Prof. Catriona Pennell

Historian of war, empire, and memory at @uniofexeter.bsky.social with a particular interest in education, social justice & human security. New to Bluesky. Here because of global dark skies overhead. Pango, age ten weeks, also new (since Thursday) & helping to keep us smiling.

“The real question facing higher education lies beneath funding. It is purpose.” We launch Higher Ground today: a new programme bringing experts together to ask difficult questions and develop bold, evidence-led ideas for the future of universities. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4zErEqt

Applied History Fellowships, 2027: call now open bit.ly/4i0Rz4q The Society, @ihr.bsky.social, and publisher DC Thomson today launch the latest call for their Applied History programme. Fellowships, of £12,250 / 6 months, for post-doc historians to develop historical skills beyond HE #Skystorians

Archive of @britishacademy.bsky.social Fellow Stuart Hall is now live. Includes looking at his impact on the history of communication theory, culminating in the architecture of contemporary AI models www.theguardian.com/society/2026... Archive link: stuarthalldigital.bham.ac.uk/archival_mat...

Very honoured to be Chairing the ECR Article Prize committee this year, having been a judge on the panel last year. It was a humbling experience to read the breadth and depth of historical brilliance on display in those submissions and I’m looking forward to what’s on show this year!

Glen's lecture opened the Society's autumn programme of lectures taking place in London, Glasgow and Bristol, and online. Further details of upcoming events, including lectures by Meleisa Ono-George, Sathnam Sanghera, Hanna Diamond and Amy Froide bit.ly/3VQUTYs 2/2

Our great thanks to Prof Glen O'Hara for his excellent RHS lecture yesterday evening: ‘In All Our Footsteps? Rights of Way and the Battle for the Land after the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act’ Recordings now available bit.ly/4ySyB6W #Skystorians @gsoh31.bsky.social 1/2

A silly byline but fun to be interviewed today for the BBC’s coverage of the Second World War bomb discovered in Falmouth Docks @hass-cornwall.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

GCSE success for teenagers taking part in pioneering university & college project to reduce South West “NEET” numbers https://ow.ly/h3us50ZNmiP

Join colleagues from across @gw4alliance.bsky.social on 24 September for an online workshop, ‘Resisting Mythic Pasts: Memory, Nostalgia, and Democratic Resilience in Contemporary Britain’. With five papers and discussion on a timely political issue, sign up (for free) below:

South West Water has worst environmental record in England, dumps sewage in rivers 574,323 hours a year Severn Trent, Yorkshire Water came second and third. Bills up, criminal activity up. Still allowed to trade. Must revoke their licence. Eliminate profit motive. Nationalise.

The best tribute to Dolly Parton is that she regularly and repeatedly refused to have anything to do with Piers Morgan

We need to show rightwing newspapers that actions have consequences. Add your name: goodlawproject.org/s/abb8a1

HaSS Cornwall was delighted to welcome Prof Leith Davis from Simon Fraser University to Penryn campus, Kresen Kernow and Trebah Gardens. Dr Jim Kelly, Prof Joanie Willett and Prof Davis discussed exciting research and teaching collaboration possibilities around the theme of Celtic identity.

Congrats to the winners of the inaugural Tony Hibbert Prize. At a time when humanities subjects are asked to justify their value, the entries are the perfect answer to that challenge: creativity, curiosity, critical thinking & clear communication are qualities our society needs now more than ever.

Of interest to UK university #Skystorians: Royal Historical Society open online meeting on 'The crisis in UK higher education: The future for History'. 4 August 2-4 pm.

Our huge double Special Issue, 17:1/2, is out now! Teaching the First World War for the Twenty-First Century – Pedagogies in Dialogue, eds Susan Grayzel, Ann-Marie Einhaus & @teachlearnwar.bsky.social has no fewer than 10 paired explorations of teaching the FWW www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfww20/c...

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"

Just finished at ‘Doing Impact With Care: Reparative Pedagogies, Futures, & Research Encounters’ - an AHRC/IAA funded workshop in Cardiff reflecting on our GCRF-funded EdJAM project (edjam.network). Many threads continue to run from this work: including two fantastic new books, almost published!

