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Helen Smith

@wordsmith.bsky.social

2K followers 2K following 290 posts

Professor, @UoYEnglish. Printer, @thinicepress. Opinions mainly culled from the dustier corners of the sixenteenth century.

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Reposted by Helen Smith

Hannah Murphy @hsmurphy.bsky.social · 19h

An amazing opportunity for a PhD and a 4-year postdoc on this important project with the brilliant and lovely @smschober.bsky.social - hair, race, trade and multispecies history!

#EarlyModern 🗃️

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.

Reposted by Helen Smith

Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 7d

House prices will be our last bulwark against fascism.

The Times & Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 7d

A reader who is selling their property is worried that England flags will deter potential buyers

My neighbour is flying St George’s flags — can I legally stop him?

A reader who is selling their property is worried that England flags will deter potential buyers

www.thetimes.com

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you! That is really interesting to know.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 7d

Please do not tell me it is time for my annual password update. I can't update my password, there are no more passwords, the universe is empty of passwords, it is all void.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 9d

Still fighting my losing battle against capitalising articles after a colon.

Reposted by Helen Smith

will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 13d

do my clever and knowledgeable followers have examples of historians writing (eg journal article or book chapter) about their own *failures* in interesting ways? eg research goes wrong, wrong questions etc 🗃️

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 13d

I am in the middle of writing something a bit like this, although I am not a historian and it remains to be seen whether the end result will be interesting!

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 16d

Please can someone come up with a flowchart for 'Is the Union Flag racist?', with Gerri Halliwell's dress featuring on one side and anything funded by Tommy Robinson and his right-wing mates marked out clearly on the other?

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

This question is opening up a whole new world of nun-rear adjacent foodstuffs!

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

Books are assumed to be middle-class & decorative. People who read are assumed to have space to house them & leisure to read them. Wanting to have books to consult at work is seen as self-indulgent rather than practical, despite copious evidence that we read and remember physical books differently.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

The more I think about it, the more furious I am at the class politics barely hidden in the refusal to consider books as serious scholarly tools. Universities don't tell physicists they need to keep their lasers at home.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

Amazing! And now I'm hungry.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

Interesting...

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18d

Quite a niche question today. Does anyone know if the phrase 'a nun's buttock' or similar is in any way proverbial in France?

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20d

And wondering if I could carry off the greeting proposed by John Eliot in 1593: 'Come, cullion let me crush thy callibisters with accoling thy buttockes. Shake handes.'

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20d

I am writing more about buttocks today than I had anticipated.

Reposted by Helen Smith

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 21d

In London, hate will never win.

Reposted by Helen Smith

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 6

How we talk about history is the issue where the media and political discourse is perhaps most out of touch with how out of touch Nigel Farage is with the British public, outside his core vocal minority

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · Sep 6

'Nigel Farage has hit out at universities for “poisoning the minds” of students with what he said was a “twisted interpretation of history” in his speech on the opening day of the Reform UK conference.' 1/3

Universities ‘poisoning student minds’, says Farage

Populist leader takes aim at higher education in speech on first day of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham

www.timeshighereducation.com

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 30

Double digits is a lot.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 30

With apologies for making you feel ancient, Anna Elizabeth Smith is 10!!!!!!!! today!

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 30

Can't wait to see it!

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 29

Oh how gorgeous! It's beautiful.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 17

Eurostar waitress spotted my daughter gnawing on a block of parmesan, in preference to her train meal.

'Oh, you're living your best life right now', she cried. 'No need to hide the cheese, I'm French.'

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 15

A plethora of new ODNB entries on early modern women stationers! Entries from Heidi Craig, Andrea Silva, Kirk Melnikoff, @mgyarn.bsky.social, Andreas P. Bassett, @tarallyons.bsky.social and @georginaemw.bsky.social, me, and of course from @valeriewayne.bsky.social who cooked up the whole cluster.

Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · Aug 5

A whole article about changes in the sector that doesn't once consider the possibility that universities should be funded to educate students.