Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 20h

Get to this if you can! I’m excited to read the book which ‘brings together forgotten scientific and surgical discoveries (including previously untranslated archival material from Berlin) with the politics and social history that galvanised the first stirrings of the trans rights movement.’

Brandy Schillace @bschillace.brandyschillace.com · 20h

Hey #London! I shall be with you soon--and there will be a fab event (with drinks reception) at Kings: please register and join me!
www.kcl.ac.uk/events/the-i...

The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story | King's College London

Author and historian Brandy Schillace joins Queer@King’s and the Centre for the Humanities and Health for a talk about her latest book, The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story.

www.kcl.ac.uk

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Rebecca Wynter @rebeccawynter.bsky.social · 2d

Did I mention this?

🚨Online today, 6 Oct, 4-5:30pm BST. Still time for free registration!🚨

For The SSHM Lecture 2025, Prof. Jeremy Greene will be presenting 'Wasted medicines & medical wastes: Notes from the trash-heap of medical history'

#histmed #histSTM #skystorians 🗃

sshm.org/sshm-agm/

SSHM AGM & The SSHM Lecture 2025

Monday 6 October [Online] 4:00 – 5:30pm (UK time) As required, the Society gives notice to members that the Annual General Meeting to formally accept the accounts for 2024 and for…

sshm.org

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 3d

Sounds like a fantastic series and delighted that there will be an online option to ease any non-midlander fomo #mentalhealth #healthhums

Birmingham Network for Phenomenology and Mental Health @uobphenomenal.bsky.social · 3d

📣Announcing our Psychedelics, Phenomenology, & Mental Health seminar, 5.11.25, Birmingham and Online

Drawing on phenomenological perspectives, the workshop will bring together interdisciplinary scholars to discuss the potential of psychedelic experiences for addressing mental health challenges.

Reposted by Helen Goodman

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 6d

🚨Call for Papers!
❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day
🗺️Loughborough University
📅27 March 2026
💷 FREE
For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for...
Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at [email protected] for more information

Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa

CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
• The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 5d

‘Controversial’? 😳

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 6d

the marketing of this book is WILD once you see which Mitford it is

Book cover: the pursuit of laughter, essays, articles, reviews and diary of the most controversial Mitford sister. And it’s DIANA MOSLEY. Complete with a generic picture of a 1930s society belle’s face in pearls.

Reposted by Helen Goodman

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 6d

Royal Society rules out expelling Elon Musk after rally speech.

Society president criticises billionaire’s “language of violence” but says organisation should not “police political opinions”.

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

Royal Society rules out expelling Elon Musk after rally speech - Research Professional News

Society president criticises billionaire’s “language of violence” but says organisation should not “police political opinions”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 6d

Pay attention to the language that will be used by much of the media.

The Global Sumud Flotilla never entered Israeli waters.

They are in international waters attempting to reach Palestinian waters.

Israel is once again breaking international law

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 9d

RHS First Book and Early Career Article Prizes, 2026.

We invite submissions for the Society's book and article prizes: for eligible titles published in 2025. Further details and how to apply: bit.ly/3KnR47v

Submissions are by self-nomination by an author. Closing date: 15 December #Skystorians

Royal Historical Society Book and Article Prizes, 2026: submissions now invited - RHS

The Royal Historical Society invites applications for its First Book Prize, 2026 and Early Career Article Prize, 2026. The call for submissions opens on Monday 29 September 2025 and runs to Monday 15 ...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · Feb 1

With science falling under increasing attack, this medical historian is here to remind people of the power of #vaccines. THREAD🧵

Hard-hitting polio advert from 1958. In the first half of the 20th century, polio was the leading cause of death in children and young adults. 1/7

An advertisement for the polio vaccine which reads: "they all got vaccine except dad...don't take a chance...take your polio shots!" It depicts a photo of a family gathered around a father who is in an iron lung.

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · 9d

Our call for papers deadline is a week today! #medhums #histmed #histpsych

Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · 29d

Delighted to share our Call for Papers for the workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*. Taking place online on 5 December. Pls share and consider submitting an object story! @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham

x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 14d

Sorry, refuse to live in a timeline where news outlets fact check whether Royal swans are being eaten by migrants. Put Farage in a cupboard with a mic and let him talk to the walls. Leave the rest of us out of it.

Royal Parks says there's no evidence to back Farage's claim their swans being eaten by migrants.,

The Royal Parks have rejected a claim from Nigel Farage that migrants are killing and eating swans from their grounds.

The Reform UK leader made the assertion in his LBC interview this morning as he deflected a question about whether Donald Trump was wrong last year when he claimed migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats. Trump’s comment was widely dismissed as a racist slur.

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 16d

This, it seems, is what the BBC had in mind when it drew up plans in March to alter “story selection” to win over Reform voters.

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 16d

For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR.

This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Mehreen Faruqi @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social · 20d

A grotesque display of opulence from the world's elite. Billionaires feast on taxpayer funded banquets while they back a genocide and burn the world.

But sure, migrants are the problem.

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19d

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’

Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 20d

‘Be more Da Vinci’: @samaspinall.bsky.social of @horizonsinstitute.bsky.social at @britishacademy.bsky.social speaking about the excitement of #InterdisciplinaryResearch. Build in the disciplines as co-design from the beginning for reciprocal benefits. Don’t just get ‘bolt-on’ experts later.

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 20d

Elon Musk publicly called for the dissolution of the UK Parliament & a change of govt with violence. The govt must take a firm stance against such interference & against unethical business practices & potential conflicts of interest by cancelling all contracts with his businesses… chng.it/66xnpYmSwM

Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

Cancel UK government contracts with Musk-linked companies

chng.it

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 20d

Brilliant presentation from @prosperpostdoc.bsky.social at today’s @britishacademy.bsky.social conference - ikigai, wheel of life, spotting transferable skills we have & more. A welcome breath of fresh air & positivity - a change from the doom & gloom that so often dominates these ECR discussions.

Prosper @prosperpostdoc.bsky.social · 20d

We're at the @britishacademy.bsky.social Early Career Researcher Network's National Postdoc Conference today - getting ready to talk about Prosper! #NPAW2025

💡 Key quote from opening session by Professor Rebecca Earle:

"Your skills are more transferable than you might think"

Reposted by Helen Goodman

George Eliot @georgeeliotsays.bsky.social · 20d

The house is brimful of Americans with varying degrees of disagreeableness.

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 20d

At least one of these people is having a Power Nap. Fair enough.

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 21d

That’s brilliant, congratulations! I’m hoping to buy one in a fortnight.

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 22d

Huge congratulations! What a beautiful cover! And I'm so pleased that it's open access. I look forward to reading it 🤩

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 22d

And if that's not enough for you, then later the same day,
2) 'Objects, Images, and Spaces of Health' roundtable on 2 new books: Tillmann Taape's 'Crafting Medicine' & Jack Hartnell's 'Wound Man' (free, online CHSTM #histmed working group, also meeting 10 Oct & 14 Nov): www.chstm.org/group/object...

Objects, Images, and Spaces of Health | Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

www.chstm.org

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 22d

Forthcoming events on objects in the history of healthcare #HistMed:
1) 'Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900' @unibirmingham.bsky.social (5 Dec, free, online. CFP deadline 6 Oct. Organised by @annafranjam.bsky.social & @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social): www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham

x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Helen Goodman @helengoodman.bsky.social · 22d

This model isn't remotely frazzled, just bored.

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Reposted by Helen Goodman

Stargazer @stargazer262.bsky.social · 24d

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