iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Lesley A Hall

Ronald Blythe Fellowship 2026 The John Clare Society runs an annual bursary scheme, providing £1,000 for PhD researchers in the field of John Clare studies. Closing date: 30 October. @bars.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social @univeng.bsky.social johnclaresociety.org/2026/10/01/r...

johnclaresociety.org

Apply for John Clare Society Bursary by 30 October 2026

Apply for the Ronald Blythe Fellowship bursary for John Clare studies! Deadline: 30 October 2026. Fund your research projects

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Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Novel Studies List go.bsky.app/FcvMAmd

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 4h

Intelligent arguments about complex realities are HARD. Stupid arguments about prejudiced fantasies are EASY.

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Tade Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 5h

They could have simply read Mary Wollstonecraft: "But, the welfare of society is not built on extraordinary exertions; and were it more reasonably organized, there would be still less need of great abilities, or heroic virtues." (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ch.4)

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jenna newman phd @jennanewman.bsky.social · 13h

“‘Learning happens as a consequence of cognitive processing. Cognitive processing is typically effortful, & that’s what AI effectively removes,’ says cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham at UVA. ‘People are really worried about that’.”🧪

“And science - in which people need to critically evaluate theories and data - is one important area that's under threat from the Al revolution in large language models (LLMs). "There is a risk that students outsource precisely the activities through which scientific thinking develops: formulating hypotheses, interpreting evidence, considering alternatives and struggling with uncertainty," says Thomas Nygren, who studies education and critical thinking at Uppsala University in Sweden.”

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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 6h

It’s 170 years since 10,000 people in South Carolina honoured their Congressman with a public dinner. That’s nice, isn’t it? People so rarely respect politicians these days. Unfortunately, they were showing their support for him beating an abolitionist almost to death with his cane

Bizarre monument (in the form of a blue plaque on a post at a street corner), with white text which reads: PRESTON BROOKS DINNER National attention was focused here on Oct. 3, 1856, when some 10,000 people honored Preston S. Brooks, Congressman from this district, with a public dinner in vindication of his assault on Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor for a speech insulting to this state. The Preston Brooks home was five miles south on Highway 246. ERECTED BY NINETY SIX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

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Anna Cusack @annacusack.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thrilled to see this out and open access! I was lucky enough to help Mark with some of the research for this piece. It's a fantastic read. What’s in a Name? The Inoculation of Smallpox in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain academic.oup.com/shm/article/...

academic.oup.com

What’s in a Name? The Inoculation of Smallpox in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain

Abstract. The translation of smallpox inoculation from the Ottoman Empire to Britain is typically said to have depended upon social and medical luminaries—

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I still remember Esther Rantzen on That’s Life holding up a small ad from a Local Authority in the early 70s advertising for an Equal Pay Officer but offering a lower wage for women. I’m part of generation of teenagers mildly radicalised by amusing trivia.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

John Meadocroft at the IHR, London in person and online, Tuesday 6 October at 5:30pm. Free and open to the public, but please register in advance.

history.ac.uk

The Slavery Trap and the Political Economy of British Slavery

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Roger @arbejdsmyren.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In Denmark a scientist plotted data and research findings into Claude, only to see Anthropic publish the findings as something the LLM had conjured up on its own. The theft of one scientist’s data and work translates into false claims about the model’s ability to generate research #ai #eupol

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Durham Classics and Ancient History @durhamclassics.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

📚 Would you like to join our vibrant research community here at Durham Classics? 👉 Expression of interest are open for the 'British Academy International Fellowships Programme': deadline 6th November 🔗Learn more about the scheme: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

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History & Policy @historyandpolicy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On 26 October we will be hosting a conference in Senate House for Historians Without Borders on ‘European History in the Evolving World’. Speakers include Prof Timothy Garton Ash, Professor Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid & Dr Larissa Kraft. Registration is free. historianswithoutborders.fi/en/tapahtuma...

historianswithoutborders.fi

European History in the Evolving World Order (London, 26 October 2026) - Historians without borders

Join Historians without Borders and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy for a seminar on European history, international relations and history dialogue in London on 26 October 2026.

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Ed Poole @edpoole1975.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I sometimes wonder how much the fact that Health ministers are usually drawn from the demographic that uses the NHS the least (able bodied, white men, young-middle aged) is a factor in it's issues. It probably plays a part in the obsession with apps and convenience over continuity and human contact.

