great Britain and Ireland in the long early modern period (1500-1800).
www.sal.org.uk/event/revels/

#FeelGoodFriday Congratulations to Jake Bransgrove who is our 2025 GPP/BSECS Fellow. His project explores the social functions of paper silhouettes within cultures of elite sociability in the Georgian court.
#18thC #skystorians 🗃️

#FeelGoodFriday The winner of the #BSECS2025 Digital Prize is the Books and Borrowing, 1750-1830 database! The database contains borrowing records from 18 Scottish Libraries, 43,000 register pages, 162,000 borrowing acts
#skystorians #18thC 🗃️

@books-borrowing.bsky.social
borrowing.stir.ac.uk

CONGRATULATIONS to the winner of the #BSECS2025 President's Prize, Zoe Copeman! Zoe's paper 'Women's access to anatomical knowledge in #18thC Britain and France' used Anne Lister's diaries to show how women had access to surgical imagery, but often didn't interpret it correctly or fully 🗃️ 1/2

We are very excited to announce the #cfp for our #PGR #ECR conference on 'Facades' - 30/31 July at Bath Spa University

Please send 250 word abstract + short bio to postgrad@bsecs.org.uk by the 21 March 2025

Full details for screen readers in the thread below 1/5
#BSECS2025 #skystorians #18thC 🗃️

One to broadcast @bsecs.bsky.social 💧💧💧💧

An empty desk

Hello lovely #BSECS2025 delegates. The registration desk is now closed. We will reopen at 8.30am for payments, programmes & I can’t think of another thing beginning with ‘p’. But you get the idea! @bsecs.bsky.social

🚨Important update🚨 online panels will now take place in the art gallery and not Steinway Room. If in doubt ask me at reception, which is close to both @bsecs.bsky.social #BSECS2025

Important update from #BSECS2025 🧳 @bsecs.bsky.social

We love the sense of anticipation on the day before the conference, as brilliant #18thC scholars start heading to Oxford from across the country.

Post us your travel pics and tag us @bsecs.bsky.social #BSECS2025

Sarah Hodgson’s Arabic Bible: Gender, Empire and the History of the Book | Bibliographical Society Lecture

On 21 Jan I’m giving a hybrid lecture about amazing Geordie printer Sarah Hodgson who produced a Bible in Arabic in Newcastle in 1811, fighting off the Oxford dons to keep it in the north 🙌
ies.sas.ac.uk/events/sarah...

Happy New Year! Wishing you a peaceful and prosperous 2025. As always, #BSECS25 is here to kickstart your year & we're hugely excited to welcome you to Pembroke College next week. If you are unable to attend in person, check out our virtual papers & keep an eye on our BlueSky account #18thC 🗃️

Link seemed a little troublesome. Hopefully this works: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tiq6d...

Only a week left until #BSECS2025 I’ve set up this Dropbox folder for anyone who wishes to share an accessible copy of their paper ahead of time: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tiq6d... Ahead of time can be interpreted as you wish! Please do consider access in how you present your work @bsecs.bsky.social

BSECS Conference Registration Registration for the BSECS Annual Conference is now open. Please use the form below to register for the conference.

REGISTRATION FOR #BSECS2025 CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT ON SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER!!!!

We can't wait to see you all in January.
#18thC #skystorians 🗃️

www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Give thanks—The Rambling is out! From Lost to Lord of the Rings, reality TV to “succubus chic,” you will not lack for conversation at the dinner table after reading our latest issue, now live at the-rambling.com.