Peter Webster
@peterwebster.bsky.social
Head of digital scholarship and innovation, Southampton uni library: DH, digitization, preservation, web archives, #GLAM, #OA
Also: historian of 20th c. British Christianity: theology, ecumenism, law/politics, religious arts.
Own views, naturally.
Also: historian of 20th c. British Christianity: theology, ecumenism, law/politics, religious arts.
Own views, naturally.
Pinned
Peter Webster
@peterwebster.bsky.social
· Nov 16
Welcome to all the X refugees; it is better here (it could hardly be worse). But if what you're after is a social media universe with genuine decentralisation and greater community control, which can't be destroyed by the whims of one capricious proprietor, Mastodon is even better.
The demise of X was overdue, but it's only a matter of time before the same pressure to make money to cover costs comes to bear here too. There is a better alternative: I'm also over there, @peterwebster@mastodon.social
Reposted by Peter Webster
If you missed yesterday's wonderful Deswarte Prize seminar - ' (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI' - it is now on the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar youtube channel youtu.be/iwT7PRy-eQs?...
Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils: (Fe)male Voices on Stage
YouTube video by IHR Digital History Seminar
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 AM
If you missed yesterday's wonderful Deswarte Prize seminar - ' (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI' - it is now on the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar youtube channel youtu.be/iwT7PRy-eQs?...
Reposted by Peter Webster
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 4 November 2025 - Deswarte Prize Seminar - Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils (University of Antwerp): (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhym...
This seminar is 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm GMT live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/96338659032 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: James Baker. This seminar will celebrate the winning entry for ...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
October 27, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Reposted by Peter Webster
Come and work with us! We have a two-year, half-time postdoctoral research associate position working on the @storymachine-ht.bsky.social project www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai.... If you’re interested in #DigitalHumanities and/or folklore, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date 27 October.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Project StoryMachine:London Senate House - Hybrid
The School of Advanced Study (SAS) comprises eight internationally renowned research institutes as well as centres in Digital Humanities and Public Engagement. It has four nationally and internationally recognised specialist research libraries. An important component of the humanities national infrastructure and part of the University of London, this is a really exciting time to join the School of Advanced Study as we are at the start of a new strategic plan.
www.jobs.london.ac.uk
October 13, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Come and work with us! We have a two-year, half-time postdoctoral research associate position working on the @storymachine-ht.bsky.social project www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai.... If you’re interested in #DigitalHumanities and/or folklore, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date 27 October.
Reposted by Peter Webster
OMG Peter @nickiclarkson.bsky.social you are genius
Introducing the Southampton Digital Scholarship team mascot:
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Inside Digital Scholarship - Digital Scholarship - LibGuides@Southampton at University of Southampton Library
library.soton.ac.uk
September 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
OMG Peter @nickiclarkson.bsky.social you are genius
For the avoidance of doubt: not named after me.
Introducing the Southampton Digital Scholarship team mascot:
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Inside Digital Scholarship - Digital Scholarship - LibGuides@Southampton at University of Southampton Library
library.soton.ac.uk
September 25, 2025 at 1:57 PM
For the avoidance of doubt: not named after me.
Introducing the Southampton Digital Scholarship team mascot:
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Inside Digital Scholarship - Digital Scholarship - LibGuides@Southampton at University of Southampton Library
library.soton.ac.uk
September 25, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Introducing the Southampton Digital Scholarship team mascot:
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Just who is Peter the Penguin?
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Once again, it was my privilege to chair the judging panel for this, in memory of a much-missed colleague and friend. Those who knew Richard will be able to imagine how delighted he would have been to see the vitality of digital history.
📢 The 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History is awarded to Scheltinga, Budts, and Puttevils for ‘(Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI’
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/2025...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/2025...
2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History - Digital History Seminar
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History is awarded to Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils (University of Antwerp) for their a...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
September 22, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Once again, it was my privilege to chair the judging panel for this, in memory of a much-missed colleague and friend. Those who knew Richard will be able to imagine how delighted he would have been to see the vitality of digital history.
Nice write-up of what our two placement students got up to over the summer, looked after by my colleague James Macdonell.
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Inside Digital Scholarship - Digital Scholarship - LibGuides@Southampton at University of Southampton Library
library.soton.ac.uk
September 19, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Nice write-up of what our two placement students got up to over the summer, looked after by my colleague James Macdonell.
