Dr Helen Glew

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

I'm designing a new course on Victorian Literature and Medicine next semester. I'd love any suggestions for texts to include (books and shorter things). It's a 300-level, so mostly Juniors and Seniors, but some Sophomores. Mostly English-Ed majors. Already got J&H!

We are delighted to announce that MBS2026 will be held at the University of Birmingham, 3-5 June 2026!

Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.

For any questions please contact mbs2026@contacts.bham.ac.uk

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...

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Stansky Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period since 1800.

www.nacbs.org/news/stansky...

@uchicagopress.bsky.social @oxunipress.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

❤️❤️

SHOCK POLL: NIGEL FARAGE WILL BE PM TOMORROW IN an amazing poll conducted by The Pointless Polling Company, it was revealed that voters' intentions may well change over the next three and a half years and at present it's 100 percent impossible to guess what the next government might look like. However, 99 percent of journalists agree that it would be much more fun if we had an election tomorrow and everybody resigned and everything was chaos and Farage had a go at being PM, just for the hell of it, because it was so much fun when Brexit happened and then the government kept falling every five minutes and we could write endless pieces about (cont. p94)

Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.

Air Travel, Statelessness, and the Rights Claims of Ugandan Asians, c.1973* Abstract. In the aftermath of Idi Amin’s expulsion of Uganda’s South Asians in 1972, some of those made technically stateless arrived in India unsupported

I have a new article out.

TLDR: Actively courting deportation by air is a way to claim rights as a stateless person and even as a refugee.

academic.oup.com/past/advance...

The Fragility of Feminist Futures in Digital Collections

Thank you to @katrinanavickas.bsky.social for a brilliant start to our seminar series last night!

Next session is 22 Oct, 5.30pm UK time, online/in-person when @dohertyta.bsky.social will speak on The Fragility of Feminist Futures in Digital Collections.

Sign up: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Public space and popular protest in 20th century England: enclosure, resistance and commoning This session draws from the book, Contested Commons: a History of Protest and Public Space in England

On Weds we welcome @katrinanavickas.bsky.social to IHR @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar

Katrina will talk abt "Public space + popular protest in 20thC England: enclosure, resistance + commoning"

In-person/hybrid. All welcome, register here!
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

@ihr.bsky.social

"She's the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE, Archbishop of Canterbury, but she's Mrs Mullally to you."

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

This is really interesting to hear - and also with the Rilla parallels. I find that I'm starting to come across mentions of the pandemic in short stories, in particular, and also in a few novels (Tom Lake and Romantic Comedy spring to mind) where the pandemic setting is key to the plot.

Contemporary British History The Contemporary British History seminar seeks to explore all aspects the recent past of the British Isles from a historical point of view.

Here's the full seminar programme for autumn 2025. Seminars are either hybrid or online only so plenty of opportunities for those not local to London to join us.

Please sign up using the links for any papers you'd like to come to.

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

Joint BME Small Grants The Social History Society administers a Small Grants Fund to support research, events and activities undertaken by BME historians or focused on the histories of BME people The scheme was launched …

📢 Applications are now open for the Joint BME Small Grants scheme, supporting research, events & activities by BME historians or on BME histories.

💸 Grants up to £1000.
⏰Deadline: 27 Nov 2025.

#history #apply #funding #opportunity

socialhistory.org.uk/funding/bme-...

This year’s programme for our IHR seminar in Contemporary British History is coming together

This side of Xmas we’re excited to welcome @katrinanavickas.bsky.social @garylove.bsky.social @evansmithhist.bsky.social @dohertyta.bsky.social

If you’d like to present next spring/summer, drop me a line!

Woo hoo!
I'm also going to be revealing some of the research I've been doing this year on the 1980s, unpublished work in progress, to get feedback from you contemporary historians out there.

A new academic year is here, and so is our autumn term programme! A thread of our speakers follows.

Sign-up links available soon but note dates in diaries now! 📆

We're grateful to @ukri.org and @worcesteruni.bsky.social for supporting this conference.

Please share widely and email us [voicesofmotherhood@worc.ac.uk] with any questions!

A great thread applicable to scholars outside the US. Much of the work that historians do is not strictly what they’re paid for. Being able to do it depends on historians being stably employed, with access to resources, and with flexibility built in their schedules. All of those things are at risk.

a penguin wearing a hat is carrying a stack of books including a book that says " tudgy 101 " ALT: a penguin wearing a hat is carrying a stack of books including a book that says " tudgy 101 "

Any suggestions for how and where to organise a promotional tour for my new book?
Fellow scholars and writers seem to have extensive tour dates - how did you organise it?

Cover of my book We Have Come To Be Destroyed: Growing Up In Cold War Britain. The cover is an eerie blue-green and the words melt into an image of a group of children confronting the camera at a festival in Coventry in 1980.

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

This is disgraceful - both the workload and the AI ‘workaround’

Conscious of the limitations, lecturer A proceeds to put in at least the same amount of work they would have had to invest to master this task without AI, just to make sure that AI is being used

An advertising banner for Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials: An Intimate History of 1920s and 1930s London. The banner includes an image of the front cover of the book (a blue map on a pink background) and a blurb from the historian Julia Laite, which describes Songs of Seven Dials as 'a poetic exploration of London's most iconic neighbourhoods'.

The launch of my new @manchesterup.bsky.social book Songs of Seven Dials will be at 6pm, Tues 21 Oct, at Waterstones Covent Garden. I'll be in conversation with the wonderful @julialaite.bsky.social.

Please do come along. Free tickets, but register in advance

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/songs-of-s...

Join us on 23 September for the start of our CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar Series 2025/26 @ilcs.bsky.social / @soccaribbeanuk.bsky.social
The Long Road from Bog Walk: Electricity and Electrification in Jamaica, 1890s–1970s w/ Andrew Williams (University of the West Indies, Mona) shorturl.at/euVXU

It really bothers me how the skill of summarising is devalued. It is a hard thing to do well and it is important to learning. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

We're very much looking forward to having @garylove.bsky.social join us for the @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar on 19 November!

Sign-up links for this and the rest of our programme this term coming very soon.

Finally got my hands on a copy. I will discuss the book & my work in this area at the Contemporary British History Seminar at the IHR on 19 November. Sadly I’ll have to do it online because I’ve used up my travel quota (have a small baby). But thanks to @helenglew.bsky.social for the invitation

OMG. I always slightly worry that the 'this is totally anonymous' survey actually isn't. This story validates that fear!