Also great to see @writinghelena.bsky.social new monumental work on Rome on display.

From 1 to 3 July, the workshop Lost Documents and Subaltern Groups in the Early Middle Ages took place at #BCDSS, exploring documentary loss, archival absence, and “evidence of absence” in relation to Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies. @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

For reasons, I have been calculating gender ratios for German professors of ancient history today. Turns out that 13% of chairs in Ancient History in Germany are held by women, less than in engineering (17%). That compares to 30% of chairs in Germany overall, and 44% in the Humanities.

This thread but especially this!! And the way it's gotten picked up without care by scholars across my field has been troubling to watch

Porphyry sarcophagus of Constantina, daughter of Constantine the Great While now at the Vatican Museums, it originally located at Santa Costanza, believed to be the mausoleum (tomb) of Constantina located outside the walls of Rome.

Shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Rosamond McKitterick. One of four outstanding women- with Jinty Nelson, Mayke de Jong and Regine Le Jan -who transformed our view of the Carolingians through their work & the students they trained & nurtured. Thro’ that work & students she will live on.

Women and Justice | Home www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Coming in November 2026, thanks to the wonderful team @livunipress.bsky.social and our great authors, of course! With case studies from the 2nd to the 12th century, from Roman Lycia through the post-Roman west to Byzantium and Cairo, and about pagan, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women.

Ich möchte nochmals auf meine Ausschreibung "Akad. Rat:Rätin (m/w/d) "Mittelalterliche Geschichte" (Univ. Bonn)" hinweisen, www.hsozkult.de/job/id/job-1.... Die Stelle ist offen für alle Teilepochen (nicht nur Frühmittelalter!), gerne Themen mit weltlichem Schwerpunkt und/oder Digital Humanities

I promise to stop going on about this soon, but my list of moving queens 900-1150 is now up to 122 women 👸 blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2026/... There are probably still errors/omissions (tell me if you spot one!), but thanks to everyone who's made suggestions on here or by email❤️

Next semester I am going to lecture on female rulers who hindered Rome's progress, or tried to, or were suspected of trying to, as an alternative way to narrate Roman history. Here is my current list - are there any others? #ancientsky #classicsky #skystorians Dido Tullia minor Teuta Sophonisba 1/

I enjoyed Oriol Dinarès Cabrerizo's new article on Visigothic queens in Medieval People - turns out that among 26 queens or royal concubines that we know of between 419 and 713, a whopping 13 (i.e. half) are nameless! scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol4...

So, I thought that what the world needs today is a list of mobile medieval queens in Europe, 950-1150. I count 84. #Skystorians, tell me: who have I missed out? blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2026/...

Today! And competing with the champions league final 😁

Very pleased to see this PhD thesis on Emperor Justinian's use of cash subsidies, by Lewis Dagnall, is now online, open access: always nice for supervisors to see these things come to fruition! @writinghelena.bsky.social etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/38...

Kristina Sessa has been appointed Professor of Late Antiquity at U of T's Classics / CMS, with the additional appointment of Jackman Chair. We look forward to welcoming Tina in January 2027! www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/kristin...

So yesterday I unexpectedly came face to face with this guy while having my lunch

Medieval People Vol. 40 (2026) scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol4... @mip-medpub.bsky.social @gettingmedieval.bsky.social @woodjamie.bsky.social @writinghelena.bsky.social @carrielarocco.bsky.social @jonathanseyfried.bsky.social

Just published & open access! Problems and Possibilities of Namelessness in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages - it was a blast writing this with @woodjamie.bsky.social, Hope Williard, Máirín MacCarron and James Burns @dosse-project.bsky.social scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol4...

May 21: Eastern feast day of Helena, mother of Constantine. She was born around 248-250 CE in Bithynia & worked as a stable girl along the imperial post route. But she was mostly “remembered” for having the True Cross found. Read @writinghelena.bsky.social’s epic bio: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

I read the actual article. What’s odd is that it has a paragraph addressing discipline-specific challenges to the research (including that, erm, painted portraits aren’t photos), and acknowledges the issue of iconographic conventions but then doesn’t return to this www.nature.com/articles/s40... 1/

📢 The BCDSS invites applications for 3 Doctoral Positions/PhD (65%, TV-L E-13, for 4 years) from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2030. Application deadline: 5 June 2026 ℹ️ For all details regarding the application documents and process, please see here: buff.ly/t0fVXcb @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Back home after my whirlwind visit to Rome and environs, I did 2 things: checked whether I had been to Praeneste before (yes, in 1982), and reread my former colleague Daniele Miano’s terrific book about Fortuna

Top of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste.

