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Laura O'Brien

@lrbobrien.bsky.social
1.2K followers 349 following 75 posts

Cultural historian of France, Meathwoman, crafter, multifaceted fangirl. Thinks a lot about Napoleon in cinema/theatre; Paris; caricature. She/her.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Laura O'Brien
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
OOOOO. Exeter's got Nous in as well... Of course... (@exeterucu.bsky.social, have you FOIed how much they're paid?) Can we PLEASE put an end to the involvement of these consultancies? They have done nothing but vandalism.
nousdatainsights.com
A best practice approach to academic restructure at Exeter
Explore Part 2 of Exeter Uni's major transformation case study. Learn how collaboration & strategic alignment drove restructure.
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Annika Brockschmidt @ardenthistorian.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Media: Stop calling the people setting fire to the homes of people of colour in Belfast “protesters”. This is a pogrom.
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Josh Halliday @joshhalliday.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
My colleague @hannahalothman.bsky.social is in Belfast tonight. This is what she’s seen. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
#BBCBreakfast: "... families had to be led to safety through the flames.. it wasn't just homes, cars were also torched by young masked men in these predominantly unionist streets, but the target here was immigrants.." This is what the likes of Reform are inciting.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Watching @smidbob.bsky.social launch his new book at the Modern French History seminar (online) and its title, “Make Cheese Not War”, has given me a persistent earworm of the chorus from this… www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJnT...
youtube.com
Catatonia - Dead From The Waist Down (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by RHINO
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Northumbria UCU Branch @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
PLEASE SHARE! @ucu.org.uk As it says @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social are always happy to talk - our door is open to management @northumbriauni.bsky.social . But members will never, ever accept pay and pension injustice! www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...
chroniclelive.co.uk
Northumbria University staff announce 10 more days of strikes in pensions row
UCU members at Northumbria University have confirmed that they will take another 10 days of strike action, as a dispute over an alleged 'pension grab' continues
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Right now I am joining colleagues @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social on picket. I should be preparing for a seminar today on barricade fighting and 1848. Do you know how *hard* it is for me to not be doing this session?! That’s how much we care about this action in defence of pensions, pay, and bargaining.
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Northumbria UCU Branch @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
✊✊👉@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social are back on strike next week, all week. No-one wants to be, and no-one is asking for more than keeping what we have. For our communities, colleagues, and students, we will never accept the pay and pension injustice planned by management at @northumbriauni.bsky.social
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Northumbria UCU Branch @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social members are proud to teach students from around the world 🌍. But @northumbriauni.bsky.social plans to slash staff pay and pensions affect them too, as these words of fire 🔥and solidarity ✊from a student show. Happy staff = happy students: ucu-unn.org.uk/blogucu/327-...
ucu-unn.org.uk
Student Voice on Pay and Pension Injustice
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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
ON STRIKE again this week - the university administration wants to take £100,000 out of my pension because they're bad at math and undercosted their construction plans -I stand with my colleagues in @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social, not asking for more just to keep what we've been promised.
media.tenor.com
union power is people power is written in white on a black background
Alt: union power is people power is written in white on a black background
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Pensions are the headline but more concerning to me and many others is the university’s commitment to withdraw from national collective bargaining. A disaster for us all if this is normalised. Any smidge of solidarity is gratefully received. And now to put on my waders…
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
The first session is at the end of the month with David Hopkin about LACEMAKING. Now, watch me throw his cool Lace In Context website (laceincontext.com/category/lac...) at my maternal family which was one of the cross-border lace making factories:
laceincontext.com
Lacemakers in Belgium – By the Poor For the Rich: Lace in Context
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lucynoakes1.bsky.social @lucynoakes1.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
American Studies and a variety of other programs under under threat at the University of Nottingham. Lend your voice to the petition.
change.org
Sign the Petition
SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
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Marco Foster @marcofoster.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
If anyone thought Bruce Springsteen would back down after Donald Trump’s threats, last night he doubled down: “In my country, they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They're rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just society”
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Christyn Parkes @parkesland.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
OPEN LETTER: HISTORIANS FOR TRANS RIGHTS Are you a historian in the UK or working on UK history fed up at seeing the history of LGBTQIA+ discrimination repeat itself? Sign this open letter to MPs demanding they stand up for trans rights now! Letter: tinyurl.com/879vuver Sign: tinyurl.com/4p7wktrn
tinyurl.com
Historians for Trans Rights - Open Letter to MPs
In light of the recent and incessant attacks on the trans community in the UK by the UK government and legal system, a group of UK-based historians have drafted the letter linked below. Our aim is to ...
