Marc Bloch will be admitted to the Pantheon in Paris! The date for the "Panthéonisation" is set for 16 June 2026. Meanwhile, @sorbonneparis1.bsky.social has launched a website to keep track of the many conferences to celebrate the event. Some of them start this month. marcbloch.pantheonsorbonne.fr

Incredibly proud of this recognition by my peers. Finalist for the biennial St. Andrew's book award from the ESEH and RCC, both communities that matter deeply to me.

Congratulations to Netta Cohen, whose monograph 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘯: 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘡𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦 is the winner of the 2025 Turku Book Award. Read the full motivation here: eseh.org/turku-book-a... #EnvHist #EnvHum

I am really excited to announce the call for the PhD Course in Energy Humanities! Held at the @greenhouseuis.net from 1-5 December. Applications are welcome until 24 October. #envhum #envhist #energyhistory

I ADORE teaching this world history of food class. This is the kind of big picture, non-majors class that it feels I was built for.

Today is spice tasting day in my food in world history class!!

Timelapse of the relocation of the #Oseberg ship is now available. On the same page you will also find press images that are free to use (with proper attribution). www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/relo...

This is especially true for smaller journals!

Join us Mon 1 Sept 2025 for @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talk with @richardfallon.bsky.social on Contesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture 1860-1935: Believers & Visionaries on the Borderlines of Geology & Palaeontology (Oxford UP 2025). newnatures.org/greenhouse/e... #histsci

So I've written a book! Waterscapes is about how impactful our need for water is on the environment and people. It's also about the ways in which infrastructure projects can impact place for good or bad.

I found out yesterday that Medieval Riverscapes was one of the three finalists for the Turku book prize, a biennial award for best environmental history books on European history!!!!

My hotel in Uppsala is right near the botanical garden that Linnaeus worked in. It’s lovely.

#ASEH2026 Call for proposals is live! We extended the deadline so that those attending #ESEH2025 could meet and plan, but that means the deadline is FINAL. No extensions, so get those proposals in! aseh.org/ASEH-Confere...

The CfP's open — don't wait! Submit by August 25, no debate. There’s no deadline extension, So give it attention — Learn how to submit (don’t be late)! aseh.org

(coming soon) www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

And today I got to see penguins! Always a treat!

Spending time in a beloved place

I might have just come up with my next smaller bit of the penguin project to work on. (Besides the bigger book)

I am so impressed with my students' projects and how much they managed to learn and reflect in just a month. A sample: "Even a light Italian sponge cake carries centuries of movement, violence and survival."

Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky

Prefacing this with I am tickled, not judgey, about this. It's delightful watching college kids taking how to cook oatmeal or a cucumber and tomato salad VERY earnestly.

I am getting to watch the final audio-visual projects for my food history class and I am just delighted. I cannot wait to see what students can do when they have a whole semester to work on this instead of just a month!

Another thing I wrote this year! A book that sits on the boundary of primary and secondary source in fascinating ways.

This was also the last week of my intensive food history course. We ended with reading that connected war and imperialism to hunger and famines. History has lots to teach us about how systemic hunger has been used as or been a result of war and political oppression.

Pinch me. My research now legitimately involves watching things like this 1956 documentary produced by the NY Zoological Society. youtu.be/fw1nGxXhmno?...

What. The. Fuck.

About to start a two-day online writing retreat hosted by Ohio State's writing center. Hopeful that this virtual peer pressure will help me get focused and get work done.

Fuck you Petrarch you know what you did

Just found out that in the 1920s the penguins at the NY Zoo's aquarium were all named the same thing.

The cover of the Bulletin of the NY Zoological society when they announced the successful arrival and acclimatization of King penguins In 1926.

I have found so many interesting penguin stories this week. Prepping for a two day writing "retreat". I will focus on "mid-century modern penguins"

One of the things I wrote this year: revisiting an early work on monastic water for the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medieval History. It’s open access thanks to OSU.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medieval History we’ve asked eight distinguished historians each to use an article from the journal’s first five years as a jumping off point to discuss historiographical trends. @tandfresearch.bsky.social

Ellen Arnold revisits the Plan of St Gall in the context of environmental history www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In 1945, the NY Zoo gift shop sold 18,000 toy "Walking Penguins"

Stephen Colbert has the opportunity to do the funniest thing

I think one of the things I love most about the penguin project is that I am constantly learning new things about people AND nature. Today while researching the history of NY Zoo and Aquarium, I learned about the possibility of penguin hybrids. One of which, Rockhopper x Macaroni = Rockaroni.

There is a wild rabbit living at my husband's work site. I get pictures the first time each day it is spotted. The relief I feel each time it is alive has made me realize that I am still deeply traumatized by Watership Down.

Today I'm writing a bit about the history of penguins in Bermuda. Yup. Bermuda.

I am loving the summer @aseh.bsky.social connects writing group. Every time I go, I get meaningful work done.

a) I hate it when I cannot trust students b) I am very good at catching cheating students c) I loathe reporting this sh*t

Teaching a one month food in world history class, fully online. I'm sure you can imagine the AI stress that has. Delighted so far, though, by my class project, which I'll repeat at a slower pace next term-student audio-visual projects (such as a cooking vid or podcast) based on historical cookbooks.

I am one of Mr. Popper's Penguins. :)

AND my newspaper search just got harder (I'm moving chronologically through major newspapers looking for penguins) because penguin books entered the chat.

Today's vintage penguin advertisement: the penguin success ensemble. (my new band name?)

Have spent a lot of time looking at random "display ad"s from the NYT today, and every once in a while I find a literal gem:

Meet Dugan, the first living emperor penguin to arrive in America (and possibly the first to make it across the equator alive). The bird (gender unknown) was shipped via refrigerator from Antarctica to Valparaiso to NYC, and then on the train to DC where it was exhibited at the National Zoo.

Academic agony: Trying to cut 500 words from a chapter after adding the things requested by editors!

I'll be the keynote here, talking about river monsters! midwestmedievalhc.wordpress.com/about/

This would be a horrible loss!