iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 01/10/2026

Tonight the @ria.ie jointly awarded the Michel Déon Prize to John Waddell for his book the Celtic World and me for Hotel Lux. A real honour. Congrats also to my fellow shortlisted authors, including fellow veteran of the Irish History Twitter trenches @gerardshannon.bsky.social

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

this is my third published book review of the year... trying to channel some good karmic energy, given that I have a book out too ;)

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This looks like a cool queer history conference!

Call for Papers: Queer Rural History Symposium
Date: Monday 15th March 2027
Venue: The Museum of English Rural Life, Reading, RG1 5EX
Lunch to be provided for all attendees
About the Symposium
Until recently, studies of queer history have focused almost exclusively on the urban sphere, given the greater availability of archival material evidencing queer lives in the city. The few queer rural histories which have been popularised in public consciousness are those of aristocrats in country homes, such as Anne Lister and Vita Sackville-West. However, it goes without saying that people with dissonant sexualities and gender identities lived and loved in all corners of society throughout the centuries, including the countryside. As such, there is a growing appetite for broader research into this area. How did queer people meet those who were like-minded in regions of scarce population density? What forms did their relationships take against a backdrop of criminality and stigma? And how did rural attitudes towards queer people differ to those in the city?
This one day symposium aims to bring together researchers of all backgrounds, and at any stage of their work, to share ideas and discuss methods on this emerging field of study. It works towards the goal of not just filling gaps in academic knowledge that exist for both rural history and queer history, but also to show queer people living in the countryside today that there is, and always has been, a heritage and a place for them.

Proposals
We invite proposals on themes such as, but not limited to, the following:
1.
Queer histories of the working and middle classes in rural areas
2.
Methodologies for recovering queer rural histories, such as the use of museum and archive collections
3.
Queer rural networks: how they met and flourished
4.
The response of rural communities to queer relationships
5.
Migration of same sex couples from the city to the countryside and vice versa
6.
The ways in which museums and archive services respond to queer rural history
If you would like to submit a proposal, please send an abstract (max 250 words) along with a short bio (50 words) to symposium organisers Tim Jerrome and Esther Rutter at t.jerrome1@uni.brighton.ac.uk. It is preferable that these come in the form of a Word document attached to the email. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Sunday 6th December 2026.
If you would like to attend the symposium without presenting a paper, let us know via the above email as we need to ensure we do not go above capacity.
We are currently applying for funding to help cover travel costs for those who need it. Please let us know if you would like to attend but would require assistance with travel costs to do so. Priority will be given to attendees where cost would otherwise be a barrier to participation.
Many thanks to Rainbow Canopy (The LGBTQ+ network of Forestry England), the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, and the staff at The MERL for helping us to fund and organise the symposium.

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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What a semester, huh? Captain, it’s not even October.

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Saima Nasar @saimanasar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Please join us in celebrating the Centre for Black Humanities’ tenth anniversary. CBH is holding a two-day symposium titled ‘Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’. Our keynote will be Professor Christina Sharpe. Cfp below. Please spread the word!

CALL FOR PAPERS
Centre For Black Humanities 10th Anniversary Symposium:
‘Black Humanities: Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’
Keynote Speaker: Professor Christina Sharpe
8-9
th April 2027
University of Bristol

The Centre for Black Humanities is an interdisciplinary research collective dedicated to
advancing scholarship on the artistic and intellectual contributions of people of African
descent. It is inspired by and expands legacies of scholarship, art, and activism relating
to Black lives across time and space. Building on our international and multilingual
networks, and our home in the port city of Bristol, our research often engages with
communities beyond traditional academic settings and addresses inequality and social
justice through innovative collaborations. By centring an ethics of care and generosity,
despite the chronic conditions of life in and beyond the academy, we support earlycareer scholars and visiting scholars/practitioners. In turn, we seek to interrogate and
repurpose institutions of knowledge production such as universities, museums and
publishing houses, within entangled contexts of reparative justice, decolonization, and
the climate crisis. We imagine collectivity, community and collaboration as methods for
Black Humanities research going forwards.

To celebrate the Centre’s 10-year anniversary, we will be holding a two-day symposium
entitled: ‘Black Humanities: Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’. The keynote
will be Professor Christina Sharpe, Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities at
York University (Canada), and author of In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016) and
Ordinary Notes (2024). We invite scholars and practitioners (at all levels, independent
and affiliated) to submit abstracts for presentations of 15 minutes. The event will be
held in person at the University of Bristol. We invite presentations that speak to Black
Humanities in its multi/anti/undisciplinary forms. We are particularly interested in work
that speaks to the following themes:
- Collectivity, Collaboration and/or Community in Black Humanities
- Black Humanities/Studies in times of polycrisis
- Black Health
- Environmental Justice
- Radical Imaginaries (how creative works make sense of Black pasts/present and
help to shape Black futures)
- Methods for solidarity and/or incompleteness
- Folklore and storytelling as method
- Translation and multilingual solidarities
- Beyond critique
Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short bio of no
more than 100 words, to cbh-publicity@bristol.ac.uk. Abstracts should be submitted
no later than Friday 30th October 2026. A publication and podcast series are planned to
follow on after this event.
You may reach us at cbh-publicity@bristol.ac.uk in case of any questions or
observations.

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

this new academic year marks my ten year anniversary of moving to Belfast to lecture at Queen’s… and, nervewrackingly, the first time I have taught first-semester-first-years in my whole career 😬

A photo of the Lanyon building of Queen’s university Belfast, glinting in the sun

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Mark Walters @mark-walters.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I passed this 1930’s church on Bull Bay Road in Amlwch a few times and just had to take a look. This is the Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea & St Winefride. It was designed by an Italian architect to look like the upturned hull of a boat reflecting Amlwch’s maritime history.

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Irish Studies at Boston College @bc-irish-studies.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

We're now accepting applications for the Hachey Professorship of Irish & Irish-American History! This is a tenured position in the History Department and the Irish Studies Program. Apply here apply.interfolio.com/194167 by November 13.

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sexy baba yaga @beardynoise.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Some jobs are Real and Manly (fishing, oil, banking) . All other jobs are Woke and Gay (education, hospitality)

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Mark Doyle @markdoyle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Was very happy to beam into QUB today to launch the Africans in Ireland website that I and a number of colleagues have been working on for years. Maps, database, & other resources documenting the African presence in Ireland from the late 16th to early 20th centuries. africansinireland.com

A right-facing silhouette of the Black preacher and seaman John Jea, Methodist preacher and seaman, from his 1816 book The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

a wee bit narcissistic, but I never get tired of seeing Belfastmen on the shelves!

A man stands next to a bookshelf containing a copy of his book

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Dr Cath Feely @cathfeely.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Last night, an exhibition I've been working on was launched at Cromford Mills in Derbyshire to mark 250 years since building of 2nd mill (blue print for cotton factories worldwide) and early industrial housing. It's open all weekend, with lots of activities. Critique my graphic design efforts!

Exhibition panels printed on cotton fabric hanging in pairs down a mill building from wooden ceiling beams. On the front panels the date 1776 and 'Why did cotton come to Cromford' are legible.

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Chris Lloyd @cilloyd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

university rankings are meaningless. they are austerity (as @ncecire.bsky.social reminds us). even though my literature course has 100% (!) teaching satisfaction in the guardian guide and we are higher than famous competitors (29th!), we are being cut. no more literature at my uni (or other hums).

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Sam Wetherell @samwetherell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Some incredibly exciting news! My book about how Liverpool's history makes us think differently about Britain's past, present and future has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize!

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Will Clement @historywill.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

My first book, "Inspecting the home: Urban poverty and public health in nineteenth-century France", will be published by @manchesterup.bsky.social in February 2027 To find out more (or to add it to your wish lists...) see the link below: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526183149/

A book cover showing a shaded pencil illustration of a well-dressed man with a cane who has stopped in the street, bent down and raised his hat to another man, whose head is visible at street-level in the window to a cellar of the nearby building.

Text on the cover reads 'Inspecting the home. Urban poverty and public health in nineteenth-century France' Will Clement

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight

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Bethany Wasik @bethanywasik.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

ICYMI: A spectacular discussion about "Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life Before Gay Liberation" has landed at @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social between the equally spectacular author, @tomhulme.bsky.social, and host @niallherron.bsky.social. Check it out here: newbooksnetwork.com/belfastmen-2

newbooksnetwork.com

Tom Hulme, "Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life Before Gay Liberation" (Cornell UP, 2026) - New Books Network

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Been meaning to get here for years: Manchester’s splendid Victoria Baths (c. 1906). Look at that stained glass water nymph!

A stained glass window in art nouveau style depicting a water nymph.

An empty Victorian swimming pool, with pitched metal roof, stained glass window and surrounded by private changing rooms

An ornate art nouveau hallway, with glazed green tiles, fish floor mosaics, and stained glass windows with floral motifs

Private changing rooms divided by blue painted wood, terrazzo floor and glazed white interiors

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

This is kind of crazy… a copy of my book in the window of Buchhandlung Löwenherz in Vienna! 🥹

A bookshop window, with a copy of Belfastmen: an intimate history of life before gay liberation.

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A Sunny Day, Connemara, Ireland, c.1940, painting by Paul Henry (1876-1958), Belfast-born artist.

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Ben Mechen @benmechen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Some fascinating Collaborative Doctoral Awards on offer here at the BL, including a great history of sexuality/book history/library history project relating to the Rund Collection of 19th/20thC erotic books and ephemera www.bl.uk/services/res...

bl.uk

Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Awards

Fully-funded and jointly supervised studentships across four developing research areas.

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🌈 Dr Ross Brooks @rossbrooks.co.uk · 08/09/2026

DARWIN AND THE QUEER ORIGINS OF LIFE is now published in the UK, Canada, and the US! 🏳️‍🌈📚🦋🗃️ Every recommendation helps get this extraordinary history into more hands, so please ask your favourite libraries and bookstores to stock it. Thank you! 🙏 #booksky #reading #libraries #histsci #queerhistory

A copy of Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life: A History of Sex and Science standing vertically on two others placed horizontally, with a vase of flowers behind them, on a table of other books. There's a bookmark visible in the vertical copy.

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I was shocked by the coverage last night. Too many moments to mention them all, but the nonchalancy & lack of fact checking of the Newsnight interview with one of the 'protestors' was appalling. The BBC is basically not fit for the democratic crisis into which the UK seems to be rapidly slipping.

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Laura Webster @lauraewebster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

We have made a full documentary about what really happened at Reform conference. If you only watch a bit of it please make it these 39 seconds. You won't regret it.

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Daryl Feehely @darylfeehely.com · 28/08/2026

An amazing collection of Irish campaign badges in the Quay Coop in Cork 😍 #Speirgorm

Badges of Honour tshirt in the Quay Coop in Cork.

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Patrick Brannigan @patrickjmb.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

"In the 1920s, bishops, north and south, stood sentinel against the moral dangers of the jazz-dancing, cigarette-smoking, short-dress-wearing modern woman." Flappers and the Jazz Age: edited by Eileen Hogan and Louise Ryan @clodaghfinn.bsky.social #SpéirGhorm www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/colu...

irishexaminer.com

Clodagh Finn: The Irish flappers who defied the bishops to bring the Jazz Age to Ireland

A new book opens the most surprising — and utterly delightful — window on the rich social and cultural life of Irish women in the early part of the 20th-century... to the utter disgust of many (male) ...

