Prof. Rich Firth-Godbehere FRHistS

Many congratulations to my colleagues in the Forms of Labour project team on the publication of their new monograph! 🗃️👏🎉 Brilliantly, The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England is available open access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/e... news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

Yesterday I FINALLY finished writing my second book. I've been chipping away at it for nearly 3 years. Today, I don't know what to do with myself. Don't get me wrong - I have loads to do. But I don't know what to do with myself.

Fascinated by health and wellbeing? So were our medieval ancestors. Curious Cures exhibition brings together texts, diagrams and case-notes from special collections cared for by Cambridge University Library #histmed

Something grimly predictable about the way that the conversation about 'ripoff degrees' in the UK is always about degrees that aren't rip-offs, but are instead fairly obvious 'this student has chosen something unlikely to pay off economically' rather than the short tail of crap business degrees:

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

Reformers: They took the winter fuel away. All our pensioners are good to freeze to death! Labour u-turns on winter fuel payments. Reformers: They can't do that! How are they going to pay for it? Tax more or magic money tree? Reformers are simply contrarians. They aren't serious people.

I am in downtown Los Angeles right now and it is completely surreal to hear that Trump is sending Marines here. We are listening to mariachi music. People have dogs. There are teenagers here. It is utterly and completely peaceful. Please tell your friends.

Funnily enough, I bought 3 bags of popcorn just yesterday.

I urge all researchers interested in #emotion - or using facial expressions as emotive stimuli - to read this response paper 👇 by @lisafeldmanbarrett.com @eblissmoreau.bsky.social @jtheriault.bsky.social @katiehoemann.bsky.social & others doi.org/10.1177/1745... #neuroskyence #affectsci

New or forthcoming trade and academic releases by talented early modern/18th-century historians that I look forward to reading this summer.👇 Spread the word! @juliagaffield.bsky.social @marcusrediker.bsky.social @kawulf.bsky.social

I'm at the point now where I think all Deep Fakes should simply be illegal and heavily monitored. Especially if they're political. And I think political parties caught using bots, DF, or any of that should be threatened with jail terms.

I ordered a new tremolo ark for my guitar. I do not think this is a tremolo arm.

It's tough to overstate just how shockingly unusual an article like this is. Despite the fact that this is the response of the vast, vast majority of neighbours for both wind and solar farms, they are mostly erased from existence in coverage of attitudes of neighbours to utility-scale renewables

Our book has now appeared, a bit ahead of schedule. Its in Open Access, meaning the chapters are all free to download either as epub or pdf from this link. I’ll put a thread together on what the individual chapters are about. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Being 2026, I'm used to reading painfully stupid things in the Tory client media. But this one is especially special.

Funding for teaching innovation: applications are now invited for the Society's Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships, 2025-26 bit.ly/4cg7wid Fellowships support new projects and teaching practices, with funding of up to £1250 per award. Closing date for applications: 11 July 2025, 1/2 #Skystorians

New publication claxon: Lauren Mancia on Embodied Epistemology as Rigorous Historical Method, in the Cambridge Elements Series on Histories of Emotions and the Senses. This is *free* to download till May 19. Go get it! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

An older friend of mine recently claimed that no other generation has come up with their own language and words like this one does. He seemed angry about it. I said, "Chill. Don't be a bad cat, daddy-o. It's totally far out, you dig?"

I just took a quick peak at my Threads account. Yikes.

Zazzy Rascalface's annual vet trip. If she owned a harmonica, she'd be playing it.

Hello wonderful persons. Long shot, but does anyone I know know how you navigate at sea using the stars and want to help me write a script? It's for a YouTube maritime channel that likes all the technical nerdy details you can throw at it.

Zazzy trying to demonstrate that Elon really was making a Nazi salute.

It's so ironic that Bezos has said the WSJ opinions section is to advocate for freedom of speech, but only the speech he feels for. So you have to be a pillock to be a billionaire, I wonder?

The Ukrainian government has a list of places where you can donate to the war effort here. I personally just donated $100: war.ukraine.ua/donate/ Slava Ukraini.

I'm starting to feel like Europe is a sleeping giant that badly needs to wake up.

Today I reviewed a funding application for a History and Philosophy of Science project that I think is really important. I hope they get it. #academia

Guess who just became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Well, isn't that marvellous. Thank you @boddice.bsky.social for the kind, and clearly persuasive, words.

“In a continent losing the security we relied on all our lives, trade disputes become trivial, Brexit an irrelevance. Merz is calling for Europe to come together in foreign, trade & security policy. Starmer ought to seize the chance and abandon fears of Brexiters” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I did a full IQ test a while back as part of a general assessment. They had to adjust it for my dyslexia because it turns out that dyslexics are below average at word and number puzzles. Who knew! PS. I didn't get a bad score, a pretty good one in fact, but who cares, ffs?

I wonder if everyone at X, Space X etc., has to do this childish helicopter-manager BS?

Very interesting. Of course, it depends on the companion 😀

Considering everything that's going on, this seems likely a timely announcement: Our primer on emotion regulation is out now! 🤩 We break down what emotion regulation is, why it matters, and how to assess & improve it. 🤓 doi.org/10.1093/acre... #PsychSciSky #AffectiveScience #EmotionRegulation

This is why I really dislike personality tests. They're absolute nonsense.

Are you a junior faculty member interested in spending 2-4 weeks at Princeton Psych? Please apply for our Microsabbatical program! It’s a fully funded visit for professional development and creating long-term collaborations. psych.princeton.edu/diversity/mi...

How is Trump even worse than we thought he'd be? How? And why are so many Republicans who must know better not furious about it?

I, for one, insist on deadnaming the Gulf of Mexico.

This pillock will kill us all.

I agree with Trump. People should be hired on merit. So the first thing the dems should do in power is create an independent vetting committee who makes sure Presidential candidates are qualified and not criminals before they're allowed to stand. What? They don't mean that?

Quick reminder. This bastard is the real reason for the season.

In the middle of all this doom, Zazzy Rascalface asks you to stay calm, and find any moment of joy you can.

In a break from normal proceedings, how are PayPal still in business? They have easily the worst exchange rate and highest fees of anyone out there. They just literally cost me £30 for a payment transaction compared to, well, everyone else. Another business to put in the bin.

I also think it's now untenable for the UK to remain outside the EU, and for the EU to make us jump through hoops to return. Sod the brexiteers. Fiscal and military security are more important than weeping gammons.

I'm starting to think we need to isolate America. I'm also Starting to think that if the Dems get organized and get the house a Senate in the midterms, they need to stop playing at it. Impeach Trump and Vance. Install Democrat speaker as President. Give Puerto Rico and DC statehood. Pack SCOTUS.

Since RFK Jr just got confirmed today, I am taking this chance to share this wonderful @sciam.bsky.social piece on The Staggering Success of Vaccines www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

Passion Special Issue: Faces of Affective Injustice CFP! Join our amazing contributors - Eleanor Byrne, Myisha Cherry, Francisco Gallegos, Federica Gregoratto, Carme Isern Mas, Imke von Maur, Jan Slaby, Shiloh Whitney, and Michalinos Zembylas - and send us your work on Affective Injustice

Encyclopædia Britannica will continue to use ‘Gulf of Mexico’ for a few reasons: -We serve an international audience, a majority of which is outside the U.S. -The Gulf of Mexico is an international body of water, and the U.S.’s authority to rename it is ambiguous. 🧵⬇️

After being told about the miracle of feeding the 5 thousand at my CofE school, I asked, "So 5 thousand people walked miles and miles to a talk, and only one kid thought to take a packed lunch?" I was 8.