Sign in

Kate Astbury

@100days1815.bsky.social
1.4K followers 561 following 340 posts

Professor of French Studies, working on the culture of French Revolution and Napoleonic period. Committed to supporting the learning of languages in schools & universities and to public engagement.

PostsRepliesMedia
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Looking forward to reading this
030
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Delighted that my friend and co-author Jacque Roberts from SV2G is one of those honoured for their community work in this year’s @blackhistorymonth.org.uk honouring Black Britons list www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/read-black-h...
A screenshot of the page in the Black history magazine with a photo of Jacque Roberts and an article about how she is preserving heritage and inspiring generations
010
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Have just found the perfect* way to introduce the three estates to my revolution class next week *perfect for me, an enjoyer of Star Wars
A screenshot of a quote tweet. The original tweet by user @LavenderGhast reads: Watching Andor and realizing all the higher up's in the Rebellion are all wealthy and/or royalty who lost their power after the rise of the Empire and don't want to make something new but just reclaim their own power base by restoring the o...

The quote tweet by @parasociality reads:

Star Wars has always been reactionary with a veneer of progressivism.
It's about Second Estate nobles (Princess Leia) and First Estate clerics (the Jedi), in alliance with lumpenprole scoundrels (Han), trying to reverse the "New Order" and restore the ancien régime.
181
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Philipp Krämer @phkraemer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Article fort bien écrit, paroles fort bien choisies parmi les voix anonymes qui expriment leur indignation légitime. Le prochain colloque du Comité International d'Études Créoles se tiendra dans trois semaines en Martinique. Il sera inévitable qu'on réagisse à cette affaire.
guadeloupe.franceantilles.fr
« Me parler en créole, c’est un manque de respect » : la phrase du préfet qui enflamme la Guadeloupe
Une vidéo montrant Thierry Devimeux, préfet de la Guadeloupe, demandant à un pêcheur de ne pas lui parler créole, évoquant un “manque de respect”, suscite une vive polémique dans l'archipel. Mais derr...
32413
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Lyndsey Stonebridge @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
You're going to be needing specialists in: languages, narrative, history, psychology, information, mythology, conspiracies, etc, etc. then? #humanities #socialscience
1116861
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’ve had an amazing week as a guest of the National Trust of St Lucia with my former PhD student Abigail Coppins. We’ve been presenting the story of the St Lucians held as prisoners of war at Portchester castle in the 1790s, helping to fill a gap in the history of the island 🗃️
A view of the 2 Pitons with the town of Soufrière nestled in the valley beneath
151
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'we should be very careful about treating a smaller university sector as an abstract financial adjustment. Its consequences will be felt by students, employers, communities, and regional economies – often in places where the government is simultaneously asking universities to help grow. '
0239
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A question for military historians of the late 18th century: is the crest on the cannon on the left just a corroded version of the one on the right? Or does it date from a different period? 🗃️
Very faded royal crest on a 94 pound cannonRoyal crest with initials GR on a 94 pound cannon
233
Reposted by Kate Astbury
David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Think of the combined CENTURIES of expertise lost here, the creativity, the knowledge, the depth and breadth of cultural learning and understanding, the generations of minds enriched and enlightened, the sheer weight of history that led to the establishment of these programmes. Purged. Destroyed.
813991
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Dr Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste @achatenetc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
C'est aujourd'hui. 16h-18h. En visio ou à Rennes 2 Villejean.
023
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Mark Doyle @markdoyle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Was very happy to beam into QUB today to launch the Africans in Ireland website that I and a number of colleagues have been working on for years. Maps, database, & other resources documenting the African presence in Ireland from the late 16th to early 20th centuries. africansinireland.com
A right-facing silhouette of the Black preacher and seaman John Jea, Methodist preacher and seaman, from his 1816 book The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher
1015262
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Encyclopédie d’histoire numérique EHNE @ehne.fr · 14/09/2026
Après la fuite de Varennes, Louis XVI devient la cible de nombreuses caricaturistes. Pourquoi choisissent-ils alors de le représenter spécifiquement en cochon ? 🐷 📝 Les explications d’Annie Duprat 👇 ehne.fr/fr/encyclope... 🤝 @lettres-sorbonne.bsky.social @aphg.fr @sorbonne-universite.fr
ehne.fr
Pourquoi Louis XVI est-il caricaturé en cochon après la fuite de Varennes (1791) ?
2159
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.
351442412
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Pamphlets and Patrons @papaerc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Congratulations to our own Damien Tricoire on this fascinating new publication! 🎉 His research is challenging long-standing assumptions about Denis Diderot and the authorship of Histoire des deux Indes. A fantastic example of how new approaches can reshape our understanding of the past.👏
bild.de
Forscher enthüllen pikante Details: Berühmter Aufklärer soll seine Texte geklaut haben
Hat einer der bekanntesten Aufklärer der Welt seine weisen Worte gar nicht selbst verfasst? Deutsche Wissenschaftler wollen den Beweis dafür gefunden haben.
042
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
'Reading for pleasure – from tucking into a Jane Austen classic to devouring a Heartstopper graphic novel – is linked to better mental health, greater empathy and a lower risk of dementia, say researchers.' Just make sure it's not reading English (instead of science) at university, say ministers.
eurekalert.org
Reading for pleasure has benefits at all ages – from improving health and wellbeing to staving off dementia – say scientists
Reading for pleasure – from tucking into a Jane Austen classic to devouring a Heartstopper graphic novel – is linked to better mental health, greater empathy and a lower risk of dementia, ...
27228
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Quick equalities check: across English, History/Politics/War Studies 6 women have lost their jobs and 0.5 men. 4 men and one woman are safe. English goes from 50:50 (6M, 6F) to 1 woman and 2.5 men.
913159
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
'The enormous scale of Britain’s centuries-long trafficking of enslaved African people, supported by parliament and the monarchy, has been laid bare by new research.' Expect kickback, and continued confusion among commentators between the slave trade and slavery, & their abolitions. #Skystorians
theguardian.com
Monarchs, MPs and merchants: the register laying bare Britain’s slave-trading past
Exclusive: New research identifies thousands who profited from trafficking enslaved Africans and traces some financial links to institutions still operating today
46232
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Claire E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 08/07/2026
I’ve been hinting about my current project for a while, and am so excited to (finally) announce it! I’m writing FALSE IDOLS: HOW GREAT MAN HISTORY LEFT OUR PAST IN RUINS with @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social. Truly a dream come true, and I can’t wait for you all to read it.
Publishers marketplace screenshot, in a gold frame over a painting filled with marble busts. It reads:

Yale postdoctoral fellow and host of the podcast This Guy Sucked Claire E. Aubin's FALSE IDOLS, the story of how the Great Man Theory came to dominate history, spanning from antiquity to the 21st century as it uncovers the unscrupulous chroniclers who built a pantheon of larger-than-life heroes, and why these discredited myths and distortions continue to haunt us, to Brandon Proia at Basic, by Connor Brown at Andrew Nurnberg Associates (NA).
3054178
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Professor Claire Jowitt @clairejowitt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Please do get in touch with ideas for #maritime books - our @degruyterbrill.bsky.social series 'Early Modern Maritime Humanities 1400-1800: Oceans in History and Culture', ed. by me & John Mcaleer is keen to hear from you! Contact me or @erikagaffney.bsky.social here or via brill.com/page/forthco...
03628
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.
361220456
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
'Humanities & social sciences research is central to ask questions about how and in whose interests technology is being developed, how it can be adopted, deployed & governed and how to create a world where AI can benefit the many, not the few' My blog for @ukri.org ukri.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...
ukri.substack.com
Why AI will fail without the humanities and social sciences
AI can transform society. But only if society has a say in shaping it, writes Hetan Shah, Chief Executive of The British Academy.
59943
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Lewis Wade 🗃️ @wadehistory.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
25 years on, I return as I do every year to "Spared" by Wendy Cope www.theguardian.com/books/2001/o...
"Spared" by Wendy Cope

It wasn't you, it wasn't me,
Up there, two thousand feet above
The New York street. We're safe, and free,
A little while, to live and love,

Imagining what might have been -
The phone-call from the blazing tower,
A last farewell on the machine,
While someone sleeps another hour,

Or worse, perhaps, to say goodbye
And listen to each other's pain,
Send helpless love across the sky,
Knowing we'll never meet again,

Or jump together, hand in hand,
To certain death. Spared all of this
For now, how well I understand
That love is all, is all there is.
063
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The Muppets ARE the premise! Get a celeb to sing a song, fall off a ladder, kiss Miss Piggy, and that’s your format. Do that 12 times. You’re welcome
2134663
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Back off study leave and knee-deep in admissions matters but trying to get ready for a very exciting work trip at the same time! Mwen pa prè..
A copy of Morgan Dalphinis’ book History and language in St Lucia and Tris-Ann Richards’ Saint Lucian Kwéyòl phrase book
000
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We'll know we've hit rock bottom when UK research funding is done by tontines. The last 'man' standing principle is very on trend. And it would fit the PM's 'reindustrialisation' theme, having been popular in the era of the industrial revolution.
A large red sign from the Tonine Hotel, Ironbridge, Shropshire (established 1784), which spells out how tonines work, in gold/yellow lettering.
062
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
'It notes that institutions “routinely” hire consultancies for these restructures as well as change management specialists, however, these processes often introduce additional management layers, “adding cost rather than removing it”, while “productivity drops".' Hollow laughter across the sector.
hepi.ac.uk
The invisible majority: Professional and support staff and the future of UK higher education - HEPI
Universities are cutting the skills they need most, then paying to rebuild them. Universities are cutting the skills and capabilities they need most, only to pay to rebuild them later, according to ne...
28032
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I can recommend Vanda - she was sooo helpful during the pandemic, battling to photograph stuff at Vincennes for us
121
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Emily Brand @emilybrand.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Don't mean to brag but I've just submitted the manuscript for my new book on MARIE ANTOINETTE'S LADIES ... three years late*, but still, here I am applauding myself *blame the children
static.klipy.com
Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) Applauds
ALT: Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) Applauds
61788
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Rob Taber @robtaber.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Great to have this out into the world! Many thanks to friends who looked at it ahead of time and the peer reviewers at @ageofrevolutions.bsky.social who provided excellent feedback. Mouchoirs (headwraps) were passed between Haitian women, including across generations and the free/enslaved boundary.
13012
Reposted by Kate Astbury
BSECS @bsecs.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Our PG/ECR conference in collaboration with @sfeds-bs.bsky.social @doctorants1718.bsky.social kicks off tomorrow in Montpellier! Very excited to welcome our delegates soon.
045
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Tom Hamilton @tombhamilton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
French prisoner-of-war sociability in Hampshire during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, by Katherine Astbury and Abigail Coppins doi.org/10.1093/fh/c... – the published version of a keynote lecture to the SSFH annual conference by @100days1815.bsky.social
doi.org
French prisoner-of-war sociability in Hampshire during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Abstract. Daniel Gordon in his monograph on Citizens without Sovereignty explored how, in eighteenth-century France, sociability enabled those without powe
172
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Tom Hamilton @tombhamilton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The latest issue of French History is now online with five new research articles – from newspapers to seaweed and scouting... –, a review article on the history of sexuality in modern France, and a bundle of book reviews 💾🧐🇫🇷📸🖥️🌿👋 @frenchhistory.bsky.social
11712
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Independent Historians Network (UK) @indyhistnetwork.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Have you heard that we are hosting two meet-ups for independent historians? If you are in the North or the Midlands come and join us for drinks and chat! Open to non-members Near the main train stations B'ham - 16th Leeds - 30th DM for details We are super friendly and can't wait to meet you!
01513
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Godwin_lives @pamelaclemit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The Letters of William Godwin, Volume IV (OUP, forthcoming), includes 34 letters to his daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (b. OTD 1797), author of Frankenstein (1818), five more full-length novels, & pioneering editor of P. B. Shelley's poems. Posthumous 19c. miniature by Reginald Easton.
Posthumous nineteenth-century miniature of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, by Reginald Easton. Bodleian Library Shelley relics (d). This watercolour portrait is mounted in a frame of open-work gilt metal incorporating a monogram ‘MW’ at the top. It depicts Mary Shelley as a young woman gazing to the right, with plaited hair and a light shawl draped over the back of her head. She is wearing pansies at her breast.
13312
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Love this
19028
Reposted by Kate Astbury
nanaslugdiva @nanaslugdiva.blacksky.app · 30/08/2026
The paper: arxiv.org/abs/2603.18161
arxiv.org
How LLMs Distort Our Written Language
Large language models (LLMs) are used by over a billion people globally, most often to assist with writing. In this work, we demonstrate that LLMs not only alter the voice and tone of human writing bu...
111426
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation @womenintranslation.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The list of submissions to the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2026 is now available on our webpage. The prize is in its 10th year and we're delighted to have received a record number of submissions from a record number of languages! 🎉 tinyurl.com/32ms3tsy
An image of a pile of books on a blue background with the text at the top: Warwick Prize for Women in Translation; List of Submissions 2026. Orange and dark blue text on a blue background which reads: Record submissions in our 10th year; 164 titles; 37 languages; link in bio. Dark blue and orange text on a blue background, reading: The languages: French 23; Spanish 23; Japanese 15; Danish 11; Korean 11; German 10; Chinese 8; Italian 8; Swedish 8; Dutch 6; Norwegian 5; Portuguese 4; Czech 3; Russian 3; Arabic 2; Catalan 2; Finnish 2; Hindi 2; Hungarian 2; Slovak 2; Asturian 1; Belarusian 1; Bulgarian 1; Croatian 1; Didxazá 1; Farsi 1; Greek 1; Kannada 1; Macedonian 1; Maltese 1; Mapudungun 1; Persian 1; Polish 1; Taiwanese Mandarin 1; Tamil 1; Ukrainian 1; Vietnamese 1.
02720
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Alex Zalben @azalben.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton, among a thousand other amazing things she did in her life, gifted over 330 million books to kids through her Imagination Library program. Her passing is a tremendous loss to the world, but you can support the program today to keep it going imaginationlibrary.com
imaginationlibrary.com
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.
45121525979
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
How frustrating- commiserations.
100
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Student. Number. Redistribution. How is any of this sound? How is any of this "efficient"? Universities are spending so many resources in trying to capture fees to survive, and then simply stack them up as an investment. How will this read in the accounts? Future guaranteed income?
2186
Reposted by Kate Astbury
History and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🧵The Honour of Richmond was granted to Count Alan Rufus (also known as Alain le Roux) by King William around 1069 in reward for his services at the Conquest. This manuscript dating to 1480 records that event. The exact limits of the district and any time limitations are unclear
The illustration depicts King William I (William the Conqueror) seated on his throne, dressed in full armour, granting the extensive lands of Richmondshire (the Honour of Richmond) in North Yorkshire to his close ally and kinsman, Alan Rufus (Alan the Red). Alan Rufus is shown kneeling before the king to swear fealty and receive the charter, while a contingent of Norman knights stands armed in the background. The original medieval manuscript is currently housed in the collections of the British Library under the shelfmark MS Cotton Faustina B VII.
3585
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It's proof day! Very excited to see ideas that have been in my head for over a decade in some cases looking now like a real book. I can't wait to see the full thing in print with @manchesterup.bsky.social in February
Inspecting the home
Urban poverty and public health in 
nineteenth-century France
Will Clement

