Have loved today's @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference, not least co-presenting on how/why so many British letters to Santa made their way to Norway with the wonderful @idatolgensbakk.bsky.social. And now, being the exciting person that I am, it's PJs and junk food in the hotel room for me 😁

Last session I was at today was our own! Great fun, and I felt incredibly privileged to present with the wonderful @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social

A fantastic talk, testing the boundaries (pun intended) between fictional, imagined, and physical place, "Santa Claus, c/o Oslo" from @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social and @idatolgensbakk.bsky.social.

Fascinating panel on death rituals this morning @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference - thank you @stuartdunn.bsky.social, Helen Frisby & Eira Betthell for some really thought-provoking talks

Finally made it to Aberdeen for the @folkloresociety.bsky.social conference and am pleased to have encountered plenty of folklore already, just on the walk from the station

Making the most of a 40-min stopover in my former home city en-route to Aberdeen, where I'll be presenting at the Folklore Society conference - looking forward to catching up with many folklore friends

This year's #BradfordLitFest programme is here! Don't miss our authors @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social, Vince Cable, Mike Pickering and @johnrobbofficial.bsky.social at this year's festival. Browse the programme at the link below 👇 #booksky

Today I'd been invited to view the Ice Age art, which @odavies9.bsky.social & I describe as potential early storytelling in our 'Folklore' book - and more recent, equally fascinating, carvings in the caves of beautiful Creswell Crags. A very happy work day!

Off to today's "office" 😄

This looks fantastic - I've just booked. Thurs 18 June, Tower Hamlets Local Studies Library. www.eventbrite.com/e/londons-lo...

'A History of Goblins' examines the history of goblins from the Middle Ages to the present. It shows that goblins were historically contingent and grounded in an often-hazy interplay between folkloric and folkloresque traditions. bit.ly/4umaYSD 📚💙 #WyrdWednesday #MedievalSky

I'm not telling anyone where this is because I want to keep it to myself 😍

Have arrived a little early to York for my talk on Folklore & Feminism. I can think of worse places to while away an hour on this glorious day

With the plans to retract and close swathes of departments across UKHE, we reaffirm the value of the humanities and other subject areas under threat. A broad and capacious knowledge base is vital for a thriving democracy. rensoc.org.uk/statement-on...

There are definitely worse places in the world to give a paper on Green Monuments for the 'Sacred Forests All Around Us' project seminar @oulu.fi www.oulu.fi/en/news/uniq...

Searching the Finnish woods for the rocky hill and spring where the witch Liisa Kupila would sacrifice black birds, bow to the sun, and gather mud for her magical cures

What does a group of folklorists do when they hear of a forest in Finland that, according to folklore, loses whoever enters it?

Join us next month at @trumanbooks.bsky.social's Midsummer Weird: A Day of Strange Fiction, Folklore and The Uncanny, featuring authors @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social (Folklore) and @sachacoward.bsky.social (Queer as Folklore). Tickets here: trumanbooks.co.uk/event/midsum... #Leeds #FolkloreThursday

Petition to save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire: c.org/9JLppW5tMS

Do you like ghost stories + have 90 mins to spare (in person or online) Sun 24 May? 2 Lovely students I'm working with are looking for folks to have a chat as part of a focus group for some research. PLEASE consider contacting them as per below (or myself and I will put you in touch).

There's little point in doing well at government metrics. You will get closed anyway. Only the surplus/ deficit line after your contribution to the university's core matters. Even large-scale external funding is only a marginal factor.

Why would we want to learn from our pasts, or ponder the power of the written and spoken word, or explore the deep questions of humanity? According to the University of Hertfordshire, we wouldn't. They've just cut all of our undergrad Humanities programmes

Nauseating email from the Vice Chancellor wringing his hands about how valuable humanities are to society, but saying there is no other option than to close courses. Absolutely disgusting. We will fight this with everything we've got.

University of Hertfordshire closes a swathe of Humanities courses, accelerating the sweeping tide against Human-centred disciples in the UK. Because understanding humans is so yesterday today. With such happy consequences, as we see when we look around us.

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

The current debacle in British universities has multiple causes, but a simple, partial remedy for the disastrous Tory removal of student number caps was for Labour to reverse it. They didn't, and they will reap the economic consequences at a local level across the country.

Legends in postcards. Occasional series. Bit of a 1970s folk horror 'Children of the Stones' feel to this one. Anyone know what it is called?

"With bold heart braving a world’s unrest, With banner waving, and glancing crest Comes the warrior woman out of the west." How was history & folklore drawn on in women's fight for rights? Find out at my Seed talk in York, 26 May url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/o40rCpRJOc...

Was so excited to receive this folklore gem in the post today. Thank you @rorywaterman.bsky.social for a brilliant book. The Lincolnshire Imp approved and I loved it so much I had them print it on the back!

Did you know that in China, apples are a good luck food because the word is similar to "safety", while in Japan it's the KitKat because it sounds like "I'm bound to win"? Hence class snacks for our last Folklore Studies workshop of the semester 😭

Looking so much forwards to this (even if it means I may have to go by plane). I'll be speaking about letters to Santa, with the great @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social ! 🥳 #folklore #museumlife

So proud of @clairerakich.bsky.social for a brilliant paper on gendered motifs in the uses of folk songs in movies at today's Traditional Song Forum @porticolibrary.bsky.social - I'll never watch folk song in film the same way again!

Mia Marta Ruus travelled from Estonia to give us a fascinating insight into the life, songs, and contradictory characterisations of singer Mai Kravtsov - Mia even treated us to a live Estonian folk song

The second paper was a thought-provoking delve into the mysterious White Fisher song and singer Bell Duncan by Julia Bishop

First up was this fascinating paper by Dr Catherine Ann Cullen on the trials and troubles of women street singers in C19th Ireland

Back in my favourite place in Manchester @porticolibrary.bsky.social for the TSF conference on Women and Folk Song this Saturday 😍

We were lucky enough to have Simon Bailes of Dunton Folk pop into our MA Folklore Studies workshop to talk about his work on wassails (that's him in the BBC picture mid-wassail). We're hoping that our own inaugural wassail will make it into his forthcoming book 🤞 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking forward to chairing the next @folkloresociety.bsky.social online seminar by Helen Frisby on 'Picturing the Dead: Spirit Photography'. Intrigued? Get your tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/picturing-...

Ghost postcard genre. A favourite from my collection - "It Appears...". 1930s.

A reminder that I'm speaking at Conway Hall on Sunday 19 April. Book your tickets here: www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/eve...

I've been coming to Nantcol waterfalls for years and only just spotted the coin-tree - shame! Fieldwork slightly harder (but more fun) with a 7yo complaining that "mummy's folkloring again!"

Today I visited the most haunted cell of the most haunted wing of Shrewsbury Prison - said to have its resident Grey Lady (as any self-respecting public building older than 50 years must have). I'll admit it was particularly cold in that cell 👻

One of my very generous Folklore students brought me a souvenir back from Ukraine: an egg decorated in the beautiful vibrant flowers of Petrykivka painting, a style that's recognised by UNESCO as significant to the cultural heritage of Ukraine. Stunning! 🥰

Huge congratulations to MA Folklore Studies graduate Alex Curtis, whose collection of military sweetheart pincushions is now on display in 'The Material Heart' exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum. Alex did her research project on these beautiful, personal objects ❤️

Today I had a fascinating folklore conversation with @deborahhyde.bsky.social & @profchrisfrench.bsky.social (but I'm not allowed to tell you why yet)

Today @profchrisfrench.bsky.social and I saw saw @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social ! We'll tell you why soon (ish).

Our amazing DHeritage student @herts.ac.uk Janine Marriott has just had her fascinating research on C19th cemeteries published in the Routledge Handbook of Dark Events: 'Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem' 🪦💀📖

Just want it noted - in case we have another 67 childlore phenomenon - that in teaching my kid not to flip someone off I suggested "I bite my thumb at you sir". He loves it, has taught it to his friends, who also love it. They're all going around biting their thumbs at each other "sir" 🤣

Legendary trees. This was one of the last living trees, according to tradition, under which Dick Turpin was said to have sheltered. There were several such Turpin trees c. 1900. All gone now.