iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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.

54324

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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.

462750811

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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...

792140886

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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.

981995755

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Oh, that would be great! May or may not be familiar material for you but please don’t let that put you off.

010

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

This book needs to be a miniseries. End of.

100

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

(Yes my massive interest in social Catholicism and its history is LOVING this)

120

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

And so many connections: Irish republicanism, non-violent peace activism, activist priests… thinking about the Divine Intervention podcast and the clear parallels in forms of activism, connections to Vatican II…

130

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I can’t wait to read this book. @smidbob.bsky.social currently responding to points made by @vbivar.bsky.social about the idea of unexpected victory in the Larzac, and cites the slogan: “We won because we were weak.” So many resonances in wider histories of resistance and protest.

140

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

They have Roquefort in the room. I do not have Roquefort. This was a mistake.

230

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Can’t wait to read this, Will - I was excitedly talking about your work in a seminar on health and hygiene in Paris recently!

110

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

280

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.

0122

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

1911

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

01311

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

33211

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…

062

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

172

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

31236287

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

042

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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”

34899308

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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 ...

7784531

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 😵‍💫

020

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

. @annettejosephg.bsky.social discussing her students’ brilliant project “Mapping Marronage” - but highlights immediately that this project would not be funded now, due to anti-DEI policies. This is a really powerful discussion about the conditions in which global history can get done.

120

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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.

3508

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…

130

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Let’s be real though, the blame isn’t just to be laid at Westminster’s door. These swingeing cuts and increasingly crappy conditions (physical, as well as everything else) never seem to hit the upper echelons of the sector. Weird, huh.

020

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Thank you!!!! @emilyscartoons.bsky.social you’ve made some religious history dorks very happy ❤️😍

010

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Saw this on the other place. Immediately thought of @onslies.bsky.social. #nuntastic

5588

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.

2133

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…

215

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

12410

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

Clare Clarke @clareclarke.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Me, writing my book, 4 years in, and still not being quite sure what it is.

0887

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.

3299

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

041

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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!

7525161

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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 📻🎙️

063

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

061

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

maggie spiders @squishythings.com · 11/01/2025

🎶just little bits of history repeating🎶

227827

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

141

Reposted by Laura O'Brien

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

724668

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

If you’re among the people lucky enough to be visiting the newly reopened cathedral, and you go into the treasury, look out for a recumbent figure in white at the bottom of the large stained glass window. That’s my guy Denis, surrounded by medieval bishops and religious figures.

Photograph of stained glass window inside the Treasury of Notre Dame

010

Laura O'Brien @lrbobrien.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

In exploring the accidental death of one Parisian archbishop on a barricade during the June uprising of 1848, the article spans dead bishops, church and state relations, commemoration, and how Affre’s memory was literally built into the fabric of Notre-Dame.

120