iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 5h

Excited to join BEMCC! I’m just leaving a conference Paris exploring the “cloaques” in history. These “cesspits” (tho that’s an imperfect translation — I suggested “shitholes”) had a marked impact on the bodies of urban inhabitants. Also feat @manonraffard.bsky.social of @uomsalc.bsky.social

A poster for an academic conference showing a black and white image of a man in a fetid alleyway. The title of the conference was Le cloaque, in bad-fond d’un autre genre à explorer

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nothing like seeing the reference request numbers at the Archives nationales to help you feel small (I assume these are all-time rather than the place of my requests in a current queue, otherwise my plans to squeeze half a day in the archives around a two-day conference are looking slim...)

A table of 'Request No.' then a list of five numbers above 102 million

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Just arrived in Paris (for the first time in over ten years!) and got irrationally excited by seeing the words “Napoléon III”, having written them myself so many times in the last decade

A French sign at a train station including the words Esplanade Napoléon III

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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.

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If copilot is so amazing, then why can't it realise I don't want to inform people of 'All the bets' in every other email I send

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Looking forward to this! I’ll be talking about drains and cesspits and overflowing latrines. Delightful!

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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I will always remember fondly the student who finished an essay with the line "In conclusion, the early modern period marked a massive shit in European history."

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another Welcome Week means another time printing out my character role cards for my Level 3. I’ve done this for three years now — each (plus a few not pictured here) come with an info paragraph on the back plus short, additional primary sources from each role’s perspective for each topic 1/2

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Bodies, Emotions and Material Culture Collective @bemccollective.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We're excited to welcome @drhollyfletcher.bsky.social (@ucl.ac.uk) back to Manchester to speak about her new project, ‘The Fats of Life in the Early Modern World: Matter in Multispecies Medicine’ (funded by @wellcometrust.bsky.social). Join us on Weds 30th Sept, 13:00, to hear more! Details linked:

sites.manchester.ac.uk

Holly Fletcher (UCL), 'The Fats of Life in the Early Modern World: Matter in Multispecies Medicine'

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

every day of my life I think about the people using “she” to describe this computer program who still need to be convinced to use it for trans women

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Fancy Japanese restaurant for my 21st. Each course a delight and lots of fun arrangement of plates. Out comes a small, mystery white cylinder on a plate and the waiter pours scented hot water on it. Delighted, I picked it up with chopsticks and straight in my mouth. It was an expanding hand towel

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Sadiah Qureshi 🦈 @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Stunned and honoured by where my love letter to life living has reached. My profound thanks to everyone who made it possible: from beloveds who roared with me without reading a word, to the readers and judges who so kindly did, and found it worthwhile. I’m delighted to be in such company.

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Joshua Rushton @joshuarushton8.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is happening on 30th September online - do sign up if you have an interest in early modern, environmental, or Reformation history! 🍃🪾

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 16/09/2026

re: Piddlington. I actually also think it’s the wrong location for an asylum centre, it’s the middle of nowhere on a deadly road and no safe way to walk to Bicester, let alone get to oxford, an asylum centre should be right in town with access to resources like drs and dentists and help centres.

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Anybody know of anything good (art history, history, visual anthropology, whatever) on 1980s graffiti scene in Britain - especially outside London? Preferably something that is about the scene itself and not merely the criminalisation of graffiti...

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

happy pubversary for Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Sept 14, 1867! open thread of good C21 critiques of p.e. and more:

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Thrilled to announce etc etc that I must have been in such a frantic state writing my first book that I accidentally wrote a second one about credit ratings. Oops

A spam email from someone claiming to have read a book I did not write

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 13/09/2026

In an exclusive extract from his new book, A Right to Housing, Samuel Stein argues that the struggle for affordable housing is an inseparable element of the class struggle This Must Be The Place: Do We Have A Right To Housing? @versobooks.bsky.social buff.ly/8PfsrrP

Two tower blocks. Photo by Jonathan Billinger.

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The guy I'm writing about is now chained up to a wall in a French dungeon and a man has just struck him in the face with a severed English hand, I shit you not. 'There', his assailant says, 'here is a blow from one of your friends'. I cannot fucking wait for you all to read this book. It is insane.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

When asked in the Q&A about arts and humanities he says he personally values them (seems very genuine) but that he is the Science Minister, and it’s for the DCMS Minister to make the case for those. He’s perhaps not yet clocked he is responsible for all R&D. Would Wissenschaft Minister work better?

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What is life without Books?! @wherearethebooks.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Will they just stop inserting AI into everything. Not everyone wants to be a mentally defective incompetent, incapable of reading and comprehending a sentence, spoon-fed whatever summative biased crap the AI monolith chooses to randomly regurgitate

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Two separate and unwanted @adobe.com AI prompts on the first page of my book proofs telling me that this is a long document and do I want to summarise or simplify it. No. Go away. Who would actually want this or find it helpful!?

A screenshot of a book proof with the title 'Inspecting the home' in the middle.

