Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Society for the Study of Labour History @sslh.bsky.social · 4d

New on the website
Remembering to Help, Helping to Remember, an exhibition funded by an SSLH grant, has opened at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool
sslh.org.uk/2025/10/04/e...

Exhibition: working-class community and mutual aid during the First World War

Remembering to Help, Helping to Remember, an exhibition funded by an SSLH grant, has opened at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool. Michael Reeve reports. Stories of the struggles, heroism and s…

sslh.org.uk

1 3

Reposted by Michael Reeve

History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · 3d

HL+ committee members Dr Alex Rigg & Dr Michael Reeve have written a blogpost about the Teaching in a Time of Crisis Conference 2025 at University of Warwick. Have a read! historylab.plus/blog/

@historyuk.bsky.social @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social @alexriggsby.bsky.social @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social

blog

About | Events | Meet us | Contact | Join BLOG: Teaching in a Time of Crisis conference, 29 May 2025 – reasons to be cheerful? Alex Riggs Regional Ambassador, Midlands and Michael Reeve Co-Ch…

historylab.plus

4 6

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Richard Carr @richardcarr.bsky.social · Jan 15

This is both an incredibly niche thing but I think it should be more of a thing. Caffè Nero subscribes to the British Newspaper Archive so it’s all free on their wifi. There. I said it.

46 440 1.2K

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 6d

ICYMI on Tuesday, here's my *new* and *free* short-form summary of what's gone wrong in our universities. This is something of a last word really, because unless the Budget and White Paper do something really radical, the fate of much HE is already sealed.
politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...

Where now for Britain’s Universities?

UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.

politicalquarterly.org.uk

24 44

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 19d

I wrote this short blog on the discriminatory demobilisation of French colonial troops for the Returning Soldier network: returningsoldier.co.uk/2025/09/18/n...

No Right to Return or Remain: French Colonial Soldiers and Discriminatory Demobilization

This post explores experiences of veterancy for those who had served in France’s colonial Forces.

returningsoldier.co.uk

15 30

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 17d

Join me on Nov 13 for my talk:

A Recipe for Resistance? Vegetarianism and Ethics in the anti-Nazi Underground.

My alternative title was: First add oats, then kill Hitler.

Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 20d

A great lineup for this semester's Department of History Research Seminar in Maynooth. This is open to all so do join us and please share widely.

1 5 32

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 9d

Available here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/wellbeing...

Well-being Past and Present

In this exciting interdisciplinary volume, researchers, archivists, curators and social scientists offer a fresh exploration of the concept of well-being in Bri…

www.bloomsbury.com

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 9d

Chuffed to have received my copy of this book edited by @siobhanhyland.bsky.social & colleagues at @uninorthampton.bsky.social. I have a chapter in it about the health discourses surrounding smoking & alcohol during the First World War. A great variety of other interdisciplinary work in there too.

2 2 11

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 9d

The modern world in old Ladybird books.

"Carriages get very dirty inside from all the tobacco ash"

(On the Railways, 1972)
Artist: John Berry

A photo realistic illustration of a woman in overalls, hoovering and deep cleaning the fabric seats of a railway carriage

14 43 320

Reposted by Michael Reeve

OldRailwayAccidents @rwldproject.bsky.social · 10d

As the cinders cool from yesterday's 200th anniversary Stockton & Darlington celebrations, find out more about railway work, the people who did it, & the risks they faced in our HUGE thread.

👇

#Railway200

OldRailwayAccidents (@rwldproject.bsky.social)

200 for #Railway200 - a new thread! We're 200 days out from the 200th anniversary of the 1st passenger journey on the Stockton & Darlington Railway, on 27 September 1825. To mark it, we'll post a…

bsky.app

4 8

Reposted by Michael Reeve

History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · 13d

Our next FREE #HL+DocsCom event is TODAY! Join Co-Chairs @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social & @northumbriauni.bsky.social's Kathy Davies in the McMordie Room @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social from 11:30 for tea & inspiration: the amazing @sophcocooper.bsky.social will be talking 'From ECR to Senior Lecturer'!

1 3 9

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

The exhibition is open now at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool - a hidden gem if you've never been! The museum is open Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. More info here: www.heughbattery.co.uk

Heugh Battery – The Only First World War Battlefield in the UK

www.heughbattery.co.uk

2

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

The historical interpretation is based on my research, but it was definitely a team effort - museum manager Diane Stephens made it happen and the whole thing looks so good thanks to designer Phil Eldridge. Thanks again to the @sslh.bsky.social for their generous grant.

1 2

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

...fixture in Hartlepool from 1915 until well into the interwar years. So, out of destruction came solidarity and mutual aid which, over time, dovetailed into memorialisation. It's an interesting story that has not been told before in the museum. There is a fuller story in a tie-in booklet...

