Callan Davies

New calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: opening in March 2026 - RHS The Society currently invites applications for the following two schemes — open to postgraduate researchers and early career historians — with closing dates of 5 June 2026. For further information on ...

Money for UK-based historians engaged in research and/or public history. #Skystorians

Dear Shabana, I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank. You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to make a perilous crossing on small boats.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division. When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney. As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I filled water tanks and picked up litter. What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country. Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it. It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and croissants to refugees and food parcels. When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers whilst risking death on the seas.” She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …

Dear Shabana,

Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

It’s #worldbookday and so here’s a book I wrote! It introduces a dozen radical 17th women who have been ignored by history books for far too long ✍️📚#voicesofthunder #newbook

Years ago I found a note in the parish register of Glenfield in Leicestershire which instantly became one of my favourite Civil War commentaries:

'Churchwardens, not any; because
distractions many; & distructions mightie'.

I've returned to that document, explored other pages nearby, and found...

Interior with a woman spinning. And also a man, perhaps reading. Another quiet scene by Esaias Boursse of Amsterdam, born OTD 1631.

Green-blue-grey blocky soundwaves on background. Centred in black serif lettering “Sonance”, with “journal of early modern sound studies” underneath.

👀 Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the terrific triumvirate @spparkle.bsky.social, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social & Hannah Yip to set up “Sonance: A Journal of Early Modern Sound Studies”, a diamond open access journal dedicated to historic sounds in all their wondrous & eclectic forms.

Enjoying this archly dismissive legal response from a theatre manager accused of stealing "certain tinsel stuffs" in the 1610s:
"[The] bill of complaint is so uncertain, and otherwise insufficient in law, as it is unpossible to make any direct answer thereto, for many respects..."

In person early modern metals event in London next month with me, @laurenworking.bsky.social, and Lubaaba Al-Azami. Please repost and share widely! And register here -- forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

Happy ornithologically rich birthday to you Tracey!

Just putting it out there, while I still have the privilege of a Fellowship for next 6 months, that if early modern ECRs need me to read cover letters, funding apps, article drafts, book proposals, etc, I am happy to take some of these on (with the proviso that I will reach capacity at some point!)

When will the UK government wake up to the wholesale destruction of HE that's happening?
This affects towns and cites across the UK, our businesses, the NHS, schools, young people, our global standing, everything! Higher Education, Universities, contribute over £265 BILLION to the economy.

Smearing Sussex (and Me): Responding to Nigel Biggar’s Latest Attack in The Spectator The University of Sussex, Feb 2026, taken by the author. Alan Lester The Spectator has published an article by Nigel Biggar smearing the University of Sussex as repressing students who ‘don&#…

The Spectator published this attack on me & colleagues just as the High Court is considering Sussex’s request for review of the Office for Students fine. It accuses us of ‘repressing’ our students. The magazine ignored my request for to reply. Please disseminate.

alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...

How to Become a Tudor Playwright (and Fail) Roland Broughton's impossible task and the beginnings of a playwrighting "career"

“And what would you like to do when you’re older?” New post asks how people became playwrights in Tudor England before the word even existed. Can you write a play a month? (Feat. cautionary tales on overcommitment and misdirected theatricality…)

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

Wonderful to see that we have already started receiving abstracts for our upcoming conference this summer.

If you are an early modernist studying violence from any discipline, do consider this opportunity to share your research with our network, and please help us spread the news! ⬇️

There's a Grim New Expression: "AI;DR" The slang is a sign of how overrun the internet is with AI slop — and how the real humans using it are fed up.

“AI; DR.” Next up: “AI slop” as this year’s playground insult?

futurism.com/artificial-i...

The graph spans 1580-1719 in 20-year periods. The script categories shown are "Secretary", "Mixed", and "Italic". Secretary script is at nearly 60% in the first period, falls to about 20% by 1620-1639, is below 5% by 1660-1679, and falls to zero by the end of the century. Mixed scripts occur throughout, with their heyday from 1620 to 1679, during which nearly 10% of the letters are written in Mixed hands. Italic starts at about 40%, but is nearly 50% by the second period, and dominates strongly thereafter.

Here's a graph showing the primary script used in early modern English letters plotted over time. This graph is based on 3,489 letters, 22% by women, with decent social coverage although lower ranks are underrepresented.

Came here to say this!

Proofs just in for A Golden World, featuring our glorious cover artwork ✨

A glittering new history of how the Americas transformed early modern England from award-winning historian @laurenworking.bsky.social, A Golden World is out 18 June and available to pre-order now.

linktr.ee/agoldenworld

Excellent article: shows small-mindedness of punishing universities here on narrow, insular metrics out of their control. Seeing benefits of a degree in global terms changes conversation (+ it won’t be 2026 forever).
(And in any case UK grad salaries still 45% premium on non grad: not nothing)

And in other news, the Pope is still Catholic. Universities have been judged on the employment prospects of graduates for years now, and it's never made any sense. Permanent austerity has led to a low skill labour market, where wealth is not associated with capability. Universities can't fix that.

As some of us having been saying for years…

The students 'win' £14 million because the law firm is pocketing 35%. There were 6500 students in this case, so that's about £2,000 each. Worth it for kicking #UKHE even further in crisis?

Abominable law firm. Frustrating UCL didn't resist as WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ALTERNATIVE COVID TEACHING?

Exactly. As a litigator, writing a pleading (a complaint, a motion, whatever) is how I end up making connections between disparate facts and case law, and arrive at the most cogent and persuasive argument I can make for my client. That process can never be farmed out.

Superb piece.
“Writing means many different things to me but one thing it is not: writing is not the transcription of thoughts already consciously present in my mind. Writing is a magical and mysterious process that makes it possible to think differently.”

Thanks Ellie!

A Shakespearean History of Traffic Could Shakespeare ride a horse? How did Tudor wine orders get delivered? Did playhouses cause congestion? and other questions

Meet Thomas the carter… New post follows Tudors moving around London, on the back of some recent research.  What did Shakespeare’s commute look like and who invented the one-way street?

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

A Shakespearean History of Traffic Could Shakespeare ride a horse? How did Tudor wine orders get delivered? Did playhouses cause congestion? and other questions

Stuck in traffic on your way to work? Here’s an excellent read from Callan Davies.
A Shakespearean History of Traffic
open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

Thanks Meryl!

Those campuses could be £ funnelled into UK towns. Alas.

a man says " the line must be drawn here " Alt: Captain Picard in the movie Star Trek First Contact says in an overly dramatic way " the line must be drawn here, this far, no further "

They took my desk, now they want my pension, well NO:

(On strike today and tomorrow, off to join @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line outside the law school, itll be cold and wet but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.)