Callan Davies
@callanjd.bsky.social
early modern leisure, play/s, culture | books: "What is a Playhouse?"+"Strangeness" + new intro to Shakespeare’s Merry Wives | MCFC⚽️| FSA, FRHistS | he/him | Lecturer at Uni of Southampton
Pinned
Callan Davies
@callanjd.bsky.social
· Oct 21
I'm delighted, grateful, and a little dazed to be among this year's Philip Leverhulme Prize winners @leverhulme.ac.uk, and among such excellent company.
A little more on my research hopes at the @unisouthampton.bsky.social press release: www.southampton.ac.uk/humanities/n...
A little more on my research hopes at the @unisouthampton.bsky.social press release: www.southampton.ac.uk/humanities/n...
30,000 roles across three years. This should be big national news about one of our historically most successful sectors. And yet.
Ninety UK universities to have posted accounts so far cut 13,300 jobs last year, spending £303 million on severance pay - sector-wide total clearly going to be well in excess of predicted 10,000. Great reporting by @patrickjack.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...
Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs
Analysis of UK sector accounts shows number of job losses well above predictions, with experts warning cuts are not over yet
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:50 AM
30,000 roles across three years. This should be big national news about one of our historically most successful sectors. And yet.
Reposted by Callan Davies
Job Opportunity!
Lecturer in Medieval Studies
Birkbeck, University of London - School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQB312/l...
Lecturer in Medieval Studies
Birkbeck, University of London - School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQB312/l...
Lecturer in Medieval Studies at Birkbeck, University of London
Discover an exciting academic career path as a Lecturer in Medieval Studies at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!
www.jobs.ac.uk
January 16, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Job Opportunity!
Lecturer in Medieval Studies
Birkbeck, University of London - School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQB312/l...
Lecturer in Medieval Studies
Birkbeck, University of London - School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQB312/l...
Whole rabbit, wild mushroom, and pearl barley casserole for dinner. January warmer.
January 13, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Whole rabbit, wild mushroom, and pearl barley casserole for dinner. January warmer.
Reposted by Callan Davies
“This all had me wondering: what’s Indian food without the heat? The historian in me has an answer: spiciness is historically contingent.”
Curry Before Columbus
Well before there was heat, there was hing.
contingentmagazine.org
January 12, 2026 at 12:42 PM
“This all had me wondering: what’s Indian food without the heat? The historian in me has an answer: spiciness is historically contingent.”
Reposted by Callan Davies
Hallo new Bluskis! If you're interested in the early modern world (c.1300-1700-ish) there are a bunch of starter packs brimming with historians, historians of science, art historians, and literary scholars. Check them out and find your frens - or some nerds who post things you like!
#earlymodern 🗃
#earlymodern 🗃
Another exodus from the other site, from the sounds of it? If you're looking for the #EarlyModern gang, we've got three starter packs that compile a bunch of them. I can keep adding to the third, just poke.
Here's the OG: go.bsky.app/VQeQbbF 1/3
Here's the OG: go.bsky.app/VQeQbbF 1/3
January 10, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Hallo new Bluskis! If you're interested in the early modern world (c.1300-1700-ish) there are a bunch of starter packs brimming with historians, historians of science, art historians, and literary scholars. Check them out and find your frens - or some nerds who post things you like!
#earlymodern 🗃
#earlymodern 🗃
Reposted by Callan Davies
January 1625 - Richard Napier briefly owns a swan.
3 Jan: 'Mr Grub sent me a Cygnet ... I gave him 2s'. 8 Jan: 'My Cygnet did flye away'. #otd #earlymodern
3 Jan: 'Mr Grub sent me a Cygnet ... I gave him 2s'. 8 Jan: 'My Cygnet did flye away'. #otd #earlymodern
January 8, 2026 at 12:42 PM
January 1625 - Richard Napier briefly owns a swan.