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
Preparing for a lecture in January on what networks of authors in edited collections can reveal about the global history of evangelicalism in the 20th century.
I take some of the approaches discussed here:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
And apply them to this:
peterwebster.me/2019/07/03/e...
I take some of the approaches discussed here:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
And apply them to this:
peterwebster.me/2019/07/03/e...
Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British theological publishing in the twentieth century
Regular readers will know that I’ve become interested in the history of publishing, both as an exercise in the history of technology and as a way of seeing how communities of thought and disc…
peterwebster.me
September 18, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Preparing for a lecture in January on what networks of authors in edited collections can reveal about the global history of evangelicalism in the 20th century.
I take some of the approaches discussed here:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
And apply them to this:
peterwebster.me/2019/07/03/e...
I take some of the approaches discussed here:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
And apply them to this:
peterwebster.me/2019/07/03/e...
The proofs of this just landed. Open Access postprint in the quoted post, but DM me if you'd like the proofs instead.
Contracts signed, so getting closer to publication for this chapter:
"Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British theological publishing in the twentieth century"
Summary and Open Access PDF at:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
"Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British theological publishing in the twentieth century"
Summary and Open Access PDF at:
peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British theological publishing in the twentieth century
Regular readers will know that I’ve become interested in the history of publishing, both as an exercise in the history of technology and as a way of seeing how communities of thought and disc…
peterwebster.me
September 16, 2025 at 8:10 AM
The proofs of this just landed. Open Access postprint in the quoted post, but DM me if you'd like the proofs instead.
Reposted by Peter Webster
Excited to announce that the paperback edition of Age of the Spirt, a #history of #charismatic #Christianity, is out on 26 September (on my birthday no less!). Pre-order here or at your preferred retailer! Thanks to OUP for making this happen.
www.waterstones.com/book/age-of-...
www.waterstones.com/book/age-of-...
Age of the Spirit by John G. Maiden | Waterstones
Buy Age of the Spirit by John G. Maiden from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
September 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Excited to announce that the paperback edition of Age of the Spirt, a #history of #charismatic #Christianity, is out on 26 September (on my birthday no less!). Pre-order here or at your preferred retailer! Thanks to OUP for making this happen.
www.waterstones.com/book/age-of-...
www.waterstones.com/book/age-of-...
Reposted by Peter Webster
New post, and a new venture into Irish fiction (the series hitherto having featured British writers.)
New post on the blog, and another fictional priest, from an author I've only recently discovered and have been enjoying enormously: Brian Moore.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
Judith Hearne and the clockwork church
To write about Irish fiction is to step into territory which I have tried to avoid. This has not been for a lack of love, though that love has been kindled only recently. Modern Irish literature is…
peterwebster.me
September 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
New post, and a new venture into Irish fiction (the series hitherto having featured British writers.)
Some details on my little fictional priests project.
Fired up with new energy for this little project, with lots of new characters to write about. It's a way of re-energising my writing. Right now, I don't have the time for big projects, but I can (for the time being) work by a series of vignettes; it's a kind of collage.
Some work still to do, but here's a new way into my series of posts on clergy in modern English fiction. There are some new ones coming up, but suggestions of others I've missed are very welcome.
peterwebster.me/the-clergy-i...
peterwebster.me/the-clergy-i...
September 2, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Some details on my little fictional priests project.
New post, and a new venture into Irish fiction (the series hitherto having featured British writers.)
New post on the blog, and another fictional priest, from an author I've only recently discovered and have been enjoying enormously: Brian Moore.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
Judith Hearne and the clockwork church
To write about Irish fiction is to step into territory which I have tried to avoid. This has not been for a lack of love, though that love has been kindled only recently. Modern Irish literature is…
peterwebster.me
September 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
New post, and a new venture into Irish fiction (the series hitherto having featured British writers.)
New post on the blog, and another fictional priest, from an author I've only recently discovered and have been enjoying enormously: Brian Moore.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
Judith Hearne and the clockwork church
To write about Irish fiction is to step into territory which I have tried to avoid. This has not been for a lack of love, though that love has been kindled only recently. Modern Irish literature is…
peterwebster.me
September 1, 2025 at 2:27 PM
New post on the blog, and another fictional priest, from an author I've only recently discovered and have been enjoying enormously: Brian Moore.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955)
peterwebster.me/2025/09/01/j...
Reposted by Peter Webster
A little blog post introducing some of the themes of this chapter: peterwebster.me/2025/07/30/c...
July 30, 2025 at 10:46 AM
A little blog post introducing some of the themes of this chapter: peterwebster.me/2025/07/30/c...
An excellent summary. And, worse still, as a sector we expect senior scholars to somehow just acquire the skills to manage this kind of complexity and contradiction.
Very few people seem to understand university finances and, distressingly, this includes many academics and most policymakers. This is an attempt to condense the key points you need to know. open.substack.com/pub/profseri...
Understanding University Finances
... a very short guide
open.substack.com
August 10, 2025 at 6:16 PM
An excellent summary. And, worse still, as a sector we expect senior scholars to somehow just acquire the skills to manage this kind of complexity and contradiction.
I'm not saying we live in the country, but the opposition in my game of cricket on Thursday were two players short because they were busy with the harvest.
#SoVillage #ABitAgricultural
#SoVillage #ABitAgricultural
August 10, 2025 at 10:42 AM
I'm not saying we live in the country, but the opposition in my game of cricket on Thursday were two players short because they were busy with the harvest.
#SoVillage #ABitAgricultural
#SoVillage #ABitAgricultural
Reposted by Peter Webster
The new book has arrived! Very pleased to add this to the 'Iris Murdoch Today' collection from @springernature.com, all eight of which were published in the past three years.
Full details here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Full details here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
August 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The new book has arrived! Very pleased to add this to the 'Iris Murdoch Today' collection from @springernature.com, all eight of which were published in the past three years.
Full details here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Full details here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Reposted by Peter Webster
Walking barefoot with Aidan, Bede and Cuthbert to Lindisfarne lukemckernan.com/2025/07/31/w...
August 3, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Walking barefoot with Aidan, Bede and Cuthbert to Lindisfarne lukemckernan.com/2025/07/31/w...
Fired up with new energy for this little project, with lots of new characters to write about. It's a way of re-energising my writing. Right now, I don't have the time for big projects, but I can (for the time being) work by a series of vignettes; it's a kind of collage.
Some work still to do, but here's a new way into my series of posts on clergy in modern English fiction. There are some new ones coming up, but suggestions of others I've missed are very welcome.
peterwebster.me/the-clergy-i...
peterwebster.me/the-clergy-i...
August 1, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Fired up with new energy for this little project, with lots of new characters to write about. It's a way of re-energising my writing. Right now, I don't have the time for big projects, but I can (for the time being) work by a series of vignettes; it's a kind of collage.
Reposted by Peter Webster
I realised that I didn't put out an OA version of another article on Iris Murdoch, from last year.
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
Iris Murdoch and the clergy of the Church of England
Though it appeared last year, I realise that I did not post here about an article looking at Iris Murdoch’s treatment of the Anglican clergy in her novels. As always, Studies is themed, this …
peterwebster.me
July 31, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I realised that I didn't put out an OA version of another article on Iris Murdoch, from last year.
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
I'm about to go out on a limb and say that few people now read the fiction of Alice Perrin. Does anyone want to contest that, before I commit it to paper?
August 1, 2025 at 1:14 PM
I'm about to go out on a limb and say that few people now read the fiction of Alice Perrin. Does anyone want to contest that, before I commit it to paper?
I realised that I didn't put out an OA version of another article on Iris Murdoch, from last year.
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
Iris Murdoch and the clergy of the Church of England
Though it appeared last year, I realise that I did not post here about an article looking at Iris Murdoch’s treatment of the Anglican clergy in her novels. As always, Studies is themed, this …
peterwebster.me
July 31, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I realised that I didn't put out an OA version of another article on Iris Murdoch, from last year.
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
'Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England'
Studies in Church History 60 (2024)
Summary post and free PDF at: peterwebster.me/2025/07/31/i...
Surprising but most illuminating: Scorsese on his debt to the films of Powell and Pressburger.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Remembers... - Martin Scorsese Remembers… Powell and Pressburger
Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese introduces a season of films on the BBC by the legendary team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with an overview of why they resonate so strongly with him.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Surprising but most illuminating: Scorsese on his debt to the films of Powell and Pressburger.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...