iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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James Felton @jimmfelton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Man in a gilet stood on platform 12 gives up on reading the display and asks ChatGPT out loud if he is on the right platform for his train. I don’t want to be dramatic about it but Eratosthenes figured out the circumference of the Earth using a stick and knowledge of a distant well.

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Corey @coreysoper.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

38% of the sector is carrying out compulsory redundancies. 30,000 jobs lost in three years. 43% of universities in deficit. Our world-leading university sector is in crisis. And where is the government? (If this had happened in fishing or steel, we'd never hear the end of it.)

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Urban History @urbanhistory.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

📣 Call for papers! Next year's @urbanhistorygroup.bsky.social conference will be on the theme of Pleasure and the City Submit your abstracts by 22 February 2027 Conference details: 🗓️ 2-3 September 2027 📍 @ljmuhistory.bsky.social, Liverpool 🔗 urbanhistorygroup.wordpress.com/call-for-pap...

Grainy screenshot of an arch with blue lettering reading Pleasure Island. Some buildings in the background, a small number of individuals walking in the foreground.

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Kieran Connell @kieranconnell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The paperback edition of MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN - coming in summer 2027 @hurstpublishers.bsky.social

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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 · 29/09/2026

My pleasure - great book!

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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

Yep I think so! I’ve taught second semester first years several times, though. More commonly second years and third years

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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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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Monaghan and Down Mum’s Army perhaps

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

are you sure that wasn’t just the acronym of a little known dissident group that agreed to down arms?

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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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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

a bit of blurb from a review in the Irish Times - I really do think it makes a difference - jumps out from the shelf

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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

I don’t post many photos on here but if you like architecture interspersed with attention seeking selfies you can always follow me on Instagram… tomhulme87

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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

I’m torn. In general I think children-free zones are sometimes fine - pubs, weddings etc - but there’s something a bit weird about limiting to adults what is in essence an experience primarily for children…

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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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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

i am going to print that out and stick it above my desk like a mantra

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

Congratulations! just ordered my copy and looking forward to reading!

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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 do see where you are coming from and you’re right it’s a question of where you draw the line. Personally? I would have drawn it already, but I guess we’ll see whether or not it’s too late

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

All fair points. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say to the sort of right wing that is represented by Reform - though the iteration of the Tories under Badenoch are certainly in the same race to the bottom

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

And personally I think that is a reasonable argument. À la Popper: it is not conducive for democracy that a supposed organ of that ideal should platform a patently undemocratic movement, so that legitimises starving it of oxygen. That might just be something we disagree on, I guess?

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

I guess it’s the “accurately” that is my bone of contention. For example, the interviewee I mention in my original post said - among many other risible things - that they did not see anyone in balaclavas, a patently ridiculous point that was not challenged at all by the interviewer.

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

I'd say there is a difference between acknowledging and representing: the former involves noting the existence of a view, the other legitimises it by suspending critical faculties. Is any view legitimate simply by virtue of existing in the mainstream?

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

I'm not convinced that BBC News is institutionally right-wing or sympathetic to Reform. I think it's paralysed by the policy that it has to represent & even give parity to a whole range of views & not agile enough to respond to the poisonous, bad-faith, & international activism of the far right.

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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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