3 Jan: 'Mr Grub sent me a Cygnet ... I gave him 2s'. 8 Jan: 'My Cygnet did flye away'. #otd #earlymodern
3 Jan: 'Mr Grub sent me a Cygnet ... I gave him 2s'. 8 Jan: 'My Cygnet did flye away'. #otd #earlymodern
Reposted by Callan Davies
'Despite all their difficulties, universities remain an enormous and irreplaceable national asset. As well as educating millions of people, they generate about £24bn in export earnings, which is about 1% of GDP – more than aircraft manufacturing and legal services combined'. 1/2
The Guardian view on universities: Labour needs a clearer plan | Editorial
Editorial: Ministers promised a ‘change of approach’, but their new tax could tip weaker institutions over the edge
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:15 AM
'Despite all their difficulties, universities remain an enormous and irreplaceable national asset. As well as educating millions of people, they generate about £24bn in export earnings, which is about 1% of GDP – more than aircraft manufacturing and legal services combined'. 1/2
Reposted by Callan Davies
Ben Jonson. Convivial? Check. Big mouth? Check. Penchant for interpersonal conflict? Check (literally murdered someone). Full of self-righteous, sharp-tongued social commentary that didn't always age well? Checkarooni
Do you have a historical figure you most wish got to be a poster? I feel like you must have a better answer than mine, which is Churchill. The guy started autobiography when he was 19 I think. And just never stopped. True poster.
January 6, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Ben Jonson. Convivial? Check. Big mouth? Check. Penchant for interpersonal conflict? Check (literally murdered someone). Full of self-righteous, sharp-tongued social commentary that didn't always age well? Checkarooni
A new post from a Christmas chat about “second screening.”
Midsummer Night’s Dream might spoof “dumbed-down” cues for the half-attentive (“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. / Now am I dead”), but there are more generous ways to write for divided attention spans…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
Midsummer Night’s Dream might spoof “dumbed-down” cues for the half-attentive (“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. / Now am I dead”), but there are more generous ways to write for divided attention spans…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
Second-Screening Shakespeare
How Renaissance drama anticipated Netflix in holding distributed attention spans...
open.substack.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:07 PM
A new post from a Christmas chat about “second screening.”
Midsummer Night’s Dream might spoof “dumbed-down” cues for the half-attentive (“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. / Now am I dead”), but there are more generous ways to write for divided attention spans…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
Midsummer Night’s Dream might spoof “dumbed-down” cues for the half-attentive (“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. / Now am I dead”), but there are more generous ways to write for divided attention spans…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
Reposted by Callan Davies
Not just a national asset but an international asset. Trashed, ignored, diminished.
The worst of times: Trouble at the British Library
Cyber chaos, striking staff and a crisis of leadership. Claudia Cockerell investigates a national treasure’s year of reckoning
www.standard.co.uk
December 22, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Not just a national asset but an international asset. Trashed, ignored, diminished.
Superb Fra Angelico exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, fraturing some impressive restoration work and neat room curations (showing Northern Renaissance and Eastern influences, via Van Eyck and carpetwork respectively). Benissimo!
December 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Superb Fra Angelico exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, fraturing some impressive restoration work and neat room curations (showing Northern Renaissance and Eastern influences, via Van Eyck and carpetwork respectively). Benissimo!
Festivities imminent, home-made sloe gin decanted.
December 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Festivities imminent, home-made sloe gin decanted.
Reposted by Callan Davies
having heard talks from this project at field conferences for the past few years, this is a major new book from an inspired, indeed field defining scholar- many of us in early modern studies and beyond have been eagerly anticipating this book- and now- it’s here at last!
December 11, 2025 at 2:57 PM
having heard talks from this project at field conferences for the past few years, this is a major new book from an inspired, indeed field defining scholar- many of us in early modern studies and beyond have been eagerly anticipating this book- and now- it’s here at last!
Curiously worded (and spuriously located?) heritage sign by Southampton’s harbourfront
December 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Curiously worded (and spuriously located?) heritage sign by Southampton’s harbourfront
Reposted by Callan Davies
Is there a Humanities-specific interest group pushing back against AI at University level? I think it’s important that this organisation exists to call out the permissible culture around AI and how in a generation that might absolutely destroy the soul of learning.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
December 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Is there a Humanities-specific interest group pushing back against AI at University level? I think it’s important that this organisation exists to call out the permissible culture around AI and how in a generation that might absolutely destroy the soul of learning.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Reposted by Callan Davies
It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.
‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library - Research Professional News
Humanities researchers suffer amid “agonisingly slow” recovery from 2023 cyberattack, as strikes cause further delays
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.
With a department research exchange coming up tomorrow, instead of a paper I’m delivering some new writing… as a board game! Hoping some conversation starters in here, following street encounters with a host of fascinating (real) playgoers from 1611. #CurtainBook
December 9, 2025 at 10:13 AM
With a department research exchange coming up tomorrow, instead of a paper I’m delivering some new writing… as a board game! Hoping some conversation starters in here, following street encounters with a host of fascinating (real) playgoers from 1611. #CurtainBook
Reposted by Callan Davies
Good piece from Katie Normington at De Montfort University reminding us the post 92 universities have done excellent research for a long time and that this ought not be endangered by the White Paper call for specialisation
wonkhe.com/blogs/labour...
wonkhe.com/blogs/labour...
Labour must not repeat history by sidelining research in post-92 universities
The abolition of the binary divide in HE made visible the wealth of research excellence in what became known as the post-92 part of the sector. Katie Normington worries that forcing specialisation ris...
wonkhe.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Good piece from Katie Normington at De Montfort University reminding us the post 92 universities have done excellent research for a long time and that this ought not be endangered by the White Paper call for specialisation
wonkhe.com/blogs/labour...
wonkhe.com/blogs/labour...
Reposted by Callan Davies
It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!
We are at it again! Myself & the wonderful @rcolesworthy.bsky.social😍
Seeking pubs -- articles, book chapters, monographs -- by contingent lit scholars for the 2025 list 👇👇 please spread the word!!!
contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/08/2...
Seeking pubs -- articles, book chapters, monographs -- by contingent lit scholars for the 2025 list 👇👇 please spread the word!!!
contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/08/2...
2024 Literary Studies Book and Journal Article List
A companion list for lit studies scholars.
contingentmagazine.org
November 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM
It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!
Taking a detour from my latest book chapter draft, which follows two domestic servants on holiday in 1611, to meander through some assorted Christmas entertainment history…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
A Short History of... Shakespearean Christmas Holiday Fun
It's nearly Christmas after a pretty intense 2025, so what inspiration can we find from the past to let off steam (including a free olde recipe!)...
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Taking a detour from my latest book chapter draft, which follows two domestic servants on holiday in 1611, to meander through some assorted Christmas entertainment history…
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
Reposted by Callan Davies
‘The idea that every newborn in the UK ends up with the same book in the bottom of their pram or beside their cot, at the same time in their lives, feels like the closest thing infants have to a water-cooler moment.’ Enjoyed this from @anooshc.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...
What baby books taught me about the British state
The Bookstart scheme, which gives books to newborns, is a remnant from a more beneficent political era
www.newstatesman.com
December 6, 2025 at 12:03 PM
‘The idea that every newborn in the UK ends up with the same book in the bottom of their pram or beside their cot, at the same time in their lives, feels like the closest thing infants have to a water-cooler moment.’ Enjoyed this from @anooshc.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...
A commuter tonic en route to Southampton: framed sunrise and frost over the rolling Hampshire landscape.
December 5, 2025 at 8:18 AM
A commuter tonic en route to Southampton: framed sunrise and frost over the rolling Hampshire landscape.
Reposted by Callan Davies
Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.
The HE Ballot failed, now what?
If you’re reading this it is because today the UCU’s 2025 national ballot over pay and conditions in universities has failed. The last time…
hitchcockian.medium.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.
Very much enjoyed Theatre Royal Haymarket’s Othello last night. But rather than a review this short post talks about ita fantastic production poster.
Watching Othello: Anatomy of a Poster
Watching, seeing, and looking at Theatre Royal Haymarket's Othello and its production poster
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Very much enjoyed Theatre Royal Haymarket’s Othello last night. But rather than a review this short post talks about ita fantastic production poster.