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 02/10/2026

'History and Archives in Practice' 2027: calls for panels now invited for our annual meeting of historians and archivists, with @ihr.bsky.social and TNA. Closing date: 16 October HAP27 focuses on connecting past and future with sessions on advocacy and applied history bit.ly/3RGHbWy #Skystorians

bit.ly

'History and Archives in Practice' (HAP), 2027. Call for participation now open - RHS

History and Archives in Practice (HAP) is an annual partnership event, co-hosted by the Royal Historical Society, The National Archives, and the Institute of Historical Research. Now in its fifth year...

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Reposted by Lesley A Hall

International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We are excited to announce that the call for papers for our 15th Conference is now live! It will take place on 29 Sep-1 Oct 2027 at the University of Kyoto, Japan. The theme is 'Observation'. The deadline for paper and panel proposals is 1 May. firstworldwarstudies.org/kyoto-2027/

The World Watches the European Conflagration, Itō Chūta, 13 September 1914

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History & Policy @historyandpolicy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On Tuesday 6 Oct we will be launching a new seminar series in partnership with the Refugee Law Initiative exploring the policies of some of the UK’s major parties towards immigration and asylum policy. We start with the Labour Party. Registration is free. historyandpolicy.org/new-seminar-...

historyandpolicy.org

New seminar series on refugee and asylum policy - History & Policy

On Tuesday 6 October we will be launching a new seminar series in partnership with the School of Advanced Study's Refugee Law Initiative exploring the policies of some of the UK's major parties toward...

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is p. 102 of the 2024 Labour Party General Election Manifesto (large print edition). In case anyone thinks they're making any big new promises. labour.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Social care reform
Labour is committed to ensuring everyone lives an
independent, prosperous life. Social care is vital to
achieving this, but hundreds of thousands of people
suffer without the care they need for a dignified life.
The sector needs deep reform: there are inconsistent
standards, chronic staff shortages, and people are not
always treated with the care, dignity and respect they
deserve.
Labour will undertake a programme of reform to create
a National Care Service, underpinned by national
standards, delivering consistency of care across the
country. Services will be locally delivered, with a principle
of ‘home first’ that supports people to live independently
for as long as possible. Our new standards will ensure
high-quality care and ongoing sustainability, and
ensure providers behave responsibly. Labour will
develop local partnership working between the NHS and
social care on hospital discharge

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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For my new research unit Politics of Democracy at the Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social, we have 3 open research positions. 2 postdocs: 4 + 2 years (100%) 1 doc: 2 years (75%) Starting date: 1 March 2027 (negotiable) Application deadline: 1 November

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Disability History Association @disability-history.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The Disability History association is seeking new board members! We're looking for a new Director of Membership and a graduate student to serve as our Director of Student Affairs. More info at the links. Questions? Email us! dishist.org/call-for-app... and dishist.org/call-for-app... #dishist 🗃️

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

many books are terrible and formulaic and could be replicated by AI, but there is no genre that is *inherently* terrible and formulaic and could be replicated by AI. there is terrible and formulaic 'literary' fiction.

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Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In the late C18th-early C19th, we suppose she would have been claiming something similar for that despised genre, The novel: come on down, Jane Austen: 'there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, 1/?

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And those 'machine-made' clothes? An awful to of them are made on sewing machines. And they are worked by - skilled - people.

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Lila Byock @lbyock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Proud to be a designated spokesperson for the anti-AI humanist movement in this excellent @newyorker.com piece. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Paragraph from linked New Yorker article reads: This is not A.I. populism, as Sun describes it, so much as anti-A.I. humanism; its champions worry about what would be left if human pursuits became pointless. I was struck by how many A.I. skeptics converged on the same formulation: what is this activity for? When I called Lila Byock, a mother of two and the founder of Schools Beyond Screens, a coalition fighting the influence of big tech in schools, she said, “I think that we just need to ask ourselves, like, what is school for? What is education for? One of the really basic problems with using A.I. in education is that it is designed to make tasks easier and to reduce friction, and friction is how learning happens.”

