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Nikolas Orr

@nikolasorr.bsky.social
190 followers 189 following 45 posts

Independent (Art) Historian & Senior Heritage Officer for NSW Government | researching colonial monuments, anticolonial protest | former sculptor, editor | settler Australian on unceded Awabakal land | madrileño adoptado | he/him/él | all views my own

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Reposted by Nikolas Orr
Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
When your research is relevant but you’re not in academia anymore
Matthew McConaughey taking a long drag from a cigarette while doomscrolling
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
My honours thesis was titled “Skirting ‘round a…”. (Visual artists do it better 🤷🏻)
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Kurt Sengul @kurtsengul.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
🚨I spoke to Crikey for this story on the need for better media reporting on the far right! Long story short: stop giving neo-Nazis propaganda wins www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/05/h...
crikey.com.au
How to report on neo-Nazis without giving them what they want
Media coverage of the anti-immigration marches was a 'propaganda triumph' for Australian neo-Nazis, who use media-baiting tactics to spread their message.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Very cool if true: Academia.edu says I have readers in Singapore, Hanoi and Cangzhou
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Kaleb Knoblauch @kjknoblauch.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
At bottom, these programs are an attempt to sidestep work and thought, which is inimical to historical thinking. Not to mention the gross environmental and economic costs. And to treat this as some kind of inevitable paradigm shift is truly ahistorical thinking.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Seriously, fuck off. I say that with all due gravity.
Task Could this be
acceptable use?
Under what conditions?
Ask generative AI to identify
or summarize key points in
an article before you read it
Yes Acceptable without explicit citation
Use an AI chatbot as a
writing partner to help
generate and develop ideas
Yes Acceptable, may require explicit citation
depending on circumstances
Ask generative AI to produce
a starter bibliography
Yes Acceptable without explicit citation only if
each reference is checked and additional
databases and sources are mined
Ask generative AI to produce
a historical image for a paper
or presentation
Yes Image should be clearly marked as AI
generated and with explicit discussion as to
how the image was created. Images should
not be shared beyond the classroom
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Kim A. Wagner @kimatiwagner.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
The argument that Palestine should not be recognised as a state as it can not comply with the obligations of a state reminds me of the 1899 Hague Convention, which excluded 'uncivilised' people from attempts to minimise the cruelty of war - because they were deemed incapable of observing such laws.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
After a year of practising history as a public servant, I’ve been thinking about the opportunities & constraints in a gov role – how it changes the work we do, types of histories we write, people/sources we consult, and audiences we write for. DM me if you want to throw around ideas on this theme!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
One historian’s take on doing history. Great thread!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
I upset someone just the other day. Peer review can be tough 🤷🏻‍♂️
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Lauren Donovan Ginsberg @laurenginsberg.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
So, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
How is it okay to describe Hannah McGuire’s response to Lachlan Young’s violence as “hysterical”? www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
abc.net.au
Jury hears from Hannah McGuire's parents in ex-partner's murder trial
The grieving parents of young Victorian woman Hannah McGuire tell a Supreme Court their daughter's ex-partner Lachlan Young did not treat her well before her death.
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Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 15/07/2025
you've heard about the college kids who can't do anything without ChatGPT's help—but what about the students who oppose generative A.I. for myriad reasons and refuse to rely on it as a shortcut? well, I found and spoke with a few of them here: slate.com/life/2025/07...
slate.com
What It’s Like to Be a Student Who Hates ChatGPT
“Everyone is using it”—almost everyone.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Looks great, can’t wait!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
In the middle of moving house but keen after that! Will need a distraction from unpacking boxes.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Yes to boots! Good thing about canvas shoes, though, is you can chuck them in the wash!
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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Donate to help keep Gary Foley’s important digital archive of Indigenous history going www.gofundme.com/f/preserve-u...
gofundme.com
Donate to Preserve & Update Kooriweb.org, organized by Koori web
Kooriweb.org is the world’s oldest Indigenous owned, created, coded and controlled website. I… Koori web needs your support for Preserve & Update Kooriweb.org
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Judge hands down sentence to statue vandals: “His famous label attached to his duffel coat says 'please look after this bear'. On the night of March 2 2025, your actions were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for." www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
abc.net.au
Paddington Bear statue vandalisers fined for criminal damage
The pair drunkenly stole the statue in the early hours of the morning before fleeing in a taxi to the RAF base they live on.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
My writing at the local library this morning was not helped by the full-volume “floor is lava” kids’ session on downstairs nor the Top Gun and Voltron re-runs to my right.
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Dr Blair Williams @blairwilliams26.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
So, Australian #AcademicBluesky, uhhh what do you make of the ARC's proposed "A NEW PLAN FOR ARC-FUNDED RESEARCH"? 👀
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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The first issue of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (@jich.bsky.social) under the new editorial team is out now, with books reviews edited by me. www.tandfonline.com/toc/fich20/c...
tandfonline.com
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
Volume 53, Issue 1 of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
