Venus Bivar
@VBivar
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🇨🇦 history of capitalism, industrial pollution, plastics, farming, land use, climate, misanthrope, hockey player, #FirstGen , baker, @UniofOxford @vbivar .bsky
York, UK
Joined October 2017
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Pinned Tweet
Woo hoo! Today I get to share the official news that my book has won the AHA's J. Russell Major Prize for best book in French history. Thank you to
@AHAhistorians
and to my brilliant editor Brandon Proia
@brndnpr
See you all in NYC!
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When MeToo finally comes for academia, so many heads are gonna roll. Hollywood has nothing on the ivory tower when it comes to sexual power. Comoroff is just the tip of the iceberg.
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I once dreamed of being a professor and reading and writing and having big thoughts. I have instead become an email machine.
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Biggest mistake I make repeatedly, and I suspect this is true for many academics, is to think I can’t start writing until I know what to say. It’s actually the process of writing that lets me figure out what I want to say.
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Wondering if it would be fun to have students take an object - shoes, smart phone - and then trace all of the labour contained therein. As a lesson in commodity fetishism. Anyone ever tried this?
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Thrilled to share that I am headed to
@UniofOxford
as an associate professor of environmental history, and extra thrilled to be joining progressive
@StAnnesCollege
.
For a first-gen kid who fell in love with school as a hiding place from home, this feels like a fairytale.
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I wake up. I feed myself healthy food. I do a little cleaning up. I exercise. I get out for a short walk or two. I stay on top of admin duties. And that's it. The day is over and I haven't done any research or writing. Am I doing it wrong?????
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Woo hoo! I was awarded a Leverhulme fellowship! So happy about this. Twelve months to dedicate to "Unsafe Harbour: A Political Ecology of Migration in Modern Marseille." Now please Coronavirus: allow me access to French archives this year.
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If anyone is denied tenure and needs advice/support from someone who knows how devastating this is, give me a shout. Too much shame surrounding this. Not enough conversation. I want to change that. Feel free to reTweet and/or share my email: venus.bivar
@york
.ac.uk
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Happy to announce that I've accepted a job at the University of York in the UK, where I will be joining the delightful likes of
@samwetherell
,
@tomlukejohnson
, and
@ChrisRenwick
. I predict at least five pounds of scone weight gain.
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For anyone wanting a lit review of recent work on economic growth, I've got you covered. And no paywall! Too many Twerps included to list, but
@FredrikAlbritt1
,
@StephenMacekura
,
@Eli_B_Cook
,
@Alden_Young
, and
@MGSchmelzer
all appear.
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Student: Dear Prof Bivar, I can't make it to class today. Am I going to miss anything important?
Me: You're in luck! I was planning on wasting everyone's time today.
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I will not accept that my previous Tweet about this article only got two likes! It is straight-up genius. Maybe everyone has checked out b/c of Musk? So sad.
@zeithistoriker
I feel like this might be up your alley.
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Off to the University of Chicago, my alma mater, to present work for the first time since finishing my PhD. Equal parts thrilled and terrified.
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Anybody else getting tired of having to justify their existence to university admin? I'm so over having to prove that I "add value" to the university.
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@nhungtuyettran
Oh FFS. That's awful. Good for you for doing it. Eff them for chastising you.
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Very happy to report that my first day of work at Oxford coincided with the start of the annual Tolkien Society conference. Hard to worry too much about dining hall protocols when you can overhear people discussing their love of Middle Earth.
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Professional perk: full tour of Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation in Marseille with a history-buff resident.
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And this is why I work in Marseille … Saturday afternoons in the water!
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Oh my effing god. This is NOT a two-sides issue. Screw you Times for presenting it as such.
Should universities ban staff-student relationships? via
@timeshighered
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Swimming here never gets old. A little sad to say goodbye to Marseille knowing that my research is now done and it might be a while before I return. Thanks for the company
@donalhassett1
and
@_danielle_carr
. And now to write my book!
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What is the best archival source? And why is it municipal council meeting minutes?
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Just passed a fish and chips shop called Frying Nemo. That’s pretty dark.
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I get the push back. But as someone denied tenure for personal reasons this is the advice I’ll be giving. Wish it could be different, but getting fired ruined my life (I have since fixed it). The stakes are too high, esp. for us first-gen without family money to rescue us.
1) On TT - Be the fuzzy bunny nobody wants to kick - advice my academic big sister gave me when I started on TT. These people will be voting on your future. You can be the game changer after you get tenure.
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I'm starting to think book two is harder than book one because the more you know, the more you realise there is almost nothing new to be said about anything.
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Any suggestions on good arguments for why historians should care about exceptions to the rule? I have a legal case that is a total outlier and while I personally find it fascinating, I'm struggling to come up with an intellectual justification for studying outliers.
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Certainly feels weird to get good news at the moment. But I am nevertheless delighted to be recognised.