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

NEW: It was a digital lynching. And the media is never going to hold itself to account for the role it played in Jason Arday’s death. But there are things we can do. This is a practical guide based on my own experience. broligarchy.substack.com/p/a-digital-...

broligarchy.substack.com

A Digital Lynching

A practical guide for individuals and organisations when the mobs gather

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

In my happy place, writing up an article draft on ‘Magic, Folklore, and Queerness in the “Modern” Irish Countryside’…

Image reads: William “John” Twaddell lived for most of his life on the wild northern coast of Co. Antrim.
He worked as a tailor in the area around Ballycastle but was better known locally for telling
soldiering tales of his service during the Crimean War. At the end of Twaddell’s life, the
political rise and eventual assassination of his only son during the first Troubles ensured the
rare family name remained in the memory of Northern Ireland for a bleaker reason.1 But long
before that tragic episode, Twaddell probably found himself the subject of hushed local
conversation of a very different sort. One September evening in 1901, he was at his small,
rudimentary home in the rural district of Ballintoy when a man he did not know appeared at
the door. Calling himself Boyd and looking to be in his forties, this stranger cut a distinctive
figure, with his cleanly shaved face and trimmed moustache and wearing dark coat, vest,
striped trousers, and black bowler hat. Twaddell later remembered he had looked respectable,
which is why he agreed to a request for a drink. But the man left with far more than just that.
In the space of under fifteen minutes, Twaddell was led into an outhouse, where his trousers
were let down to his ankles, before his penis entered the visitor’s mouth. For this ostensibly
sexual act, Boyd – who later admitted his name was really Patrick Baker - was arrested and
put on trial at the Ballymena Quarter Sessions. He pled guilty and was sentenced to twelve
months in prison with the added punishment of hard labour.

Gross indecency, or the similar crime of buggery, was by no means unknown in the
north of Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. Arrests tended to happen in the bustling
city of Belfast, and usually followed a report, whether made by a witness to two lovers
having sex or a man who had not wanted to be propositioned. Sometimes, a policeman on his
beat simply stumbled across an encounter happening in a darkened alleyway or public toilet
and decided that punishment was necessary.2 But the case of Patrick Baker is substantially
different. The alleged victim in the case lived alone with his wife, but neither her nor
anybody else had witnessed what had happened. The encounter in the outhouse only came to
light because John Twaddell had travelled to Ballycastle police station the next day to tell
Sergeant Edward West all about it. In two voluntary statements, he described how Baker had
asked him if he had any pains in his back, to which Twaddell admitted he did – caused by
piles, he suspected. Baker now claimed he could “cure” that ailment, and asked Twaddell to t down his trousers. After groping around Twaddell’s “back parts”, Baker then took the
older man’s penis and rubbed it for some time, before putting it into his mouth. Only
eventually did Twaddell stop this virtual stranger from “sucking” his penis. “I seemed to be
mesmerised all the time”, the now-victim told the police, “and could not refuse his requests.”3

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Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 17/08/2026

My latest article — kindly shared and described here by Tom — exams a hitherto obscure bridging figure between the early 20th century Sapphic world and post 1968 queer activism in Ireland

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

This article is the latest in a series emerging from our AHRC project (@leannemccormick.bsky.social @charlielynch.bsky.social @mauricejcasey.com) on 'Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality before Liberation'. Other pieces to look out for... 🧵

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 15/08/2026

With water storage in the news, a timely reminder of its history: 'Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales' (2025), by Andrew McTominey bit.ly/4bMHGW2 Published in the Society's book series and available Open Access from @uolpress.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Book cover for 'Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales' by Andrew McTominey

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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

“Academics want to promote their research outside of the university… However, in an increasingly queer- & transphobic public environment, this is becoming more difficult & more risky for researchers working on LGBTQ+ topics.” Apt report on how LGBTQ+ scholars in the UK navigate public harassment.

cssd.ac.uk

Is all publicity good publicity? Addressing Public Harassment in LGBT+ Research Impact and Engagement | The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Is all publicity good publicity is a research project funded by the EDICaucus and a collaboration between Tig Slater, Sheffield Hallam University, Charlotte Jones, Swansea University, Rosie Ola-Marie,...

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Good old Justin Webb (LSE graduate) on the Today programme speaking about "foreign students". Where have "international students" gone, and why? Not unlike substituting "DEI" for "EDI". Words matter.

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

A level results day is tinged with a bit of melancholia for lots of people, I am sure, but I am feeling it this year especially because of how the department where I ended up is now unrecognisable because of the total marketisation & collapse of the UKHE sector.

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Averill Earls @aearls.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I’ve read bits and pieces and heard countless conference paper versions over the years, but I forgot to bring the bonafide version on my summer holiday… so taking a pool day to finally read @tomhulme.bsky.social’s beautiful book!

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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

“People who have never previously demonstrated any support for our community do NOT get to use our tragedies to promote bigotry.” The people who usually say LGBTQ+ lives are “propaganda” or “ideology” now seek to weaponise homo/transphobic violence to cultivate racism. It’s painfully gross.

metro.co.uk

LGBT+ people don't need advice from British right-wingers after the Berlin attac

Queer people reject extremism and bigotry in all its forms, whether that comes from Christian nationalists, tech billionaires, or islamic extremists.

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Modern British History Journal @mbhjournal.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

This year's Duncan Tanner Prize is now open! If you're a PGR/ECR working on an article on modern British history do consider entering! Deadline Sept 1st. #skystorians 🗃️ academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...

academic.oup.com

The Duncan Tanner Prize

The Duncan Tanner Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. Entrants submit an article manuscript.

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Andrew Israel Ross @aiross.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Coming soon! 🗃️

Cover page of "A Cultural History of Prostitution in the Age of Empire."

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Charlie Lynch @charlielynch.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

“I’m afraid there is a chance this child may become an academic.”

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This should be self evident but clearly isn’t. From @lewisgoodall.com

The problem is not that higher education has failed as an engine of social mobility. It is that, for too long, it has been treated as the only engine. The curriculum is not the problem which is driving our NEET malaise; the weakness of local economies is. Any Labour administration should therefore tread very carefully before dismantling any part of the comprehensive educational settlement created by the Labour governments of the 1960s. Burnham's proposals also misunderstand the multi-layered nature of the modern university, which in many cases is as likely to offer vocational courses as strictly academic ones.
In any case, let's stop the obsession with STEM subjects and
"practical" training. There is already too much snobbery in the assumption that working-class students are somehow less interested in the arts and humanities. And we've never needed those graduates more. In an age in which we are already outsourcing so much of our critical thinking to machines, and in which none of us can be entirely sure of the truth of what we see, where the world's complexity is ever deepening, subjects like philosophy, history, political science, linguistics, classics and literature have rarely been more important.
I'm sure our English graduate prime minister might agree.

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Astonishing that this person kept their job. Plagiarising 4000 words of a students essay and your defence being you were just using it as an ‘aide mémoire’?! WTF!

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Tim Osborne Photography 🍁 @timosborne.ca · 01/08/2026

I think I could probably post a Puffin photo every day for the next couple of years I took so many. They are just such an amazingly photogenic bird! #wildlife #birds

A Puffin standing on the rocky cliff edge with its wings spread out behind her. The ocean can be seen in the background. The puffin's trademark bright orange big is visible.

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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

incredible discovery here: the 1762 original of the ha ha ha yes sicko cartoon courtesy of thomas waters new book “Magic”

DECODING HOGARTH'S CREDULITY, SUPERSTITION AND FANATICISM
English artist William Hogarth s iconic engraving Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism. A Medley
(1762) expresses the growing tendency, in the 18th-century West, to mock magic. The scene brims with contemporary references and tropes, showcasing different examples of misplaced beliefs.

The print shows a confused scene of various dramatic poses inc a witch on broomstick, preacher etc and crucially a Turkish Muslim looking in through the window

Detail of the Turkish man from larger image “TURKISH MAN
A Turkish Muslim man looks in from the window, smiling at the foolishness of the Christians gathered inside.”

Yes, ha ha ha, yes Sickos meme of man looking through a window.

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