Helen Davies

A man working a plow in a field - carried by a small elephant. This detail is from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographiae uniuersalis, vol. 6, 1550.

In 1550, one Elephant Power (EP) was the equivalent of 10 Horse Power (HP).

y'all. my best friend is in baltimore for a death and dying conference. (she is a grief counselor). I am so beyond thrilled that one hotel is hosting both AWP writers AND folks for the death and dying conference.

I can't stop laughing at the deeply weird time theyre all about to have

Julius Caeser would have loved this

Its just that poor @kalanicraig.bsky.social had the deeply weird idea that @eagatti.bsky.social and I would be helpful for her workshop. Instead of being the most annoying students in the class. and honestly, she should have known better.

Me to students: don’t just “ take the L” if something happened or didn’t go according to plan, talk to me and we will figure something out. Dont let it affect your grade like that.
Me to myself: well that clearly didn’t work out. probably should quit everything.

Truly, it is hard to explain how unhinged the emails that you send are when you teach the viking sagas. 7:15 in the morning and I just wrote to graduate students "I just want to flag that when you read two people died and then they sit up in the next paragraph that they really did die".

everybody in the south has just very calmly accepted that the pollen is trying to kill them

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I really need every millennial to realize that we have in fact just reinvented mid-2000s pandora but with AI? newsroom.spotify.com/2024-04-07/s...

its important to know how to legally summon a dead man to court

taking this as my sign to log off of social media for the day

Graphic flaying of St Bartholomew

It's cool, the Dow is over 50,000

Note to self: do not write an email calling your new chair of your secondary department, sunshine. do not.

I feel like as professors, it is important for us to model to our students the kind of academia we want to see in the future.

so currently trying to figure out how to make depressed blob day an official act of pedagogy

A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years

Screenshot of an email subject line reading "[Faculty and Staff] Trebuchet Available — Looking for a New Home by End of February"

Sometimes it is good working in higher ed 📚

Larry. in what is about to be the most insane message I have sent you in a while:

THE YURT NEEDS A TREBUCHET

my students decided that the Wife of Bath was incredibly relevant to 2026 and I will be riding that high all day.

Larry. knowing one of hte things hanging over your head right now. please do not wish that on anyone.

walked into my classroom to hear my students yelling about the Wife of Bath. Can't wait for them to discover Margery Kempe... next class.

YouTube video by Tkio Ian McKellen using Shakespeare to tear off the false moral mask that xenophobes wear across the west

Students sometimes ask me why they have to read old things in my classes and what relevance old texts can possibly have for them. Ian McKellen recited a monologue from Shakespeare on Colbert's show two days ago that answered that question.
the monologue : www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiw...

The whole dual appointment thing is wild when you get to see norms in two wildly different fields.

some MSI medieval palimpsests for your day

me, personally: I love traveling for MSI and to work with manuscripts.
Airport security, taking apart every electronic I have with me: not so much sharing that feeling of excitement and love with me.

maps maps maps. old maps @ Badische Landes-Bibliothek. Love a portolan map.

maps maps maps. old maps @ Badische Landes-Bibliothek. Love a portolan map. #happyMedievalNerd

Incredible email. emails you only get when you work at a university

every time I am in germany, I remain impressed with their ability to eat bread and cheese in different combinations for every meal. breakfast cheese pretzel.
definitely here to image things. definitely not here for the food. weird that you would think that frankly

Screenshot of someone’s paper published by English Place Name Society reads “Where’s Walh-y? Searching for ‘Invisible Briton’s’ in early medieval England”

unbearably funny paper name

my boyfriend keeps watching documentaries about the fall of societies. lol this is probably fine... right?

the thing about our collaboration increasingly being out there in written form is that more and more pople are going to witness the joyful chaos of the helen and larry show that students have been witnessing for years