sophie
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sophiecairns.bsky.social
sophie
@sophiecairns.bsky.social
AHRC english lit PhD researcher | glasgow | she/her

research interests: long 19C literature, travel literature, history of empire & imperialism, romanticism, polar exploration

usually found playing Baldur’s Gate 3 somewhere
Pinned
Hi friends! I just wanted to share this fundraiser for Project Play, a charity supporting and advocating for refugee children living on the UK-France border.

All donations for the next two months will be doubled, please consider sparing a few pounds if you can ❤️

www.justgiving.com/page/project...
Play it Forward! DOUBLE the donation, DOUBLE the play, DOUBLE the impact!
Help Project Play raise money to support ForRefugees
www.justgiving.com
Getting increasingly frustrated with the amount of misinformation being spread on social media surrounding the creation of Frankenstein atm - if I see one more TikTok about how Mary Shelley hated Lord Byron, or that he and/or PERCY tried to steal credit for writing Frankenstein, I think I might cry😭
November 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by sophie
My new series - Empire With David Olusoga - starts 9pm on BBC Two. Whole series on @bbciplayer.bsky.social from tonight.
November 7, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by sophie
The arts and humanities funding landscape in the UK
What terrifying thing are you dressing as this Halloween I'm dressing up as acid reflux
October 30, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by sophie
Our @cncsi.bsky.social C19 Gothic Afterlives programme!
🌴Sonja Lawrenson on Melmoth in Latin America
📖 @romgothsam.bsky.social Adapting Heathcliff
📻 Richard Hand haunted airwaves
🎮 @marijkevalk.bsky.social occult gaming
📺 @drdjohnston.bsky.social Gothic TV

Register ➡️ cn-csi.com/event/hallow...
October 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by sophie
Today’s not guilty verdict for Soldier F isn’t justice; it’s another betrayal of the victims and their families.

I’ll always stand with the Bloody Sunday families until justice is delivered. Dlúthpháirtíocht.
October 23, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by sophie
Come join us at @nhm-london.bsky.social on November 7th for a day conference on the connections between natural history collections and enlightenment travel writing.

For more information, programme and registration details, follow the link!

curioustravellers.ac.uk/curious-coll...
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by sophie
⭐️ Our 2026 internship opportunities are live! ⭐️

Check out 30+ paid internships & artist residencies for Arts & Humanities PhD researchers in Scotland.

Gain real-world experience, build skills & grow your networks with diverse partners.

🕔 Apply by 31 Oct 2025
👉 www.sgsah.ac.uk/e_t/i_ar/
October 13, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by sophie
If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:

fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by sophie
Join us next Wednesday (8-10) in person at the IHR or online from 5:30pm to Dr Richard Ansell’s paper ‘Travel Journals and Other Traces of Servants on the Grand Tour’. Register with the following link: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Richard outlines the paper here:
www.tiktok.com/@long18thcen...
Join Dr Richard Ansell (Birkbeck) for a free online seminar. 5:30-7:30pm London time on Wed. Oct 8 via zoom. “Travel Journals and Other Traces of Servants on the Grand Tour”. From valets to maids, dis...
TikTok video by Long 18th Century Seminar IHR
www.tiktok.com
October 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by sophie
In case anyone hasn't already seen: 34 of the Gaza students with scholarships at UK institutions arrived this week, including a student who is due to start a PhD with me at Edinburgh. I'm so grateful to everyone who helped with this - thousands of people. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘A surreal journey’: Palestinian students evacuated from Gaza arrive in UK
First 34 students, who have full scholarships, welcomed after months of campaigning by academics and others
www.theguardian.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:34 AM
embarrassing
NEW: Oxford will be the first UK university to give all staff and students free ChatGPT Edu access, from this academic year.

ChatGPT Edu is built for education, with enhanced privacy and security.
September 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by sophie
Still don't understand why they made the Hobbit movies when what the world really needs is a trilogy of films about Gandalf's 17-year archive trip to Minas Tirith.
September 16, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Very excited and grateful to have been given the chance to present at the ‘Journeys of Curiosity’ symposium, where I’ll be chatting a bit about curiosity, the sublime, and imperial anxieties in Romantic travel accounts of the Himalayas. Really looking forward to hearing all the other papers as well!
Curious Travellers are delighted to be partnering with the long-running Liverpool Travel Seminar to host an Early Career Symposium dedicated to ‘Journeys of Curiosity’

Bluecoat, Liverpool, 25/09. Free (including lunch), registration by September 19th

curioustravellers.ac.uk/journeys-of-...
‘Journeys of Curiosity’ Early Career Symposium – 25/09/2025 | Curious Travellers
curioustravellers.ac.uk
September 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by sophie
We're very excited to announce that our wonderful exhibition 'Celebrating the Scottish Poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)' with the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, has been turned into an online exhibition!

Check it out at the link below: robert-fergusson.glasgow.ac.uk/online-exhib...
September 2, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by sophie
John Swinney criticises UK government's refusal to help Gaza students with offers at Scottish universities. Students have places at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Dundee. 'Scotland is ready to welcome these students': www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...
Swinney warns UK Government risking lives by failing dozens of Gazan students
The First Minster said the decision to only evacuate nine people was incomprehensible
www.dailyrecord.co.uk
August 25, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Hi friends! I just wanted to share this fundraiser for Project Play, a charity supporting and advocating for refugee children living on the UK-France border.

All donations for the next two months will be doubled, please consider sparing a few pounds if you can ❤️

www.justgiving.com/page/project...
Play it Forward! DOUBLE the donation, DOUBLE the play, DOUBLE the impact!
Help Project Play raise money to support ForRefugees
www.justgiving.com
August 10, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by sophie
Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...
I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza
Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 19, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by sophie
I'm looking for participants for my oral history on space and feminism! Please share with anybody you feel may have contacts and email me if you have any questions or would like to get involved: sinead.carter@pgr.reading.ac.uk
July 4, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by sophie
Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...
Call for Support: – About BHL
about.biodiversitylibrary.org
July 2, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Project Play’s new report highlights the “devastating impact of record child fatalities and increasing violence against children on the UK-France border”.

Please give the report a read and see their website for more information on their work and ways to help.

www.project-play.org/we-want-to-b...
We Want to Be Safe | Project Play Website
www.project-play.org
July 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by sophie
we welcome anyone affected by the 28 Days Later rage virus to come and enjoy a relaxing visitor experience at The Museum of English Rural Life. however we politely request all infected to avoid running in the galleries, use indoor voices, and refrain from being so completely uncontrollable
June 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by sophie
David Cameron — and every UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza — must be investigated for war crimes.
June 9, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by sophie
“Oxford and Cambridge will come through this OK because they have other sources of funding...But we may well see a serious contraction of humanities postgraduate research training…That would be devastating for the vibrant national system that we’ve built in recent decades.” @mcraeandrew.bsky.social
Will funding cuts devalue arts and humanities PhDs in the UK?
From next year, the AHRC will fund vastly fewer student-initiated PhDs, focusing more of its reduced funding on specific challenges. Critics say this will undo a decade of improvements in PhD supervis...
www.timeshighereducation.com
May 15, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by sophie
Antarctic expeditions were clearly part of the colonial project, not least in the framing as conquering the last unclaimed land, and in the way that they were used to demonstrate specific qualities of colonial masculinity. Historians don’t say that to denigrate Scott. They say it because it’s true.
April 27, 2025 at 7:22 AM