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Leonie V. Hicks

@lvhicks.bsky.social

5.6K followers 1.1K following 3.7K posts

Professor of medieval studies. Leverhulme major research fellow. Norman history and landscapes. Occasional gardening, knitting, cricket and Anglicanism https://normanlandscapes.wordpress.com/ 🗃⚱️📜

normanlandscapes.wordpress.com

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · Oct 14

History is not something that can be tied up neatly into a package with perfectly mitred corners. Instead it looks more like a young relative's attempts to wrap a strangely shaped and possibly concerning birthday present. 8/

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3h

Of for goodness sake.

Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3h

I dread to ask, but what now?

Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 6d

This week the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced the return of maintenance grants for students in greatest need.

In a new blog post, RHS President Lucy Noakes considers the state of access to history and the humanities in UK HE bit.ly/3KP5WMe #Skystorians

@artsandhums.bsky.social

Opening section and abstract of RHS blog post: 'The value and provision of history and the humanities: it’s time for a political response': "This week the government’s Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced the return of maintenance grants for students in greatest need. While we welcome recognition of the financial pressures and impediments many student face, it’s clear that this is a policy with nothing for the arts and humanities, including history. However, as Lucy Noakes, President of the Royal Historical Society, explains here, these pressures are equally acute for students in the arts and humanities. Moreover, as a new British Academy report on ‘Cold Spots’ shows, choice—in subjects including history—is being further eroded for many as the provision of higher education contorts to the financial crisis facing UK higher education. If the government is serious about choice, social mobility and access to education it needs to appreciate that provision of many degree subjects is now at considerable risk in a growing number of regions across the UK. For students to have greater choice and access we need the environments in which choices are made to be fair, balanced and accurate. For this we require political leadership to help us address structural failings and false narratives."

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 6h

There is not enough tea to deal with all of this.

Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 6h

Endless screaming.

Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown @earlymodlancs.bsky.social · 6h

I want to tell all students of the so-called 'rip-off degrees' named below that your critical thinking is important and makes valid contributions to culture and society

Without your skills, we wouldn't be able to unpack toxic discourses and do something about them

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 7h

This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.

Badenoch: Curb students taking "rip-off" degrees such as English. The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 6h

I am absolutely fed up of this assault on critical thinking. Those in power & those who aspire to it don't want people to think critically; they don't want people to _think_. The Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences are valuable in themselves, but watch the economy tank if Badenoch has her way...

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 7h

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 17h

Thread or no thread, do keep going! I love your account (and also the geeky tshirts).

Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 17h

The posts aren't in a thread, but I do believe @quiresandplaces.com has been live-posting 'Murder before Evensong'. Worth a read for silliness (and Evensong facts).

In Quires and Places where they meme @quiresandplaces.com · 17h

Last time we saw anything that could be described as murder before Evensong, it was an attempt to get through Clucas in F sharp in the rehearsal. #quiresandmurders

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 21h

Sorry to hear you've been struggling, but lovely to hear that yoru work is being well-received!

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Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 1d

Nobel Prize for Physics for Men still doing its thing. #yawn

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 1d

I came here to say 'I see, Anna, that the Nobel Prize for Physics for Men is still doing its thing!' I swear I heard @fantaloupe.bsky.social roll his eyes from 150 miles away.

Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 1d

Oh my goodness. How careless of Tudor historians to forget about the VE.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 1d

Today has felt like an encounter with the knights who say 'Ni' which culimated in me locking myself out of the flat.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing says Christmas like pandas.

Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · 1d

Awful news! Following the theft of the Ely Bronze Age torc & a Bronze Age bracelet in 2024,now more Bronze Age gold has been stolen from St Fagans Museum in Cardiff. 😔

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Torcs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Bronze age gold jewellery stolen in raid on St Fagans museum in Cardiff

South Wales police issue public appeal for information after burglary at one of Wales’s most beloved museums

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 2d

The RHS is a membership organisation of 6500+ historians. We welcome applications to join us at any time. Our next closing dates are 13 October and 15 December.

We offer categories for all kinds of historians and at all stages of research, from Postgraduate to Fellow: bit.ly/46V8WOQ #Skystorians

Closing dates for next application rounds:
Mondays 13 October and 15 December 2025

The Royal Historical Society represents the interests of historical researchers in universities, libraries, archives, museums, heritage and broadcasting, as well as those engaged in public, community and family history research.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 2d

Amazing isn't it...

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Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Parkes Institute @parkesinstitute.bsky.social · 2d

"Synagogue attack: the Manchester I know – by antisemitism researcher and Mancunian Jew" by Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations theconversation.com/synagogue-at...

Synagogue attack: the Manchester I know – by antisemitism researcher and Mancunian Jew

Manchester Jewry has maintained an extraordinarily strong local identity, but is notable in its diversity.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Leonie V. Hicks

Amanda Watson @amndw2.bsky.social · 2d

I couldn't resist. #pleasingterror

A bingo card for the ghost stories of M.R. James. Boxes read:
"Spiders
Terrible hotel stay
Narrator makes fun of golf
Latin passages
Eerie disembodied voices
Confirmed bachelor main character
Vengeful spirit
Evil magician
Working-class character as comic relief
Bleak East Anglian coast
Visit to an archive
Narrator in guidebook mode
FREE SPACE
Unholy doings in a church
Frogs or toads
Queen Anne style house
Cursed artifact
Don't buy that rare book!
Something hairy and horrible
Someone gets too curious
Tentacles
Story told via old manuscript
Research trip gone horribly wrong
Beds are scary
Tactile horror

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3d

Doomed to have my name mispelled and misronounced for eternity.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3d

In the past few days we've had an attack on a synagogue in Manchester and now an arson attack on a mosque in Sussex. This hatred to one another must stop. Solidarity to all my Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3d

Good luck, Laurie!

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3d

And the RGs are hardly selective anymore given the low offers they made.

OK end of Sunday rant. 3/3

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 3d

I sympathise with RG colleagues facing large classes, but the flip side is some of my colleagues lost their jobs this year as a result of restructure to keep us a float. Those of us left are being asked to teach far beyond our subjects. 2/

keep.us

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