iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Thrilled that Anna Burel's illustrations in my @mitpress.bsky.social book 'Conceiving Histories' are shortlisted for the @vamuseum.bsky.social Illustration Awards 2026 in the Adult Factual category. Adults like pictures too!

Cover of my book 'Conceiving Histories', featuring one of Anna's illustrations of a naked lady riding a fish in front of a moon. Black and white with pink and white text.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

My review of @amandahess.bsky.social book 'Second Life' in the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social This is a thoughtful and important book about digital pregnancy and motherhood. Have you read it? What did you think?

Screenshot of my review on the LA Review of Books' website, showing a picture of the cover of Amanda Hess's book, 'Second Life'.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Look what came in the post for me 2 beautiful books by @jackashby.bsky.social and @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social Looking forward to reading both.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I enjoyed collaborating with the Big Fat Negative newsletter, writing a guest post on the consolations of history. The image is one of Anna Burel's collages for our book Conceiving Histories @mitpress.bsky.social #consolationsofhistory open.substack.com/pub/bigfatne...

Photo collage of a woman wearing a red fallopian hat, tied with a red bow under her chin, the fallopian tubes make it rather like a jester's hat. The ovaries are like bells. She holds her finger to her lips because this image illustrates a section of my book about women's secrets. The photo is black and white. The background a pistachio ice-cream green colour.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I think this is the coolest thing I've ever discovered... www.isabeldavis.co.uk/resources/ar... #TudorPortraits

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Looking forward to giving the William Matthews Lecture on 30th May 6-7.30pm at Birkbeck, University of London, Torrington Square WC1E 7JL. I'm talking to the title: In Vitro: The Fertility Industry Medieval and Modern. Come! Tickets are free but you need to book: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

My letter to the @lrb.co.uk following a full and positive review of my book 'Conceiving Histories' in the last issue. I don't think people were calmer about uncertainty in the past, rather they were better able to acknowledge it. #HistMed

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Looking forward to taking part in this year's Generation Hope programme at the Natural History Museum. My event on 3rd May is on reproductive health histories. We'll be talking about empire and it's legacies. Sign up: www.nhm.ac.uk/events/from-... #histmed

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Very pleased to receive this warm review of 'Conceiving Histories' in the @lrb.co.uk from @erinmaglaque.bsky.social I tried to do something different (free time-travel in both text and image). It was hard to know how it might land. To my relief the book's first readers are making sense of it.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I went to talk to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour yesterday morning to talk about my @mitpress.bsky.social book 'Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present'. Catch it on iPlayer. #nonfictionreads

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Feel very proud to be featured in NHM's new gallery beneath this frog specimen. In my @mitpress.bsky.social book Conceiving Histories, I write about the logistics of the toad trade from South Africa across the early apartheid period, many amongst other things. #HistMed.

Image of a museum display in the Natural History Museum's newest permanent gallery: Fixing Our Broken Planet. A Xenopus leavis frog is in a crystal clear specimen jar beautifully lit in a black cabinet. Beneath, there is a picture of me (a middle-aged, ok menopausal white woman with dark hair) looking into another specimen jar. Text around the picture gives info about the frog pregnancy test. Sorry not to be able to type it all out here. Message me if you want to know more.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

We're not just 🐋 and 🦕 at the Natural History Museum. Looking forward to this Generation Hope event @ NHM on reproductive health & colonial history with an environmental lens. 3rd May. Speakers: me, Akosua Paries-Osei, Annabel Sowemimo, & Mitzi Jonelle Tan. www.nhm.ac.uk/events/from-... #HistMed

Screenshot of event listing mentioned in the post. It reads: 'From Cotton to Frogs: Reproductive Rights through Collections and Colonialism. Uncover hidden histories of reproductive health in this thought-provoking event exploring collections, culture and colonialism through storytelling and discussion.'

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

If anybody tells you that this person enjoying my new book, 'Conceiving Histories' out in the wild is my PhD student who I've bribed with chocolate brownies to pretend to enjoy it ... well it isn't true. #histmed

Young-ish woman with long brown hair in a red shirt, with an open copy to the amazing new book, 'Conceiving Histories', laughing.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

US readers get 20% discount on 'Conceiving Histories' through penguinrandomhouse.com using discount code READMIT20 UK readers can win a copy, if they attend the @bconceived.bsky.social session 18th Mar 7-8pm GMT free online. Register: broadlyconceived.wordpress.com/category/upc... #histmed

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Folks: I'm going to be on the @ifitaintbaroquepod.bsky.social podcast. Amazing to see the book in such amazing company. It looks a bit different, doesn't it? It's not a traditional history book. It's full of amazing little-known stories AND it's got pictures, too. #NewHistoryBooks

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

If you are UK-based, there is a chance to win a copy of my book (Conceiving Histories) by attending this talk on 18th March. It's a free online talk with @bconceived.bsky.social What's not to like? #BookGiveAway

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

This is the contents page for Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present. It moves through a lifecycle arc: from sex ed to curiosity and desire, to trying, to really trying, to forking out, to science and experiment, to the relationship between mind and body. Ask me anything.

