Kate Astbury
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100days1815.bsky.social
Kate Astbury
@100days1815.bsky.social
1.3K followers 520 following 240 posts
Professor of French Studies, working on the culture of French Revolution and Napoleonic period. Committed to supporting the learning of languages in schools & universities and to public engagement.
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Reposted by Kate Astbury
bryanbanksphd.bsky.social
Firmly believe this would serve multiple needs.
January 29, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'Half of English students have noticed an impact from cost-cutting measures at their university, with most saying it was leading to a worse experience than expected.'

Meanwhile, NSS and TEF results proposed as yet another mechanism for disciplining English universities.

Thanks OfS! 1/2
Nearly half of students concerned about their course closing
Cost-cutting measures impacting student experience, find OfS polling, with increased class sizes and reduced access to facilities among issues raised
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:03 PM
100days1815.bsky.social
We should have a chat!
clairehistory.bsky.social Claire Richardson @clairehistory.bsky.social · 23h
What a fantastic resource! Some of the Caribbean PoWs were sent to Norman Cross (including one or two from St Vincent) so there’s a good chance for some shared resources there
January 29, 2026 at 2:12 PM
100days1815.bsky.social
And of course it allows those who can’t climb the stairs to see what the upper floors of the keep look like, and to enjoy the view from the roof!
100days1815.bsky.social Kate Astbury @100days1815.bsky.social · 1d
Teachers we worked with on St Vincent asked for a video to help explain Portchester Castle to their pupils. Here is the first video - a walkthrough of the keep. A walkthrough of the outer Bailey where the Caribbean prisoners of war were housed will follow in due course. m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TWU...
Portchester Castle Full Walkthrough of the Keep
YouTube video by School of Modern Languages and Cultures
m.youtube.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:00 PM
100days1815.bsky.social
Delighted to have had this joint article published - even if the keynote it grew out of was almost 3 years ago now! Thank you for being so patient with me @tombhamilton.bsky.social @frenchhistory.bsky.social
January 29, 2026 at 1:57 PM
100days1815.bsky.social
Teachers we worked with on St Vincent asked for a video to help explain Portchester Castle to their pupils. Here is the first video - a walkthrough of the keep. A walkthrough of the outer Bailey where the Caribbean prisoners of war were housed will follow in due course. m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TWU...
Portchester Castle Full Walkthrough of the Keep
YouTube video by School of Modern Languages and Cultures
m.youtube.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Physics is under the cosh, Astronomy and Chemistry in peril, Geography is losing territory, English, Modern Languages and History are among the many shrinking UK disciplines.

Surely it's time to have a concerted, structured conversation about universities and the national research base.
resprofnews.bsky.social Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 1d
UK physics research and science facilities face ‘substantial’ cuts.

Major cuts will hit UK science facilities and government research grants for physics and astronomy over the next four years, Research Professional News can reveal.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
UK physics research and science facilities face ‘substantial’ cuts - Research Professional News
Exclusive: Science and Technology Facilities Council seeks £162m cost savings, with existing projects facing axe
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
kristofsmeyers.bsky.social
Hi everyone, I'm organising a conference in Leuven, 4-5 June, and you're all invited*! It's called 'Performing evil: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres 1700-2000' and here is the call for papers (get in touch if you'd like a pdf!). Please share widely!

