I can confirm that the 'steady' hands of seventeenth-century surgeons were no better at handwriting than any other doctor... Any ideas what the surname of 'Johwhn' might have been? Do you think he actually knew? #palaeography #surgeonsproject

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE My home department at Uppsala University is advertising an endowed professorship in the history of science. This is the best position in the field in Sweden, and probably in all of Scandinavia. Apply before 30 April 2026. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.

We're about to do a class on poisoning in my History of Forensic Science course, and so it came up that #MadisonWI has had more than our fair share of serious criminal poisoning cases recently (1/x)

PUB DAY: Nativists attacked the extension of birthright citizenship for the children of all immigrants from the moment the Fourteenth Amendment was introduced. These attacks continued over the twentieth century... academic.oup.com/whq/advance-...

After many years in the works, Jim Jaffe & Marc Galanter's source book on panchayats is finally out! This will be very useful for teaching, plus it has a nice introduction on panchayats in South Asian legal history: orientblackswan.com/details?obsi... Buyers in the US can get it via Abe Books.

A little over a week ago I was up at Catholic U. to speak on a panel with John Langbein on the role of priests in the early history of the English common law. The panel was recorded if anyone is interested: cit.catholic.edu/events/the-p...

Larsen & McSweeney Medieval Treatises Alli Orr Larsen (William & Mary Law School) & Thomas McSweeney (William & Mary Law School) have posted Medieval Treatises and the Judicial Search for a Useable Past on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court’s recent turn to history and tradition has…

We South Asianists at UW-Madison are *so glad* it's full steam ahead for the 2026 ACSA with @uw-madsouthasia.bsky.social Asst Director Andrea Fowler @ the helm. The conf. chair will be @arunluthra.bsky.social. A million thanks to South Asianists around the world for your support earlier this year!

Giving a talk for Sydney HPS next Monday! Planetary Health beyond Spaceship Earth. Featuring the music and thought of Sun Ra

Now available: 'Essays on the History of Equity' edited by @david-foster.bsky.social and Charles Mitchell Charts the evolution of equity in English legal history from the medieval period to the present day ➡️ https://bit.ly/46a4BYr #LegalHistory #EquityLaw

Just discovered the newly launched ANTE website on global legal history--looking forward to learning lots here!

I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center: If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.

New blog alert! I explore how post mortem medicine is understood, by those working within it and by the wider public. I reflect on the history of the modern autopsy, whether it's fair to call invasive autopsies barbaric, and how compassion can shape what respectful death investigation looks like.

Really excited for @zacharyherz.bsky.social's new book, The God and the Bureaucrat: Roman Law, Imperial Sovereignty, and Other Stories, out now with Studies in Legal History at CUP. 1/6

Court, Credit, and Capital, A brilliant blend of legal, economic, and cultural history that reveals how credit and trust sustained commerce during the Dutch Golden Age 2/3

Back from presenting an early prototype of a new project mapping early 20th century undercover investigations at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History - including this poster.

Grateful for two recent prizes for Harlem in Disorder: - 2025 Ángel David Nieves Book Award for Best Monograph, American Studies Association Digital Humanities Caucus - Honorable Mention, 2025 Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize, American Society for Legal History

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

Overheard at work: "feeds two birds with one scone." I like that one better.

***Know Your Rights Information on the IEHS Website*** The IEHS website now has a “Know Your Rights” page with several resources to navigate the current immigration landscape: iehs.org/resources/ad...

Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact

We're excited to announce the launch of the MA Race and Empire at @soasuni.bsky.social convened by our very own Samia Khatun & Henny Ziai. The MA is enriched by the Histories of Capitalism and Race seminar series, running since 2022. For more info see: www.soas.ac.uk/study/find-c...

PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏 The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes. www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...

#30daymapchallenge | Day 26 Transport | Bike Map of Madison 🚲 Probably my most elaborate map to date, I launched my “Bike Map of Madison” as a print earlier this summer during @madisonbikes Bike Week. Now recently updated with the new @crono_madison location! ⭐

The CFP is now up for the 6th Asian Legal History Conference, which will be in Melaka, Malaysia (6-7 August 2026). Proposals are due by 1 April 2026 (Malaysia time): www.mmu.edu.my/fol/alhc2026/ #LegalHistory

So sad that Himal Chuli is closing, after 35 years of wonderful Nepali cooking on State St here in Madison, WI (including during the Annual Conference on South Asia #ACSA). Great idea from @kalramnath.bsky.social: someone should do an oral history with the former owners. Restos are such social glue

So I heard we’re posting super bowls. Here’s a Fatimid lusterware bunny. Islamic lusterwares originate in Iraq to emulate the sheen of Chinese porcelain, but the combo with highly animated-looking Fatimid animal motifs is my favorite. He even has a little snack. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

To mark the fact that today is apparently Superb Owl Sunday in the US, here's a collection of superb owls from Glasgow's architecture. Oh hang on, I might have mis-heard what day it is! 😀 #glasgow #architecture #archotecturephotography #owl #superbowlsunday

Those are some superb owls.

My most super bowl: distraught running figures with olives (from Art Fair on the Square, Madison, WI, 2020s)

Bad bunnies from long ago www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

As excellent as Superb Owls!

fortune cookie declares war on historians everywhere

Sometimes working with manuscripts gets us really, really close to the people from the past allowing us to hear their voices. This is a story of a letter from a schoolgirl to her teacher, written probably sometime at the end of the 9th or the beginning of the 10th century. A thread 🧵 #medievalsky /1

Congratulations, @mcsweeney1693.bsky.social!

Excited to see Maurits den Hollander’s Court, Credit, and Capital in print with Studies in Legal History at CUP. Court, Credit, and Capital uncovers how Amsterdam’s 17th-century insolvency court transformed insolvency law—from punishment to rehabilitation 1/3

Congratulations to Matt Sommer and Alison LaCroix #LegalHistory, as well as my University of Wisconsin History colleague Gloria Whiting

Hot off the press 👇Congratulations, Fadzilah!

Article by U-FL law prof @elizabethdkatz.bsky.social on often forgotten early female US judges—some obtaining their positions yrs before the 19th amendment. Image: suffragist & lawyer Catharine Waugh McCulloch, who was elected in 1907 as a justice of the peace in IL. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Legal history people: the ASLH conference will be in the Canadian Rockies in Nov.2026! Panel proposals are due March 24, 2026. The Call links to google sheets where you can find co-panelists & chair-commentators 👇 You can @ me if you're looking for fellow panelists, too.

Did you publish an article on regional, global, imperial, comparative, or transnational legal history in 2025? You should nominate it for the Burbank Prize--deadline June 1, 2026 👇

*How Commerce Became Legal* is finally out with @stanfordpress.bsky.social. Many thanks to all the friends and colleagues who helped along the way. www.sup.org/books/middle... (50% site-wide discount valid until September 8; 20% discount using code "CHETA20" after that)

🚨 PENN PRESS BLACK HISTORY MONTH SALE KLAXON 🚨 40% off a ton of great titles, including books by @melanienewport.bsky.social @randybrowne.bsky.social @johncraighammond.bsky.social and many more.... Kathleen Brown, Brandon Byrd, Kim Hall, Jessica Marie Johnson, Tessa Murphy, to name a few more!

My forthcoming book— For which I began research in 2006. Is now posted on the website for Princeton University Press. Cover will be added soon. The King’s Slaves: The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery

An open letter to @theguardian.com about their article last week about the Crown’s Silence, requesting that the Black scholar of Caribbean heritage who did the years of archival research behind this claim, and published it in 1979, Roger Norman Buckley, be acknowledged as the source of this reveal:

New book out soon by Ari Bryen #ASLH: www.cambridge.org/core/books/j...

For teachers interested in legal history.

I am pleased to learn that my forthcoming book is now listed on bookshop dot org, and there’s a nice little discount! Nice if you want to avoid the evil empire (the website not Man United) bookshop.org/p/books/whit...