I expect so, but if there are perceptions of problems with academic freedom I wrote in Every Monument Will Fall about the German concept of Vorauseilender Gehorsam and need to practice what I preach 🙏💫
🙏 yesterday I accepted my first invitation since Trump took over to give a named lecture in the USA
💥 details to follow (lecture in March next year)
for now just to say I’m thrilled by the sense that the political climate in America is changing to mean that universities feel they can invite me 🙃
❤️❤️❤️ @hookland.bsky.social
This person put me on a MAGA block list. A particularly nasty form of defamation.
I was glad to be able to write this about the 24 February anniversary in longer-term and global perspective for my colleagues at Pushkin House www.pushkinhouse.org/pages/24-Feb...
Trump wanders away
🙏🙏💫
Today we are launching the 2026 SHP Summer Conference, which will be taking place July 10-12 at Leeds Trinity. This year, due to the huge increase in proposals for workshops, we have extended our offer to 46 wonderful workshops for primary and secondary teachers of history (see below for a taster!
I am so excited about our keynotes for the conference: @profdanhicks.bsky.social, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology will be sharing his work from The Brutish Museums and Every Monument Will Fall and passionately challenging misconceptions about Archaeology, Anthropology, Architecture and Art ...
💥Monday, London, 7pm
www.energyembargoforpalestine.com/partners-in-...
💯
one strange thing about the Director’s statement via William D is that he says “we amended two panels in our ancient Levant gallery last year” (ie room 57/the former Sackler wing)—but the Telegraph report was about an interpretation panel in Room 4 downstairs (Ancient Egypt/Decline and Hkysos Rule)🧐
I love @aiannucci.bsky.social’s #StrongMessageHere podcast about political language🙏
but I had to switch off when Michael Gove was the guest this week—it was like they’d put Peter Mandelson on🙃
if this podcast is to retain coherence, and integrity, an episode on “bothsideism” is clearly overdue 🤷
for the Egyptologists here it would be helpful to read some commentary on the rationale for changing the statement “much of Egypt came under the control of rulers of Palestinian descent (14th-15th Dynasties)” to use the word “Canaanite”
nobody would believe that the BM only has 45 objects excavated from or collected in what is today Palestine?
It’s impossible that the BM only have 45 objects excavated or collected from the State of Palestine
The BM press release read: "It has been reported that the British Museum has removed the term Palestine from displays. It is simply not true."
Technically it’s the term “Palestinian" (as the Telegraph reported) rather than Palestine that’s been removed in Room 4—not sure about the Levant galleries
what’s certain is that an anonymous museum spokesperson briefed UKLFI and this was followed by counter-briefs from the director via William D (unless we are to believe that the pressure group totally fabricated the quotes, which I personally doubt)
This is the original text panel in question in Room 4
one strange thing about the Director’s statement via William D is that he says “we amended two panels in our ancient Levant gallery last year” (ie room 57/the former Sackler wing)—but the Telegraph report was about an interpretation panel in Room 4 downstairs (Ancient Egypt/Decline and Hkysos Rule)🧐
it’s all in the thread
Professor Dan Hicks has a useful thread on the what the BM is doing, or not, regarding using the word Palestine in its displays and databases, including a link to the original article from UK Lawyers for Israel which appears to have sparked off this row.
However
bsky.app/profile/prof...
this update/correction from @willdalrymple.bsky.social on the question of removing the term Palestine from British Museum gallery texts definitely raises more questions than it answers
on that we definitely agree!
for one thing, who exactly was the British Museum spokesperson quoted in the original UKLFI article? web.archive.org/web/20260216...
for another, on such a crucial issue for our most significant national museum, why is this an informal comment reported second hand on social media?
on that we definitely agree!
I would agree that we definitely need a proper statement from the museum
