Beth Kitson
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drbethkitson.bsky.social
Beth Kitson
@drbethkitson.bsky.social
710 followers 1K following 180 posts
Research Associate, Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Beth Kitson
histparl.bsky.social
Following some recent high-profile political defections, @alfiesteer.bsky.social and Dr @emmapeplow.bsky.social have delved into the History of Parliament's #OralHistory archive to explore some historical cases of MPs who 'crossed the floor' and changed their party affiliation.
Crossing the Floor: Tales from the Oral History Project - The History of Parliament
Political defections, commonly known in Westminster parlance as ‘Crossing the Floor’, have been a phenomenon in Parliament since at least the 17th century.
historyofparliament.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
hetanshah.bsky.social
Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research.

We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
International Fellowships 2026 The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce. Funding status Open for applications Career stage Early-career
January 15, 2026 at 8:00 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Really looking forward to @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk Annual Conference. Please do get in touch if you're coming along!
bennettschool.cam.ac.uk Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk · 3d
Booking is now open for the Bennett School of Public Policy Annual Conference

Speakers inc. Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, & keynote João Vale de Almeida, former senior EU Ambassador 

🗓️26 March 2026
🕙10:00-18:30
📍Churchill College, Cambridge & Online
🎟️ bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/conference
January 14, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
ojgarling.bsky.social
I'm assuming @bsky.app may be seeing the effects of an X-odus, so re-sharing the @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk starter pack.

go.bsky.app/UX4T67L
January 9, 2026 at 5:37 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Thrilled to be joining the @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk team!

(And to have such a lovely commute this morning)
An icy River Cam in the sunshine
January 5, 2026 at 6:38 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Three (of many) favourites from Anna Ancher: Painting Light.
A woman stands at a sink with her back to viewer in a kitchen Two seated girls looking up at their teacher, dappled in sun and shadow An elderly woman in profile
December 30, 2025 at 6:58 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
'Isn't history sometimes written by the losers?'

This is perfection.
willpooley.bsky.social will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 29d
happy holidays all! 🗃️

the energy i am taking into 2026 (and thanks to notorious enablers and collaborators forcing the whole department to also take):
History Term Card Spring 2026: Failure The Department of History at the University of Bristol hosts weekly research / teaching events for staff and postgraduate students every Tuesday from 15:00-16:30 in LR8 followed by drinks in the Humanities Common Room. Sessions are open to audience members from outside the Department. Isn't history sometimes written by the losers? From environmental and industrial disasters to forgotten utopian projects, the past is filled with stories of how things go wrong. Failure has a history, or indeed many histories. Our research events next teaching block are dedicated to all of the ways that past plans have not been able to survive contact with reality. Join us for discussions of both failure in history, and the failures of historians. After all, we like to celebrate research and teaching successes. The community of historians at Bristol share many strengths and learn from one another. But it is harder to talk about the errors, mistakes, disasters, and rejection that are normal if painful parts of historical research. Rather than keeping our failures to ourselves as if they were shameful, what value is there in sharing our experiences with others? What does failure mean? What do we do to avoid it? What do we do to overcome it? And what can we do simply to acknowledge and experience it? Our goal in these conversations is not just to tell feel-good stories about triumphing over apparent disasters. Instead, we want to take failure seriously in itself. After all, failure is not just personal, but systematic, cultural, social, and historical. Emergencies notwithstanding, join us each Tuesday for a combination of talks about histories of failure and practical events exploring failures in research, impact, and teaching. What could possibly go worng?
December 19, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
danwilsoncraw.bsky.social
Pressures on current tenants in terms of evictions and rents are easing a bit, but competition for new tenancies is still tough - check out the findings from GR's latest survey
generationrent.bsky.social Generation Rent @generationrent.bsky.social · 29d
We run surveys of our supporters to take the temperature of the renter population, and understand the biggest issues you’re facing.

Today we’re publishing findings of the latest survey, run in the final months of the Renters’ Rights Bill’s passage through Parliament 🧵
December 19, 2025 at 11:19 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
'people are being denied a social home due to fears they will not be able to keep up with their living costs, and the report found 71% of housing associations said the benefit restrictions were a key reason for this.'
ngoodrichhsg.bsky.social Neil Goodrich @ngoodrichhsg.bsky.social · Dec 8
This has been happening for years, certainly for as long as I've been in the sector. It gives the lie to claims by the right that our welfare system is too generous. Regardless, I'm glad this research is out.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
People on lowest incomes being denied access to social housing, research finds
Benefit claimants having applications denied for being deemed too risky by housing associations, says Crisis
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:01 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Behind the scenes in Ede and Ravenscroft's wig-room, 1920s vs 2025 www.ft.com/content/e035...
A perruquier stitches a wig in the 1920s A wig-maker sews hair on to a bench wig - photographed by Charlie Bibby
December 7, 2025 at 9:17 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
James Meek on the ghost(s) of the industrial revolution.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
It wasn’t until the beginning of the 18th century, a hundred years after Beaumont’s first wagonways, that Newcomen’s steam engine solved the flooding problem and other inventor-adventurers worked out how to use coal instead of wood to smelt iron. It was another hundred years again before it was all put together – the coal, the iron, the wagonway and the engine – and the railways proper came into being. (Wrought iron rails were developed at Bedlington Ironworks, just west of Blyth.) Not till the close of the 19th century was Blyth fully at the core of the Victorian industrial meta-machine: mining coal, shipping coal for export, building ships. This span of time could be framed, from the distance of the 21st century, as a slow, almost organic process, an accidental consequence of an aristocratic scramble to maintain grandiose agriculture-based lifestyles after a series of 14th-century catastrophes. It could be framed as five hundred years of greed, selfishness, pollution and merciless exploitation of the poor by the rich. Or – these are not mutually exclusive – it could be framed, as it usually is in this country, as the triumphant progress of British ingenuity, perseverance and practicality towards general prosperity and a liberal, enlightened nation.
December 7, 2025 at 11:02 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
“The brutal irony is that the generative AI tools affecting novelists are likely trained on millions of pirated novels scraped from shadow libraries without the consent or remuneration of authors"

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/gene...
Half of UK novelists believe AI is likely to replace their work entirely, report finds
A new report involving hundreds of literary creatives from across the UK fiction publishing industry reveals widespread fears over copyright violation, lost income, and the future of the art form, as ...
www.cam.ac.uk
December 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
harrywallop.co.uk
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
For the first time in a long old while, I have finally lived somewhere long enough to join AND use the local library, is this what happiness looks like??
December 1, 2025 at 9:50 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
'This is a context in which it is important to have a more consistent sense of priorities than the government has so far maintained.'
November 27, 2025 at 1:07 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Even just looking at the chart titles here has reminded me how everything is now content and everyone is a content creator.
jburnmurdoch.ft.com John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · Nov 23
This chart (which applies even more to social media than it did to TV) lives in my head rent free.

Social media enveloping traditional media means everything and everyone is now competing in the entertainment market. Boring stuff like policy that affects millions of lives doesn’t stand a chance.
November 23, 2025 at 10:25 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
'Concern over a deeply unequal society and a lopsided economy is where the wealth tax-ers and I start – but doing something about it requires deep-rooted changes to give more people a fairer share.'

Aditya Chakrabortty on the wealth tax

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
What does the left want? A wealth tax. What will that accomplish? Very little | Aditya Chakrabortty
Imposing a 1% levy on the super-rich isn’t a policy, it’s pantomime. Tackling inequality in Britain will require much more far-reaching changes, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
charlielynch.bsky.social
I think this counts as successful research impact. Turning your archive work into a bestselling trade book, which is then optioned as a feature film. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
Bad Bridgets podcast about crime among Irish women in US inspires film
Margot Robbie’s company to make movie based on Northern Ireland academics’ stories of poverty and prison
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
paulisci.bsky.social
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women

🧵
November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
I had never considered patient satisfaction as anything other than an outcome on its own. Fascinating (if unsurprising really) to read the direct impact on health outcomes, that @samfr.bsky.social cites: bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/1/...?
October 19, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Beth Kitson
kiranstacey.bsky.social
EXC: English councils will still be poorer in 2029 than they were in 2010, according to the IfG.

Report finds councils are increasingly providing social care and little else. Libraries, youth services, parks, all falling by the wayside.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
English councils to remain poorer than in 2010 despite funding rise, says report
Exclusive: Impact of austerity cannot be undone by end of parliament despite above-inflation funding, analysis finds
www.theguardian.com
October 15, 2025 at 4:32 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Reminded of @stephenkb.bsky.social's excellent column on AI and the curriculum.

"It is knowledge that allows you to deploy and use your skills."

www.ft.com/content/1369...
benmschneider.bsky.social Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · Sep 19
Technological change means that workers will probably need to retrain multiple times during a career. Better to use uni years to develop general skills because the immediately marketable ones will depreciate quickly.
September 19, 2025 at 10:49 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
We’re all applying for the same jobs, talking about who is applying for which jobs, who deserves which jobs, and how fed up we are of not having jobs. This conversation is boring, exasperating, and addictive. It brings out our worst anxieties and frustrations, particularly when we repeatedly have it over bottles of wine. This is a great way to associate your friendships with a deep feeling of failure and anger. It’s killing our romantic lives. How many relationships have I seen fail because the academic in a couple took a job overseas because they had no other options? That’s without even mentioning the unfortunate academic couples who can spend a decade commuting between different university towns. Even more than that, years of precarity can mean you struggle to invest in your own future. An ex-boyfriend is an early career scholar, a jobbing lecturer at Oxford who has cobbled together a number of part-time roles into one Frankenjob. The best way to give yourself crippling commitment issues is to find yourself with no actual job security but attached to one institution that you hope will reward your loyalty, praying for your contract to be renewed each year. Good luck allowing yourself to relax enough to think about moving in with your girlfriend, you can’t commit to a housing contract because you don’t know where you’ll be in a year. Also, you’re constantly broke. Good luck getting a mortgage, because your income comes from five different places. And good luck imagining yourself having a family, when you can barely look after yourself.
September 18, 2025 at 9:04 AM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
Desperate to see an updated chart for Shania please
September 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
drbethkitson.bsky.social
'Because Black women are overrepresented in public sector jobs, the Trump Administration’s massive cuts to the federal workforce have likely contributed towards over 300,000 Black women leaving the labor force between February and July.'

time.com/7315624/risi...
Rising Unemployment Among Black Women Is a Bad Economic Sign
"Black women are the canary in the coal mine on the health of the economy," write Cooper and Opoku-Agyeman.
time.com
September 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM