Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 15hGiven where we are, and culture here, more than few students are performers or musicians of various kinds. My older actor student, a great big guy softened a bit in late 50s, told me this afternoon that he’d just been in a short art film. He said he was nude in it, so I thanked him for the warning. 121
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 16h@drleonj.bsky.social My dinner making supervisor. #Dogs 190
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 18hRats, there is a gap in my library's subscription to a journal from which I assigned reading! Any kind soul have access to: Pierre Gervais, “Neither Imperial, nor Atlantic: A Merchant Perspective on International Trade in the Eighteenth Century,” History of European Ideas 34, 4 (Dec 2008): 465–73? 101
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Twenty-five years ago today, at the Palazzo Vecchio, in Cosimo d’Medici’s bedroom, we were married by the Mayor of Firenze, and we haven’t stopped since. What a time it’s been. #weddinganniversary 3160
Reposted by Neil M KennedyJonas Fossli Gjersø @jonasgjerso.bsky.social · 23/09/2026In our latest Current Debates essay entitled "The Marine Origins of Contemporary Warfare", Rahul Govind discusses how imperial practices couched in international law and Western notions of the 'right of conquest' derives from prize law. doi.org/10.1080/0308... @jich.bsky.socialdoi.orgThe Marine Origins of Contemporary WarfareI would like to draw a genealogy of Donald Trump's rhetoric and military action in Venezuela and Iran, in particular, of how the acquisition of the resources of another country through a military o... 045
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026@drleonj.bsky.social Ever since he was a pup, big Yoda likes to sleep fully braced against solid objects, like a hungover freshman on a Sunday morning. #Dogs 191
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026@ruralcolonialns.bsky.social Back on my Italian linen bullshit today, Danny. #AcademicFashion 180
Reposted by Neil M KennedyAndrew Popp @andrewpopp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026This is a fantastic, engaging article. I'm so glad I made the time this morning to read it. Jane Humphries "Microhistory and Women's Time Use," advanced open access in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.socialacademic.oup.comMicrohistory and Women’s Time Use*Abstract. Gender historians have pioneered attention to ‘doing words’ to identify otherwise invisible women’s work. Searches in court records for verbs wit 1235
Reposted by Neil M KennedyErin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Where did the sacred artifacts smuggled out of Nepal by Mary Slusser end up? One answer is... a flea market. I explain in this video. 27923
Reposted by Neil M KennedyGianamar Giovannetti-Singh @gianamar97.bsky.social · 15/09/2026So excited to share that The Tartar Moment is forthcoming with @uchicagopress.bsky.social in June 2027, and is now available for pre-order! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...press.uchicago.eduThe Tartar MomentHow seventeenth-century Europeans, following Jesuit missionary Martino Martini, saw their continent as historically, environmentally, and culturally intertwined with China.The Tartar Moment focuses on... 24315
Reposted by Neil M KennedyNina Baker @ninabake2.bsky.social · 14/09/2026This is such a useful resource. I have been able to look up particular days and places to provide weather context for events in my books. 0159
Reposted by Neil M KennedyCarceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 14/09/2026What is the Register of British Slave Traders and whom does it identify? Three years of research has uncovered 13,000 people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comWhat is the Register of British Slave Traders and whom does it identify?Three years of research has uncovered 13,000 people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans 044
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026@drleonj.bsky.social Big Yoda managed to get a bag of 10 fresh bakery bagels off the back of the counter and gorged himself. My fault for forgetting to put them in the cupboard before I left for work. I will regret it again in the morning when I look for some breakfast. He’s passed out now, pleased. 241
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026To my great delight one student in my Seafarers class knew what this object was! Led to a great material history discussion for first day. What a privilege to have this job. #MaritimeHistory 2242
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Only one student knew about Jimothy the Wonder Raccoon. So much for “terminally online” generation. 190
Reposted by Neil M KennedyCasey Schmitt @csschmitt.bsky.social · 10/09/2026It's out in the world! This is my first attempt to write through research for my second book project! 🗃️ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...cambridge.orgEconomies of Ransom | Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales | Cambridge CoreEconomies of Ransom - Volume 81 Issue 2 0103
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Pale green trousers for the first proper day of teaching, I think. 250
Reposted by Neil M KennedyStephanie Porras @periodeye.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Extremely excited to announce an article co-authored by myself and Aaron Hyman on the visual and material cultures of Dutch piracy in the early modern Caribbean is now out in Renaissance quarterly @rsaorg.bsky.social , and open access! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...journals.uchicago.eduRecasting the Silver Fleet, or The Propaganda of Piracy in the Dutch Caribbean | Renaissance Quarterly: Vol 79, No 3In 1628, the Dutch West India Company captured a Spanish silver fleet off the shore of Cuba. A broadside by Claes Jansz Visscher (1587–1652) celebrated the event, illustrating the battle and providing... 510034
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 02/09/2026My neighbour is just back from a history and memory conference in Argentina and brought over this extraordinary bottle of infused vermouth she purchased at Mar del Plata. Exquisite hardly seems adequate a term. 051
Reposted by Neil M KennedyParis Marx @parismarx.com · 02/09/2026🚨 new NL heritage minute alert 🚨youtube.comNEW Heritage Minute: Gander and 9/11YouTube video by Historica Canada 3305
Reposted by Neil M KennedyAlan MacEachern @alanmaceachern.bsky.social · 02/09/2026In this post, I put out a call for #envhist people, places, or events that Canada should be commemorating. Submit yours: there's a $200 prize at stake. Deadline 14 Sept. Details in post. 034
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Taking my son and his pals down to harbour for axe throwing fest for his birthday. They kept Anthony Bourdain’s and Jason Mamoa’s axes on the wall. youtu.be/9oxal7BdCh0?... 130
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Lol. Air Canada warning me I have a Tight Connection on a flight that departs two hours before my now much delayed flight lands. You may well be right. 1100
