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Will Tullett

@willtullett.bsky.social

1.8K followers 770 following 920 posts

He/him. Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at University of York. Books on 'Smell in Eighteenth-Century England' and 'Smell and the Past'. #smellhistory #smellstudies #sensoryhistory

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · Nov 14

Hello new followers! I'm a historian at the University of York who works on histories of smells and smelling. Any sense of personality I possess mainly revolves around my two cats. I'm writing a big history of smell for a broader audience for Yale University Press. I like making people sniff things.

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 2h

used to be a proper country debating the real issues in our parliament

A clipping from hansard that reads 'I think the hon. gentleman should have asked. What is an average sausage?'

Reposted by Will Tullett

Sabine Clarke @sabineclarke.bsky.social · 6h

It was a real pleasure to write this afterword for a fantastic special issue on the history of invasive species by Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social and Jules Skotnes-Brown @julesskotnesbrown.bsky.social

Invasive Species, Health, and Global History Afterword: The Disavowal of Human Agency

Abstract. The papers in this special issue explore the metaphorical realms that inform discourses on disruptive plants and animals. They explore how specie

track.smtpsendmail.com

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Reposted by Will Tullett

Sarah-Maria Schober @smschober.bsky.social · 1d

Want to work on the history of hair? I am looking for a doc and postdoc to join my project team researching #earlymodern hair, race, trade and multispecies history at the University of Lucerne.

Do apply and spread the word!

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

PhD position in History (100%, 4 years) - Vacancies - University of Lucerne

Assistant or doctoral positions, employment or internship: Looking for a job at the University of Lucerne? Find our listed open positions and apprenticeships here.

www.unilu.ch

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Reposted by Will Tullett

Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 1d

Lol it shows what a £200m gift from the Blackstone group can do.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/oxfords...

Oxford’s largest-ever project ‘shows what the humanities can do’

New building which brings together disciplines for the first time will also open its doors to the public to engage with big questions facing the world

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Reposted by Will Tullett

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Reposted by Will Tullett

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 7d

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a

desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 7d

Really good piece. Also didn’t realise until I read this that Columbia University’s disgraced ex-president is now the economic adviser to Keir Starmer. Who’d have thunk it.

Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 23d

aaaaaaaaaaand we're crying in the office.

Please read this though. What a beautiful meditation on the never-ending need to defend democratic education and the refusal to relent even when final victory is not guaranteed or even unlikely.

But when my mother died, Sam had their tombstone inscribed to capture the sense of vocation that never left him. “Ever teachers” is their epitaph. This was, in a sense, his final riposte to those who may have denied him a job but could never take away his calling. Tucked away in a rural cemetery in Western Massachusetts, this monument to the family story is foundational to my very being: one in which, no matter the costs, principled integrity is a priority, taking a stand means standing fast, and contesting the predations of the powerful gives meaning to the lives we lead.

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 7d

It’a good that David Edgerton’s response to Starmer’s conference speech is first up here because he basically hits the nail on the head and then you can stop reading www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

Keir Starmer’s conference speech: our writers’ verdicts

David Edgerton, Ayesha Hazarika, Maurice Glasman and others respond to the Prime Minister

www.newstatesman.com

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 8d

I say laugh, more a sort of quiet moan of despair and rolling of the eyes, but then that's not a pithy turn of phrase.

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 8d

Gotta laugh at Labour claiming the Tories 'treated our universities as a political battleground, not a public good' when also threatening the introduction of a levy on international students that is absolutely all about politics and nothing to do with sound economics or the health of the sector.

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 8d

More crap Labour HE policy. A cynic might say decision to fund maintenance grants for
select courses from the proposed international student levy is less about balancing books and more about making it more difficult for unis to oppose the latter by shifting optics www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Labour to bring back maintenance grants for students on ‘priority’ courses

Education secretary says means-tested grants for ‘those who need them most’ will be funded by new international student levy

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Will Tullett

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 8d

'Graeme Atherton, head of the Ruskin Institute for Social Equity (Rise) at the University of West London, said the policy “is giving with one hand and taking with another” and will “exacerbate” the problems being faced by humanities and arts departments and disadvantaged students.'

Maintenance grants only for priority courses ‘deeply concerning’

Using financial incentives to influence student choice risk undermining Labour’s widening access goals, critics fear

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Reposted by Will Tullett

Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 10d

I will start teaching my students how to use AI when my colleagues in computer science start to teach Homer, Dante, Langston Hughes, Borges, Foucault, Audre Lord, Spivak, and Donna Haraway in their classes

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 11d

I realize many people don’t quite get that not every single professor in every single university teaches computer science and might actually be trained in and invested in teaching other things, like let’s say, history? Or poetry.
Or sociology.
It is not our job to teach students how to use AI.

matt94250.bsky.social @matt94250.bsky.social · 11d

If you don’t teach your students how to use AI, you’re doing them a huge disservice because they won’t have jobs in the future.

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 11d

God save us from the ‘smartphones are at the root of all that is wrong with modern society’ crowd. The kind of mono-causality that would make any reasonable person blush.

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 11d

The irony of that post-literate society substack piece by The Times‘ ‘modern society is terrible’ columnist is that a bit of Googling and following references in a less linear way would have revealed his picture of ‘pre-literate’ or, indeed post-’print revolution’ is a historiographical caricature.

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 13d

surely should be the first in line!

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 13d

Really looking forward to the design ideas for the ‘Brit card’…

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 13d

the same context in which Michael Hobbes can enter a Subway and think there’s a smell of formaldehyde in the air (really enjoyed that particular line). See also, semi-relatedly, Nicholas Shapiro’s brilliant essay on domestic formaldehyde and the chemical sublime journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca...

Attuning to the Chemosphere: Domestic Formaldehyde, Bodily Reasoning, and the Chemical Sublime | Cultural Anthropology

journal.culanth.org

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 13d

Really felt the new Maintenance Phase ep speaks to my current work so much. The idea that the renaming and re-articulation of our world in terms of chemical terminology has created a space of uncertainty or confusion about smell and taste in which both real abuses and conspiracies can thrive.

Reposted by Will Tullett

Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 14d

Joel & I talking to Chris Browne about friendship, reimagining the world, & fighting the far right

Radicals in Conversation 📻
open.spotify.com/episode/1gNi...

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 15d

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 19d

Shame on the University of Oxford. Given the response on here I do wonder whether the faculties were consulted on this...

University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · 19d

NEW: Oxford will be the first UK university to give all staff and students free ChatGPT Edu access, from this academic year.

ChatGPT Edu is built for education, with enhanced privacy and security.

Graphic from the University of Oxford, featuring an image of a glowing, digital brain with the text: 'Generative AI at Oxford'. Highlights that ChatGPT Edu is now available to all staff and students. Includes a link for more information: ox.ac.uk/gen-ai

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 21d

Good suggestion (and was my first call) but sadly no 🥲

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 21d

Google Books is showing an interesting bit about nostalgia and smell around those pages and I can't seem to find an easily accessible copy in the UK that I can request via inter-library loan.

Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 21d

Very niche question that I think is unlikely to get a positive response but does anybody have access to William Henry Tripp's 1938 book '"There Goes Flukes" The Story of New Bedford's Last Whaler' and who could scan or send images of the pages around 33-35 (I think)?

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