Kiran Mehta
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kiranmehta.bsky.social
Kiran Mehta
@kiranmehta.bsky.social
330 followers 460 following 69 posts
Historian researching prison labour and citizenship in Britain & British Empire, 1750-1895. Leverhulme ECF & University of Leicester.
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kiranmehta.bsky.social
Kiran Mehta @kiranmehta.bsky.social · Dec 2
Some are saying my book on London prisons is the perfect holiday gift AND if you DM me before the end of the year I’ll happily share the discount code so you can get 25% off. #skystorians

www.mqup.ca/Books/T/To-D....
To Detain or to Punish
Imprisonment was rarely used as punishment in Britain before 1800. The criminal justice system was based on terror and deterrence, sentencing convicts to the gallows at home and transportation oversea...
www.mqup.ca
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
alanlester.bsky.social
CFP: Race, Law and Empire
February 16, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
One for #Skystorians interested in teaching up-to-date histories of slavery in the classroom. From the @royalhistsoc.org blog.
New resources for teaching slavery: connecting academic history and the classroom | Historical Transactions
blog.royalhistsoc.org
February 17, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
royalhistsoc.org
New in Transactions: 'Show Me the Data: New Practices for Historical Sources', by @ruthahnert.bsky.social, Katherine McDonough & @danielwilson.bsky.social: bit.ly/460nrkM

As the ecosystem of historical research data expands, how do we keep control of source materials, esp digital? #Skystorians 1/2
Opening page of new Transactions article; 'Show me the Data: New Practices for Historical Sources', by Ruth Ahnert, Katherine McDonough and Daniel C. S. Wilson. Full abstract: 'This comment examines the rapidly evolving ecosystem of historical research data in the United Kingdom, where cultural heritage collections are increasingly digitised, commercialised and fragmented. Historians face growing challenges in discovering, accessing and reusing data as resources move behind paywalls, and repositories remain scattered, without a national infrastructure to ensure long-term preservation or discoverability. Drawing on examples from major digital initiatives, we analyse the life cycle of historical research data and highlight the complex interplay of commercial, institutional and scholarly interests that shape access. We distinguish three types of data that emerge from historians’ typical engagements with digitised collections: derived, enhanced and aggregated data. We argue that historians must actively participate in the practices relating to the creation, maintenance and reuse of such data. This will involve new forms of citation, favouring open datasets, improving digital skills and building communities around shared resources. The comment concludes with proposals to improve discoverability, sustainability and reuse, urging the discipline to establish common standards and infrastructures to secure an equitable data commons for future research.'
February 13, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
tpwade.bsky.social
The latest issue of Erasmus Studies is out and features an article from me about the efforts of Polydore Vergil to compete with Erasmus in print. Lots on proverbs, republic of letters and petty quarrels.

Should be of interest to #BookHistory and #EarlyModern people!

brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
mitrasharafi.bsky.social
Legal history people: the ASLH conference will be in the Canadian Rockies in Nov.2026! Panel proposals are due March 24, 2026. The Call links to google sheets where you can find co-panelists & chair-commentators 👇 You can @ me if you're looking for fellow panelists, too.
February 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
cemskcl.bsky.social
Delighted to announce the launch of a new seminar - Race and the Early Modern - in collaboration with @folger.edu.

A monthly, transatlantic, online seminar for research on race, racialisation, and racemaking across #earlymodern Studies.

Sign up to attend!

kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...
Race and the Early Modern — CEMS KCL Blog
kingsearlymodern.co.uk
January 15, 2026 at 1:58 PM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
Very grateful to find that this India Office despatch did not, in fact, contain arsenic, as threatened.
@britishlibrary.bsky.social
#skystorians
India Office record stating the officer was sending arsenic and other poisons as samples
January 15, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
histparl.bsky.social
📣 We’re hiring!
The History of Parliament are seeking a Research Fellow for our House of Lords 1660-1832 project. @georgianlords.bsky.social

We’re looking for a historian with a PhD in 18thC British political or cultural history to join our expert team.

