Ruth Davidson

Women's Grassroots Activism Toolkit 100+ Helping to enhance the lives of women and girls for another 100+ years

Thanks to all who joined us this evening to launch #womensgrassrootsactivism #Activism100+ Toolkit. It's out in the world 🥳 & download your copy 👇. Incredibly grateful to members of @soroptimistgbi.bsky.social @womensinstitute.bsky.social #ICA & WI Northern Ireland who made this project happen 🙏.

Opening slide for keynote address "Margins of Experience: Witches, Conspiracy and Godly Power"

Rousing start to second day of Histories of Experience conference at Tampere University with fascinating keynote address by @witchykallestrup.bsky.social on "Margins ot Experience: Witches, Conspiracy and Godly Power."

New exhibition to explore histories of Black and South Asian feminist pioneers "Women Strike Back!"

Briefly here to post that the ‘Women Strike Back’ exhibition has just launched in Bristol. It explores the activism of Black and South Asian women. Free and open to the public. Pls do share the news.

www.bristol247.com/news-and-fea...

Inequality and the Future of London Join PQ and the Mile End Institute to celebrate a new Special Collection, 'Inequality, Opportunity, and the Future of the Capital'

On 26 March, the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social and @politicalquarterly.bsky.social will be holding a special event on "Inequality & the Future of London".

Join @rupahuq.bsky.social @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social @sachahilhorst.bsky.social and Joe Fyans. All welcome!
www.eventbrite.com/e/inequality...

Youth Defence, young people and anti-abortion activism in Ireland, c.1992–97 This article explores the first five years of the Irish young people’s anti-abortion group Youth Defence. Using newspaper articles and archival sources, I illustrate how the group effectively mobil...

I have a new OA article out on the early history of Irish young people’s anti-abortion group Youth Defence. It’s part of a special issue by Agata Ignaciuk and Sylwia Kuzma-Markowska on anti-abortion activism in Europe.Thanks to reviewers and the RSE for funding.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Happy publication day to @uobrishistory.bsky.social’s Professor Sumita Mukherjee!

Library History Essay Award 2025 Winner: Sophie Coulombeau, 'Reading with the Burneys: Patronage, Paratext and Performance', Cambridge Elements Series: Eighteenth-Century Connections, (Cambridge: University Press, 2024).

Library History Essay Award 2026 The Library History Essay Award is an annual prize for the best article or chapter on library history published in, or pertaining to, the British Isles, within the previous calendar year (i.e. 2025 ). Introduced in 1996, the award is organized and sponsored by the LIHG and aims to support the publication of research into library history in the British Isles. The prize is £350. Submissions should contain original historical research and be based on original source materials if possible. Evidence of methodological and historiographical innovation is particularly welcome.

You might like to see some of the judges' comments: 'The Coulombeau piece has outstanding analysis that moves book and reading history forward in interesting ways'. 'She is an excellent "story-teller" and a "literary detective" ... Her approach is novel - truly interdisciplinary'.

Cover of Reading With The Burneys

Reading With The Burneys won a prize!! I’m absolutely made up to have been awarded the Library History Essay Prize by @cilip.bsky.social, the Library & Information Association. Guess i’m
not beating those ‘historian in literary scholar’s clothing’ allegations anytime soon…😃

Congratulations!

Charity After Empire Cambridge Core - Twentieth Century British History - Charity After Empire

Use 20% discount code CAE2026 to purchase here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 10th March

“All of London Started With Her”: Vivienne Westwood’s Punk and Britishness

Tomorrow at the IHR, we welcome Margot Rashba for a paper on Viviennne Westwood.

Booking link below.

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

History: Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the present (RS936) - Swansea University We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Cultural and Social History Researching Student Lives: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives. Volume 23, Issue 1 of Cultural and Social History

The special issue of Cultural and Social History on “Researching Student Lives: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives” (co-ed. w Georgina Brewis & Jodi Burkett) is live - yay! Several articles are OA :) Huge thanks to our contributors & the journal editors!
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfcs20/2...

This was such a great, quietly radical keynote.

Finally time to present at the @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social conference 😊

Thank you @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social for an amazing two days exploring the politics of motherhood! So many interesting papers and connections between them, left me with lots to think about.

Look what's arrived! It seems crass to be talking about it after everything that's happened this week, but I think my new book on the Blair years is fair, balanced and judicious. Available at all good bookshops: www.amazon.co.uk/New-Labour-B...

Really enjoying the @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social conference - brilliant range of topics and methods. Looking forward to speaking this afternoon on the politization of motherhood in British and Irish women's anti-communist activism in 1920s and early 1930s

Thank you to everyone who shared their research with us yesterday! We enjoyed a brilliant first day of papers and a fantastic keynote from @sarahcrook.bsky.social. Looking forward to starting Day 2 shortly - look at this wonderful line up: 😊 voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk/index.php/20...

Looking forward to chairing Panel 2A: Deviant or
demonised? shortly at the @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social exciting online conference on 'The Politics of Motherhood: Maternalism, Maternity and Mothering' 😀

Thank you so much to the wonderful organisers of @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social for the opportunity to talk a bit about activism and mothering in modern Britain during my keynote today! Such a superb range of papers coming up too!

Enjoyed chairing this fascinating panel for @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social conference on #politicsofmotherhood today with four great papers that shift & extend understandings of motherhood in important & significant ways. 👏 to all. @womenshistnet.bsky.social @whaireland.bsky.social #skystorians

AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award studentships The AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award is a major new funding scheme from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Its aim is to grow the UK’s capacity for doctoral research in the arts and humanit...

Full time AHRC doctoral studentships now available in Arts & Humanities at University of Hertfordshire for October 2026 start - please do share widely!! This includes both History & Heritage Studies among other subjects 🌟😀 www.herts.ac.uk/research/res...

For anyone interested in our 18-month post in British Studies please follow the link below. @ihr.bsky.social

www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

FindAPhD : PhD Studentships to support doctoral research in the Arthur Scargill Archive at the University of Sheffield at University of Sheffield Apply for a PhD: PhD Studentships to support doctoral research in the Arthur Scargill Archive at the University of Sheffield at University of Sheffield

Three scholarships for PhD in Arthur Scargill Archive - quite the opportunity. Believe me when I say that I am sure that some of the stuff in here will be quite the eye-opener! (if the good stuff hasn't been already shredded or slapped with an embargo)

18 month postdoc at the lovely IHR in London, $41,740. Deadline 7 March. 'The Fellow will play a key role within the IHR team responsible for hosting the 2027 North American Conference in British Studies (NACBS)' in London 2027.

Repost to spread the word. #Skystorians

Here's me speaking about the Blair era at the University of Bristol today... Coming to York, Oxford and London for New Labour book launches soon!

Presenting tomorrow on secret policies for 'Old Commonwealth' mobility during 1960s, when UK govt declared its migration policy was 'colour blind'. Developing a paper I presented at @qmcbs.bsky.social last year. Pls do come along if in Oxford and free at 2pm

Amy Longmuir @amyloulongmuir.bsky.social will be speaking on socialist-feminism and work at our IHR Contemporary British History seminar tomorrow.

In person. Registration link below!

Topic Collection: Race, Sexual and Reproductive Health: Histories, Inequalities, Futures | Medical Humanities

We are delighted to share our call for papers for Medical Humanities. @georgesevers.bsky.social, Naomi Samake-Bäckert and I are guest editing a topic collection titled “Race, Sexual and Reproductive Health: Histories, Inequalities, Futures. Deadline: 31 October 2026

mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...