Lesley A. Hall | Lightnews

Light up
your news

Create account Sign in

About Privacy Terms Help

Lesley A Hall

Lesley A Hall

@erinacean.bsky.social

12K followers 450 following 3.3K posts

Archivist, historian, reader, Londoner, feminist
@erinacean
@erinacean@h-net.social
www.lesleyahall.net
https://lesleyahall.blogspot.com/

History 49%

Political science 20%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Mary Corcoran, Mark Robinson , and 1 more Lesley A. Hall, Mary Corcoran, Mark Robinson, Christina Pagel

Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 10h

Two paragraphs from the article, pointing out Telegraph hypocrisy

Reposted by Steve Peers, Lesley A. Hall, Mark Priestley , and 1 more Steve Peers, Lesley A. Hall, Mark Priestley, Björn Heile

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17h

When Boris Johnson was Prime Minister one of his senior advisers confided to me that one of the only things in politics his boss actually cared about was “killing off the BBC”.

Five years on, and it is a campaign that appears to be finally coming to fruition.

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/10/t...

The BBC’s Attempts to Appease the 'Right-Wing Coup' Against It Are Now Seeding Its Own Destruction

By attempting to appease those forces seeking to destroy them, the BBC has helped trigger a crisis that now threatens its very future, argues Adam Bienkov

bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Lesley A. Hall , and 3 more Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Lesley A. Hall, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Jane Suiter, Elke Weissmann

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 19h

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.

This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.

iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Michael Lombardi-Nash @lombardinash.bsky.social · 20h

It's wonderful when researchers find translations useful and lovely when I can connect researchers with mutual interests and form an academic community. Reading from the Early #GermanGayMovement; Magnus Hirschfeld (#MagnusHirschfeld) #lgbtqHistory 🏳️‍⚧️🌈Ο
www.amazon.com/dp/B08R31KBMY

Paragraph 175 (§ 175) of the Imperial Penal Code Book : The Homosexual Question Judged by Contemporaries

Amazon.com: Paragraph 175 (§ 175) of the Imperial Penal Code Book : The Homosexual Question Judged by Contemporaries eBook : Hirschfeld, Magnus, Lombardi-Nash, Michael: Kindle Store

Reposted by Elizabeth Stokoe, Lesley A. Hall, Greg Walker , and 2 more Elizabeth Stokoe, Lesley A. Hall, Greg Walker, Ben Rosamond, Katrina Navickas

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 20h

What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation?

Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8

The organ donation ‘opt-out’ has been a fatal failure | The Observer

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 20h

Reform says Kent CC is their "shop window", where the country can see what a Farage gov't would be like.

Well... chaos, suspensions, defections, paralysis, zero "DOGE" savings, tax rises, and a leader making mad-dictator speeches, sounds about right. ~AA

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Reform UK suspends another member of Kent county council

Isabella Kemp’s departure means party has lost nine of 57 councillors elected in May, including four after video leak

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 20h

The right have always hated the BBC because, for all its faults, it isn't owned by a billionaire who would use it to get govt to do what he wants. Its founding principles, inspired by what dictators were already doing with radio in the 1920s, were to broadcast in the service of the British public.

Reposted by Dave O’Brien, Lesley A. Hall

Christine Grandy @christinegrandy.bsky.social · 20h

My first lot of marking has arrived but so has the cover of the book!

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Peter Tatchell Foundation @petertatchellfdn.bsky.social · 21h

🚨 The UK Government’s new anti-protest laws are worse than feared

Civil liberties are being chipped away

🪧 Protest is the lifeblood of democracy

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/governments-repeat-protest-restrictions-worse-than-feared/

Government's repeat protest restrictions worse than feared - Liberty

Government's repeat protest restrictions worse than feared - Liberty

www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk

Reposted by Elizabeth Stokoe, Martin Paul Eve, Lesley A. Hall

Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · 21h

Look at this great fund. £200 for really small charities to spend on boring things. Easy, quick to apply.

Link below.

Please share :)

Boring Fund | Christina Poulton

Applications now open! £200 grants available for small charities, CICs and voluntary groups towards some of those boring but hard-to-fund costs.

www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 22h

The BBC is the latest part of ‘the public realm’ to feel the wrath of the right.

The playbook is wearyingly similar.

Underfund them. Hold them (piously) to the highest standards. Pillory them for all errors. And then co-opt, or neuter, them. 1/2

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 22h

Also like the focus on understanding the history of a discipline here 👇

Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 5d

📢 Here is my commentary about the pitfalls of taking an impoverished evolutionary approach to culture, which include 'the limitations of a unidirectional model of evolution' and 'the neglect of niche construction theory'. #ehbea #evolution #psychscisky 🧪

🧵 1/2

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The pitfalls of an impoverished approach to culture: Commentary on Baumard and André

www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 22h

TFW one of the central participants says retrospective diagnosis is impossible, & this is all speculation, but they do it anyway…

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Documentary explores whether JMW Turner may have been neurodivergent

Programme uses artist’s sketches, drawings and watercolours to build unprecedented psychological portrait

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 22h

1/2 When organisations that try to be impartial, like the BBC or universities or the National Trust, try to resist culture war attacks from a mendacious right wing lobby, they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Metropolitan Police Museum and Crime Museum @mpsheritage.bsky.social · 22h

We are always expanding our #LGBThistory holdings, for example by close contact with the Met's liaison officers to that community, but they began with our acquisition of 'This Small Cloud', the 1986 publication of the memoirs of a gay officer who served from 1925 to 1950. #Museum30 #rainbow #LGBT

Book cover showing a closeup of a black and white photograph of Daley in his Met helmet, with the superimposed title 'THIS SMALL CLOUD / A Personal Memoir / HARRY DALEY / Introduction by P.N. Furbank'.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Jack Stilgoe

Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 1d

Assistant Prof job in history of science (related to water?) at Madison. Strong program, nice town (aside from winter)

jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69456

Professor of History | H-Net Job Guide

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Ruth Mace, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 2 more Nandita Sharma, Ruth Mace, Elizabeth Stokoe, Lesley A. Hall, Mark Priestley

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 1d

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

Reposted by Melissa Terras, Lesley A. Hall, Adrian Vickers

Mike Jones @mikejonesphd.bsky.social · 1d

Currently doing some marking. A reminder to everyone involved in archives and collections: digitisation is not preservation. If I digitise a box of records and put the files on a USB stick I haven't preserved a thing. It's all about what you do with the files post-digitisation. #archives #digipres

Colour photograph of a white USB stick. Printed text on the USB stick reads: '...this is not an archive.'

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Keith Lilley

Martin Phillips @martinph1.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks to all who have already signed the petition about the closure of Geography at the Uni. If you haven’t, please do so to help stop this ill-thought out action that threatens the future of staff, students & the discipline at Leicester

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...

Sign the Petition

Save Geography at the University of Leicester

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Michael Lombardi-Nash @lombardinash.bsky.social · 1d

To assist sociologists and historians of sexuality in reading German texts from the Early #GermanGayMovement, Urania Manuscripts translates #LGBTQhistory #QueerStudies #TransgenderStudies by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and #MagnusHirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld🏳️‍⚧️🌈
www.amazon.com/dp/B0FF34T47R

Annual of Sexual Intermediaries Volume IX Part 1 of 2 (1908)

Annual of Sexual Intermediaries Volume IX Part 1 of 2 (1908) [Hirschfeld, Magnus, Lombardi-Nash, Michael] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Annual of Sexual Intermediaries Volume IX Part 1 of 2 (1908)

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Athene Donald @athenedonald.bsky.social · 1d

Reflections on the importance of science practicals now and the messes I made of my own school practicals. Now with a 'hair-raising' comment from @jane-bernal.bsky.social, a near contemporary at my school occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Being Practical (Or Not) | Athene Donald's Blog

occamstypewriter.org

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 1d

As Francis Crick put it, ‘I’m afraid we always used to adopt – let’s say, a patronizing attitude towards her.’ I wrote about DNA pioneer Dr Rosalind Franklin, and how she was deliberately excluded from her male colleagues' conversations.

Conversations with scientists

British chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Dr Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)

open.substack.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

timoconnorbl.bsky.social @timoconnorbl.bsky.social · 1d

@bretdevereaux.bsky.social did a fantastic series on that reality recently.

acoup.blog/2025/07/11/c...

Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part I: Households

This is the first post in a series discussing the basic contours of life – birth, marriage, labor, subsistence, death – of pre-modern peasants and their families. Prior to the industria…

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear, David W. Lawson

Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 1d

Evolutionary psychology makes a big to-do about their finding that sexual selection favors a "feminine body type" that "signals fertility/reproductive potential", including some rather... silly research. Turns out, those traits don't seem to signal reproductive success. Oops! doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

Reposted by Brooke Harrington

Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 1d

'I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,
Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:
Unostentatious and respectful, there
He stood, and offered up the following prayer.
‘Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial
Means; their discredited ideas revive'

At the Cenotaph, by Siegfried Sassoon

I saw the Prince of Darkness, wit… Standing bare-headed by the Cenot… Unostentatious and respectful, the… He stood, and offered up the follo… ‘Make them forget, O Lord, what t…

www.poeticous.com

Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 1d

Amazon wanted to know if I wanted to hear about new releases from Virginia Woolf after I downloaded A Room of One's Own.... is she writing via ouija board these days, or what?

Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 1d

And another one by Sassoon:
'I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,
Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:
Unostentatious and respectful, there
He stood, and offered up the following prayer.
‘Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial
Means'

www.poeticous.com/siegfried-sa...

At the Cenotaph, by Siegfried Sassoon

I saw the Prince of Darkness, wit… Standing bare-headed by the Cenot… Unostentatious and respectful, the… He stood, and offered up the follo… ‘Make them forget, O Lord, what t…

www.poeticous.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Danie Burton @princessburton.bsky.social · 1d

On this #RemembranceDay, where did the traditions we participate in today come from? In this post from the #voyagerofhistory archives, I discuss the origins of some of them following the First World War. #firstworldwar #twentiethcentury wp.me/pagtWm-1G

The Origins of WW1 Remembrance in Britain

With the unprecedented mass horror and death that World War One brought, it became increasingly important to remember the fallen. The problem was how best to do that. The government wished to portr…

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

Daniel Johnson @danieljohnson.bsky.social · 1d

www.wsj.com/tech/biotech...

Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway.

Silicon Valley startups are pushing the boundaries of reproductive genetics, hoping to prevent diseases as well as improve chances for a high IQ and other traits.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Christoph Bertram

Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 1d

The article doesn't say it, but this cool solar forecasting software uses no large language models, the thing people usually think of when they hear "AI." It uses a fairly simple convolutional neural network that's readily trained on a laptop. No data centers or LLMs involved. Research paper here: