Thomas Larkin
@thomaslarkin.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. Historian of China and the U.S., specializing in global historical and digital methods.
The studentship I did with the then HKHP was one of the most generous and supportive pathways through a PhD I could have imagined. Can't recommend this opportunity enough.
Hong Kong History Centre Studentship
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Dept of Hist, University of Bristol
𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: UK and International (including EU)
𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Tuition Fees and stipend
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Sep 26 – Sep 30 (full-time)
Details:
www.hkhistory.net/2025/11/17/h...
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Dept of Hist, University of Bristol
𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: UK and International (including EU)
𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Tuition Fees and stipend
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Sep 26 – Sep 30 (full-time)
Details:
www.hkhistory.net/2025/11/17/h...
November 18, 2025 at 11:55 AM
The studentship I did with the then HKHP was one of the most generous and supportive pathways through a PhD I could have imagined. Can't recommend this opportunity enough.
Legally speaking, if the US signs a treaty with another country, and then, during a conflict in which they aren’t belligerents, steals said treaty from said country. Is said country still required to honour the terms of it?
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Legally speaking, if the US signs a treaty with another country, and then, during a conflict in which they aren’t belligerents, steals said treaty from said country. Is said country still required to honour the terms of it?
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Nathan Cardon, Matthew Brown & Martin Hurcombe @fhmjh.bsky.social trace the flow of people/products/ideas concerning the bicycle's sports culture in a transatlantic triangle in the Journal of Sport History
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
Project MUSE - At the Bicycle Races: Global Sporting Culture and National Belonging at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, 1899–1913
muse.jhu.edu
November 14, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Nathan Cardon, Matthew Brown & Martin Hurcombe @fhmjh.bsky.social trace the flow of people/products/ideas concerning the bicycle's sports culture in a transatlantic triangle in the Journal of Sport History
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
It's interesting that this article almost entirely elides - as was the historical tendency - American traders' explicit and significant hand in the opium trade. If we want to use the Opium War to understand this clash then we need to recognize that Americans were barely neutral and hardly blameless.
How the 19th-Century Opium War Shapes Xi’s Trade Clash With Trump
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
It's interesting that this article almost entirely elides - as was the historical tendency - American traders' explicit and significant hand in the opium trade. If we want to use the Opium War to understand this clash then we need to recognize that Americans were barely neutral and hardly blameless.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Our first video of the new series "Hong Kong History Academy" is out!
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
October 10, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Our first video of the new series "Hong Kong History Academy" is out!
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."
September 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."
🧵1/3
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
August 29, 2025 at 5:34 PM
🧵1/3
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
We are recruiting a Postdoc Research Associate (Oral History) at the Hong Kong History Centre at Bristol! Please feel free to circulate to any friends and colleagues, and/or get in touch if you're interested.
𝐉𝐨𝐛 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
Closing Date: 24 Sep 2025
The postholder will be a core member of this exciting initiative and will bring oral history experience and skills to the Centre.
Details:
tinyurl.com/HKHCRA
Closing Date: 24 Sep 2025
The postholder will be a core member of this exciting initiative and will bring oral history experience and skills to the Centre.
Details:
tinyurl.com/HKHCRA
August 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM
We are recruiting a Postdoc Research Associate (Oral History) at the Hong Kong History Centre at Bristol! Please feel free to circulate to any friends and colleagues, and/or get in touch if you're interested.
Wasn't totally satisfied with last week's map transformations, so I've been playing around with Thin Plate Spline transformations on the larger maps this week using the same reference points. Instantly better look, with much more accurate coastlines for Hong Kong and Kowloon.
August 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Wasn't totally satisfied with last week's map transformations, so I've been playing around with Thin Plate Spline transformations on the larger maps this week using the same reference points. Instantly better look, with much more accurate coastlines for Hong Kong and Kowloon.
Applications are open for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship, and we're looking for two undergraduate students to participate in the MHHK project next summer at UPEI. Internships are fully funded. Deadline closes 17 September.
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Embark on a Global Research Journey with Globalink Internship
Join Mitacs Globalink Research Internship for Students. Expand your academic horizons with international research experiences.
www.mitacs.ca
August 12, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Applications are open for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship, and we're looking for two undergraduate students to participate in the MHHK project next summer at UPEI. Internships are fully funded. Deadline closes 17 September.