Just emerged from a Roman aqueduct signed by Thomas Ashby 👀 (the Aqua Marcia)

Gerne möchte ich alle Interessierte im Raum Bonn zu meiner Antrittsvorlesung kommenden Mittwoch ab 09:15 einladen.

Despite the small impediment of the simultaneous papal visit to the Sapienza we had a wonderful launch of the Companion to Rome in Rome! It was great to reconnect with our terrific respondents Rita Lizzi and Andrea Augenti, as well as some authors and collaborators. Thank you to everyone!

Buongiorno

Bumping this for the Monday crowd.

I'll be talking about this diptych and late Roman imperial marriage at the Altertumsverein in Bonn on 21 May www.av-rheinland.de/index.php/ak... and in Oxford for the early medieval crowd on 25 May. Must really wrap this piece up after dragging it along for more than a year now :)

This war cannot end soon enough, but I hope one thing that will stay is the recognition that one can conduct diplomacy (and much else) by taking the train.

On 30 May French-German culture channel ARTE TV will show a documentary on Constantine to which I contributed in Rome & Trier. A first for me & a steep learning curve! I haven't seen it yet, but it will be available here 😬 www.arte.tv/de/videos/12... Pic: me & my man after shooting at Lateran.

The excellent @writinghelena.bsky.social has a fabulous new, open access article out in BICS: “A ladies’ man: Julian Augustus as son, husband, and emperor” academic.oup.com/bics/advance... Especially enjoying learning more about his wife (and Constantius II’s sister) Helena the Younger.

Join us at Dies Academicus for a series of mini-talks as our five BCDSS pre-doctoral fellows share the personal "sparks" behind their research. Don't miss this multidisciplinary journey! 📅 20 May 2026 🕒 10.15 - 11.00 📍 Lecture Hall V, main University building For more: buff.ly/I7RdghY

Still interested in our travel program? 🛫🏛️ Next week we head to Rome: Caroline Goodson & Julia Hillner present "A Companion to Rome (c. 400–c. 1050)". 📅 14 May | 12–2 pm 💻 Online: meet.google.com/gvx-ruhn-wpy 📖 brill.com/display/pack... @writinghelena.bsky.social @cjg70.bsky.social #medievalsky

👇🏻next week! Apparently almost coinciding with a visit to the Sapienza by the pope, how extremely fitting :)

Deadline for abstracts for this special issue is the end of the month. ⏰ #Skystorians

Rare imperial purple cloth found in Roman infant burials in York - News and events, University of York www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Long in the making, but so pleased this is finally out & open access, thanks to @unibonn.bsky.social Thanks to everyone who made it happen, especially those mentioned in the acknowledgements and captions. A ladies’ man: Julian Augustus as son, husband, and emperor* academic.oup.com/bics/article...

For those who want to follow up Guardian’s story about the discovery of another early copy of the Old English hymn by the Northumbrian cowherd Caedmon, often called the ‘father of English song/poetry’ in a MS of the Ecclesiastical History by the Northumbrian monk Bede, ‘father of English History’.

A Companion to Rome, c. 400 - c. 1050 will be presented at the Sapienza Centre for the Study of the Mediterranean and Near East in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages on 14 May, 12 noon. Huge thanks to the Centre and to Andrea Augenti and Rita Lizzi. If you're in Rome do come along, or join online.

Imperial couple flanking Christ, on the diptych of Justinus, c.540. If this refers to a real couple, it’s another and perhaps the only other known representation of Justinian’s Theodora outside San Vitale. Image from Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, SBM Archivaufnahme Public Domain Mark 1.0

Very interestingly looking article on the Life of Olympias, redating it and suggesting female authorship www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

How did late medieval debates shape the understanding of slavery and employment? Read up on Martin Schermaier's project here. 👉 buff.ly/n0dPpSF For an overview of all research projects, see the new Dependent: buff.ly/gi1LMwh @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

14. Julian had proved himself a competent enough Caesar in Gaul against Rhine communities like Alamanni and Franks. But he was personally responsible for upsetting a system that had worked in the West for decades, as @jmharland.bsky.social has recently demonstrated. Yet policing the Rhine was easy!

This was the Averil Cameron I knew, telling it like it is, here on social media. She was one of the least pretentious and straightforward academics I knew, which is also how she wrote, making her work easily engaging as well as fascinating

Averil was so wonderful. And “saying something at each seminar, even if it wasn’t anything brilliant” is a pro tip. My mum (from the same generation; not an academic, but also a “first woman” on many occasions) gave it to me too. It really works.

It is with great sorrow that we share the news that Averil Cameron has passed away. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her and her work. Further information will be shared in due course.

Amazing story! The NSDAP membership archive survived due to the bravery of Hanns Huber, boss of the paper mill where it had been sent for destruction just before the war ended www.zeit.de/wissen/2026-...