Josh Smith
@smithjj.bsky.social
Historian of libraries, books and politics in 18th/19thC Britain and US | AHRC/SGSAH PhD from StirUni | Prev RA on Eighteenth-Century Libraries Online and Books and Borrowing (https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk/)| Volunteer guide @ Leighton Library, Dunblane
Pinned
Josh Smith
@smithjj.bsky.social
· Nov 20
A happy first Bluesky post. Last week I successfully defended my thesis. Thanks to my examiners, Kelsey Jackson Williams and Richard Whatmore, and chair, Phia Steyn, for a wonderful viva and to my supervisors, @emmamacleod95.bsky.social and Katie Halsey, for their support over the last four years.
Reposted by Josh Smith
Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.
📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
November 13, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.
This Saturday! Do come along if you're about in Dunblane!
All welcome on Sat 15 Nov at 10.30am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to free 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
November 12, 2025 at 3:16 PM
This Saturday! Do come along if you're about in Dunblane!
Reposted by Josh Smith
It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3
Early Career Researcher Network: key information for ECRs
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 AM
It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3
Reposted by Josh Smith
I don't know anything about fantasy and sci-fi as genres - is there crossover?
I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?)
Any recommended reading?
I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?)
Any recommended reading?
November 11, 2025 at 9:08 AM
I don't know anything about fantasy and sci-fi as genres - is there crossover?
I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?)
Any recommended reading?
I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?)
Any recommended reading?
Reposted by Josh Smith
All welcome on Sat 15 Nov at 10.30am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to free 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
November 10, 2025 at 9:07 PM
All welcome on Sat 15 Nov at 10.30am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to free 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
Reposted by Josh Smith
Any transcription help, please, lovely bluesky? My language skills don't extend beyond the place and date 🙏
October 29, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Any transcription help, please, lovely bluesky? My language skills don't extend beyond the place and date 🙏
Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project.
Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!
Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!
A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
October 28, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project.
Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!
Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!
Reposted by Josh Smith
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about the fascinating historic library, as Dr Josh h shares findings from his project completed at @stir.ac.uk
A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
October 27, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about the fascinating historic library, as Dr Josh h shares findings from his project completed at @stir.ac.uk
Reposted by Josh Smith
A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
October 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇
Reposted by Josh Smith
Here’s something to look forward to!
In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition!
🗓️ 4-18 December
In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition!
🗓️ 4-18 December
October 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Here’s something to look forward to!
In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition!
🗓️ 4-18 December
In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition!
🗓️ 4-18 December
Reposted by Josh Smith
And we're away. Bridget Phillipson is introducing the Post-16 Education and Skills paper. 1/x
BBC Parliament - House of Commons, Education Questions
Coverage of questions to Bridget Phillipson on Monday 20 October.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 4:37 PM
And we're away. Bridget Phillipson is introducing the Post-16 Education and Skills paper. 1/x
Reposted by Josh Smith
I’d rather Sam did not do so much participant observation in hospitals but when he does he gets more insights into the problems of the NHS (this post is free). samf.substack.com/p/on-the-edg...?
On the edge
My week in the NHS
samf.substack.com
October 19, 2025 at 8:37 AM
I’d rather Sam did not do so much participant observation in hospitals but when he does he gets more insights into the problems of the NHS (this post is free). samf.substack.com/p/on-the-edg...?
Reposted by Josh Smith
For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk
Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture
18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.
ecppec.ncl.ac.uk
September 27, 2025 at 6:25 AM
For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk
Reposted by Josh Smith
Could Charli XCX be Gen Z's answer to Lord Byron?
Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!!
theconversation.com/why-charli-x...
Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!!
theconversation.com/why-charli-x...
Why Charli XCX might be Gen Z’s answer to the Romantic poets
Her lyrics are full of nods to the Romantics and share many of the same concerns.
theconversation.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Could Charli XCX be Gen Z's answer to Lord Byron?
Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!!
theconversation.com/why-charli-x...
Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!!
theconversation.com/why-charli-x...
Reposted by Josh Smith
Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com
alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...
alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...
