This week I am taking a crack at gender, heterarchies and military retinues at the workshop I helped organising: Heterarchies and Power Dynamics in Post-Roman Europe. If you want to join us online it is possible by subscribing to the mailing list here: listen.uni-bonn.de/wws/subscrib...

Five years, four authors, one book. Out now (fully open access), our new book on local priests in the tenth century 🌟 www.cambridge.org/core/books/l... @jbwaagmeester.bsky.social

📬 In our November blog post, Jamie Wood, former BCDSS Guest Researcher and Prof. of History and Education at Lincoln University (UK), shares insights into the research he conducted during his stay in Bonn: buff.ly/XBlQiLo #Intermediaries #Christianity #Visigoths @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Yep - late antiquity, famously invented by the Carolingians! Jokes aside, it does pay off knowing a bit about the centuries post Roman rule to understand the Romans!

A taster of our special issue on gender and segregation, due out in a few weeks. Thank you also to @dependencybonn.de for funding the conference during which many of these ideas were first discussed.

Chris Wickham's 'Framing the early Middle Ages, Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800' (2005) is widely seen as a milestone in early medieval studies. New research published by Robert Portass, Peter Sarris and Caroline Goodson (@cjg70.bsky.social) now offers a critical response to Wickham’s ideas ⬇️

Just submitted a review of Wolfram Kinzig's amazing book A History of Early Christian Creeds. It was such a joy reading it and discussing it back in the summer at the book launch. Go read it or perhaps, given the length, browse it - you will never think about the Nicene creed in the same way again.

#History #SkyStorians Very timely blog by Julia Moses and @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social on 'Using Large Learning Models in the History Classroom: Practical Perspectives' www.history.org.uk/higher-ed/re...

Hurrah! My new book, Europe in the Eleventh Century: Beyond Revolution and Reform is officially published today by Oxford University Press. 1/5 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Delighted that latest article from forthcoming Special Issue of @genderandhistory.bsky.social is now available, co-edited by @writinghelena.bsky.social, Lisa Hellman, Rachel Jean-Baptiste & me! Elisabetta Iob explores purdah & resistance in 1950s Pakistan 🌟 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Druckfrisch und #openaccess: Das neue Heft der HZ, u.a. mit Beiträgen zu Antiochos dem Großen, #Rassismus im Mittelalter, Pharma-Industrie und #Kolonialismus sowie zum Ende der Weimarer Republik: www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/... @kim-todzi.de @writinghelena.bsky.social #skystorians

I'm indexing a large edited volume & finding so many instances of women indicated only as "daughter of", "and his wife" etc - a bit of research shows that often we actually know their names (yes, even for late antique/early medieval women)! Time to repost writinghelena.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/t...

Continuing my quest to trace postroman connections through grave goods associated with royal wives. Here some objects from Ostrogothic Italy found in then-Thuringia, perhaps arrived there when or after Theoderic’s niece Amalaberga married Thuringian king Hermanifrid in 507 Now in Stadtmuseum Erfurt

📢 Call for Applications! The BCDSS is inviting applications for the Heinz Heinen Fellowship Program 2026/2027. 📅 Apply by Jan 10, 2026 📍 Start date: from Oct 1, 2026 👉 Full details here: buff.ly/8aH1Fy0 @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

📣 BSR / Early Medieval Europe Fellowship – Call for Applications! Are you a PhD student or early career researcher in early medieval European history? Apply now! ⏳ Deadline: 30 January 2026 More info here: bsr.ac.uk/awards-resid...

📢 Congratulations to Julia Hillner for her contribution to an article in SPIEGEL Geschichte on slavery & prostitution in the Roman Empire! (Article in German, subscriber access only) 🔗To the Article: buff.ly/DGw3EZDin: Spiegel GESCHICHTE 5/25 'Roms Kampf um German @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

More opportunities @dependencybonn.de ! We are also looking for research fellows to join us in 2026-7, with projects that develop and critically reflect on specific methodological approaches to the study of strong asymmetrical dependencies, to help us develop our newly minted Method Lab.

The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies is hiring three postdoctoral researchers. We investigate the causes and mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of strong asymmetrical dependencies across historical and contemporary contexts. Pre-modern perspectives are very welcome!

We had an entire day of stimulating discussions yesterday at the 'Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Antiquity' workshop organised by Grace Stafford and yours truly. We are grateful to @dependencybonn.de for providing funding and assistance for this event.

"Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Antiquity" workshop @dependencybonn.de. Welcome by @akjp89.bsky.social and Grace Stafford.

📖Congratulations to Julia Winnebeck and Henriette von Harnier on their new publication in the Historisches Jahrbuch, representing the first edition and translation of an incomplete ninth-century penitential! For more: buff.ly/hhvCMTn @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

Today the mail delivered this amazing book about Helena that its author, Jonathan Hibbs, kindly sent me. Published in 2005 it is partly biography, partly travelogue and was sadly unbeknown to me until now.

