Official confirmation that Kirstie Gordon WILL be representing Scotland in 2026! She is still recovering from injury, so won’t feature in January’s qualifier, but hopefully there will be a “home” World Cup for her next summer. I’m delighted for her and for Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏏

I might have to leave Clair Obscur only just unfinished before my break from my desktop, which is very unfortunate timing...

I really feel like 3 days before Christmas is a bad time to 1) release job ads and 2) give people anything less than joyful employment news. Just wait until January, we are exhausted and we need a break.

For the first few years of my career I taught the Iliad a *lot* (in Greek and in English, in translation and modern reception), but since then I've had a couple of years away from it. I miss it.

I've been thinking about all the weekend's GenAI discussion, and it's made me think about the importance of selection as a skill. I've been highlighting to my students in the last few years that one of the things we're encouraging them to learn is selection:...

300 episodes in and still going strong - if you're looking to keep up with women's cricket from a really knowledgeable source you can't do better than the @crickether.com weekly! Congrats to Raf and Syd and here's to 300 more!

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a whopping 55% off in the Steam Winter Sale! Inspired by movies such as The Wicker Man & the works of M.R. James, with a little pinch of Twin Peaks and Lovecraft - our folk horror adventure is the perfect play for Christmas! store.steampowered.com/app/1182310/...

I am very bad at identifying the years around the changeover period - it's just taken me half an hour to work out that May 2027 is not, in fact, the coming May.

It would be good if someone would write a book on engagements with classics in early 20th century (middle class) women authors. There is a lot, in a really fascinating range of ways, and on varying topics. I would like to read the book.

ICB wisely on reviews: "I think the effect of reviews upon a writer’s actual work is less. A writer is too happy in praise to do anything but accept it. Blame he would reject, if he could; but if he cannot, I think he generally knew of his guilt, and could not remedy matters." #WCCWiki

I have been reading Ivy Compton Burnett this week - fascinating. NOT an easy read, but very interesting indeed. And then I discovered she was a classics student, too! Seeing if there's therefore more about her academic time which can be added to her page for #WCCWiki...

'Tell me, what was it that first convinced you the only black player on either team was somehow not to be trusted?' Top stuff from Ronay on a player I'll never got bored of watching run in. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

I always liked pinned threads, so let's finally do this again: Hi, I'm Aurelia, a historian at the intersection of Game Studies, Gender Studies and history. You can find out more about me on my website, but I'll also start linking some of my work below 👇 aureliabrandenburg.de/publikationen/

December's #WCCWiki editing session is happening on this Thursday 18 December 13.00-15.00 GMT. Do join us online for some gendered #Wikipedia editing to improve the representation of classicists online. Everyone is welcome! Join here: us06web.zoom.us/j/85192010168 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Also not particularly looking forward to a break focused on CV updating and job applications - a further impediment to research productivity!

I had many excellent plans of getting research done this week. But it turns out mostly I'm just spending it being exhausted. Hopeless.

So, have any historians here used Retool as a front end for data entry into a PostgreSQL database? Not sure what the right #DigitalHumanities # are, but perhaps #DigHum #DH 🗃️

Is there any part of Clair Obscur which is NOT sad? Not sure my December heart can take it at this rate.

Featuring chapter(s) on games, both focused and (in my case) more broad scope - I looked at Persephone's narrative roles across a range of games to argue that despite seeming variety, games do not provide a wide range of possibilities or, particularly, narrative agency, for this fascinating goddess!

Now that the paperwork is FINALLY done I can tell you all that 'Persephone in Love: Hades and Persephone in Popular Culture' will be coming out in 2026!!!

My December-January research to do list worries me. Especially given it all feels vaguely pointless. Oh well. What else is the winter break for?

When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!

🎉 SOLIDARITY SATURNALIA! 🎉 IO SATURNALIA! Our annual festive giveaway is here! 12 bundles of gifts, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is: 🎄Follow us, 🎄Repost this thread, 🎄And fill out this form: forms.gle/zMcHKZqGNC... Read on for prizes and T&Cs (UK&I only)...🧵

Der »Arbeitskreis Geisteswissenschaften und Digitale Spiele« (vormals »Geschichtswissenschaft«, kurz @akgwds.bsky.social) wird zehn! Zu diesem freudvollen Anlass geben wir (acht AKGWDS-Kolleg:innen und ich) einen Sammelband heraus. /1

One year a student gave me a panettone for Christmas, at the end of term. That was very good.

Also as a good historical games person I am recording absolutely every single moment in Gustave's journal. For those who come after! I don't even want to know whether there is any point, I am devoted to creating this imaginary historical record.

