Dr Dawn Saunders

Events this autumn: 25 November 2026: Book Launch: 'The Silent City of Drancy: Social Housing & Holocaust Memory on the Margins of Paris', Stephanie Hesz-Wood in conversation with Professor Dan Stone. More info: tinyurl.com/3m7jur2h

My friend Patrick Prominski and I are working on an edited volume on how now-discredited ideas involving biology (widely construed) were used in scientific fiction from c. 1825-1925. If you have any ideas for anything even broadly along those lines, please pitch them, we'd love to see them!

Just recorded a debate with Robert Tombs about he and his allies’ attempts to block the Church of England’s Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. Radio 4 Sunday (tomorrow) 7.10-8.00. Good to be given the opportunity to present some counter-propaganda.

In 1942, Zdeněk Tmej was conscripted to work on railways in Breslau Germany. Transported from his native Prague, he took clandestine photos of the everyday lives of his group of 100 Czech labourers. Tmej was one of 20 million people exploited as workers by the Nazi regime.

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social #JesusCollegeCambridge - not the main buildings, but the boathouse If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost – it helps to spread the word!

A new book published this month, Testimony, Agency, Memory and the Roma Genocide, draws upon growing research into the persecution and genocide of Europe’s Roma and Sinti populations by the Nazis and their collaborators... buff.ly/S4HJ7GA

#GoogleMaps satellite images of #Gaza show us what has disappeared. A child’s drawing reminds us what was there and what it means to lose it. Behind every destroyed neighbourhood are memories and childhoods forever changed: www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/palestine-dr...

I love Radio4 extra and often switch to the channel. The BBC is set to scrap Radio 4 Extra. 📻 Losing this treasure trove of classic comedy, archive drama, and timeless storytelling would be a huge blow for millions of us. Sign the petition to help save it 👇 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

The violence experienced by our colleague, barriers to reaching medical care and growing restrictions imposed on Palestinian communities are not coincidental. Read our statement: www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/palestine-ms...

I am posting here the talk that I'll be giving on two individuals and the Church of England's entanglements with slavery on 25 Oct at St Mary's Church, Slindon, West Sussex. Do come along and hear from me & others who are connected with the Church alanlester.co.uk/blog/edward-...

Many thanks to The Bookcase Hebden Bridge. Celebrating all things Bluemoose. 20 years of Independent publishing. From Hebden Bridge to the World. Magic! @bookcornerhx.bsky.social @thebookseller.com @yorkshirepost.co.uk

1/2Good that this exhibition examining the continuities & discontinuities between British/German colonialism and the Nazis’ “Final solution” is taking place. The focus on different degrees … How much was Hitler’s vision shaped by the age of Empire? www.thetimes.com/article/3d46...

1/3 Obviously I was aware of, or did some of the original research behind, much of this, but great to see @johncollingridge.bsky.social dig further into the (hedge) funding behind Biggar’s comprehensive anti-progressive activism: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

New publication klaxon!! Very proud of this one and very glad to have worked with @drhelenroche.bsky.social @ricardameisl.bsky.social, co-editors extraordinaire. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270364... First in a new series! 2nd volume @djrgrey.bsky.social @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social in process!

Borrowing costs of 6% were imposed on newly independent Caribbean & African countries by British administrators, creating a debt trap they’ve never been able to escape: alanlester.co.uk/blog/britain... www.theguardian.com/business/202...

🍵 Our PhD and a Cup of Tea doctoral seminar programme continues this term! This events series is designed for early-career researchers and PhD candidates to present their research on topics in Holocaust studies for feedback from other researchers Find out more buff.ly/N7FOgOZ

www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/year-by-year... Book budget about to be blown…

Interested in a PhD in historical demography/population studies at @camunicampop.bsky.social, @camunigeography.bsky.social, Cambridge University? We have 3 suggested topics (see thread): contact me to discuss, or to suggest your own idea. Apply by early December for funded places.

John M MacKenzie, the founding editor of the Manchester University Press Studies in Inperialism series that i have the honour of co-editing, has sadly passed away. Our tributes here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/09...

