Gaby Mahlberg

Job alert: 18th century historians!
historyofparliament.com/2026/01/12/v... #skystorians #c18th 🗃️

2 Postdoctoral positions in Intellectual History at the Department of History - Ledig stilling på Aarhus Universitet Ledig stilling ved Institut for Kultur og Samfund - Historie, fag, Aarhus Universitet

Some professional news: I'm now hiring two postdocs to be part of the research project I'm leading on global republicanism and the making of democratic cultures in the early 19th century. If you know someone for whom this may be relevant, don't hesitate to let them know.

www.au.dk/om/stillinge...

Cambridge college defends private school recruitment drive ‘No change’ in widening participation policy, says Trinity Hall, after plans to target students from Eton and Winchester leak

Only just saw this: ...'“the best students from such schools arrive at Cambridge with expertise and interests that align well with the intellectual demands” of the subjects.' - That's how self-perpetuating elites work.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cambrid...

South Park writer buys ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ domain name Toby Morton now owns trumpkennedycenter.org, which advertises new year performance by the ‘Epstein dancers’ Donald Trump may be remaking the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into a pool of his self-reflection, but a writer for South Park, the TV series that better reflects the obsessions and tendencies of the administration than any political pundit, has purchased the rights to trumpkennedycenter.org. Toby Morton, a TV writer and producer who has worked on the long-running and joyfully offensive sitcom, said he purchased the domain in August after predicting the president would change the name from the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center after he installed himself as chair and stocked the board with loyalists. Continue reading...

South Park writer buys ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ domain name

Final letter of Mary, Queen of Scots to go on display for first time in almost a decade Letter written hours before her execution in 1587 will form part of exhibition and programme of events in Perth aiming to bring queen’s story to life

'Mary wrote what is believed to be her last letter at 2am on Wednesday 8 February 1587 when she wrote to her brother-in-law Henri III in France to put her affairs in order. She was executed six hours later at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire.' #Skystorians

PhD studentships available in: Creative and Cultural Industries, Media, and Arts Practice (EDI in Practice); Identity, Representation, and Social Justice (EDI in Theory and Experience); Humanities, Philosophy, and Literature (EDI in Knowledge and Method). More details in link below.

CFP: Truth and Un-Truth in the History of Political Thought

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-158929

Naples, 05.10.2026-07.10.2026, European Society for the History of Political Thought & University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Bewerbungsschluss: 15.03.2026

Strikes suspended in Lancaster University staff job cuts row The university is trying to save £30m amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.

'The union said management had "agreed to halt all planned compulsory redundancies for academic staff until at least July 2026".'

Europoliticalthought Website of the European Society for the History of Political Thought

CFP: Truth and Un-Truth: Eighth Biennial Conference of the European Society for the History of Political Thought, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy, 5-7 October 2026. Deadline for proposals is 15 March 2026. Spread the word! europoliticalthought.wordpress.com #HPT #skystorians

Europoliticalthought Website of the European Society for the History of Political Thought

ESHPT-Brill First-Book Manuscript Prize in the History of Political Thought, deadline: 31 Dec. The winner receives €500 at our conference in Naples in Oct 26 & a chance to publish their book in the Brill Series History of European Political & Constitutional Thought europoliticalthought.wordpress.com

The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists

It's beyond me why interest in #foreign #languages should decline in a globalised world. Stop provincialisation - learn a foreign language!
www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...

📢Here's a fully funded 4-year PhD position at Leiden within the ERC project LangPro led by Dr Alisa van de Haar, and co-supervised by yours truly, on professional opportunities for women in the early modern language sector bit.ly/47Y3hYI

Apply by 15 Feb. 2026; starting date 1 Aug. 2026

'...further inquiries suggested the university was “explicitly trading my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market,” Murphy said, which was “really shocking”. The university denies that the decision was based on commercial interests.' #HE

Look what just arrived in the post! Essays on Sidney in French & English, edited by the wonderful @tomaashby.bsky.social and Christopher Hamel. #earlymodern #republicanism

“Talent can be born anywhere, but opportunities are not,” says Ina Ganguli, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “I think that’s the reason we see so many foreign Nobel laureates.”

