Catherine Fletcher @cath_fletcher Twitter profile

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 months

It's publication day for The Roads to Rome, so here's a little thread of what's inside.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

reading this ridiculousness on a train where the only toilets are gender-neutral and it causes exactly zero problems

The Guardian

@guardian

2 years

Single-sex toilets to be compulsory in new public buildings

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

It's come to something when using the university library in a normal way gets reported as a personal finance life hack.

The Guardian

@guardian

1 year

How to learn and study in the UK at low (or no) cost

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Very disappointed to see the @tate relying on unpaid labour to deliver its queer history programme. This is not a serious approach to diversity.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 months

Pioneering move by Edinburgh Uni here as they launch the new field of Christianity for Cats

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

What is a more formal way of saying "appears to have shagged his way round Rome" please? It's for a history book.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

7 years

I see #REF2021 is asking universities for 2.5 pieces of work per full-time staff member which totally solves the problem of what to do with my half-written article.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

The question everyone was asking in sixteenth-century Venice

Rebecca Rideal

@RebeccaRideal

1 year

How much money did he get to embed the f*cking Doge I wonder

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

Three Egyptian curators refused visas to attend international conference *for Egyptology curators* @SwanseaUni . The @ukhomeoffice is a national embarrassment.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

Might I encourage investigative journalists with an interest in universities to focus on the fact that students won't have time to read anything if they're working all hours to pay the bills.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

I'm in the Guardian talking about why we should remember the 78% of UK undergraduates who don't attend Russell Group universities.

This half-baked fix will leave most UK universities struggling | Catherine Fletcher

A policy that focuses on helping high-flying students means many non-Russell Group universities will find it hard to survive, says Manchester Metropolitan University professor Catherine Fletcher

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

what next? a campaign to segregate train toilets?

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Reading a letter from 1494 in which the duke of Gandia is apologising for being behind with business 'due to the turbulent times of pestilence' and I think we can all relate to this.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Gonna tell my grandkids this was GB News.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 months

Things that should be cut but probably won't in cost-saving measures for universities: 1. the REF 2. restructuring advice from management consultants 3. contract with Key Travel 4. clunky 'virtual learning environment' when you could just email a PDF

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Some exciting personal news: from 1 January 2020 I will be Professor of History @HistoryManMet @ManMetUni .

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

My new book, The Beauty and the Terror, is out this Thursday, so here's a little preview thread of what's inside.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

I see 1604 is trending: please party like it's Marten Pepijn's The Ball at the Court, painted in that year.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

The decision to shut History, Languages and Politics courses at Sunderland isn't (only) local philistinism but a logical consequence of the government decision to remove the quotas on student recruitment from 2015.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

I tell you what though, this self-isolation is giving me a whole new perspective on why some papal conclaves made the bizarre decisions they did.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Exciting news! My new book, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance, is out on 5 March 2020 and doesn't it have a dramatic cover...

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Getting a British Library reading room place this summer is going to be like getting a Glastonbury ticket isn't it.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

A thing no-one ever tells you about being a mid-career academic is that there will be facts you know, that you cannot remember how you know, and you will have to spend hours digging through folders of old notes to try and find out how you know them.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Manchester @ucu marching into town #OneOfUsAllOfUs #FourFights @manmetucu

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

Fourteenth-century Bologna law professor Pietro Cerniti had a picture of his seminar group on his tombstone.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

State of the Louvre queues as everyone tries to get to the relocated Mona Lisa.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

My piece in the Guardian about the grim prospects for higher education if we don't treat it as a public good.

Even before coronavirus, university finances were on the brink | Catherine Fletcher

Without action, this crisis and the collapse in international student numbers could be the final blow for some institutions, says Catherine Fletcher, lecturer in public history at the University of...

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

@carmineclaire Send an invoice for your development time at a suitable consultancy rate.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

11 months

The Beauty and the Terror, my alternative history of the Italian Renaissance, is 99p on Kindle all this month. War, empire, religious division... plus some very gorgeous art. Get your copy now!

