This is a truly excellent book about a truly remarkable woman and we have signed copies to giveaway. Why not enter to win a copy? Author and 101 guest expert will be writing personalised dedications for each winner!

HELLO. I need some recommendations! Of medievalists and early modernists with recently-released books! Please anything before the 18th century, I beg!

Looking forward to talk about Muslim women in the Old French Crusade Cycle in session 1344 this afternoon @imc-leeds.bsky.social! #IMC2026

This was, unsurprisingly, fire.

Dear Magdalen, Do better! Yours, A disappointed alumna P.S. Perhaps your incoming students could start with this excellent book by @rhigarthjones.bsky.social instead: quarto.com/books/978183...

IMC goal unlocked!

This is amazing; 40 women’s organizations standing in support of trans people’s human rights against this government’s targeting of trans people against the EHRC transphobic code. Trans people and cis women’s rights are not in opposition.

AI use = deficit for job seekers “…new hires who were seen as “AI natives” are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so…that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead.” futurism.com/future-socie...

Urgh some big feelings at basically every line of this: "Illness brings us up against the limitation of words..." To "... there is a whole world endlessly going on, endlessly being beautiful, regardless of whether anyone is there to see it or not."

Illustrations from Japanese fireworks catalogues (ca. 1880s) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-fireworks-cataloguesFireworks #Fireworks appeared in Japan sometime around 1600 and were called hanabi — a combination of the kanji “fire” and “flower”.

Happy Fourth. On this day, I like to revisit Frederick Douglass’ “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July,” and in particular, this video NPR produced a few years back of portions of the speech being read by Douglass’ descendants. youtu.be/NBe5qbnkqoM?...

Delighted that my podcast for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social is now available. Check it out here for more on the entangled histories of extinction and empire in the making of the modern world drawing from my book Vanished. newbooksnetwork.com/vanished

traditional jewish gender roles don't align with christian variations either. women have the right to divorce and abortion. they are the dominant force in the household and the primary income earner, not the husband who is expected to be an aloof torah academic. we don't do diminutive.

Charlotte Edwards is some coach

There are too many to try to be comprehensive, but here are a few of the tributes and reposts of older material celebrating the life and career of the remarkable historian Carlo Ginzburg (1939-2026). progressivegeographies.com/2026/07/02/s...

I'm not that kind of medievalist and even I'm enjoying it

I wrote a bit about the IMC next week for @medievalworldmag.bsky.social - somehow, this is my first one? There's a lot to look forward to! www.karwansaraypublishers.com/en-gb/blogs/...

A Very Cool Thing: Astrolabe from Seville, 1224 AD (Oxford HSM inv.50934). On the throne, at the top of the instrument, note the #geometry diagram: it shows the method for bisecting a segment, used here to draw the meridian line. The maker engraved it fully, offering us a glimpse into their process…

A Brief History of Kids Today Are Selfish 🧵

If you didn’t get on with science at school or just want to remind yourself what you should have learned from science lessons, drop me a line and you can also have a free kindle edition of the book:

Reminder that Minneapolis’s astonishing response to the ICE siege was rooted in the response to George Floyd’s murder which was rooted in the response to police killing indigenous people. Our history of coming together to fight oppression is as old as our history of oppression

Went to Trent Bridge to see Stokes out. More of a whimper than a bang all round but I had a lovely time chatting to various folk, especially some old fellas about Islamic art and some British-Asian lads who also can't stand Michael Vaughan on comms (and the Islamic art, obv). Job done, good day.

👀 Set your alarms...

Aggers talking on TMS about Ben Stokes' empathy and emotional intelligence being surprising because he's "smothered in tattoos" - talk about telling on yourself 🙄🙄🙄

Our PhD studentship closes on Friday! History, Archaeology and Heritage subjects www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f...

