Sarah Betts
@wromantichistry.bsky.social
PhD student researching memories and Public History of the English Civil War (Royalist Reputations) and Monarchy. Modern Monarchy section editor at Royal Studies Journal. Chronically ill mum of 3.
Pinned
Sarah Betts
@wromantichistry.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Reintroducing myself for the influx of people coming over from the other place.
I'm a PhD student at the University of York. My thesis is on representations and cultural memory of royalists and royalisms of the English Civil War from the 17th Century to the present day.
I'm a PhD student at the University of York. My thesis is on representations and cultural memory of royalists and royalisms of the English Civil War from the 17th Century to the present day.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
CFP: Fantasy’s Present Pasts
The inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic
23–25 June 2026 @uofglasgow.bsky.social
Proposals invited for papers on how speculative genres engage with the interplay of past & present. Deadline 12 December
#litcrit #fantasy
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
The inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic
23–25 June 2026 @uofglasgow.bsky.social
Proposals invited for papers on how speculative genres engage with the interplay of past & present. Deadline 12 December
#litcrit #fantasy
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
Fantasy’s Present Pasts – Call for Papers and Sessions – Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
CFP: Fantasy’s Present Pasts
The inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic
23–25 June 2026 @uofglasgow.bsky.social
Proposals invited for papers on how speculative genres engage with the interplay of past & present. Deadline 12 December
#litcrit #fantasy
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
The inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic
23–25 June 2026 @uofglasgow.bsky.social
Proposals invited for papers on how speculative genres engage with the interplay of past & present. Deadline 12 December
#litcrit #fantasy
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
What bothers me is that impartiality and balance are two different and incompatible things. Impartiality means that you don't intervene to put your thumb on the scales. Balance necessarily requires that you intervene to artificially make every issue look like a 50/50.
November 10, 2025 at 10:49 AM
What bothers me is that impartiality and balance are two different and incompatible things. Impartiality means that you don't intervene to put your thumb on the scales. Balance necessarily requires that you intervene to artificially make every issue look like a 50/50.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
There are many subtle and complex arguments one can have about the future of the BBC — but I guarantee you that no other channel or streaming service will be as committed to factual programming, children’s education, history shows, religious discussion, poetry, arts, or state of the nation debate
November 10, 2025 at 12:48 PM
There are many subtle and complex arguments one can have about the future of the BBC — but I guarantee you that no other channel or streaming service will be as committed to factual programming, children’s education, history shows, religious discussion, poetry, arts, or state of the nation debate
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Obviously, it’s been a tough day for the BBC. Big organisations, working under big pressure, will sadly make errors
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
November 10, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Obviously, it’s been a tough day for the BBC. Big organisations, working under big pressure, will sadly make errors
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
But I still feel huge pride in hosting a BBC podcast, and having previously spent 11 years making a world-renowned children’s show that no other broadcaster would have made
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Hello, if you've got a spare fifteen minutes we've put together a video on the emergence of the railway poster as a visual medium from the 1840s-1930s that you might enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5is...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5is...
The Lost Art of Railway Posters: A Journey Through Time | Off the Rails
YouTube video by National Railway Museum
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Hello, if you've got a spare fifteen minutes we've put together a video on the emergence of the railway poster as a visual medium from the 1840s-1930s that you might enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5is...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5is...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Historians, race and ethnicity, women & gender studies scholars, take a look. The idea that teaching *accurate* history and scholarship is "grievance studies" misdirects who is nursing the grievances. Gorgeously written. Read it now.
November 9, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Historians, race and ethnicity, women & gender studies scholars, take a look. The idea that teaching *accurate* history and scholarship is "grievance studies" misdirects who is nursing the grievances. Gorgeously written. Read it now.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
A good time, it seems, for a thread about public sculptures of, and by, women that have been installed in the last 10 years or so...
Aphra Benn in Canterbury, Licoricia in Winchester, Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, Dervorguilla in Oxford...
Aphra Benn in Canterbury, Licoricia in Winchester, Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, Dervorguilla in Oxford...
November 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
A good time, it seems, for a thread about public sculptures of, and by, women that have been installed in the last 10 years or so...
Aphra Benn in Canterbury, Licoricia in Winchester, Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, Dervorguilla in Oxford...
Aphra Benn in Canterbury, Licoricia in Winchester, Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, Dervorguilla in Oxford...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
I am beyond thrilled that my @universitypress.cambridge.org book, Music & Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, has won the 2025 Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society for the best book written by "a scholar past the early stages of their career" 🙏♥️ #AMSMT25
November 9, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I am beyond thrilled that my @universitypress.cambridge.org book, Music & Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, has won the 2025 Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society for the best book written by "a scholar past the early stages of their career" 🙏♥️ #AMSMT25
Reposted by Sarah Betts
New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson.
