Morning everyone. We are looking for carers/ parents who are artists or academics in arts, social sciences or humanities to take part in our survey. More info here: lncn.ac/care . Reposts and shares appreciated.
This is such an exciting project! Do pass on to anyone you think might be interested.
They're closing down the best bit of the university (for no reason other than the higher ups apparently thinking this model of collaboration and interdisciplinarity isn't STEMmy enough)
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
We are delighted to announce that registration for our Annual Conference is now open.🔔
The conference will take place at the University of Leicester, 29 June - 1 July 2026.
See link below to register and check out the provisional programme:
www.sfs.ac.uk/conferences/...
We have more Skills Training in Archival Research (STAR) workshops coming up!
Join staff at The London Archives for a hands-on workshop designed to help postgrad students and researchers make the most of archival collections.
📍 The London Archives
📅 1 April + 3 June
🕛️ 1-4:30pm
Can you 'hear' disease? What does it feel like to 'smell' sickness?
We're excited to be hosting a one-day in-person workshop exploring sensory studies and medical humanities.
📅 Tue 24 Feb, 11am–4pm
Book your free spot 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-senses...
The Society for the Study of Labour History offers financial support for conferences and public events with a focus on labour history, broadly defined. Applications, for a maximum of £850 per event, are welcome at any time of year.
sslh.org.uk/bursaries-gr...
CALL FOR PAPERS: PERFORMING EVIL: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres, 1700-2000'. 4 & 5 June 2026, Leuven. This conference explores the tangled histories of supernatural, diabolic evil and all kinds of spectral apparitions in the last three centuries – Walter Scott’s ‘malignant and unhappy beings’. Specifically, it is interested in how and why ghosts, spirits and related apparitional phenomena were framed as diabolic, demonic or malign manifestations from the afterlife. Diabolic connotations of ghosts and spirits did meaningful cultural work. They were mobilised to discredit ghost beliefs and spiritual practices, to delegitimise competing beliefs, or to invest doctrinal arguments with occult authority. They could also function as tools of scepticism and ridicule as well as triggers of wonder, fear and religiosity. Put differently, the nexus of ghosts and evil is deeply historical. And it was often articulated through performative means: in gestures and expressions of (dis)belief, in visual and textual representations, in séance rooms, on the stage and on the page. Emerging from this nexus are theatrical spirits of evil, staged, embodied, and made legible through mediation and display. In this sense, every ghost is a theatrical ghost. Through the focus on the construction and staging of diabolic spirits, this conference aims to develop a methodological framework for studying historical forms of occultism and demonology more broadly in terms of performance.
Exploring how the relationship of spectrality and evil has shifted in shape over time and across different cultures, the conference invites contributions that can consider a wide range of historical actors – clerics, mediums, ghost-hunters, debunkers, necromancers, stage performers, eyewitnesses. This conference aims to study cultural intersections and interactions to arrive at a more granular understanding of discursive, practical and material connections between spirits and evil. At the same time this lens zooms out, making visible broader dynamics of knowledge construction in specific historical moments. How, for instance, did hauntings and possessions shape communities and audiences? How did religious or folkloric ideas about the devil inform spectral encounters? We hope to bring together historians, art historians, theatre and literary scholars, folklorists and anthropologists from every stage in their career around the above questions. We welcome 20-minute papers on topics that include but are by no means limited to: - making spectral evil visible: performance, arts, media, technologies, popular cultures - making spectral evil invisible: popular and occult knowledge circulation - performing (un)belief: practices and rhetoric, summoning and debunking on the stage (from popular stages to the lecture hall and the laboratory) - materiality of spectres: the function of bodies and objects - diabolic spirits and (intellectual, vernacular, theological, folkloric) ideas about morality, mortality and temporality - occult performance and ‘cultural scripts’ of ghost encounters (from necromancy to poltergeists) - affect and emotions: fear, grief, trauma… and hope Send abstracts (c.250 words) and bios (c.100 words) to kristof.smeyers@kuleuven.be before 21 March 2026. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
Hi everyone, I'm organising a conference in Leuven, 4-5 June, and you're all invited*! It's called 'Performing evil: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres 1700-2000' and here is the call for papers (get in touch if you'd like a pdf!). Please share widely!
*to submit an abstract before 21/3
@victorianhand.bsky.social is running a series of workshops exploring our hands as agents of making & mending in collaboration with the Quilters' Guild & @collegeofsurgeons.bsky.social. You can sign up for the QG workshops here with dates for the RCS to follow:
www.eventbrite.com/cc/the-work-...
A picture of the title and abstract of the research paper: All sizzle, no steak: AI tools are not able to act as credible knowledge brokers by summarising evidence in mathematics education Lucy Rycroft-Smith, Darren Macey University of Cambridge Current discourse around AI (artificial intelligence) tools suggest they can offer users quick access to research evidence, with the goal of improving our practice and policies in mathematics education. However, recent evaluations suggest that AI often falls short of human capabilities in accurately summarising complex information, raising questions about trust, credibility, and reliability. In this paper, we investigate whether AI tools are able to successfully perform the educational knowledge brokering function of finding, selecting, and summarising research with implications for practitioners. In particular, we ask if AI tools are able to find research papers that actually exist (accuracy), are relevant to the question (relevancy) and are able to interpret findings into useful, actionable implications for practitioners (applicability). We find that generally they are not, and even when they are, they do so in a way that is so inconsistent as to be a serious threat to credibility. Keywords: artificial intelligence; AI; knowledge brokering; large language models; mathematics education
I am delighted to announce that my new paper with @darrenmacey.bsky.social is now published, entitled 'All sizzle, no steak: AI tools are not able to act as credible knowledge brokers by summarising evidence in mathematics education'
bsrlm.org.uk/wp-content/u...
