It’s #WorldMigratoryBirdDay! Bird migration is one of nature’s greatest wonders... Epic journeys across oceans, deserts and continents, guided by instinct and the pull of the seasons. Meet three extraordinary travellers spending summer in the UK… 👇

And away we go! OMGC 2025 is underway with Panel 1: Saints and Staging.

Registration for OMGC 2025, ‘Rituals and Ceremonies,’ April 24-25 at the Maison Française d'Oxford, is now live on our website! Follow the link to register for free in-person or online participation. oxgradconf.wixsite.com/omgc/event-d...

...and our 2025 program is now live, too! Check out the full slate of presentations below, including keynote speakers Dr. Helen Gittos (Oxford) and Prof. Aleks Pluskowski (Reading).

When we launched this channel, we promised river-based content. And wow, do we have some for you.... A misty sunrise walk for one Wolfson student at the weekend was rewarded with this most thrilling of sights.

Why are there Ostrich Eggs in Medieval Churches? www.medievalists.net/2024/03/why-... #History

These deeply beautiful maps show the migration patterns of––respectively––Curlew, Kittiwake & Blackcap. From this interactive migration atlas recording migrations of 300 bird species: migrationatlas.org Birds both tether us to places & stitch the world together.

I’ve been catching myself daydreaming about the PNW – specifically of the view from my old desk and trips to the Olympic Peninsula. There’s something encouraging and tranquil about a skyline of evergreens and the quiet of mossy forest. Perhaps it’s that the current milieu is deficient in both.

Great read with concrete recommendations to combat the denialism surrounding the 6th exinction. « As with climate change, the biodiversity crisis is happening whether or not people believe or directly experience it ».

Since yesterday’s MS damaged by a canon ball was a hit, I figured I’d continue sharing objects from my overflowing folder of museum/archive snapshots. Today I give you the historian’s version of r/whatismycookiecutter: what is my Iron Age brooch? (Moesgaard Museum, DK) 🏺 #archaeobirds #aarhus

A highlight from my trip to York: a manuscript hit by a canon ball! This cartulary (c.1345-1480) may have been in St Mary’s Tower during the 1644 siege of York. The shape of the damage led to the theory that it was hit by a musket/cannon ball. York Minster Archives, MSS XVI/A.1 #medievalsky #York

Some of the wildlife at Tresco Abbey Gardens, Isles of Scilly UK

What is something small that changed your perception of the past? #medievalsky Here’s mine: In De Avibus, Frederick II recommends spitting cold water on falcons & transporting them at night to prevent overheating in warm seasons. Never expected aristocracy spitting on raptors, but there you go. 🗃️

Did Foster the People (un)intentionally produce an album w/ appeal for medievalists? Bosch-esque art, a krautrock-jazz version of The Seafarer in Glitchzig… Is it just me?! (Also, the 🎺 solo rocks) My spirit out in the waterways, over the whale’s path it soars widely But the wind has other plans🎶

The OMGC committee is delighted to announce this year's CfP! We look forward to receiving paper proposals (250 words) from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’. The conference will be held in Oxford on the 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info on the CfP. #medieval #OMGC25 🗃️

Registration for the 2024 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference is open *until March 15*! Hosted by MFO on April 8-9, this year’s conference includes keynote lectures by Prof. Sophie Page (UCL) and Dr. Hannah Ryley (Oxford). www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/oxford... #oxford #medievalsky #conference 🗃️

I’ve read too much hagiography recently. My mid-term stress manifested as a dream of inescapable Apocalypse. I’m an advocate for historical empathy, but dreams of end-days (Friday of week 8) it NOT what I bargained for. 😂 #medieval #medievalsky #AcademicSky 🗃️

Reading Venantius Fortunatus’ hagiography of Radegund and I have a suspicion he was fed up with the nuns at Poitiers for not doing their chores. He likes to emphasize how saintly Radegund scrubbed the kitchen, cleaned the privies, and swept the pavements. Moral of the story: take out the damn trash.

I realized yesterday that cats are the masters of circular breathing. Talented little bastards don’t even have to try.

I am excited to extend a CfP to graduate students for the 2024 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference (8/9th April). We are looking for submissions relating to the theme 'Signs and Scripts.' Whether that means inn signs, theatre, spiritual signs... is up to interpretation! lnkd.in/eMjihfjc #Medievalsky

I'm excited to share my recent blog post on OMS exploring the cultural logic of Majapahit 'piggy banks' and their muddy origins in a global history of sapiens and sus. 'Writing in the Mud' is a challenge for historians to take inspiration from pigs and transgress comfortable disciplinary enclosures.

I’ll take this as an opportunity to plug Professor Urbanski’s new book “Medieval Monstrosity.” She was an inspiration and a mentor during my time at the UW and introduced me to Jeffrey J. Cohen’s work on “Monster Theory” which she applies in her book to Medieval Europe. A perfect Halloween read! 🎃

How to Make a Monster - an excellent piece by Charity Urbanski www.medievalists.net/2023/10/how-...

“October is the season of pumpkin spice, knit clothing, candles…” Nope, sorry, it’s poofy bird season. Always has been, always will be. (Drawing of a rather portly chickadee enjoying a sunset from my grade-school storybook project. Even little me was interested in non-human animal perspectives.)

I love going into a supervision meeting full of doubt and emerging from the office with inspiration and a clear sense of direction. Real heroes don’t wear capes.

Just finished S1 of "Ways of Knowing", a collaborative podcast project between The World According to Sound and UofWa. Such a great intro to analytical methods and disciplines in the humanities – including #EnvHum! Definitely worth the 90min listen. www.theworldaccordingtosound.org/ways-of-know...

I’ve been thinking about Cassiopea (“upside-down jellyfish”) way to much. Imagine getting to lie around all day in calm tropical waters, subsisting on the excess ATP from your symbiotic dinoflagellates. A friend of mine once said, “I wish I were a jellyfish.” I can’t help but agree.