The OUBS has already received some great submissions… keep sending them in! Until November 29th!! Graduate students at all stages of study & independent scholars are welcome to send in their abstracts! 🫵🏼🫵🏼

Please sign & share widely! The #UniversityofOttawa has abruptly cut admissions for its #Greek & #Roman studies programme. This will end teaching of #Greek & #Latin at the university, with no consultation with staff, students, or the community impacted. www.change.org/p/save-greek...

Happy Byzantoween!!! I posted about some spoooooky & *phrike* Late Antique & Byzantine stuff over on Substack… check it out — if you dare! empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/getting-ph...

Calling all Late Antiquist Byzantinist or interdisciplinary friends! All graduate students are welcome to submit an abstract for the OUBS’ 2026 conference: DECLINE AND FLOURISH. I’m SO excited to be organising this. Please share widely! Cannot wait to read submissions. ❤️❤️

As ever Ben is being the coolest & nicest. If you’re not listening to his pod yet you’re probably (definitely) missing out.

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OUBS Member Dr. Chloé Agar has recently been involved in 2 great digital humanities projects: creating an archive of Egyptian graffiti and contributing to the Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity database. Have a gander below! portal.sds.ox.ac.uk/Graffiti_Gaz... csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?r...

Caught up on Empress of Byzantium's articles this morning. @empressofbyzantium.bsky.social

Very appropriate word of the day from the TLG: συγχωνεύω / “to melt down.” Not inspired by any current events, I’m sure!

Finally got my hands on this beauty! @rhigarthjones.bsky.social Going to be binge read on my holiday & I can’t waiiit 😇😇😇 #romanhistory #classics

Realised I forgot to share my latest #substack piece! It’s on the reflections & refractions of 312 AD, and it’s my favourite #ByzantiumforBeginners that I’ve written yet! Hope you enjoy!! #history #byzantium #historian #byzantinehistory #constantine open.substack.com/pub/empresso...

Next week is vacation! Time to catch up on two Substacks!!! @mduperouzel.bsky.social @sarahebond.bsky.social

I was recently elected Oxford University Byzantine Society President for 2025/26! If you’re interested in keeping up w/ our activities, as well as being the first to know when we release our Grad Conference CfP, you can now follow us on Bluesky: @oxunibyzantinesoc.bsky.social

I have returned from my posting hiatus! And I’ve got a new #substack out, about #arthistory — specifically the Muqarnas ceiling @ the Cappella Palatina!! 💥💥💥 Hope you enjoy! #byzantinehistory #medievalhistory #historian #italianhistory empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/iconophili...

#ByzantiumforBeginners IV is up! It’s the abt the chaotic (ignominious?) end of the #Tetrarchy 🫨 Also, I have a Ko-Fi page now, for small+1-off tips to support my work! 🫶🏼☕️ link in the piece! #byzantium #history #historian #byzantinehistory #substack empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

Ah!!!! I can’t believe it’s finally here! This was such a great conversation abt my queen #Theodora & Ben is a wonderful host. As he mentions, there are adult themes (TW for mentions of CSA). Check it out & make sure to listen to Ben’s whole podcast! He’s doing great work. 🫡. Ty Ben for having me!

🚨🚨 Emergency #substack on the OG namesake of the new Pope! 🚨🚨 Returned to my undergrad thesis to talk about Leo I, one of the greatest popes of all (Chalcedo or Chalcedon’t you agree?!) Minor correction in comments🤨 #conclave #historian #byzantium empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/the-pope-f...

Do we think this is the first pope to have eaten a deep dish Chicago style pizza

My latest #byzantiumforbeginners #Substack is out! Covering the socio-economic and legislative impacts of the #Tetrarchy (and a lil great persecution controversy too…) check it out for a (hopefully) fun read! #byzantium #byzantinehistory empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

First day at Villa Romana del Casale yesterday!! Back again today to see more #mosaics. Absolutely floored by the quality and extent of preservation!! 🥹 #arthistory #mosaicmonday #romanmosaics #byzantineart #historian

Soo pleased to say that I passed my Transfer of Status & I’m now allowed to call myself a #doctoralstudent! 😎 celebrating by having a nap & packing for my 5-day Sicilian road trip adventure… can’t wait to see the Piazza Armerina #mosaics for real! #historian #phdstudent #romanmosaics #arthistory

Plans to go to the library scuppered by the weather app claiming UV6 & 24 degrees… In other news, I have my transfer of status this Friday & prep for that, as well as my other writing, is all-consuming! But next week, #Sicily! #Oxfordstudent #byzantium #classics #booksky #historian #historybluesky

In just over 2 weeks I’ll be in #Sicily!! Other than the Piazza Armerina mosaics I am most excited for the #CappellaPalatina. Cannot wait to learn more about Sicily in #LateAntiquity & the #MiddleAges 💛⭐️ ©️ Liilia Moroz under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-... #arthistory #byzantium #historian

New book!! 📕 Antarctica is intimately connected to the rest of our planet, affecting climate, ecosystems, cultures and society. Our new book draws together international experts to explore this influence, and to understand what humans are doing to Antarctica (1/n) www.routledge.com/Antarctica-a...

My latest for @liberalcurrents.com We need to stop listening to commentators who spent a decade being arrogantly wrong about the fascist threat www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-alarmi...

It’s here! The first piece in my #ByzantiumforBeginners series, covering #Diocletian and the #Tetrarchy from 284-c.300. Rly tried to condense this, but still have a way to go b4 I’m a good self-editor! Hope u enjoy regardless! #history #byzantium empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

Pope Francis’s "Urbi et Orbi" Easter speech: “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants...I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others.”

Easter Day 2 (Easter Saturday?) & my Easter-y #Byzantine #artwork is the #mosaic from Sant’Apollinaire in Classe. I’m obsessed w the goofy sheep. I adore sheep, so much so that I’ve not had lamb since I was 7! Pls consider donating to a sheep & lamb sanctuary this Easter, loads in the UK! 🫶🏼🐑

The amazing Roman pharos (lighthouse) at Dover, still standing after almost 2,000 years! The tallest surviving Roman structure in Britain and one of only three surviving lighthouses from the former Roman Empire. 1st-2nd century AD. 📷 by me #RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology

we made a critical error allowing reactionaries to make-up concepts like “biological sex” and frame them as non-ideological when it’s the exact opposite: people who undergo HRT *are literally changing their biological sex.* this is not some philosophical distinction, it is actual biological reality.

The Long Arc of Fascism teach-in starts tonight and our website is now live! Stay tuned for videos, photos and reports: www.longarcoffascism.ca

Many are comparing contemporary America to 1930s Germany and 2nd century Rome, but there's a better historical analogy: 1970s Jonestown.

The AHA is compiling resources developed by historians in response to recent actions by the federal governments. We welcome submissions from our members about op-eds, media appearances, or other resources they've contributed offering historical context and insight to the public. 🗃️

What Labour aren't getting (yet) is that this isn't their Section 28 moment - that came and went with the Puberty Blocker Ban. This is an inflection point that will make or break them for the next several generations, if they survive that long. I don't think they'll last past 2029 tho.

It’s so telling that JK’s celebration is her, alone in her wealth, boasting about her ‘mission’. Not even pretending it was about protecting women anymore. It’s just her and a bunch of truly hateful fringe lunatics having hunted a group of people for sport, which is what the abhorrently rich do

And if it isn’t him you’re wrong

It’s Good Friday! Fun to be an #Easter lover & #Byzantinist this year, bc it’s a Catholic/Protestant x Orthodox collab! To celebrate I’ll post an Easter themed #artwork a day, starting w/ this 6thc Paschal Calendar, showing the dates from 532-626 AD. 📍Ravenna, Italy. #byzantinehistory #historian

Jenny Holzer, The Beginning of the War will be Secret

Stuff is sad&bad rn, but my dad sent me photos of these votive crowns from 7thc #Spain & they’ve gotten me over some severe writer’s block that has been impacting my #novel progress, so I’m trying to focus on small wins. Humanity makes beautiful things & deserves more than this current moment.

I will never understand how a group of bigoted women go all out to destroy the rights of a tiny, marginalised group of predominantly harmless women instead of using their centuries of built up rage to actively destroy the patriarchy and the actual men who do us real harm.

I’m finding the news so desperately bleak and upsetting — it feels like so many of the promises made to us about democracy, technology, justice, and economy are souring into a proto-dystopia

Tag urself I’m “birdbrains” !!!

The first recorded strike in history took place almost 3,200 years ago! The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions! Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me #AncientBlueSky 🏺 #Archaeology

My husband has taught human reproduction and development to the Cambridge medics for over three decades. When people start banging on about "only two biological sexes" he starts with "which sex: genetic, hormonal, or gonadal"? Biological sex is not binary. www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-...

The kind of language that usually justifies some pretty heinous fucking historical atrocities!

And I’m sure when we all make accounts to use our free speech and call her a pathetic loser we’ll be allowed to remain on the platform and continue doing so :)

With every fibre of my being: Fuck the UK Supreme Court. Fuck the transphobic fascist bullshit this country is succumbing to. To paraphrase the great David Lynch: Since you can’t fix your hearts: die.

Map of Islamic expansion in the Mediterranean from the 7th-8th centuries AD (and some later!) It has often been thought that Islamic expansion caused a 'green revolution', through the introduction of new crops and agricultural techniques to regions under Muslim rule 🏺 1/3

I was able to read this today and recommend it to all. It's a good read and a great starting point for trying to understand the "Byzantine" problem.