paper and creative project presentations in the feast and famine class are underway and we had some very fun presentations! pictured here: a video game about eating as a medieval nun and a mukbang youtube video of homemade medieval recipes!

the feast and famine class played a table top dice game in class today, using dice rolls to put together a medieval feast! 10/10 the most fun and animated day of class!

I sing of bees and a bear BL Harley 3448; Flore de virtu e de costumi (Flowers of Virtue and of Custom); 15th century; Italy, N. (Padua?); f.10v

Public lecture with @saveancientstudies.bsky.social youtube.com/live/wvODGwv... #medievalsky #vikingsky

“I’m more of an ideas man” - overheard in my class during group work

Looking for scholars (especially early career and graduate students) to write book reviews for Terrae Incognitae. We already have some great books available like... "Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci's World Map," Edited by Laura Hostetler 1/3

“The East African coast is home to the longest contiguous chain of urban settlements on the continent.” The nearly 2,000 miles of coastline is dotted with several hundred Swahili cities and towns which flourished during the Middle Ages. www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

These two glass plaques show Ariadne & Bacchus. One shows Bacchus watching Ariadne, who has been abandoned by Theseus. The other shows Ariadne reclining as a woman pours her wine. Cameo glass was created by layering & carving glass in contrasting colours. 📍 House of Marcus Fabius Rufus, Pompeii

the ta keeps falling asleep during midterm grading

How would you draw an animal you had never seen before? Edward Topsell’s 1658 ‘History of four-footed beasts…’ has illustrations of animals we recognise, as well as monsters. Although he writes about manticores, dragons and sea-serpents, even Topsell starts to question unicorns! [Cole 004Q]

Please get those applications in to become our journal’s new co-editors!

Got to represent Nazareth University tonight as a sponsor for the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Uncorked and On Tap event! I am so happy to work at Naz and so happy to live in the city of Rochester, with everything it has to offer. Cheers!

Please consider showing some love to Greater Rochester LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid! In just their first month of existence, Emergency Relief Fund has issued $500 in support and Trans Joy Fund has issued over $600 in support, both within our local community. These two funds really need your support right now!

@greenleejw.bsky.social visited the Feast and Famine class today to talk about, you guessed it, EELS! Not only did the students love it and keep telling me what a cool experience this was, but I got to hear more ab the work of one of my favorite “internet friends”! Thanks so much for visiting!

hey book nerds, uchicago press is doing their 90% off sale. i haven't looked through, but they usually have a huge title list, many from smaller partner presses. also: the website has a different discount code than the mailer. if SAVE25 doesn't work, try GREATCHICAGO25.

hey! me & @lollardfish.bsky.social wrote this piece for @slate.bsky.social about what's hot in 2025, because it's the Middle Ages! we see a retreat to the medieval as a (tacit) act of resistance against techbro authoritarianism. find out why... please read and share #medievalsky

Men: Ugh I struggle to even finish a book anymore my attention span is so cooked Women: It's called A Field of Fury & Roses and it's the prequel to A Palace of Thorns which I enjoyed almost as much as its sequel, A Maze of Mist & Fire. Each book is 800 pages of inter-species elven smut

This special issue was a joy to be included in! Definitely check it out (maybe not while eating though…)

The @artinstitutechi.bsky.social Lands a Staggering Haul of Neoclassical Masterpieces Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz have gifted the museum more than 2,000 works spanning the 16th to 19th century. by Adam Schrader for artnet news.artnet.com/art-world/ar... news.artnet.com/art-world/ar...

This is where you go to tell the National Park Service to restore the word "transgender" in its entry on the Stonewall monument. (Scroll down.)

Tournament Shield (Targe) c. 1500 Used in Germany & Austria for Hussarisch Turnier (tournament in Hungarian-style costume). The motto reads, "Although I am the hated bird, I rather enjoy that" Below the quartered arms of the intermarried Tänzl & Rindscheit families. (Met Museum)

Revenge killing for predation of livestock (and attacks on humans) are common reasons for attacks on predators. The coexistence of people, livestock, and predators is a difficult one that requires a great deal of investment and buy in from government and locals. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

not everything you love in your teenage years holds up but Green Day was cooking with American Idiot

spouse is making me watch “gladiator” for the first time. do we think i’m going to be able to be normal about this or nah?

I’ve decided the last chapter of my book is just none of my business. I can’t look at it anymore and plan to never do so again

1/2 Went to an international Holocaust Remembrance Day event today, and during the speeches, was reminded of the best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received. “Using passive voice hides the people who did things- and makes it seem like misogyny or racism just happens.”

#MosaicMonday #AncientBluesky #RomanHistory From the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, some rather alarmingly sized chariot-racing ducks. They bred them big back then - had special calipers for it and everything!

this is a little too relatable to me

i’ve never been so stressed in all my life #billsmafia

Cats! Rats! Bats! Today I am going to chat about witchcraft and animals. This is the last part to debunk the alewife and modern pop culture witch stereotype. Today, the part of the myth that states the cat familiar is from alewives using cats to keep mice from the malt. False.

Chess Piece of a Queen Spanish 12th century Walrus ivory, which was cheaper than the elephant kind. (Walters Art Museum)

spring semester core

the feast and famine students effectively derailed my lecture today by asking me to talk about empress matilda and the anarchy. i’m a sucker and they know it

If you or a scholar you know is interested in writing a book review for this, I am the book review acquisition editor for Terrae Incognitae’s Journal of the Society for the History of Discoveries and I would love to see this in our next issue!

this semester i am trying out using a discord server for my upper level classes to build community outside the classroom. in just one day they are already chatting, laughing (mostly at the strange things i say), and helping one another figure out schedules etc. i will continue to report back…

Yes, there have long been discussions about sex as a spectrum, not a binary. This is not new. Here's my review of a book about the medieval debate. www.academia.edu/83211724/Rev...

I've just started reading Paleontology in Public, which explores 11 case studies of how the science of paleontology interacts with the public understanding of it. Huge congrats to @chrismanias.bsky.social and 12+ co-authors, it's been a joy to see this come together. This book is FREE here:

Medieval Hunting Deaths: A Thread Hunting could be very dangerous (not just for animals) in the Middle Ages. Accidents happened and everyone from kings and earls to lowly peasants could be killed by a stray arrow, a hanging branch or a wild animal defending itself. 🧵7

Get thee to a nunnery ✝️

In love with this little guy and its toot-toot snoot 🥰#Peccary-form Ocarina Greater Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, 300 BCE - 500 CE Marbella incised modeled clay with slip H 4 5/8 in, 11.75 cm; W 2 3/4 in, 6.99 cm; D 6 in, 15.24 cm Denver Art Museum 1995.787 www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/19...

#PenguinAwarenessDay 🐧: Magellanic #Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) on 17th c. Dutch maps of Strait of Magellan: 1. 1602 Olivier Van Noort (I think this is the earliest depiction of one on a map?) storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img... 2. 1635 Jodocus Hondius library.princeton.edu/visual_mater...

this is how i feel today

A bit of history of the human-wolf relationship. 🐺 #animalstudies #animalshistories #landmammals #envhum

For #AppreciateADragonDay : A Natural History of #Dragons via @jstor.bsky.social daily.jstor.org/a-natural-hi...

my brain feels like applesauce but the article is drafted 🫡

Medieval African Fashion to be Showcased at Berlin’s Bode-Museum https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/medieval-african-fashion-bode-museum/ #AfricanHistory #MedievalFashion #BodeMuseum