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Mary Laven

@marylaven.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.2K following 25 posts

Historian of Italy, religion and material culture. Thinking about a more diverse Renaissance.

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Hannah Scott @drhannahlscott.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Posting things that bring me joy from the Paris archives: day 1. Beautiful hand embroidery at the Bibliotheque Forney, from 1750s-1800s.
Intricate hand embroidery of bunches of flowers and wheat, worked in faded gold silk, sequins, and gold work and on a deep blue textured velvet. Undated, but probably Napoleonic.Hand embroidery on cream silk using brightly coloured silk threads, in a variety of greens, blues, golds, ocre, red, brown and black, with winding branches of flowers, leaves, and berries. Mostly worked in satin stitch, long-and-short stitch, and French knots. Undated, but probably around 1750.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
'At least two universities have had to cancel course modules at short notice, with students being offered alternatives outside their disciplines, after the staff cuts and strikes left advertised modules understaffed.'
timeshighereducation.com
Modules cancelled amid ‘panicked’ response to staff cuts and strikes
UK students being told that modules are cancelled and recommended options outside their courses, union reports
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Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 14/01/2026
COMING SOON: Pets & their People explores why humans keep animals close, and what our evolving relationships with pets may reveal about ourselves. 🗓️ 11 March – 27 September 2026 📍 Weston Library 🎟️ Free admission Find out more: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/pets-…
Promotional poster for 'Pets & Their People' exhibition at Weston Library, part of the Bodleian Libraries. Features a close-up illustration of a cat with a ruffled red collar.
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Jewish Historical Society of England @jewishhistorical.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
www.lib.cam.ac.uk/stories/Amy-... The archive of 19th-century writer and poet Amy Levy has a new home at Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social
lib.cam.ac.uk
Sequel to a Reminiscence
The archive of enigmatic 19th-century writer Amy Levy has a new home at Cambridge University Library
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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Bishop's mitre, probably Italian, early 16th century. It reputedly belonged to Cardinal Matteo Palmieri, Archbishop of Acerenza and Matera from 1518 until 1538. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
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Derek R. Peterson @unseenarchive.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Colleagues will be sorry to hear that historian John Iliffe has this morning passed away in Cambridge at age 87. Iliffe was a maker of the academic field of African history. He took up a post at the University of Dar es Salaam shortly after Tanganyika's independence. 1/
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Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Twas ever thus The world's protected areas are largely in mountains, deserts, & isolated forests and oceans - we don't protect nature where it's most needed, we just set aside areas that aren't economically attractive to destroy Then when someone does want to destroy them, they're often degazetted
theguardian.com
Australia’s marine parks protect ‘places no one goes’ rather than fragile coastal zones, scientists say
Hundreds of experts write to environment minister calling for stronger protections for ‘unique and distinct’ marine ecosystems
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I hope Ghent tells Cofnas to get bent.
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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This is criminally insane - pure and simple www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Just 20 of 6,600 Defra staff working on climate adaptation amid drought and wildfires
Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Q: Why is Andy Burnham so reluctant to talk about the climate crisis? A: the billionaire media! mediasovereignty.org www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Hot topic: why is Burnham so reluctant to talk about the climate crisis?
Extreme heat is harming wellbeing of ordinary people the PM champions, yet little has been said on the topic
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
German billionaires 'funding UK propaganda' petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76... mediasovereignty.org
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I have been outed by @thespectator1828.bsky.social as part of 'the burgeoning craziness in British universities'. That's journalism folks...
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John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @thinkorswim.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It’s exhausting. For years, decades, right wing media have lied and told us #climate breakdown was just woke nonsense. Now, it’s whoopsies, yes it’s real, but relax everyone & enjoy our new “Mediterranean” climate as Europe goes up in flames around us.
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 30/07/2026
This is the letter that the current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has written to the Telegraph in response to yesterday's column by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Note how she - yet again - doesn't actually explain how she would tackle climate change 🤔
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Jonathan Porritt has been arrested. As he says "trying to save lives is not terrorism, exposing this Governments complicity in genocide is not terrorism."
