Carol Chiodo, Ph.D.

How a misread Arabic tale misled generations of historians about the Black Death's rapid spread Myths about how the Black Death traveled quickly across Asia, ravaging Silk Route communities, date back to a single fourteenth-century source, experts have found.

How a misread Arabic tale misled generations of historians about the Black Death's rapid spread

Paper: Mamluk Maqāmas on the Black Death. (2025). Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 25(4), 151-181. doi.org/10.5617/jais...

It sticks with you, doesn't it?

16th century printed Bible leaf held together with scotch tape

Here’s something really frightening for Halloween 🎃 😱📚

To celebrate the publication of the 3rd already #BestSelling womensart book #ReframingWomenPrintmakers
Sundays are all about women printmakers!

Thank you!

Updating my LEGO White House

This is heartbreaking - and a grim harbinger for graduate education in the U.S. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Are you in 1987?

The Internet Doesn’t Have to Suck Author Cory Doctorow says specific policy choices led to the deterioration of the internet web — and that it’s within our power to repair the damage.

Author Cory Doctorow says specific policy choices led to the deterioration of the internet web — and that it’s within our power to repair the damage.

logo for digital humanities summer institute

Join me, Ray Siemens @gworthey.bsky.social for our #digitalhumanities leadership seminar @ 2026 Digital Humanities Summer Institute. For a/o curious about or already in leadership around & about #DH!
dhsi.org/2025/09/30/f...
Intro Video: youtu.be/2dFWoeRs_pY...
Scholarships: dhsi.org/scholarships/

also, really appreciated your piece on mechanical fingerprints - enormously helpful for my work on Boccaccio in the US! 🙏🙏

any educated guesses as to the press? it’s described in the clip as being over 70 years old

YouTube video by Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) Oxford University Press and the Making of a Book

When I presented recently on the manufacture of stereotyped plates, some of my audience had questions. This fantastic clip from OUP shows how the molds were made, the plates cast, and the prints produced (on what looks like an Adams powerpress!) 📚#bookhistory youtu.be/sW7wsXuw2cI?...

In Boston, every day is No Kings Day

Paintings of Ophelia and other women languishing in the water, with the text, "How your email finds me."

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The 👏 power 👏 of 👏 primary 👏 source 👏 research 👏 in 👏 archives 👏 it's also known in some circles (though not all, alas) as intelligence.

NPR 'founding mother' Susan Stamberg has died Susan Stamberg, an original National Public Radio staffer who went on to become the first U.S. woman to anchor a nightly national news program, has died.

Absolutely gutted over Susan Stamberg. An extraordinary journalist and an overall great human being: www.npr.org/2025/10/16/1... May her memory be an example.

I like the hand movement on that - halfway between "my precious" and "let me calmly restrain my wrath"

same

Add this to your reading lists!!📚

HAHAHAHAHA so cool and genius and delightful!

Sponsorship Opportunities – DH2026 in Daejeon, South Korea

Partner with #DH2026! 🤝
Connect with ~1,000 digital humanities researchers from 60 countries at this landmark gathering in Daejeon, Korea.
Sponsorship tiers from USD 3,000-10,000
Exceptional visibility • Global networking • Real impact
Learn more: dh2026.adho.org/sponsorship-...

for all of my #dhmakes peeps: super excited about this new journal interlace-journal.org It builds on some of the fantastic work from Sarah-Marie Belcastro and Carolyn Yackel: www.toroidalsnark.net/mkbook.html 🧵🪡 💻

A reminder that we are accepting submissions for a themed issue at Computational Humanities Research journal 📙

Deadline is end of February 2026!

Review of Binding Media by Élika Ortega A review of Ortega's Binding Media. My conclusion is that Ortega's terminology—"binding media"—is a useful phrase that should enter the critical lexicon. It gives us the means through which to conside...

A preprint/author's original version of my review of @elikaortega.bsky.social's Binding Media.

Posted under OUP's self-archiving policy academic.oup.com/pages/self_a...

works.hcommons.org/records/kekj...

I'm so sorry - root canals are rough. So too is the endless maintenance of an aging body. I've flipped my outlook and my regimen - am currently training for the marathon of old age. So are you!

Bound and Banned in America: Giovanni Boccaccio and Anthony Comstock Few Italian authors can boast as varied a reception as Boccaccio’s in North America. From the marocco-clad octavo in Thomas Jefferson’s library...

📚 Friends and bibliophiles, I will be speaking on translation, censorship and the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Decameron in the U.S. at Berkeley next week. If you are in the area and want to learn more, please join us 😀 events.berkeley.edu/Italian/even...

The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist The long read: Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bi...

Whoa 📚 🏴‍☠️ www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...