they really said "they should have sent a poet"

Every photo of me teaching is hysterically deranged looking

Having an insomnia week - and so I can now tell you - that a sleepy time podcast exists in which they… READ BEOWULF TO YOU as a bedtime story. I. Just do not know what to say here.

Walked into my classroom to find my students had done this deep dive into 1995 pride and prejudice adaptation vs 2005. They did this for an hour before class. We are not reading pride and prejudice

Yeah sure go teach sagas and learn about data science and leave this fact behind. THAT SEEMS SENSIBLE

Another "elephant" of the past, this time from Johann Hartlieb’s Kräuterbuch (Book of Herbs), dating from the middle of the 15th century. #skystorians

at the start of spring break: I am going to grade three or four papers a day and be done by the end of break with no stress. on the last day of spring break, starting at 16 ungraded papers: well shit.

Happy March 15. Here is my favorite Ides of March meme:

please enjoy this remarkable comment that I found while grading my student's peer reviews. One student calling another out for thinking that their peer's paper was AI. I am in AWE of this. the directness. The confidence. The don't give me this AI-shit nature of this comment. just in awe.

upsides of digital humanities: you get emails like this. downsides of digital humanities: 6 years after graduating phd school, I am somehow still trying to get my brain to simultaneously work in two radically different fields. and like. I am tired.

“Fullones uḷulamque cano non arma virumq(ue)” 🦉 “I sing about fullers and an owl, not about arms and a man" CIL IV, 9131, Pompeii (IX.13.5), 79 CE, a graffito near a door entrance parodying the fist line of Virgil. ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/gra...

Many are the repositories whose digitized collections are held together by paper clips & twine paid for with an uncertain budget that may not get renewed in the next fiscal year because there’s long been a zeal to “just” digitize things but not to invest in their careful documentation & maintenance.

Sometimes I think about all the professors who I admired and was in awe of when I was in undergrad - as I send a voice note at 6 am describing a workshop that I will do instead of the abstract I promised to send in two days ago

I think one of the things that threatens my verve as a professor of medieval shenanigans is that I have been doing this long enough that I forget certain medieval theories are batshit. Breastmilk *is* processed blood. I see no alternative scientific explanation as viable.

The @nytimes.com wrote how the NEH canceled grants based on chatgpt www.nytimes.com/.../humaniti.... There are so many worse things going on in our world, as cities are bombed, people are displaced, and worse - and yet - turns out I can still be absolutely filled with rage about this too.

modern books: will they / wont they romantically the classics I am reading to try to fix my brain: Will they / wont they live Dracula: Will she / won't she stay dead

In 1550, one Elephant Power (EP) was the equivalent of 10 Horse Power (HP).

y'all. my best friend is in baltimore for a death and dying conference. (she is a grief counselor). I am so beyond thrilled that one hotel is hosting both AWP writers AND folks for the death and dying conference. I can't stop laughing at the deeply weird time theyre all about to have

Julius Caeser would have loved this

Its just that poor @kalanicraig.bsky.social had the deeply weird idea that @eagatti.bsky.social and I would be helpful for her workshop. Instead of being the most annoying students in the class. and honestly, she should have known better.

Me to students: don’t just “ take the L” if something happened or didn’t go according to plan, talk to me and we will figure something out. Dont let it affect your grade like that. Me to myself: well that clearly didn’t work out. probably should quit everything.

Truly, it is hard to explain how unhinged the emails that you send are when you teach the viking sagas. 7:15 in the morning and I just wrote to graduate students "I just want to flag that when you read two people died and then they sit up in the next paragraph that they really did die".

everybody in the south has just very calmly accepted that the pollen is trying to kill them

I really need every millennial to realize that we have in fact just reinvented mid-2000s pandora but with AI? newsroom.spotify.com/2024-04-07/s...

its important to know how to legally summon a dead man to court

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.