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Aileen Fyfe

@aileenfyfe

Historian of academic publishing, science and academia, Uni of St Andrews. Muses on technology, peer review, gender, finances, communities. she/her http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6794…

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07.11.2023
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Latest posts by Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe

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A Tale of Five Deputations: Establishing Principles for Funding English Higher Education Questions about the funding of English higher education have been actively debated for over 150 years. However, the early years of these debates, certainly before the First World War, are relativel...

2. John Taylor: Early lobbying (1886–95) shaped principles behind state funding of English universities #histed

doi.org/10.1080/0046...

06.03.2026 14:33 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Visualising Historical University Records to Explore the Colonial Connections of the Students and Alumni of the University of St Andrews, 1700–1897 This paper uses the historical student records of the University of St Andrews to demonstrate how an exploration of the student community can contribute to our understanding of the ways UK universi...

Two great new articles on university history in History of Education

1. Tomas Vancisin & @aileenfyfe.bsky.social:
St Andrews records reveal how universities were embedded in British imperial networks.

doi.org/10.1080/0046...

06.03.2026 14:32 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

Much as the TRAC requests frustrate me, there is a part of me that finds it interesting to try to work out how much of my time is spent on various things. Refereeing and prep for society committees will be under-represented in my return, 'cos I tend to put only the deadline (or mtg) in my calendar.

05.03.2026 15:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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I spent a fun morning at a local primary school as an exchange teacher from 1897: how have education, child labour and transport changed since Victorian times?! Does anyone here remember the earlier outings of this costume? @bshsnews.bsky.social @irmorus.bsky.social @standrewshist.bsky.social

05.03.2026 14:50 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
London Open Science & Scholarship Festival 2026 – open for booking! | UCL Open@UCL Blog UCL Homepage

I'll be speaking in a panel with @eve.gd and @alittleroad.bsky.social on #OA books at the London Open Science & Scholarship festival in April. The event is online and can be booked now, see blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/...

05.03.2026 12:21 👍 8 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0

I know what you mean, but I also think that articles + briefing papers + comment pieces gives me more opportunities to reach more audiences for my research. Not simply more people, but more sorts of people. Much more difficult to do that with a book.

13.02.2026 15:42 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

@drcamillam.bsky.social

13.02.2026 10:14 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Book or Project? In my corner of the academic world, it’s standard practice for colleagues to describe their research work in terms of books already written, books in progress, and plans for books that may or may not ...

Does thinking about research in book-sized chunks constrain the ways we do historical research? It's something I have been wondering about... @standrewshist.bsky.social See: online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...

12.02.2026 16:44 👍 27 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 4

It's my favourite of my book covers!

12.02.2026 16:41 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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BBC Two - Digging for Britain, Series 13, England’s Last Anglo-Saxon King and Scotland's First Whisky King Harold’s lost estate, a Bronze Age burial and whisky-making monks.

Tune into Digging for Britain on BBC Two tomorrow at 8pm to find out more about our dig at Lindores Abbey! You can also catch it right now on BBC iPlayer: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

27.01.2026 17:27 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Dark green background with white text overlaid reading "call for papers", surrounded by various natural history illustrations of animals wearing party hats.

Dark green background with white text overlaid reading "call for papers", surrounded by various natural history illustrations of animals wearing party hats.

🚨We have a SUPER exciting announcement!🚨

Our next Summer Meeting will be at @zslofficial.bsky.social on the theme of The Zoological Society of London at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World 🥳

📅1-3 July 2026
🗺️Zoological Society of London

Find out how to submit 👇🏻
shnh.org.uk/all-events/c...

05.12.2025 20:44 👍 46 🔁 29 💬 2 📌 2

If they use the same software we do, it might be "true", since charity-funders probably don't pay FEC (and even UKRI only pay 80% FEC). Fortunately, we're not (yet) prevented from applying - though we are getting nudges about ALSO applying for grants that generate more surplus

16.01.2026 11:46 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Science, Religion, and the Human Future: Conflict, Collusion, and Consequences Abstract. Science, Religion, and the Human Future: Conflict, Collusion and Consequences demonstrates that the myth of an inevitable conflict between scienc

New and important:

academic.oup.com/book/61786?l...

16.01.2026 09:57 👍 12 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1

Remind them that the funder (e.g. Leverhulme) doesn't allow you to do teaching as a condition of the fellowship?

16.01.2026 11:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I continued to do so (though ours are all co-supervised, so for those who weren't about to write-up, I could take a back seat. If you've got >1 about to submit, think carefully about who's going to support that...)