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Caught between genuinely thinking the Michel Thomas audio method will work for my language learning and my misophonia going haywire at Michel’s mouth noises on certain tracks 😵‍💫
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Paul Duane 🥔 @paulduane.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
The backstory of Reacher author Lee Child as a union guy in Granada TV is new to me! Jack Reacher would not cross a picket line I'm pretty sure!
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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Actually the image doesn't explain why it's so exciting -- the book is about modern New York as the most linguistically diverse place that has ever existed on earth, the work of the Endangered Language Alliance in documenting & supporting marginalised languages, and the stories of their speakers.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Enjoying waving remotely at @rpanchasi.bsky.social and the rest of the stellar panel for tonight’s @frenchhistory.bsky.social event on French and francophone global history…
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Wait…an editorial on universities that *doesn’t* blame staff and actually thinks we suffer as a result of the problems in the sector?! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial
Editorial: The government should not stand aloof as a crisis unfolds in our universities. A new settlement is needed
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Alexa play “My Happy Place” by @divinecomedyhq.bsky.social merciiiiii
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Saw this on the other place. Immediately thought of @onslies.bsky.social. #nuntastic
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
“We should ask not whether what unfolded in 🇩🇿 is especially similar to 🇵🇸, but how reading these histories together might help us consider what decolonization feels like not as an end point, but as an ongoing process.” The always-great @arthurasseraf.bsky.social on Algeria and Palestine.
jewishcurrents.org
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Question: does anyone know if there are decent digitised runs of 1950s/1960s British women’s magazines - not for me, for a student? Woman’s Own seems only to exist in hard copy in various libraries…
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
THIS FRIDAY! It's going to be spectacular, so don't miss out! #LowCountries #EarlyModern #FoodHistory #SkyStorians
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 27/01/2025
Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it | Nesrine Malik
theguardian.com
Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it | Nesrine Malik
There is no way to rationalise the horrors inflicted on Gaza’s innocent children. Now is the time to mourn them fully For the past week, Palestinians in Gaza have been returning to their homes, now mostly reduced to rubble – and to their dead who still…
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Clare Clarke @clareclarke.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Me, writing my book, 4 years in, and still not being quite sure what it is.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Extremely hot book cover klaxon! “Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives”, edited by @matildagreig.bsky.social and Nicole Cochrane, coming on 6 February (and featuring a chapter from me on Napoleonic performance w/Albert Dieudonné as key case study). www.bloomsbury.com/uk/napoleoni...
Cover of Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
21 January: execution of Louis XVI. “Something for crowned jugglers to ponder”, as this contemporary print warns. Mort aux tyrans, indeed…
A black and white print from 1793 depicting the decapitated head of French ex-king Louis XVI
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Laura Ansley @lmansley.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Search engines exist. Calendars and reminders are already on your phone and email client. No one needs to use immense amounts of energy and water and stolen IP to make a worse version!
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Elsa Devienne @elsadevienne.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
J'ai évoqué Los Angeles, ses écosystèmes et l'histoire des incendies dans la ville sur RTS, la radio préférée de mon oncle zurichois 📻🎙️
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Elsa Devienne @elsadevienne.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Pour les blueskyeurs français, j'ai évoqué la situation à Los Angeles ce matin avec Guillaume Erner sur France Culture. Petite erreur dans son intro: Mike Davis a écrit son texte "Faut-il laisser Malibu brûler?" dans les années 1990 (pas 70). www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...
