Today’s the day! 🎉 We're in Sam Alex SG.16 4–5pm for an EACW research seminar 'The Sweet Taste of Empire' - @profkfh.bsky.social in conversation with @fredschurink.bsky.social on sugar, empire and race. Join us!

You’re Dead To Me is going on tour! We’re playing London, Cardiff, Edinburgh & Manchester in the Spring — come along, it’s gonna be so much fun! Www.YoureDeadToMeLive.com

If you ever wondered what biochemical traces of past users of medical recipes may tell us about early modern haircare, see @uk.theconversation.com's discussion of our @historians.org article: doi.org/10.64628/AB.... Research supported by @thejohnrylands.bsky.social & @britishacademy.bsky.social

My partner has been suffering with long covid for three years. He’s been unbelievably brave and stoic through it all. Take a look at his new Substack on the power of art and literature in coping with chronic illness.

I have kindly been invited to talk about gardening and reading at the Gibson Library in Saffron Walden! Come along (for free!) at 19.30 on 10 Dec to hear about #earlymodern plants, print & marginalia (+ Gabriel Harvey’s compulsive underlining of mentions of saffron). gibsonlibrary.org.uk/news.html

A global issue of the recipe project! recipes.hypotheses.org

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Friends, if you want to learn a bit more abt The Sweet Taste of Empire, watch this INCREDIBLE conversation with @triciamatthew.bsky.social w.bsky.social, Debapriya Sarkar, Jennifer Morgan, @kwazana.bsky.social & Tapiwa Gambura! www.youtube.com/live/a-Npxq-... Then you can buy it at 40% discount.

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Want a taste of *Sweet Taste of Empire*? See this pre-launch discussion w/ a former student about the book, my relationship to writing and to food -- and why it's not just about the early modern. #booksky #RaceB4Race #ShakeRace #writing #foodhistory #history bcrw.barnard.edu/brown-sugar-...

'The transience of a flicker of fire [...] compels us to grapple with histories of the ephemeral and the impermanent, even within those places that seem built to last.' Lauren Working and Stephanie Pratt on Knole's connections to colonial history:

Hey Bluesky!👋 We're the Revels Office, an academic network for PGRs and ECRS researching all things early modern📚 Our community is a friendly space to share ideas and resources, ask questions, support each other, and meet fellow early modernists. Check out our website for more! revelsoffice.com

First autumn SCS seminar. A panel discussion on "New Directions in Royal Histories" with Misha Ewen (University of Sussex), Holly Marsden (Historic Royal Palaces), and Lauren Shaw (Celtic Harmony / University of Roehampton).

Our #Shakespeare webinar series continues! Join us on 6 Oct at 6pm to delve into the new OWC edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor with @oldfortunatus.bsky.social & @callanjd.bsky.social All welcome! Register now via Eventbrite & you will be sent a Zoom link before the event. #teamenglish

Join me for a workshop on archival research in the Environmental Humanities at The National Archives! We're seeking early career participants - apply to attend to hear from speakers, view original documents, and help test our research guidance. #envhum #envhist www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archival-r...

Today is #WorldChocolateDay! Here is a #17thcentury #ballad extolling the virtues of #chocolate, printed in the year that the first chocolate (and coffee) house was opened in London.... From Chocolate, or an Indian Drinke, 1652. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5KJ... #earlymusic #earlymodern #otd

So much fun working with the @kingsartshums.bsky.social marketing team and the Globe on this ‘Top 5 Shakespearean Film Adaptations’ (and got to live out my inner TikTok star!) If you’re on Instagram - give the original a like too! — www.instagram.com/reel/DL4nTOC... #Shakespeare #skystorians

I wrote this guide to being a better reader: how to read, what to read and why jmarriott.substack.com/p/how-i-read

What questions should writers ask? Katherine Rundell nails it in ‪@thetls.bsky.social‬

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵 First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

The seeds of plantations’ easy transition from “house of horrors” to luxury spas & sites for celebration of white reproduction were planted from the beginning through a phenomenon I call “plantation aesthetics” boingboing.net/2025/05/21/a...

Do come along on May 28th to hear all about Francis Fry, his bibles, and a little bit about his chocolate...which you might even get to try🍫 The fruits of my Munby Fellowship research @theul.bsky.social @theulspeccoll.bsky.social @darwincollegecam.bsky.social

In *Sweet Taste of Empire,* (forthcoming August 2025), you can read my re-visiting of the Black boy mentioned by Pepys who was “dried in an oven, and lies there entire in a box” who has been troubling me since graduate school. Another colonial “souvenir” 😢 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

We’ve extended the deadline to submit an abstract for our colloquium on early modern war narratives! Please share widely and send us your abstracts! #earlymodern #history

An excellent post from @barbarableiman.bsky.social of @engmediacentre.bsky.social on how English teaching has lost its spark. It echoes similar issues I see in history classrooms where genuine engagement with historical debate and process is being lost #historyteacher www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

I continue to be amazed by what the arts & humanities contribute with so little, and disappointed by the ongoing under investment in knowledge of human societies and cultures at a time of such fragmentation.

Coming up this Monday (7 April), do come along to this webinar on the #Tempest. This new intro came out about a year ago this month, and I still love coming back to it 🐚

A brilliant reflection on and advocacy for humanities research, teaching, and engagement in these trying but urgent times for SHAPE academia, with a forceful intro from Regenia Gagnier and including @jennyrichards.bsky.social on English and @englishassociation.bsky.social work.

The #Shax2025 #NextGenPlen was brilliant! Thank you to our early career scholars for sharing their exciting research.

#Theatre Thomas Middleton In Our Time Today 09:00 BBC Radio 4 One of the star writers for the London stage in the age of Shakespeare, much in demand for his own work and for rewriting the work of others. @oldfortunatus.bsky.social @lucycmunro Michelle O’Callaghan www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Feels wrong to celebrate while academia is on 🔥, but this week I got the lovely cover for my long overdue book *The Sweet Taste of Empire: Sugar, Mastery and Pleasure in the Anglo Caribbean* forthcoming from UPenn Press! #RaceB4Race #RenSA2025 #RSA2025 #Shax2025

Shakespeare's Globe Archive Catalogue: "Finding Disability in Our Records" (Free download, 117-page book) #Shakespeare #Disability #drama #performance cdn.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/2025...

My brilliant colleague Dr Oliver Lewis did a bunch of work on this and I so love seeing it come up here! 🥰🥰 (Oliver's not currently on bluesky, alas alas)

Our #Shakespeare webinar series continues on 7 April at 6pm. Prof Emma Smith @oldfortunatus.bsky.social will be joined by Dr Lauren Working @laurenworking.bsky.social to discuss the new Oxford World's Classics edition of The #Tempest. All welcome! Register via Eventbrite:

Huzzah! Next SCS seminar in the offing: Sarah Bendall (Australian Catholic University) – “The Queens’ Dressing Room: Caring for the Queens’ Body and Clothing at the Stuart Courts” Monday, 17 February, 19:00 GMT – Online via Zoom Sign up (free) to attend: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sarah-bend...

We've written a Researcher's Guide to Bluesky! It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide... >> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024... 🧵 below

So many new people. Lovely to see you here. I'm an early modernist who works on crime & punishment, suicide, & the treatment of the dead. Recently been doing work on what people did for fun too, so not all grim. I also run a pub night for PhDs & ECRs each month in London. Send me a DM if interested.

As Performance Reviews Editor for @shaxbull.bsky.social, I'm always open to reviews from new or experienced reviewers. If you've seen a Shakespeare/EM performance you'd like to review, just get in touch here or email [email protected] - I'd love to hear from you! 🙂 #AcademicSky #ShaxSky

Quick reintroduction to say hello to the new people here! I work on the interconnections between sugar & femininity in early modern drama & culture. Material culture, food history, critical race studies, colonial trade, gender studies. Currently working as an English lecturer at Anglia Ruskin Uni.

And here is another TNA lesson which took me away from early modern things to the world of crime and punishment, Robert Peel, and the Met Police Force. It's great for students taking modules on crime an punishment for their History GCSEs. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/re...

My first foray into posting on here..I've collaborated with The National Archives to create a lesson on 'Huguenots in England in the Seventeenth Century'. There's a fantastic 'round robin' document from 1621 from Walloon emigrants. Take a look: nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/re...