(Dr) Debbie Challis

@poisonchallis.bsky.social

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The ancient world in the modern, in so many ways. Cultural historian and creative producer: https://www.debbiechallis.com.

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Been working freelance as a consultant for @BeyondNotability for 18 months. learnt so much. @amalexathorn.bsky.social & Vanessa Woolf worked hard on 4 amazing stories around the lives of archaeological women. 1st performed or told on #IWD2024. Now online here: beyondnotability.org/biographical...

Four Stories for Beyond Notability – Beyond Notabilitysearchexpandbeyondnotability.org

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Introducing a wonderful collaboration with @aktarcha.bsky.social: the publication of a series on our blog based on papers in the "(In)visible Women in the History of Archaeology" session of the 2023 European Association of Archaeologists conference beyondnotability.org/events/intro...

Introduction: (In)visible Women in History of Archaeology Series – Beyond Notabilitysearchexpandbeyondnotability.org

Only gone and got a grant from the arts council to develop creative non-fiction and exhibition on a 19thC artist and her world: Ann Mary Severn Newton. So excited I made a reel . . . you can watch it here: www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-deb...

Dr Debbie Challis on LinkedIn: Absolutely over the moon to announce that I have a grant from Developing…www.linkedin.com Absolutely over the moon to announce that I have a grant from Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) from Arts Council England for Artist in the House…

New blog on a visit to a very interesting exhibition on women artists @ Tate Britain. Felt long overdue tbh & on reflection like it should have been 1st ex in the 2000s, then an updated ex exploring gender, empire & more nuance. But at least it is here now. www.debbiechallis.com/post/now-you...

Now You See Us: Positioning Ann Mary (Severn) Newton as a British Female Artistwww.debbiechallis.com How to be a successful female artist and how Ann Mary Severn Newton was - Now You See Us at Tate Britain

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This Saturday, I’m interviewing acclaimed author Sefi Atta about her novel A Bit of Difference at a free, online event for Macfest. More details and book your place at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/books-with...

Understanding why George Eliot fell in love w G H Lewes. His review of Gaskell’s Ruth & Brontë’s Villette so beautifully written. I may have immersed myself too much at tender age w Currer Bell. 😬 Reading ahead of @ThePortico event w @EGaskellsHouse & @BronteParsonage 26 June.

Built on amazing Iris Yau Infamous exhibition to write a KS3 resource on Manchester & 1st Opium War. First resource I’ve written for @porticolibrary.bsky.social - use the novel Mary Barton to embed empathetic history approach (or tried to!). Catalogue online too: www.tes.com/teaching-res...

Trading the Poppy: The Industrial Revolution in Manchester and the First Opium War in China | Teaching Resourceswww.tes.com This resource includes primary source documents – quotes from books, engravings and maps - that can be used to support historical enquiry. Secondary material is used

Going to Athens w kids meant seeing it through their eyes & finding new places. The Lord wowed by #Acropolis, the lady less keen due to heat & tourists trampling her but loved museum. Never been to a beach near Athens before & went to a new museum. Family friendly atmos meant relaxed eating out.😀

Our view. Very happy.

New blog on how the Victorians partied - or rather how a small bohemian middle-class group of them based in London did. Uses illustrations by Mary Severn (of course) & her older brother showing how their social life was documented and shared: www.debbiechallis.com/post/party-l...

Party Like a Victorian: Pianos, Pipes and Peoplewww.debbiechallis.com Sketches of social and domestic life by the Severns in the mid 19thC. And yes the Victorians did know how to party . . .

The National Service idea for every 18 yo is another example of how this government alternately neglect & demonise the young. An ‘opportunity’ after the obscene rise in child poverty, mental health crisis in CAMHs, ‘ghost children’ in ‘care’ system, cuts to sure start etc etc. it’s gut wrenching.

Thanks so much for invite to speak @ Durham Archaeology at #JealousLaws. Great to hear research (& feel energy) of so many colleagues & spend time w them. So glad people liked Ann Mary Severn connections slide. A weekend of work w kids asking what I’m doing (not the Victorians again!).

Decided am going to have a croning ceremony for my 50th and embrace my inner / outer hag. Love this series on #witches but this episode struck an emotional chord: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Witch - 8. Hag - BBC Soundswww.bbc.co.uk How have the witch hunts shaped our ideas of older women today?