For any PhD students working in Medical Humanities, check out the Medical Humanities summer school from @durhamimh.bsky.social medhumsplatform.org/medical-huma...
Applications are now invited for a new RHS programme for 2026, co-hosted with @ihr.bsky.social and @chalkefestival.bsky.social
'Pitch my Project' is for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in June bit.ly/44kfUMM. Closing date: 6 February. #Skystorians
Job alert! Interested in a career in libraries? We're looking for our next Graduate Trainee Library Assistant to start in September 2026. A great introduction to the profession and a fascinating and friendly place to work.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ835/g...
Our ECR workshop will now take place on Friday 23rd Jan at 3pm! It is open to all SDN members.
Join Professor Helen Abbott (Birmingham) and Dr Hannah Scott (Newcastle) who will discuss their experience of working outside the ivory tower and reaching a much broader audience.
Here's what it looked like on my return to work this morning - beautiful red brick gabled building of Girton's Hall, with a dusting of snow on the grass in front.
JOB ALERT!
3-year postdoc at @girtoncollege.bsky.social - research anything you like in History, Archaeology or Anthropology in a wonderful, welcoming scholarly community.
PLEASE SHARE! Closes 12 January
www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...
Photograph of handmade ruffled cotton lawn petticoat over my recent reproduction 1850s crinoline cage
A nice quick project for a long winter’s day - one MASSIVE petticoat
There's still time to submit your paper proposals for SSHM 2026 In/Out @universityofleeds.bsky.social
Submission deadline: 11 Jan 2026 5.00pm GMT
sshm.org/sshm-2026/
@historynerdess.bsky.social
#HistMed #HistSTM
We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social
'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.
And so many thanks go to the @britishacademy.bsky.social for their support through the Talent Development Award scheme, which has allowed me to spend this year delving in historic dress-making.
Three typical pages each containing more than 12 'ecossais' ribbon samples from the 4 volumes of the Maison Hamot's products, c. 1835
The fad for tartan was a massive boon to the ribbon industry – by the late 1830s, the ribbon maker Maison Hamot alone has over *6000* tartan and checked designs.
Sample of all of these are held at the Bibliothèque Fourney in Paris. Archives and archivists are glorious.
This dress became an inspiration for dozens of other shows over the next 50 years, inc. James’s fabulous full-body tartan in La Sylphide, the military tartan get-up of the wives revolting against their husbands in the Revolte des Femmes, & a Scottish dancer trouser role (kilt role?) in Robert Bruce.
Fashion plate from the Petit Courrier des Dames 1833 including a wide-sleeved, bell-shaped skirted tartan outfit similar to Jenny's dress, but touched up for the early 1830s silhouette. Displayed next to two women in German and Swiss 'rustic' costumes.
The Dame Blanche was shown in Paris at least once a week for 7 years - little wonder that Highland costumes were a top choice for every fancy dress masquerade.
Why not try this fancy number from the Petit Journal des Dames for your new year's bash?
Fashion plate with an elegant red tartan skirt with 3 deep flounces, white blouse with organdy canezou collar insert, and broad-brimmed hat.
Petit Courrier des Dames fashion plate with clear knock-off of the Jenny dress, with green-and-red tartan skirt with two flounces, white canevou collar insert and white blouse, broad brimmed hat with red and green bows and ribbons
Fashion plate with a lady in a white wedding dress, and a gentleman in a stylishly tailored blue wool coat with a yellow tartan lining.
Before this show in December 1825, I haven’t found any notable use of tartan in fashion plates.
But within days of this 1st night, high fashion mags are displaying tartan-check skirts, fancy tartan taffetas, or even perky yellow wool-lined coats for the dapper gent at his wedding.
An 1825 print of Jenny Dickson's dress from the Dame Blanche, with ankle-length tartan skirt, large translucent white sleeves with tartan cuffs, white bodice with tartan ribbon details, a yellow-stripped sash and large feathered hat.
Recreation of the Jenny dress on a dressmaker's mannequin
200 years ago #OTD in 1825, the comic opera the Dame Blanche was 1st performed in Paris, in a mash-up of Walter Scott novels, with myriad lost heirs, ghostly ladies, dastardly stewards, and honest farmers.
I spent November recreating Jenny’s dress from the show – here are some things I learned:
The CFP for the 2026 Society for the Study of French History conference has just been launched. Come join us in Groningen! frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/conference2/
Very happy to see our special issue on Song in Modern & Contemporary French Narrative out with Journal of Romance Studies @livunipress.bsky.social - co-edited with the magnificent, uplifting Jennifer Rushworth & with fascinating contributions on song in novels, translations, & autobiography ⬇️
Applications are now invited for the Society's 2026-27 Centenary PhD Fellowships for early career historians completing a doctorate bit.ly/48pWB72
Fellowships provide support of £8500 per award for 6 months and are held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians
When is this going to stop? Save Modern Languages at the University of Leicester 👇
Levelling up the dressing up
Looking forward to taking part in this session on impact and engagement this Friday with @drhelenmckelvey.bsky.social and Helen Abbott ⬇️
