Charlotte Lydia Riley
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lottelydia.bsky.social
Charlotte Lydia Riley
@lottelydia.bsky.social
25K followers 1.3K following 5.7K posts
Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain (Penguin 2023)/An Alternative History of the British Empire (HUP 2024). Is Free Speech Under Threat? (2024).

https://linktr.ee/charlottelydiariley

repped by Carrie Plitt @FBA
views are all mine 💫
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lottelydia.bsky.social
Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · Oct 20
🥳
historyatsoton.bsky.social University of Southampton History Department @historyatsoton.bsky.social · Oct 16
We’re thrilled to celebrate our colleague @lottelydia.bsky.social, whose book Imperial Island (Harvard University Press, 2024) has just been awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize by the American Historical Association! This prestigious award acknowledges Charlotte’s thought-provoking work.
American Historical Association Announces 2025 Prize Winners – AHA
The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes.
www.historians.org
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
kieranhurley.bsky.social
incredible quote lol
When a doctor told me I’d come close to dying, and that the play had to stop using real knives, I remember thinking: “You just don’t understand theatre.”
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
danielsohege.bsky.social
So how exactly are they meant to get to them? Many are placed in areas without accessible transport links. They can't afford to pay for journeys themselves because of how little support they get.
Yet again Labour choosing to pander to Reform than think of consequences.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Government to ban asylum seekers from using taxis
The ban is set to come in February and any exemptions will have to be signed off by the Home Office.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
mattlodder.com
It costs TWO HUNDRED POUNDS to get a morning train from Manchester to London???!!!
November 29, 2025 at 8:14 AM
lottelydia.bsky.social
why on earth would you provoke the bishops like this
November 28, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social
Home Office #HostileEnvironment - seems nothing has changed

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK rejects visa for girl left destitute in Jamaica by Hurricane Melissa
Lati-Yana Brown’s parents had asked for application to be expedited so she could join them in UK after house ruined
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
willpooley.bsky.social
And reminder that among the amazing things about Paper Trails, the variety of formats the BOOC invites is very expansive 🗃️
Research stories (8-10,000 words): We encourage a focus on research stories to invite a more reflective methodology, offering a more inclusive and engaged commentary on the work involved in researching, ordering, and preserving the past. This section will consist of double-blind peer-reviewed academic articles. • Co-Production (flexible word count): Outputs from projects in which non-academic partners, undergraduate and taught postgraduate participants collaborate with others (collection professionals, academics, members of the public etc) to create new work that is based on research collections. • Collection Profiles (500 words): This stream consists of shorter, descriptive or even narrative pieces that highlight items or collections of interest. This may be a prelude to a piece of in-depth research, but it does not necessarily need to be. • Engagement (2,000 words): Reflective pieces that focus on a broad range of engagement activities, from the professional's perspective. These can be case studies, or 'think pieces' on particular skills or techniques. They should inform professional practice.
November 28, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
willpooley.bsky.social
What makes historic collections difficult? And how do researchers work with “difficult” collections?

New CFP from Paper Trails here:

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
Call for Papers: Difficult Collections | UCL UCL Special Collections
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
darach.bsky.social
Myers Briggs test for Irish men:
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
nfornihilism.net
what i love is that in 1990 judas priest got brought to trial over the claim that subliminal messages in the recording "better by you better than me" caused two suicides and now in 2025 openai seems to be generating a suicide a week with its superliminal messages and the US government is funding it
November 27, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Maybe they should consider changing the name of the party..

