🧵 Tips on Teaching the British Empire 1/8 Talking to teachers lately, it seems a condensed guide to the main foundations of the C19 British Empire might be helpful. Here's how I introduce if to first year undergrads in three 50m sessions.

Thanks to the generosity of Boydell & Brewer we can now offer the Boydell & Brewer BSECS Career Development Fellowship - up to £1,050 to fund expenses associated with a defined research output for impact. Deadline 1 Feb 2024. Details here: bsecs.org.uk/prizes-and-awa…

I must once again remind you...

Age might not bestow wisdom. Or wealth. Or job security. But I’m still grateful for each and every day I get. Here’s to 39! 🥂

Love that I share my birthday with Bram!

Right in the feels

My cartoon for this week’s Guardian Books.

Increasingly spending time in places that are not here. For academic stuff, you’ll mostly find me here 🦋

Huge congratulations to Charli and Mark who graduated from their MAs today!! 🥂🍾🥂 👨🏻‍🎓👩🏼‍🎓 Both studied on the MA by Negotiated Studies course on which students work with supervisors appropriate to their chosen topic - #EnglishLit & #CreativeWriting for these two! 📚 📝

In case @telegraph readers are interested, this is a response to the story re @CanterbruyCCUni's decision to close its excellent English dept.

The data relating to careers for English graduates tell a very different story to the comments generated by the story. Rates of graduate employment for Arts, Humanities, and Social sciences students are within 1% of Science grads,

and salaries for English grads are some of the fastest-rising in the country, 4th to be precise. English grads are CEOs, work in finance, the civil service, business, as well as in the creative, cultural, education, and heritage sectors.

Check the stats before you dismiss this vital subject that trains its students in the essentials: communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. Its great strength is that it doesn't lead straight to one career - it leads to many.

English researchers also contribute significantly to the economy. CCCU's English dept is the victim of the deeply skewed HE 'market' : young people flock to other depts which are bulging at the seams with English students, while this excellent dept is allowed to sink

I'm not normally an advocate for Black Friday and it's encouragement of rabid spending... Except on books 😉 Boydell and Brewer have 60% off hardbacks currently including mine! Grab a deal!

We are looking forward to this week's School Research Showcase on 'Mobilities' featuring our own Lisa Blower on 'Restoking the Narrative: 100 Books in a 100 Years'. Also on the panel, brilliant Keele History folks Siobhan Talbott and Hannah Smith. Weds 20th, 2-3.30 in WM0.02

Apparentlye a Ph.D. yn English Literature ys the most punk rock thynge yn the worlde because looke who doth get bent out of shape about the verye idea of it

Congratulations to Mary Bateman as her book, Arthurian Tradition has won the 2024 Dhira B. Mahoney prize! 🎉 "We commend and congratulate Bateman for this fine work." - Prize Committee. Dr Mary Bateman buff.ly/4fN5qcj

MY YEAR-END READING STATISTICS #Wrapped (originally for Guardian Books)

Finally a helpful acknowledgement of the damage that's being done across the sector, and of its consequences theguardian.com/education/2024…