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mattholmes.bsky.social
Matthew Holmes
@mattholmes.bsky.social
1.1K followers 300 following 21 posts
Historian of Science, Technology, and the Environment
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8498-3264
Author of "The Graft Hybrid: Challenging Twentieth-Century Genetics" @upittpress.bsky.social‬
#HistSTM #EnvHist #HistTech #AnimalHistory
matthewrholmes.com
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Matthew Holmes @mattholmes.bsky.social · Mar 3
How did people in the 19thc decide if birds were intelligent? Find out in my new article "Avian architects: Technology, domestication, and animal minds in urban America" doi.org/10.1177/0073... (1/3)
A sparrow sitting on a ledge against the background of an American city.
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
newscientist.com
The ancient trick of grafting one plant onto another could find a very modern use – enabling gene editing of plants that are very difficult or impossible to edit by other means.
Grafting trick could let us gene-edit a huge variety of plants
Many plants including cocoa, coffee and avocado cannot be gene-edited but a technique involving grafting could change that, opening the door to more productive and nutritious varieties
www.newscientist.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
greenhouseuis.net
The Greenhouse @unistavanger.bsky.social is launching an international Masters Program in Public Environmental Humanities from fall 2026! Taught in English.

Please share with all your students, #envhist #envhum colleagues!

Learn more about the program here: www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
Poster for Masters in Public Environmental Humanities. Our 2-year masters program in beautiful Stavanger, Norway, invites you to study today's environmental challenges as deeply rooted in culture and history. Key aspects: • Combine critical thinking with hands-on engagement • Work across humanities fields • Put learning into action through an internship • Taught entirely in English • Free tuition for students from EU/EEA/Switzerland and affordable for others If you believe community-engaged humanities can help build a more sustainable future, this is the place to start. GET MORE INFO & APPLY FOR FALL 2026 Questions? Email PEH@uis.no
October 31, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
dollyjorgensen.bsky.social
"Ghosts Behind Glass offers valuable insights into humanity’s grappling with our own hand in irrevocable loss, but the delight of the book is much simpler: as Jørgensen globetrots, we experience the museums and extinct species she visits through her enchanted gaze."
lit.newcity.com/2025/10/30/s...
Review: "Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums" by Dolly Jørgensen
A book rich in observations drawn from visits to over eighty museums worldwide, “Ghosts Behind Glass” glimpses at how they present extinction to the public.
lit.newcity.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
visualplague.bsky.social
So great to see my new book How Plague Got Rats:
Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic, published OA @hopkinspress.bsky.social next May, has got a cover! www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
October 14, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
dollyjorgensen.bsky.social
I looked through my “extinction in museums” files and discovered that I have encountered a slender-billed curlew at the Museum of Natural History, University of Wrocław, Poland.
Now gets added to the list of extinct animals.
A bird laying down
October 10, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
collecol.bsky.social
@collecol.bsky.social is back! 🪲

We've put together a great seminar series - we hope you'll come along!

On 2 Oct 11am EDT/4pm GMT we're doing a reading club - Appadurai's "The Museum, the Colony, and the Planet: Territories of the Imperial Imagination".

All info ⬇️ www.chstm.org/group/collec...
Collection Ecologies | Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine
www.chstm.org
September 25, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech:

Check out Eric J. Richards (@btiscience.bsky.social)‬’s review of @mattholmes.bsky.social’s book _The Graft Hybrid: Challenging Twentieth-Century Genetics_ pub 2024 @upittpress.bsky.social
‬
#HSTM

Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
www.h-net.org/reviews/show...
September 24, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
monicavasile.bsky.social
Had a really good time at the Planetary Futures conference in Manchester. Big thanks to wonderful organizers @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social, @duncanwilson78.bsky.social and presenters!

Snapshots from talks🧵
@mattholmes.bsky.social
@angecass.bsky.social
#envhist
#envhum
#histsci
Matt Holmes's presentation at the Planetary Futures conference at Manchester Museum Angela Cassidy's presentation at the Planetary Futures conference at Manchester Museum on pests and coypu (aka nutria)
September 21, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
dollyjorgensen.bsky.social
Join us Mon 1 Sept 2025 for @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talk with @richardfallon.bsky.social on Contesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture 1860-1935: Believers & Visionaries on the Borderlines of Geology & Palaeontology (Oxford UP 2025).
newnatures.org/greenhouse/e...
#histsci
On left: purple flower and underneath Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Book Talks On right: cover of the book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860-1935 with drawings of many animals and two naked people
August 28, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
melinabuns.bsky.social
excited to share the call for the workshop

EXTRACTIVE NATURES / NATURES OF EXTRACTION

happening at @uobrisceh.bsky.social on 6-7 Nov 2025,

made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social

deadline: 10 September!

full call below ⤵

#envhist #envhum
URL and ALT text to follow.
August 21, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
I have a horrible feeling I forgot to post that registration for this conference about extinction, conservation and the future of our planet is now open. We have an amazing range of speakers, who are listed here, alongside the link to register.

