Lenny Hodges
@lrhodges.bsky.social
Historian of the early modern world. Postdoc at Durham. Associate Editor for French History. Also pottery.
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:43 AM
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
I wrote a piece for @frenchhistory.bsky.social about the 40th anniversary of the French bombing of the "Rainbow Warrior."
Huge thanks to @eldrclaire.bsky.social @donalh.bsky.social @meghankroberts.bsky.social & the journal's extremely patient staff.
doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1093/fh/c...
Huge thanks to @eldrclaire.bsky.social @donalh.bsky.social @meghankroberts.bsky.social & the journal's extremely patient staff.
doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1093/fh/c...
November 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I wrote a piece for @frenchhistory.bsky.social about the 40th anniversary of the French bombing of the "Rainbow Warrior."
Huge thanks to @eldrclaire.bsky.social @donalh.bsky.social @meghankroberts.bsky.social & the journal's extremely patient staff.
doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1093/fh/c...
Huge thanks to @eldrclaire.bsky.social @donalh.bsky.social @meghankroberts.bsky.social & the journal's extremely patient staff.
doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1093/fh/c...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday.
It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday.
It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
November 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Tom Hamilton reçoit le prix Natalie Zemon Davis pour son très très grand livre. Un chef d’œuvre d’anthropologie judiciaire qui éclaire la sortie des guerres de religion: palpitant et virtuose. On ne pouvait rêver mieux pour ce beau prix !
Huge congratulations to @tombhamilton.bsky.social on the launch of his brand new book 'A Widow's Vengeance After the Wars of Religion: Gender & Justice in Renaissance France.' You can order a copy here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
November 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Tom Hamilton reçoit le prix Natalie Zemon Davis pour son très très grand livre. Un chef d’œuvre d’anthropologie judiciaire qui éclaire la sortie des guerres de religion: palpitant et virtuose. On ne pouvait rêver mieux pour ce beau prix !
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
In the midst of political pessimism, this episode on friendship as transformative power gave me some hope.
What if friendship were understood not just on an individual, personal level, but as something political – a radical practice capable of upending hierarchies and producing revolutionary social change?
Laura C. Forster and Joel White reflect on radical friendship and everyday solidarities.
Laura C. Forster and Joel White reflect on radical friendship and everyday solidarities.
Friends in Common
How might we reassess friendship as a transformative, even revolutionary, political resource?
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
October 30, 2025 at 5:46 PM
In the midst of political pessimism, this episode on friendship as transformative power gave me some hope.
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Remember guys, @pcsunion.bsky.social staff at the BL are on strike for the next two weeks. Please don't cross the picket line to go to reading rooms, attend exhibitions or anything else. They've endured so much on low pay since the cyberattack in 2023 and the least we can do is have their backs now.
Secret Maps opens today! 🤫 🗺️
From medieval manuscripts to Cold War espionage, our new exhibition explores how maps have hidden as much as they revealed for over 600 years.
Book now: bit.ly/BLSecretMaps
From medieval manuscripts to Cold War espionage, our new exhibition explores how maps have hidden as much as they revealed for over 600 years.
Book now: bit.ly/BLSecretMaps
October 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Remember guys, @pcsunion.bsky.social staff at the BL are on strike for the next two weeks. Please don't cross the picket line to go to reading rooms, attend exhibitions or anything else. They've endured so much on low pay since the cyberattack in 2023 and the least we can do is have their backs now.
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Less prominent in the Chemistry reporting (to my knowledge) has been the enormous growth of voluntary severance schemes in UK Universities. Some of them are mentioned in this @qmucu.bsky.social list. 4/ qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...
UK HE shrinking
a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.
qmucu.org
October 29, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Less prominent in the Chemistry reporting (to my knowledge) has been the enormous growth of voluntary severance schemes in UK Universities. Some of them are mentioned in this @qmucu.bsky.social list. 4/ qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
A perfect pumpkin 🎃 from a collection of drawings of Chinese flowers, plants and fruits held at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social Add MS 5292
October 29, 2025 at 10:17 AM
A perfect pumpkin 🎃 from a collection of drawings of Chinese flowers, plants and fruits held at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social Add MS 5292
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
New article by Chiara Lereda, 'Official tone and private judgement: the comte de Vergennes and the rhetoric of diplomacy in the Russo–Ottoman crisis (1786)' on the structural contradictions of French foreign policy pre-Revolution 🥳🙌💾
academic.oup.com/fh/article-a...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/fh/article-a...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
Official tone and private judgement: the comte de Vergennes and the rhetoric of diplomacy in the Russo–Ottoman crisis (1786)
Abstract. This article explores the dual diplomatic voice of Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes—Louis XVI’s foreign minister—through two letters sent on 2
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
New article by Chiara Lereda, 'Official tone and private judgement: the comte de Vergennes and the rhetoric of diplomacy in the Russo–Ottoman crisis (1786)' on the structural contradictions of French foreign policy pre-Revolution 🥳🙌💾
academic.oup.com/fh/article-a...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/fh/article-a...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Today, we're shining the #IMEMSSpotlight on Professor Emily Williams and her work on African American tombstones for #BlackHistoryMonth.
Read more about Emily's research here: www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emily-...
Read more about Emily's research here: www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emily-...
October 28, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Today, we're shining the #IMEMSSpotlight on Professor Emily Williams and her work on African American tombstones for #BlackHistoryMonth.
Read more about Emily's research here: www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emily-...
Read more about Emily's research here: www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emily-...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
It's worth adding that while the hack of 2+ years ago has been dreadful for British Library users, it is also been awful for BL staff, who cannot fulfil readers' requests and are then confronted by their consequent frustration. With no end in sight.
The risible wages are well-known in the wider field of the library, museum, gallery and archive world. I’d like to think public opinion is with the people who make the place click day-in-day-out; they deserve better.
Knowledge may be free but labour isn’t: spread the wealth and pay the workers!
Knowledge may be free but labour isn’t: spread the wealth and pay the workers!
October 26, 2025 at 8:33 AM
It's worth adding that while the hack of 2+ years ago has been dreadful for British Library users, it is also been awful for BL staff, who cannot fulfil readers' requests and are then confronted by their consequent frustration. With no end in sight.
Funding available for 2 PhDs on the Inventing Futures project at Durham Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. One focuses on early modern gendered violence, the other on utopia. It's a fantastic project with a fabulous team behind it! Come and join!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPD428/f...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPD428/f...
Full-Time PhD Studentship - Daphne and her Sisters: Framing Gendered Violence at Durham University
jobs.ac.uk are now advertising a Full-Time PhD Studentship - Daphne and her Sisters: Framing Gendered Violence. Discover exciting PhD opportunities on jobs.ac.uk.
www.jobs.ac.uk
October 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Funding available for 2 PhDs on the Inventing Futures project at Durham Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. One focuses on early modern gendered violence, the other on utopia. It's a fantastic project with a fabulous team behind it! Come and join!
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPD428/f...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPD428/f...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Hilarious given the last 15 years of mainstream parties promising (mostly awful) stuff that is totally undeliverable - tax cuts, trade agreements that make rich, massive cuts to welfare spending, reductions in state debt, immigration, massive increases in house building, economic growth etc.
This, btw, is what the slightly less belligerent Sensibles have already settled on to justify not supporting him or the Greens: "I like him, he's good in interviews, & I dont disagree. But what he wants is impossible & it's easy to say anything in opposition"
October 19, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Hilarious given the last 15 years of mainstream parties promising (mostly awful) stuff that is totally undeliverable - tax cuts, trade agreements that make rich, massive cuts to welfare spending, reductions in state debt, immigration, massive increases in house building, economic growth etc.
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
'He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
London museum identifies black Waterloo veteran in rare 1821 painting
‘Honourable’ bandsman Thomas James will feature in display at National Army Museum highlighting service of black soldiers in Napoleonic wars
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:06 AM
'He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Happy Diwali to all our members who celebrate! 🎇
This week, our IMEMS bulletin featured the gorgeous late 18th-century painting 'Radha and Krishna watching fireworks in the night sky' by the Kishangarh painter Sitaram.
💻Read more here: artsandculture.google.com/asset/radha-...
This week, our IMEMS bulletin featured the gorgeous late 18th-century painting 'Radha and Krishna watching fireworks in the night sky' by the Kishangarh painter Sitaram.
💻Read more here: artsandculture.google.com/asset/radha-...
October 20, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Happy Diwali to all our members who celebrate! 🎇
This week, our IMEMS bulletin featured the gorgeous late 18th-century painting 'Radha and Krishna watching fireworks in the night sky' by the Kishangarh painter Sitaram.
💻Read more here: artsandculture.google.com/asset/radha-...
This week, our IMEMS bulletin featured the gorgeous late 18th-century painting 'Radha and Krishna watching fireworks in the night sky' by the Kishangarh painter Sitaram.