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

9 months

Delighted to share the cover of THE ROADS TO ROME, out in June 2024. Get a preview of what's coming tomorrow, Wednesday 29 November, at 1800 CET (register for link)

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

Tis done! #RoadsToRome

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

@rachelwinchers I recall someone on here had an answer to that one saying no unless the company could demonstrate the specific relevance to the role.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

Absolutely disgraceful that universities that didn't value someone's work enough to keep them on will now be allowed to take credit for that work in the government's assessment system.

Chris Havergal

@CHavergalTHE

6 years

Final submission rules for REF 2021 just announced: funders to allow universities to submit outputs by staff they have made redundant via @RachaelPells

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Looking forward to next year's Hallmark Christmas movie in which two hunky lorry drivers find themselves stuck in a queue on the M20 and enjoy a slow-burn gay romance in the Kent countryside.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

A special place in hell for people who publish books without an index.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

I’m a history professor from 1971. I haven’t actually finished my PhD but I got the job anyway. Every summer I rent a villa in Tuscany for three months, where the nanny looks after the kids while I get on with research.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

This article, by an associate professor of biology, has made me feel more relaxed about the prospect of coronavirus infection while shopping/by passing joggers and a lot less relaxed about making classroom teaching work even with social distancing.

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

Please read this link to learn about the author and background to these posts.It seems many people are breathing some relief, and I’m not sure why. An epidemic curve has a relatively predictable...

erinbromage.wixsite.com

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

All this talk about the Gove-Vine bookshelves makes me nostalgic for the time Sarah Vine reviewed my book and confused Thomas and Oliver Cromwell.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

7 years

Absolutely thrilled that The Black Prince of Florence has been shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year #WBOTY17

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

A key scientist behind the Moderna-BioNTech vaccine got kicked out of her faculty job because she couldn't bring in grant funding. I'd say it was astonishing but sadly it is not.

alexandre afonso

@alexandreafonso

4 years

Well done @Penn

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

I know there's a shortage of cheerful news today, so I'm pleased to tell you that I now have an entire, if very rough, draft of my new book (a history of Italy 1492-1571).

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

8 years

Sweden taking 33 refugees per 10k population, the UK taking 2. That's a statistic more people should know. #Exodus

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Ooh, the bound proofs of my new book have arrived!

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Why this isn't a good parallel: short thread.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

Loving this portrait of Kenau Hasselaer tooled up to defend Haarlem during the Spanish siege of 1573.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 months

Just three months until THE ROADS TO ROME hits bookshops. Very grateful for all the kind comments already coming through: 'erudite, entertaining and infinitely readable,' says Helena Attlee. Pre-order your copy here:

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Very telling how many people, one way or another, are talking about leaving UK academia. Even among colleagues with permanent jobs, I've seen a lot more early retirements/moves to Europe/switches to part-time in the last couple of years.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

When G. M. Trevelyan wrote his account of Garibaldi's campaigns he walked all the routes through Italy on foot, and I endorse this research method and will henceforth be doing all my research in the form of walking holidays.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

I'm seeing a few people here irritated at the use of 'forgotten' in this headline, and indeed in the Italian context 'deliberately neglected' would probably be more appropriate.

Story of forgotten black Medici ruler is told in new short film

Daphne Di Cinto’s short film Il Moro focuses on the son of a servant who became Duke of Florence

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Fascinated by this portrait of Margaret of Parma. That hand on hip pose is very rare for a woman, I think. Are there other early modern examples?

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

8 years

Friends' six-year-old tells me Henry VIII had six husbands and now I'm fascinated at prospect of Gay Tudor Alternate Universe.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

French cops pick up a couple of student protesters, convinced from their reading material that they're plotting the 'neolithic revolution'...

