Elizabeth Biggs

Tight turnaround but an open-ended job #medievalSky

Lessons from a Red Scare The American people are capable of turning the tide against repression.

"The American people are capable of turning the tide against repression even if that feels hopeless...the history of the first red scare teaches us that a better future is possible and worth fighting for."

Nice @davidrlurie.bsky.social historical meditation here:
www.publicnotice.co/p/emma-goldm...

This also isn’t true!!! There is a public consultation NOW OPEN and you can go have your say. Obviously they want to present it as a done deal but it’s not.

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/

They look like shamrocks, don’t they! They are fleurs-de-lys, the arms of France.

It’s a bit later that they change to the modern version with only the three flowers.

Tenure-track assistant professor "Early medieval history" (Univ. of Copenhagen) www.hsozkult.de/job/id/job-1...

J. F. O'Hea. A Scout of '98. "The Yeos'!!!". drawn, printed and published by the Freeman's Journal, 1891. Source: National Library of Ireland

For too long, the 1798 Rebellion was told as a man’s story. But hidden in the Rebellion Papers are women’s voices that witnessed, resisted, and sometimes fought. Through a new weekly series curated by @timvrti.bsky.social, we're bringing them back into the light.

Everyone should have the right to go to University. Not because it's superior. Not because a degree should be required for every job. But because everyone should have the opportunity to spend a few years learning how to think critically about a subject they are really interested in.

Aha- I was talking about two different possibilities for TV shows. Great and Little Domesday and then the later transnational lordships.

Incidentally, there was an Irish Domesday made later after the English invasion of Ireland, but we have no idea what was in it, because it was lost by 1285.

The Mortimers held extensive lands in Ireland, based around Trim. They also inherited the earldom of Ulster and the liberty there in the later fourteenth century.

A bare stage with a frosted glass backdrop and stage lighting above. There is one row of red seats in the foreground

Off to escape reality with … Hampstead Theatre and the RSC’s Titus Andronicus. Well, should be fun and gore all around.

I despair at being able to finish article drafts easily any time soon now that the British Library is suspending access to the collections for a week in December and until then, going back to on-the-hour only ordering.

Guys, you are a research library. Make it possible for people to do research.

Happy Michaelmas to everyone who celebrates or remembers it.

In medieval English Ireland, if you were the sheriff of a county and didn't turn up at the Dublin exchequer today without a good excuse, you would be heavily fined ("amerced").

Discover how libraries are helping the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to recover Ireland's history.

Join us for a lecture with Dr Sarah Hendriks and see the RIA Library's physical exhibition. 3pm, Wednesday 8 October. Visit https://www.ria.ie/events/ for booking

@virtualtreasury.bsky.social

In small lovely things, my granny is in long-term hospice care and last week her aide made sure that she could take part in a renaissance faire held in the wider retirement community.

Not sure if Granny had even ever heard of a ren faire before, but that she gets to experience one makes me happy.

I wish I had good answers!

I'm very conscious that teachers don't have much time to develop new lessons, which is why as an academic, I've been involved in creating resource packs to try to make it easier.

If you went to Bloomsbury on your way, Honey and Co is on my list to try for brunch as I love their lunch sandwiches and cakes.

Near-ish to Kings Cross is Sunday in Islington (amazing food, but usually a queue at weekends)

The Half Cup on Judd Street is good.

Dishoom in Kensington is quieter and more interesting than the Kings Cross one for brunch. Victoria unfortunately doesn't have a lot of options near the theatre.

I have really good brunch options if you want recs? The museums at South Kensington are always a good shout and usually have good activities on. The Christmas lights in Mayfair are pretty if you want to wander and people-watch on quieter streets.

Wicked will be amazing- it's such a good show.

And for a much bigger project with a huge amount of teaching materials: teachingmedievalwomen.org/resources/

And that's just the medieval stuff I know, which is a smaller part of the curriculum. Just imagine how much is out there for modern history!

Re last repost about teaching women's history in UK schools, it's extra frustrating because there are resources out there to tell much more interesting stories within the curriculum.

Full disclosure, I wrote this one: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/re...

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds Campaigners say key stage 3 curriculum plays to misogny and teaches a ‘false version of the past’

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

Same to you! I hope that we all end up with job security and a flourishing university ecosystem rather than this current wasteland.

I was in that talk too I think? If it was the one he did for those thinking about PhD/DPhils.

Of the medievalists in that year, there's three of us still around iirc, and one has a permanent job. I'm one of the lucky ones with a longish-term postdoc. But afterwards? No idea what I'm doing next.

“Cataclysmically bad”

This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised.

1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there:

frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/

🗃️

The sheer stupidity of it all. Knowing that there’s work that we could and should do, but that we won’t is just horrible. Hugs xx

Slightly diminish a book:

The Cat, the Witch and the Cabinet

Anecdotally as an NT volunteer, it's been really lovely to see more people my age and younger visiting as members or using the various offers that have been going around.

It’s one of the loveliest, isn’t it! I always love wandering up through the library to the reading room.

Non-HP MG/YA series that are rich in magic & exploration & coming-of-age, & are actually really really good, to share with kids in your life:
- Lioness Rampant, Pierce
- Chrestomanci, Jones
- Percy Jackson
- A Wrinkle In Time!!!!!
- URSULA LE GUIN’S EARTHSEA BOOKS
- Akata Witch / Akata Warrior!!!!