networks.h-net.org/group/announ...
August 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
dudleymarianna.bsky.social
If you would like to review my book for a publication, get in touch! The book is a history of wind energy and I’m trying to get it out to as wide an audience as possible.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/
Manchester University Press - Electric wind
Electric wind - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Electric wind by Marianna Dudley
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
August 7, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
rafdebont.bsky.social
Make sure to read @monicavasile.bsky.social's wonderful new article in Environmental Humanities - arguing we should think of reintroduction projects not as a form of 'homecoming', but as 'homemaking'. #MovingAnimals read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta...
Beyond Homecoming | Environmental Humanities | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
August 1, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
hptsociety.bsky.social
The Humanities and Technology Association (HTA) have published a Call for Papers for their 43rd annual Humanities and Technology Association Conference, held at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island from Oct. 23-25th, 2025.
July 14, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
camglamresearch.bsky.social
What a great roundtable! @collecol.bsky.social!
July 10, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
biodivlibrary.bsky.social
📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
A red flower on a green stem withe the words: BHL Call for support now open overlayed.
June 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
eseh.bsky.social
Please consider supporting the Biodiversity Heritage Library! #envhist #envhum
node801.bsky.social B. Ricardo Brown, PhD @node801.bsky.social · Jul 2
CALL FOR SUPPORT: Secure the Future of BHL
Following the Smithsonian Institution’s decision to conclude its long-standing role as BHL’s host on 1 January 2026.
#HistSTM #HistSci #Biodiversity #Ecology #EnvHist #NatHist #EnvironmentalStudies
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...
July 3, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
cberiksen.bsky.social
I’m very happy to announce that I’ve been awarded an IRFD Starting Grant for the project “Sovereign Flowers: Flora Danica and the Emergence of the National Flora, 1750–1900.” Hooray! The project allows me to build a small research group of a PhD student and a postdoc at Aarhus University (@au.dk).
June 28, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
themerl.bsky.social
Absolute Units returns!!!

In this ep, we speak to environmental historian @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social about her research into pigs in medieval England.

Topics include: taking your hogs for a walk, the Hapsburg chin of domestic pigs, Babe 2, and so much more.

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
Absolute Units: three giant rams float over the English countryside.
June 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
finnarne.me
Hey #histtech, can we dig up some suggestions here?
mavery.bsky.social Margy Avery @mavery.bsky.social · Jun 19
@shothisttech.bsky.social Seeking a history of technology scholar on the history of shovels - any suggestions and/or recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!
June 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
bshsnews.bsky.social
📣 Join historian Sadiah Qureshi as she shares insights from Vanished, her acclaimed new book on extinction, empire & erasure for free! With an introduction by Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk!
🗓 Wed 9 July, 6–10pm
📍 Cambridge
🎟 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1395979053...
#PublicLecture #histSTM
June 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
gpetrick.bsky.social
I'm editing the Food (& Drink) Section for Environmental Change and Human Experience for OUP Intersections. Looking for new work on food, drink and the environment. Contact me if you want to learn more. It is peer-reviewed.
academic.oup.com/oxford-inter...
Content, Overview, and Scope of Food Section for Environmental Change and Human Experience. Section name: Food Section Editor(s): Gabriella M. Petrick, Ph.D. Content overview and scope : The Food section of Environmental Change and Human Experience will focus on the tension between the need for humans to sustain themselves while simultaneously exploiting the natural resources and environments surrounding them. Humans and their agricultural practices have long redesigned the environment in both helpful and problematic ways for animals, insects, and societies. Articles in the series will explore the diversity of foods and beverages across space and time and illustrate how food production has reshaped communities, cultures, and the landscape. These essays and topics use new research to build on older literature and will provide new insights on historical themes such as globalization, power, and industrialization. They also highlight new areas of research such as the consequences of technologies on the environment, animal studies and how of more-than-human actors shaped the past, water studies, and indigenous approaches to historical and contemporary foods and food systems. The essays will fall under the topics of “Food Flows: The Circulation of Food across the World”; “Indigenous Knowledge: Sustaining and Exploiting Food Environments”; “Animals: More than Just Meat”; “Quenching a Thirst: Water and Other Drinks”; “Food and Power”; “Building Fields of Dreams: Agriculture and the Reshaping of Landscapes”, and “Industrial Food”.
June 11, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
carscott.bsky.social
Interesting role for a Historian or Arts/Humanities scholar to join at a senior level in the research team; overlapping specialities required: Early Modern, history of enslavement, country house history, plant humanities.
June 9, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
dominikhhh.bsky.social
Join us & let‘s workshop together!
#envhum #collections #museum
collecol.bsky.social Collection Ecologies @collecol.bsky.social · Jun 4
🚨 Don't miss our final CHSTM seminar of the academic year! 12 June at 12pm EST/5pm BST ✨

@dominikhhh.bsky.social & @nickytheprof.bsky.social will be workshopping our forthcoming special issue with Endeavour! 🪲

Sign up to get all your @collecol.bsky.social info!
www.chstm.org/group/collec...
June 4, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holmes
centrephilohistory.bsky.social
Today in two weeks (17.06), we'll hold the workshop "Historical Contingency" with Gregory Radick and Robert Northcott as speakers. The event will be hybrid, taking place in person in Ostrava and on Zoom. For more information, see below or here: philevents.org/event/show/1....

All welcome!
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM