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Chris Campbell

@chriscampbell1.bsky.social
1.3K followers 75 following 50 posts

History PhD student, St John's College, Cambridge | Researching the British Council and soft power in the twentieth century

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Lucy Delap @lucydelap.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New academic year, revived Modern Cultural History seminar! A highlight of Cambridge for me, and I hope you'll join me, Peter Mandler, Holly Smith and Tania Shew next week for Simon Gunn, Oct 7 5pm. ‘The 'British Invasion' Revisited: Exporting Pop in the 1960s’ www.hist.cam.ac.uk/event-series...
hist.cam.ac.uk
Modern Cultural History | Faculty of History University of Cambridge
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Petition to start having a 'hindrances' section in books and PhD theses - an anti-acknowledgements where we detail all the things that have hindered progress Eg, the year-long building renovation opposite my flat that has introduced me to sixty different types of drilling noise from 8am each day
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Is that meant to be a punishment...?
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Contemporary European History @conteurohistory.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
✈️🇬🇧 Our latest New Voices blog is out! @tomkelsey.bsky.social compares and reflects on the ambitions, political economies and outcomes of two high-profile national projects in recent British history: Concorde and Brexit. www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
cambridge.org
Was Concorde Really the Flying Brexit? « History# « Cambridge Core Blog
The Anglo-French supersonic airliner, Concorde, is well known as a symbol of European collaboration. With its dubious economics, it is no surprise that Britain partly stayed in the project to ease its...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Great piece for those interested in nuancing the cultural Cold War away from a straight battle between modernism and socialist realism!
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History Today @historytoday.com · 30/06/2026
Young people from across the Empire travelled to study in London in the postwar era. The British Council offered accommodation – and then abruptly told them to leave. 🔒 Chris Campbell’s article from the June issue is in the archive buff.ly/LRK51Mh
buff.ly
The Hans Crescent Strike: The Students at the Hotel
Eager to create goodwill towards Britain in its former colonies, the postwar government encouraged students from across the Empire to study in London. Housing them was a problem, as events in the summ...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Delighted to have an article in this month's @historytoday.com The article explores the 1951 Hans Crescent Strike, the post-war history of colonial students in the UK, and the British Council's attempt to use them for imperial soft power. www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...
historytoday.com
The Hans Crescent Strike: The Students at the Hotel
Eager to create goodwill towards Britain in its former colonies, the postwar government encouraged students from across the Empire to study in London. Housing them was a problem, as events in the summ...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
This is just so unsurprising - the British government has historically never understood soft power. The British Council averaged about three government enquiries into its work per decade in the twentieth century - and it still doesn't really know what it's for, or how to fund it properly.
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Molly Groarke @mollygroarke.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Pleased to see my blog post published by Cambridge's Legacies of Enslavement Network - it reflects on researching imperial legacies at country houses and how histories of antislavery present both a challenge and opportunity for the heritage sector: www.legaciesofenslavement.cam.ac.uk/news/antisla...
legaciesofenslavement.cam.ac.uk
Antislavery and the country house | Legacies of Enslavement
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Have just had my first encounter with an AI-generated piece of undergrad work... all the classic hallmarks: fake sources, em-dashes, weird phrases that say nothing. They keep telling us AI can do history, but it really, really can't. It can't even write an undergrad essay plan.
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Helen McCarthy @historianhelen.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I have a piece in today’s Guardian on the recent history of retirement: a collective social experience whose moment has almost passed? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Britain pioneered the comfortable retirement – but that golden age is coming to an end | Helen McCarthy
The once inexorable rise in retiree living standards since the second world war has broken down. Can we keep the dream alive for future generations, asks historian Helen McCarthy
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Cambridge Modern British History Workshop @cammbhw.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
"But primary sources are not just repositories of data to be mined and tabulated; they are fragments of past attitudes and sensibilities that need careful and sensitive reading. AI... makes a poor companion for those seeking to understand our human past."
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TheNACBS @thenacbs.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
And that’s a wrap on our blog series on artificial intelligence! Thanks to @amywb.bsky.social @chriscampbell1.bsky.social @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social @megsmith.bsky.social @ktl10.bsky.social and Anushmita Mohanty for their wonderful contributions! Visit nacbs.org/broadsides to read the full series!
