Great end to the year for our Oswald project with an essay in the 75th anniversary edition of @historytoday.com. #MedievalSky @kingsartshums.bsky.social

It’s Welcome Week in the School of Modern Languages and we are truly delighted to welcome our incoming first year students studying German with us! And yes, the German Department is on Bluesky! Join and follow us here for all our news and community events!!

Welcome (back) to all our brand new students and returning students. We look very much forward to meeting our new first first year students this Friday during our welcome talk. We have reserved the seats below for you 😃

Es hat etwas länger gedauert… Aber jetzt ist es/er da! Der „Homo contractualis“👇Es geht um die Entstehung des modernen Vertrags und seine Konjunktur auch jenseits des Rechts: von der Selbstorganisation und Kommunikation bis zu den Liebesträumen des modernen Menschen

I think about this poem by Ian Duhig — about Jo Cox, the Labour MP assassinated by a man shouting ‘Britain first’ — every day at the moment. No other contemporary poet has looked so clearly at the political reality of the far right as a minority who must always be appeased

Finding out about the knob on the bottle return machine where you can hang your bag has been a revolutionary technology in my life

9 years ago we queered German History.

I won't share pictures of people in a demo that was banned for the security of the protesters (just saying) but it's BEAUTIFUL to see so much people in Budapest 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🤩

Happening today! Our second webinar for the ACTFL German SIG - "Teaching with and against the Canon" with Didem Uca! #LangChat Register here: my.actfl.org/SIG_WEBINAR_...

It is less than two weeks until our project conference, kindly hosted by @ucl-ias.bsky.social. If you’d like to join in the conversation, do register for a free place. @sarahbowdenkcl.bsky.social @uclhistory.bsky.social @lvhicks.bsky.social @davidpetts1.bsky.social @tostig1066.bsky.social

It was wonderful to welcome so many prospective students to the German stand at today’s Open Day in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol! It’s always so inspiring to hear all about your passion for studying German at university! #German #ModernLanguages #ShoutOutForGerman

We’re absolutely delighted that the German Department at the University of Bristol has been ranked 4th in the United Kingdom in the 2026 Complete University Guide, with a score of 94%! #German #ModernLanguages

Today is the last day at the NEH for me and many of my amazingly dedicated colleagues. We did our best to represent & serve the American people. To champion humanities research, teaching, public engagement, cultural heritage, infrastructure, and innovation.

Welsh universities have always been centres of excellence in languages, German in particular - no more, it seems. Cardiff is ditching excellent courses in German, Italian and Portuguese, and now Bangor is proposing the same for German and Chinese. Please sign / share the petition.

Stop cuts to Modern Languages at Bangor University 👉Sign the petition: chng.it/K2zRY6Jqqt 👉Share the petition with family/friends/networks. 👉Send emails outlining your objections. For details and templates visit the website: www.stopcutsinmlatbangor.uk/home/

It’s Pride Month! Use your super-gay voice and audacity to fight for your trans and non-binary siblings! Dance, of course, and slay, but the time for fighting is now.

We are thrilled that Susan Harrow has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Modern Languages & Linguistics Sub-Panel in REF 2029. Susan writes: 'At this challenging time for the UK humanities, it is more important than ever to champion research across the full spectrum of our dynamic disciplines.'

We are pleased to announce that Susan Harrow, Professor of French at the University of Bristol, is the new General Editor of Legenda. Legenda is the MHRA’s book imprint for new research in the Humanities with titles ranging from medieval texts to contemporary cinema. www.mhra.org.uk/news/2025/05...

If you want to find out about the first German translation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the subject of translating disability, my chapter on this has just been published in the book Narrative Universes of Disability. It includes a great image of Frankenstein's creature reading Werther.

Just over 5 weeks until our project conference 'Landscapes of Sanctity', kindly hosted by @ucl-ias.bsky.social. Details of the programme and how to register for your free place: www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of... @uclhistory.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social @sarahbowdenkcl.bsky.social

Oswald did make it almost as far as Verona - the church at Cerro Veronese dates from C14th - but Oswald’s cult appears to have been most successful in the mountains and didn’t take hold on the northern Italian plains. #OswaldHunting

We are truly delighted that the 20-year anniversary edition of the historical sociolinguistics network conference is taking place at the University of Bristol from 21 to 23 May 2025. It’s being run by our own Dr Anna Havinga (German) and Dr James Hawkey (Hipla) #HiSoN hison2025.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

Any other saints from the British Isles got a ski lift named after them? ⛷️ #OswaldHunting

Today’s church (No. 10) stands at 2220m. St Oswald under the Ifinger mountain was 1st mentioned in 1447 in connection with a dispute about grazing rights. The current chapel dates from 1879 as the earlier building (which was even higher up) was destroyed by a lightning strike. #OswaldHunting

Oswald church number 9 at Sankt Oswald near Kastelruth was an absolute stunner! On a C13th keystone we found our earliest raven and there were also wall paintings from c.1450 showing Oswald kneeling before battle. Exciting to find a raven together with a scene from Bede. #OswaldHunting

Today in Bozen we visited a former castle chapel dedicated to Oswald, the foundations of an Oswald church that was destroyed by allied bombing in 1943, and - the highlight - a C14th wall-painting depicting Oswald with his raven in the little church of S. Magdalena in Prazöll. #OswaldHunting

We had a day off Oswald hunting to visit Rodenegg Castle and see the extraordinary frescoes of Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein legend. Dating from c.1220, they are the earliest non-religious wall paintings in the German-speaking world.

New on our blog: Landscapes of Sanctity in Sankt Oswald oswaldusrex.co.uk/2025/05/16/l...

Don’t think Bede would even recognise alpine Oswald… #OswaldHunting

Very exciting new book out! #medievalsky

Nearly as exciting as all the Oswalding: new book out now! Writing Sin in the German Lands, 1050-1215 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Turns out that when Bede wrote of Oswald that “the fame of this illustrious hero was not confined to Britain, for the rays of his beneficent light shone far overseas”, he wasn’t exaggerating #OswaldHunting

Oswald is so present in the landscape around the church, first mentioned in 1197, from which the village of Sankt Oswald (Gemeinde Badkleinchheim) takes its name. The brook, which still supplies most of the village’s water supply, is named after him as is a promontory at 1863m! #OswaldHunting

In rural alpine areas Oswald became associated with the harvest and cattle and people prayed to him asking for favourable weather for their agricultural endeavours. We found this depiction of Oswald as a weather saint on a wayside shrine. #OswaldHunting

Today we’re exploring a landscape marked by Oswald. There is a church, hamlet, wayside shrine, stream and peak all named after him in this beautiful part of the Nock mountains, far from Oswald’s origins in northern England! #OswaldHunting

looking forward to this talk by @benschofield.bsky.social ilcs.sas.ac.uk/news-events/... @ilcs.bsky.social

Stunning panorama from the viewing platform that has been built on to the tower of the church on the Oswaldiberg #OswaldHunting

This morning we climbed the wonderfully named Oswaldiberg just outside Villach to visit the Oswald church on the peak. It was steep, but well worth the effort! #OswaldHunting

I’m one of those dodgy immigrants who came here on a spouse visa and got indefinite leave to remain after 12 months. The incalculable harm I have done to the UK includes dedicating my life to public service, educating thousands of British young people, and paying more tax than I’ll ever get back.

Just came here to say that I’m truly sickened by the extreme anti-migration turn of Starmer & his government whose Immigration White Paper makes the frankly astonishing claim that net migration has caused “incalculable” damage to this country.

I hope you’re not waiting for some clever defence of Starmer’s speech. As you know, I try to be fair and have praised him on foreign policy. I don’t think the White Paper is terrible, but ALL of the language surrounding it is inexcusable, insupportable, and indefensible. He can kiss my migrant butt.

2nd St Oswald of the day and another stunning landscape setting. Situated on a hillock overlooking the Wörthersee, the current church dates from C15th. Oswald’s raven was again prominent on the altarpiece. #OswaldHunting

Busy #Oswaldhunting with @oswaldsraven.bsky.social. Keeping my record mainly on Instagram, but lots of reposting here….

We’ve found our first Oswald (with raven on the altarpiece)! St Oswald im Rosental is first documented in 1267, making it one of the earlier Oswald churches in the region. Stunning rural setting in a wildflower meadow on the banks of the Drava River. #OswaldHunting

Getting ready to go Oswald hunting! #MedievalSky

Team Oswald's Raven is shortly to depart on a research trip. How many churches dedicated to Oswald of Northumbria can we visit in Austria and Italy in 10 days? Stay tuned for beautiful alpine scenery and baroque altarpieces depicting Oswald with his raven, as we travel from Klagenfurt to Verona!

There are a relatively large number of churches dedicated to Oswald of Northumbria, and surprisingly the majority of them are not in England! I'm in the process of mapping them all - not finished yet - but the pattern so far is quite striking! oswaldusrex.co.uk/map/

Excited to announce our project conference "Landscapes of Sanctity in the Medieval World", which will take place on 2nd & 3rd July, kindly hosted by @ucl-ias.bsky.social For more information and to book: www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of... @uclhistory.bsky.social

My thoughts on Hans Fallada have changed so much thanks to co-supervising an MPhil thesis that approached his works through the methodological lens of criminology (about which I also learnt a lot!) So touched to have been given a print of e. o. plauen‘s caricature of Fallada to remember the project!

Let’s keep the context up front. In early April masses of NEH grants were terminated as “an urgent priority.” Those included grants that fund 50 state humanities councils, which do community-based work all across the country. And rigorously peer-reviewed grants to individual scholars & orgs.