Wrapping up my first year as an Assistant Professor and I have to say I’m incredibly grateful! One student handed me two copies of their final essay. One copy, as they said, was for “our favorite Renaissance historian” and had a specially painted wax seal. I was honored ❤️😊!

Tonight's #SarcophagusSaturday from the #VaticanMuseums offers us two separate pieces: an extraordinary #lid with a reclining woman whose arm is wrapped round with a #snake, and a child's #sarcophagus with a parade of #Erotes imitating a #Dionysiac #thiasos. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Exactly 💯

We need more historians because history is one of the most powerful forms of knowledge. Just ask any autocrat why they want to control it! #TalkAboutHumanities

Had fun conferencing at #2026NetVUE in Kansas City last week!

#SpoliaSunday is every day at the #Aracoeli in #Rome. This mighty basilica took its form c. 1268 when it was given its long nave by its new #Franciscan tenants. Here is the interior of the #pulpit of the #Gospel, from c. 1200, full of #spolia including a reused #inscription. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Reading the latest edition of @itatti in which @robclines.bsky.social has an incredible essay on Panormita’s Hermaphroditus and the poem’s reception by Italian humanist Antonio da Rho. To my surprise I found one of my articles cited in his essay! Truly honored!

Enjoyed this piece on the role of small liberal arts colleges. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Happy Holidays to all 🎄❤️☃️

Crash #oilpainting #art

#ReliefWednesday takes us to the town of #Gabii, 18 km east of #Rome, where this splendid #antefix was found. This is #Typhon, vengeful son of Mother Earth and enemy of the #Olympian gods, done in a #Latial style identical to work found from the same period in Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺

For #SarcophagusSaturday, let's have a look at one of the terrific examples of #sarcophagus decoration lining the ground floor of the elaborate palazzo #Mattei di #Giove, reused as #spolia and enclosed in splendid #stucco #frames. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Check out my latest podcast interview with @authorgabegarcia.bsky.social

My interviews with @timfacciola.bsky.social and @dramaltempi.bsky.social are up on YouTube

Check out my podcast interview from a few weeks ago on Sicilian History #sicily

Had a wonderful RSA 2025 #Boston #phdlife #confrencing

Are you signed up yet? We're celebrating @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social's Humans: A Monstrous History, with comment & insight from @leahredmondchang.bsky.social @carolinepennock.bsky.social @tamaraw.bsky.social @fatricky.bsky.social 19 Feb, 5:30 (UK): www.crowdcast.io/c/monsters-h... #SkyStorians

Police report, Rome, May 1605: Caravaggio arrested for carrying a sword and dagger without a permit on Via del Corso, Rome 🗃️ #earlymodern #arthistory

Em dashes are my go-to writing crutch, thank you very much.

For #SpoliaSunday, a possible relic of the siege of the #mausoleum of #Hadrian in #Rome by the #Goths in 537, a good-sized chunk of #marble crudely shaped into a projectile, and probably in origin part of a piece of the mausoleum's lavish exterior decoration. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

Teaching history divorced from the concerns of the present is actually doing a bad job at teaching history.

New issue of the Journal of Semitic Studies Vol. 70, No. 1 (2025) academic.oup.com/jss/issue/70/1 @herbert-haberl.bsky.social

So, uh, this is my face. Apparently one should mark one’s calendar. If you were coming to this, what would you want to hear about my book? (I’ll be writing the talk this weekend).

I'm pleased to announce that Colonial Vocabularies: Teaching and Learning Arabic, 1870-1970, edited by Karène Sanchez-Summerer, @rachelmairs.bsky.social, Lucia Admiraal and me, published by @amsterdamupress.bsky.social, is now available open access from www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Looking back at my first academic publication…I think this is still one of the pieces I had the most fun writing. I can’t believe it has already been four years #Sicily #writing #mediterranean #academicwriting

2025 will go down as the year when all the subtext became text

This looks fascinating!!

With all the insanity happening in the world, how have I become this engrossed in the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni drama? #distractions #drama #shouldbewriting

At over 1,000 pages, Ole Benedictow builds upon his acclaimed study of 2004, drawing upon new scholarship and research to present a comprehensive, definitive account of the Black Death and its impact on #EuropeanHistory. Pay £80/$90 with code BB041 until 28 Feb 25. https://buff.ly/40TabMq

New CFP listed on @hsicilyonhnet.bsky.social

MAA News - 2026 MAA Annual Meeting: Call for Papers 2026 Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting: Consortiums and Confluences Call for Papers The 101st annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America will take place on March 19–21, 2026 on the www.themedievalacademyblog.org/maa-news-202...

I can’t wait to read this book!

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼Are you there, academic presses? It’s me, Margaret.

Looks like I have a new edition for my “to read” list.

Trying to get some writing done…lacking motivation. Maybe an espresso and chocolate will help? ☕️🍫 #writing #mondays #work

. "The shriveling husk of a waning moon..." —Angelina Weld Grimké #ForgottenPoets #blackhistorymonth #poetry

One of the most beautiful manuscripts I’ve ever seen in person #Sicily #archivalresearch #phdlife

New month, new releases! 📖 This month’s titles range from a look at a 19th century physician, a 30 year composer-conductor relationship, to how the European Middle Ages has been used in American culture. Discover our latest titles in our blog post: https://buff.ly/4haypaI

New issue of Ciceroniana On Line Vol. 8 No. 2 (2024): ojs.unito.it/index.php/CO... #openaccess Lecturae Ciceronis I, 2024. Le De inuentione entre philosophie, droit et rhétorique @cgracchus.bsky.social

For #SpoliaSunday, a fragment of ancient marble that couldn't have come from a #sarcophagus, as the #chrismon it displays is too close to the original left edge, and must thus have started life as a piece of #liturgical furniture. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺 #AncientBluesky 🏺

I appreciate a lot about @theatlantic.com but holy cow is the hyper focus on elite private colleges odd. The Big Story about higher ed I want to read is abt the staggering increase in tuition at public unis, gutting of regional comprehensives, and the collapse of state funding that made that happen.

Just some pictures of my trip to the Duomo of Cefalù in the Fall. What a beautiful place! #sicily #norman #romanesque

Thank you so much @barrytorch.bsky.social !! You’re absolutely incredible ❤️

Welcome one of our editors, @dramaltempi.bsky.social, to BlueSky! 🥳

Hi everyone! I’m new here. I’m an early modern historian, who focuses on identity formation in multicultural spaces specifically Sicily. If you’re interested in early modern Mediterranean history let me know 😊!!