Peter Mandler
petermandler.bsky.social
Peter Mandler
@petermandler.bsky.social
Fellow, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Closing date 31 January: applications are now invited for the Society's new Applied History Fellowships with
@ihr.bsky.social & DC Thomson: bit.ly/4ijiuII

Fellowships support recent post-doc historians and demonstrate the appeal of historical skills for employers. £12,000 for 6 months #Skystorians
Society launches call for new Applied History Fellowships, with the Institute of Historical Research and DC Thomson - RHS
In November 2025, the Society joins with partners the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and publisher DC Thomson to launch a new Applied History Fellowship programme to support recent post-doctor...
bit.ly
January 22, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
PhD funding for early career historians completing a doctorate.

Applications are invited for the Society's Centenary PhD Fellowships for the academic year 2026-27 bit.ly/49MzqmT.

Two awards of £8500 per student, held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians
January 22, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Insightful analysis of the challenges facing recent graduates told from the perspective of one my former students when I was at UCL (who was brilliant).

Link free to read for first three people:

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
The great graduate job drought
Economic uncertainty and the arrival of AI have brought a reduction in entry-level roles, with potentially disastrous consequences for young people
giftarticle.ft.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
'Several universities’ undergraduate student intakes fell by between 20 and 30 per cent for this academic year, as many elite institutions reported record numbers.' Sector as a whole accepted 2% more students. Russell Group up 9% (29% of all UK enrolments). 1/3
Intakes down by a third at some providers, latest Ucas data show
Half of Russell Group universities accept record number of undergraduates, according to end-of-cycle admissions figures
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
'To speak of the “demise” of the UK university is not to suggest its disappearance, but its transformation into something increasingly unrecognisable.'

Wise words, these. 1/3
Why are UK universities failing? - LSE Impact
The HE sector in the UK faces the prospect of a university going into administration. How have universities fallen so low and is change possible?
blogs.lse.ac.uk
January 21, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Prof @petermandler.bsky.social will give the James Ford Lectures 2026 @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social

Peter Mandler will chart the spread & use of the language of social science into everyday life in 20th-century Britain.

Thursdays, 5pm
Weeks 1-6 Hilary Term

🔗 www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-l...
The James Ford Lectures in British History
The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life - Peter Mandler (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge)
www.history.ox.ac.uk
January 21, 2026 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Reposted by Peter Mandler
This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo
January 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Older generations spent a lot less time parenting. Millennial dads spend nearly as much time parenting as Boomer moms did. Millennial and Gen X moms way more.

via The Economist
January 15, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
This intro to David Frost's Telegraph column sums up so much that is wrong with British politics.
January 16, 2026 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
“More videos are likely to emerge, but the visual evidence shows no indication that the agent who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, had been run over” (Gift link)
Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research.

We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
January 15, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
The BFI Southbank season linked to Magic Rays of Light continues tomorrow, Thursday 15 January, with two remarkable broadcasts. My blog post is the text of the programme note that I have compiled for the evening.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/magic-rays-o...
Magic Rays of Light at BFI Southbank 2. - Illuminations
John Wyver writes: The BFI Southbank season continues tomorrow, Thursday 15 January, with an early evening screening in NFT2 of two remarkable programmes. First is a 1970 edition of the BBC2 arts maga...
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk
January 14, 2026 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
We’ve got a stellar lineup for this term’s Modern British History Seminar in Oxford. Do come along if you’re around!

talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/series...
January 14, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
'If he [Ian Chapman] doesn’t succeed, a future right-wing UK government may find this big, visible pot of science and research funding an all-too-tempting target, just as president Donald Trump did in the United States.'

Sadly, seriously true. But this could also happen if UKRI flourishes. 2/2
January 14, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
wokeness was exactly the same as the new left, a groundswell of concern about structural inequalities that got completely devoured by marketing and became synonymous with extreme individualism and self promotion
One of the most contradictory and frustrating aspects of the first Woke Era was that people talked a lot about structural injustices but seemed way more concerned with policing personal behaviour
January 13, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
The official explanation they’re apparently going with here is that they aren’t 100% convinced that breathing soot and ozone is actually bad for you.
January 12, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Minister of State Alex Norris tells the BBC he won't personally come off X because it's important for communicating with voters.

None of his tweets for the last month has more than 1000 views.
January 13, 2026 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Inside this isolated rural church is a magnificent and potentially unique medieval treasure.

This is St Peulan's, Llanbeulan on Anglesey, which was founded in the 7th century.

1/8
January 12, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Good reading.

'How the financial problem is described is not neutral. It reflects and reinforces a particular way of understanding what a university is....If the financial situation is framed as a classic demand-and-cost problem....the obvious actions are to emphasise tight cost controls'. 1/4
WEEKEND READING: What if, in trying to ‘fix’ universities, we are quietly unmaking them? - HEPI
Join HEPI and Advance HE for a webinar onTuesday, 13 January 2026, from 11am to 12pm, exploring what higher education can learn from leadership approaches in other sectors. Sign up here to hear this a...
www.hepi.ac.uk
January 10, 2026 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!
January 9, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
‘Contra the narrow focus of policymakers on Stem subjects or coding, now more than ever our economy rewards broad skillsets: team players, problem solvers, good communicators and creative thinkers.’ @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
www.ft.com/content/5e25...
How to AI-proof your job
The data suggests soft skills more than quantitative competency equal success in a rapidly changing labour market
www.ft.com
January 10, 2026 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
How do you become a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society? What kinds of activity lead to Fellowship?

RHS Fellows are elected for their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'. We've a new guide to the many ways Fellows achieve and demonstrate this bit.ly/48mpcJa

#Skystorians 1/2
January 9, 2026 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
Nice bit of digital humanities here - using AI to transcribe more than 32,000 manuscripts in the space of a few months. But with two years of preparation in training the model and creating standards for automating manuscript transcription
www.inria.fr/en/comma-med...
CoMMA: thousands of medieval manuscripts finally transcribed
Transcribing thousands of medieval manuscripts by hand would be a monumental undertaking. Fortunately, researchers in computational humanities at the Inria Paris Centre have been able to automate the ...
www.inria.fr
January 9, 2026 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Peter Mandler
PGA golfer, Scottie Scheffler was arrested for striking an officer with his car in a similar incident to the Minnesota woman. Scottie also was clearly moving away from the cop and the cop hung on to his car. Charges declined by DA next day and no one shot him.
January 8, 2026 at 10:37 AM