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Simon Naylor

@simonnaylor.bsky.social
918 followers 812 following 54 posts

Professor of Historical Geography, University of Glasgow, Scotland. My book, The Observatory Experiment: Meteorology in Britain and its Empire, is out now with Cambridge University Press.

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Reposted by Simon Naylor
Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Call for Contributions to a Sourcebook for Histories of Weather & Weathering teleskopos.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/c... Full details linked and here teleskopos.wordpress.com/wp-content/u... It will be edited by me, @lottaleiwo.bsky.social and Tamara Culkins. Please share! #histSTM #envhist 🗃️📜
teleskopos.wordpress.com
Call for Contributions: Histories of Weather & Weathering
Call for Contributions: A Sourcebook for Histories of Weather and Weathering (working title) Editors: Rebekah Higgitt, Tamara Caulkins and Lotta Leiwo We invite contributions to this planned open a…
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LSE Press @lsepress.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
"This book is a tribute and a clarion call for geography in better futures." — Charles W. J. Withers, Professor Emeritus, @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social Geography and a Geographer: Reimagining the Discipline after Ron Johnston is out now (@rgs.org). 👉 📚 press.lse.ac.uk/books/e/10.3...
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Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Excited that my article on collecting polar exploration ephemera is live, part of the special issue “Crossings in Polar Art History” for the journal Art History. Thanks to issue editors @issygapp.bsky.social and Mark Cheetham and everyone who spoke to me for this piece, incl. @tchotchke.bsky.social!
track.smtpsendmail.com
‘You will find it at the North Pole when you get there’: Travels in Polar Exploration Ephemera
Abstract. Throughout the long nineteenth century, dozens of exploratory expeditions embarked from Western Europe and European settler nations for the Arcti
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Our paper, 'Mapping the mills of early industrial Britain, 1729–1836', is now available, open access, in Journal of Historical Geography www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Mapping the mills of early industrial Britain, 1729–1836
This paper examines the capabilities and limitations of Mills of Britain, a recently compiled Historic Geographic Information System (HGIS) dataset do…
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Patrícia Silveira @patriciasgeo.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Check out the ICHG website. The Conference will be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 2028. Save the date! ichg2028.redebrasilis.net
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Katherine Arnold @arnoldke.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🚨 JOB KLAXON #skystorians #envhist #envhums Cover for some of my teaching next year - 0.5 FTE at University of Liverpool. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSE899/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching & Scholarship) (0.5 FTE)- Grade 7 at University of Liverpool
Apply now for the Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching & Scholarship) (0.5 FTE)- Grade 7 role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.
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Rune Møller Stahl @runestahl.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
😬
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School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford @oxfordgeography.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Vacancy: Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography SoGE, in association with @mansfieldoxford.bsky.social, seeks an outstanding Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography to provide cover during Professor Derek McCormack’s period as Head of School: bit.ly/3PUDVG7 #academicsky
my.corehr.com
Job Details: Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography
The School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE), in association with Mansfield College, seeks an outstanding Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography to provide cover during Professor Derek McCormack’s period as Head of School.
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Jon Agar @jonagar.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Please help spread the news far and wide! We have a new, full-time, permanent Lecturer in Global History of Science job @stsucl.bsky.social Don't be fooled by the application of deadline of only 9 June 2026. This is an open search #histsci #skystorians www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