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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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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There's still a few spaces left for this talk tonight in-person (IHR Wolfson Room NB02, Basement) and unlimited space online! To join online, email me directly and I'll send you the zoom link.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We're repeatedly told that asylum seekers pose a threat to the good people of our country... Reading about the threatening and violent treatment of elderly and open minded locals in Crowborough I get the impression that the real threat comes from closer to home. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

On Facebook and other platforms, people
who are known to support the asylum
seekers have been threatened with acid
attacks, petrol bombs and rape. The dossier.
which has been seen by the Guardian, also
claims that several local businesses have
been threatened by far-right agitators, along
with a church where some asylum seekers
worship. One man was punched in the throat
after he held up a "Love Thy Neighbour"
sign, while an elderly couple were falsely
accused of supporting sex offenders. In yet
another case, a 92-year-old church volunteer
was reportedly woken at 3am for two nights
in a row by a man standing outside her
home, shining a torch through her window
and shouting abuse

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

READ: If you haven’t seen this yet, please take a look. Motonormativity ("car brain") is a bias that stops people from making rational judgements about driving. This study co-authored by @ianwalker.bsky.social looks at where this bias comes from & how it works. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Screetshot of study title “Why Do Cars Get A Free Ride?” #CarBrain #Motonormativity

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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

So the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition is not going very well They've sold far too many tickets and the space cannot cope with the physical number of people - how did they not do basic crowd flow/control calculations? Embarrassing that the British cannot organise a queue properly (Not my photo)

Paper flyer from the British Museum apologising for the disruption to your Bayeux Tapestry visit today

It's basically saying 'sorry we may not be able to get you in today, we will try and get you an alternative date but if we can't do this we will refund your ticket'

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History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Was John London Britain's first Black voter? The 1749 Westminster by-election may seem unremarkable in its result. However, as @georgianfun.bsky.social explores, the election provides the earliest known record of a Black person voting in a British parliamentary election. #BlackHistoryMonth

historyofparliament.com

John London: Britain's First Black Voter?

This election could serve as the earliest known record of a Black person voting in a British parliamentary election - John London

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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Historians find “clues and develop methods for naming and describing uncertainties, but we do not necessarily resolve them. Like many areas of what funders call ‘frontier research’, the point of all of this is not always clear as we are going about it.”🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/t...

williamgpooley.wordpress.com

The Killer Could be Alice

In the bestselling book by ‘Iris Starling’, The Killer Isn’t Alice, readers are given eighteen clues to whittle down a list of 46,600 suspects and identify the killer of ‘Al…

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Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Not “mind-boggling.” Trump has made our once-beloved country an unwelcoming place and an unsafe place for foreign visitors.

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Podcasting is Praxis @praxiscast.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Top tip:Do not use chatbots for sex and relationship advice. Use Justin's website instead. If nothing else, he wont tell you to put glue on your junk.

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Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How long, O Lord, have women being getting organised? Today in recently uploaded on Project Gutenberg, An Appeal to Men by Josephine Butler (famous in UK women's history for campaigning against the Contagious Diseases Acts), 1876 and she was several generations of activism down the line

gutenberg.org

The hour before the dawn : An appeal to men by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler

The hour before the dawn : An appeal to men by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler. Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers.

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This two tier policing is disgraceful. It's as if there is one approach for people who helpfully film themselves committing crimes and another approach when there is insufficient evidence.

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 29/09/2026

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Burnham: "I will not allow it to continue like this. Today I can confirm Angela Eagle will present a strengthened water bill to Parliament. The center piece of that bill will be this. The repeal of Margaret Thatcher's ideological ban on public ownership of water companies."

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 30/09/2026

“A group of US hedge funds” does not, on the face of it, seem likely to be the kind of owner which would reverse decades of under-investment and tackle the coming fresh water crisis.

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Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Well this is as good a way as any to remind people to vote in the National Trust AGM, to keep out the 'Restore Trust' anti-progressives. Vote for scones

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Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is no one The Greatest, there is the best for the particular moment.

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Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Books are a perfect technology that will never die.

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 30/09/2026

Best part: "'My wallet was stolen and my Italian ID was inside,' she said. With a looming holiday, she contacted the Italian embassy to ask what she needed to do, but to her frustration quickly realised that it would be faster to gain Belgian citizenship than to wait for a remade Italian ID."

brusselstimes.com

Why so many Italians are getting Belgian nationality

Belgium appears to be an easy place for Italians to come and be themselves. Many of those who do, love it and choose to formally become Belgian. But why?

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