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Across the country, wildfires are raging. The Prime Minister needs to call a COBRA meeting and treat the climate crisis with the urgency this moment calls for.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Is “pragmatic” the new, “grown up” word? Andy, there’s nothing “pragmatic” about drilling for more oil & gas - to even consider it with the planet literally on fire is total madness. How many times must we say it will do nothing for energy bills or security? It would be an act of utter recklessness
theguardian.com
Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas
PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
yes! we back foreign billionaire ownership of UK media / support the concentration of power in a tiny media elite / will not introduce a Social Media Levy for local news / back self-regulation of the press / won't make dark money think-tanks declare donations. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
graphic showing wealthy foreign or non-dom UK media owners
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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Heat Strike in Cambridge -> www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/too-hot... Today is Amber-warning-likely to be even hotter 🥵🥵
cambridgeindependent.co.uk
Too hot to work? Heat Strike UK protesters say UK temperatures aren’t cool
Campaigners flag up new levels of concern on climate.
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Cambridgeshire @cambridgeshireuk.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Too hot to work? Heat Strike UK protesters say UK temperatures aren’t cool #Cambridge
cambridgeindependent.co.uk
Too hot to work? Heat Strike UK protesters say UK temperatures aren’t cool
Campaigners flag up new levels of concern on climate.
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Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
The Globe Much Ado is a perfect summer night out, dir. Chelsea Walker, with a terrific ensemble led from the front by lovely Ken Nwosu (Benedick) & fantastic Pippa Nixon as Beatrice, mercurial, touching, funny (& a Dirty Dancing lift in the 'jig'❤️) Richard Katz a born Dogberry, in the best way! GO!
A photograph of characters in a play. In front of a white-painted staircase, from the side, with white flower garlands on it, a man in a black suit, black tie and white shirt, and a women wearing a big puffy white net skirt over a white satin shift are holding on to each other grinning and jumping for joy.A photograph of characters in a play. A young man wearing dark trousers, white shortsleeved shirt, black tie and a hi vis vest is looking a bit uncertain; he's being reassured by an older man with curly grey hair, wearing a leather jacket over the same style of security guard clothes.
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British School at Rome @bsrome.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
💫 Meet the Fellow: Professor Mary Laven 💫 bsr.ac.uk/meet-the-fel...
bsr.ac.uk
Meet the fellows: Professor Mary Laven - bsr.ac.uk
Professor Mary Laven, BSR Associate Fellow at the British School at Rome from January to June 2026, shares insights into the development of her research project, “Diversifying the Italian Renaissance”...
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Can you do me a quick favour today? ✍️ The government is finally asking if they should ban cages for hens in the UK. 🐔🐔 Lobbyists are trying to block it, so we need huge numbers to show them that the public wants this ban NOW: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/en...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Days left to act: Ban cruel cages for hens
Right now we have a unique opportunity to stop this industrial-scale torture: The UK government has proposed ending the use of cages for hens, and they have launched an official consultation to ask th...
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
c.org/T5FKn56YzK Terrible decision to shut down Languages at Nottingham. Part of a wave of closures in the Humanities here and elsewhere in the UK. PLEASE SIGN!
c.org
We Can Make an Impact.
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
An important piece taking stock of EDI @camhistory.bsky.social
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Marcus Böick @marcboc83.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Last week, I published a piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) critically assessing current attempts by political and scientific actors to counter the rise of right-wing parties in East Germany through new ‘lighthouse’ projects. Will this really help after years of neglect?
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Marcus Böick @marcboc83.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Happy to share my review of this timely book, just published in the AHR. Esther Elizabeth Adaire. Neo-Nazi Postmodern: Right-Wing Terror Tactics, the Intellectual New Right, and the Destabilization of Memory in Germany since 1989 url: academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...
academic.oup.com
Esther Elizabeth Adaire. Neo-Nazi Postmodern: Right-Wing Terror Tactics, the Intellectual New Right, and the Destabilization of Memory in Germany since 1989
Imagine a young neo-Nazi in the early 1990s—likely with shaved hair and wearing a bomber jacket, maybe sitting on an overturned beer crate in a depressing
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Cambridge University History Faculty @camhistory.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Congratulations to Professor Lucy Delap, appointed new Chair of Cambridge's History Faculty, to succeed Professor Mary Laven on 1 October 2025. Lucy is Professor of Modern British & Gender History at @cam.ac.uk and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College. @lucydelap.bsky.social @marylaven.bsky.social
hist.cam.ac.uk
Lucy Delap appointed new Chair of the Faculty | Faculty of History University of Cambridge
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 29/05/2025
The shortlist for the Society's 2025 First Book Prize for early career historians is now available bit.ly/4kkm4lW Eight titles have been selected, following an open call for submissions of books published in 2024. Two winners of the 2025 prize will be announced in July. #Skystorians
Image of the eight titles shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's First Book Prize for early career historians, 2025.