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o... #history

The Wolfson History Prize - Celebrating Outstanding History The Wolfson History Prize is awarded annually to promote and recognise outstanding history written for a general audience.

The Wolfson History Prize shortlist for 2025 is announced. Good reading.

I'm very pleased to announce that the call for proposed Special Issues of the Historical Journal is now live, with a deadline of 12th December. Please do spread widely among your networks — @saracaputo.bsky.social and I look forward to reading your submissions! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Hilary Mantel championed emerging writers - a new prize in her memory will help them get published Judged by Maggie O’Farrell, Ben Miles and Chigozie Obioma, the Hilary Mantel prize will recognise emerging talent, and pay tribute to the Wolf Hall author’s legacy

'A panel of five judges, chaired by O’Farrell, will assess 15,000 words of a novel in progress, and both winner and runner-up will receive not only money, but mentoring from Mantel’s literary agency, AM Heath; the publishing house John Murray; and the creative writing charity Arvon.'

Passing on a regicide’s key The story begins in 1980 with a chance find on John Dixwell in the British Museum, then resumes in New England several decades later with an old key handed over to the author in a plastic bag. Sara…

Just finished reading "Regicide in the Family: Finding John Dixwell" (2022) by Sarah Dixwell Brown. Very personal and very moving, combining family history with the history of the English Civil Wars and the fate of the regicides in exile. thehistorywoman.com/2025/09/21/p... #skystorians #earlymodern

The book cover alongside a small painting of Sidney from 1659

1/14 "... [for] their weal, not their woe". Today is the publication date of "Le Républicanisme d'Algernon Sidney" @classiquesgarnier.bsky.social, co-edited by myself and Christopher Hamel (@univrouen.bsky.social). This is the first ever volume on Sidney classiques-garnier.com/le-republica...

At the Lessing-Akademie, Meißnerhaus.

Translating Cultures: Migration, Mobility and Translation in Europe, c1600-1850 – HAB Herzog August Bibliothek

Happening today! www.hab.de/event/transl...

Arrived in lovely Wolfenbüttel for our workshop www.hab.de/event/transl... #skystorians

"The reason languages are so desired among employers isn’t just for the words & grammar, but because of the soft skills that come with accumulating them – the resilience, the creative thinking, and the openness to new ideas that is demanded of you when you immerse yourself into different cultures."

Old master painting looted by Nazis disappears from home in Argentina Search for artwork seen in estate agent’s photo continues after police raid on house finds tapestry hanging in its place Argentinian police have said they will continue hunting for an old master painting looted by the Nazis and spotted by chance in an estate agent’s listing after a search of the property in the seaside town of Mar del Plata failed to uncover the work. “The painting is not in the house ... but we’re going to keep searching for it,” the federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez told local media. He said items that could be useful for the investigation, including two firearms, engravings and prints, had been seized. Continue reading...

Old master painting looted by Nazis disappears from home in Argentina

‘It’s back to the future’: the 13th-century castle built by hand in France A quarter of a century after our first visit, the Guardian returns to Guédelon to find old-fashioned toil has built “thoroughly modern” architectural laboratory

'It is...a living archaeological, architectural, cultural, historical, human and even scientific laboratory, praised and prized by everyone from medievalists and heritage restoration experts to professionals in the sustainable construction industry.' 1/2

Truth and Un-Truth 2026 University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples 5-7 October 2026 Truth and Un-Truth in the History of Political Thought Eighth Biennial Conference of the European Society for the History of Political Th…

CFP: Truth and Un-Truth in the History of Political Thought. Eighth Biennial Conference of the European Society for the History of Political Thought, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, 5-7 October 2026 europoliticalthought.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/h... #skystorians #HPT

Maybe next time! In any case, we're very pleased you're participating.