Diane Watt
@dianewatt.bsky.social
📤 1612
📥 461
📝 214
Writer, academic, medievalist, queer
pinned post!
Margaret Paston’s will at the British Library’s Medieval Women Exhibition. You’re welcome.
about 1 year ago
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Solstice sunrise
6 days ago
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Diane Watt
Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her)
10 days ago
Clay letters from ancient Mesopotamia are alive with idiom, sayings, and everyday language that I love. Here are just a few random ones so you can enjoy them too.
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Diane Watt
Lesley A Hall
11 days ago
When I was in Camden Town yesterday getting my eyes tested, I saw that the historic ladies loo on Parkway now had a plaque (local Camden scheme, not blue, yet):
www.blueplaques.net/show_images....
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The Yugin Plaques website
https://www.blueplaques.net/show_images.php?file=images/large/First%20Womens%20Toilets.jpg&na=First%20Womens%20Toilets%20(id=9099)&se=boroughs&t1=Camden&ct=&t2=935&pc=285
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Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
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Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic
More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/08/linguists-start-compiling-first-ever-complete-dictionary-of-ancient-celtic
19 days ago
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Diane Watt
Tim Newman
23 days ago
“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy”
www.economist.com/finance-and-...
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Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/11/26/investors-expect-ai-use-to-soar-thats-not-happening
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#illuminateGuildfordCastle
23 days ago
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H is for Hawk. Encountered this falconer and his Harris Hawk out hunting in the woods while we were on our morning run!
27 days ago
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Yesterday at West Horsley Place aka Button House from BBC’s Ghosts. Seriously haunting! I was in conversation with local historian June Davey about its putative links to Juliana Berners and The Book of St Albans. Amazing event, fabulous audience.
about 2 months ago
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Did medieval nuns care for their appearance? Rings, brooches, combs, manicure sets all found on the site of Barking Abbey.
about 2 months ago
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A 4000 year old carved figure found buried in Dagenham marshes alongside the skeleton of a deer 🦌
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Diane Watt
4 months ago
This came out earlier this week! Thank you so much to Yale University Press for all their efforts getting it to publication.
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Surrey in Autumn 🍂
2 months ago
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Diane Watt
Moira Donegan
2 months ago
The problem of course is that women will vote for misogynists, but men won’t vote for women.
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History Rage Podcast
2 months ago
🚨 THIS WEEK ON PATREON & APPLE 🚨 Not all of the five came from the stereotypes we’ve been fed. 🏰 Annie Chapman’s early life near Windsor and the royal world is a story few expect. Discover it with @hallierubenhold.bsky.social 🎧
www.patreon.com/post...
#History
#TrueCrime
#Victorian
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@bristolcms.bsky.social
here you go: on a trip to the Ridgeway with John Burrow and Basil Cottle!
2 months ago
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Diane Watt
Plashing Vole
2 months ago
Vile stuff. At my own university all new staff are employed via a subsidiary company to avoid the TPS pension (remember: pensions are pay) and we all fear the costing staff will be next. Management think staff are so desperate that they’ll accept anything. Remember: university managements are so…
add a skeleton here at some point
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Pleased to see such a great selection of books shortlisted!
3 months ago
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Diane Watt
Dr Ian McCormick
3 months ago
New analysis shows over 15,000 university job cuts and c. 4,000 courses "shuttered"
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1422...
#Highered
#Edchat
#students
#research
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New analysis shows over 15,000 university job cuts as UCU launches UK wide strike ballot
Universities have announced cuts equivalent to over 15,000 jobs in the last year.
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/14220/New-analysis-shows-over-15000-university-job-cuts-as-UCU-launches-UK-wide-strike-ballot
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Diane Watt
Carin Ruff
3 months ago
Today is the feast of Leoba, d. 782, learned kinswoman of Boniface who began her life in religion at Wimborne Abbey and accompanied B. to Germany. BSB Clm 8112, a copy of the Bonifatian correspondence, includes Leoba's letter from Wimborne ca. 732 introducing herself to Boniface. 🕯️#nuntastic
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Diane Watt
Carin Ruff
3 months ago
Here's another copy of the same letter from Leoba to Boniface in Vienna, ONB 751:
viewer.onb.ac.at/10B7BF3F
Thanks to Diane Watt for this blog post, which signals the folio nos. for the Leoba letters and includes details of MSS of Leoba's Vita:
blogs.surrey.ac.uk/early-mediev...