Royal Justice and the Making of the Tudor Commonwealth, 1485-1547, by Laura Flannigan (Cambridge University Press)

Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain’s Cerebral Age, by Simeon Koole (University of Chicago Press)

Female Servants in Early Modern England, by Charmian Mansell (British Academy / Oxford University Press)

The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838: Institutions and Trade during the First Globalization, by Juan Jose Rivas Moreno (Palgrave MacMillan)

Segregated Species: Pests, Knowledge, and Boundaries in South Africa, 1910–1948, by Jules Skotnes-Brown (Johns Hopkins University Press)

The Quislings. The Trials of Norwegian Wartime Collaborators, 1941–1964, by Anika Seemann (Cambridge University Press)

Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, Music, and Architecture in the Twentieth Century, by Fiona Smyth (Manchester University Press)

Desire and Disunity: Christian Communities and Sexual Norms in the Late Antique West, by Ulriika Vihervalli (Liverpool University Press)
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Abigail Dombey @abigaildombey.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Summer likely to be hottest ever in UK
Guardian front page:
 Summer likely to be hottest ever in UK
By Helena Horton Sarah Butler
This summer is expected to be the warmest on record for the UK, the Met Office said yesterday after four heatwaves in the country since June.
The mean temperature for summer is tracking at 16.13C (61.03F), which is significantly above the record of
15.76C set in 2018.
Many remember 1976 as being a scorching summer with a record heatwave, but this data would relegate that year out of the top five warmest summers since records began in 1884. It would mean all five of the warmest summers on record had occurred since 2000.
The Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: "Provisional Met Office statistics show that summer 2025 will almost certainly be the warmest summer on record ... Unless temperatures are around four degrees below average for the rest of August, which the forecast does not not suggest. Bart Simpson: This is the hottest summer of my life
Homer Simpson: This is the coldest summer of the rest of your life
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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
British "debate" on migration is in the gutter, but we should still be shocked that Labour's response yesterday was to criticise Farage for being insufficiently detailed in his plan for mass detention camps.
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Cambridge University History Faculty @camhistory.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
🔎 New research identifies 19th-century welfare cuts as a major cause of rise in early-childhood mortality. The findings - from researchers incl. @camhistory.bsky.social's Prof Simon Szreter - reveal a politically-induced cause of the irregular drop in survival rates during this period. Read more⬇️
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
In hope and trepidation ...
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
I just signed this petition calling for better cooperation with the EU on the environment. Will you add your name, too? www.europeanmovement.co.uk/uk-eu-enviro...
europeanmovement.co.uk
Tell The Government: Strengthen UK-EU Environmental Cooperation
Climate change and environmental problems don't respect borders. The UK and EU must work together to protect our shared environment, tackle the climate crisis, and preserve biodiversity for future gen...
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
🌳 Will you sign the petition to help restore the Ghost Woods and protect our green spaces for future generations? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Bring back the ancient woodlands smothered beneath your timber plantations
Ancient woodlands are vanishing – and with them, some of our most loved and endangered wildlife. Forestry England manages over 100,000 acres of land that used to be ancient woodland - that’s bigger th...
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Just received news that 27 people have been arrested in Parliament Square under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action". This is real police state behaviour.
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Open letter re Lord Browne's candidacy for Chancellor of the University of Cambridge now at 300 signatures. 🥳 chancellorletter.wordpress.com/2025/07/01/o...
chancellorletter.wordpress.com
Open Letter re the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge
The next Chancellor will, we are told, ‘play a vital part in Cambridge’s public-facing activities, fundraising, and in providing advice to senior members of the University’. To do this successfully…
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Eric Holthaus @ericholthaus.com · 06/07/2025
The rainstorm that caused the Texas flooding disaster was of a severity that would occur just once in 1,000 years in a stable climate. This was a complex, compound tragedy of a type that climate warming is making more frequent. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Texas floods reveal limitations of disaster forecasting under climate crisis
Texas’s ‘flash flood alley’ could bring even more floods in near future as Trump cuts compound with warming climate
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
350 signatures! including many plucky fighters from the tuition fee wars of 2010-11. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Open Letter re Chancellorship
Open Letter re the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge The next Chancellor will, we are told, ‘play a vital part in Cambridge’s public-facing activities, fundraising, and in providing advi...
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Some welcome publicity (in yesterday's Times) for our open letter opposing Lord Browne of Madingley's bid for the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge -- the letter is at chancellorletter.wordpress.com
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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
My letter in today’s Guardian.
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Cambridge University History Faculty @camhistory.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
'Global Histories of the Portuguese Revolution' - co-edited by @camhistory.bsky.social's @pramospinto.bsky.social - goes beyond the limits of national history to locate the revolution at the intersection of transnational historical phenomena. A new global approach to this still understudied event ⬇️
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Tony Booth @tonybooth1.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Campaigning for Cam Uni Chancellor to be an ethical force. Focusing on its core purposes, education, research, and caring for all its staff and students. Severing all connections with oil and arms. @mikescialom.bsky.social @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social @owenjones.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
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Matilda Sidel @matildasidel.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
The sea is now the only available conduit to bring essential aid to Palestinians. If Israel attacks these aid flotillas, as it has threatened, it will also set a dangerous long-term precedent of unlawful policing in international waters, which will further entrench its unlawful occupation on land.
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
And a great chance to hear our brilliant colleagues @julieb534.bsky.social @arthurasseraf.bsky.social and Sujit Sivasundaram speaking about why History matters.
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Cambridge University History Faculty @camhistory.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
@thomaspiketty.bsky.social @ehess.fr @pse.bsky.social @pramospinto.bsky.social @historyecon.bsky.social
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Many thanks to Emily Betz for a great conversation.
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Mary Laven @marylaven.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
A lovely piece about our wonderful colleague Peter Mandler.
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Andrew Seaton @andrewseaton.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Did you know the UK has the worst record on homelessness in the OECD? Some reflections on both the numbers and the people who lay behind them
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Bad Boy 🔻 of Mandalore 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇾🇪🇮🇷 @dindjarinsway.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Pro-Palestine student activists at Cambridge Uni disrupted graduation in protest saying: “Cambridge Uni is complicit in genocide in Gaza,” one student protester said, holding a Palestinian flag. “Over 60k have been killed by Israel, & Cambridge continues to invest in Israeli arms,” she added.
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