Wow! 😮🤩 There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓 itiner-e.org We might have to have a lie-down.

Sounds sadly familiar. Solidarity www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I found my 30s difficult for this very reason. You are always either too old or too young. I found turning 40 (a while ago now) extremely liberating!

I have no doubt that the observed toxicity exists. But trying to solve that issue by trying to 'streamline' (or whatever phrase they use 'modernise', 'make more agile') ancient democratic structures, is bound to accelerate the demise of UK HE. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

Such wonderful news for @melkatrey.bsky.social, an excellent co-editor at The Recipes Project!

This. Also: We’ve no idea how much groundbreaking research we might actually be missing out on when core research doesn’t have the opportunity to gradually unfold, take place without being tailored to surface claims about high impact and fantastic deliverables.

What's that? You want another Tang Dynasty camel? Here you are, then.

Great example. I’ve often heard people say they believe medieval people discouraged or punished female literacy, whereas Mary is usually shown reading during the Annunciation, so every medieval person constantly saw images of the #1 female role model reading. The anti-learning Middle Ages is a myth.

Félicitations au professeur Jitse Dijkstra (UOttawa), nouvellement élu membre de la Société royale du Canada! Il fait partie des rares classicistes canadiens à recevoir cet honneur, aux côtés de son collègue Richard Burgess. #SOSÉtudesAnciennesUO #Antiquité #Ottawa #AntiquitéTardive

How cool is this? Never understood why some teachers require students to 'give them their full attention'. Why discourage the creativity that goes into doodling and day dreaming?

We have lots of student notebooks containing sketches on anatomy, diseases etc, however, this one is by far our favourite. It shows Joseph Lister, father of antiseptic surgery, disappearing through a trapdoor after his lecture in Glasgow in 1868. Now that's how to make an exit! #Museum30 #Sketchbook

For #CoffeeWithACodex on November 6 (12pm ET, Zoom), Lawrence J. Schoenberg Curator Nick Herman will bring out Ms. Codex 2324, a Flemish illuminated book of hours including 6 full-page arched miniatures and 15 historiated initials on gold grounds. #medievalsky Register here: https://bit.ly/48JljzY

Tests don't improve literacy. And being 'ready to take on unions' really translates as 'I'm trying to pander to some parts of the electorate by needlessly fighting with those who actually work in the sector'.

With many depts suspending grad admissions I'm happy to report that the BU Philosophy Dept will be admitting 4-5 graduate students for the 26-27 AY! I especially want to encourage any undergrads interested in #philsci to apply #philsky

From tomorrow I’ll be knitting every day for a month in aid of Dementia UK. I will try to post a picture of my progress each day. This is my starting point, just over half way through the central section of a shawl with three borders. If you can, please donate: www.facebook.com/donate/83589...

Quelqu'un·e pour trouver la source de cette image? (Un truc un peu plus précis que Allemagne XVe siècle?)

Today seems like a good day for a ghost story... 🧵 The first Ghost Orchid to be recorded in Britain was found in July 1854 by Mrs Anderton Smith in Herefordshire. Not recognising it, she picked it, and it was sent away to be identified. (1/12) (This image, from 1978, c/o A.Wake)

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

I’ll be speaking tomorrow at the #SCS2025 conference in Portland about variations in the early printings of Thevet’s sloth’s face. Come see me at 15:30 Pacific in the Park Room as part of the Bodies, Nature, Knowledge discipline. #earlymodern #histsci #skystorians

No thank you www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I will definitely be sharing this with my students!

A fun headline, but to someone who experienced a decentralised education system (exams set by individual schools, and in fact individual teachers), the notion of a 'wrong topic' still sounds bizarre.

I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this

##TinyJoy is having Smalltown Boy come up on my randomised playlist with satisfying regularity. While I still often feel like I want to run away because of feeling out of place, I'm glad to say I have found better ways to deal with this and a community that accepts me.

The number of reports by nurses of racist incidents at work has risen by 55% over three years - the Royal College of Nursing calls on govt to stop using anti migrant rhetoric that drives this, and for employers to prioritise tackling racism and work with unions www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

'Common curricula' for HE is indeed where things are headed and have been heading for a while. This has in fact been helped along by 'free speech' warriors who are concerned about 'canons' not being taught.

Appel à contribution – La pratique de la crémation en Gaule franque (Ve – IXe siècles) – 4e Rendez-vous du Gaaf rmblf.be/2025/10/27/a...

Here we have another outfit designed for Denise Boulet-Poiret- a dress and cape from 1911, and entitled Flammes. Les Arts Decoratifs writes that it was probably for a special occasion and combines his Oriental influences with those from Eastern Europe, which he began in the 1910s. This

But this misses out the best part of this mosaic! To the left of Odysseus' ship is a smaller boat with a man holding what looks suspiciously like a gigantic prawn. This man is likely to be the homeowner who commissioned the mosaic. (Mosaic from Dougga, Tunisia; C3rd AD; currently in Bardo Museum)

Allez, c’est de saison : voici l’histoire d’un cambriolage. Une espèce de Mystère de la chambre jaune, qui s’est produit il y a deux mille ans. 🧵

It has been a day of many #TinyJoys (and some bigger ones), but once again, I must say that being part of @cardiffucu.bsky.social is a great joy and comfort.

Woke up to the absolutely shocking news that my colleague Francesa Orsini, renowned scholar of Hindi literature and a mild and diplomatic person, has been deported from Delhi even though she had a valid visa. No reason was given. Report and opinion in @thewire.in thewire.in/rights/globa...

Maybe British universities should be treated like failing rail franchises, getting gradually nationalised as they go bust one by one, then run cooperatively, democratically, comprehensively, strategically and collectively for the public good.

May I recommend: not nuking your History departments so you don't embarrass yourself?

This was basically my college job, scanning old microfilm of Plato manuscripts, since I could read Greek. Amusingly, however, the microfiches were organized alphabetically but unreliably, which meant a ~1/12 chance of screening a microfilm of 1960s Playboy magazines rather than a 1460 Plato.

If you're free this Thursday morning, I'll be giving a virtual lecture titled "The Real Lives of Blind Mesopotamians" as part of the 2025−2026 public lecture series hosted by the Bade Museum and Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley. Come join the fun!

A weird question for my museum collections nerds on a Monday: Human Hair in collections. Who's thinking about/ writing about/ discussing this? What hair have you got? How do you approach potential sensitivities? Please share far and wide! #Museums #Collections #CulturalHeritage

This BBC coverage is probably not intentionally hilarious, but it is hilarious nevertheless. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

Faculty at Texas university fear entire liberal arts departments will be slashed www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

🇺🇸 Comparez le nombre d’États en bleu sur ces deux cartes. Il y a 15 ans, la grande majorité des États américains affichaient une couverture vaccinale #rougeole chez les enfants supérieure à 95%, le seuil d'immunité collective. Désormais, ils ne sont plus qu'une poignée.

I too believe this will be the case. Whether I will still work in a university by the time the pendulum has swung, however, I do not know. But I'm but a tiny scholar standing on the shoulders of giants, and my individual scholarly fate does not matter much.

A very nice article. I chuckled at "For those who are privileged to go to university, they get three years suspended between childhood and the adult world – what academics of a certain stripe would call a ‘liminal space'." Call me Miss Liminality...

You go to university to LEARN - better earnings are only a POTENTIAL side effect. It is all encapsulated in the old-fashioned phrase 'reading for a degree'.

Will AI be spending hours reassuring student anxieties, fostering their discussions, answering their panics, and helping them develop the independent learning and personal skills they need to thrive in the world? What students tell us they want most is learning community. And AI can’t provide that.

Yesterday, I felt the impact of the slow collapse of UK HE particularly acutely and personally. I guess today I pick myself up and try to find a way forward.

Every decade, university administrators excite themselves over the prospects of firing all the faculty and 95% of the staff. Early 2020s: LLMs Early 2010s: MOOCs Early 2000s: Wikis

#TinyJoy is finding back my copy of Jacques Prévert's Paroles: et les murs de la classe / s'écroulent tranquillement. / Et les vitres redeviennent sable / l'encre redevient eau / les pupitrea redeviennent arbres

UTAustin has one of the most important archival centers dedicated to Latin America and Latinx studies. This would be disastrous for human knowledge of our past.