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Diane Watt
Dr Laura Sangha
3 months ago
Thanks to Jo for an important essay giving a first hand insight into the impact of a sector in crisis on academics and students 👇
add a skeleton here at some point
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Diane Watt
Dr Jo Edge 🏴
3 months ago
I wrote something on my time on returning to Goldsmiths as an associate lecturer, 17 years after graduating with my first degree. It’s a plea to Frances Corner’s successor to learn from mistakes made over the last 6 years and change course.
#UCU
#UKHE
ucucommons.org/2025/10/06/c...
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Cutting Corners: a message to the next Vice Chancellor at Goldsmiths
On 1 October 2025, a short announcement was put on Goldsmiths’ website to say that Vice Chancellor Frances Corner was stepping down with immediate effect. This came off the back of an announcement …
https://ucucommons.org/2025/10/06/cutting-corners-a-message-to-the-next-vice-chancellor-at-goldsmiths/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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Diane Watt
Ben Davies
3 months ago
Pleased to announce
@univeng.bsky.social
small funding scheme now open to members. UE will fund up to 20 projects up to £250 each to support research/pedagogy/continuing professional development activities in Lit, Lang, Creative Writing. See details here:
universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...
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University English Funding
https://universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreates-funding-opportunities/
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Diane Watt
The British Academy
3 months ago
The British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation are inviting applications from early-career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of Truth, Justice and Peace in Germany.
https://bit.ly/4nyWsmv
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Love it when a reviewer gets my book ❤️
3 months ago
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T o celebrate the forthcoming print publication of our Encyclopaedia and Palgrave’s 25th anniversary this year, four chapters are free-to-view throughout October.
blogs.surrey.ac.uk/medievalwome...
3 months ago
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Diane Watt
RCN History of Nursing Forum
3 months ago
#histnursing
- don’t we know it - invisible nurses wherever you look in the history of health care and culture
add a skeleton here at some point
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Diane Watt
John McCafferty
3 months ago
22 Sept 1693: d. Sr Mary Cary
#Benedictine
daughter of Falkland Lord Deputy of
#Ireland
& Elizabeth Tanfield Cary
#writer
at Our Lady of Consolation Cambrai
#otd
She was also a biographer of her mother.
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Really enjoyed giving my talk at the
#gloshistfest
and
@historyrage.bsky.social
gave me this great mug! Love it 🥰
3 months ago
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Diane Watt
Bex Luther
4 months ago
The talk by
@dianewatt.bsky.social
at the history symposium this morning was wonderful! I highly recommend her book about Margaret Paston!
add a skeleton here at some point
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Diane Watt
Carolyne Larrington
4 months ago
The Little Book of Dragons is published today (though you wouldn't know it from the British Library shop website). But all good retailers should be able to supply, unless you're in N. America where you have to wait a whole month for lovely dragon pix ..
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What a lovely location for the launch of my paperback yesterday—The Holloway in Norwich. Support your local independent bookshop.
4 months ago
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The Matlaske reliquary pendant. This is the sort of ‘device’ Margaret Paston may have worn and it was found around 3km from her first marital home in Gresham. Now on display in the Gallery of Medieval Life in the Norwich Cathedral Museum. I saw it properly for the first time yesterday.
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
My paperback is being launched tomorrow at the Holloway bookshop in Norwich. Do come along!
4 months ago
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My paperback is being launched tomorrow at the Holloway bookshop in Norwich. Do come along!
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
Steffen Hope
4 months ago
Job offer for medievalists at the University of Warsaw:
historia.uw.edu.pl/en/job-offer...
. My dear friend & colleague Grzegorz Pac is looking for a postdoc to join his project Recognising Saints in the High Middle Ages.