Some thoughts at the end of the group stages, including a bit of a plea to the ICC:

The recent article by Touraj Daryaee, "A Fragrance for Every Woman, Man, and Child: The Smell of the Sasanian Empire" brought this wonderful silk textile in the David Collection of Copenhagen (inv. 23/2011) to my attention. It features a pattern of enthroned Sasanian kings. 1/

A lot will be said about Ben Stokes as a player and captain - he's given us plenty of material. For me, the way he captained Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir *off the field and on* in those historic tours of Pakistan stand out more than any of the heroics with the bat and ball.

New article alert! If you were to list important Arabic poets, who would you include? Abū Nuwās, Abū Tammām, al-Buḥturī, al-Mutanabbī…? In the 14th cent, Ibn Nubāta included all of them & more. He also included himself. Check out this new article about how self-citation worked in Mamluk texts.

It’s rare for foreign policy to shift domestic elections, but I think this explains why Israel-Palestine has become so salient. Israel’s war in Gaza posed the question of whether genocide can ever be a proportionate response. That is a fundamental moral litmus. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

🚨 New journal alert! Essays in Long Late Antiquity from @livunipress.bsky.social First issue up now, with an opening essay from the eds, three articles, and my review essay on recent books by Frank, Leyerle, and Sanzo liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/ella/1/1

⚠️NEW EPISODE⚠️ @profboeotia.bsky.social joins 101 to give a history of the Greek polis of Thebes. This episode has some myth, some military history, some archaeology... Tune in to get an understanding of a city whose fortunes were more up and down than an elevator...

Thread

Americans and Canadians! You can currently get 25% off pre-orders of my new book at Barnes & Noble. Apparently premium members can actually get 35% off? That's a pretty big discount, I'd order it right now if I were you.

Two years after Darializa Avila Chevalier took part in the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, she is now set to represent the district in which the university is located in Congress.

So gonna talk through setting up big projects as I've been thinking about it as I go and how it offers another solid example of what genAI can never do, and may even prevent us from doing, if we try to make it do this.

Medieval World 22, themed on Saint Francis of Assisi, is now available in print and digital editions. Discover articles on medieval warfare, historical figures, and more. https://... https://tny.app/fine0wnc

Rhiannon, the new Editor of Medieval World Culture & Conflict, shares her academic background and vision for the magazine. Discover her plans, including a new theme, and share your feedback. https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com https://tny.app/jsetmzz9

'Ginzburg’s death...means that one of the last living links with a remarkable postwar generation of historians has gone....As the rise of 21st-century authoritarianism creates new generations of scapegoats and misfits, the approach of one of Italy’s greatest scholars speaks directly to our times.'

I've never related more to someone who's set an athletic record

Today, on Father's Day, I'm thinking of the fathers who've made the impossible choice to cross oceans with their children, the fathers apart from their kids and behind bars because they dreamed of better, the fathers crying over their babies' bodies taken from them by genocide. 🤍

In the i this week I look at the axis of creativity at the heart of the Saints attack and the 80 actions which unbuttoned the Chiefs' defence. Just my second article for a major paper so likes and shares greatly received! inews.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

An important petition. The EHRC guidance is awful. It will cause enormous, needless problems for women (trans and cis). Please sign.

I've just had a lovely invite to do a guest lecture on my book, All Roads Lead to Rome, from scholars whose work I really lile, at a uni I really like 🥹 I love doing this stuff! I'm told I'm a good speaker AND that my book works well for undergrads so please consider it, I'll almost certainly agree

A string of by-election and Welsh defeats for Reform, culminating in Andy's resounding win in Makerfield, finally take the stench/aura of inevitability away from Farage. But if this really is a 'turning point' then it's the starting line, not the finish. We've got less than 1000 days. Buckle up.

anyway if you wanna do something more useful for Palestinians than anything Hilary Clinton has done, you can donate to these very urgent fundraisers for medical help ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/anim...

Any editors out there looking for a piece on what the idea of Reconquista is and isn’t and how it’s used in the modern world? newrepublic.com/article/2119...

Pwoofs 🥺

This is a sign of how culturally Protestant we remain. When someone says something bigoted, there is an attempt to find what is “really in their heart,” which is by definition radically private and unknowable, rather than simply focusing on their actions in the world.