i think a (perhaps underappreciated) aspect of this whole situation is the extent to which every elite profession is filled with people who excel at drawing attention and want to be famous more than they want to do the actual job

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Medievalists! Ancient historians! Re-upping this to say that the deadline for this very good non-TT job is January 15. Please apply and reach out with any questions! #medieval #ancienthistory #classics

Delighted to have my schedule set for the @rsaorg.bsky.social meeting in February. Looking forward to the first of two sessions on "Medicine and Science in the Early Modern Pacific." My paper will be examining evidence for leprosy's global dissemination 1000s of years prior to European colonialism.

**JOB ALERT** Friends, my department is hiring an Instructor in Medieval and Ancient History. This is a non-TT, teaching focused job but it’s a good one: renewable contract, great salary & benefits, and possibility of promotion on teaching track. DM me w/questions! jobs.tcu.edu/jobs/instruc...

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

Everyone, and I mean everyone, who knows anything about prenatal medicine knew that this would happen.

A new show at the Met Cloisters speaks to the existence of queer and trans people in the Medieval period and within the Catholic Church, as well as sexual dalliance and humor, and nontraditional unions.

😍😍 😍 Loving all all these NACBS member books at the Chicago UP table! Including our Stansky and Snow book prize winners! @uchicagopress.bsky.social

📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications! We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections. Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li... 📆Closing date: 5 January 2026 #UofGLibraryFellows

Do you research early #bookhistory? Come to our #REBPAFConference : 23-25 June 2026, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin! 📚 Key details: • Deadline: 15 Dec 2025 [Abstract (max 300 words) + short CV] • Themes: Selection,Value,Accessibility & Survival in book culture Follow the link for more info! #REBPAF

Just a real “season finale” feeling to all kinds of news today, isn’t there

I have voted for the deal that was on the Senate floor and which is probably caving to fascism Forgive me the flight delays were so annoying and so old

Really enjoyed chatting with @kellyfaircloth.bsky.social about all things dirtbag medievalism, and delighted that the article is out now at Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

My daughter’s seventh grade History Fair project. This year’s theme is Revolutions. Obvi she chose the Print Revolution, & obvi gave credit to the Chinese for the first printed book, & obvi chose images from incunabula in the Bodleian. Why yes, I am a historian of the book. How did you know?

A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?

Did Women Ruin the Workplace

CFP for Slavery North conference on "Rebellion, Resistance, and Refuge: Slavery and Border-Crossing during the American Revolution" @umassamherst.bsky.social 7/9-7/12/2026, abstracts due 12/19/2025 #vastearlyamerica slaverynorth.com/event/call-f... 🗃️

Still pinching myself. What an incredible honor!

CAMPUS VISIT WITH THE VAMPIRE TEACHING DEMO WITH THE VAMPIRE SIT-DOWN WITH THE DEAN WITH THE VAMPIRE APOLOGETIC EMAIL THAT THE SEARCH WAS CANCELED WITH THE VAMPIRE

The Autumn 2025 issue of The Recipes Project is live! This issue, GLOBALIZING EARLY MODERN RECIPES, was co-edited by Lavinia Gambini, Lucy Havard, & Amanda Herbert. recipes.hypotheses.org

Happy first day of Fall-ish weather for all those* in Texas who celebrate! *Me.

Grad students and early career faculty take note! Money is available for you to do cool stuff! Apply and you might even get some!

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

Apologies.

Writing was such a joy when I didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

Truly valuing the labor of others means respecting their time. Punctuality is an ethical praxis

Today in my intro class I lectured about a king who claimed absolute authority, developed new financial instruments to fund a huge military, and built gilded palaces filled with preening portraits of himself. Wait, who did you think I meant?

I hope the ghost of Dolley Madison is cooking up something big.

It's very trendy for the woke left to mock the police these days, but this is the kind of thing that you and I might miss.

Fort Worth, TX #NoKings

Yes it is hard to convince students to do the hard work when they can hit the easy button, but even harder is convincing them to trust that their own ideas are better than anything produced by the resource-guzzling predictive text algorithm their university keeps selling them as THE FUTURE.

Many congratulations to my colleagues in the Forms of Labour project team on the publication of their new monograph! 🗃️👏🎉 Brilliantly, The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England is available open access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/e... news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

As a card-carrying academic I know I’m supposed to go hard on the NYTimes, but this is genuinely a great idea. Maybe people don’t think they care about grant cuts and frozen research, but the truth is this admin is stealing our future from us.

I just keep coming back to this, the most obvious lacunae in every conversation about “incorporating AI” into our classrooms: no one—literally NO ONE—can explain how it improves the work of learning & knowledge-making. There is, in fact, overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This whole thread.

Relieved to read the editorial board of my local paper here in Fort Worth (largest republican majority city in Texas) come down on the side of free speech and academic freedom. www.star-telegram.com/opinion/edit...

Heads up, #humanities scholars! @ransomcenter.bsky.social is hosting an online info session about our 2026-27 research fellowships. Join me & Tracy Bonfitto next Thursday (Oct. 2) at 9 AM, CDT for details about our collections & application process. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ad72fe... 🗃️📜📚

CHOTINER: And you didn’t know this person - what did you call him again? CELEBRIMBOR GREATEST OF THE ELVEN SMITHS: Right, his name was Annatar but CHOTINER: And you taught him to create a ring harnessing all his malice and cruelty? CELEBRIMBOR: Well I mean I was deceived CHOTINER: So you’ve said

Op Ed by President of the AAUP chapter at UT Austin. Let teachers teach, let students learn. #AcademicFreedom #DefendHigherEd

Found the best cure for the constant dread of creeping authoritarianism: taking my students to Special Collections! Seriously though, it’s my favorite class every semester. Buncha intro to early modern Euro history students, almost no majors, just so jazzed about touching really old books.

First post of the new academic year and it's a good one: JOBS! There are THREE fixed-term research jobs in @kingshistory.bsky.social attached to my colleague Francisco Bethencourt's new ERC project on the Visual and Material Culture of New Christians. Please circulate! #EarlyModern 🗃️

Many thanks to our friends @hyperallergic.com for spreading the word about @ransomcenter.bsky.social's 2026-27 #fellowships! Learn more by visiting the Center's website: www.hrc.utexas.edu/fellowships/ #Humanities #Photography #Literature #ArtHistory #RareBooks #Theatre #FilmHistory 🗃️📜📚

What amazing company to keep! And what a thrill to see Reading Practice honored in this way by the NACBS! @uchicagopress.bsky.social

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Stansky Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period since 1800. www.nacbs.org/news/stansky... @uchicagopress.bsky.social @oxunipress.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

💫New Workshop #CfP💫 'Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900', 5 December, online, organised by the very fabulous @annafranjam.bsky.social & @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social. #HistMed #HistSTM #HistPsych #DisHist #HistNursing #MatCult #MaterialCulture #MedHums #Skystorians🗃️

what a humiliating way for don jr. to find out his dad sends birthday cards.

More women have nearly bled to death during miscarriage under Texas’ abortion ban. Experts say the trend paints a troubling picture of the harms of unnecessary delays in care. “This is striking,” one doctor said. “The trend is very clear.” (Published July)

Happy Labor Day! Feeling grateful for the unions that have made a real difference in my family’s life: @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social and @alliedpilots.bsky.social. Power to the workers, y’all!

Oh gosh, it’s almost like those of us trained to assess knowledge claims and situate them within their social and economic context were on to something…