Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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The Prize Papers Project @prizepapers.bsky.social · 2d

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Lewis Wade 🗃️ @wadehistory.bsky.social · 8d

Take good care of yourselves, seek out community, and know when to leave – some great advice here for PhD students and ECRs

(My full response follows tomorrow!)

will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 8d

“Know how to make this work for you.”

This is the last set of posts from the French History Network ECR in 2025*

We asked what advice ECRs would give to other ECRs or PG students.

🗃️

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6695/

ECR in 2025: Part Three- Advice to ECRs – SSFH

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk

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Roz @rozsro.bsky.social · 7d

"Trump’s return to power marked a “turning point”" in attacks on academic freedom, "eliminating diversity and gender equity programming... the freezing of billions in federal research funds."

Plus, USAID cuts "devastated higher education and research initiatives from Africa to Afghanistan."

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 8d

Scholars at Risk: the threat of the Trump government to academic freedom in the US is unprecedented in history.

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

‘Unprecedented in history’: global academic freedom group warns of dismantling in US

Report from Scholars at Risk counts some 40 attacks against academic freedom in the US in the first half of 2025

www.theguardian.com

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Terrence Peterson @tgpeterson.bsky.social · 7d

So UNC is pro-racism and pro-fascism?

Don't gloss over the fact that this is the result of more astroturfed bullshit from TP_USA

www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025...

UNC professor placed on leave following alleged affiliation with 'anti-racist, anti-fascist' organization

Dwayne Dixon, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately.

www.dailytarheel.com

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Europe & the World at the IHR @ihreurope1500.bsky.social · 9d

JUST A WEEK FROM NOW! We'll host the marvellous Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social who will speak about "At the Cusp of the Modern? Tipu Sultan, the Family & East India Company Rule"

6 Oct, 17:30 @ihr.bsky.social & on zoom (www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...) #EarlyModern #SkyStorians

Europe & the World at the IHR @ihreurope1500.bsky.social · 11d

NEW PROGRAMME! What an exciting one it is!
We're looking forward to thinking with @eicathomefinn.bsky.social, Sari Nauman, @rogerleejesus.bsky.social & @araujohistorian.bsky.social

Mondays, 17:30 @ihr.bsky.social & zoom. All very welcome! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians

Europe and the world, 1500-1800, IHR seminar, Mondays, 17:30.
6 October: Margot Finn: At the Cusp of the Modern? Tipu Sultan, the Family & East India Company Rule
10 November: Sari Nauman: Between Categories: Migration, War, and Refuge in the Early Modern Baltic Sea
17 November Roger Lee Jesus: Colonialism and Land: Rethinking Imperial and Local Agency in the Portuguese Empire in Asia
1 December: Ana Lucia Araujo: Dahomey: A West African Kingdom in the Centre of the World During the Eighteenth Century

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Roz @rozsro.bsky.social · 10d

These complications make the calculations of if/when to have children (or freeze eggs) significantly more difficult

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Roz @rozsro.bsky.social · 10d

“À cette étape de la carrière des doctorantes ou jeunes docteures, les injonctions à devenir une femme et une chercheuse totales entrent alors en contradiction.”

Resonates w/US, where precarious women researchers also may not have health insurance or access to abortion

The Conversation France @france.theconversation.com · 11d

Le désir de maternité des jeunes chercheuses face à la précarité : se lancer, reporter ou avorter ?

Quand l’accès à un poste titulaire correspond à un parcours d’obstacle, comment concrétiser un projet de maternité ? Une enquête auprès de jeunes chercheuses éclaire leurs dilemmes.

theconversation.com

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Dr Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste @achatenetc.bsky.social · 11d

"En tant que femmes, la société incite les doctorantes et jeunes docteures à être performantes à tous les niveaux. Elles doivent être des « femmes totales », à savoir des professionnelles efficaces, des conjointes attentives et des mères dévouées."

The Conversation France @france.theconversation.com · 11d

Le désir de maternité des jeunes chercheuses face à la précarité : se lancer, reporter ou avorter ?

Quand l’accès à un poste titulaire correspond à un parcours d’obstacle, comment concrétiser un projet de maternité ? Une enquête auprès de jeunes chercheuses éclaire leurs dilemmes.

theconversation.com

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Europe & the World at the IHR @ihreurope1500.bsky.social · 11d

NEW PROGRAMME! What an exciting one it is!
We're looking forward to thinking with @eicathomefinn.bsky.social, Sari Nauman, @rogerleejesus.bsky.social & @araujohistorian.bsky.social

Mondays, 17:30 @ihr.bsky.social & zoom. All very welcome! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #EarlyModern #SkyStorians

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ding @not.dingherself.com · Aug 27

An actual job ad: “When we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . Successful candidates will be asked to produce [a] passport or full birth certificate. . . . It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”

What a disgrace @newnhamcollege.bsky.social

Screenshot of part of a job ad posted on the website of Newnham College, University of Cambridge:

“Following the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025], when we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . The successful candidate will be asked to produce identification documentation (e.g. passport or full birth
certificate). It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”