Charlies Ingalls Le Vrai 🤠🐑🐄🐔🐎🤓

@CharliesIngalls

1 year

Deux étudiants arrêtés en manif, ils sont fouillés... La police trouve un livre "La Révolution néolithique", la police s'inquiète, la police veut comprendre pourquoi il y a le mot "révolution" dans le titre, la police craint le pire ! C'est l'auteur de l'ouvrage @JPDemoule qui

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 months

Checking out some Ottoman cannonballs from the 1529 siege of Vienna stuck in this pub wall.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

The real star of this coronation is Penny Mordaunt's personal trainer.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

I have hit that point in book-writing where I need to decide what to call the Anglo-Saxons.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 months

One month to publication and it's great to see a finished copy of The Roads To Rome!

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

I see the Spectator has published an article comparing the current situation to the Battle of Lepanto, so just in case anyone needs to hear this may I emphasise that the coronavirus is NOT the Ottoman Empire 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 months

The incredible frescoes in the Torre Aquila at Castello Buonconsiglio.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

It took Henry VIII six years to break with Rome, just saying.

Tom Newton Dunn

@tnewtondunn

5 years

Jacob Rees-Mogg: "If we can deal with the abdication of a King Emperor in 24 hours, we can deal with leaving the European empire within 12 days" #Ridge

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Student numbers to be determined by vice-chancellors in a cage fight.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

So I have an inventory of 1554 listing a 'large crocodile' and one of 1560 listing a 'small crocodile'. What happened? Did it shrink? Did someone sneakily swap them? Have crocodile standards changed?

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

In my alt-history world, Elizabeth marries Mary, Queen of Scots and the union of the crowns is a whole lot smoother.

Prof Kate Williams 💙

@KateWilliamsme

6 years

OTD Elizabeth I still enjoying her birthday celebrations. But if she HAD married, who would have been the best choice of suitor?

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

I see Penguin has joined the list of miscreants who deposit only ebooks in the British Library, and would like to say this isn't going to make me buy the book, it's just going to make me annoyed as I walk across town to a different library to consult a hard copy.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

actual feral hogs everyone

Robert Woodshaw

@robertwoodshaw

4 years

On a positive note, at least nature is returning to our cities. This is from Bergamo, Italy...

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

6 years

Hello TV commissioners, I would very much watch this archive/male brothel/comicbook comedy drama.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

Just finished checking over 1200 endnotes for the new book, and hope the tiny percentage of readers who will care are duly grateful.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 months

This morning I'm transcribing a sixteenth-century criminal investigation into one Cesare from Bologna who was in trouble for both illegal gun use and cross-dressing.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Out today! 📚📚📚

Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

My new book, The Beauty and the Terror, is out this Thursday, so here's a little preview thread of what's inside.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

7 years

At the funeral of René of Anjou, 1480, his heart was carried in a silver box by ‘four distinguished men with university degrees’. Graduate jobs aren't what they used to be.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

If all possible university teaching went online now, students who wanted to be elsewhere for Christmas could make their own decisions about exactly when was the best time to go, allowing for quarantine if necessary.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

I realise it's a minor issue in the #coronavirus scheme of things but I do feel for the organisers of the massive 500th anniversary Raphael show, which has had to close after just three days #Raffaello

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

8 years

Why academia and public history don't always get on. Some thoughts #twitterstorians

On academic ambivalence towards public history

I was prompted to write this post by a storm that blew up on Twitter a few days ago. In case you missed it, here is a short summary: A Guardian interview with Rebecca Rideal about her new book 1666…

catherinefletcher.info

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

2 years

Writing about Avignon, and remembering that Châteauneuf-du-Pape is literally Newcastle-of-the-Pope, which somehow sounds much less glamorous.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 months

Keele Uni wondering whether they can submit an emeritus prof as an impact case study

 Dr. Waitman W. Beorn (@waitmanwbeorn.com 🟦)🇺🇦

@waitmanb

4 months

Oh...oh dear. The NYPD has found...the @OUPAcademic Oxford Very Short Introduction series. I wonder if he thinks the Antisemitism is also a how-to book.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

I don't want to put this on individuals, but do think @ucu should campaign for a shift away from competitive grants towards a basic income system. Would be good for everyone.