1 4

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

...the bravery of ordinary passers by and health workers. After the initial response, there were local efforts to commemorate the events, which folded into processes of charitable fundraising for the hospitals that helped those injured in the bombardment.
'Thank-offering Days' became a regular...

1 2

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

Finally launched 'Remembering to Help, Helping to Remember' at the weekend - a new exhibition about #FWW civilian experience in Hartlepool following the Dec 1914 naval bombardment of the town (with a generous grant from @sslh.bsky.social). It covers the emergency response to the attack, including...

A view of the gallery space at the Heugh Battery Museum

Historian Michael Reeve stood in the gallery space at the Heugh Battery Museum

The tie-in booklet that accompanies the exhibition

2 4 12

Michael Reeve @drmichaelreeve.bsky.social · 14d

Looking forward to heading over to Belfast for this @historylabplus.bsky.social event! Great opportunity to meet other early-career historians, chat about research and do some fun stuff too (like a museum tour and our 'History Open Mic'). There's still time to sign up, if you can make it.

Sarah Wride @srwride.bsky.social · Aug 5

Calling all #Skystorians in/near Belfast on 25 September! 👇This @historylabplus.bsky.social event w/ @qubhistory.bsky.social's AMAZING @mauricejcasey.com
& @sophcocooper.bsky.social is not to be missed!

#AcademicSky
#PhDSky
#ECRs
#Archives
(For any & all help w/ spreading the word...thank you!)

History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · Aug 5

Event announcement! 📣

HL+ Network Northern Ireland 2025 🤝

Join HL+ and friends for a day of social opportunities and academic and public history sessions that will bring the ECR community together in Belfast.

Thursday 25th September - 11:15am to 9pm.

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

2 2

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 26d

Belfast! Come join me as we collaboratively imagine the concept of a History Open Mic night.

I'll be sharing some of my "Too-Spicy for Social Media" Historical Hot Takes and outlining the MCCU (the Maurice Casey Cinematic Universe - which is not just a conceited term for early C20th Europe!)

History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · 27d

As part of our Network Northern Ireland 2025 event @mauricejcasey.com will be hosting our latest History Open Mic Night w/ special guests at The Pavillion pub in Belfast. Open to all.

2 11

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Ben Mechen @benmechen.bsky.social · 21d

A good summary of how it’s going. Finished my PhD 9 years ago and am still stringing things together. As the first Anon says, what does ECR (or Mid-career) even mean anymore? That kind of career linearity depends on first vaulting over the fault line of secure/insecure - now a nearly impossible task

will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 21d

“Cataclysmically bad”

This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.

1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/

🗃️

ECR in 2025: Part One- What is it like? – SSFH

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk

2 14 39

Reposted by Michael Reeve

History Lab Plus @historylabplus.bsky.social · 27d

As part of our Network Northern Ireland 2025 event @mauricejcasey.com will be hosting our latest History Open Mic Night w/ special guests at The Pavillion pub in Belfast. Open to all.

1 6 13

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Jarrett Walker @humantransit.bsky.social · 27d

Did I get all of Britain's main architectural styles in one photo here? Exchange Square, Manchester.

8 14 140

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Mark Burnley @drmarkburnley.bsky.social · 26d

In most places, the majority of research is done by PhD students. Much of that unfunded or internally funded. Research culture dies without them.

Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 26d

Historian of science here: it’s worth pointing out that getting paid for doing research is a fairly recent thing. William Harvey did his research as a hobby, as it were. So did Charles Darwin.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

2 2 6

Reposted by Michael Reeve

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 26d

'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”'

Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

18 89 240

Reposted by Michael Reeve

International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social · Sep 5

We are delighted to share the details for this year's Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture 'Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War' to be delivered by @juliarsct.bsky.social on 11th Nov 2025

You can book to attend in person or online:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remembranc... 🗃️

This year the event is also the Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture, selected by the International Society for First World War Studies. Named after Dennis Showalter, the leading historian of Germany during the war and a longtime friend and supporter of the Society it is delivered each year by a leading early career researcher in First World War Studies.

The event is held in the Rivers Suite at Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart Campus (Google map | travel info). There will be a wine reception from 5.30pm; the lecture will start around 6pm. The event will also be streamed online via Zoom.

If you have any queries about the event, please contact Dr Andrew Frayn (a.frayn@napier.ac.uk).

This event is both in person and online. If you wish to attend online, please buy an 'online Ticket'. Zoom information will be found in the email confirmations.

1 10 18

Reposted by Michael Reeve

International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social · 28d

New bibliography entry: Otto Dix and the Great War: Reality, Memory, and the Construction of Identity in The Trench (1923) and the Portfolio The War (1924) ift.tt/891wvDU #FWWstudies

Zotero | Your personal research assistant

ift.tt

1 1