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Thomas Cauvin @thomascauvin.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Arts as a remedy to contested monuments. Paper in "Contested Histories" contestedhistories.org/wp-content/u... Bottom-up public intervention versus vandalism? Many international examples. #Arts #Monuments #PublicHistory #skystorians
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
This 100%
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Definitely sign up for this! There are some rewarding careers for historians out there!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Happens to me too!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Anyone got access to this article? Asking for a friend… Anna Cole, “Gender, race and colonialism: Aboriginal debutante balls in the 1960s”, Crossings, no. 20 (June 1994), 22–30.
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Prof Sandy O’Sullivan (Wiradjuri, trans they/them) @sandyosullivan.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Please consider doing this survey. We'd love to hear from people all over the world. Queer or not queer, you'd have thoughts on seeing queer representation.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Changing comms strategy in the radical left’s war on statues www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02...
abc.net.au
Vandal photographed with head severed from statue of PM
Police say images circulating online that appear to show busts of past prime ministers stolen from Ballarat Botanical Gardens indicate the "thinking capacity" of those responsible is "fairly low-end".
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
No I have not been hallucinating; ‘sewage’ and ‘sewerage’ are both words but mean different things! TIL the difference: 💩 vs🚰 (Obviously, the ‘S’ in Sydney’s ‘MWSDB’ referred to sewerage 😏)
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
After the AHA shot down their members’ statement on Gaza, I can’t see it having much to say about this but it really needs to. The historiography and writing is, well, fit for an “incredible Nation”.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Great article btw!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
So it’s The Guardian and The Conversation. Interesting!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Ok so we follow the he Aus Gov style manual. None of that no caps business unless in plural ie ‘world wars’.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Better check if my employer has house style on this…
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
That time in a project when I have to choose been using “Second World War” or “World War II” and along comes @davidmotadel.bsky.social and drops the “second world war”-with-no-caps treatment 🤯
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
On the importance of historians.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Ooh, this place is hotting up!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Very excited to hear from a current student that they read an article of mine as part of their degree. Now to find out in which subject and thank the convenor… Cooeee!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Good to see you did your part by beating them!
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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Hi everyone, can you help one of my students with her MA dissertation? Amy is exploring the motivations, influences & ambitions of those who practice history (from professionals to amateurs, paid to hobbyist). Fill in her survey to add your experience (& please share): forms.office.com/e/mFNv6tAqxn
forms.office.com
Microsoft Forms
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Way too late
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
On CBC last night, I spelt out the moral case to keep on trying, however hard it might be. Defending the living planet is not an option we can abandon. Ultimately, it is all that counts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX2V...
youtube.com
Author George Monbiot on countering despair amid alarming climate change trends
YouTube video by CBC British Columbia
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Newcastle peeps, let’s be ready to chase racism out of town if the need arises. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01...
abc.net.au
Man accused of painting Nazi symbol on wall refuses to speak in court
A man charged over anti-Semitic graffiti on the wall of a pharmacy in Newcastle remains in custody after refusing to answer a magistrate's question in court.
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Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Happy 2025 everyone! — here’s the cover of my new book, out on 1 May ✨
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
If you've never donated to Wikipedia, now's the time. Elon Musk is attacking it because it's one of the only sources of honest, curated information that he can't control. www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-ta...
newsweek.com
Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia
The billionaire has become one of the most prominent supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Sounds brilliant!
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Nikolas Orr @nikolasorr.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
I enjoyed seeing César Chávez get a mention in these parts!
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Stephanie Porras @periodeye.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Spanish conferences have 2 hour lunches with wine BUT the papers go til 7ish. I’ve decided this is the way.
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Fabrice Riceputi @campvolant.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Une ressource exceptionnelle sur les monuments liés à l’esclavage, la colonisation et leur contestation. Entretien avec Julie Marquet et Emmanuelle Sibeud sur la très riche base de donnée franco-britannique en ligne "Cast in Stone/Gravé dans le marbre". histoirecoloniale.net/une-ressourc...
histoirecoloniale.net
Une ressource exceptionnelle sur les monuments liés à l’esclavage, la colonisation et leur contestation
Entretien avec Julie Marquet et Emmanuelle Sibeud sur la très riche base de donnée franco-britannique en ligne "Cast in Stone/Gravé dans le marbre".
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Kate Fullagar @kfullagar.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Really extraordinary and moving essay by Jeff Sparrow: “a paternalistic injunction to “bridge divisions” displays a jaw-dropping lack of moral seriousness” theconversation.com/friday-essay...
theconversation.com
Friday essay: ‘A future of dust’ – Jeff Sparrow on Gaza and why, in evil times, writers have a responsibility to take sides
Paradoxically, the very scale of the crisis in Gaza makes worthwhile even the tiniest gesture of solidarity.
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