Sophie Michell
@sophiemhistory.bsky.social
3.4K followers 860 following 4.6K posts
Death and crime historian, family researcher, teller of tales. Open Uni PhD candidate writing about inquests in the 19thC
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sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Hello new followers. I am an OOC funded PhD candidate at the Open University working on 19thC English inquests from a criminal justice/social history/microhistory perspective.

I'm in my final year so expect increasingly fraught blathering.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
One must strike while the iron is hot
Reposted by Sophie Michell
charlielynch.bsky.social
Historian social media, imperfect as it is, is totally useful and important in what it does, which is to give immediate connection to a network of geographically dispersed scholars, to promote work which might otherwise sink without trace, and to exchange ideas and knowledge.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Yeah Tom kinda did the same. Lad.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Also I started my PhD in lockdown. As someone who is quite cut off from the research community by dint of Difficult Children and living in Peterborough, I met ALL THE BEST PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Absolutely invaluable, would not be where I am now without it.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I asked my husband out on twitter, as was the custom in 2010
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Spicy honey IS all the rage
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Might be something on this in work around Amelia Dyer
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I live in the fens, if we can't get potatoes here, we're all doomed
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I made a text game "would you survive Victorian childhood?" and got a lot of vexed "is it actually possible to survive in this game???" responses
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Has anyone else heard the Asda radio advert about price-cutting potatoes? The one that ends "Potato deal does not apply to Northern Ireland"?

Controversial, lads.
desfitzgerald.bsky.social
So there's an EU-funded campaign to get millenials to eat potatoes and - I swear to Jesus I'm not making this up - it's slogan is: "Europe's favourite since 1536."
A screenshot of a website that says "DISCOVER THE TASTY VERSATILITY OF POTATOES! Europe's favourite since 1536." banner ads say "funded by the european union" and "enjoy - it's from europe."
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
A man approached me in the street the other day (I know not why) and I simply bellowed ABSOLUTELY NOT and kept walking
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I have no excuse, I only wrote this in bloody April. It's just shocking.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
The workhouse medical officer boldly telling the inquest that there would be "not much pain" from STAGE IV PANCREATIC CANCER
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
BUT ALSO, it's quite fun to write about exactly how fucking shit the workhouse was

(with apologies to the workhouse revisionists)
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I have to rewrite my shittiest chapter.

On the one hand, now it will be less shitty.

On the other, oh it's so bad.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Something that (as public-school goers) they probably all know by heart without once thinking about the words.
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Tories in “utterly unable to see past the length of their own noses” conference shock
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
It went too far as did we all
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
I had this on CD single, a banger, a tune
archive.org
🐹 Before viral videos on TikTok or YouTube, there was Hampsterdance.

Full of dancing hamster GIFs & a sped-up tune, it became one of the internet’s first viral hits.

You can still dance to it on the #WaybackMachine ➡️ web.archive.org/web/19991222...

#Wayback1T

🧵
Reposted by Sophie Michell
jamesepeate.bsky.social
Incidently if there were anyone interested/knows someone interested in supporting/mentoring I've got a great project perfect for Leverhulme Postdoc using Romani history pre-1850 to address present day racism

I know its not the done thing to ask but its hard to judge who/where would be a good fit
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Just very sternly told myself "do your edits and then you can write up a murder as a treat"