Dr Ellen Smith
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ellencssmith.bsky.social
Dr Ellen Smith
@ellencssmith.bsky.social
Historian of modern Britain and colonial South Asia, postdoc, University of Bristol. Interested in all things letters, India, family history, memory https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/ellen-smith
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Hello! Finally kicking off this new account! Happy to share my latest article on correspondence and the 1857 Indian Rebellion, out now with @jbritishstudies.bsky.social open access. Lots on letters, newspapers, colonial anxiety and archives in British India ✉️ 📝📫📰
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
“Pregnant with the Interests of Life and Death”: Family Correspondence and the British Imperial News Sphere during the 1857 Indian Rebellion | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core
“Pregnant with the Interests of Life and Death”: Family Correspondence and the British Imperial News Sphere during the 1857 Indian Rebellion
www.cambridge.org
"Interested in getting involved as well? Have you recently found or inherited letters written by ancestors who went out to India in the 1800s or 1900s? Please get in touch with me if you would be willing to share your family histories or letters"...
✍️ Dr @ellencssmith.bsky.social (@uobrishistory.bsky.social) introduces us to her Imperial Letters project which explores how the correspondence of British families in India shaped public opinion of empire in the 19th & 20th centuries

Find out more this South Asian Heritage Month 👉 bit.ly/45chAIX
August 12, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
'Two of four autobiographical volumes were discovered by Cordelia Beattie, a history professor at the University of Edinburgh. One was handed by a descendant of Thornton to Beattie’s father in a pub in Ludlow, Shropshire, and the second was unearthed in the library of Durham Cathedral.'
Woman’s memoirs give fascinating insight into life in 17th-century northern England
Newly reunited manuscripts by Alice Thornton show how she navigated personal crises during tumultuous events such as the civil war
www.theguardian.com
August 4, 2025 at 6:12 AM
A truly remarkable resource. ⬇️ Please check out 'South Asian Britain' a free database that explores South Asian lives in the UK. It felt really special to research some of the entries, even for the very short time I worked with this amazing team! @remakingbritain.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social 👏 👏👏
We are proud to announce that South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories, a landmark educational website on the histories of South Asians in Britain, is now live!

Visit southasianbritain.org

@qmul.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social #AHRC @uobartsmatter.bsky.social
July 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
Have you ever heard of the Manchester Mummy?

Join us at Manchester Museum for the launch of 'Unburied' by @shewolfmanc.bsky.social to find out the true story of how Hannah Beswick became mummified.

11th June - FREE tickets here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/unbur...
May 11, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
New article klaxon - co-written with Dominique Moran, @yvonnejewkes.bsky.social and Jennifer Turner:

'Living between inside and outside: the disciplined domesticities of prison staff quarters in the UK’s Victorian-era prisons' www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Living between inside and outside: the disciplined domesticities of prison staff quarters in the UK’s Victorian-era prisons
Carceral geography has critiqued the notion of a clear binary between the inside and outside of prisons, revealing that the prison boundary is porous and that the prison materializes in multiple fo...
www.tandfonline.com
May 9, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
📄 New article:

Colonialism continues to shape the project of European human rights. In this article I trace the continuity of civilizational hierarchies in the ECtHR’s case-law on extraterritoriality and European consensus

Available in EJIL @ejiltalk.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/ejil/advance...
April 29, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
The submission website for the International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association's new peer-review journal *Advances in Nineteenth-Century Research* is now online. We welcome submissions of all kinds. Get in touch if you have an idea for a special issue!
www.tandfonline.com/journals/ran...
Advances in Nineteenth-Century Research
Explore the latest peer-reviewed articles and learn how to publish your work in Advances in Nineteenth-Century Research.
www.tandfonline.com
April 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith

Today is International Day for Maternal Health and Rights.

From the archive, Mrunmayee Satam on the life and work of Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar, a social reformer and one of the earliest women physicians in India in the early 20th century ✊🗃:

www.historyworkshop....
Reforming Medicine: Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar
A look at the lives of early women physicians in India reveals the impact of social reform in on health outcomes. Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar, who transformed maternal and infant health in the state of Kolhapur, is such a trailblazing woman, as…
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
April 11, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
Roses, shells, insects. Beautiful study by Jan van Kessel, who was born on this day 1626. In Antwerp.
April 5, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Wonderful images of the letters to accompany the article! Thanks @salvarmyarchive.bsky.social ⬇️
Brilliant to see this article by @ellencssmith.bsky.social in print. Ellen used some of the letters we hold from Wilhelmina Murray written during the 1857 Indian Rebellion. One of our lesser-known collections!
April 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
We're hosting a workshop on 'South Asian Women's Activism and Agency' on Thursday 8th May (draft programme below). We're delighted to have a brilliant group of speakers joining us. Our keynotes will be Amrit Wilson and Samita Sen. If you would like to join us, please get in touch to register.
March 24, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
British History from the Middle of Nowhere
Julia Laite (Birkbeck UoL)
1 May 2025, 6.00pm Venue: Queen Mary, University of London, E1
HistoryMiddleNowhereRSML25.eventbrite.co.uk
@qmcbs.bsky.social @mileendinstitute.bsky.social
@bbkhistorical.bsky.social @qmpoliticsir.bsky.social
March 20, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
Just published - ‘Some people talk about children as though they’re completely different’: hospital art, architecture and design for children in modern Britain'. (1/2) mh.bmj.com/content/earl...
‘Some people talk about children as though they’re completely different’: hospital art, architecture and design for children in modern Britain
Children’s hospitals are often thought to be special places, marked by particular attention to emotions and careful consideration of inclusive design. Photographs of children’s hospitals, or design fo...
mh.bmj.com
April 3, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Ellen Smith
Call for Papers: 'Mobilising Imperial History: Crime, Policing and Control in the British Empire' bit.ly/3Ye0Pco

Dr Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (Kent) will host a workshop on 15 July. Calls for papers are now invited. This event is supported by the Society's Workshop Grants scheme for 24-25 #skystorians
April 3, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Hello! Finally kicking off this new account! Happy to share my latest article on correspondence and the 1857 Indian Rebellion, out now with @jbritishstudies.bsky.social open access. Lots on letters, newspapers, colonial anxiety and archives in British India ✉️ 📝📫📰
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
“Pregnant with the Interests of Life and Death”: Family Correspondence and the British Imperial News Sphere during the 1857 Indian Rebellion | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core
“Pregnant with the Interests of Life and Death”: Family Correspondence and the British Imperial News Sphere during the 1857 Indian Rebellion
www.cambridge.org
April 2, 2025 at 7:50 AM