A pop-up message at the top says 'This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summa... View Summary

A pop up at the bottom says 'Ask AI Assistant. Simplify the document for me. By using AI Assistant you are to Generative AI User Guidelines

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

More positively I am really pleased that SNIFF: A HISTORY OF SMELLS is out today!! Published by @yalebooks.bsky.social and out in all good bookshops. It's a history of smell across time and space that takes in a panoply of pongs and perfume from paper and ink to stink bombs and whale oil.

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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 08/09/2026

All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker.

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Given how much of my book is about people in local government struggling to get stuff done, you all better buckle up for an increasing number of Parks and Rec parallels to come as the publication date approaches.

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Another gem as I work through book proofs

tectural form. He discussed wider associated issues with hygiene in
courées, emphasising the issue of worker drinking, saying: ‘There
are days, Sundays and Mondays for example, when the pavements
are literally flooded with urine’, especially on and around the doors
of cabarets, which would frequently be located at the entrance to
a courée.

A still image of Rob Lowe from Parks and Recreation. The word 'LITERALLY' has been added in large white letters over the image

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Kristof Smeyers @kristofsmeyers.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

lots to do today so instead I'd like to write a history of cats and call it hiss-tory

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.

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Sam Wilson @samwilson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Damning silence from Labour on their Napoleon III exhumation policy

Tom Harwood tweets:

BREAK: Nigel Farage says under a Reform government the body of Napoleon III could be returned from England to France.
The last French emperor's final resting place is in The Imperial Crypt at St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough.
He died in exile in England in 1873 following the fall of the Second Empire. His body was never returned to France because they didn't want it, and due to his wife's wishes. She was later buried alongside him.

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Olivia Mitchell @livsmitch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Get us your abstracts by 1st October! Please message if any questions, and of course, share widely!

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

""What did he study? “Philosophy and theology. A teacher in high school said, there’s no money in that, and I said: ‘Sir, that’s disrespectful. That’s insulting, because not everybody’s about money.’" he's one of us!

theguardian.com

‘I don’t chase the dollar. I never did’: the astonishing hidden life of Mr T

He grew up in the ghetto, became a global superstar – then gave it all up. Why did he step away from the spotlight?

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Has anyone written anything about the 1960 masterplan for roads in France (or know if a copy is available online anywhere)?

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'm not saying that I'm losing momentum on going through my book proofs today, but...

the entirety of the R
'a filthy quagmire'
he lack of adequate

Glenn Quagmire from Family Guy. A cartoon man in blue trousers and a short sleeve red shirt with yellow flowers on it. He is the worst

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

There is still time to submit a chapter proposal for the book that @livsmitch.bsky.social and I are editing on the aesthetics of modern monarchies. Full details in the post here, but happy to answer informal questions too. Proposals due in by 1 Oct to aestheticsmonarchy@gmail.com Please share!

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Posting this again because a) the scam b) it’s just incredibly funny

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MancHSTM @manchstm.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Congratulations to Joe Manock who was awarded the Faculty of Humanities Postgraduate Research Dean’s Prize for his thesis on Sites of Feeling: An Emotional History of Famine in Colonial India, supervised by Anindita Gosh in History and CHSTM's Amelia Bonea. research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/j...

research.manchester.ac.uk

Joseph Manock

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Dr Nicola Clark @nikkiclark86.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I need a historian of parliament! When a bill was committed in Elizabeth's reign, is there any reason to read into the person leading the committee - were they someone trusted by the House, by both 'sides' if there were sides to the issue? Or could it even be influenced by the Q?

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Just booked my first trip to Paris in ... *checks calendar*... TEN YEARS?! I'll have a little time around the conference I'm attending to get up to the archives at Pierrefitte. French #skystorians - what's changed there in a decade?

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Adding this to my start of year seminar anti-LLM rant

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Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman @niamhroisin.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Do I know anyone else on here heading to the European Association for Urban History conference in Barcelona this week?

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Sarah Arens @saraharens.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Today is the 1st day of my 12-month Leverhulme Research Fellowship "Experimental Empire: Science, Technology and Belgian Colonialism, 1897–1958", analysing the tensions between technological progress+the racialised violence that underpinned them. Grateful to @leverhulme.ac.uk for the time and space.

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Chris Kempshall @chriskempshall.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Did Thiel and the Museum's directors bond over the shared joy of stealing and keeping stuff that doesn't belong to them?

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Dr. Kurtis Hanlon @kurtishanlon.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

One of my assignment types is "come into office hours and lead a discussion with me and you can get a couple points," and I get a whole lot of students who come and say they had no idea that's what office hours were for; they thought it was remedial.

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Vanda Wilcox @vandawilcox.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Years ago on twitter some historians kindly suggested readings about the history of bureaucracy & about official paperwork as technologies of power/ meaning-making - I'm thinking about printed forms which officials complete - but I lost the thread, does anyone here have some suggestions?

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