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Spent bits of the last week correcting new maps pulled from the HKPRO. Some truly interesting ones of the development of The Peak and Cheung Chau. I've pulled a series that I'm excited about as well that surveys Kowloon, NT, and Sai Wan village lots (still to be processed).
August 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Spent bits of the last week correcting new maps pulled from the HKPRO. Some truly interesting ones of the development of The Peak and Cheung Chau. I've pulled a series that I'm excited about as well that surveys Kowloon, NT, and Sai Wan village lots (still to be processed).
Academic hack: if I split my time between PEI in the winter and HK in the summer, I can gain almost another month of forced vacation on account of weather.
August 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Academic hack: if I split my time between PEI in the winter and HK in the summer, I can gain almost another month of forced vacation on account of weather.
This week's MHHK update. Stonecutter's Island, reclamation projects, and the villages to the west of Kowloon (1964). Not sure how accurate the source map was on rural lots and buildings, so will have to check these against the far more detailed large-scale surveys from the following decades.
July 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
This week's MHHK update. Stonecutter's Island, reclamation projects, and the villages to the west of Kowloon (1964). Not sure how accurate the source map was on rural lots and buildings, so will have to check these against the far more detailed large-scale surveys from the following decades.
Today’s best archival find is Caleb Cushing trying to figure out a suitable Chinese name. He eventually settled on 顧聖, but I think 鼓聲 (drumbeat) should have stuck. Would have looked better on the Treaty of Wangxia and the dozens of red calling cards he had written up.
June 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Today’s best archival find is Caleb Cushing trying to figure out a suitable Chinese name. He eventually settled on 顧聖, but I think 鼓聲 (drumbeat) should have stuck. Would have looked better on the Treaty of Wangxia and the dozens of red calling cards he had written up.
Discounts, friends!
Our books in U.S. History focus on shedding new light on the evolution of economic, political, and social systems in the U.S. and how international forces have shaped—and been shaped by—it. Browse more at: buff.ly/JR4AqnU #SHAFR2025 #USHistory #USForeignRelations
June 26, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Discounts, friends!
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
publication day.
the history of racial violence against immigrants in the early 20th c. remains as important to history as it does to our present
academic.oup.com/jah/article/...
With many thanks to those who supported me on this journey.
the history of racial violence against immigrants in the early 20th c. remains as important to history as it does to our present
academic.oup.com/jah/article/...
With many thanks to those who supported me on this journey.
June 16, 2025 at 10:28 PM
publication day.
the history of racial violence against immigrants in the early 20th c. remains as important to history as it does to our present
academic.oup.com/jah/article/...
With many thanks to those who supported me on this journey.
the history of racial violence against immigrants in the early 20th c. remains as important to history as it does to our present
academic.oup.com/jah/article/...
With many thanks to those who supported me on this journey.
This is a fantastic article and such an important project! It sets a high bar for how colonial heritage projects and co-creation should be conducted. MBC also rejects extractive research practices through its efforts to bring research back to the community.
Congrats on the pub @brebisz.bsky.social!
Congrats on the pub @brebisz.bsky.social!
🔊 New Article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @memorystudies.bsky.social
Reconstructing the legacies of colonial detention: Digital heritage, memory, and the Mau Mau Emergency, 1952–1960 - Bethany Rebisz, 2025
This article examines the legacies of colonial detention in Kenya and considers the adaptive digital heritage practices used by the Museum of British Colonialis...
journals.sagepub.com
June 25, 2025 at 11:19 AM
This is a fantastic article and such an important project! It sets a high bar for how colonial heritage projects and co-creation should be conducted. MBC also rejects extractive research practices through its efforts to bring research back to the community.
Congrats on the pub @brebisz.bsky.social!
Congrats on the pub @brebisz.bsky.social!
Archives imitate life.
“I am still in Washington and for most of the time we are sweltering in tropical heat”
“I am still in Washington and for most of the time we are sweltering in tropical heat”
June 24, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Archives imitate life.
