Samantha Katz Seal

Yom Kippur begins at sunset on 1st October. Here is the Initial-word panel at the beginning of Kol Nidrei.
#YomKippur
Bodleian Library MS. Michael 619; Maḥzor for the High Holidays; Western Ashkenazi rite (Tripartite Maḥzor, volume 3); 1320-1330 CE; f.100v @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Britain’s oldest Jewish cemetery discovered at the Barbican A team of amateur historians found the site, which dates from Norman times, just outside London’s ancient Roman wall

@medievaljews.bsky.social and I were quoted in The Times last week about a project we've been helping on to commemorate London's medieval Jewish cemetery. A free exhibition on the site is now at St Giles Cripplegate church until 16 September. #medievalsky

www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Not explicitly medieval, but a great convo that's definitely of interest to medievalists who work on premodern race!

A bookshelf containing some of the books in translation I've read over the past few years - many by women.

An ongoing thread of some excellent books by #womenintranslation - all read since last August. 🧵

#WITMonth #TranslationThurs #BookSky #ReadWomen 💙📚

Very excited to read this!

Front cover for Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance, illustration from British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2 of Lady Bertilak and Gawain in the bedchamber. Gawain is lying down with eyes closed, wrapped in green blankets, and Lady Bertilak is wearing a spotted dress, seated beside him with her hair up, her arms outstretched in a loose embrace and touching under his chin.

My book, Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance: Typologies of violence and desire, with @manchesterup.bsky.social, is coming out next month! I would be delighted if you might consider ordering a copy for your libraries 💚

I was just reading about his participation in successfully petitioning the Kremlin to rescue the poet Avraham Sutzkever and his wife in 1944 from where they were hiding in the Lithuanian forests. He had some surprisingly strong literary interests.

Assistant/Associate Professor of Medieval History (1100-1500) - University of Tenn, Knoxville job with University of Tennessee Department of History | 37862790 The Department of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites applications for a tenure-track professor of medieval history (1100-1500).

Medieval History Job Alert! University of Tennessee, where I used to work. Unbelievably strong medieval studies. Unbelievable that they are hiring in this climate! Please share this post. jobs.chronicle.com/job/37862790...

"...graduates in computer science, computer engineering and graphic design all have unemployment rates at 7% or greater; young workers who hold a number of much-maligned humanities degrees—including English, history and philosophy—are all more hirable."

Joseph Ibn Hayyim marks the beginning of Torah portion Pinchas (פִּינְחָס) with this image of Pinchas holding a javelin and shield.
#ParashahPictures
Bodleian Library MS Kennicott 1; 'The Kennicott Bible'; 1476 CE; La Coruña, Spain; f.92r @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social

A refugee deported to Bhutan by the U.S. finds himself stranded and stateless Once deported to Bhutan, some Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees say they are told to leave. Many have since disappeared, while others are homeless and stateless, according to immigration advocates.

"Ray, who is in his late 20s, was born in a refugee camp in Nepal and came to the U.S. as a kid. He was recently deported to Bhutan — where he had never lived in and where his family faced persecution. Within 24 hours of his arrival, Ray said Bhutanese authorities ordered him to leave."

FANTASTIC post here from Lucy- check it out!

Girton Fellows solve a 130-year-old Chaucerian literary mystery

I'm so thrilled to have this published! Starting from a chat over lunch at @girtoncollege.bsky.social, James Wade & I chipped away at this & have made some fascinating discoveries.

The actual article should be published later today. In the meantime, more here: www.cam.ac.uk/stories/song...

I’m so sorry. I lost my own back in November and the grief has been enormous.

Saving this 1911 poster for the next time I teach the Wife of Bath’s Tale and gender essentialism.

Fellowships

Fellowships at the (stunning) Beinecke are open for scholars local + far (due Jul 31) + grad students (due Sept 15), and you're able to use materials from other Yale special collections:

beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fel...

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medieval History we’ve asked eight distinguished historians each to use an article from the journal’s first five years as a jumping off point to discuss historiographical trends. @tandfresearch.bsky.social

Photo (by David McInnis) of Australian artist Jimmy C’s famous mural of Shakespeare in Clink Street near the Globe. It depicts Shakespeare as known via the Chandos portrait, holding a skull like Hamlet does, and a quill, in front of a psychedelic swirl of colour.

📣 CFP: Shakespeare Quarterly special issue

Shakespeare’s Twenty-First Century / The Twenty-First Century’s Shakespeare

This will be Vanessa I. Corredera, Arthur L. Little, Jr. and my first issue as Editors! Please submit your finest!

More info: networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

In the extraordinarily unlikely event that anybody has managed to miss the *very subtle* launch of the CFP this week for 'Borders, Boundaries, Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages' just sharing this again...

Current RHS funding programmes include our next round of 'Early Career Fellowship Grants' to support academic activities. Grants are for a maximum of £2000 for early career historians to complete a discrete project.

The call for this next round runs until 5 September bit.ly/3ZAJfjK #Skystorians

Yeah, I don't know how I still manage to be surprised by how awful things keep getting, but ugh, this was a particularly nasty blow.

Hands down, my favorite admin duty is serving on my uni's Fulbright interview committee. The absolute passion and intellectual ambition of the students who apply, whether or not they get an award, is deeply inspiring. It is heartbreaking to think of this opportunity being taken away from them.

Noblewoman may have ordered brazen murder of priest outside St Paul’s in 1337 Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence notorious stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-lover

Latest coverage of ‪@medimurdermaps.bsky.social‬:

Noblewoman may have ordered brazen murder of priest outside St Paul’s in 1337

Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence John Ford’s stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-lover

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

#History 🗃️

It’s only in the mind of a white supremacist where a word invented by white supremacy to justify white supremacy can be hijacked by the victims of white supremacy.

This was such a brilliant piece, with an also unforgettable first line, “Edward III liked to dress up as a bird.”

From the NYT: Not Just More Babies: These Republicans Want More Parents at Home As the Trump administration shrinks federal child care programs, Republicans are backing policies they hope will allow more parents to scale back at work.

They want more MOMS at home. And not just because they hate women.

Their *economic* model depends on unpaid labor. And the most effective way to coerce unpaid labor is to create a second class of people and teach them that they're only "naturally" suited for labor they're forced to do for free.

YouTube video by Medieval Academy Muslim-Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages: A Conversation Between Sara Lipton and Hussein Fancy

If you missed last week's webinar: "Muslim-Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages: A Conversation Between Sara Lipton and Hussein Fancy", it is now up on our YouTube channel:

youtu.be/cFK_469PkNs?...

Ahhh, I'm so excited for this book and for you!! Wonderful news!

3 Medieval Networks of Memory: Writing the Mortuary Roll in Thirteenth-Century Britain 3 Medieval Networks of Memory: Writing the Mortuary Roll in Thirteenth-Century Britain was published in New Medieval Literatures 25 on page 59.

If you want some palaeography goodness, medieval female literacy, and a touch of digital humanities, @etreharne.bsky.social and mine Medieval Networks of Memory: Writing the Mortuary Roll in Thirteenth-Century Britain is now out. Really excited for this one!

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

While the near-total loss of the NEH is horrific, it has been death by a 1000 cuts for decades: the loss of summer seminars abroad, of postdoc funding, of all of the tiny bits of $ that enlightened K-12 teachers' & junior faculty's work & lives. Sarah & I will be mostly fine; the next gen won't.