John Gallagher

My new article, 'Selling Education in England, 1650-1715' is now out (open access) in the English Historical Review! academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Not entirely sure why I had to be given the once-over by the head archivist in this small Belgian archive today but happy to report that my panicked Flemish was just about up to the task and that I was allowed to look at the manuscripts.

University of Nottingham, right now, is cutting 560 jobs. Do we need to rebrand universities as very large, very clean, land-based oil rigs to get government support?

BOOK TALK! Delighted to host @rentravailer.bsky.social & @laurenworking.bsky.social in conversation about their fab books which are reconfiguring our understanding of #earlymodern England in a global perspective! Mon 26 Oct, 5pm (UK) free registration: www.crowdcast.io/c/das-working #skystorians

Rare example of a medieval scribe practicing Latin, Greek, and Hebrew on the same fragment. Any medievalists out there who can shed light on the style of the Latin characters? geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...

"Oh, no, they got this all wrong. It's not 'Expansion of the Open University', it's 'Expansion of the university closures'!"

You can go to today’s universities and see what excellence actually looks like or you can be ignorant and lazy and sneer at ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees at post-92 universities instead. Good to see Victoria Derbyshire choosing the intelligent option and reporting on it.

📣 job alert. Lecturer / Associate Prof in computational humanities or social science. Join my team at UCL. Permanent £56-74k. Please share www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Running an paleography workshop with a number of the history folks this afternoon. I will, of course, be asking the eternal question, “Do YOU know how to write?” (Literally, "Do you know script?") 1934, Mongolian People's Republic

Sorry to inform to you that Free Thinking has been axed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Somewhere at the root of this should be the question: what can the BBC do that nobody else can? Instead, the question seems to be: what can the BBC do to offer the same thing as everybody else?

And, you know, it might be that in a world characterised by mistrust and outright deception, a rediscovery of Reithian virtues now reinforced by a sense of independence from government might actually be a winning news formula.

I dunno man, maybe you could concentrate on producing good and interesting things people want to watch rather than trying to out-banal the lowest common denominator crap hosed at us everywhere else? (And make using BBC Sounds a less excruciating experience?) deadline.com/2026/10/bbc-...

Would you like to learn about the strange and scandalous way some 18th-century Venetians got out of dysfunctional marriages? Read my new article (open access!) about annulments for affinity by fornication! #earlymodern #18thcentury doi.org/10.1017/S073...

Truly delighted to see THE MICROSCOPIC MATERIAL RENAISSANCE (@manchesterup.bsky.social, 2027) announced: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781807076757/ Stay tuned! @uomhums.bsky.social @uomsalc.bsky.social Research generously funded by @britishacademy.bsky.social & @leverhulme.ac.uk

Cover reveal 💅 Super job by the people @yalebooks.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social Out 27 April 2027. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Herbert Hoover of course remains ahead of Donald Trump on one key metric: he co-published an English translation of Agricola's De Re Metallica, something Trump has over two terms signally failed even to attempt.

Let me also just say that even leaving aside some of the exciting announcements we have in the works we are getting some absolutely cracking submissions through very regularly at RS at the moment. Just a great journal to get to work on!

The next production by Edward’s Boys will be Your Five Gallants by Thomas Middleton, a playwright with whom we have had some dealings. Mid-March 2027. Tour is a work in process - although Stratford-upon-Avon, London and Paris (France) are confirmed. Please spread the word. More details to follow.

Deeply pleased to learn that at its foundation the University of Edinburgh was led by a man named Bob Rollock.

My new book, Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society, is (sort of) out now! Currently available online for anyone with institutional access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Very pleased to have worked on this fascinating group of finds with the wonderful @francescatinti.bsky.social , and thanks to the comms team @cam.ac.uk for putting together the release. www.cam.ac.uk/stories/angl...

My brain is already melting with doing work on holdings in Manila. Here is a chart with places of publication for 16th century books. I have some major news for you about the reading habits of Iberian colonial worlds.

An inventory of the goods of Barbe Hecquet, a French woman who died in London in 1612, lists "ung fer a faire gauffre" — a waffle iron!

Nottingham today. Everywhere tomorrow. 2,700 staff put at risk. 600+ jobs targeted. At least 48 courses facing closure. What happens here sets the template for the sector. Stand with Nottingham.

Happy #InternationalTranslationDay! To celebrate, we're sharing an image of Brian Walton's Polyglot Bible. The impressive six volume work presents the Old Testament in nine languages: Hebrew, Aramaic (Targum), Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, Greek, and Latin.

Fantastic bookshop find: a Latin textbook in Welsh, complete with glossary and a guide to spotting Latin borrowings in the modern language.

Please join me in a campaign harassment against Oxford University Press and Quentin Blake until they agree to the release of Learning Languages in Early Modern England: Junior Pop-Up Edition

My fourth consecutive bedtime reading a book called Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and I think I'm just about ready to come out against child literacy. I'm going to become the reverse Dolly Parton and devote my fortune to taking books away from children.

I am not given to hyperbole when it comes to university industrial relations, but this feels like an existential event. The heart of the university is being torn out, with long-lasting consequences. These strikes are a last-ditch attempt to stop that. Will anyone listen?

M.R. James and me Tell each other scary tales When I blow on this ancient whistle I see a creepy Danish king stalking me I wanna be a bishop — M.R. James says "beware of cats on the stairs in the presbytery" But when mouths and fur both haunt you That's just about as normal as things can be

FEEST! @emlcjournal.bsky.social bestaat tien jaar en dat verdient taart! Als ook een panelgesprek over de toekomst van onderzoek naar de vroegmoderne Nederlanden, en een museumbezoek met flitspresentaties door auteurs van ons jubileumnummer. Gratis registratie: www.eventbrite.com/e/tienjarig-...

It was somewhat delayed, but we've now got a booking link for Rosamund Oates's talk on deafness on Thursday! Sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

If anyone has reading they'd recommend on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mombasa, I'm all ears!

A really fascinating read.

When was the last time our Secretary of State for Culture displayed anything approaching this degree of public enthusiasm for our world-class arts industry? Has she been seen anywhere? Given impending charter renewal... did she even bother to visit a single prom?

If anyone has reading they'd recommend on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mombasa, I'm all ears!