I have slightly anticipated the end of term by starting Clair Obscur Expedition 33 this week, and 1) I would quite like to now just finish term anyway so I can just play this all week, and 2) I'm late, I know, but I can absolutely see why this has so many award nominations. What a fantastic game.

Well that's a pretty definitive statement of what I use YouTube for...!

Accidentally had two different ideas for one abstract. As if what I needed at the moment was more things I have neither time nor employment to finish!!

Looking for an MA in Classics and Ancient History? Look no further! We are very excited about the launch of our new MA in Classics and Ancient History, now open for applications for a September 2026 start. For more information and to apply, please visit: courses.leeds.ac.uk/k149/classic...

📢 ATTENTION FOLKS!!! I'm stoked to say that our award-winning indie game Mythwrecked is now available on the Epic Games Store. Spread the news 🙌🏻

Quite depressed about my job situation today. And again thinking about how much better my work would be if I could just have some security in it. I have quite major projects especially in historical game studies that I would love to get going on, but can't, because I have no job next year!

From Early Access to eruption! 🌋 I’m excited to announce that Pompeii: The Legacy will fully release at the end of March 2026. A huge update lands before the Winter Sale, bringing new systems, story content, visuals, and ... #IndieGameDev #GameDev

This morning's video game teaching included discussing Clair Obscur with some students... and Time Princess' (the dress up mobile game) version of 'Helen of Sparta' with others. Feel like my gaming-researcher cred is now more than a little varied between the two groups. But we had fun!

It's week 9/10 of teaching, I am teaching double my usual allocation as I'm moonlighting on a colleague's module (games week!), and there's somehow no coffee left in my flat. (I've now been out of my flat more than 2 hrs, as I took an early train to London, yet this absence is still troubling me).

Her dialogue makes me sometimes concerned that the pop idol friend in Persona 4 is in fact a sociopath.

This week I am teaching two days of classical video games, and then two days of Antigone, feminist thought & Hegel. Very on brand (if somewhat intense) week.

Today is Creator Day on @itch.io, and that means you can go and play my rather silly vaguely Sumerian/Assyrian #Twine management game KEEP SACRIFICING OR THE WORLD IS GOING TO END! … To be clear… it-it's a free game. >_> You could play it anytime you want to. But you can also play it today! ^_^;

#WCCWiki holds a monthly Wikipedia editing session to improve the rep of classicists (v. broadly conceived) of those who identify as women & non-binary. Our next #WCCWiki meet-up is happening online on Friday 25 Nov, 11am-1pm GMT. Everyone is welcome! Join online here: us06web.zoom.us/j/85192010168

I'm delighted to announce that my new book, Artgames after Gamergate, is out now with Palgrave: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Der @akgwds.bsky.social feiert seine 10 Jahre! Huzzah! Und wir feiern mit. Gemeinsam mit dem Tobias als zwei Ex-ZK-Mitglieder und @hekabeohnename.bsky.social, @lhaasis.bsky.social und Alina versuchen wir uns an die Ursprünge, Herausforderungen und Erfolge erinnern. gespielt.hypotheses.org/8606

Der @akgwds.bsky.social feiert seine 10 Jahre! Huzzah! Und wir feiern mit. Gemeinsam mit dem Tobias als zwei Ex-ZK-Mitglieder und @hekabeohnename.bsky.social, @lhaasis.bsky.social und versuchen wir uns an die Ursprünge, Herausforderungen und Erfolge erinnern. gespielt.hypotheses.org/8606

Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other. Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq

Amazingly, the books I ordered far too late for Adventure X have been printed in time - so if you want a copy of the Heaven's Vault novels, we'll be selling them at our desk! Not all of these copies though, as I can't carry this many.

The Adventure X sale has started - and there are a tonne of inkle games in it (and many other games besides!) We’ll be there all weekend too so come say hi if you’re around!

It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!

The giveaway has begun! Go enter for your chance to win Mythwrecked for Steam! @kanaratron.bsky.social gleam.io/rc6C5/mythwr... #GiveawayAlert #Giveaway #indiegames #cozygame #steam #pcgame

Very pleased to hear that I've secured funding for some pilot audience studies in the spring - I'm going to be getting some people to play games and then talk to me about gender!

Myths & Legends: A Classics Competition 2026 has officially opened! Entries close on 2 March 2026. This is a FREE outreach competition aimed at Key Stage 3 students, which has run for over 70 years at Leeds! Find more information on the competition website: artsoutreach.leeds.ac.uk/our-subjects...

Just a reminder that this call is open if the overlap of history, fiction and games is your thing!