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Prof Fiona Skillen

@fionaskillen

Professor in History, GCU. Research: sports & gender history, heritage &volunteering.

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12.11.2024
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Latest posts by Prof Fiona Skillen @fionaskillen

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Proud to finally hold this book in my hand. It’s taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears but it’s all worth it. Thanks to all the contributors and to my co-editors @HBee2015 and @GaryJamesWriter

Can’t wait to see it officially launched next week! #SportHistory

11.09.2025 15:15 👍 26 🔁 4 💬 4 📌 0

This is exciting! And of interest to @bssh.bsky.social

26.08.2025 15:34 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Story Café Special: A Most Unsuitable Game | Glasgow Women's Library Women have been playing football in Scotland for over a century and its roots can be traced back hundreds of years.

🏆 Massive congratulations to the England Women’s team on their epic Euros win! ⚽️👏

If the tournament has sparked your love of the beautiful game, don’t miss our upcoming Story Café Special: A Most Unsuitable Game.

📅 Thursday 28th August
🕐 1:00–2:30pm
📚 ⚽️ Poetry, storytelling & herstory — all in one

27.07.2025 19:21 👍 20 🔁 11 💬 1 📌 0
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Visitors behaving badly? Damage to museum objects sparks sector debate - Museums Association A number of high profile incidents have taken place in recent weeks, but who should take the blame?

News | Visitors behaving badly? Damage to museum objects sparks sector debate 💬

A number of high profile incidents have taken place in recent weeks, but who should take the blame?

26.06.2025 15:11 👍 21 🔁 5 💬 3 📌 5
Women in Sport panel discussion with Imogen Gibbon, Rhona Howie and Professor Fiona Skillen.

Women in Sport panel discussion with Imogen Gibbon, Rhona Howie and Professor Fiona Skillen.

Women in Sport panel at National Galleries of Scotland

Women in Sport panel at National Galleries of Scotland

Rhona Howie launching the winning throw

Rhona Howie launching the winning throw

Amazing, not often we have an Olympic champion speaking @nationalgalleriesscot🥇‼️

Insightful conversation between Prof @fionaskillen Deputy Director Imogen Gibbon w/ Olympic medal holder Team GB Curler Rhona Howie whose team portrait is part of the National Galleries collection 🥌🥌🥌

24.06.2025 13:50 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Professor Fiona Skillen (left), Rhona Howie MBE (middle), Imogen Gibbon (right)

Professor Fiona Skillen (left), Rhona Howie MBE (middle), Imogen Gibbon (right)

Free tickets are available for an in-conversation event at the National Galleries of Scotland with Professor @fionaskillen.bsky.social and Olympic champion Rhona Howie MBE on June 24. 🥌

20.06.2025 13:04 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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Also, a huge thanks the authors of ‘A most unsuitable game’ for their panel, which was the well deserved winner of our inclusivity prize, which celebrates inclusive & diverse histories of football. A huge thanks & congrats to @fionaskillen.bsky.social, Karen Fraser & @juliemcneillwrites.bsky.social

15.06.2025 11:12 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
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Our last post for today sees the end of #footycon25 with 2 winners being announced, with Gabrielas Rios-Infante winning our day 2 best paper prize & @fionaskillen.bsky.social, Karen Fraser and @juliemcneillwrites.bsky.social
winning our conference inclusivity prize, both sponsored by Routledge

14.06.2025 17:38 👍 8 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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A change of pace now as we have a panel with @fionaskillen.bsky.social, Karen Fraser & @juliemcneillwrites.bsky.social talking about their joint book ‘A most unsuitable game’, released last August and covering the history of women’s football in Scotland

14.06.2025 13:47 👍 3 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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British Academy announces 5million investment from Wellcome to turbocharge support for early career researchers The British Academy welcomes an investment of £5million from Wellcome, to launch a unique Leadership and Advancement SHAPE programme for researchers in the early stages of their careers. The funding s...

Large and richly appreciated rays of sunshine for UK SHAPE (Arts, Humanities & Social Science disciplines) at a time when grim news in our sector has become normative.

Huge thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social for making this happen. 1/2

04.06.2025 15:11 👍 50 🔁 22 💬 3 📌 2
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Women in Sport | Rhona Howie (in person) | National Galleries of Scotland Rhona Howie, skip of the Great Britain curling team that won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and deliverer of the final stone − the ‘stone of destiny’ − that sealed that famous triu...

Women's Sport and Art panel with Olympic Gold Winner Rhona Howie, Imogen Gibbon Chief Curator of Portraiture and myself.

Where: The National Galleries of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
When: Tuesday 24 June 2025, 12.45–1.30pm (in person & online)

www.nationalgalleries.org/event/women-...

06.06.2025 10:45 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Vintage photo of women playing football.

Vintage photo of women playing football.

📢 PhD opportunity 📢

Join us as a researcher to uncover the hidden history of women in Scottish sport in the Victorian era and the early 20th century. ⚽

In collaboration with @stir.ac.uk, @natlibscot.bsky.social scot.bsky.social and @nationalgalleries.bsky.social.

