Alexia Yates
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ayates.bsky.social
Alexia Yates
@ayates.bsky.social
Historian of modern Europe, global urban history, history of economic life. Florence/Manchester/Paris/Toronto/St.John’s.
Which is simultaneously an acknowledgement that your own country will do absolutely nothing if the windowless cell happens.
I have actually heard both versions: feeling guilty for supporting the US at this particular moment, and legitimate worry you wind up in a windowless cell
I legitimately think this article misses the mark, because Canadians are not avoiding travel out of some principled boycott of the USA over tariffs.

Canadians who are avoiding the USA are seeing images of masked government thugs kidnapping people and teargassing children.
November 13, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
I am thrilled that "I Have Avenged America" was selected for The TLS "Books of the Year" roundup!! 🎉

@yalepress.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Books of the Year; Seamus Heaney’s journey; AI novels by committee; why Kamala Harris lost; what modern art can be; Margaret Atwood looks back – and much more.

The new issue of the TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
November 13, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Today, Nov 13, marks 10 years since the Nov 2015 Paris attacks. FCHS maintains the Paris Syllabus page with numerous resources for educators. We welcome new contributions to the Paris Syllabus page to develop it further. Contact: techofficer@frenchcolonial.org

frenchcolonial.org/paris-syllab...
Paris Syllabus – French Colonial Historical Society
frenchcolonial.org
November 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.

Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
November 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
This really struck me. If Uber were legally acknowledged as an employer, then it would be the biggest employer in the world, with over 9,000,000 employees globally. Think about how many taxes, wages, and protections are being lost b/c of their intransigence.
November 12, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Seeing some beautiful photos of aurorae tonight, so here's a reminder that other planets get them, too!

This is Saturn, with aurorae visible at both poles in this UV image from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, taken in October 1997 when the planet was 1.3 billion km away.
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
L’urgence est devenue notre langue commune. Elle structure les discours politiques, économiques, médiatiques. Mais derrière cette agitation, un vide se creuse : celui du temps long et du discernement.
➡️ https://l.franceculture.fr/2Jo
November 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Great episode of Peoples & Things today featuring Colleen Dunlavy, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison, talking about her recent book, Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. A history of standards oooh la la. 😍😍

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse
Podcast Episode · Peoples & Things · 11/10/2025 · 1h 10m
podcasts.apple.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Do share this fully funded PhD (with stipend) in Architectures of the Global South as broadly conceived with people who maybe interested. It has Amit Srivastava, Peter Sciriver and Katherine Bartsch as supervisors in Adelaide University adelaideuni.edu.au/research/res...
Expression of interest | Adelaide University
adelaideuni.edu.au
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
The whole piece is excellent but these paragraphs here are absolute bangers. And boy but it’s refreshing to see the New Yorker critique centrist views (here’s the archived version if you haven’t got a subscription: archive.ph/UNdFj).
November 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Three paragraphs defending academic freedom before cancelling an academic seminar. Just wild double speak.
The Collège de France has cancelled the symposium “Palestine and Europe: the weight of the past and contemporary dynamics” (Nov 13–14, 2025), citing safety concerns and the need for "institutional neutrality" amid public controversy.
Annulation du colloque « La Palestine et l’Europe : poids du passé et dynamiques contemporaines » des 13 et 14 novembre 2025 | Collège de France
www.college-de-france.fr
November 10, 2025 at 4:48 PM
“Are unhappy about”
“Voice concerns”
“Worrying trend”
Utterly bland language of press releases and HR speak, permeating journalism an even activism (at times).
'Members of the University and College Union...are unhappy about the threat of compulsory redundancies, as the university seeks to cut 400 full-time posts as part of efforts to save £30m, amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.'

"are unhappy about" an existential crisis?
Lancaster University staff to start industrial action over job cuts
The university is looking to save £30m amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
I’m very happy to announce that I won a book prize from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

You can download the book for free at tinyurl.com/kahnbk. It’s about the history of Turkish migration to Germany and anti-migrant racism.

@ghiwashington.bsky.social @universitypress.cambridge.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
ICYMI the Telegraph's reporting on the BBC bias 'crisis' included the fantastical claim that the right-wing and unabashedly anti-woke History Reclaimed website is a legitimate arbiter either of historical fact or political balance
November 10, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
I feel like we have the opportunity to turn David Lynch's quote into this moment's "Keep Calm and Carry On" and it's a far better rallying cry too.
November 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Such a key point about cutting back on language provision - it’s not good for science and it’s not good for growth
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Please sign the petition below in support of colleagues at Nottingham, where courses in the highly respected Dept of Modern Languages & Cultures have been earmarked for suspension.
We Can Make an Impact.
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
c.org
November 7, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'
‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
I leapt up swearing. Nottingham! Of Nottingham French Studies fame. A terrific, storied, innovative and important department.
November 6, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
This is horrifying! I have a degree in German and Russian from Nottingham. And I went there because it was in many respects a leading light in modern languages. This is incredibly short-sighted and idiotic.
I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
shout it from the rooftops.
Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.

It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
We’ve received more than 5000 signatures on our open letter to stop MPs from accessing private data about scientists, researchers and students in the university sector! This story is still developing-

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/ove...
Over 5,000 researchers oppose order to share 25 years of federal grant applicant data
TORONTO - More than 5,000 researchers have signed an open letter pushing back against a parliamentary committee order that they say draws parallels with the U.S. government's crackdown on equity,
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Poilievre is such a bad Conservative and Carney such a bad Liberal that this can happen.
Dimitri Soudas, former Harper comms guy, told RadCan this morning that he's hearing Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux will cross the floor to the Liberals today.

If this happens, the Liberals are one seat short of a majority. You know what that means.

That's right.

Elizabeth May is Kingmaker.
November 5, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
Citizenship in the News 📰🇪🇸

Spain grants citizenship to descendants of civil war’s International Brigades: About 32,000 volunteered to fight Franco dictatorship

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Spain grants citizenship to descendants of civil war’s International Brigades
About 32,000 volunteered to fight Franco dictatorship, including 2,500 men and women from Britain and Ireland
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Alexia Yates
🚨 #CfP 🚨

Are you a #historian working on queer/intersectional perspectives?

Check our @eui-qfg.bsky.social call for papers:

InterQueer: Crossing Queer and Intersectional Lenses in Historical Practice 👉 loom.ly/VL6GJSU

⏰ Submit your proposal by 28 November 2025!

📣 #skystorians #queerhistory
🚨 #CfP 🚨

Are you a #historian working on queer/intersectional perspective in historical research?

Check our @eui-qfg.bsky.social call for papers
InterQueer: Crossing Queer and Intersectional Lenses in Historical Practice 👉 loom.ly/VL6GJSU

📆 Submit your proposal by 28 November 2025

#skystorians
November 5, 2025 at 10:05 AM