Kiran Mehta
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kiranmehta.bsky.social
Kiran Mehta
@kiranmehta.bsky.social
Historian researching prison labour and citizenship in Britain & British Empire, 1750-1895. Leverhulme ECF & University of Leicester.
Pinned
I’ll be speaking about my book online with Simon Devereaux on 24 Sept (not the 25th as it says in some places - completely my fault for confusing the lovely @thenacbs.bsky.social organisers!). RSVP! #skystorians

www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
To Detain or Punish with Kiran Mehta | NACBS
Join NACBS to celebrate Kiran Mehta’s recent publication To Detain or Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840. Simon Deveraux will join Kiran Mehta in discussion.
www.nacbs.org
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
Really looking forward to Samia Khatun's talk next wk: What is the Human? Recuperating Histories of Textiles Workers in Bengal from British East India Company Archives @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome, online or in person, register here. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
What is the Human? Recuperating Histories of Textiles Workers in Bengal from British East India Company Archives
www.history.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
Read our response to the Government’s announcement that university maintenance grants will be reintroduced for certain courses, funded through a levy on international student fees
https://bit.ly/4gPz7uO
British Academy responds to government announcement on university maintenance grants
The British Academy has issued a response to the government's announcement on using a proposed levy on international students to fund maintenance grants.
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
How has paperwork served as a tool of empowerment for people who often find power elusive?

In our latest podcast, a group of historians, archivists, and activists met at the Raphael Samuel History Centre (@rshc.bsky.social) to discuss the hidden history of paperwork 🗃️🎙️
Changing The Record
How has paperwork served over time as a radical tool for empowerment and change?
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
September 30, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Happening tomorrow! Join me and Simon Devereaux. We’ll be chatting about my new book on London prisons and more generally about the history of imprisonment.
📢Book event📢

📗To Detain or Punish
📅Sep 24

Free and open to the public. RSVP below!

Join NACBS to celebrate @kiranmehta.bsky.social recent publication To Detain or Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840.

www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
September 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
I got to talk to @npr.org about sheriffs, jails, and all the ways people have made money from locking up migrants. (Featuring many stories from my book!)
September 19, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Just back from a trip to Cambodia and I cannot over-emphasize how amazing the Angkor Wat complex is. Look at these outstanding carvings at Bayon temple! Late 12th ce!
September 23, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
Looks like the death knell for academia .edu. Another corner of the internet that is dead. Is it worth creating an account somewhere else? Where do people gather these days?

#skystorians #academicsky
I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.
September 17, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Don’t forget to sign up to hear me chat about my book with Simon Devereaux online on 24 September! #skystorians

www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
To Detain or Punish with Kiran Mehta | NACBS
Join NACBS to celebrate Kiran Mehta’s recent publication To Detain or Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840. Simon Devereaux will join Kiran Mehta in discussion.
www.nacbs.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
The first term's programme for the IHR Migration and Mobility Seminar is now live! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/.... We're hybrid, so if you're interested in migration and mobility across space and time - but also in how we can write better histories of mobility - sign up from anywhere!
Migration and Mobility History
The IHR Migration and Mobility seminar provides a space for historians and scholars from other disciplines to come together to discuss migration and mobility in history.
www.history.ac.uk
September 5, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Thanks to everyone who came out last night!
Excellent and insightful talk @thelondonarchives.bsky.social by @kiranmehta.bsky.social this evening on the making of the London prison system 1750-1840!
September 4, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
Join us, at 6.30pm on Friday 12 September, for our next RHS Lecture: Professor Yasmin Khan on 'Mars and Britannia: the British Imperial Way of Warfare' bit.ly/3Hv2jK8

Booking for in-person and online attendance is now open. All are very welcome #Skystorians
‘Mars and Britannia: the British Imperial Way of Warfare’: in-person event
‘Mars and Britannia: the British Imperial Way of Warfare’, a Royal Historical Society Lecture with Professor Yasmin Khan, 12 September 2025
bit.ly
September 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
There are only a few tickets left! 🏃‍♀️