💻Read more here: artsandculture.google.com/asset/radha-...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
New article by Déborah Cohen – 'Denouncing charlatans at the end of the eighteenth century: the politics of constituting a medical public' doi.org/10.1093/fh/c...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
Denouncing charlatans at the end of the eighteenth century: the politics of constituting a medical public
Abstract. This article explores the porous boundary between medical and political publics at the end of the eighteenth century, based on letters sent to th
doi.org
September 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
New article by Déborah Cohen – 'Denouncing charlatans at the end of the eighteenth century: the politics of constituting a medical public' doi.org/10.1093/fh/c...
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
@frenchhistory.bsky.social
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
This is such a good corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "working-age welfare spending is exploding/out-of-control" narrative that more & more people seem to see as an incontrovertible fact www.ft.com/content/ee67...
October 16, 2025 at 2:14 PM
This is such a good corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "working-age welfare spending is exploding/out-of-control" narrative that more & more people seem to see as an incontrovertible fact www.ft.com/content/ee67...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
one of the astonishing things about working in a UK uni in the last decade is complete DISCONNECT between (on one hand) hostile media stories, ill informed govt policy, end of unis as we know them
and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together
and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together
October 14, 2025 at 7:47 AM
one of the astonishing things about working in a UK uni in the last decade is complete DISCONNECT between (on one hand) hostile media stories, ill informed govt policy, end of unis as we know them
and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together
and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together
"This declaration, which served to recognise the power of the African eunuchs in Medina, established Medina as the only early modern major city outside of the African continent consistently governed by leaders of African descent until the Haitian Revolution a century later."
The African Lords of Medina: today's MEMOries post looks at the African eunuch protectors of Madina in the Ottoman Empire.
memorients.com/articles/the...
memorients.com/articles/the...
The African Lords of Medina: Eunuchs and Power in the City of Medina | MEMOs
An insight into the role of eunuchs show that the power they yielded in their role was often overlooked.
memorients.com
October 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM
"This declaration, which served to recognise the power of the African eunuchs in Medina, established Medina as the only early modern major city outside of the African continent consistently governed by leaders of African descent until the Haitian Revolution a century later."
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
‘Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems to be betting on an abrupt collapse of centrism that will leave his brand of radicalism as the sole non-racist alternative to right-wing nationalism. This makes him an authentic revolutionist, but it is a dangerous gamble.’
David Todd: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
David Todd: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
David Todd · Parable of the Parakeets: Mélenchon’s Ambitions
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s rise to prominence since 2015 has often been compared to the contemporaneous if more ephemeral...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 10, 2025 at 2:50 PM
‘Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems to be betting on an abrupt collapse of centrism that will leave his brand of radicalism as the sole non-racist alternative to right-wing nationalism. This makes him an authentic revolutionist, but it is a dangerous gamble.’
David Todd: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
David Todd: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
All I think about when reading this is how many jobs the money spent on that pile of brick and glass could have saved in smaller humanities departments - my own colleagues. It’s like building a monument of gold in a landscape of wrack and ruin.
'The gleaming palace to the humanities – the single largest building project ever undertaken by the University of Oxford made possible by the largest philanthropic gift it has ever received – stands in stark contrast to the beleaguered, shrinking state of the rest of the sector.'
Oxford’s largest-ever project ‘shows what the humanities can do’
New building which brings together disciplines for the first time will also open its doors to the public to engage with big questions facing the world
www.timeshighereducation.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:40 AM
All I think about when reading this is how many jobs the money spent on that pile of brick and glass could have saved in smaller humanities departments - my own colleagues. It’s like building a monument of gold in a landscape of wrack and ruin.
Great post-film q and a with Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, director and producer of We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe.
October 7, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Great post-film q and a with Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, director and producer of We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe.
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Earlier in September, we were able to welcome the Catalan TV for a news report on Catalan documents found in our collection at the National Archives, UK. Quentin Daste, an associated researcher of the Prize Papers and expert for the Catalan sources from the ship San Magin...
October 7, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Earlier in September, we were able to welcome the Catalan TV for a news report on Catalan documents found in our collection at the National Archives, UK. Quentin Daste, an associated researcher of the Prize Papers and expert for the Catalan sources from the ship San Magin...
Reposted by Lenny Hodges
Hell of a thing to put next to a statue of Joan of Arc. (h/t David Pilling)
October 6, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Hell of a thing to put next to a statue of Joan of Arc. (h/t David Pilling)