We are delighted to announce that Gender & History now has a new home at the University of Edinburgh. With thanks to the Sheffield team who did a stellar job for the last five years. hca.ed.ac.uk/gender-histo... #Skystorians #GenderHistory @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social

Congratulations and good luck to the new editorial team of @genderandhistory.bsky.social! It's been an honour editing the journal with my Sheffield colleagues and pals for the last five years, and I am looking forward to seeing it thrive at Edinburgh!

Congratulations to Emma, my wonderful colleage @dependencybonn.de ! The full @genderandhistory.bsky.social SI on Gender & Segregation will be published later this year, with 13 terrific articles and a substantial introduction by Lisa Hellmann, @djrgrey.bsky.social, Rachel Jean-Baptiste and myself.

My institution, the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, is currently advertising five nine-month fellowships to support the writing of a PhD funding proposal. Deadline 1 October. Any questions, do get in touch (my email is on my webpage :) www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/images/about...

Now at the round table on how we can and should study strong asymmetrical dependency in past and present organised by our very own @dependencybonn.de, in the amazing surroundings of Bonn’s Schlosskirche where Beethoven learned his trade.

We had a great discussion this morning about past and current power dynamics underlying the so-called “flagship” of the profession, the historical journal. Many thanks to our panel members and our very interested audience!

The Institute of History of the University of Bern is seeking to fill a full time professor position (open rank) in History of the Middle Ages with consideration of digital Methods, beginning 1 February, 2027. ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo...

"A ‘Conclusion’ by @writinghelena.bsky.social draws out the themes of the volume (and is worth the price of admission on its own)." nice review by Robin Whelan of what looks like a fascinating volume on "empresses-in-waiting" bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2025/2025.09...

Publication – « The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy », éd. Richard Flower rmblf.be/2025/09/07/p...

Huge congratulations to my wonderful colleague and former University of Sheffield pal @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social !! Go read this book, the 11th century is the best century :)

Publication – Charles West, « Europe in the Eleventh Century. Beyond Revolution and Reform » rmblf.be/2025/09/01/p...

Delighted to see the latest article in special issue @genderandhistory.bsky.social ed. [email protected]; Lisa Hellman, Rachel Jean-Baptiste and me out! 🌟 Greg Downs investigates the experiences of Black rural working women at elections in South Carolina 1874-1895 doi.org/10.1111/1468...

In recent months, a significant amount of time has been devoted to our database of employees of the MGH since their founding in 1819. We are currently focused on documenting the genesis of our editions. All MGH editors will be included shortly. Have a look! data.mgh.de/databases/mg...

And now attention, late antique people! Today in Trier I was shown the Trier Ivory up close, from the front and - unseen before, at least by me- from the back! Note the strange markings, apparently by the craftsmen, and the hole for the elephant’s nerve reaching into the tusk

Today is Helena’s Catholic feast day! To celebrate I’ve been to Trier to witness the display of her relics, stolen from her mausoleum in Rome in the ninth century.

In einem Monat geht's los! 🤩 Wir freuen uns schon sehr auf den #Historikertag des #VHD in Bonn und auf das gemeinsame Panel mit Julia Hillner und Andreas Fahrmeir am Mittwoch um 8.30 Uhr. @vhdonline.bsky.social @historikertag.bsky.social @unibonn.bsky.social

Broken record, I know, but I do have to say one thing re: this otherwise excellent piece. Ando is right to lament the increased % of teaching done by “lecturers.” But framing them as “people with no formal contact with research” is misleading, and obscures a crucial piece of the puzzle. /1

And I also return to find proofs...all 1047 pages.

Back in my office I find this book in my mail. The field of “ancient carceral studies” really is growing (although in truth has been vibrant outside the Anglophone world for a long time already).

On holiday, I reread Umberto Eco‘s Il nome della rosa. What an extraordinary, mind boggling, deeply erudite, haunting, and exceedingly funny book this continues to be. And an ode to the Middle Ages, a beautiful, learned and brutal age that is our mirror and, as Eco says, “our common childhood”.

Absolutely stunning mosaics in the rotunda of Galerius in Thessaloniki. Probably 5th century?

Via Egnatia from above and from below. The latter courtesy of the brand new metro in Thessaloniki.

"A review written in transparent prose can be translated via Google or Deepl with great accuracy" Not sure whether forcing your colleagues to use AI just because language skills among Anlophones is collapsing is really a good look. bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2025/2025.05...

OUP's Women in Antiquity is such a good idea - with recent additions on Balthild, Radegund and Theodora. global.oup.com/academic/con...

Space... The Final Frontier... and coincidentaly the main subject of my essay that just came out in the Studies in Late Antiquity. online.ucpress.edu/SLA/issue/9/3

Take a look at the programme of our workshop on the subject of Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Anitquity organised by Grace Stafford and yours truly, which will take place at the @dependencybonn.de next month.

Visiting my favourite empress at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. The small arch of Galerius features portrait busts of the emperor and what probably used to be a portrait of his wife, Valeria Augusta. After Licinius executed her for treason in this very city it was recarved as a Tyche.