Dr. Rachel K. Bright

What happens if you try to map an entire country’s nature finance flows?

🌿 New blog! Ever wondered what happens when you try to map a whole country’s nature–finance flows? 🤔 Dive into this breakdown from @aliceillustrates.bsky.social it’s eye-opening & super relevant for anyone thinking about conservation, investment, and the future of our planet. @ecioxford.bsky.social

Screenshot of the Leverhulme Trust media collection home page.

Fundamental physics from super-horizon scales, why tenements hold the key to sustainable urban futures, Blank Face… some of the recently funded projects featured in our media collection: media.leverhulme.ac.uk

AI for Nature Recovery – Improving the Journey from Data to Decisions

On Friday @profkatej.bsky.social discussed AI for Nature Recovery – Improving the Journey from Data to Decisions, & explored how AI, bioacoustics, sensing tech & machine learning are reshaping biodiversity monitoring & conservation policy. You can watch it here.
@ecioxford.bsky.social

#rare disease day banner. More than you can imagine. 28 February.

It is #rarediseaseday. Equity remains such a challenge. Here is a handy toolkit. www.rarediseaseday.org/toolkits/mor...

I am so proud to be part of this team, and this full-stack cooperative. And proud that the library, archive, & historical community are showing how you can build useful, ethical AI that responds to the needs of a community: together. Half a million users, baby! 🤩

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of the trade union Unison, said: “A Labour government should be standing up for workers, defending migrants and refugees, and taking the fight to Nigel Farage rather than letting him set the agenda.”

This: Andrea Egan, the general secretary of the trade union Unison, said: “The Greens won for a simple reason: many traditional Labour supporters, in Manchester and across the country, want to see progressive values robustly defended against the far-right, not gleefully abandoned."

Q&A: Historians, Digital Humanities with an AI focus — Colourful Histories

A new response is up for the Colourful Histories Q&A series: Historians & AI.

This week, I address the question: How do I document AI use in my research?

colourfulhistories.squarespace.com/portfolio-/q...

Got a question about historians and AI? DM 🤓

#history #AI #research

v v pleased for the greens and here’s sincerely hoping this prompts a major realignment of labour (a man can dream)

From empire to citizenship: a Digital Archive of British Nationality, 1844–1948 (DABN) Exploring over 300,000 records, Rachel Bright’s project is the first meta-analysis of the peoples, places, and processes of how legal Britons were identified, made, or denied across Britain and its em...

Who is ‘really’ British? @rachelkbright.bsky.social's project @keeleuniversity.bsky.social is the first meta-analysis of the peoples, places, and processes of how legal Britons were identified, made, or denied across Britain and its empire. media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/rbri...

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...

Stack of the book ‘In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956’, edited by Daniel Frost and Evan Smith

To celebrate the publication of @d-j-frost.bsky.social and mine’s book ‘In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956’, I am giving away a copy to one randomly chosen person who reposts this post by 11.59pm ACST Sunday 1 Feb.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/

HSE cracks down on mental health failures: policies without action are not enough | Foot Anstey In summary The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has set its sights on tackling work-related ill health, with mental health and stress at the heart of its mission. Its 2025–2026 business plan makes stress reduction a top priority. HSE is now turning those words into action. Its recent Notice of Contravention against the University of […]

Birmingham is now a high‑profile example of HSE enforcement on mental health and stress – a warning shot to the wider sector that policies without action will not pass muster. www.footanstey.com/o... #UoBStressBreach

@kelceyswain.com

Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord,
Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that,
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a coof for a’ that.
--- Robert Burns #BurnsNight
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/mans-ma...

Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the ground

'One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.'

Conference Visit the post for more.

The @socialhistsoc.bsky.social have extended their CfP for their 50th anniversary conference until 23 January! 🌟Do submit your paper or panel and join us at Lancaster University, 1-3 July 2026 📄 There's 8 different strands to choose from that can be applied to 😀 socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Publishes works on the history of the British Empire, Commonwealth and comparative European colonial experiences, including imperial policies and decolonization

With that said, if you’re interested in reviewing a newly published book in the field of imperial or Commonwealth history (broadly defined) for @jich.bsky.social, please get in touch!

www.tandfonline.com/journals/fic...

Here’s the lecture, with references:

alanlester.co.uk/blog/antisla...

News — Dithering Chaps News and plans for future publications

@cerimair.bsky.social won the poetry competition. www.ditheringchaps.com/news. Congratulations on your excellent poetry. So glad this is getting recognised.

Cat in bow tie looking smug

This is my cat. In other news, if you have a chronic illness or identify as disabled and are in the UK, I've just co-founded a new support group, AccessingArchives. Instagram: www.instagram.com/aarchivesnet.... You can sign up here: forms.gle/5o8m8Jy9ux4B...

Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections

ARCHIVAL FUNDING: Ann Ball Bodley Visiting Fellowship in Women’s History, to use Bodleian Libraries collections to advance scholarship in women’s history, of any geographical area and historical period. Deadline 28th Nov. www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowsh...

An upside down fluffy ginger cat.

Happy #caturday

If you are a member of the National Trust and also despise the Reform tendency, please vote in the AGM to keep the astroturf candidates of Restore Trust out of power.

You can find the names to avoid here, at this deliberately broken link: https:// www. restoretrust. org. uk / agm-2025

Have a bonus #caturday video

Why are women missing from school history? The extent to which history lessons ignore female figures has been revealed by new research. Here, teachers share the changes they are making to address this gender imbalance

TES article on our ESIS report after Natasha and I were interviewed, and featuring great examples of curricula change from history teachers across the country. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Great new tool from Flickr foundation - the Data Lifeboat, to package up Flickr image collections and get them out of dodge quickly, with metadata and readmes. Speaking to urgency of portability of digital cultural heritage given current times. They need some testers to play and give feedback 👇

The Australian War Memorial’s prize controversy betrays the institution’s purpose: to tell the messy truth about war Chris Masters’ book on Ben Roberts-Smith was chosen to win the Australian War Memorial’s Les Carlyon Prize for Military History. But the prize wasn’t awarded. Why?

Hear! Hear! Dr Holbrook 👏 theconversation.com/the-australi...

3-panel comic. (1) PERSON WITH SHORT HAIR to Person 2: Shining laser pointers at planes is a federal crime. It’s incredibly dangerous. PERSON 2: Oh, because it can blind the pilot? SHORT HAIR: That’s one reason… (2) [Laser pointed at flying airplane] (3) [Cat close to the size of the plane pouncing on airplane and taking it down]

Laser Danger

xkcd.com/3108/

Creating Refugee Archives How can historians and archivists best document, preserve, and make accessible the voices and artifacts of refugee and migration experience?

Today is World Refugee Day.

✊🗃 From the archive, a podcast episode by Ria Kapoor @riakapoor.bsky.social featuring Peter Gatrell, Pual Dudman @paulvdudman.bsky.social, Heather Faulkner and Mezna Qato @meznaqato.bsky.social, on creating Refugee Archives.

www.historyworkshop....

#WorldRefugeeDay