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
For a novel first published in 1934, Sally Carson’s Crooked Cross feels remarkably timely, charting, as it does, the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s, the falling apart of a country’s fundamental …
jacquiwine.wordpress.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:17 AM
New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson.
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Ahead of #RemembranceDay, some of our Railway Work, Life & Death blog posts touch upon the impact war had upon the railway industry & railway workers.
We've posted about the impact of the First World War here:
www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/tag/first-wo...
We've posted about the impact of the First World War here:
www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/tag/first-wo...
First World War Archives - Railway Work, Life & Death
Railway Work, Life & Death
www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk
November 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Ahead of #RemembranceDay, some of our Railway Work, Life & Death blog posts touch upon the impact war had upon the railway industry & railway workers.
We've posted about the impact of the First World War here:
www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/tag/first-wo...
We've posted about the impact of the First World War here:
www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/tag/first-wo...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Everything about this, including the editors and stellar contributors, looks amazing.
A project that started with a DiGRA23 workshop is finally, nearly out in the world! Coming May 2026 from Bloomsbury’s Writing History series, Writing Games Histories is a collection of essays on historical game studies methods&approaches. Find the ToC here:
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...
Writing Game Histories
This book offers an accessible introduction to the dynamic intersection between history and games, and the flourishing discipline of Historical Game Studies. Fr…
www.bloomsbury.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Everything about this, including the editors and stellar contributors, looks amazing.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.
WAC wrong-headedness
(that's the BBC Written Archives Centre)
I've brought together the key links for the campaign against the changes which now make independent and exploratory research at WAC impossible - and why this matters.
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/wac-wrong-he...
(that's the BBC Written Archives Centre)
I've brought together the key links for the campaign against the changes which now make independent and exploratory research at WAC impossible - and why this matters.
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/wac-wrong-he...
WAC wrong-headedness - Illuminations
John Wyver writes: Some of you will know that I have been very involved over the past months with attempts to reverse the wrong-headed changes to access at the BBC Written Archives Centre (above, with...
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
... and Leicester... Languages, History...
It's so easy to destroy, so hard to create. So much talent. So many lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It's so easy to destroy, so hard to create. So much talent. So many lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
University of Leicester to consult on redundancies
University bosses are also planning to stop a number of courses.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 10:17 PM
... and Leicester... Languages, History...
It's so easy to destroy, so hard to create. So much talent. So many lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It's so easy to destroy, so hard to create. So much talent. So many lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
You’ve probably seen a lot of stuff about James Watson stealing Rosalind Franklin’s DNA research. Read this clear article by two eminent historians of science to understand what *actually* happened 👇
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:34 AM
You’ve probably seen a lot of stuff about James Watson stealing Rosalind Franklin’s DNA research. Read this clear article by two eminent historians of science to understand what *actually* happened 👇
Reposted by Sarah Betts
The WAC is a hugely important resource for historians (I've made extensive use of it on multiple projects) and these hugely significant changes are an effective bar on access.
WAC wrong-headedness
(that's the BBC Written Archives Centre)
I've brought together the key links for the campaign against the changes which now make independent and exploratory research at WAC impossible - and why this matters.
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/wac-wrong-he...
(that's the BBC Written Archives Centre)
I've brought together the key links for the campaign against the changes which now make independent and exploratory research at WAC impossible - and why this matters.
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/wac-wrong-he...
WAC wrong-headedness - Illuminations
John Wyver writes: Some of you will know that I have been very involved over the past months with attempts to reverse the wrong-headed changes to access at the BBC Written Archives Centre (above, with...
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 8:56 AM
The WAC is a hugely important resource for historians (I've made extensive use of it on multiple projects) and these hugely significant changes are an effective bar on access.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
New Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies
12 Nov 2:30pm
Join IAS Fellows Rana Banna & Mary Newman for the first session, exploring how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting & smelling
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
12 Nov 2:30pm
Join IAS Fellows Rana Banna & Mary Newman for the first session, exploring how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting & smelling
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
New IAS Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies
Join the IAS Postdoctoral Fellows, Rana Banna & Mary Newman, for the first session of the reading group, exploring how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of s...
www.ucl.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
New Reading Group: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies
12 Nov 2:30pm
Join IAS Fellows Rana Banna & Mary Newman for the first session, exploring how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting & smelling
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
12 Nov 2:30pm
Join IAS Fellows Rana Banna & Mary Newman for the first session, exploring how early-modern writers connected linguistic encounters with sensory encounters of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting & smelling
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
People's fundamental inability to comprehend large numbers is killing us all. It's bad enough with millions vs billions, but a trillion is so far beyond understanding. No person should ever control that amount of resources. It is quite literally unthinkable.
Trillionaires shouldn't exist.
Even the idea of it is utterly obscene.
www.thenational.scot/news/2560444...
Even the idea of it is utterly obscene.
www.thenational.scot/news/2560444...
'Utterly obscene': Elon Musk blasted over trillion-dollar pay deal announcement
ELON Musk has been blasted after it was announced the Tesla CEO is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire
www.thenational.scot
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
People's fundamental inability to comprehend large numbers is killing us all. It's bad enough with millions vs billions, but a trillion is so far beyond understanding. No person should ever control that amount of resources. It is quite literally unthinkable.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Love this @warburginstitute.bsky.social !
The Warburg makes its late night debut
‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ took an unexpected turn with Florence Welch’s recent shout-out to Aby Warburg’s unique book classification system
apollo-magazine.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Love this @warburginstitute.bsky.social !
Reposted by Sarah Betts
To think of this man
In his hospital bed,
Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,
Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,
Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives
#SamirZitouni
In his hospital bed,
Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,
Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,
Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives
#SamirZitouni
November 4, 2025 at 12:55 PM
To think of this man
In his hospital bed,
Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,
Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,
Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives
#SamirZitouni
In his hospital bed,
Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,
Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,
Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives
#SamirZitouni
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Best text for English dress circa 1600? Writing a section with the English living in an Indigenous Caribbean village and the people are all naked, the Puritan English ask them to cover up but they refuse. Chance for a funny scene here sitting around the fire with Jacobean English frocks.
November 4, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Best text for English dress circa 1600? Writing a section with the English living in an Indigenous Caribbean village and the people are all naked, the Puritan English ask them to cover up but they refuse. Chance for a funny scene here sitting around the fire with Jacobean English frocks.
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Resharing this from the weekend:
I'm sorry for all the constant promotion, we're just really trying to rebuild after moving from Substack.
If you're interested in:
Film reviews
Media literacy
American history
Academic community building
Public scholarship
& More
Please subscribe and/or share!
I'm sorry for all the constant promotion, we're just really trying to rebuild after moving from Substack.
If you're interested in:
Film reviews
Media literacy
American history
Academic community building
Public scholarship
& More
Please subscribe and/or share!
The hardest part of building a new home for our public scholarship to get off of Substack is rebuilding our communities.
If you are or have ever been a fan of my Review Roulette or @americanstudier.bsky.social's #ScholarSunday threads and AmericanStudier blog, please subscribe to keep getting them!
If you are or have ever been a fan of my Review Roulette or @americanstudier.bsky.social's #ScholarSunday threads and AmericanStudier blog, please subscribe to keep getting them!
November 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Resharing this from the weekend:
I'm sorry for all the constant promotion, we're just really trying to rebuild after moving from Substack.
If you're interested in:
Film reviews
Media literacy
American history
Academic community building
Public scholarship
& More
Please subscribe and/or share!
I'm sorry for all the constant promotion, we're just really trying to rebuild after moving from Substack.
If you're interested in:
Film reviews
Media literacy
American history
Academic community building
Public scholarship
& More
Please subscribe and/or share!
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Huge congratulations to @tombhamilton.bsky.social on the launch of his brand new book 'A Widow's Vengeance After the Wars of Religion: Gender & Justice in Renaissance France.' You can order a copy here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
February 15, 2024 at 8:16 PM
Huge congratulations to @tombhamilton.bsky.social on the launch of his brand new book 'A Widow's Vengeance After the Wars of Religion: Gender & Justice in Renaissance France.' You can order a copy here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we?
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
November 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we?
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism.
Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨
🧵
1/22
Reposted by Sarah Betts
Our next Digital Seminar Series seminar is on Monday Nov 17 (date changed) at 6pm GMT. Join Dustin M. Neighbors' talk on 'The Material Culture of Queens and Queenship - Employing Digital Research Methods'
You must be an RSN member and register by Nov 16:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dss-novemb...
You must be an RSN member and register by Nov 16:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dss-novemb...
November 3, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Our next Digital Seminar Series seminar is on Monday Nov 17 (date changed) at 6pm GMT. Join Dustin M. Neighbors' talk on 'The Material Culture of Queens and Queenship - Employing Digital Research Methods'
You must be an RSN member and register by Nov 16:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dss-novemb...
You must be an RSN member and register by Nov 16:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dss-novemb...