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Job offer for postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Medieval History – Faculty of History
https://historia.uw.edu.pl/en/job-offer-medieval-history/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMbj7FleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBMNXZpcDBYT3A3S0I5ZHRlAR4gS1Su7nD4viBYwVgc2qEtLgp4FwewzsOTxO7w6Vp2jOqXijoY5lm-_HhGjQ_aem_bhG-w_4vrJGczuaMusxjHg
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Diane Watt
U of T Centre for Medieval Studies
6 months ago
"Proofed," the Boydell & Brewer Blog's Series Focus: Gender in the Middle Ages: guest post written by Diane Watt and Jacqueline Murray, editors of the Gender in the Middle Ages series.
boydellandbrewer.com/blog/medieva...
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Series Focus: Gender in the Middle Ages
To celebrate the publication of the 25th book in the Gender in the Middle Ages series, we invited the series editors, Diane Watt and Jacqueline Murray, to share their reflections on its significance a...
https://boydellandbrewer.com/blog/medieval-history-and-literature/series-focus-gender-in-the-middle-ages/
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Bank holiday weekend
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
Sacha Coward (who did NOT die!)🎄🎅🌲
4 months ago
Well... This has made my month! Thanks Manchester, what an honour.
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I will be speaking at this free event in Barking and Dagenham! Sign up here
valencehousecollections.co.uk/events/barki...
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
Luke Seaber
4 months ago
It’s touching and wonderful the amount of people saying reading Pratchett has made them a better person, myself included. Was it
@adamchapman.bsky.social
I remembering saying that his downstream positive effect on UK society is something we should increasingly be considering as his readers age?
add a skeleton here at some point
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Diane Watt
Helen McCabe
4 months ago
Is it OK to post jobs here? Hoping so, as we're recruting 7 3-year Research Fellowships as part of a new Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Slavery in War. (More details below). Please share widely, and apply!
jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
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Job Vacancy at the University of Nottingham: Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Comparative Contexts) (Fixed term)
In 2025, the University of Nottingham and King’s College London will launch the new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War, funded by the Leverhulme Trust for up to £10 million over ten year...
https://jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=SOC214025
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Diane Watt
Ted Vallance
4 months ago
Deadline for this early modern PDRA role coming up at the end of the month. 12 month contract working on our ‘Inclusive Histories’ project. Happy to have an informal chat with those interested in the post.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Came across this interesting post about using medieval women’s own accounts as sources for role playing games
refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2025/04/02/t...
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The World Is Your Setting Guide 7: Medieval Women Special
A while back I went to the British Library’s Medieval Women: In Their Own Worlds exhibition. As well as being absolutely fascinating in its own right, it was a decidedly worthwhile visit from…
https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2025/04/02/the-world-is-your-setting-guide-7-medieval-women-special/
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
Heike Bauer
4 months ago
Head in the clouds
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Diane Watt
I can't wait to speak at this year's Gloucester History Festival on Monday 15 September at 12pm. Find out more and book your tickets:
www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/marga...
#GlosHistFest25
Instagram: @gloshistfest Facebook: /gloucesterhistoryfestival X: @gloshistfest
4 months ago
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Diane Watt
Greg Jenner
5 months ago
Really exciting new archaeology report showing that two people who died in 7th century Kent had West African grandfathers. It’s suggested they’d travelled here as traders and settled thanks to the Byzantine Empire’s trade network that linked North Africa to Britain
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Diane Watt
Lorna Richardson
4 months ago
Dan Snow being given more time in Radio 4 right now to talk about the early medieval burials with West African ancestry & global trade routes rather than the actual archaeological expert involved in the project. Steam is leaving both of my ears
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I can't wait to speak at this year's Gloucester History Festival on Monday 15 September at 12pm. Find out more and book your tickets:
www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/marga...
#GlosHistFest25
Instagram: @gloshistfest Facebook: /gloucesterhistoryfestival X: @gloshistfest
4 months ago
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This is a fantastic post about a fantastic research project by
@thorntonsbooks.bsky.social
— it could be an episode in AS Byatt’s Possession! It also highlights the importance of serendipity in research and also how online research will only get us so far.
thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/posts/blog/2...
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Finding Two Missing Thornton Manuscripts
Blog article - 23 June 2022
https://thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/posts/blog/2022-06-23-two-missing-thornton-manuscripts/
5 months ago
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