radiofrance.fr
Californie en feu : que peuvent les politiques ? / Les différents systèmes de retraite / Richard Malka
Avec Elsa Devienne, historienne des Etats-Unis, spécialiste d'histoire environnementale / Bruno Pallier, directeur de recherche au CNRS et à Sciences Po / Richard Malka, avocat, romancier
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maggie schreiter @squishythings.com · 11/01/2025
🎶just little bits of history repeating🎶
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
My niece is going through a pear phase. “Draw one with a happy face. Okay now a sad face. Okay now a mad face.” This is proof that research *is* transferable in the most unexpected circumstances, I think. 🍐 #ifyouknowyouknow #channellingphilipon
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Flora 🏺 Ancient History Art @flaroh.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Happy 2025 everyone!🧡🌿🏺 I’m excited to spend this new year illustrating the ancient Mediterranean world, and also learning more about my own local folklore🌿 Any shares so i can reach my audience on this new platform are greatly appreciated 🧡🧡🧡 #artvsartist #illustration #ancientbluesky
A selfie of me surrounded by my top 8 insta artwork posts of 2024
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Ridiculously proud that this is out in the world! Thank you @enghistrev.bsky.social and the many people who helped with this work along the way.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
The very amazing Emma Nagouse is on Headliners (with Dan Smith) on @bbc5live.bsky.social tonight, talking about their work on the Muses podcast! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 5 Live - Headliners with Nihal Arthanayake, Emma Nagouse and Dan Smith
Historian Emma Nagouse and Bastille's Dan Smith join Nihal for an in-depth conversation.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
For whatever reason, RTÉ seems to show Close Encounters every year between Christmas and New Year and I’m always grateful for the opportunity to just enjoy the Truffaut/Balaban vibes.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
I love a pre-Christmas byline, me. My review of Sebastian Smee’s “Paris in Ruins” in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/arts/visual-...
A photograph of a newspaper page
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Marc Scully @marcscully.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Rowlf’s absence (apart from a brief non-speaking role) from the Muppet Christmas Carol always struck me as odd, until I learnt that it was deliberate, as no-one felt comfortable recasting him so soon after Jim Henson’s death. Watch it again, through a lens of collective grief. It’s masterful.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Brilliant critique of Say Nothing (both book and show) by Jack Sheehan for @thebaffler.com. thebaffler.com/latest/codes...
thebaffler.com
Codes of Silence | Jack Sheehan
Patrick Radden Keefe’s bestselling 2019 book “Say Nothing” has been adapted into a miniseries. It repeats the sins of its source material.
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Conor @ernekid.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
It’s genuinely obvious that we are well past the point of no return.
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Caitríona Beaumont @caitbeaumont.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Ethics in historical research is becoming ever more important. Hear @tomhulme.bsky.social @earner.bsky.social Kate Chatfield, Holly Smith & me tease out some of the challenges on @ihr.bsky.social @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social roundtable. @royalhistsoc.bsky.social. www.history.ac.uk/podcasts/res...
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Paul Duane 🥔 @paulduane.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
The Pogues, and Ireland, say free Palestine
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
The extraordinary “Nae Pasaran!” is still on iPlayer for 20 days and it comes highly recommended. What an incredible example of “ordinary” activism and international solidarity. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Scotland - Nae Pasaran
Forty years on, Scottish factory workers discover the impact of their act of solidarity.
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Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Fave detail from @rpanchasi.bsky.social's excellent interview w/ @michaelgvann.bsky.social: his Hanoi rat project emerged out of boredom in the colonial archives in Aix. Every afternoon just for some fun diversion Vann would call up a file w/ a quirky name. One of those files led to this great book🗃️
newbooksnetwork.com
Michael G. Vann, "The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam" (Oxford UP, 2018) - New Books Network
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I’m sorry to bring a Twitter screenshot into your timeline but this is just so amazing. It’s like a Rubik’s cube of the most uninformed opinions on the planet. All blue ticks too, of course, and one of them was nearly just made Attorney General of the US.
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Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Big stupid fat tears rolling down my face during the last 15 minutes of Wolf Hall. I *swear* I’m normal, honest.
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