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I’m stuck at my favourite bar in Bermuda, Devil’s Isle, with awesome healthy food. They won’t let me leave due to the lightning storm. Currently on some ceviche salmon to keep me busy and a Gosling rum barrel aged on 80 transatlantic crossings. One sacrifices. 190
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Ha! Friends tell me I’m blowing up on LinkedIn!! Crazy. I thought LinkedIn was dead and gone. At least the Miss Piggy and her Bermudian creator were mercifully off camera. 1100
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Spending my last evening in the garden of a late 18thC Bermuda house, out of the scorching sun, starting in on Colonial Countryside: an anthology of creative and historical responses, coedited by @corinnefowler.bsky.social. I’m now part of a Bermuda project modelled on and inspired by this book. 050
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Not unhappy to have an extra day in paradise. Every visit I come to see Chesley Trott’s “We Arrive” sculpture in Barrs Bay, in memory of the 72 Americans who walked off the slaver Enterprise to freedom here in 1835. I wrote about this again in Slavery & Abolition last year. The RBYC is to rear. 030
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Forgive the travel-limited post here but for me it’s my “William Crashaw’s Bridge: Bermuda and the Origins of the English Atlantic, 1609–1624” in collection English Atlantics Revisited. In his review David Armitage called my piece “elegant”, *swoon*, haha we live on small graves. Some good stuff too 180
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Bit if a surprise to discover I booked my usual place for a day shorter than my flight…. Panic stations! Fortunately a place available right around the corner for one night. 120
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026More manumissions today, payment for “the value of her body”, a schoolmaster who took small payments from a man for two years until L66 was paid then took two more years to file the papers, parents buying their child, including a boy named Phoenix just before emancipation. Benign slavery I’m told. 040
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Manumission documents often stop me short for enormity of change and future hope they contain, but often too for present limits. Here Rose Potter receives “one full half of herself and time”, the other half in caring for her owner. Often these will read “entire freedom”, as though in surprise. 3259
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Strange to have such unvarying weather, coming from a place where every kind of weather happens before lunchtime and it might snow while you’re in a t-shirt. How can the high and the low be the SAME, day after day?!?!? I know why, but 3rd decade researching/working here and still find it strange. 090
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Perhaps to clarify, the individual pictured is not one of the "villains of this story", and you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them." 090
Reposted by Neil M KennedyErika Gaffney @erikagaffney.bsky.social · 19/08/2026New series announcement! Early Modern Maritime Humanities 1400-1800: Oceans in History & Culture Series Editors: @clairejowitt.bsky.social & John McAleer Publisher: @dgb-mem.bsky.social brill.com/page/forthco... Feel free to DM me with questions, or email me at Erika.Gaffney@degruyterbrill.com 210251
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026One of the pleasures of longevity is being allowed to wander the vaults of the archives, particularly when the catalogue is incomplete. Just came across a box “Customs House Out Letters 1827”, with fantastic new information, including interviews with the two villains of this story. #Archives 1112
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Who knew that Miss Piggy has Bermuda origin?!?! Is there anything not connected to this marvellous place?! Thus is your All Bermuda All the Time channel… 031
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Always interesting to see the phrase “share and share alike” in a will, the phrase having moved from its literary origins. This will is 1834, the reference here is to two lots of land to be enjoyed equally by two daughters. 072
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Finished my govt talk at the Bermuda National Gallery. People are so welcoming here it’s unreal. Great intro by Minister of Culture on history and interpretation. Family of the two educators the lecture is named for seemed happy, which makes me happy. Some new connections with Min of Education peeps 3142
Reposted by Neil M KennedyBruce Buchan @brucealexb.bsky.social · 10/08/2026A former #Australian PM recently wrote, “[f]rom the outset [1788], Sydney could hardly have been less like a slave colony”, and thus embodied noble aspirations of Europe’s #Enlightenment. A haggard trope, that fabricates myth in service to a facile truism. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 266
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Both relieved and slightly unsettled by news the Bermuda Government has insured me for $300k for my talk this month. I guess I can leave the trampoline portion intact now. 071
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026The real reason for their investment in AI systems and robodogs and whatnot. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? 010
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Anyone near St Luke's Church, at Haslar Hospital, Gosport, Hampshire? Wall tablet there to an RN officer I'm interested in. The text is on the Maritime Monuments Database, which is great, but without a photo of the tablet. Have emailed the Haslar society, but just in case... #MaritimeHistory 11120
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Has anyone seen Anglican officials sign letters with first name and then the place of their office? As in, John Nova Scotia, for Bishop John Inglis. Was it common practice or a limited novelty of early 19thC? #EarlyModern 231
Reposted by Neil M KennedyAlan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Do listen to this masterful exposition of the links between trans-Atlantic slavery and Australian settler colonisation from the brilliant & meticulous Zoe Laidlaw (working with @janelydon.bsky.social) www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...abc.net.auHow British slave money flowed to colonial Australia - ABC listenIn 1833, slavery in the British Empire was abolished, but not without a massive compensation scheme paid out to slave owners. Some of that money flowed to colonial Australia. Two-thirds of Australia's... 11615
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 24/07/2026"Children sell for little." The horrendous arithmetic of the imperial archive. A grim private letter from the governor of Bermuda to the Colonial Office, 1826. 082
Neil M Kennedy @nmkennedy.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Sitting reading in my living room, I am so pleased with the way these arches play together in the light. I added them to dull squared trim-framed openings in last year’s kitchen renovation to suit the 1954 age of the house and those on the street that haven’t been altered. @brunotonelli.bsky.social 3170