Falsifying Heritage: The Denial and Disavowal of Glasgow’s Links with Atlantic Slavery
By Stephen Mullen In a recent article in The Times, (‘Scottish Taxpayers should not have to pay the price for Slavery, 7 June 2025), Professor Nigel Biggar misrepresented an exhibition in Glasgow’s…
alanlester.co.uk
September 24, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com
alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...
alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...
Reposted by Josh Smith
History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public.
Starting this week:
Starting this week:
Events
Stay up to date with the upcoming events organised or hosted by the Institute of Historical Research
www.history.ac.uk
September 22, 2025 at 12:33 PM
History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public.
Starting this week:
Starting this week:
Reposted by Josh Smith
New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView
Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory'
doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory'
doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
September 17, 2025 at 9:39 AM
New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView
Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory'
doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory'
doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
Reposted by Josh Smith
5 days left to submit your abstract!
We're delighted to announce that the CfP for our 2026 conference @stir.ac.uk, 'Sex in the Long C19', is now LIVE!
We are grateful to have received generous funding from @bavs-uk.bsky.social, allowing us to award travel bursaries to some delegates.
Abstracts due 22 September 2025. Share widely!
We are grateful to have received generous funding from @bavs-uk.bsky.social, allowing us to award travel bursaries to some delegates.
Abstracts due 22 September 2025. Share widely!
September 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM
5 days left to submit your abstract!
Reposted by Josh Smith
We had such a great response to our History teachers webinar on teaching 'Migration and Empire' that we're offering another one! Come and find out about brand new resources co-created by teachers and academics: 4pm, Monday 29 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...
September 15, 2025 at 9:12 AM
We had such a great response to our History teachers webinar on teaching 'Migration and Empire' that we're offering another one! Come and find out about brand new resources co-created by teachers and academics: 4pm, Monday 29 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...
Reposted by Josh Smith
FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system
on.ft.com/47HEE46
on.ft.com/47HEE46
The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis
[FREE TO READ] How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration
on.ft.com
September 13, 2025 at 8:27 AM
FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system
on.ft.com/47HEE46
on.ft.com/47HEE46
Reposted by Josh Smith
"One does not have to be a theologian to be aware of the frailties and errors inseparable from the use of power in the conduct of human affairs; it is sufficient to be a political historian".
Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Norman Gash: Political Historian
This article commemorates the 40th anniversary of the publication of Lord Liverpool by Norman Gash (1912–2009). It considers Gash as a historian who both wrote about 19th-century politics and express....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 9, 2025 at 4:26 PM
"One does not have to be a theologian to be aware of the frailties and errors inseparable from the use of power in the conduct of human affairs; it is sufficient to be a political historian".
Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Josh Smith
Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...
The Edinburgh connection to London's tax-evading gift shops
Plus: A chat with the Transport for London boss running the tube strike negotiations — and how the "hardworking businessman" putting up flags in south London tried to scam an insurer.
www.londoncentric.media
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...
Reposted by Josh Smith
📢 Just a few weeks left to submit your abstracts for our exciting conference at the University of Stirling in January!
🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk
🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk
September 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
📢 Just a few weeks left to submit your abstracts for our exciting conference at the University of Stirling in January!
🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk
🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk
Reposted by Josh Smith
We appear to have come up with a blank on the identity of the author of the unpublished Philip Francis biography.
However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...
However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...
Anyone with any ideas about the mystery author of an unpublished (?) biography of Sir Philip Francis, please do get in touch. We have an incomplete draft in the @histparl.bsky.social offices and are trying to decide what to do with it...
#skystorians
#skystorians
Calling the #skystorians hive-mind.
In the process of clearing out files at @histparl.bsky.social we have come across part of an apparently unpublished biography of Sir Philip Francis. The treatment suggests it would have covered 18 chapters. Any ideas who the author may have been?
In the process of clearing out files at @histparl.bsky.social we have come across part of an apparently unpublished biography of Sir Philip Francis. The treatment suggests it would have covered 18 chapters. Any ideas who the author may have been?
September 3, 2025 at 8:30 AM
We appear to have come up with a blank on the identity of the author of the unpublished Philip Francis biography.
However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...
However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...