“Education will set us free … and that’s why I’m slashing Strategic Priorities Grant funding by £100m this year, cutting funding for nursing, computing and history courses, and creative arts, performing arts, archaeology and geography courses.”

Just appalling what is being proposed at Exeter: please sign and circulate. c.org/NvFWPSKhQb

'What is perhaps remarkable about the Exeter cuts is that they are targeted at some of the university’s most successful departments, many of which turn over a profit even after they have made enormous and increasing contributions to the central university budget.' Read, rage and weep.

The value of the humanities is more than just what people are willing to pay for it — it can’t just be a business decision. The arts and humanities are fundamental to the flourishing of our society; knowledge gathering, critical thinking, and creativity should be defended as sacred things

So many UK universities are hugely threatened by financial pressure. Most of them are perhaps not as renowned as the high profile institution above, but they all do vital teaching and research work which fosters knowledge, learning and societal development. They’re also key local employers…

Here's the link to MMA podcast webpage: www.multiculturalmiddleages.com/post/the-glo.... I'm looking forward to listening to this, b/c the trade in & lore about hunting birds offers a super opportunity to explore #GlobalMiddleAges questions. #MedievalSky

I’m delighted to see that the latest episode of the Multicultural Middle Ages podcast on ‘The Global Gyrfalcon’, hosted by @medivalist.bsky.social and myself, is now out! #medievalsky @mmapod.bsky.social www.multiculturalmiddleages.com/post/the-glo...

Looking forward to seeing this wide-ranging volume! Featuring a wee contribution from yours truly on the Irish Sea in the Norse sagas.

It's that time of the year again!

Rosamond McKitterick, my doctoral supervisor, has died. It is deeply unfair that someone so healthy should have been taken before her due time. But although I am sad, it is heartening to to think not just about the legacy left by her body of work...

I was never a student of Rosamond's, but her support and encouragement on so many occasions were invaluable for developing my confidence as a young historian. A profound loss for our field, but what a wonderful legacy she has left.

The planned gas-fired capacity **JUST FOR DATA CENTRE ON-SITE USE** in the US is the same as *all* planned gas capacity in India, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and China *combined*.

Great to see this in paperback! Thanks again to the editors for assembling this cool volume on borders across the Norman world incl. my article on “Ireland and the Anglo-Normans within the Irish Sea World: Rebels, Mercenaries, Allies 1066–1169”

Gleder meg til å bidra til dette arrangementet om kvinnene i kongesagaene i kveld. www.uio.no/forskning/sc... Det er fullbooket!

A great showing from Oslo at the Societas Celtologica Nordica conference in Helsinki last week incl. keynote from Kristen Mills. Thanks to @sfennica.bsky.social @metamedievalist.bsky.social and the organisers! Cool to see your students present

I'm hiring for a funded PhD in 'global' medieval history or trans-Mediterranean entanglements at my chair in Bochum, Germany, from 1 Oct 2026 — 3 yrs, your own project, 3 hrs/week teaching in the History Department, at 65 %of TVL-13 (~€2050/month after tax). Apply by 31 May — or please share 👇

Vikings Traded Falcons with Medieval Baghdad, Study Finds www.medievalists.net/2026/05/viki... great research by @medivalist.bsky.social and @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social #medieval #Vikings #Abbasids

I’m delighted to see this write-up of our article on vikings and the sudden appearance of arctic falcons in medieval Baghdad! #medievalsky

It takes time to learn things. This isn't the Matrix, humans are not LLMs, you don't just upload knowledge into your brain. It comes with time and experience and, crucially, a chance for your brain to rest and process what it's learned.

Fully funded PhD studentship with English Heritage and University of York on medieval monastic window glass: www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/...

We’re going to see a lot more of this kind of dubious research that uses technology to “solve and discover” things as the humanities continues to be devalued.

Norway's largest Viking age silver hoard has recently turned up near Rena in Østerdalen, Innlandet. So far 2970 coins have been found, dating between 980 and 1040: English, German, Danish and Norwegian. It's still being studied. #medievalsky #vikings innlandetfylke.no/nyheter-fors...

People do not feel this way about great products! www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Deis anseo do scoláirí na Gaeilge 👇

We're looking for an Assistant Editor for the Haskins Society Journal! Applications due by April 27.

It is genuinely surreal to watch both the U.S. and Britain decide to destroy their own world-renowned and extremely profitable university systems at the same time.