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Durba Mitra @durba.bsky.social · 16d

for the archive

Durba Mitra @durba.bsky.social · 16d

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vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 16d

Everyone in academia should read this piece about our dear, brilliant colleague @durba.bsky.social

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

A Surprise Tenure Denial in Harvard’s Gender Studies Program Leaves Some Faculty Shaken | News | The Harvard Crimson

Durba Mitra’s colleagues thought she was a near-perfect tenure candidate. When her bid was shot down in June, they were left questioning the process.

www.thecrimson.com

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Abigail Swingen @abigailswingen.bsky.social · 19d

I'm teaching a grad seminar on early modern British history for the first time in 7 years in the spring. I usually do a mix of "classics" and newer stuff. What new-ish books would you recommend? 🗃️

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The Onion @theonion.com · 21d

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

NEW YORK—Insisting your fate was sealed the moment you clicked the link, a report released Tuesday found that you will be fired for reading this headline about Charlie Kirk. “Shortly after you navigat...

theonion.com

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nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social · 21d

We cannot make the headlines blunter people www.theverge.com/policy/77979...

Republicans are honoring Charlie Kirk’s memory by declaring war on the First AmendmentThe guardians of ‘free speech’ sure had a change of heart.

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Roz @rozsro.bsky.social · 21d

“it seems probable that the few historians who will still be able to have meaningful academic careers in, say, ten years’ time will all be able-bodied, childless British citizens from upper-class families.”

This is so real. The situation really is this bleak.

will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 22d

“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

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Thiago Krause @thiagokrause.bsky.social · 24d

Now reading 200+ pages of Ulhoa's correspondence while in Amsterdam, and found one surprisingly relatable 1662 passage to great Jewish financier Antonio Lopes Suasso:
"My lord, you must have known that chocolate is my sustance..." - goes on profusely thanking Suasso for a large chocolate delivery.

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 23d

We’re at the post WWII inflection point: the state created for survivors of the most notorious genocide in history itself commits genocide. At the same time, 100,000 Britons march for fascism in London.

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says www.bbc.com/news/article...

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says

The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

www.bbc.com

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Olivia Formby @oliviaformby.bsky.social · Aug 4

📣Call for Papers 📣

I am delighted to announce that 'Speech/less in the Early Modern World' will be held 23 April 2026 at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.

Please share far and wide and do consider submitting a proposal! 🙊

Link to PDF version: bit.ly/4lZz80R

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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 23d

Some personal news:

I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.

Thread incoming.

substack.com/@karenattiah...

The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.

I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.

substack.com

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Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 24d

🚨Call for Papers🚨Delighted to share the CfP for next year's meeting of @frenchcolonial.bsky.social which we will be hosting in Maynooth June 25-27. The theme is "Après la tempête: Afterlives of Colonial Crisis and Conflict". Deadline for submissions is November 14 frenchcolonial.org/annual-meeti...

Annual Meeting – French Colonial Historical Society

frenchcolonial.org

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Amanda Lanzillo @amandazillo.bsky.social · 24d

Pious Labor (@ucpress.bsky.social ) reviewed in the AHR by @farinamir.bsky.social . I've been fortunate that the book has been read by several thoughtful and generous reviewers, and I'm especially thrilled to see this one.

academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...
🗃️

Lanzillo is keen to see labor history as a site for Islamic history. Pious Labor does so admirably through both method and content. As Lanzillo rightly underscores, the history of Islam in colonial India has largely been written through “an insistence on the primacy of canonical thinkers and texts” (17). Pious Labor elegantly portrays how artisans anchored their labor in Islamic pasts. Woodworkers traced their skills to the prophet Nuh (Noah); tailors to Idris (Enoch); blacksmiths to Dawud (David). Artisans often connected their trade and/or skill to Sufi pirs (guides/saints), as was the case with scribes and metalsmiths. By showing us an “artisanal Islam” in a range of contexts, the book effectively makes working- and lower-class histories integral to an understanding of Islam in South Asia.

Pious Labor is refreshingly original in bringing histories of economy, labor, technology, and Islam into dialogue with one another, and it makes contributions to each of these fields of history. Additionally, by highlighting how Muslim artisans emphasized the Islamic origins of their trades and the pious nature of their labor and rendered new technologies as sources for their accumulation of social and cultural capital, Lanzillo makes a valuable contribution to the history of late colonial India.

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Evan Romero @pilgerschloss.bsky.social · 26d

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 26d

UC Berkeley betrayed their own faculty, including Jewish academics like Judith Butler, to the Trump administration

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

UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move

Prominent professor Judith Butler among students and faculty investigated for ‘alleged antisemitic incidents’

www.theguardian.com

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Brown History Department @brownhist.bsky.social · 26d

We're hiring! The History Department invites applicants for a full-time, tenure-track position, at the Assistant Professor level, in Early Modern European history. The successful candidate will have defended the Ph.D. thesis by the time of appointment. Learn more & apply: apply.interfolio.com/173465

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