A very wet and foggy Bowes castle today. The stone castle that remains was begun under Henry II in the early 1170s to replace a timber castle built in the site of the former Roman fort of Lavatris. Its hall-keep design and planned village were fairly unusual in England. #medievalsky

Graffito of a castle, prob early 12th century, in church of Moings in France.

Want to be a part of the Ecclesiastical History Society? Apply to be our new Conference Secretary! Details here: ecclesiasticalhistorysociety.com/vacancies/

Been to Finchale Priory many times over the years, but never spotted these beautiful sculpted capitals until today. #medievalsky

I'm so, so tired 🤦‍♂️

CFP - MEMSA Conference turns 20!! #medievalsky

Birkbeck is hiring a Lecturer in Medieval Studies (c.1300-1500), full-time and open-ended. They will be formally based in English but expected to be able to contribute about 0.5FTE to History, including teaching and supervision. Closing date Feb 23rd: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

Medievalist friends! Applications are open until end of Feb for a fully-funded PhD in Arthurian Literature with the brilliant Louise D'Arcens @medievalafterlives.bsky.social and myself, based between Sydney (Australia) and Groningen (The Netherlands). Please share widely! tinyurl.com/f7su6urv

Not the whole picture ofc but he following actions don't help: - getting rid of frontline professional services staff in favour of apps - removing individual offices where students can drop-in to see academic staff for tutorials - shoving academics in no-entry-to-students workstations

Was going to post that this is my second favourite RPG, but now all I can think about is that Father Ted scene where he keeps replaying Mrs Doyle saying "...second best priest"

One month left to submit your abstracts for Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis, @pembroke1347.bsky.social (17–18 Sept 2026). See the full #CFP below. #Fissures2026 #medievalsky #skystorians #medieval #GenderHistory #PoliticalHistory

I have a theory about this. Regular people want tech to reduce our real-life burdens: cooking, errands, dishes, and definitely laundry. Rich tech bros already have "staff" to take care of all that for them, so they don't care. 1/

‼️ Help us fill the final spot! Seeking one more paper for our @imc-leeds.bsky.social DH panel: "The Endless Scroll: Digital Approaches to Medieval Time IV" Late cfp: imc-leeds.confex.com/imc/2026/pre... #IMC2026 #DH #CfP #medievalsky

screaming 'new point, new paragraph' endlessly into the void. Why yes, I am marking again.

Selling 100s of #medievalsky books just now at a special pre Xmas price of £5hb and £2pb plus postage (UK based) please message me (email on link below) if you’d like a visual catalogue. All from a private library in Scotland #booksky www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/clare...

every year #SpotifyWrapped

Landed the dreaded Thursday morning slot (my luck had to run out eventually) but looking forward to seeing everyone again at #IMC2026

Who knows about medieval / early modern music? Jongleur, polyphony, bard type stuff. My partner is writing a dissertation involving this era and would love to talk to a fellow academic / enthusiast to lecture them about liturgical music! Maybe you can point me to someone, @profgabriele.com? Thanks!

teaching at 9am so naturally my son's come down with a cold (which I'm getting) and I've also got the worst insomnia

I'm so tired.

A packed programme for this year's seminar in English for doctoral students at Lille. It's in hybrid form, so if you're interested in taking part, ask me for a Zoom link. irhis.univ-lille.fr/fileadmin/us...

Having just realised I completely forgot to post about this! Very proud that my first article, ''This House, God's Dear Castle': Sawles Warde as Spiritual Warfare Allegory' is available here in Genre et histoire: journals.openedition.org/genrehistoir...

It is publication day for Love & anti-Judaism in medieval English romance @manchesterup.bsky.social! Thank you so much @siobhanmup.bsky.social for believing in this project. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526183170/

RIP Brent Hinds, what sad news. Mastodon were formative on my musical taste many years ago, and thought their last album was fantastic for me. Really introspective work of music: open.spotify.com/track/50cqyl...

Jerry Wayne Longmire is brilliant, case in point

Graduate outcomes and incomes as well as course satisfaction in History are all actually strong. Suggesting that Humanities degrees are not 'career-related' is simply bizarre. 2/2

My book, Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance: Typologies of violence and desire, with @manchesterup.bsky.social, is coming out next month! I would be delighted if you might consider ordering a copy for your libraries 💚

I, for one, am looking forward to the incoming era of AI mass-produced history. I will be offering my bespoke, handmade history at 599 euros a page (plus postage, optional gift wrapping available).

Exploring the fragments of the vast abbey church at Cluny. Much has happened since I was last here in 2018.

double job rejection today. Oof.

MEMSA Conference 2025 Final photo of the conference, thank you to everyone who came over the two days - whether for the whole conference or popped in for part of it. Safe journey home

It’s the first day of the MEMSA conference. We have two days of exciting panels on this year's theme: Illuminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic. Delegates are currently at registration before things kick off at 10.15!

Also, did a graduate last week. Probably should have mentioned that earlier...

Yeah, yeah, everyone might all be at IMC and I'm not, but I've got an *empty library* to myself. Bliss.

Who the hell sends a job rejection email at 1 AM?!

Call for Papers! Please see image below. For all enquiries and submissions, please contact @rhiannonbookgeek.bsky.social at [email protected] or Dr Lily Chadwick at [email protected]. Article submissions are due 30 January 2026.

Fairly sure I'm just throwing job applications into the void at this point

wow, everyone wasn't lying about the rejections post-PhD. Oof.

Saxons tried to recruit William today at Vinovia/Binchester!

Another Saturday, another northern castle. A cloudy, wet Brough today (I've never seen it in any other weather tbf)!

Took the son and heir to Bowes Castle:

Post a gif of who you wanted to be as a little kid

Glorious weather today in old Durham town

1. First #ttrpg you ever played? - RuneQuest 2. First you ever ran? WFRP 2nd Edition 3. Played the most? Earthdawn 1st Edition 4. Run the most? WFRP 2nd Edition 5. Favorite? WFRP 2nd Edition 6. Most recently played? D&D5E 7. Most recently run? Next week, RuneQuest!

"Black lung" is considered DEI. I think we're going with "merit-based respiratory enhancement" now.

13th century-ass post

Eternally grateful if anyone has: Becker, Wolfgang, ‘The Source Text of Sawles Warde’, Manuscripta, 24 (1980) Idem, ‘The Literary Treatment of the Pseudo-Anselmian Dialogue De custodia interioris hominis in England and France’, Classica et Mediaevalia, 35 (1984) #medievalsky

Delighted to share the beautiful cover for our volume, Towards An Accessible Academy: Perspectives from Disabled Medievalists, edited by Alexandra R. A. Lee, E. R. P. Champion, and me. Coming soon from @mip-medpub.bsky.social for the Premodern Transgressive Literatures series ✨

Students can't reference a lecture in their footnotes, can they? Tell me I'm not going insane here.