Richard Bellis
@richardtbellis.bsky.social
5.5K followers 440 following 70 posts
Historian of anatomy, disease, and medical books. Associate Lecturer in Medical Humanities, Medical school, Uni of St Andrews. Support Chester FC and edit the fanzine The Blue & White.
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Reposted by Richard Bellis
sexhistorian.bsky.social
Really looking forward to the @cshhh.bsky.social 20th Anniversary later this month, with Tracey Loughran and @joannabourke.bsky.social giving public lectures to help us celebrate! #HistSex #HistRepro #HistMed
Reposted by Richard Bellis
hpsvanessa.bsky.social
Got nowhere with this - so if you know of a (bio)med or health journal that has OA now but subscription-only archives - or that is somehow still entirely paywalled - please drop a reply. I’ll make me own list! ✍️
hpsvanessa.bsky.social
#OA wonks - can anyone point me to a list of medicine-ish journals that partially offer gold OA - e.g. ones that have full OA now but paywalled archives? Doesn’t have to be comprehensive, I’m just trying to design an in-class exercise.
Reposted by Richard Bellis
annafranjam.bsky.social
10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*.

We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums

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
Reposted by Richard Bellis
lawrencehurley.bsky.social
"If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain" is an instant hall-of-famer.
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
Isaac Chotiner interviews Cass Sunstein. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
=
THE NEW YORKER ICO
In terms of human rights, I've always found it a little bit puzzling, given what you write, and given who your wife is, that you two were so close to Henry Kissinger. Of all the pre-Trump political figures in America, he is the one I think of as in some ways the opposite of liberal, given his behavior toward the rest of the world.
I'll tell you a story. I wrote a book a few years ago on Star Wars. We invited Dr.
Kissinger to my Star Wars book party, and he said, "You wrote a book about Star Wars? Why'd you write a book about Star Wars?" He was puzzled and courteous, but really confused. And then he came to the book party, which was quite generous. He was a busy person.
But, despite his busyness, he came to the book party.
Yeah, and then I gave a talk on Star Wars, and he came up to me afterward and he said, "Oh, I see why you wrote a book on Star Wars. There's a lot there.
It's, like, about families and it's about governments and freedom." The amount of curiosity and generosity that he showed was incomparable. I don't know anyone who showed that level of curiosity and generosity. And we really got into Star Wars. He just wanted to think about it. I know there are strong views about his career, and I'm hardly an expert on his career. But your wife is one of the great human-rights experts in the world. I asked you about him being anti-liberal, and your response was that he was very nice to you about your book.
About Star Wars.
It is certainly a touching story. But that's not totally an answer to the question.
Yeah. Well, I don't know. What he would think of this book I'd love to know.
But no second thoughts about being friends with him or anything?
I feel generally very grateful for friendship, and he was, when I knew him, a person of immense kindness.
Those who think of him as someone who was something horrible or worse, 1 don't know what to say about that. But you could have an opinion on it.
You have an opinion on all kinds of things, right?
Well, on him and his role in
government, that's not something I've particularly studied, so I don't know. I know some people who think he was a horrible historic figure. They would say,
"Would you be friends with Genghis Khan? Would you be friends with Stalin?" And I wouldn't be friends with Stalin, so I concede that.
Well, the next time someone brings up a terrible anecdote about Cambodia or Vietnam, I will definitely drop the Star Wars story to show that people have two sides.
Yeah. And I get those who think you shouldn't be friends with someone who did terrible things. I hear that. I can just say that he was, as a very large number of people would say, though many fewer would say it publicly, an extraordinarily generous friend.
Professor, thank you so much for doing this.
Great, thanks. If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain, because it could dwarf everything else. *
Reposted by Richard Bellis
nicolasugden.bsky.social
In case you were wondering, two of the thirteen projects funded by the NIH's $50m Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) talk about prevention in their project abstracts: dpcpsi.nih.gov/autism-data-...
Reposted by Richard Bellis
nathankhensley.bsky.social
yes! one was a technology of popular and bourgeois revolution; the other, for a neofeudal restoration of elite privilege and security from democratic intervention
sarahwingo.bsky.social
I HATE when people compare AI to the printing press, it's so disingenuous. The printing press was opposed by the elites because it put power in the hands of everyday people, and popularized a vernacular. AI does the opposite, by allowing elites to bypass artists and laborers.
Reposted by Richard Bellis
theblueandwhite.bsky.social
Issue 39 of the fanzine is out on Saturday. In this issue:

A look back at the play-offs
Interview with Kieron Shiel, club chairman
We review Ian Rush's musical (yes really)
60s away days
A very special Ex-Men cartoon
And much more!

Subscribe theblueandwhitefanzine.bigcartel.com/product/fanz...
An advert with the fanzine logo and the latest cover of the fanzine with Conor Woods celebrating a goal in Chester's black third kit.
Reposted by Richard Bellis
monicamedhist.bsky.social
Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️
Reposted by Richard Bellis
europeanpowell.bsky.social
Palantir just took over the CDC.
The head of the UK branch of Palantir UK is Louis Mosley, grandson of renowned British fascist Oswald Mosley.
Palantir has 24 contracts with key UK public institutions; the NHS, Ministry of Defence, the police force, the Cabinet Office, and the DLUHC.
Reposted by Richard Bellis
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Delighted that this has been published. It resulted from my residency on the wonderful @thehumanremains.bsky.social . Tom was an excellent collaborator, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with medical debates over burial reform in the mid-nineteenth century.
royalhistsoc.org
New in Transactions: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard T. Bellis & Thomas J. Farrow bit.ly/46Xzssq

In this article, Richard and Thomas consider the intersection of sanitary and burial reform in the career of George Alfred Walker #Skystorians 1/2
Transactions article, first page: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard Bellis and Thomas Farrow.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Delighted that this has been published. It resulted from my residency on the wonderful @thehumanremains.bsky.social . Tom was an excellent collaborator, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with medical debates over burial reform in the mid-nineteenth century.
royalhistsoc.org
New in Transactions: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard T. Bellis & Thomas J. Farrow bit.ly/46Xzssq

In this article, Richard and Thomas consider the intersection of sanitary and burial reform in the career of George Alfred Walker #Skystorians 1/2
Transactions article, first page: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard Bellis and Thomas Farrow.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Very happy in Scotland with our wee one :)
Reposted by Richard Bellis
richardtbellis.bsky.social
If you can't access this but would like to read it, please do get in touch and I'll share it with you.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
doi.org
Reposted by Richard Bellis
manoncwilliams.bsky.social
As a medical historian who’s dabbled in amateur printmaking as a hobby, I loved reading this article! @richardtbellis.bsky.social explores how translational printmaking, as a social and collaborative process, shaped the visual appearance, epistemic content, and communication of anatomical pathology.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
doi.org
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Very glad to hear you enjoyed it!
richardtbellis.bsky.social
If you can't access this but would like to read it, please do get in touch and I'll share it with you.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
doi.org
richardtbellis.bsky.social
It's been a long process to write and publish this article, but I'm delighted it's out in such a prestigious journal.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
The paper also makes use of a unique set of eighteenth-century sources: all stages of image production for several of Baillie's plates survive, from the original anatomical preparation, through the preparatory watercolours and copperplate, to the printed images.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
The main argument is that printmaking, and therefore printmakers, fundamentally shaped the epistemic content and communicative properties of scientific images and thereby observational disciplines.
richardtbellis.bsky.social
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
doi.org