Nick Fitzhenry
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nickfitzhenry.bsky.social
Nick Fitzhenry
@nickfitzhenry.bsky.social
PhD student in Economic History, LSE.
nicholasfitzhenry.co.uk
Research: death, disease & doctors during Apartheid
Methods: Applied econometrics and historical demography.
Teaching: Industrial Rev., History of Middle East
Pinned
I've put together my personal website — rather proud of these (GPT-generated) icons for each of my research projects!

www.nicholasfitzhenry.co.uk
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS
There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...
www.pnas.org
October 6, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I'm submitting my PhD dissertation today, with the defence scheduled in early December. Long years of work, but proud of the outcome and excited to develop it further. Thought I'd share the first few pages of the front matter:
September 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
UNTIL IT'S DONE, Ep. 2

When the Brownsville Clinic opened in 1916, it was the first birth control center in America. Its very existence felt impossible. For young women, it was a lifeline.

109 years later, the Clinic is long closed—but Brownsville mothers are still struggling.
September 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...
August 12, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Under-5 diarrhoeal disease death rates in South Africa during the 70s and 80s for coloured (mixed-race), indian and white race groups (apartheid state did not collect complete data for the black majority).

The seasonality and heightened rates for the coloured population are quite shocking.
August 8, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
When was the last time you've listened to Graceland. You might want to listen to Graceland again. It's really good.
August 4, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
David Byrne came to my band’s show at a gay bar in Bed-Stuy and sang This Must Be The Place with us and I still haven’t processed it
August 2, 2025 at 2:49 PM
A striking visualisation of vaccine impact: Cape Town whooping cough deaths plummeted after DP (diphtheria and pertussis [whooping cough]) vaccine introduction (1950). Also reveals stark racial health disparities in South Africa, particularly in the first half of the 20th century.
July 24, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
The shipwreck uncovered in Sanday, #Orkney last year has been identified as HMS Hind, later the Earl of Chatham which was wrecked in the Bay of Lopness in 1788.

More than 230 years buried in the seabed, before being released by a storm in 2024.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Archaeologists identify 250-year-old Shipwreck in Orkney
Scientific analysis and community-led research led to the identification of the Earl of Chatham, which was found last year.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 23, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
That's the post !
July 22, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Clioguesser: guess the year based on a political map, ranging from 1000 BCE to 2024 CE.

I am 15th on the leaderboard ;)

clioguesser.azurewebsites.net/leaderboard
June 30, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
Congratulations to @nickfitzhenry.bsky.social and Mina Ishizu for receiving the 2025 #LSE Class #Teaching Awards 🧑‍🏫🥳
info.lse.ac.uk/staff/educat...
#econhist #education
LSE Class Teacher Awards
info.lse.ac.uk
June 12, 2025 at 11:36 AM
April 14, 2025 at 11:14 AM
A video I made for a job interview summarising my PhD work and its relevance to students of economics. youtu.be/r4U07e00oY0?...
Nick Fitzhenry - PhD Summary
YouTube video by Nick Fitzhenry
youtu.be
April 11, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
April 9, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :(

So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/
March 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
This reminds me of an Archbishop Desmond Tutu quote I hold close to my heart.
March 19, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Last week, we took our students on a tour of the National Gallery, teaching the history of economic and demographic change through art. 🖼️🎨🧵
March 11, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
TB is a disease of poverty
A new RCT in @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social shows that pre-test & post-test TB counseling + conditional cash transfers significantly improved treatment outcomes in South Africa. The intervention cut unsuccessful TB outcomes nearly in half!
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Effects of conditional cash transfers and pre-test and post-test tuberculosis counselling on patient outcomes and loss to follow-up across the continuum of care in South Africa: a randomised controlle...
The package of interventions consisting of pre-test and post-test tuberculosis counselling with conditional cash transfers significantly reduced the risk of unsuccessful tuberculosis patient outcomes,...
www.thelancet.com
February 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
CFP: Workshop on Health Transitions in the Global South

CFP Deadline 3 February 2025

Workshop 9-10 June 2025 at LSE

Sponsored by the LSE Historical Economic Demography Group
www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-His...
Health Transitions in the Global South 2025
Health Transitions in the Global South 2025
www.lse.ac.uk
January 21, 2025 at 10:46 AM
My round for our Christmas dinner party quiz:
🎄Economic Christory 🎄
December 11, 2024 at 12:50 PM
Did someone try to Hot Frosty Adam Smith?
Someone has dressed Adam Smith in a fetching red cravat.
December 4, 2024 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
1/5
Jonathan Guthrie claims in his @ft article that “It’s bananas to regard art as an investment”. A few thoughts from someone researching art as an investment - a thread🧵
www.ft.com/content/daf9...
It’s bananas to regard art as an investment
Enjoy your paintings and sculptures. Just don’t expect a return on what you paid for them
www.ft.com
November 27, 2024 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Nick Fitzhenry
Linked 🇨🇦 census data show big regional differences in intergenerational mobility 1871-1901 & substantial improvement for Quebec over the 20th century. Structural change but not human capital variation helps to explain spatial differences in mobility. New working paper from Minns, Summerfield et al!
www.lse.ac.uk
November 26, 2024 at 3:20 PM
I created a starter pack of LSE Economic History people on Bluesky.

Let me know if I have missed you! go.bsky.app/BJSugbh
November 26, 2024 at 12:10 PM