Oh the joys of grading a crusades-related exam question: the amount of implicit prejudice that appears from the way answers are formulated! It seems we still have a long way to go (which is fine - they're still learning!)

This👇. When grading this week, I found myself wondering more than once whether the student was using AI or not, which kinda kills the joy of grading well-written papers

New publication! From Sorcerer's Son to Epic Hero: (Meta)Poetic Entanglement in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis. This one has been some time in the works. Glad to see it finally out! You can read it (open access) here: doi.org/10.21825/jol...

New publication! From Sorcerer's Son to Epic Hero: (Meta)Poetic Entanglement in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis. This one has been some time in the works. Glad to see it finally out! You can read it (open access) here: doi.org/10.21825/jol...

Final class of the year: done! (Don't ask about the pile of essays still waiting to be graded)

On strike today. Do I have time to strike? No. I'd rather spend my day prepping my final classes of the year or doing some research (if only). But as long as the government's massive budget cuts still stand, chances are that this may be my final year of academic teaching altogether. So here we are.

Brb, just deleting every "Indeed, ..." that my former self wrote

Me submitting a paper to an editor vs. that same paper coming back to haunt me after a couple months

An Old Testament (?) figure riding a camel. Meuse valley, c. 1160. London, V&A.

#medievalsky Does anyone know where the idea that something can be both entertaining and educational at the same time comes from? It's probably something very obvious but I only know it from a Dutch proverb (ter leering ende vermaeck) so any clues would be helpful!

Today's the day! If you're at #IMC2025 and you're up for some medieval classical reception stuff, there are four panels waiting for you!

Hey kids! First time at the #IMC2025 @imc-leeds.bsky.social? Here are some of Old Man Kramer's Hot Tips! #medievalsky

Preparing my talk for #IMC2025 I came across this fascinating depiction of Hector's tomb in a 14th-c manuscript of the Roman de Troie. If you are at @imc-leeds.bsky.social and want to hear more about this, drop by on Wednesday when we will host not one, but four full sessions on classical reception!

Am I the only one who didn't know you need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization to travel to the UK these days? Fortunately, I just applied using the app and was approved in about 15 seconds! If you're going to @imc-leeds.bsky.social next week, don't forget to apply! www.gov.uk/eta

Look at this ✨️fabulous✨️ rendition of the prophet Isaiah! (Souillac, France)

KRUISTOCHTEN | Ook het tweede deel met dr. Ivo Wolsing (@ivowolsing.bsky.social) over de kruistochten staat nu online! Van de kruistochten tot het nachleben en gebruik van die term, tot op de dag van vandaag. ➡️ Deze aflevering is nu overal te beluisteren 🎧 #podcast #geschiedenis #Middeleeuwen

Een half jaar geleden schreef ik een blogpost over Cleopatra. Wat ik toen nog niet wist, is dat die blogpost uiteindelijk de basis zou vormen voor de volgende publicatie: doi.org/10.5117/LAM2... (Helaas de eerste twee jaar achter een betaalmuur voor niet-abonnees)

Een paar maanden geleden was ik te gast bij de @middeleeuwen.bsky.social om over de Kruistochten te praten. Dat was erg leuk om eens te doen! (Al heb ik het nog niet aangedurfd om mezelf terug te luisteren.)

Een paar maanden geleden was ik te gast bij de @middeleeuwen.bsky.social om over de Kruistochten te praten. Dat was erg leuk om eens te doen! (Al heb ik het nog niet aangedurfd om mezelf terug te luisteren.)

Hosting a "tips and tricks" for your first ever (or second, third ...) @imc-leeds.bsky.social session for colleagues here at Leiden this afternoon. Any last-minute suggestions as to what to incorporate?

On strike today, against the demolition of higher education in the Netherlands.

The paperwork is signed, that means I can now announce that I'll be starting a new job as lecturer in Medieval History at @humanitiesuu.bsky.social from April onwards!

#medievalsky Is there anyone who could help me to a copy of the following article? Schonhardt, M. 2016. "Scientific Renewal and Reformed Religious Life: The Case of the Arnstein Bible" Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 5, 43-60.