ucl.ac.uk
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
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HIAS @hias-hamburg.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
The workshop, organized by Eva Horn @uni-hamburg.de Fellow 2025-26, and Maximilian Hepach @durham.ac.uk brings together expertise from a great variety of fields to explore the notion of the relation between the human body and the weather, historically and today.🔎Program & abstracts: bit.ly/4dvgyMc
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Gregory A Good @geocosmohistory.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Lee MacDonald’s The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is available online uclpress.co.uk/book/the-roy...
uclpress.co.uk
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1881–1939
Between the late nineteenth century and the outbreak of the Second World War, astronomy underwent a radical change, from a science centred on the positional measurement of stars to the study of astrop...
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Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I have some hot compost news
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Epic!
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Thank you so much for reviewing my book, I really appreciate your thoughts @xinyueli.bsky.social @pkhardy.bsky.social
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Dr. Penelope K Hardy @pkhardy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech: Check out @xinyueli.bsky.social (@manchester.ac.uk)’s review of @simonnaylor.bsky.social (@glasgow.ac.uk)’s book _The Observatory Experiment: Meteorology in Britain and Its Empire _, pub 2024 @universitypress.cambridge.org #hstm Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
h-net.org
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Marianna Dudley @dudleymarianna.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
I did an op-ed for The Engineer on how and why energy history can help power cleaner energy futures www.theengineer.co.uk/content/opin...
theengineer.co.uk
Comment: History can reenergise our ideas about power - The Engineer
Dr Marianna Dudley explores Britain’s relationship with wind power through the decades
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Delighted to see that my friend and colleague's book is out. Well done Cheryl! Well done also to Paul. Order a copy for your library!
Historical Geographies: the basics.
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
That Tom Gauld meme of the two opposing nations perfectly mirrored, but edited to be between archives and museums.
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Exhaled out of you surely? Assuming you're in a choir or play a wind instrument??!
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
I can't speak about the quality of the beer but the glass it's in came from a town close to where I grew up (in Cornwall).
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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
In "Occupied Refuge," @hannobrankamp.bsky.social challenges the view of refugee camps as indispensable safe havens, showing that humanitarian missions often function as militarized occupations that treat camp inhabitants as colonized subjects. Read the intro for free now: buff.ly/IwyWW8p
Cover of Occupied Refuge: Humanitarian Colonization and the Camp in Kenya by Hanno Brankamp. The cover features a black-and-white photograph of a refugee camp with small structures that have corrugated metal roofs. In the foreground, a dirt ground stretches across the image with people walking, sitting, and standing near a vehicle. A vertical yellow line runs from top to bottom, dividing the composition. The title and subtitle appear in white text on the left side of the cover, with the author's name at the bottom right.
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Journal of Historical Geography @jofhistgeog.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Call for papers! We invite proposals for a special issue addressing historical animal geographies, co-edited by Karen M. Morin & Alice J. Hovorka. Abstract deadline 15 Jan Accepted submission deadline 15 Jun Details here: sciencedirect.com/special-issue/327592/historical-animal-geographies
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Cafe visit and writing time sounds terrific to me! I've had to make do with homemade coffee (and sourdough)
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Every ad now
[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]

JANET:
Ugh...

LIZ:
What's up?

JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!

LIZ:
Have you tried...

AI peas?

JANET:
AI peas?

LIZ:
They're peas with AI!

[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].

LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas

JANET:
What

LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]

Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?

[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]

LIZ:

Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine

[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]

LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!

JANET:
What

LIZ:
Shut up

LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow

From opening the bag of peas

to boiling the peas

to eating the peas

To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.

JANET:
Is it really necessary to-

LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET

[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:

AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.

[Ends]
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This Is My Glasgow @thisismyglasgow.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
I know Glaswegians keep some unusual pets, but I've never come across an aerial quadropus before! If you see Nipsy on your travels around the city, please let their owners know. 😀 #glasgow #glasgowhumour #streetart #scottishhumour #keepglasgowweird #findnipsy
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Rachel Dishington @radishington.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Excited for our oral history event on ‘Living and Working Along the Leen’ on Thursday 13 November at UoN Lakeside Arts. Made possible by @royalhistsoc.org Scouloudi Public History funding. Come along to share your memories of Nottingham’s River! www.lakesidearts.org.uk/event/living...
lakesidearts.org.uk
Living and Working Along the Leen
Explore historical archival photos and share your own memories, to examine how Nottingham River Leen's meaning for local residents has shifted over time.
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Lord Arse! 🕹️ @lordarse.com · 09/11/2025
Alan Partridge.
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Another great geography-themed gaming session in our Creative Impact Lab. This time we played Pandemic: Rising Tide. Apologies Dutch friends, we failed to stop the sea!
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James Kneale @jameskneale.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
In the past week I've taught 200+ first-year students in the "forgotten", "lost" map library at @uclgeography.bsky.social with the help of some great PGTAs. Imagine what we could do with this collection if we could only find it! 🤔
A group of students working with maps in UCL's not-so-forgotten map libraryMore students who have somehow found their way to the "forgotten" UCL map library I've been using for the last 25 yearsOh look! Students enthusiastically discussing maps as part of their first year core course! Where's this, you say? UCL Geography map library!Goad maps, Booth maps, maps making a case for the EU as a rival to the US & USSR, maps galore at UCL Geography's map library - if only we knew how to find it! 🤔😭🫠
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Looks amazing! What are you going to be playing??
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Katja Bruisch @kbruisch.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Exciting list of speakers presenting in our Environmental History Research Seminar this term. If you happen to be in Dublin, come along. We'll meet on Mondays at 1 PM in the Trinity Long Room Hub #envhist Thanks to @tlrhub.bsky.social for hosting us! @historytcd.bsky.social 👇
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
It's been very wet here in Scotland over the weekend but beautifully sunny for my morning run into work today.
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Colin McFarlane @colinmcfarlane.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
This is a great little collection in Transactions on 'worlding geography' and area studies... rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1... @rgs-ibghe.bsky.social
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library
Click on the title to browse this issue
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Not my game, I just like playing it and other @stonemaiergames.com! I am a Geography academic at Glasgow University and we're using games to encourage staff and students to think and talk about environmental issues.
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Following @greenhouseuis.net @finnarne.me excellent example and played Finspan board game in our new Creative Impact Lab today @uofglasgow.bsky.social @stonemaiergames.com
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Fraser MacDonald @frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
On strike again. We’ve had to do this for so long that our primary school kids who joined us on snow day picket lines are now students themselves. Utterly ridiculous way to run a university.
Five primary school kids and a snow man on freezing, snowy UCU picket line in February 2018, coincidentally the same month that Sir Peter Mathieson became Principal of Edinburgh University.
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Patrícia Silveira @patriciasgeo.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Super proud of this research group! HGRG at the International Conference of Historical Geographers in China! Next stop of the ICHG will be Rio de Janeiro in 2028, save the date 🗓️🌎
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
No RGS action then Innes?
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Matt McDowell @handle.invalid · 20/08/2025
On the archaeology of Scottish skateboarding.
bbc.co.uk
Scotland's first skatepark to be dug up by archaeologists
A University of Glasgow team will undertake excavation and survey work at the former Kelvin Wheelies park.
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Dr. Dominik Huenniger @dominikhhh.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Here we go: the first session of our „energy transition & energyscapes” organised by @melinabuns.bsky.social & @dudleymarianna.bsky.social . #ESEH2025 #EnergyHistory #EnvHist Really excited about this.
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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
I just noticed that Metropolitan Science will be out in paperback - exciting news! Not available until next year, but can be pre-ordered for a relatively affordable £26.09 @jasminekt.bsky.social www.bloomsbury.com/uk/metropoli... #earlymodern #histSTM 🗃️
bloomsbury.com
Metropolitan Science
Exploring distinctive practices in the artisanal, mercantile, and governmental sites of London, Metropolitan Science offers a new perspective on the development…
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Beautiful plan of the proposed Forth & Clyde Canal in John Smeaton's 1767 Report to the Trustees for Fisheries, Manufactures and Improvements in Scotland.
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Journal of Historical Geography @jofhistgeog.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Vol. 88 is out! It is our 50th anniversary issue, and includes a special issue on ‘Archives as Worldmaking’ edited by @jakehodder.bsky.social and @snehakrishnan.bsky.social sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-historical-geography/vol/88/suppl/C Take a look at the contents below 🧵 1/31
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
PhD Studentship at Legacies of British Slavery Centre: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
ucl.ac.uk
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
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Grace Wright @graceq22.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Crofters and cottars and lairds, oh my! Co-organising this conference in July. Sign up to the mailing list for updates here ➡️ eepurl.com/i-Zqf2
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
yikes!
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Lovely map of canals and their catchment basins from the 1907 Royal Commission on canals and navigable rivers
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility is extraordinary. Partly set on Vancouver Island (partly on the Moon!) and I picked it up and read it while visiting the west coast a couple years ago.
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Simon Naylor @simonnaylor.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
who wouldn't want to be an attic genius?
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