‘Poetry bears witness to what cameras cannot reach and numbers can never explain’

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Excellent thread on UK uni sector risks, can vouch for the cardiff non-crisis

Enjoying the weather at Streatham Court before @exeter.ac.uk Prof. John Wedgwood Clarke’s inaugural lecture ‘Bright Containers: On bottles, Jars & Poetry’. Have brought Jago along for some creative inspiration in midst of half-term. Persuasion c/o promise of posh meal out afterwards #academicmum…

Day 2 of @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social ‘Science is Culture: Practicing Interdisciplinarity for Real-World Challenges’ starts with a gentle warm up & recap, incl. a reflection on positionality, imagination, & the potential constraints of background knowledge prompted by a 1967 photo of the Beatles 🥁🎸🎤

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

UKHE is collapsing - there is no serious intervention, no credible plan from the government. On the contrary: bold HE policies and real alternatives to the grim status quo are urgently needed if the UK wants to remain a knowledge economy and research power committees.parliament.uk/committee/20...

Every single member of the History Department at Uni of Nottingham is at risk of redundancy. Every single one of us.

In July IWM London opens Childhood in War. This free exhibition shares children's view of war from more than 100 years. 450 million children live in conflict zones worldwide; their stories have never been more important. Read more here: www.iwm.org.uk/events/child...

Diwrnod diddorol a chynhyrchiol iawn hyd yn hyn @aberuni.bsky.social gyda haneswyr o bob cwr o Gymru. Y sesiwn foreol @librarywales.bsky.social ystyriodd addysgu ac ymchwil hanes Cymru, ac mae ein paneli prynhawn yn mynd i'r afael â moeseg hanes llafar a dulliau o ymdrin ag AI #Skystorians 1/2

A very interesting and productive day so far @aberuni.bsky.social with historians from across Wales. The morning session @librarywales.bsky.social considered the teaching and research of Welsh history, and our afternoon panels address the ethics of oral history and approaches to AI #Skystorians 1/2

'In a counterproposal to the university’s cost-saving plans...the UCU branch at Nottingham said that job losses on the scale suggested...could set the research-intensive, Russell Group institution on an “irreversible transition” towards becoming a teaching-led university.' 1/3

We bring day 1/2 of @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social ‘Science is Culture’ event to an end with our Vice-Chancellor, Prof Lisa Roberts reminding us of how new knowledge will not emerge from a single discipline & that HASS is at the centre of the uni’s mission for a cleaner, fairer & healthier world.

And we’re off: our second - and biggest - interdisciplinary event, Science is Culture, has begun! Over two days @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social have brought colleagues together from across @exeter.ac.uk to explore cross-faculty responses to some of the biggest challenges we face in the world today.

Fantastic to see this article in The Guardian all about Belfastmen, @tomhulme.bsky.social's amazing new book on gay history in early 20th C. Northern Ireland, challenging assumptions & uncovering a range of complex experience 🌟 @qubhistory.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

America has a long and well-established history of covering up massacres. Just saying... edition.cnn.com/2026/05/02/p...

On protecting what matters. @ihr.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @histassoc.bsky.social History UK www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

We are now closing our day visit to Warwick with a fascinating lecture by Professor Sasha Handley of the University of Manchester. Sasha’s lecture is a study of ghost stories and the meaning of a haunting at the Wesley family’s home in 1716-17.

Off to @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social for my first in-person @royalhistsoc.org meeting since being elected to Council. Along with the usual agenda, we’re hosting a meeting of Independent Historians to understand how to better represent their interests. Looking forward to seeing old colleagues and new!

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“As a history student, my world view was shaped by photo[s]: I saw the violence humans were capable of, & it horrified me…Being against war is like being against clouds – it’s so much part of human existence, & it always will be until it destroys the last of us & leaves only the cockroaches behind.”

@cornwall.exeter.ac.uk @uniofexeternews.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social