“I am still in Washington and for most of the time we are sweltering in tropical heat”
“I am still in Washington and for most of the time we are sweltering in tropical heat”
Love visiting a country where the museums have signs reminding you that you can’t bring your gun along.
June 23, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Love visiting a country where the museums have signs reminding you that you can’t bring your gun along.
This week's MHHK. So many lots to fill. Is the task hypnotic? Yes. Is it therapeutic? No. Have I watched two HBO miniseries while doing it? Absolutely.
June 20, 2025 at 1:52 PM
This week's MHHK. So many lots to fill. Is the task hypnotic? Yes. Is it therapeutic? No. Have I watched two HBO miniseries while doing it? Absolutely.
While I don't fully agree with the periodization (there are parts of the last 5 months that feel more at home in the Smoot-Hawley era), Immerwahr draws some important comparisons - and also helps us think through the puzzle of Trump's awkward historical self-comparisons.
Now someone do Lincoln.
Now someone do Lincoln.
Daniel Immerwahr with a timely @newyorker.com piece on "Tariff Man" Trump's William McKinley infatuation. Especially one for all you historians of the Gilded Age.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Why Donald Trump Is Obsessed with a President from the Gilded Age
William McKinley led a country defined by tariffs and colonial wars. There’s a reason Trump is so drawn to his legacy—and so determined to bring the liberal international order to an end.
www.newyorker.com
June 19, 2025 at 2:18 PM
While I don't fully agree with the periodization (there are parts of the last 5 months that feel more at home in the Smoot-Hawley era), Immerwahr draws some important comparisons - and also helps us think through the puzzle of Trump's awkward historical self-comparisons.
Now someone do Lincoln.
Now someone do Lincoln.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Congratulations to Bristol PhD student, Jenny Hutton, on her recent NLM blog posting about her historical research. @uobartsmatter.bsky.social @uobrishistory.bsky.social
Medically Manufactured: The Story of Retrolental Fibroplasia
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/12/m...
Medically Manufactured: The Story of Retrolental Fibroplasia
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/12/m...
Medically Manufactured: The Story of Retrolental Fibroplasia
By Jenny Hutton ~ When Lula Hardaway was told her 6-week-old baby Stevie was blind, doctors were unable give her an answer as to why. Born two months early in Saginaw, Michigan in May 1950, Stevie …
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov
June 16, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Congratulations to Bristol PhD student, Jenny Hutton, on her recent NLM blog posting about her historical research. @uobartsmatter.bsky.social @uobrishistory.bsky.social
Medically Manufactured: The Story of Retrolental Fibroplasia
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/12/m...
Medically Manufactured: The Story of Retrolental Fibroplasia
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/12/m...
Minnesota police urge protestors not to attend the ‘No Kings’ demonstration out of an ‘abundance of caution’. The far right proves that an abundance of violence will be used to silence dissent.
June 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Minnesota police urge protestors not to attend the ‘No Kings’ demonstration out of an ‘abundance of caution’. The far right proves that an abundance of violence will be used to silence dissent.
Today's MHHK work has really been more this week's MHHK work - to the detriment of the article I was supposed to be writing. Got sucked into building a road layer on this 1964 map of Kowloon. While it took forever, working backwards from this map should just be a process of subtraction.
June 13, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Today's MHHK work has really been more this week's MHHK work - to the detriment of the article I was supposed to be writing. Got sucked into building a road layer on this 1964 map of Kowloon. While it took forever, working backwards from this map should just be a process of subtraction.
Added MHHK's first georeferenced base map for Kowloon today. Likely going to have to redo it though because I forgot to correct Stonecutters Island.
Eventually the project will include the entire territory, but I can't say I'm looking forward to how long some of those maps are going to take.
Eventually the project will include the entire territory, but I can't say I'm looking forward to how long some of those maps are going to take.
June 6, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Added MHHK's first georeferenced base map for Kowloon today. Likely going to have to redo it though because I forgot to correct Stonecutters Island.
Eventually the project will include the entire territory, but I can't say I'm looking forward to how long some of those maps are going to take.
Eventually the project will include the entire territory, but I can't say I'm looking forward to how long some of those maps are going to take.