*to submit an abstract before 21/3
CALL FOR PAPERS: PERFORMING EVIL: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres, 1700-2000'. 4 & 5 June 2026, Leuven. This conference explores the tangled histories of supernatural, diabolic evil and all kinds of spectral apparitions in the last three centuries – Walter Scott’s ‘malignant and unhappy beings’. Specifically, it is interested in how and why ghosts, spirits and related apparitional phenomena were framed as diabolic, demonic or malign manifestations from the afterlife. Diabolic connotations of ghosts and spirits did meaningful cultural work. They were mobilised to discredit ghost beliefs and spiritual practices, to delegitimise competing beliefs, or to invest doctrinal arguments with occult authority. They could also function as tools of scepticism and ridicule as well as triggers of wonder, fear and religiosity. Put differently, the nexus of ghosts and evil is deeply historical. And it was often articulated through performative means: in gestures and expressions of (dis)belief, in visual and textual representations, in séance rooms, on the stage and on the page. Emerging from this nexus are theatrical spirits of evil, staged, embodied, and made legible through mediation and display. In this sense, every ghost is a theatrical ghost. Through the focus on the construction and staging of diabolic spirits, this conference aims to develop a methodological framework for studying historical forms of occultism and demonology more broadly in terms of performance. Exploring how the relationship of spectrality and evil has shifted in shape over time and across different cultures, the conference invites contributions that can consider a wide range of historical actors – clerics, mediums, ghost-hunters, debunkers, necromancers, stage performers, eyewitnesses. This conference aims to study cultural intersections and interactions to arrive at a more granular understanding of discursive, practical and material connections between spirits and evil. At the same time this lens zooms out, making visible broader dynamics of knowledge construction in specific historical moments. How, for instance, did hauntings and possessions shape communities and audiences? How did religious or folkloric ideas about the devil inform spectral encounters? We hope to bring together historians, art historians, theatre and literary scholars, folklorists and anthropologists from every stage in their career around the above questions. We welcome 20-minute papers on topics that include but are by no means limited to: - making spectral evil visible: performance, arts, media, technologies, popular cultures - making spectral evil invisible: popular and occult knowledge circulation - performing (un)belief: practices and rhetoric, summoning and debunking on the stage (from popular stages to the lecture hall and the laboratory) - materiality of spectres: the function of bodies and objects - diabolic spirits and (intellectual, vernacular, theological, folkloric) ideas about morality, mortality and temporality - occult performance and ‘cultural scripts’ of ghost encounters (from necromancy to poltergeists) - affect and emotions: fear, grief, trauma… and hope Send abstracts (c.250 words) and bios (c.100 words) to kristof.smeyers@kuleuven.be before 21 March 2026. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
January 27, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
brookenewman.bsky.social
Out today: THE CROWN'S SILENCE

I'm delighted to share that my new book is officially out! It traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery over hundreds of years. Please buy a copy, tell your library, & spread the word. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The cover of The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas--out TODAY with Mariner!
January 27, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hillsofdonegal.bsky.social
Example #897 of Big Tech shoehorning "AI" into somewhere it doesn't need to be.
selkies.bsky.social Louise @selkies.bsky.social · 3d
Generate podcast??? Why the fuck is Adobe even giving me this option?? The document I have open is a receipt from the printers
January 27, 2026 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
alexandradelbot.bsky.social
La liste des 72 femmes scientifiques qui rejoindront prochainement le premier étage de la Tour Eiffel a été dévoilée hier. C'est l’aboutissement d’un projet de plus de 4 ans porté par l’association Femmes & Sciences qui entend réparer cette invisibilisation. Qui sont les femmes retenues ?
Qui sont les 72 femmes scientifiques bientôt inscrites sur la Tour Eiffel ?
La liste des 72 femmes scientifiques qui rejoindront prochainement le premier étage de la Tour Eiffel a été dévoilée hier. C'est l’aboutissement d’un projet de plus de 4 ans porté par l’association Fe...
www.radiofrance.fr
January 27, 2026 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
ayoub.bsky.social
The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions.

It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.
The Legislation Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will: 1) Leave the ECHR 2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. 3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill: This Bill will: Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act." The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years: Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT) Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order. These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR. Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds. If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight. Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence Re-entry after deportation will be… The Operational Plan We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property. Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000 Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes. This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Initial Voluntary Return Window A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this. The Deportation Flights The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…
January 26, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
liamthorp.bsky.social
You know when people ask about your fantasy dinner party? Well the current line up of Reform MPs is the exact opposite of that.
January 26, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
andreloez.bsky.social
Nouvel épisode en ligne: les restitutions artistiques de 1815, avec Bénédicte Savoy.
Un moment passionnant de fin d'empire, où le Louvre doit rendre des milliers d’œuvres issues des conquêtes françaises, préfigurant les débats actuels sur l'art africain notamment.
parolesdhistoire.fr/index.php/20...
couverture du livre 1815 le temps du retour couverture de l'épisode Le livre : 1815, le temps du retour. Restituer l’art en Europe après l’Empire napoléonien, Paris, La découverte, 2026. La discussion : Une lecture comparée des enjeux de restitution des fins d’empire (1 :00) L’ampleur des spoliations révolutionnaires et napoléoniennes (7:40) Les timides débuts des restitutions en 1814 (16:30) Les vainqueurs haussent le ton en 1815 (25:40) Spoliations napoléoniennes, spoliations coloniales de l’époque (36:30) Les œuvres rendues ne le sont jamais à l’identique ou dans les mêmes lieux (42:15) Conseil de lecture et référence : Entretien avec Maria Pia Donato Matilde Cartolari, Ambassadors of Beauty. Italian Old Master Exhibitions and Fascist Cultural Diplomacy 1930-1940
January 26, 2026 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
hetanshah.bsky.social
Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com.

‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’
economist.com/united-state...
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
Independent research identifies few learning gains
economist.com
January 24, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
inneskeighren.bsky.social
For those (especially scholars of 18th-century France) who might enjoy a productive distraction, any thoughts on the identity of this hotel (which has so far escaped my sleuthing)? It was located, I presume, on the Place des Carmes in Marseille in the mid 1780s. Merci! #18C
Fragment of an 1780s advertisement for a hotel in Marseille. The text reads: HÔTEL DE- AND GREAT B- PLACE DES CARMES AT MARSEIL- Keeped by the Widow B- THAT Hôtel establis h'd since ma- the centre of the town, its posi- agreable, and near the new Play Office, and Walkings places. The Ge- find there all the commodities possible, h'd and the best Wines, and Tea of
January 23, 2026 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
archaeoscape.bsky.social
"Slavery was real"

Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.

Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Large brick wall with a tiny white signat the base of the wall that says "Slavery was real"
January 23, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
gregjenner.bsky.social
🎺 EXCITING NEWS!!!

BBC You’re Dead To Me podcast is going on our first live tour!

We’re bringing our historical comedy bandwagon to London, Cardiff, Manchester, and Edinburgh for this March & April

Tickets on sale on 27th January from www.YoureDeadToMeLive.com
HUGE NEWS! Tickets go on sale on January 27th for BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME LIVE TOUR! Produced by Phil McIntyre Live in association with BBC Studios and BBC Radio 4 DATES: 24 Mar LONDON Adelphi Theatre 9 Apr CARDIFF New Theatre 12 Apr EDINBURGH Queen's Hall 13 Apr MANCHESTER Opera House
January 23, 2026 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
asmcf.bsky.social
Hello and welcome to Francophone Friday, where we highlight research in or about the Francophone world. 1/6
January 23, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
adamrothman.bsky.social
Here's one of the panels that Trump just removed from the President's House site in Philadelphia. (I took this picture of it last March. A couple of weeks later I led a walking tour that included the site.) Does this information "disparage" the United States?
MOUNT VERNON TO PHILADELPHIA: A Path to Freedom-For Some The nine enslaved men and women of the President's House were chosen by Washington to accompany him to Philadelphia. They were separated from their families back in Mount Vernon and rotated out of state regularly to prevent them from gaining freedom under Pennsylvania law. CHARACTERS Christopher Sheels, enslaved attendant to Washington Hercules. enslaved cook Richmond, Hercules' enslaved son Giles, enslaved stable hand Oney Judge, enslaved maid and seamstress to Martha Austin, Ona's enslaved half brother, house servant Paris. enslaved stable hand Moll, enslaved maid to Martha Joe Richardson, enslaved postillion for the presidential coach [Floor plan] SERVANTS' EATING HALL
January 23, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
bho.bsky.social
Interview with @brookenewman.bsky.social on her new book 'The Crown’s Silence':

British crown was world’s largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

#History #EnslavedHistory
British crown was world’s largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals
Exclusive: Author of The Crown’s Silence tells how navy and monarchy protected slave trade for hundreds of years
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
teresagoeltl.bsky.social
Interested in the politics of #remembering in the #Caribbean?

Fresh of the press: a new collective volume by Sinah T. Kloss, Andrea Gremels & Ulrike Schmieder is now freely accessible: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

@dependencybonn.de
January 23, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
schooltasking.bsky.social
If you're a school close to Warwick Arts Centre & would like to join us on 17 June to watch the #SchoolTasking Champion of Champions, hosted by @alexhorne.bsky.social, then do register your interest at this link:

forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/respon...

Tickets are free but transport is not covered.
Poster showing Ali Struthers and Alex Horne on stage in the Warwick Arts Centre in front of of a crowd of children, with a large rubber duck to the left hand side of the stage.
January 22, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
mostlybree.kitrocha.com
I know we're all seeing 87 unhinged things per day, but "guys if our multi billion dollar product doesn't start being useful for something, literally anything, the people might not appreciate us wrecking the planet over it anymore" is a truly bananapants thing to say out loud
mrsdrsyd.bsky.social Mrs Dr Syd @mrsdrsyd.bsky.social · 8d
Delicious to me
January 22, 2026 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by Kate Astbury
levostregc.bsky.social
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

-W. H. Auden
January 22, 2026 at 5:21 AM