16.01.2026 11:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Pitch my Project: an opportunity for early career historians to present their work at the Chalke History Festival 2026 - RHS Have you ever wanted to share your research with a wide audience? Would you like to gain experience in public speaking, and be supported to develop imaginative ways to communicate your research to the...

We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social

'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.

10.12.2025 11:14 👍 52 🔁 47 💬 0 📌 2
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Good luck to all of our students who are taking exams over the next two weeks!

Here is a Modern History exam from 1911, courtesy of our friends at the University Library. How do you think you would have got on?
#revision #examseason #exams

08.12.2025 16:11 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Oh! Lots of goodies here, starting with Bill Jenkins on David Brewster #histSTM edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-david-b...

30.11.2025 20:04 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Scottish county politics between the 1832 and 1868 Scottish Reform Acts Last month Durham University, supported by the History of Parliament, hosted the Histories of Scottish Politics in the Age of Union, c.1700-1945 conference. At the conference, Dr Martin Spychal, a …

For #StAndrewsDay we are sharing @martinspychal.bsky.social's recent post on Scottish county politics between 1832 and 1868, drawing on @histparl.bsky.social's research on Scotland’s constituencies: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2024/08/27/s...

30.11.2025 11:21 👍 9 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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Teaching Slavery Teaching Slavery offers ground-breaking research and practical guidance for teaching Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery. Combining historical analysis with classroom strategies, it equips educato...

Congratulations to Katie Donington, Abdul Mohamud, Robin Whitburn, Nicholas Draper and their contributors! Their #OpenAccess book Teaching Slavery published today. Read and download free at: bit.ly/48vnDdJ #Education #Colonialism #Slavery #Racism

27.11.2025 12:28 👍 20 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 0
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Black and Political: Reconstructing Black Participation in British Politics, 1750-1850

Looking forward to Helen Wilson speaking on Reconstructing Black Participation in British Politics, 1750-1850, to a joint session of @long18thsem.bsky.social and the Parliaments, Politics and People seminar @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome, but please register at www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

28.11.2025 09:59 👍 5 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Heritage Collections Research Fellowships | IASH

the call is now open for our next round of @iashedinburgh.bsky.social Heritage Collections Research Fellows! - find out more here:

www.iash.ed.ac.uk/heritage-col...

28.11.2025 09:21 👍 1 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

👀ICYMI: "if the drain has a particular history and geography, it means that it is not inevitable. It can be resisted."

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #ScholComm

26.11.2025 16:41 👍 13 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 2
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Nominations are open for the BSHS Pickstone Prize 2026, recognising the best scholarly English-language book in the history of science.
📆 Deadline: 31 Jan 2026.
Anyone may nominate (self-nominations welcome).
Submit via our online form on the BSHS website www.bshs.org.uk/the-bshs-pic...

19.11.2025 11:01 👍 16 🔁 19 💬 0 📌 2
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CFP: BAVS 2026 Conference Liverpool BAVS Liverpool 202627 – 29 July 2026 Keynote Speakers: Dr Alison Chapman (University of Victoria, BC), others to be confirmed. The Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (CMCH) at Liverpool Joh…

It’s lovely to see our BAVS CFP out. If you research/teach any aspect of the Victorian period (broadly defined) do consider joining us! You can submit a paper, roundtable, creative workshops/ pedagogical paper. We really are open to a wide range of talks! victorianist.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/c...

21.10.2025 16:37 👍 18 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 1
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Cricket in the Commons: a Victorian First Eleven - The History of Parliament With the 2025 Ashes between England and Australia getting underway this week, we have a cricketing themed post from our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project.

With this years Ashes beginning in the early hours of this morning, we thought we'd point you in the direction of @TheVictCommons where they explore the link between cricket and the Victorian House of Commons

historyofparliament.com/2025/11/20/c...

21.11.2025 09:38 👍 5 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 0

Fabulous PhD opportunity at Queen's University Belfast and Armagh Observatory:

Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830

www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro

20.11.2025 12:07 👍 15 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 2

@standrewshist.bsky.social

19.11.2025 16:14 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

💥New: Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science

✍️ @danbrockington.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca

#AcademicSky #ScholComm #AcademicPublishing

19.11.2025 11:13 👍 28 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 8
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A new installation on ‘Medical alumni in history’ has been unveiled at the School of Medicine. It was designed and installed by our recent PhD graduate – and historian of medicine – @manoncwilliams.bsky.social, and features notable alumni from 19th and 20th century St Andrews. (1/3)

18.11.2025 15:55 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0