We're thrilled to announce the 2026 #WolfsonHistoryPrize shortlist, showcasing six exceptional books that explore how societies navigate periods of seismic change. Congratulations to all the authors! 👏📚 bit.ly/4yCLe5T

Highly recommend this. Zoe presented her talk on Understanding the objects of Auschwitz at Royal Holloway University recently. The talk was both poignant and fascinating.

On advance access: "Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope" by @gianamar97.bsky.social (@uvahumanities.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...

From the current issue: "The purposeful workhouse of England's Old Poor Law" by Susannah Ottaway (Carleton College) doi.org/10.1093/past...

I’d just add that it should be perfectly valid for a writer to say ‘cross my palm with silver’ and, with the minimum of fuss, expect receipt of funds in due course. It’s not too much to ask. This is always worth a watch. youtu.be/S-kiU0-f0cg?...

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of what I think is the University of Zagreb, in Croatia If anyone can confirm this, I'd be grateful! If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

Our latest exhibition is accompanied by a series of free evening events in which experts will elucidate some of the display's key themes. Attendees will also have the chance of an after-hours view of the exhibition. The next event is 2 September, find out more and book: buff.ly/cEY7r5j

We can afford nationalisation if only politicians understood it youtu.be/iyz-qzmNkCE?... Our politicians claim we cannot afford nationalisation. They ignore two things. We only pay with bonds, not cash, and the interest would pay the interest cost if they go at the right price.

Yup, this👇🏼

"2.5 million slave laborers died, victims not simply of the Nazi war effort, but also the greed of civilian industries that tapped the ready supply of cheap labor to line their own pockets and bolster their profits" Our exhibition is featured in a new long read @timesofisrael.com buff.ly/HygIL7R

Interesting

How did an opera composed in the Theresienstadt Ghetto survive to the present day, even during the upheaval of liberation and the murder of its composers? At an event this month we will explore material history of Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien’s ‘The Emperor of Atlantis.’ buff.ly/2RdPWgx

Love a bit of irreverent graffiti. Seen on my walk to the archives at Cambridge University library

Oooh love a new book delivery 🚚

On this day in 1938, Ernst Vom Rath, a German official, was murdered in Paris, shot by Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager whose aim was to bring the world’s attention to the plight of his family and other Jews during the Polenaktion. 📸 Polish Jews being deported from Germany, October 1938

Which books have you read at least twice? I am interested in your favourite reads

❤️

An archivist has just sent me an email saying there are ‘other files’ regarding a person I am researching but ‘probably not relevant’. That’s it, that’s the sum total of her email.

❤️Chaucer Doth Tweet ❤️

Fancy spending the summer at the University of Oxford learning about the Stuarts? Look no further! My summer course is now open for applications ⬇️ The Stuarts: The Fall, Rise and Revolution of a Dynasty, 1603-1714 lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/the-...

I’m not sure why but I absolutely love this…

MA student has just expressed total incredulity at the fact that I have never been in a Wetherspoons

Fab picture of Royal Holloway when it was a college for ladies - a place to learn and benefit from the country air

Off to the Imperial War Museum today to view this temporary exhibition www.iwm.org.uk/events/unsil...

Composing an essay constitutes an advanced form of thinking that will become extinct if outsourced to an automated word dispenser.

Have you visited our innovative online #RefugeeMap? Through documents from our unique family papers collections, the map tells the stories of refugees from Nazi persecution, and traces their routes of escape www.refugeemap.org

That feeling you get when the very old book you want is £145 on Bozzo website and then you find an internet copy and book it for two weeks

Ten shows about the Tories’ time in power: 10. Meal or No Meal 9. Mock the Weak 8. Never Mind the Buzzwords 7. Whose Lie is it Anyway? 6. Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? 5. Last of the Summer Wine and Cheese 4. White Line of Duty 3. Faulty Powers 2. Have I Got an Excuse for You? 1. 8 Out of 10 Prats