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESSContents
List of figures and tables page vi
Acknowledgements viii
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
Part I
1 Senses and statistics: Home visitors before 1840 29
2 Politics and property: Crafting new legislation on
housing, 1840– 50 54
Part II
3 Citizens of unsung duties: The inspectors of the
Second Republic 91
4 Inspecting the inspectors: State bureaucrats and local
experts, 1850– 60 131
Part III
5 Building responsibility: Industrialists and new
constructions 179
6 Shifting blame: Landlord appeals and tenant petitions 223
Conclusion: ‘There will always be insalubrious housing’ 248
Select bibliography 261
Index 276
0419
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A fantastic prize and all the money goes towards raising primary school pupils’ aspirations - closes tonight!
000
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I’m really struggling to find early 19th-century French plays for the same reason. It’s so frustrating!
230
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Professor KPA 🗃️😷 @kpanyc.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
There's this very old Norwegian play about Alexander I of Russia that I found at my uni library and read when I was writing my BA thesis back in the 90s. I was looking for it again now, and can't find it anywhere, because every goddamn search tool has been wrecked.
252
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Dr Anna Clark @drannaclark.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
French explorer Lapérouse met with Louis XVI in 1785, just before his ill-fated Pacific voyage to continue Cook’s explorations. Last seen alive in Botany Bay in 1788; his voyages were published posthumously in 1801. Lapérouse born #OTD 1741; Louis XVI born #OTD 1754 Painting Monsiau 1817, Versailles
1248
Reposted by Kate Astbury
British Library @britishlibrary.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Not all fairy tale heroines need rescuing ✨   From Madame d’Aulnoy, to the women whose stories shaped the Brothers Grimm’s collections, women writers and storytellers have had a huge influence on the genre   Read all about the incredible women behind your favourites www.bl.uk/stories/blog...
bl.uk
Not just damsels in distress: women writers and fairy tales
We celebrate five female writers who have had a lasting impact on the fairy tale genre.
05716
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Rachel Mesch @rmesch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
🚨 Our double issue of Dix-Neuf is now up!! TO THE PASSERSBY: BEFORE & AFTER BAUDELAIRE has 8 stunning articles that center the passante herself through cultural, visual, and literary history, ecocritical, feminist, and queer perspectives
3178
Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
How irritating! What can we do to help amplify your voice? Sadly it’s not an uncommon occurrence but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it… Prisoner-of war studies in the UK have been transformed by you, Élodie Duché, Abigail Coppins and other women asking interesting questions.
120
Reposted by Kate Astbury
Jon Adcock @jonadcock.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
#booksky
Can't believe we're at the stage of dystopia where we're destroying old books because Tim from corporate can't write his own emails.
10183021981