👉 Apply now: bit.ly/4kp1Sij

20.05.2025 10:41 👍 10 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1
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Celebrating Scottish women’s football Join Fiona Skillen, Karen Fraser and Julie McNeil as they discuss their latest book, ‘A most unsuitable game’.

Professor @fionaskillen.bsky.social will celebrate Scottish women's football at a special event at the @natlibscot.bsky.social on May 22. ⚽

👉 To sign up for the free event, visit Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebratin...

09.05.2025 10:57 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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Trailblazer initiative to honour international players who did not get official caps The Scottish FA are launching a new ‘Trailblazers’ initiative to identify and honour women who represented Scotland at international level between 1972 and 1997 and did not receive an official cap for...

Can you help us (Karen Fraser, Andy Mitchell, myself & SFA) trace these women so we can help them be awarded caps for playing for Scotland?

More info in this article theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/05/trai...

06.05.2025 10:48 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Celebrating Scottish womens football Join Fiona Skillen, Karen Fraser and Julie McNeil as they discuss their latest book, 'A most unsuitable game' for a talk at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

⚽Uncover the stories of women and girls who have played the beautiful game in Scotland for over a century with @fionaskillen.bsky.social Karen Fraser & Julie McNeil as they discuss their book, 'A most unsuitable game'

📍 @natlibscot.bsky.social
📅Thursday 22 May 2025 | 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
🎫Free entry

01.05.2025 09:59 👍 3 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

@fionaskillen.bsky.social

20.04.2025 07:51 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Sign the Petition Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training

In an infringement of copyright & total disregard for my livelihood, many of my academic publications have been taken without my consent to train AI. I stand with the @Soc_of_Authors Action.
Pls sign & share this petition to protect authors' rights: www.change.org/p/protect-au...

04.04.2025 19:37 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 2
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Fantastic to have @DrMailley in at @SocialscienceG to present on her research into the history of skating in Scotland and also the 1938 Empire Exhibition to students on my sport and leisure history module. Rich lectures which stimulated great questions from students.

01.04.2025 17:25 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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Great to have been at the @natlibscot.bsky.social last Thursday evening to hear @Imogen_Gibbon & Rachel Beattie talking about women’s sport in the collections of National Library of Scotland & National Galleries of Scotland. Fascinating insights and some great discussion.

01.04.2025 16:46 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Two football history geeks excited to share their work

Two football history geeks excited to share their work

Great evening at @glasgowcaledonian.bsky.social with @fionaskillen.bsky.social talking women’s football, poetry and how art and research can be perfect partners!

20.03.2025 21:03 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Lucy Bronze: Having autism works to my advantage in football, says England and Chelsea player Chelsea and England defender Lucy Bronze opens up for the first time about her autism and ADHD diagnoses to raise awareness and help others.

bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
It was during a Lionesses training camp that Bronze learned she had ADHD and autism. Bronze says that "a diagnosis is not going to change who you are, but understanding who you are is such a good thing".

19.03.2025 13:22 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Great session this morning @GCUArchives for my Sport and Leisure History Module. We looked at archive items from the 1920s & 30s and students brought in items which represented their hobbies and discussed the similarities. Always a brilliant and enjoyable session.

12.03.2025 14:52 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Fantastic event on Friday for IWD at Hearts FC as part of their 150th celebration. The Wikieditathon focused on women’s football - exploring history and learning new skills so volunteers could edit and add these important stories to Wikipedia. Loved sharing my research with this group.

10.03.2025 21:09 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Women's World Cup: Home Nations to make joint bid to host 2035 tournament The Football Associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales express their intention to submit a joint bid to host the 2035 Women's World Cup.

Home Nations to make joint bid to host 2035 Women's World Cup

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

05.03.2025 20:52 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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Folks. The ceiling smashers are back - @fionaskillen.bsky.social @juliemcneillwrites.bsky.social and Dr Karen Fraser are hosting this event at Tynecastle Stadium on Wednesday 19th Feb. Worth checking out. 🌳

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-most-uns...

27.01.2025 21:13 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
A Most Unsuitable Game: A celebration of women's football The event will celebrate women's football through poetry and stories as we launch the book 'A Most Unsuitable Game'

We are having an event at Tynecastle to promote our book A Most Unsuitable Game on 19th Feb 6.30-8pm. There will be much poetry and chat about the beautiful game.

Would be great to see you there if you can make it. Book your free ticket below 👇

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-most-uns...

27.01.2025 12:13 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Applications for the BSSH annual conference in Belfast this summer are now open. Abstracts of 200 words on any aspect of sport are welcomed, the deadline for submissions is 7th May 2025..

17.01.2025 20:57 👍 16 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 1
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'Oh What A Team: The Manchester Corinthians Story' - 13 Jan 2025 YouTube video by Imprint Films

Video from Imprint Films featuring the famous women's football side Manchester Corinthians. Well worth checking out..
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

22.01.2025 12:07 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Blue Poster for history, hunger and holocaust event featuring soldiers.

Blue Poster for history, hunger and holocaust event featuring soldiers.

Powerful event this evening @CaledonianNews. Organised by my @SocialscienceG colleague Dr Ben Shepherd with additional papers from Prof Oonagh Walsh & Dr Paris Chronakis and chaired by Dr Angela Shapiro @gatherthevoices

22.01.2025 17:51 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0