sophie
@sophiecairns.bsky.social
130 followers 200 following 6 posts
AHRC english lit PhD researcher | glasgow | she/her research interests: long 19C literature, travel literature, history of empire & imperialism, romanticism, polar exploration usually found playing Baldur’s Gate 3 somewhere
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sophiecairns.bsky.social
Hi friends! I just wanted to share this fundraiser for Project Play, a charity supporting and advocating for refugee children living on the UK-France border.

All donations for the next two months will be doubled, please consider sparing a few pounds if you can ❤️

www.justgiving.com/page/project...
Play it Forward! DOUBLE the donation, DOUBLE the play, DOUBLE the impact!
Help Project Play raise money to support ForRefugees
www.justgiving.com
Reposted by sophie
dimitrafimi.bsky.social
If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:

fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social
Reposted by sophie
hannahkateboast.bsky.social
In case anyone hasn't already seen: 34 of the Gaza students with scholarships at UK institutions arrived this week, including a student who is due to start a PhD with me at Edinburgh. I'm so grateful to everyone who helped with this - thousands of people. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘A surreal journey’: Palestinian students evacuated from Gaza arrive in UK
First 34 students, who have full scholarships, welcomed after months of campaigning by academics and others
www.theguardian.com
sophiecairns.bsky.social
embarrassing
ox.ac.uk
NEW: Oxford will be the first UK university to give all staff and students free ChatGPT Edu access, from this academic year.

ChatGPT Edu is built for education, with enhanced privacy and security.
Graphic from the University of Oxford, featuring an image of a glowing, digital brain with the text: 'Generative AI at Oxford'. Highlights that ChatGPT Edu is now available to all staff and students. Includes a link for more information: ox.ac.uk/gen-ai
Reposted by sophie
mrfw17thc.bsky.social
Still don't understand why they made the Hobbit movies when what the world really needs is a trilogy of films about Gandalf's 17-year archive trip to Minas Tirith.
sophiecairns.bsky.social
Very excited and grateful to have been given the chance to present at the ‘Journeys of Curiosity’ symposium, where I’ll be chatting a bit about curiosity, the sublime, and imperial anxieties in Romantic travel accounts of the Himalayas. Really looking forward to hearing all the other papers as well!
curioustravellers.bsky.social
Curious Travellers are delighted to be partnering with the long-running Liverpool Travel Seminar to host an Early Career Symposium dedicated to ‘Journeys of Curiosity’

Bluecoat, Liverpool, 25/09. Free (including lunch), registration by September 19th

curioustravellers.ac.uk/journeys-of-...
‘Journeys of Curiosity’ Early Career Symposium – 25/09/2025 | Curious Travellers
curioustravellers.ac.uk
sophiecairns.bsky.social
massive congratulations Cleo!🎉
Reposted by sophie
rfergussonpoet.bsky.social
We're very excited to announce that our wonderful exhibition 'Celebrating the Scottish Poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)' with the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, has been turned into an online exhibition!

Check it out at the link below: robert-fergusson.glasgow.ac.uk/online-exhib...
Reposted by sophie
hannahkateboast.bsky.social
John Swinney criticises UK government's refusal to help Gaza students with offers at Scottish universities. Students have places at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Dundee. 'Scotland is ready to welcome these students': www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...
Swinney warns UK Government risking lives by failing dozens of Gazan students
The First Minster said the decision to only evacuate nine people was incomprehensible
www.dailyrecord.co.uk
sophiecairns.bsky.social
Hi friends! I just wanted to share this fundraiser for Project Play, a charity supporting and advocating for refugee children living on the UK-France border.

All donations for the next two months will be doubled, please consider sparing a few pounds if you can ❤️

www.justgiving.com/page/project...
Play it Forward! DOUBLE the donation, DOUBLE the play, DOUBLE the impact!
Help Project Play raise money to support ForRefugees
www.justgiving.com
Reposted by sophie
Reposted by sophie
sineadcarter.bsky.social
I'm looking for participants for my oral history on space and feminism! Please share with anybody you feel may have contacts and email me if you have any questions or would like to get involved: [email protected]
As part of my PhD research on space (i.e the built environment/social space) and feminism during the British Women’s Liberation Movement, I’m looking for oral history participants to interview about their experiences. You don’t need to have thought about space and your activism- I’m just interested in your experiences! If you were involved in Reclaim the Night, squatting/housing activism, or feminist architecture from c.1968-1990 (ish), you can contact me on this platform or email me: sinead.carter@pgr.reading.ac.uk. Please share with anyone you think may have contacts!
Reposted by sophie
trevorabranch.bsky.social
Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...
Call for Support: – About BHL
about.biodiversitylibrary.org
sophiecairns.bsky.social
Project Play’s new report highlights the “devastating impact of record child fatalities and increasing violence against children on the UK-France border”.

Please give the report a read and see their website for more information on their work and ways to help.

www.project-play.org/we-want-to-b...
We Want to Be Safe | Project Play Website
www.project-play.org
Reposted by sophie
themerl.bsky.social
we welcome anyone affected by the 28 Days Later rage virus to come and enjoy a relaxing visitor experience at The Museum of English Rural Life. however we politely request all infected to avoid running in the galleries, use indoor voices, and refrain from being so completely uncontrollable
Reposted by sophie
zarahsultana.bsky.social
David Cameron — and every UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza — must be investigated for war crimes.
Reposted by sophie
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
“Oxford and Cambridge will come through this OK because they have other sources of funding...But we may well see a serious contraction of humanities postgraduate research training…That would be devastating for the vibrant national system that we’ve built in recent decades.” @mcraeandrew.bsky.social
Will funding cuts devalue arts and humanities PhDs in the UK?
From next year, the AHRC will fund vastly fewer student-initiated PhDs, focusing more of its reduced funding on specific challenges. Critics say this will undo a decade of improvements in PhD supervis...
www.timeshighereducation.com
Reposted by sophie
lottelydia.bsky.social
Antarctic expeditions were clearly part of the colonial project, not least in the framing as conquering the last unclaimed land, and in the way that they were used to demonstrate specific qualities of colonial masculinity. Historians don’t say that to denigrate Scott. They say it because it’s true.
Reposted by sophie
curioustravellers.bsky.social
📢 CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS 📢 [Please Share Widely!]

Picturing Pennant is a new crowdsourcing project to "tag" the illustrations in Thomas Pennant's eighteenth-century Tours of Wales and Scotland.

Can you help us identify the places, people, and much more in these wonderful illustrated volumes?
Crowdsourcing the Extra Illustrated Tours of Wales and Scotland - Picturing Pennant: The Extra Illustrated Tours of Wales and Scotland: a crowdsourcing project
torf2.llyfrgell.cymru
sophiecairns.bsky.social
my favourite podcast releasing a series on my latest research interest is a great way to start 2025!

Imperial botany features heavily in many of the exploration & travel narratives I’m analysing as part of my PhD, so very much looking forward to listening to this series.
anitaanand.bsky.social
Our new series launches today!

🌵🪴🌴EMPIRE OF PLANTS 🌴🪴🌵

How did plants power imperialism?

In our first episode, @sathnam.bsky.social joins @willdalrymple.bsky.social and @anitaanand.bsky.social to discuss the colonial history of Kew Gardens...