Ancient historians/Classicists! I'm trying to trace the history of racial theories of the fall of the Roman Empire – i.e. that Rome's expansion led to too much 'race mixing' which undermined the state's supposed racial foundations. I know about Tenney Frank, but did anyone suggest this before him?

A fantastic image of Satan and his demons in a Beatus manuscript from southern France, late eleventh century. BnF, Latin 8878, fol. 145v.

#medievalsky This is a very specific question, but I'm looking for manuscripts (pre-1200) that combine some sort of time reckoning (e.g. computus) with T-O maps. I know they exist, but until now it's like searching for a needle in a haystack. For instance: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/cca3...

Zojuist was ik te gast bij de nieuwe podcast van @timoepping.bsky.social om over de Kruistochten te praten. Best spannend om te doen! We hebben uiteindelijk genoeg materiaal opgenomen om twee afleveringen te vullen. Vanaf april/mei te beluisteren op je favoriete podcastapp!

Voor mijn onderzoek kom ik geregeld in aanraking met manuscripten. Gelukkig zijn er nu veel gedigitaliseerd, wat het makkelijk maakt om ze op afstand te bekijken. Zo kwam ik net dit prachtige chronologische schema tegen, met in het midden, heel prominent, een portret van Homerus!

Volgens de trendwatchers New York Times worden de Middeleeuwen weer hip in 2025. Ze noemen als voorbeeld Chappell Roan, die tijdens de VMA's van 2024 als een moderne Jeanne d'Arc in een volledig ridderharnas optrad. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/s...

Never mind woke Marxism, I can't even indoctrinate my students into formatting a bibliography consistently. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dit is één van de vragen die centraal stond in mijn promotieonderzoek. Mijn proefschrift ging over hoe men in Europa dacht over het Midden-Oosten in de 'lange twaalfde eeuw' (ca. 1050-1250). De belangrijkste conclusie was dat het niet zo zwart-wit is als soms gedacht wordt.

Ik ben deze week te gast op @historicivertellen.bsky.social om over mijn onderzoek en andere werkzaamheden als historicus te vertellen!

This looks very interesting!

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Me, a medievalist: there is probably a nineteenth-century German scholar who has already done so before me.

The results are in:

Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Whoa, we’re halfway there Zeno’s Karaoke

That's a new one: I just received an email from a pred journal offering me a waiver for a submission. But what's being waived? The peer review process? I'm so confused.

New Year’s resolution: try out at least one new recipe every week. Starting the year off well with three fermentation experiments. In the making from left to right: hot sauce, water kefir, and kombucha.

The Middle Ages

Together with my colleagues from the @relicsresearch.bsky.social research group, I'm organising a conference on premodern transnational literature. See the call for papers here: literatureswithoutborders.com/2024/12/05/c...

Moedig voorwaarts. Maar waarheen?

Call for Papers for a Roundtable on Gender in Latin Studies. RELICS is organizing a digital roundtable on the topic of gender in Latin Studies on March 11, 2025. Proposals for impulse talks of 5 minutes should be sent to [email protected] by January 13. More info:👇 relicsresearch.com/2024/12/10/c...

Als je de Nederlandse wetenschap wil afbranden, mag je hopen dat er daarna niets meer in de fik gaat. #DoeHetNiet

Comme je l'écrivais ailleurs : dire que "sarrasin" signifie "païen" et non "musulman" "𝘁𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝘂 𝗠𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗴𝗲" me paraît très discutable. Les voyageurs occidentaux dans l'Empire mongol qui emploient le mot le font sans équivoque pour désigner les musulmans. 1/10 #mongolsky #tengri

She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but we love her all the more for it

What has Cleopatra to do with the Crusades? Find out in my latest contribution to the Leiden Medievalists Blog! 👇 www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/wha...

What has Cleopatra to do with the Crusades? Find out in my latest contribution to the Leiden Medievalists Blog! 👇 www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/wha...

Together with my colleagues from the @relicsresearch.bsky.social research group, I'm organising a conference on premodern transnational literature. See the call for papers here: literatureswithoutborders.com/2024/12/05/c...

The Ark of Noah, or, morning commute. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 4939, fol 8v.