Sara Barker

Screenshot of the website header for slavesinparis.org comprising a drawing of the Place des Victoires in 18th-century Paris

"Slaves in Paris: A Digital Mapping Project" - a partnership between Miranda Spieler and Colonial Networks slavesinparis.org. Created with the support of our Kress Foundation Digital Art History Grant. Officially launched today in Paris at #GCFHSResist

Obvs, interested in the actual content here but definitely going to steal "the real game is in the footnotes" as a motto

I then did the most spectacular slow-mo fall on my arse as I walked up the hill home, right in front of cars waiting at traffic lights. What else to do but laugh?

Turns out, they're a PhD student in another part of my faculty - had a very interesting chat about all of our research, then gave advice about Advance HE fellowship. All in all, a good morning. Also why I wish we had some kind of faculty common room.

Went to one of the lovely indie coffee shops near me, got asked if I was reading Caroline Levine's "Forms" (I was) and ended up having a lovely chat with a woman on the next table about our research, and then someone else joined in when they heard me mention pals working on medical humanities.

Banner: Book Launch: "The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), Author Helen Newsome-Chandler in Conversation with Elena Woodacre, 10 September 2025, 12.00EDT, 17.00BST, 18.00CEST https://www.crowdcast.io/c/holograph-letters Burnt red background, white text. Book cover to the left of the text, phoenix logo below.

📖I'm having an online book launch with @ewoodacre.bsky.social and @srsrensoc.bsky.social
for my @royalhistsoc.org Camden Edition of 'The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots' (out 8 Aug).

🗓️10 Sept 2025
⏰17.00BST/12.00EDT/18.00CEST

Register here: shorturl.at/Z6zfN

Please join us!

A notebook made from a worn hardback cover of Pollard's Henry VIII, on a bookshop shelf

Another notebook made out of an older hardback, this one of James I

A Tartan Club "Commonplace Notebook" covered in a red tartan

A wee inner leaflet explaining what Commonplace books are

I went notebook shopping today, for a very specific purpose, and although these did not make the final cut, they did make me laugh.

(Yes, I was worried someone of my acquaintance would be looking for info on the Great Contract & would get my thoughts on Leeds bus routes or my new haircut etc etc)

Female Servants in Early Modern England by Charmian Mansell book cover with additional text reading "Thirsk Prize Winner: Best Book in British or Irish Rural or Agrarian History 2025"

Charmian Mansell's Female Servants in Early Modern England has been awarded the Thirsk Prize for Best Book in British or Irish Rural or Agrarian History by the British Agricultural History Society.
📖 bit.ly/9780197267585
@charmianmansell.bsky.social
@britishacademy.bsky.social
@braghs.bsky.social

That was absolutely bonkers and so much fun as someone watching it (can't imagine it was fun on a bike)

Wout!

Ah, fond memories of being in Paris during the last stage of the tour - I didn't watch it when i was a student, so I was completely bamboozled by why I couldn't get to the Rivoli WH Smiths. And the time I just sat in the Tuilleries reading as it went by and got the worst sunburn of my life.

I think some of them are going to do a podcast, but they're certainly treating this as a last hurrah.

Loving quite how chippy the ITV4 Tour de France presenting/commentary team are being whilst still being utterly professional on their last sortie.

World Central Kitchen | WCK Resumes Limited Hot Meal Service in Gaza After 5-Day Pause After a five day pause, limited cooking operations resumed today at World Central Kitchen's Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen in Gaza.  This marks the second time in 2025 our hot meal program has been force...

After a five-day halt due to a lack of supplies, our team at WCK’s Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen has resumed limited hot meal service in Gaza. #ChefsForGaza (1/3)

I stand as witness to these proclamations

I got that pop-up on my TV telling me my viewing is being monitored for BARB data and I now feel so much pressure to watch TV right. Is it ok that I did Tour de France, Sewing Bee and Karen Pirie last night?

Workshop: Translating Cultures: Migration, Mobility and Translation in Europe, c1600-1850, 3/4 September 2025, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel. With @rhammersley99.bsky.social @ebuchetmann.bsky.social @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social et al. The programme is now online @ www.hab.de/event/transl...

If you were born between 1970-1990 you may not have full MMR protection, even if you had parents who took you for all your jabs. The NHS will give you a free booster. With cases surging, this is a great way to protect yourself & your community. I’m getting mine tomorrow www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...

Salut if you're at the Global Consortium for French Historical Studies conference (not "Big French History Jamboree", as I keep thinking of it). Please do stop me to say hi if you're about - I will most likely be making the most of there being a choice of sparkling waters at the breaks so find me là

Using ChatGPT in 17th century France was just talking to a black cat, and then being hanged for witchcraft

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

Have to keep reminding myself when I note down the C16 music printer Robert Ballard that his partner was not Créteil.

Yes, the metro "Balard" is spelt differently and the 8 now goes beyond Créteil but I spent years reading that on signage and allow me my niche connections, please.

I can say anything about medievalists this week and none of them will notice, muhahaha

Devastated that the Centre for Lifelong Learning @york.ac.uk is being closed after 40 years. What a loss to education in the region. Feel for students and staff. Being a tutor has been joy, doing what universities should be doing by sharing knowledge widely with our communities.

It takes so long for me to get back into a research & writing groove. I've managed to keep up with research reading a bit more this semester, so I am hoping that might ease the transition this time. Good luck to you!

I'm a Shut Up and Write fan for similar reasons. And I bizarrely work well in coffee shops and libraries (depending on what I am doing). But working from home is brutal.

A digitised version of a C16 pamplet in French, on the Gallica platform, where the title page lettering is very very smudged

Digitisation is great except when it isn't (like when it's actually a scan of a microfilm)

This is *exactly* what i struggle with. Endless time should be endless freedom but it's usually endless dithering.

I am trying to set myself achievable goals, I have planned some proper time off, I am working on restructuring my working at home days so I have more of a framework like I do on campus. Baby steps.

It's that time of year when the balance shifts from teaching to research. I can admit now, I always find this really tricky, and typically end up getting super frustrated that I don't get to do All The Things - but understanding that this is at least partly explained by my ADHD brain is a relief.