Brutal.

Some good news - a new issue of Early Medieval Europe has dropped! And it's a bumper issue, with six articles, not the usual five. Here's a quick thread on the delights awaiting you: 1/9

Birds might not be real, but they help you do real history! (This is extremely cool.)

Then @medivalist.bsky.social and @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social on the Caliph and the Falcons, tracing connections from Iceland to Iraq from a bird's eye perspective (open access) 6/9 doi.org/10.1111/emed...

I‘m very happy to see that the latest issue of Early Medieval Europe is now out, featuring ‘The Caliph and the Falcons’, that I wrote with @medivalist.bsky.social, now with actual page numbers! Check it out for arctic falcons, adventurous Scandinavians, ambitious emirs and more!

Database on vikings in Irish Chronicles AD 794-902 which was completed as part of my doctoral research (a looong time ago) www.celt.dias.ie/publications... #medievalsky #archaeology #spéirghorm

"we need kids to get an early start operating machines that are routinely wrong and may try to coax them into suicide and/or psychosis" is a fun education perspective i disagree with actually

The first women being admitted as undergraduates at Columbia University is something that happened in my lifetime. There’s a lot we take for granted that is ~2-3 generations old, and people in power are actively trying to undo a lot of it.

This makes me angry. Not unreasonably angry. I feel quite justified. I am minded to post again a poem I wrote in the fall (and shared fairly recently, so sorry about that). This time, though, it's got some art.

For some reason "AI is just like watching Netflix" is back in my feeds so I took that as a sign to update my data tracking for Netflix. The company's energy use rose 1% from 2021 to 2024. Compare that to: Google: 71% Nvidia: 88% Meta: 96% Microsoft: 119%

Fascinating paper! Congratulations to you and @medivalist.bsky.social !

Sorry women who survive abuse don't talk about it on your preferred timeline and would sometimes prefer not to talk about it at all but feel forced to do so because they feel a moral urgency as they watch their abusers get platformed even though they know they're going to get horrific backlash.

It is *fascinating* to me how quickly some people have gone completely from “we all must work in the office! human collaboration is vital and only happens in person!” to “I can replace all these pesky people with chatbots!” Definitely some commentary there about our society and who gets to choose.

A senior HE director today: ‘in future HE will be technology and process-led, not academic-led’. So what, exactly, is the point of universities beyond them being a cash machine for senior managers?

That's not a university. And why would any student come to a non-university? As was pointed out this weekend: we know this is not what students seek, from hard experience in Lockdown. bsky.app/profile/vox-...

such a beautiful piece! tremendous erudition, worn light as a breeze kudos to @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social and @medivalist.bsky.social now we just need a manuscript variant of auðuns þáttr vestfirzka in which he traffics a gyrfalcon instead… árnastofnun folk, i trust you’re on it?

Job alert! Three late antiquity postdoc positions on an ERC funded project GREEKWEST here at Liverpool - come join an amazing department! #medievalsky

"AI is not a magical tool built by people in San Francisco making millions of dollars a year and pushing their companies to insane valuations. Artificial intelligence is an extractive technology that relies on the brutal labor of underpaid workers around the world" www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Lecturer in Medieval & Early Modern History The School of History at the ANU seeks to appoint a Lecturer in History. Applicants working at the forefront of gender history between the 12th & 18th centuries, and on regions beyond Europe & Australia, are encouraged to apply. Applications due 19 April.

The corners that Ai wants us to cut are what make scholarship good!!

I’m delighted to see ‘The Caliph and the Falcons’ take to the skies at Early Medieval Europe! I had a blast writing this with @medivalist.bsky.social as we followed the extraordinary journey of falcons from Scandinavia all the way to Baghdad. #medievalsky onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Absolutely fascinating new work by @medivalist.bsky.social & @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social on the possible trading of Viking Age Scandinavian gyrfalcons that were gifted to the caliphs in Baghdad. "...by the end of the ninth century, the skies of Baghdad were filled with falcons." #archaeobirds 🏺🪶

Heartbreaking

Do you know somebody who needs to learn Latin from scratch or improve their Latin to PhD standard? CMS Toronto's summer Latin program is now entirely online and a remarkable bargain for the intensity and quality of instruction. Details here: www.medieval.utoronto.ca/latin/summer... #medievalsky