taking this as my sign to log off of social media for the day

It's cool, the Dow is over 50,000

Note to self: do not write an email calling your new chair of your secondary department, sunshine. do not.

I feel like as professors, it is important for us to model to our students the kind of academia we want to see in the future. so currently trying to figure out how to make depressed blob day an official act of pedagogy

A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years

Sometimes it is good working in higher ed 📚

my students decided that the Wife of Bath was incredibly relevant to 2026 and I will be riding that high all day.

walked into my classroom to hear my students yelling about the Wife of Bath. Can't wait for them to discover Margery Kempe... next class.

Students sometimes ask me why they have to read old things in my classes and what relevance old texts can possibly have for them. Ian McKellen recited a monologue from Shakespeare on Colbert's show two days ago that answered that question. the monologue : www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiw...

The whole dual appointment thing is wild when you get to see norms in two wildly different fields.

some MSI medieval palimpsests for your day

me, personally: I love traveling for MSI and to work with manuscripts. Airport security, taking apart every electronic I have with me: not so much sharing that feeling of excitement and love with me.

maps maps maps. old maps @ Badische Landes-Bibliothek. Love a portolan map.

maps maps maps. old maps @ Badische Landes-Bibliothek. Love a portolan map. #happyMedievalNerd

Incredible email. emails you only get when you work at a university

every time I am in germany, I remain impressed with their ability to eat bread and cheese in different combinations for every meal. breakfast cheese pretzel. definitely here to image things. definitely not here for the food. weird that you would think that frankly

unbearably funny paper name

my boyfriend keeps watching documentaries about the fall of societies. lol this is probably fine... right?

WE SURE DID

Screaming, but I just pressed send on a fucking BOOK PROPOSAL. **AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.** Fingers crossed they like what @helsinhashtags.bsky.social and I are doing about DH, I think you're gonna like reading it!

y'all. @liblarrian.bsky.social took one of our umm... varied? conversations and turned it into an article. with subtitles that refer to the original conversation. It is one of the best things I have ever read and my new fave writing that I have contributed to. sneak peek:

Winter storm prep: surround yourself with animate hot water bottles. Otherwise known as doodles

This whole month has felt like wet socks

Guys. So. What if Trump really is just wanting greenland cause of the Mercator projection ? Does this mean that everyone is now on team map history is important ? IS MY FIELD RELEVANT in the weirdest way possible?

I put a friend’a practice job talk in my calendar as “mock all” and honestly, I like this version better. For all of us.

having been trained in a lab environment means that I automatically assume that there will be at least three people around me on any given project. Turns out going into the humanities - not so much. its way more boring here on your own.

as an inclass exercise in medieval travel knowledge, my students are trying to describe platypus, narwhales, and Las Vegas without using those words (or the category mamels). This is the most fun, I at least, have had in the class so far.

in a zoom meeting while getting updates about police action on the campus of my former university following a campus shooting. just continuing in this zoom meeting. american life is genuinely surreal at times.

my only and eternal phd school advice: If you are a chaos gremlin (me), you should make friends with the most organized girl in the cohort ( @oishani.bsky.social )You will get things done so as not to piss her off - and for literally no other reason.

Well. That was an odd one.

happy "do everything besides prep for your spring classes" week to those whoe celebrate

Read this absolute banger of an article by Michelle Wang in the new issue of Speculum! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My little sister has been wearing my Uggs from college and telling people that they are vintage. She is two years younger than me

the line between satire and reality is almost non existent at this point

its that time of year again. when I get all the other things done besides my grading

ducking out of my uni department holiday party to write a letter to try to save my undergrad minor from being cancelled at @loyolachicago.bsky.social is a pretty good explanation of academia right now

one of my students just did a presentation on fashion as recession indicator. She spent a lot of time describing how she had looked for fashion examples from 2009. "Recension fashion has a lot of jeans and sweaters". One image had an outfit that is essentially what I wore to teach in today.

My sister just pulled my nice wool coat out of her closet on FaceTime this morning. And now I’m texting my mom like did I give this to her or did she steal it. Like my sister and I aren’t both in our late thirties

sudden stress about going into the last week of my first semester in Charlotte. *googles nearest mountain hikes* *runs away to mountain*

having to spend 10 minutes and search multiple apps/ websites to find the books that I was reading on the attention economy is admittedly quite funny.

always grade with a friend. then you get to see their facial reactions to their grading - and you feel so much better about your own.

the world may be a dumpster fire right now - but one of my students found out about Mandeville's travels while doom scrolling - and then did a whole project on it. tiny victories.

My department is hiring a tenure track assistant professor in in the visual arts, architecture, and/or material culture of the Islamic world. Please circulate! careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...

unexpected way to get grading done: everyone asked to get off the train. because of a police presence ahead. get left at a random station. well ok. I guess I will grade then.

I finally finished middlemarch and the immense sense of victory I feel is remarkable (also it’s insanely good if also insanely long)

One of my best friends is getting engaged. And she is not making me be a bridges maid. And really that is the true meaning of friendship

AI automatically summarizing my work in my own google drive somehow makes me feel dumber. make it stop please.

cleaning out my notes app. discovered I wrote my 2019 kzoo paper by texting a friend and then just saved the screen shots. wild move, past helen.

VidentesMSI members Catherine Albers-Morris (RIT) @helsinhashtags.bsky.social (UNCC), @eagatti.bsky.social (Elon Uni) presented on DH Approaches to Medieval Material Culture @ Southeastern Medieval Association. Papers inspired by work together + shout out to @kalanicraig.bsky.social, Heather Wacha!