Neil M Kennedy

There are no neutral positions. There are no neutral positions. There are no neutral positions.

Fun return to the Maritime History Archive with 21 senior students in my Seafarers class, pouring over 1930 crew agreements for passenger liners, White Star line mainly. Several stowaways, a few fights, couple of deaths, and a lot of men too old to be shovelling coal for low wages. #MaritimeHistory

At least #SlowHorses finale had a bit more oomph compared to the previous two, @ruralcolonialns.bsky.social, and was a better watch. Whole season really suffered from a pretty thin plot, so implausible they passed over it pretty quickly whenever it came up. Oldman enjoying himself too much to end it

I just came back from a talk about this book. It's a genre-breaking braided academic narrative about horrific fires as a result of flamable pjs, the death of the author's daughter, and the meaning of a "life" - which is to say the history of the curriculum vitae. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Newfoundland content! Filmed primarily under an hour from the city. It has been fun to see friends, neighbours, and some of my students as extras.

“Historians have been rummaging through the empire’s dirty laundry. Books such as Sanghera’s Empireland & Brooke Newman’s The Crown’s Silence have challenged the comforting notion that Britain’s royal family merely presided over slavery from a discreet distance.” www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-fam...

The Maritime Britain database is now live! Explore hundreds of thousands of voyages, ships and people. Next stop: our ERC-funded Uncharted Maritime Worlds project, which so far has 4.8 million records, including 2.5 million voyages! maritimebritain.org

Pretty poor episode of Slow Horses this week, hope the writing improves for the ending. Even the GRU now incompetent. Bit silly.

Given the efficacy of vaccines is under fire from the vilest of quarters, I'm reflecting on fact that childhood polio had left Ian Steele without full use of his right arm. He was always good humoured about the awkwardness felt by others who tried to shake his hand. Astonishing to turn back now.

Sad to note the passing of Ian K Steele this past weekend. His book English Atlantics (Oxford 1986) was one of a trio of books that year establishing the Atlantic World paradigm. Trained first as a Jesuit, then in London, the Canadian praire lad became a gentle scholar and mentor. #AtlanticWorld

Sad to note the passing of Ian K Steele this past weekend. His book English Atlantics (Oxford 1986) was one of a trio of books that year establishing the Atlantic World paradigm. Trained first as a Jesuit, then in London, the Canadian praire lad became a gentle scholar and mentor. #AtlanticWorld

Upcoming Event: 'Pepperpots & Provision Grounds' A recipe zine-making workshop that unearths food histories in Britain’s former Caribbean colonies within the Library’s archival collections. Saturday 31st Oct | British Library, London | Booking required events.bl.uk/events/peppe...

@ranylt.bsky.social Have you watched the new series Sai? It’s on Netflix (boo), I’m two eps in. Beautifully shot, with colours that remind me of Drive my Car. One garage door in yellow chromate, worth the lot. The lead is the amazing Teruyuki Kagawa from Creepy. The weight of inevitable disaster.

Mr. mate, you cannot write the bloody laws of slavery on these restless billows. The ocean, if not the land, is free. Madison Washington, leader of the Creole mutiny, 1841

I have a great honours undergraduate working on a grim murder in Bermuda in 1837. The inquiry is strikingly full of sounds, smells, sights, emotion. I read a fair bit of sensory history but does anyone know of recent(ish) work on this period specifically connected to court testimony? #SensoryHistory

Ha! New ad campaign “All our fishermen look like this. Don’t yours?” for Netflix show Below, filmed here on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. All our Professors Look Like This, to follow soon, I’m sure. #Newfoundland

This was gold! Gold!

@drleonj.bsky.social My dinner making supervisor. #Dogs

Rats, there is a gap in my library's subscription to a journal from which I assigned reading! Any kind soul have access to: Pierre Gervais, “Neither Imperial, nor Atlantic: A Merchant Perspective on International Trade in the Eighteenth Century,” History of European Ideas 34, 4 (Dec 2008): 465–73?

Twenty-five years ago today, at the Palazzo Vecchio, in Cosimo d’Medici’s bedroom, we were married by the Mayor of Firenze, and we haven’t stopped since. What a time it’s been. #weddinganniversary

In our latest Current Debates essay entitled "The Marine Origins of Contemporary Warfare", Rahul Govind discusses how imperial practices couched in international law and Western notions of the 'right of conquest' derives from prize law. doi.org/10.1080/0308... @jich.bsky.social

@drleonj.bsky.social Ever since he was a pup, big Yoda likes to sleep fully braced against solid objects, like a hungover freshman on a Sunday morning. #Dogs

@ruralcolonialns.bsky.social Back on my Italian linen bullshit today, Danny. #AcademicFashion

This is a fantastic, engaging article. I'm so glad I made the time this morning to read it. Jane Humphries "Microhistory and Women's Time Use," advanced open access in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social

Where did the sacred artifacts smuggled out of Nepal by Mary Slusser end up? One answer is... a flea market. I explain in this video.

So excited to share that The Tartar Moment is forthcoming with @uchicagopress.bsky.social in June 2027, and is now available for pre-order! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

This is such a useful resource. I have been able to look up particular days and places to provide weather context for events in my books.

What is the Register of British Slave Traders and whom does it identify? Three years of research has uncovered 13,000 people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

@drleonj.bsky.social Big Yoda managed to get a bag of 10 fresh bakery bagels off the back of the counter and gorged himself. My fault for forgetting to put them in the cupboard before I left for work. I will regret it again in the morning when I look for some breakfast. He’s passed out now, pleased.

Only one student knew about Jimothy the Wonder Raccoon. So much for “terminally online” generation.

It's out in the world! This is my first attempt to write through research for my second book project! 🗃️ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Pale green trousers for the first proper day of teaching, I think.

Extremely excited to announce an article co-authored by myself and Aaron Hyman on the visual and material cultures of Dutch piracy in the early modern Caribbean is now out in Renaissance quarterly @rsaorg.bsky.social , and open access! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My neighbour is just back from a history and memory conference in Argentina and brought over this extraordinary bottle of infused vermouth she purchased at Mar del Plata. Exquisite hardly seems adequate a term.

🚨 new NL heritage minute alert 🚨

In this post, I put out a call for #envhist people, places, or events that Canada should be commemorating. Submit yours: there's a $200 prize at stake. Deadline 14 Sept. Details in post.