Went to a really interesting exhibition Voices from the Wall on Romanians in Britain & Dacians stationed on #hadrianswall. (At the Romanian Consulate in Manchester but you have to remind them). Hope to see it get more exposure. @ics.bsky.social @amalexathorn.bsky.social

This Friday I’m taking part in a Workshop on Eugenics and the Academy @UniofOxford (lnkd.in/eeWPrXRA). The Keynote lecture is given by @littlegaudy and I am on a panel with @EconomicCurator from @LSELibrary. Some reflections on welfare & eugenics: www.debbiechallis.com/post/remembe...

Percentiles in Archiveswww.debbiechallis.com A personal reflection on eugenics, welfare and how things are accidentally archived.

Enjoying watching #ShouldertoShoulder, then suddenly see Macclesfield pop up. Glad know so much more after taking part in 2018 centenary commemoration of some women getting the #vote @lselibrary.bsky.social. It would have been a long journey for Annie Kennedy from Oldham to Macc though.

Glad to be taking part in this critical workshop, particularly with former colleagues and friends from LSE & UCL. Workshop: Eugenics in the Academy | Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology: www.hsmt.ox.ac.uk/event/worksh...

Workshop: Eugenics in the Academywww.hsmt.ox.ac.uk

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Some thoughts on Blood Legacy - Reckoning With a Family’s Story of Slavery, by Alex Renton: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2024/04/bloo...

Fabulous Staycation reading After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz on lives of women, expression & queerness. Had a hunch inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s work & it was. Inspired me to apply for dev funding to do my own writing of a life (will write her’s in a v different way but all crossed).

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Married 20 years today to this saucepot. We’ve gone for a gander round Peckforton Castle, a mad, posh Victorian mansion where Dr Who and Sarah Jane Smith once battled the Sontaran Linx

Doing event w iris Yau next week @porticolibrary.bsky.social on The Mission! A discussion of Christian missionary activity in China. In prep looked at dad’s old books from 60s / early 70s before going to Kenya -where was born -talking about colonialism not new! www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

Genuinely loving this - The Assembly with Michael Sheen. #AutismAwarenessMonth www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC One - The Assemblywww.bbc.co.uk Michael Sheen faces the interview of a lifetime from The Assembly. Expect chaos!

Loved our day out Rochdale town hall. Beautiful building, interiors so impressive & loved fact great hall for kids playing games & circus skills. Even almost teen enjoyed it! Found international connections on staircase interesting - rare sighting of Levant company & less rare west India company.

Finished the Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh: epic books on history of opium wars, British ideology of free trade & carnage unleashed on India & China. The destruction undercut by the empathy of ‘outcasts’. Magnificent. And diff way of reading 19thC accounts in Infamous ex @porticolibrary.bsky.social.

Play spot the museum / building with classical columns? Still excavating the archive in my cellar.

What does a geek do on a Sat when had a really manic few weeks? Exhausted, exhilarated & evaluating where I should be. I close my eyes to remember the Black Sea, then write a last blog on Mary Severn & Gertrude Jekyll abroad. Better than dealing w the hail & wind outside. lnkd.in/e2rxGCyY #whm24

LinkedInlnkd.in This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

What are ten lies that have shaped Western civilisation? Writer + historian Subhadra Das will be talking to me @porticolibrary.bsky.social on Thur 21 Mar to talk about her new book, Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West. Let’s unravel them together, book your ticket now: bit.ly/49THa5t

Uncivilised — The Portico Librarybit.ly Writer and historian Subhadra Das is in conversation about her new book (Un)Civilized that looks at topics from medicine, law, art and death.

The next part of the journey by Gertrude Jekyll, Mary Severn Newton and Charles Thomas Newton in Greece and Turkey in 1863. This stop - Rhodes: @ics.bsky.social @amalexathorn.bsky.social www.debbiechallis.com/post/gertrud...

Artists Abroad: Gertrude Jekyll and Mary Severn Newton's 1863 Trip – Part 2 Rhodeswww.debbiechallis.com Ippoton Street, Rhodes Town, 2000 Most of the drawings are from their stay on Rhodes. Strangely I have an almost comic book account of Rhodes too, from when I went with my then boyfriend, now husband,...

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Happy Friday! Here's our latest blog post, with a link to the recording of our #IWD2024 event @ Society of Antiquaries with a list of timecodes for each presentation, and a link to all of @londondreamtime.bsky.social's posts on the story creation process! beyondnotability.org/events/stori...

Stories of Women and the Past: International Women’s Day 2024 – Beyond Notabilitysearchexpandbeyondnotability.org

Love this photo of me taken by my colleague @ThePortico. She’s the only person who can take flattering photos of me 😂. Yep going on about Greek temples again. 🏛️