A picture of the contents page for my new book, 'Conceiving Histories'. I give some explanation in the post itself.
Introduction: Annunciations
1 Frogs: What Your Sex Ed Never Taught You
2 Pads: How to Join the Bump Club
3 Broody Mary: Narrating the In-Between
4 Wind and Waves: How to Self-Help
5 Credit: How the Money Rolls Out
6 Jeux d'Esprit: Testing the Limits
7 Eind-Eggs: Conceiving of Things
Conclusion: Seeing the Unbecoming

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Pre-ordered copies of Conceiving Histories are now dropping through letterboxes... It really is now in the wild. #WhatToReadNext

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

I'm talking about my book, 'Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present', to the @bconceived.bsky.social network and reading group. Tues 18th March 7-8pm GMT. Free and online. Link in the Broadly Conceived bio.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

My rat Biscuit. She also has a sister named Scout. I think Index and Footnote would yum them up.

The cutest cafe-au-lait coloured rat you've ever seen, munching on a cheerio.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Dear BlueSky, Please widely share that my book is out today. 🚀 It tells wild & wonderful, (& arrestingly illustrated) little-known histories from the reproductive frontline. It is a history like no other and like any other, ie brill & for any history lover anywhere. Discount code in replies 👇🏾

The cover of my beautiful new book, Conceiving Histories. Black and white photo collage of a naked woman arms crossed riding a guppy side-saddle, in front of a moon. Title is in coral pink. Names of author and illustrator in white.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Tomorrow is publication day for Conceiving Histories. Can't believe we've got all the way here! Tomorrow I'll have discount codes for US readers. Check back in then. #YourNextRead

The beautiful cover of my new book, Conceiving Histories. It has a woman riding a guppy in front of a moon. All in black and white and a photo collage. Title is a nice coral pink. My and the illustrator, Anna's name are in white.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Have you (or has your partner) ever tried for a pregnancy? Was it easy? Was it not? Give me a word or phrase, a gif or an image. #histmed

This is a very beautiful book cover for Isabel Davis's new book 'Conceiving Histories', illustrated by Anna Burel. It is a black white photo collage of a woman riding a guppy in front of a moon.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Biscuit is a very tall rat. She loves standing on my fingertips and uses me as a vehicle to get around to high places.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I made a 4-min podcast of me reading an excerpt of my new @mitpress.bsky.social book, Conceiving Histories. Catch it here👇 www.isabeldavis.co.uk

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

If you're in US or Canada you can win a free copy of my @mitpress.bsky.social book until 14th Feb at Good Reads. www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho... It's got such beautiful illustrations, by my long term collaborator, Anna Burel. I know you'll want one. Oh and the words are good, too. Please share!

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

The downside of having the initial I is that artists don't invest so much in them in #DecoratedAlphabets. Why couldn't Holbein do one of these monkeys for my letter? Not fair. 🐒 Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 🐒

Woodblock zoomorphic decorated initial V with monkey behind it. The monkey has an especially sweet face and is reaching out for his own toes. By Hans Holbein for Thomas More's Epigrammatica 1520.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Ok. If I were going to put together an #academics with #petrats starter park, who would be in? Just me?

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Just introducing my pet rat Rocket to BlueSky. Here she is reading with me. She is soon to get two new rat friends. Rats need other rats for company. #PetRats 🐁 🐀 🐁 🐀

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

This is the cover for my book: 'Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present', showing one of the book's many illustrations, by my long-term collaborator, artist Anna Burel. I like this image because it reminds me of the people who ride fish in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. 🐠🐟🦈

Book cover for Conceiving Histories, Trying for Pregnancy Past and Present, written by Isabel Davis and illustrated by Anna Burel. The cover has a black and white image of a naked woman riding a fish (a guppy) in front of the moon. The title is in coral and the names of author and illustrator are in white.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 15/06/2024

At #GERF today withe our (Mis)Conceptions fertility health conversation cards. Exhausting but good.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 24/11/2023

Sneak preview of an interactive 'poster' for my (Mis)Conceptions project for the Fertility 2024 conference. Cool interface, where you can upload anything you like: video, audio, links, whatever.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

Magical practitioners are contacting the misconceptions project, offering their services.

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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 07/10/2023

This is my forthcoming book. It'll take time. But it is now in press.

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