The European Studies Book Award shortlist has been announced by
@CES_Europe
. This award honors the work of talented scholars who have written their first book on any subject in European Studies published within a two-year period. Congrats to the finalists:
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Teaching yesterday I was struck by how much less certain I am about almost everything than I was ten years ago. Feels like the more I know, the more aware I am of how much I don't know.
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Just canceled what was going to be my first trip home to Canada, first visit with family, since the pandemic started. Feeling pretty gutted.
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Someone stole the beater cruiser bike I bought 15 years ago while still a PhD student in Chicago. I lugged that thing to California, back to the Midwest, and then I put it in a shipping container to the UK. She was a Robin Hood Raleigh and I loved her 😢
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Final hours in America. Here's hoping I manage to stay virus-free over the course of this 19-hour trip to York.
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Apparently it's international dog day and I'm always happy for an excuse to share this goober with the world.
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Extremely disappointed by the mid-life realisation that my future self is likely to be about the same as my present self. She will not procrastinate less, exercise more, skip dessert, or spend less time on the internet. I used to have such hopes for future Venus ...
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Just got a tour of my new work place at York and I am delighted and terrified to report that there is a BEN AND JERRY'S VENDING MACHINE. Lord help me.
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Entering my 26th hour at Schiphol Airport. Gotta say, my first foray into post-Covid travel is not going well at all. Not sure the archives are worth this kind of stress.
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The Mr. and I have now both passed our UK driving tests. For those not in the know, this is basically equivalent to summiting Everest.
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After many many failures, finally an AirBnB success! The view from my balcony in Marseille. Does not bode well for actually getting to the archives ….
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I had forgotten how hard archival research is on the body. Hunched over, stale air (even staler with a mask), hours of sitting. It's been two days and my neck is already begging me to go home.
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Filling out lots of forms for my new life in the UK and am amazed by every "title" drop-down menu that includes things like "duchess," "lady," and "earl." I'm really glad those people have the option to enter their proper title when doing their online grocery shopping.
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Maskless lady in the archives actually just answered her phone and is now having an extended conversation about a home reno. WTF?
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Today is my first day of Leverhulme leave! Woo hoo! Stay tuned for scintillating discoveries in the archives: Marseille! Migrant labour! Industrial pollution! (The extreme use of exclamation marks is a sign of my extreme excitement.)
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@lilychumley
@QGotNoRings
I fantasise about this sort of thing all of the time. As someone who never wanted kids of my own, but who loves other people's kids, I've always thought it would be awesome to live in a larger building with families who need help with child care.
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I'm having a real pinch-me moment, being part of this line-up with Kim Stanley Robinson and Kate Raworth. No pressure Venus!
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Gotta love the French-language option of having footnotes in the margins of the article text. SO MUCH easier to read.
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I finally found an hour to work on my own research in the middle of my first term at a new job and there are no words to convey the sense of accomplishment.
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I haven't posted about work in ages. The perils of a new job are such that my research feels like a distant memory. But I'm looking forward to teaching environmental history in the MA methods course this week: Merchant, Cronon, Ghosh, Chakrabarty, Demuth, good times!
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Why did past Venus think it would be a good idea to force present Venus to forgo a proper end-of-term break by agreeing to present a chapter in two weeks that does not yet exist? The temporal disparities of selfhood are a real bummer sometimes.
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Shout out to all the other sadists who decided to 180 for their second major research project.
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Being a North American in Britain is all about training yourself to accept the presence of mould in your house.
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Very cool. More of this please.
‘Too greedy’: mass walkout at global science journal over ‘unethical’ fees
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Working on my book and am saddened by all that has been allowed, from the contamination of our bodies with PCBs and microplastics, to the destruction of marine ecosystems by toxic sludge. We should all be defined by the waste we produce.
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Wouldn't it be amazing if major grants and humanities centers standardized their application procedures so that one proposal wasn't 3000 words and the next only 1250?
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I actually started writing a section of my next book and I feel AMAZING. Not sure what has changed since the last time I tried to write something, which did not bring the same amount of joy, but I'm even delighting in my footnotes!
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Remember when birthdays were just unadulterated joy and not a time to reflect on your own mortality and the state of your life?
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@Laura_R_Prieto
Neither of my parents went to college. One is a carpenter and the other lives on welfare. They still don't entirely understand how I turned out the way I did.
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Was just cursed at for wearing a mask, by, you guessed it, a white man not wearing a mask. What bizarro world is this?
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I just ate Weetabix for the first time. WHAT THE HOLY HELL???? WHY WOULD ANYONE INVENT THIS FOOD????
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This is a must-read --
@TomFleischman
's masterful re-framing of postwar GDR history through the lens of industrial agriculture. If you have never considered the relationship between liquid manure waste and international debt regimes, now is the time.
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Find myself explaining to a lot of students that Covid ultimately stems from the destruction of wildlife habitat. Wishing this was common knowledge at this point.
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Just finished Nan Enstad's Cigarettes, Inc. and holy cow is it a work of staggering genius.
Cigarettes, Inc.
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Students are not indenting paragraphs. I can't tell if this is a historical development, or a specifically British thing, as I've only just noticed since moving to the UK. It makes for a VERY unpleasant reading experience.
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I've reached the stage of Coronavirus coping mechanisms that has me creating AirBnB folders for vacations I cannot take. If anyone wants to join me for an imaginary stay at a 12-bedroom mansion in Santorini, shoot me a DM. Incredible views.
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I am down to a mere three emails in my work inbox. Please clap. Also, please do not send me any emails.
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New research on Marseille really coming together. Found a court case that encompasses everything I want to cover and will now structure the work around it: immigration, pollution, urban planning, and even the rise of plastics!
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When I lived in the States I used to joke that the best thing about America was Mexican food. Now that I have left, I am painfully aware of just how true this really is. I am desperate for the combination of maize and tangy hot sauce.
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Tis the time of year for me to re-up the offer to talk to anyone who has been denied tenure. DM or email me if you want to talk to someone who has been through this.
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Archival find: Le Corbusier was not only worried about ricin pollution at the Unité d’Habitation. He also wanted the city to do something about the tourists having sex on the roof!
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Evergreen Tweet: No I do not want to register for a freaking user account in order to submit a letter of rec for a student who would like to study in your grad programme. FFS.
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I'm looking for a book or article on the history of the passport and/or border controls, preferably in Europe, but something more general/conceptual would also do. What you got academic Twitter?
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Went for my first walk in the Yorkshire Dales yesterday. Gorgeous. Also: SO MANY SHEEP.
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A friend sent me a tenure-denial gift: ten pints of Ben & Jerry's delivered by Instacart from the local Target. Thank you
@sprawlingzebra
❤️
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This was just outstanding. Highlight: Joan Dejean looking at how the rise in prostitution arrests was the result of a crown eager to send women to the colonies and patriarchs who wanted to cut daughters out of the inheritance to free up money for speculation. Brilliant stuff.
An inaugural, open-access issue of "
#Capitalism
: A Journal of
#History
&
#Economics
" is now out. A much-needed publication! Featuring
@flandreaumarc
@B_Eichengreen
@stefeich
Joan Dejean, Karl Koth, John Serieux, Julia Ott, Marc Flandreau, Carolyn Biltoft
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In the UK you can put your summer clothes away for 8 months of the year, but you can never put your winter clothes away. There will come a day in July that requires a wool sweater.
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If the home check goes well this beautiful boi is coming to live with us!
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As you all do your fall session grading, let me entertain you with the best opening sentence of a student paper ever (and by 'best' I mean most depressing): "Marx's communist utopia might sound pretty great, but I'd rather be crying in my Ferrari."
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I tried to convince the students in my history of capitalism class that the world would be a better place without economists. I fear I might have failed.
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Yesterday marked my first year in the UK. Best thing about new home: year-round flowers. Worst thing: clown circus we call a government.
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Congratulations to
@FredrikAlbritt1
and Carl Wennerlind! Very excited to read this.
@FredrikAlbritt1
and Carl Wennerlind's SCARCITY is out today! These shelves may be empty, but inside is an expansive story about human visions -- and revisions -- of our relationship to nature & economy in the age of capitalism.
#HappyPubDay
@Harvard_Press
@HarvardUPLondon
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Honestly feel like every French historian is hanging out in Paris right now without me. The FOMO is real.
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Ashamed to report that while I was able to cull 10% of my books in advance of my office move, I was not able to let go of my undergraduate materials for the Russian history classes I took. Apparently I think there is a slim chance someone will let me teach this stuff some day.
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Alright. After 10 days of Covid and 2 weeks in Canada, I am getting back to work. This book is not going to write itself. Thoughts and prayers please.
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Just wrote up a historiographical analysis of recent works on the history of GDP. Most are truly disappointing. But this one is decidedly not bad.
The Power of a Single Number | Columbia University Press via
@ColumbiaUP
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The UK press is a little too much "shopping at Aldi can help with the cost of living crisis" and not nearly enough "hold the f*%kers who got us here to account."
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I have officially forgotten how to Sunday. I did manage to make some Rice Krispy treats. But now I'm just sitting here, not exactly working, not exactly doing anything else either. Sunday has become limbo. No bueno.
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Anybody else getting emails from journals about having had accounts created for them BEFORE receiving an invitation to review for them? Am I cranky for being absolutely not okay with this?
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When I was younger and packed for research in France I brought all my most stylish clothes. My suitcase for tomorrow is 1/4 loungewear, 1/4 gym wear, 1/4 wetsuit, 1/4 comfy clothes for sitting all day. Priorities improve with age.
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The only thing better than finally reading one of the PDFs stored on my desktop is opening one up and deciding that I actually don't need to read it. Feels so productive without actually doing any work!
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Without downloading any new pics, what is your energy going into 2024
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