Christina de Bellaigue
@cadebellaigue.bsky.social
Historian of 19thC GB & France - social mobility, childhood, gender, women, education; She/Her. Daughter of an immigrant, married to grandson of immigrants. Recently joined Green Party.
Come along this week for what promises to be a very interesting discussion
This week, we have Eric Storm presenting his new book: Nationalism: a World History, with comments from Faisal Devji and Abigail Green, Weds 19th Nov, 11.10am, Ruskin Room, Exeter Cohen Quad - Join Us!
November 17, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Come along this week for what promises to be a very interesting discussion
council offloading maintenance of municipal underpass (currently flooded and unuseable, forcing kids onto road) to school that is the main, but definitely not the only, user by calling it ‘flood preparedness’ is next level shittiness, esp in a city that claims It’s a bike haven
November 14, 2025 at 4:20 PM
council offloading maintenance of municipal underpass (currently flooded and unuseable, forcing kids onto road) to school that is the main, but definitely not the only, user by calling it ‘flood preparedness’ is next level shittiness, esp in a city that claims It’s a bike haven
This was such an important and devastating read and a really interesting conversation; @evemworth.bsky.social @drdaveobrien.bsky.social lots to think about for downward social mobility too
Tomorrow my new book 'Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State' will land in the dreaming spires of Oxford.
A city home to 269 homeless children+ 18 households with children in hotels + B&Bs above 6 week limit.
Here's the Rent Cultures Network event:
torch.ox.ac.uk/event/debt-t...
A city home to 269 homeless children+ 18 households with children in hotels + B&Bs above 6 week limit.
Here's the Rent Cultures Network event:
torch.ox.ac.uk/event/debt-t...
Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State
torch.ox.ac.uk
November 13, 2025 at 10:30 PM
This was such an important and devastating read and a really interesting conversation; @evemworth.bsky.social @drdaveobrien.bsky.social lots to think about for downward social mobility too
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
If you're a student who works with radio or podcasts, take a look at the Charles Parker prize. Brilliant opportunity for oral historians
www.cpatrust.org.uk/prize
www.cpatrust.org.uk/prize
Charles Parker Prize | Showcase Your Audio Talent — Charles Parker Archive Trust
Discover top student audio features and enter the Charles Parker Prize for a chance to broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
www.cpatrust.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:33 AM
If you're a student who works with radio or podcasts, take a look at the Charles Parker prize. Brilliant opportunity for oral historians
www.cpatrust.org.uk/prize
www.cpatrust.org.uk/prize
Join us for what promises to be a fascinating session this week
After a great discussion on lace workers last week, join us this Wednesday 12 Nov to hear Melissa Percival (Uni of Exeter) on 'Toile de Jouy - French printed textiles in cultural memory', 11.10am Kloppenburg Room, Exeter Cohen Quad
November 10, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Join us for what promises to be a fascinating session this week
Such a pleasure and privilege to sit and listen to a friend and colleague talking at length and fascinatingly about a subject they are so expert on. David's work is so original in its sources and approach, and so powerful in its commitment to thinking hard about social history
David Hopkin at Long 19thC this week
This week - join us to hear our own David Hopkin talk about Flemish lace, craft, gender and religion. 11.10am, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter Cohen Quad on Weds November 5th.
November 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Such a pleasure and privilege to sit and listen to a friend and colleague talking at length and fascinatingly about a subject they are so expert on. David's work is so original in its sources and approach, and so powerful in its commitment to thinking hard about social history
David Hopkin at Long 19thC this week
This week - join us to hear our own David Hopkin talk about Flemish lace, craft, gender and religion. 11.10am, Kloppenburg Room, Exeter Cohen Quad on Weds November 5th.
November 3, 2025 at 9:06 AM
David Hopkin at Long 19thC this week
Looking forward to this later today
This Wednesday 29 Oct, join us 11.10 in the Kloppenburg room at Exeter Cohen Quad to hear Tricia Zakresi on ‘The Art of Fiction: Victorian women writers and the decorative arts’. All welcome, and join us for reasonably priced informal lunch afterwards
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Looking forward to this later today
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
This calls to mind Lizabeth Cohen’s MAKING A NEW DEAL: INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN CHICAGO, 1919-1939, which demonstrates that voluntarism and charity were insufficient when things got tough and that working people turned to the state, which proved far more effective.
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
October 28, 2025 at 10:39 AM
This calls to mind Lizabeth Cohen’s MAKING A NEW DEAL: INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN CHICAGO, 1919-1939, which demonstrates that voluntarism and charity were insufficient when things got tough and that working people turned to the state, which proved far more effective.
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
Repost for non-insomniacs. For avoidance of doubt I am 💯 pro-vax & I know that LCers and others can have immune system reactions
#LongCovid ppl - I got a Pfizer booster on Sat & feeling pretty ropey for the first time in a while - insomnia, aches, fatigue, feverish, tight chest ‘thrumming body’ - trusting its just a brief reaction but freaking out slightly, any anecdata on other ppls reactions?
October 28, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Repost for non-insomniacs. For avoidance of doubt I am 💯 pro-vax & I know that LCers and others can have immune system reactions
Looking forward to this - join us!
This Wednesday 29 Oct, join us 11.10 in the Kloppenburg room at Exeter Cohen Quad to hear Tricia Zakresi on ‘The Art of Fiction: Victorian women writers and the decorative arts’. All welcome, and join us for reasonably priced informal lunch afterwards
October 28, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Looking forward to this - join us!
#LongCovid ppl - I got a Pfizer booster on Sat & feeling pretty ropey for the first time in a while - insomnia, aches, fatigue, feverish, tight chest ‘thrumming body’ - trusting its just a brief reaction but freaking out slightly, any anecdata on other ppls reactions?
October 28, 2025 at 3:48 AM
#LongCovid ppl - I got a Pfizer booster on Sat & feeling pretty ropey for the first time in a while - insomnia, aches, fatigue, feverish, tight chest ‘thrumming body’ - trusting its just a brief reaction but freaking out slightly, any anecdata on other ppls reactions?
Looking forward to this!
This Wednesday 29 Oct, join us 11.10 in the Kloppenburg room at Exeter Cohen Quad to hear Tricia Zakresi on ‘The Art of Fiction: Victorian women writers and the decorative arts’. All welcome, and join us for reasonably priced informal lunch afterwards
October 28, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Looking forward to this!
Great start to the term! Octavia Young talking about collaborative work & the weavers, dyers, and dye-makers who are obscured by the focus on Morris & Burne-Jones, opening questions around definitions of art/craft/vocation/amateur/professional /technical knowledge/book knowledge and design
This week - come to a new part of William Morris' old college to hear Octavia Young on "Art Workers: The Labourers and Artisans of Morris & Co" - our first seminar of the year on Wednesday 15/10, 11.10am, in the Ruskin Room at Exeter Cohen Quad on Walton St
![Seminar programme for the term:
Week 1, 15 Oct Octavia Young (University of Cambridge) [note Ruskin Room, Exeter Cohen Quad]
Art Workers: The Labourers and Artisans of Morris & Co
Week 3, 29 Oct Tricia Zakreski (University of Exeter)
The Art of Fiction: Victorian Women Writers and the Decorative Arts
Week 4, 5 Nov David Hopkin (Hertford)
Christ in the Flemish Lace Schools: Craft, Gender and Religion
Week 5, 12 Nov Melissa Percival (University of Exeter)
Toile de Jouy – French Printed Textiles in Cultural Memory
Week 6, 19 Nov Eric Storm (University of Leiden) [note Ruskin Room, Exeter Cohen Quad]
Discussants: Faisal Devji (Balliol) and Abigail Green (Brasenose).
Book Talk: Nationalism: A World History
Week 7, 26 Nov Matilda Eriksson (Lady Margaret Hall)
Peasant, Painter, Patron: Anders Zorn and the Collecting of Vernacular Craft as Personal and National Heritage
Week 8, 3 Dec Luisa Levi d’Ancona Modena (Oxford)
Jews, Handicrafts and Ethnography in Liberal Italy](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dqyfd5ifnlnmznfwzgst3okz/bafkreihfcypwu74cblp2kbbcp7szh6c2gx5khdeus5ol2sm6g2fx2rn5pq@jpeg)
October 15, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Great start to the term! Octavia Young talking about collaborative work & the weavers, dyers, and dye-makers who are obscured by the focus on Morris & Burne-Jones, opening questions around definitions of art/craft/vocation/amateur/professional /technical knowledge/book knowledge and design
Very much looking forward to the first seminar of term! join us.
This week - come to a new part of William Morris' old college to hear Octavia Young on "Art Workers: The Labourers and Artisans of Morris & Co" - our first seminar of the year on Wednesday 15/10, 11.10am, in the Ruskin Room at Exeter Cohen Quad on Walton St
October 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Very much looking forward to the first seminar of term! join us.
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
The Leo Baeck Institute London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to explore intersections between German-Jewish and British history, including the history of the British Empire.
www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies
www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies
October 6, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The Leo Baeck Institute London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to explore intersections between German-Jewish and British history, including the history of the British Empire.
www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies
www.lbilondon.ac.uk/vacancies
Looking forward to this term's Long 19thC seminars on Arts, Crafts and the People at Exeter Cohen Quad: first up, Octavia Young on @exeter.ox.ac.uk 's own William Morris, Weds 15th Oct at 11.10
Hello! Looking forward to an exciting term of the Oxford Long 19thC Seminar, on the theme of Arts, Crafts & the People: the Social and the Aesthetic in the Long Nineteenth Century. We meet on Wednesdays 11.10-12.30 at Exeter Cohen Quad on Walton St, all welcome.
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Looking forward to this term's Long 19thC seminars on Arts, Crafts and the People at Exeter Cohen Quad: first up, Octavia Young on @exeter.ox.ac.uk 's own William Morris, Weds 15th Oct at 11.10
Very much looking forward to this term's seminars - can't wait to get started.
We're delighted to share the programme for this term's History of Childhood seminar series. We can't wait to hear from all our fantastic speakers. Join us for our first session on Monday 20 October, at Magdalen College Oxford or online via Teams at 11am when we'll be thinking all about 'play'!
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Very much looking forward to this term's seminars - can't wait to get started.
Please consider a donation; Sawsan is a friend living in Oxford, trying to help her family in this desperate situation: gofund.me/7e53805d2
Donate to Help my family to survive and evacuate Gaza, organized by Sawsan Motaz
Stand with me to help my family survive and evacuate Gaza
Hi, my name is … Sawsan Motaz needs your support for Help my family to survive and evacuate Gaza
gofund.me
September 26, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Please consider a donation; Sawsan is a friend living in Oxford, trying to help her family in this desperate situation: gofund.me/7e53805d2
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
We are at risk of losing a generation of researchers. It’s worse than the 1980s. I’d say: only do a PhD for its own sake. The work you do s as an ECR is itself important work. But this period of contractions is going to be incredibly hard for all career stages, & impossible for ECRs.
“Cataclysmically bad”
This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.
1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
🗃️
This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.
1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/
🗃️
ECR in 2025: Part One- What is it like? – SSFH
frenchhistorysociety.co.uk
September 17, 2025 at 9:11 AM
We are at risk of losing a generation of researchers. It’s worse than the 1980s. I’d say: only do a PhD for its own sake. The work you do s as an ECR is itself important work. But this period of contractions is going to be incredibly hard for all career stages, & impossible for ECRs.
Some of these made me cry laughing
Seven years today since I got a personal favourite letter published in the Metro.
September 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Some of these made me cry laughing
This new study shows: in Germany, it has become much harder for children to earn more than their parents, now about as hard as in the US: "parental income has become much more important for educational outcomes of children"
September 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Don‘t think b sky saturation is at local Oxford intell level yet but just in case any of you are in cutteslowe and know - where and what is the party that’s been playing banging tunes since this afternoon? Has Water Eaton manor been taken over?
September 6, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Don‘t think b sky saturation is at local Oxford intell level yet but just in case any of you are in cutteslowe and know - where and what is the party that’s been playing banging tunes since this afternoon? Has Water Eaton manor been taken over?
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
Apart from the BBC & Independent media coverage of our Rural Racsm report findings has been predictably abysmal, attempting to dismiss & discredit it rather than to engage with its serious, robust findings. You can read our reports here: le.ac.uk/hate-studies...
The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside | The Centre for Hate Studies | University of Leicester
The Centre for Hate Studies at the University of Leicester was awarded funding from the Leverhulme Trust to lead a major new study entitled The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside (2023–2025). This large-scale research project, led by Professor Neil Chakraborti, Professor Corinne Fowler and Dr Amy Clarke, challenges dominant depictions of rural England as peaceful, neutral and apolitical by investigating the realities of racism experienced by minoritised ethnic individuals and communities in rural spaces, in order to understand how racism is expressed in rural contexts.
le.ac.uk
September 5, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Apart from the BBC & Independent media coverage of our Rural Racsm report findings has been predictably abysmal, attempting to dismiss & discredit it rather than to engage with its serious, robust findings. You can read our reports here: le.ac.uk/hate-studies...
Reposted by Christina de Bellaigue
'underpinning all of this is an inescapable truth. Government policy, particularly on international students, risks destroying economic activity in the places that desperately benefit from university.'
Universities can't solve every problem with the economy
Universities make places richer but not in the same way everywhere
wonkhe.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:46 AM
'underpinning all of this is an inescapable truth. Government policy, particularly on international students, risks destroying economic activity in the places that desperately benefit from university.'