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Labour ditches day-one protection from unfair dismissal in U-turn
The right will now be introduced after six months, in a breach of Labour's election manifesto.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
flyingrodent.bsky.social
As noted elsewhere: is somebody going to ask Michael Gove about this, or should we chuck it on top of the big pile of things Michael Gove doesn’t get asked about
Not only has the Spectator allowed a convicted sex offender to write for their latest issue, they've allowed him to portray his sexual offending as this launch them into marriage tend to be less durable than a secondhand Mercedes. Furthermore, I have taken it as my mission to publicly defend that most marginalised of contemporary species, the ardent womaniser. I have accepted the inevitable slings and arrows and lived with the consequences. True enough, when my Esquire column was terminated, I didn't take it particularly well. For a week I drank, and for the week after that, I chased after girls well below my usual standard. But then, facing matters head on, I accepted that this was the hack's life, sobered up, and went back to my wife and children. And cest tout. , Becky Paton @rpaton11 • 21h Why the actual fuck does the Spectator still employ Taki, a man recently convicted of attempted rape? x.com/spectator/stat... 01:44 • 27/11/2025 • 17K Views
November 27, 2025 at 7:25 PM
lottelydia.bsky.social
guys please don’t make me side with Rutger Bregman I’m begging you
November 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM
lottelydia.bsky.social
Taking bets on who this was? I’ve got my guesses for both of them tbh.
tomhulme.bsky.social Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · 2d
I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”
plashingvole.bsky.social Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2d
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
November 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
equusonthebuses.bsky.social
I once went to a debate between Bourdieu and Hobsbawm. Audience question about the difference between a French and a British intellectual. Bourdieu wittered on for ages. Then Hobsbawm stood up and said “There is no such thing as a British intellectual” and sat down again to much applause.
plashingvole.bsky.social Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2d
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
sanho.bsky.social Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 3d
This path leads to chaos.
November 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
threadotweets.bsky.social
lauren @NotABigJerk For everyone visiting their parents this week: LG tvs call it TrueMotion Roku/TCL calls it Action Smoothing Samsung calls it Auto Motion Plus Sony calls it MotionFlow Panasonic calls it Intelligent Frame Creation Amazon Fire TVs call it Motion Processing 12/25/22
March 1, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
jaywillis.net
This is a lot, but (allegedly) Olivia Nuzzi sent a secret recorder with a sketch artist to tape Trump at Mar-a-Lago so she could feed campaign intel to RFK, where [pauses to take a breath] something Trump said about his assassination attempt “would shatter our understanding of recent history”??
Olivia had a brilliant plan to help secure Trump's cooperation with her article. She convinced New York magazine to commission artist Isabelle Brourman to draw a portrait of Trump to accompany the piece. Trump had taken a liking to Izzy when she worked as a sketch artist during his Manhattan trial, and Olivia figured he would enjoy having her around him. She was right. But Olivia was excluded from Izzy's key session with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and so Olivia adjusted the plan. She sent Izzy inside Trump's Palm Beach compound with a recorder in her bag, which rolled as Izzy drew Trump, who was taking campaign meetings with the likes of Matt Gaetz, Susie Wiles, and others. With any luck, Olivia would capture some great material for her piece and some intel for Bobby as he negotiated the endorsement. According to Olivia, when Izzy left the session, Izzy was hung up on something she believed Trump might have said about Butler, Pennsylvania-something explosive that, if she were correct, would shatter our understanding of recent history.
November 26, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
brianphillips.bsky.social
Sure, you can make it sound weird if you try, but who among us HASN'T sent a courtroom sketch artist into Mar-A-Lago with a concealed tape recorder in order to secretly record the president's conversations with an eye toward helping our sexting partner, the nation's dangerous anti-vax crusader and s
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
simonlester.com
“'I had to take our baby from my crying wife’s arms,' Mr. Paul, 33, said, recalling the moment that agents said they were arresting his wife, Katie."
dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social Jessica Cale @dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social · 2d
I need everybody to read this and understand what’s going on. These are spouses of US citizens in the country legally. They have entry clearance and green cards, they’ve passed background checks and have no criminal records. ICE is taking them anyway.

Gift link:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
vgravey.bsky.social
With every outright racist things he says I think back to his former students and colleagues at a pretty diverse university who had to work with someone who clearly did not respect or value them.
drjennings.bsky.social Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 3d
Reflections on the budget from the head of Students4Reform
November 26, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
lmao
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 PM
lottelydia.bsky.social
LIBRARIES EXIST. if you want to read my book for free that is absolutely fine by me, and you can go to a library and take it home and make a note of anything that’s interesting, and then return it and someone else can do the same. And doing that will help your local library AND I’ll earn a tiny fee.
deathbybadger.bsky.social Oliver Darkshire @deathbybadger.bsky.social · 2d
I see the book piracy discourse is back and as a writer I only have one opinion which is that yea I would actually quite like to earn a comfortable life doing an easy, likeable creative job, I don't think the world owes that to me, but it would be nice, and it's not an insane thing to want
November 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
sundersays.bsky.social
Nus Ghani MP - the Deputy Speaker - moved to the UK as a small child. She has been elected by the voters in Wealden in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2024

More outright racism from the regular GB News & Talk TV contributor Lucy White - who previously called (on GB News) for all Muslims to leave Britain
November 26, 2025 at 9:54 PM
lottelydia.bsky.social
For a small fee, I will go to your historian enemy’s seminar presentation and say “I guess I’m just wondering what the “so what” of this paper is?”
November 26, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
threadotweets.bsky.social
dave karpf @davekarpf Aug 26, 2019 This afternoon, I tweeted a brief joke about a well-known NYT op- Ed columnist. It got 9 likes and 0 retweets. I did not @ him. He does not follow me. He just emailed me, cc'ing my university provost. He is deeply offended that I called him a metaphorical bedbug. Alright fine... here is the email: (Screenshot of the email from Bret Stephens) From Bret Stephens, New York Times Stephens, Bret< to dkarpf, gwprovost 9:10 PM (59 minutes ago) Dear Dr. Karpf, Someone just pointed out a tweet you wrote about me, calling me a "bedbug." I'm often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people -- people they've never met -- on Twitter. I think you've set a new standard. I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for for a few minutes, and then call me a "bedbug" to my face. That would take some genuine courage and intellectual integrity on your part. I promise to be courteous no matter what you have to say. Maybe it will make you feel better about yourself. Please consider this a standing invitation. You are more than welcome to bring your significant other. Cordially, Bret Stephens (Top of screenshot of Prof. Karpf’s original quote-tweet) Dave Karpf @davekarpf The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens. Stuart A. Thompson @stuartathompson Breaking-There are bedbugs in the NYT newsroom.
March 13, 2025 at 10:17 PM