📅Wednesday 3rd September
🕠5:30pm
📍The London Archives
September 1, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Blackberries!
August 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
If you love women's history, sign up for the Women's History Network ‪@womenshistnet.bsky.social‬ annual conference. Running over 4-5 Sept, it's free, online, & packed with great panels on activism, archives, the arts and fashion, economic life, sexualities
womenshistorynetwork.org/the-womens-h...
The Women’s History Network Annual Conference
Women’s History Network 33rd Annual Conference  Online via Zoom    Thursday 4 & Friday 5 September 2025 Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Archives, Libraries, Museums and Personal Collections Reg…
womenshistorynetwork.org
August 26, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Haven’t made time to go to an art gallery in a while but so glad I finally got to the Tate Britain’s Edward Burra exhibit. Interesting life and fun art.
August 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
If you needed another excuse to spend an evening at the lovely London Archives and enjoy the delights of Exmouth Street:
🚨 To Detain or To Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750–1840 🚨
📅 Wednesday 3 September @ 5:30pm
📣 @kiranmehta.bsky.social discusses the diverse penal landscape of 18th century London. An incredible book using many TLA documents!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/to-detain-...
To Detain or To Punish
Join us at The London Archives as Dr Kiran Mehta introduces her new book exploring the penal landscape of 18th century London.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
August 20, 2025 at 11:01 AM
I’ll be speaking about my book online with Simon Devereaux on 24 Sept (not the 25th as it says in some places - completely my fault for confusing the lovely @thenacbs.bsky.social organisers!). RSVP! #skystorians

www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
To Detain or Punish with Kiran Mehta | NACBS
Join NACBS to celebrate Kiran Mehta’s recent publication To Detain or Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840. Simon Deveraux will join Kiran Mehta in discussion.
www.nacbs.org
August 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
the idea that “DEI” is to blame for racist assumptions about the ability of nonwhite people and not actual racism is such a perfect example of racecraft www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...
Poll shows decline in belief that Blacks and Asians face racial discrimination
Meanwhile, about three in 10 people said DEI increased discrimination against white people.
www.nbcnews.com
July 31, 2025 at 5:18 PM
This looks excellent!
If you're in Aberdeen on 17 September don't miss my colleague Professor Matt Smith's lecture on 'Twice Removed: Slavery, Big Data, and the Cultures of Caribbean Ancestral Histories'.

Digital history both opens up new vistas and obscures 'the knotted histories of empire'. #Skystorians
Slavery, Big Data, and the Cultures of Caribbean Ancestral Histories
Royal Historical Society public lecture at the University of Aberdeen
www.eventbrite.co.uk
July 31, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
🚨NEW: Local jails & police departments are playing a key role in Trump’s mass arrest & deportation agenda

The actual scope of this collaboration – and the true scale of immigrant arrests and detentions – has not been publicly available, until now 🧵
Hiding in Plain Sight: How local jails obscure and facilitate mass deportation under Trump
www.prisonpolicy.org
July 30, 2025 at 1:16 PM
A reminder to book in to hear me talk about London’s prisons (1750-1850) on 3 September at @thelondonarchives.bsky.social
(Link below)
www.thelondonarchives.org/whats-on/to-...

#skystorians #prisonhistory #archives
To Detain or to Punish
Join us at The London Archives as Dr Kiran Mehta introduces her new book exploring the penal landscape of 18th century London.
www.thelondonarchives.org
July 30, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reading through some prisoner petitions at the @thelondonarchives.bsky.social this week and came across this great defense of a prisoner’s illicit marriage (c.1690)
July 29, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Kiran Mehta
On the one hand, this is great. But I feel about this like I do about heartwarming "go fund me" campaigns. It's great that people are stepping up, but public goods should be supported with public funds.
July 24, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Today’s tube reading is really really good
July 18, 2025 at 7:54 AM