🔗 Details below:
#AcademicJobs #HistoryJobs
Job Vacancy: Research Fellow, 1660-1832 House of Lords - The History of Parliament
The History of Parliament are excited to advertise for a research fellow to join our House of Lords 1660-1832 project.
historyofparliament.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:33 AM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
Reading government letters about convicts in 1840s Madras who claimed to find “hidden treasure” while compelled to work on the railroads 👀👀
January 14, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
mitrasharafi.bsky.social
"To my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-tr...
I Set A Trap To Catch Students Cheating With AI. The Result Was Deflating
"I am no stranger to students trying to cut corners by copying and pasting from Wikipedia, but the introduction of generative AI has enabled them to cheat in startling new ways."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
January 12, 2026 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
historyworkshop.org.uk
This year, History Workshop Journal will celebrate two milestones: its 50th anniversary and its 100th issue.

To mark the occasion, eleven historians share how they've used the journal in their own teaching.
HWJ in the Classroom
From histories of the French Revolution, to policing in Early Modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight HWJ as a valuable resource across many different classrooms.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 6, 2026 at 7:00 AM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
He saw what legible handwriting looked like and thought: not for me.
(National Archives Kew, Prison Commission records 1895)
Two different handwriting styles (one clear, the other less so) on an internal Home Office record
December 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
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
kiranmehta.bsky.social
Going back to my (research) roots #skystorians #prisonhistory
A prison calendar from Shropshire Oct 1784
December 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
At the Staffordshire History Centre today looking (amongst other things) at this incredible letter from a prisoner (1828) to the Earl of Bradford which ends with an apology for his writing
December 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
A nice surprise this morning: my article on prison reform from below is out!

I believe it’s open access but let me know if you can’t get a copy and would like one.

academic.oup.com/histres/adva...
Prison reform from below: London, c.1780–1830*
Abstract. This article explores the history of the English prison reform movement from ‘below’ – that is, from the perspective of prison inmates. By highli
academic.oup.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
historyworkshop.org.uk
Next year we are co-hosting a celebration event with @rshc.bsky.social to mark the 100th issue of History Workshop Journal.

📍Birkbeck, University of London
🗓️Saturday 31 January 2026
⏱️14:00-18:00

Everyone welcome! Please make sure to book via the link below.
History Workshop Journal’s 100th Issue: a celebration
Speakers include former and newer editors, and friends of the journal. Tea, coffee and a drink will be provided.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
#CfP Call for Papers

Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick:

Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today

Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick

Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026

Submit to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk
Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today We invite papers for a workshop entitled “Between Thompson and the Global: Rethinking Labour History Today”, to be held at the University of Warwick on 26-27 June 2026. This workshop will seek to bring together historians of labour to collectively reflect on a large historiographical shift that has taken place over the last two decades, from the social history of labour (in national contexts) to global and trans-national labour history. The social history of labour “from below” is a tradition initiated by E.P Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class (1963), and extended over several decades by a robust tradition of politically engaged left-wing historical studies of the working classes: a tradition most powerfully entrenched in British historiography (but with many imprints elsewhere, ranging from the United States to Brazil to South Africa to India). The global history of labour, which revised and questioned many of the features of “Thompsonian” history-writing, has sought to overcome “methodological nationalism” in the writing of labour history, to investigate specific labour histories within a global frame, and to enable trans-national histories of workers and work. It has emerged as an increasingly dominant frame of reference for contemporary studies of labour around the world. This workshop seeks to place these two historiographical traditions in conversation with each other, to examine the stakes of the passage from the older, “Thompsonian” tradition to the “global turn”, and to think about the changed meanings of “doing labour history” today. Participants are urged to explicitly reflect on the methodological and conceptual issues at stake in the practice of labour history. We would like to invite submissions that address (but are not necessarily limited to) the following themes: 1. To what extent has the global labour history tradition that has flourished over the last 20 years drawn upon or rejected the methodological and conceptual approaches of Thompsonian social/labour history? What other methodologies and concepts have been deployed and proven fruitful? 2. How do we address the burgeoning critique of Thompsonian social/labour history as parochial and Anglocentric (Bressey, 2015; Satia, 2020), and how have historians responded to this challenge and reshaped British labour history accordingly? What can historians of British labour learn from broader global trajectories of workforce formation and labour movements? 3. How might integrating histories of consumption, environment, and reproduction enrich our understanding of labour and its global entanglements? 4. In what ways can collaboration between historians of Britain and the global south generate new analytical frameworks or unsettle established narratives of class, race, and empire? 5. What kinds of politically-engaged global social and labour history can best respond to the contemporary challenges of rising global inequality and the appropriation of class politics by some sections of the populist right? 6. The legitimacy of 'radical' forms of labour-history writing initially arose from politics, from the apparently established centrality of the industrial working class both in society and in projects of social emancipation. That centrality has now been in precipitous decline for a long time. In this context, how might we think about what the ‘politics of doing labour history’ actually implies today? 7. What has been gained and what has been lost in the shift from a labour history dominated by “history from below” to one dominated by global history? Please send abstracts to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk
December 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
I’m expecting this new book by Jake S. Richard’s to be amazing: ‘The Bonds of Freedom tells the forgotten story of people seized from slave ships by maritime patrols, “liberated,” then forced into bonded labor between 1807 and 1880.’

yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
The Bonds of Freedom - Yale University Press London
The story of the long fight for freedom of African captives rescued from the illegal slave trade only to be forced back into bondageA Times Literary Suppleme...
yalebooks.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
kiranmehta.bsky.social
Some are saying my book on London prisons is the perfect holiday gift AND if you DM me before the end of the year I’ll happily share the discount code so you can get 25% off. #skystorians

www.mqup.ca/Books/T/To-D....
To Detain or to Punish
Imprisonment was rarely used as punishment in Britain before 1800. The criminal justice system was based on terror and deterrence, sentencing convicts to the gallows at home and transportation oversea...
www.mqup.ca
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
tedmccormick.bsky.social
Once again: this is not something that "threatens" academic freedom, though it will doubtless be reported that way. This is only possible where academic freedom has already ended.
December 2, 2025 at 1:15 AM
kiranmehta.bsky.social
Some are saying my book on London prisons is the perfect holiday gift AND if you DM me before the end of the year I’ll happily share the discount code so you can get 25% off. #skystorians

www.mqup.ca/Books/T/To-D....
To Detain or to Punish
Imprisonment was rarely used as punishment in Britain before 1800. The criminal justice system was based on terror and deterrence, sentencing convicts to the gallows at home and transportation oversea...
www.mqup.ca
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
royalhistsoc.org
Recordings are now available of Jane Ohlmeyer's excellent RHS Anniversary Lecture: 'Visible | Invisible: Voices of Women in Early Modern Ireland' bit.ly/3MdjXEn

Jane's lecture was given on 21 November and is available to watch or listen to again. #Skystorians 1/2
Recordings available of the Society's 2025 Anniversary Lecture, with Professor Jane Ohlmeyer - RHS
On 21 November, the Society was delighted to welcome Professor Jane Ohlmeyer to give the 2025 RHS Anniversary Lecture: ‘Visible | Invisible: Voices of Women in Early Modern Ireland’. Recordings of Jan...
bit.ly
December 2, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
uclspeccoll.bsky.social
CFP: 'Difficult Collections' Special issue of 'Paper Trails' @uclpress.bsky.social. Focus on challenges of working with troubling heritage collections (colonialism, eugenics, representation, etc). Proposals: 31/01/26; Submissions: 31/05/26. Details: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... #GLAM ##HistorySky
Call for Papers: Difficult Collections | UCL UCL Special Collections
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
historyworkshop.org.uk
In the nineteenth century, British officials became obsessed with collecting and codifying 'secret languages' across northern India.

In our latest article, Vipin Krishna explores how linguistics became a tool for classification, surveillance, and control.
Policing Language in Colonial India
Vipin Krishna explores how colonial officials in nineteenth-century India turned linguistics into a tool for classification, surveillance, and control.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
December 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM