Kate Bradley
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katebradleyhistory.bsky.social
Kate Bradley
@katebradleyhistory.bsky.social

Reader in social history & social policy at the Uni of Kent - Councillor of the Royal Historical Society. 20th & 21st justice, welfare, technology, crime. Views mine. She/her.

Political science 34%
History 32%

Reposted by Kate Bradley

PSA for fellow Manchester University Press authors:

I received an email today about opting in/out of an AI licensing agreement.

The message states that they are contacting authors in stages so you may not have been sent it yet, but check your junk mail - mine went there!

I’m so sorry, Cath - thinking of you all. Xx

I’m really sorry you have had such a horrible year this year, but I am very glad you are still here! Wishing you the very best for next year. Xx

A telephone story to round the year off… the saving of a K6 in North Norfolk village. There are around 14,000 boxes still in operation, down from 100K in the 1990s.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
What happened next: the man who saved the last phone box in his village
When BT earmarked the kiosk for closure in January, Derek Harris began to campaign. The fight gave him purpose at a difficult time in his life
www.theguardian.com
Looking for a New Year's resolution that is good for your mind and (relatively) easy to keep? Check out the Institute of Historical Research seminars for January 2026. Fourteen seminars in week 1 alone. Free, broad-ranging, open to the public and usually available both in person and online.
Events
Stay up to date with the upcoming events organised or hosted by the Institute of Historical Research
www.history.ac.uk

It’s so grim. A considerable amount of Chad Varah’s Befriending… is given over to this very question.
Today we are launching a new series of articles and podcasts to mark the 100th issue of History Workshop Journal 🎉✊🗃️

In this introductory article, Barbara Taylor reflects on a picnic she shared with other editors in 1984, and what it meant to be part of the HWJ collective.
An Editors' Picnic
Barbara Taylor introduces our new series with her memories of a picnic she enjoyed with other History Workshop Journal editors in 1984.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk

I’m so sorry - sending solidarity.

No, it’s 15 years, surely??!
At the National Library of Lithuania today and tomorrow to discuss imperial family violence in 19th & 20th centuries with @mmuravyeva.bsky.social @joannabourke.bsky.social and other colleagues and friends 📃https://blogs.helsinki.fi/fourepochsofviolence/program/
Program – 'Till Death Do Us Part': Four Epochs of Violence in Every Family in Russia – what makes it Russian? (FEVER)
blogs.helsinki.fi
If you’re a #Humanities #ECR & in/willing to travel to York on 17 December, join me & the @historylabplus.bsky.social team for our 2025 ‘Christmas Connections’ event, a FREE & informal opportunity to support each other, build professional connections, & sample the city’s heritage & eatables. 👇&🧵

I am so very sorry, Lucy - this is such awful news.
For avoidance of confusion, that’s just about all academic staff, excluding Heads of Dept and- of course - Senior Management Team.
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Reposted by Kate Bradley

Ooooh, this is an interesting bit of breaking London news! The Met police, as of today, will require all officers to declare if they're a member of the freemasons.
The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Are you passionate about early medieval Britain?  Do you have advanced knowledge of Old English and proficiency in Medieval Latin?  If yes, then you may be interested in this fixed term full time post...
jobs.kent.ac.uk

Agreed - this is a brilliant lecture on a fab, important issue.

(Though it has surfaced memories of school meal horrors I had helpfully forgotten)
This evenings @royalhistsoc.org lecture is a tour de force on the history of free school meals, by Heather Ellis. What an incredible way to unpack emotion, education, poverty, and the purposes of the welfare state.

Reposted by Kate Bradley

This evenings @royalhistsoc.org lecture is a tour de force on the history of free school meals, by Heather Ellis. What an incredible way to unpack emotion, education, poverty, and the purposes of the welfare state.
British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line
On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...
www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Kate Bradley

- Within SPRE: Institutional statements will count for 60% of the mark, with 40% at Unit level
- Limited portability of longform / long-process works allowed for 5 yrs
- Maximum outputs recapped at 5 per person with no minimum
- Small units with <4.99 FTEs can be submitted

#Skystorians 3/3

Reposted by Kate Bradley

This morning Research England announced the end of its pause to REF2029 bit.ly/4oHh9wJ. The announcement includes changes to earlier plans and resumption of criteria setting by subject panels.

There's much to digest and we'll review and update with reference to the discipline of history 1/3
REF 2029 publishes updates and resumes criteria setting following pause  – REF 2029
bit.ly
We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social

'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.
Pitch my Project: an opportunity for early career historians to present their work at the Chalke History Festival 2026 - RHS
Have you ever wanted to share your research with a wide audience? Would you like to gain experience in public speaking, and be supported to develop imaginative ways to communicate your research to the...
bit.ly
Tomorrow's visit includes a public lecture, by @heatherlwellis.bsky.social (School of Education, University of Sheffield), on: 'Hunger, Health and Hope: A History of School Meals in Britain' bit.ly/3K8Utrd

Booking to attend the lecture online remains open: 6pm Wednesday 10 Dec #Skystorians 2/2
Hunger, Health and Hope: A History of School Meals in Britain, ONLINE
Royal Historical Society public lecture at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and UCL Institute of Education
bit.ly
Tomorrow we make our final Visit of 2025: to historians
@lshtm.bsky.social and @ioe.bsky.social.

Our focus is on working as a historian outside 'traditional' history departments - something that's increasingly common. The RHS welcomes historians to join us, wherever they work bit.ly/3KBcnTy 1/2

I’d photograph the Rubella Credit Card as it’s handy to have if your GP surgery has any questions about whether you need an MMR as an adult! They have been doing various sweeps to find people who need the shots…

The journey takes about 4.5 to 5 hours on the road each way, not counting breaks, and Metallica was 4 of those 9-10 hours. It definitely felt like 4 hours at the time…

You can see previous years, too… in Oct 2024, I listened to 246 minutes of Metallica, which is explained by my son repeatedly playing the same four songs (Sandman, Master of Puppets, Lux Æterna & For Whom the Bell Tolls) on our 600 mile round trip to my folks in Pembrokeshire that half term

Rounding off 2025 with the achievement of being in the top 500 listeners to Altern 8 on Apple Music. Didn’t think I’d spent *that* much time listening to anyone, but hours out marathon running will do that…

Top one, nice one, get sorted etc
It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.

Please share widely.

Same here - I studied Jumpers for A-level, and it was a genuine pleasure! Lines from it still live rent-free in my head nearly 30 years on…