24 Hours in Shogun's Japan: A Day in the Life of the People wot Lived There. Coming soon (hopefully 😅and certainly with a little help from my friends 🥹) www.mombooks.com/book/24-hour...

Women and Archaeology 1990-2010. Out in hard copy now!

New paper accepted! www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...

Rather remarkable that the Trump administration response to a government shutdown is "let's inflict as much pain as possible on as many Americans as possible"

New paper published on Japanese eco-nationalism. www.frontiersin.org/journals/hum...

A harrowing but important and timely account from my colleague Bucky Sheftall www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We were sort of neighbours and I attended several concerts in my teens. RIP! www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Interesting lipid analysis from Japan and Korea www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

RIP Brian Fagan www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A map of Europe's different biogeographical zones, which featured in Caroline Goodson's #imc2025 paper

Perhaps the president of Liberia could send some of his country’s best educators here to teach Donald Trump some proper English spelling, grammar, usage, capitalization, and punctuation? This would be a most profound gesture of goodwill.

Finally published! A big thanks to all 68 co-authors!! www.gea.mpg.de/165463/oxfor...

Peter Thiel—the techno-fascist billionaire behind Palantir and JD Vance’s entire career—revealed his thoughts when he couldn’t answer the simple question of whether or not humanity should endure. Why? Because he doesn’t believe all of humanity should survive—only those who look and think like him.

Depopulation not necessarily good for nature

New publication on Ryukyu archaeology with Hiroto Takamiya. (DM me if anyone can't access the PDF) academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

Marco Rubio needs to be asked whether he believes his grandfather who remained in the U.S. after receiving a deportation order from our govt should have been treated the way the father of 3 Marines was treated by ICE this weekend in California. ASK HIM. Make him confront his lack of character.

The Trump regime is deliberately deploying ICE agents at immigration hearings so they can more easily detain migrants. Armed, masked men abducting people from courthouses —and arresting those who ask why — is the stuff fascism is made of.

Our president standing up to Humpty Trumpty www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Gavin Newsom's full address today about LA protests and Trump's attempt to instigate an inciting event for tyranny is worth listening to: (this is the full speech, which is surprisingly hard to find) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Icq...

A constituent, angry about Medicaid cuts: “People are going to die.” Republican Senator Joni Ernst: “Well, we’re all going to die.” Callous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Beauty of the English language: "in sync" is so much crisper and more elegant than Gleichschaltung.

Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Publication day! My new article in ASCHKENAS has appeared: "The Mother Tongues of Medieval English Jews"—ever wondered if the Jews of medieval England might have spoken English? This article's for you, #medievalsky. Check it out: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

BREAKING: ICE and private prison contractor GEO Group are refusing to allow Mahmoud Khalil to hold his newborn son for the first time, even after his wife flew them over 1,000 miles to visit. We just asked a federal court to order ICE to grant Mahmoud's request for a contact visit with his family.

Re-advertising this post as no suitable applicants were found in the first round. If you are interested in an exciting PhD opportunity at the University of Sydney, do get in touch! Deadline 9 July. Updated information and link here: www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...

New publication on Neolithic maritime networks. A big thank you to the team! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

St Peter’s Northampton

Your reminder that Northampton had the third oldest university in England (for a while)

Oh goody.

El nou número de la revista que coedito, @asiademica.com, ja està disponible des d'avui mateix: asiademica.com/n20/

New paper from our Institute on my reading list and of possible interest to @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social and other medievalists! www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

New publication alert (book review)! www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol25/...

‘One young Gazan, when asked by an interviewer what she would like to be when she grows up, replied that children do not grow up in Gaza.’ Selma Dabbagh on who Israel is killing in Gaza: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

Japanese netizens are shocked by a tweet from the US Embassy declaring that Japanese people applying for non-immigrant visas must provide information on all social media accounts they have used in the last 5 years [or their visas could be rejected]. Some are comparing it to China & North Korea.

Many people didn't fail to see this. In fact, many people (academics , activists, independent journalists etc) have warned for a long time that this is where we were heading Why were only the same old tired voices listened to? Why were actual alternatives given less air time than fascism?

This includes my own modest contribution

Reminder - Call for Applications: Toshiba International Foundation Fellowships 2025/26. Application deadline: 30 April 2025. More info below. eajs.eu/call-for-app...

New on YouTube: all presentations of the joint DIJ / @hhu.de /In-East @unidue.bsky.social annual #VSJF conference with economic, societal & political perspectives on Sustainability in Japan are now online @barbtokyo.bsky.social @apklein.bsky.social @hajent.bsky.social www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

'That's not waste, that's the best of us'

The student had a criminal record of two speeding tickets and a catch-and-release fishing citation dismissed in 2019.

Canadian Association of University Teachers recommends that academics travel to the US "only if essential and necessary", and to be careful about what information we have on our electronic devices, especially if you fit into a fairly wide set of categories. www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...

New OA publication in 'Forum Kritische Archäologie' as part of a special issue on 'Unearthing Resistance – James C. Scott’s Legacy for Critical Archaeologies and Histories'. Full issue here: www.kritischearchaeologie.de/aktuelle_aus...

June 24 is updated as the new publication date! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

"the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man mistakenly sent to a gulag... and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps. This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped" snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror

Assistant Professor in the History of the Medieval Mediterranean World Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMQ287/a...

Rümeysa Öztürk describes a harrowing journey from her neighborhood in Somerville to a cell in Vermont, where she was locked up overnight before being put on a flight to Louisiana early the next day. www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2...

Fish introduction to a high mountain lake in the Pyrenees by the 7th century www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tomorrow (April 12) is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Jena from Nazi tyranny. Patton's army had three main targets in the area: the V2 works in Nordhausen, Carl Zeiss in Jena, and the REIMAHG-A jet assembly plant at Kahla. On the 15th General Patton visited Buchenwald.