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TheNACBS @thenacbs.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
To close out our series on AI, @chriscampbell1.bsky.social reflects on the response to his recent article in Transactions of @royalhistsoc.org, “The Historian in the Age of AI.” Read the full piece: www.nacbs.org/post/back-to...
nacbs.org
Back to Basics? Historical Methods and the Rise of AI
"For if AI threatens to strip historical research and writing back to its most basic form, perhaps that’s a challenge we should meet head on."
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Delighted to contribute to this fantastic series on AI, British Studies and the wider humanities with @thenacbs.bsky.social! www.nacbs.org/post/back-to...
nacbs.org
Back to Basics? Historical Methods and the Rise of AI
"For if AI threatens to strip historical research and writing back to its most basic form, perhaps that’s a challenge we should meet head on."
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The Historical Journal @historicaljnl.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
📣Out now on #firstview! Molly Groarke (@mollygroarke.bsky.social) (@camhistory.bsky.social) on 'Imperial Family Biographies and New Approaches to the Family in Histories of the British Empire, c.1650–c.1950' #Empire #Family #Personal #Review 📜🗃️ 👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
This is a fantastic piece about UCL from Georgina Brewis, which made me reflect on my own four years as a student there. Lots of parallels with exploring London and engaging with topical issues - less so with the bawdy entertainment in taverns... www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...
historytoday.com
The Godless Students of London University
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Molly Groarke @mollygroarke.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Very happy to announce my article is now out with the @historicaljnl.bsky.social! It reviews the current literature on family networks in the British Empire and biographical approaches to writing imperial history www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Imperial Family Biographies and New Approaches to the Family in Histories of the British Empire, c.1650–c.1950 | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core
Imperial Family Biographies and New Approaches to the Family in Histories of the British Empire, c.1650–c.1950
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TheNACBS @thenacbs.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
“Studying history, we know that nothing is inevitable.” In the first piece in a series on artificial intelligence, @amywb.bsky.social argues that now is the time to make the case for studying the humanities. Read the full piece at Broadsides: www.nacbs.org/post/the-ai-...
nacbs.org
The AI Takeover Is Not Inevitable: Now Is the Time to Resist
"Studying history, we know that nothing is inevitable."
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Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
🇺🇸 The U.S. is actively dismantling its own soft power
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Media outlets are still giving airtime to that Microsoft report on AI and the workplace, even though its methods and conclusions are so crude... and they're also not balancing it with any of the report's critiques. This was published yesterday: fortune.com/article/what...
fortune.com
Microsoft researchers have revealed the 40 jobs most exposed to AI—and even teachers make the list | Fortune
Sorry, Gen Z: AI is coming for safe and secure teaching jobs, as well as grad roles.
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 13/12/2025
This week we also published its latest article in the Society's journal 'Transactions'. 'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social explores what it means to be a historian, and why historical skills and craft need to defended and understood bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with
the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a
wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications
of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 11/12/2025
What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft? 'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social. New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with
the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a
wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications
of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
If anyone remembers that list which said historians were second in line to be replaced by AI, I've had some thoughts about it... and how it relates to some aspects of public history and the current climate facing historians. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
The Historian in the Age of AI | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
The Historian in the Age of AI
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Well that’s embarrassing
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Archival find: Here's Churchill exploiting his diplomatic connections to maintain his usual supply of whisky, despite French import quotas.
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Contemporary European History @conteurohistory.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
🚨 Job Alert! We're recruiting a part-time freelance managing editor to join the CEH editorial team. Applications are due by 30 November 2025. Full details and application process here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Managing Editor – Call for Applications
Welcome to Cambridge Core
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Elisabeth Piller @elisabeth-piller.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Dream PhD opportunity! We are recruiting another doctoral researcher in our @erc.europa.eu synergy project BLOCKADE - this one is on interwar blockades and sanctions. 4 years, fully funded at @uvahumanities.bsky.social and supervised by the amazing and super kind @samuelkruizinga.bsky.social
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Contemporary European History @conteurohistory.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
🧵 In CEH's first digest (tinyurl.com/38p3yxky), our six editors each highlighted a recent article they have particularly enjoyed working on. This thread showcases these articles and explores why our editors made their selections. ⬇️ [1/7]
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Dubai seems to be to the current Right as the early Soviet Union was to the interwar Left - presentationally utopian, but highly choreographed and hiding a darker truth. Both examples of how soft power can shape a place's image and influence political discourse. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The populist right wants to remake the UK in the image of Dubai. We should all be careful what they wish for | Jonathan Liew
Politicians and influencers eulogise the emirate as a place of cleanliness, convenience and low crime. The truth is far darker, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
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Molly Groarke @mollygroarke.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
"A Global Mission of Faith and Freedom", a new exhibition opens tomorrow at Killerton House, Devon, including some findings from my PhD research. Free entry this weekend as part of Heritage Open Days! @researchnt.bsky.social Find out more here: www.instagram.com/reel/DOLKZAk...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Today is the last day to sign up for this! ⬇️⬇️
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Contemporary European History @conteurohistory.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
📣 We're delighted to announce that CEH is now Gold Open Access! All articles accepted to the journal will be published #OpenAccess, regardless of the author's funding situation. More information and FAQs about this change below! ⬇️ www.cambridge.org/core/open-re...
cambridge.org
Oa journal flip faqs
Welcome to Cambridge Core
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
🚨 Just a couple of weeks left to sign up!
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Molly Groarke @mollygroarke.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
What did nineteenth-century British public school students think about Islam and the British Empire? Find out in my blog post, written as part of my doctoral internship with the excellent Schools of Empire research project: www.schoolsofempireproject.org/islam-and-em...
schoolsofempireproject.org
Islam and Empire — Schools of Empire
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Delighted to share details about registration for a conference I'm co-organising on women's work in WWII. Papers will explore Bletchley Park, the Women's Land Army, wartime medicine, the British Council and more! Deadline 31st July!
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Dominique Reill @dominiquereill.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
@conteurohistory.bsky.social has a blog site "New Voices" for emerging scholars to publish short, public-facing articles. Want to submit a 800-word post in English on any aspect of European history (and its empires) since 1914? Contact cehnewvoices@gmail.com or see: www.cambridge.org/core/blog/ta...
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
A wonderful few days last week at the Gender and Diplomacy Conference in Sweden, where I presented my research on the British Council's gendering of diplomatic accreditation. Missing the fika already! ☕🍰
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Molly Groarke @mollygroarke.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Looking forward to presenting my PhD research at the 'Britain, Conflict, and the Sea' conference this September - book tickets below!
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
What an incredible legacy to have coined two words which describe so fully and so neatly such a hugely complex, important, and frequently misunderstood part of international relations. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/u...
nytimes.com
Joseph Nye, Political Scientist Who Extolled ‘Soft Power,’ Dies at 88
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
A great programme this term - come and join us at St John’s!
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
A bit late posting this, but last week I had my first book review published - Rodrigo Christofoletti's edited volume, Soft Power and Heritage www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Soft power and heritage
Published in International Journal of Cultural Policy (Ahead of Print, 2025)
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Two days left to submit!
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Not long to go!
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
This might be the worst photo I’ve ever taken, but after nearly two and a half years of researching the British Council I got to visit their HQ today!
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Cambridge Modern British History Workshop @cammbhw.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
🚨 CALL FOR PAPERS Our Easter Term Call for Papers is now out! Open to all PG students and ECRs working in Modern British History - deadline 18th April.
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Just four days left until the deadline for this!
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Chris Campbell @chriscampbell1.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
CALL FOR PAPERS! I'm co-organising a conference in September on women's work in the Second World War, with a graduate research forum in the afternoon for PGRs to present their work. Please share with any postgrads who might be interested! More details here ⬇️ royalhistsoc.org/calendar/cod...
royalhistsoc.org
Codebreakers and Groundbreakers: Women’s Work in the Second World War – CALL FOR PAPERS | RHS
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
I don't think you can really call what Frodo and co. did a 'Fellowship'. None of those hobbits had to pass a grueling application progress or talk about Early Career Research goals. And only one of them submitted a book or paper at the end of it.
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