Adam Crymble

@Adam_Crymble

3 years

If you're applying for grants, you're complicit in academic precarity.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

At this rate whole swathes of the country will end up as deserts for humanities provision. Student choice must include good local options, else it isn't a choice at all.

Jessica R. Valdez

@JRae183

1 year

At UEA, 31 out of the university's 36 academic staff redundancies will be coming from arts and humanities.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Assembling for the joint Manchester #FourFights march @ucu #OneOfUsAllOfUs

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Very bad news, not least because this is a notable department for the study of Black British History.

London South Bank University UCU

@uculsbu

3 years

Today we have been officially informed that our BA History, BA Human Geography, MSc in Refugee Studies, MSc Development Studies MSc Education for Sustainability will be closed with immediate effect, no student recruitment from Sept 21 @UCU @UCULondon @LondonUCU @DrJoGrady

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Off to London for the launch of a new @BBCTwo documentary featuring the story of Alessandro de’ Medici and other tales of Africans in Renaissance art.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Official diagram of new tiers.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

7 years

@manwhohasitall Male novelists just can't write realistically. Their books always have a middle-aged bloke shagging an implausibly hot younger woman.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

An example of the kind of exploitative hiring the #UCUStrike is about: a university using a three-year entry-level fixed-term contract to develop a new MA programme. Wrong grade, folks, that should be SL at least @NewcastleUniUCU

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Writing my travel risk assessment: "Because these countries have lower Covid rates than the UK I will actually be at less risk during this overseas trip than I currently am working in Manchester."

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

Back in 1992, section 28 was still in force but teenage girls were 100% identifying as a cat

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Things in universities that are a bit Soviet: five-year research plans. Things in universities that are not Soviet: decolonising history.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

In short we're now in a situation where some university courses are overcrowded to the point where tutors can't possibly provide proper pastoral support, while others disappear to the detriment of students who aren't in a position to move for a course that fits their needs.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Roman ruins in the rain. A proper British holiday #RoadsToRome

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

Rome with a view #RoadsToRome

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

For people interested in why certain historians kept getting picked to front TV shows, I recommend this excellent research article by Erin Bell, "No-one wants to be lectured at by a woman", which takes its title from a TV executive's comment in the 90s:

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

8 years

Err, so this is my top academic tweet of the past month #SeriousAcademic

Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

8 years

@willpooley Found a letter in the Vatican from teenage Catherine de' Medici asking her great uncle Pope Clement VII for a pony.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

3 years

@jessicamdalt Oh yes, complete rabbit hole that website. Hours of fun planning your authentic Roman holidays.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

You may say great this is the market in action, letting more students go to their first choice uni. It isn't for the applicants whose first choice is a local institution with lots of experience dealing with first-generation working-class students.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Accidentally did some economic history this afternoon and nearly got interested in charcoal production.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 years

Was there anyone with even the slightest expertise in queer history on this panel?

Times Higher Education

@timeshighered

4 years

A historian committed research misconduct when she claimed that a Jewish concentration camp prisoner had a lesbian affair with an SS guard, a university investigation has ruled.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

4 months

Great to see my article on the Appian Way in the new issue of @HistoryToday

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

5 years

Delighted to see this lovely review of my new book in The Times - out on 5 March.

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

7 years

PUBLICATION DAY: My book is out in paperback today!

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

Appalling behaviour from the editor here, which @PalgraveHistory needs to address. I'm co-editor of a book in this series, but won't be back without a change of leadership.

Dr Aidan Norrie 🦄

@aidannorrie

1 year

I've dealt with some pretty shitty things in my life, but this is up there with the worst. Charles Beem has sought to bully me into silence and submission. @PalgraveHistory @Palgrave : do you think it's acceptable that a series editor can send these kinds of emails? Do you think

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Catherine Fletcher

@cath_fletcher

1 year

Third time lucky with my fellowship applications this year, and I'm delighted to be heading back to Rome this autumn as Balsdon Fellow @the_bsr .

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