Maxime Morel

Especially potent, and a good summary of some of my concerns about the process is this quote by @irisvanrooij.bsky.social : "No serious scholar or scientist in their right mind would want LLMs to produce their texts; and hence, also no student pursuing an academic education would want to do so."

Long train rides accross Europe have the advantage of allowing me to catch up with some reading, including this article warning against the pitfalls of forcing AI through academia. I agree with a lot of the points about the risks on the quality of research to come.
zenodo.org/records/1706...

The Column Hall of the Faculty of History at Warsaw University, where the conference took place. The room is flanked by massive colums, and sports fancy carpets and furniture, as well as 19th-century statues.

It was a pleasure to take part in #SplendidEncountersXII in Warsaw this week, investigating all the ways to "Fake it till you make it" in early modern diplomacy (perfect for one's impostor syndrome). Thank you again to the organisers for this lovely opportunity!

Our researcher Cosimo Pantaleoni defends his #PhD thesis on Venetian navy crews at the end of the #16thcentury , focusing on the condition of convict rowers on board galleys and connecting it to wider phenomena of banditry and piracy in the #earlymodern Adriatic Sea 👉 loom.ly/nOWcjao

“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/

🗃️

Mobilising knowledge as a political tool

Read the interview with our #PhD researcher Müberra Kapusuz on the political role of expertise in #17thcentury Ottoman politics, in relation with today’s debates on expertise and authority 👇

📰 #Fridayreads #Expertise

Struggling to participate in the Indian Ocean sea trade

Read the 🔓 #OpenAccess article by Michael O'Sullivan on the evolution of Ottoman shipping in the Indian Ocean from 1650 to 1900 👉 buff.ly/GN9hF8G

Part of our CAPASIA @erc.europa.eu project research 👉 buff.ly/K57rhlr

📚 #Fridayreads

Grazie tanto a Annalisa Biagianti per l'organizzazione; vi invito anche a leggere il suo contributo e quello di Andrea Addobbati sul cerimoniale marittimo, entrambi sono molto interessanti!

Sono lietissimo di annunciare la pubblicazione del mio primo articolo (sono diventato un accademico vero!), a proposto dei "battibecchi" di rango nella marina francese delle anni 1660 e del loro impatto. Potete trovarlo qui eum.unimc.it/it/catalogo/..., è disponibile in Open Access.

Thanks a lot to Annalisa Biagianti for organising this; do check out hers and Andrea Addobbati's contributions on maritime ceremony. If you cannot read Italian and are interested, do feel free to contact me for an English or French version!

I am immensely happy to relay the publication of my first article (Look Mum, I'm a real academic!), exploring how petty disputes about rank poisoned the French Navy during the 1660s. If you can read Italian, you can head to eum.unimc.it/it/catalogo/..., it's in Open Access!

Congratulations Lewis! It sounds like a fascinating topic, I'm looking forward to reading what comes out of it!

J'ai compté généreusement pour les périodes hors contemporaine, et c'est un peu à la louche car ça repose uniquement sur les titres des contributions, mais même avec une sacrée marge d'erreur ces chiffres restent ridicules

Le programme des @rdvhistoire.bsky.social est sorti! N'ayant rien de mieux à faire pendant les vacances, voici un petit décompte grossier des conférences de L'Histoire en Débat par période:
Inclassable: 24
Antique: 5
Médiévale: 8
Moderne: 13
Contemporaine: 104

Qui aurait pu prédire 🙃

How do perceptions influence intra-European relations?

📰 Read the interview by our #PhD researcher Klaudia Kuchno on perceptions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in #earlymodern Italian princedoms 👇

📚 #MyEUIResearch

I have arrived in Aix to take part in @ndh-network.bsky.social 's 6th conference, on "The World and Europe: Diplomatic Transfers, Networks, Representations and Practices". Looking forward to present on naval ceremonies in the early modern Indian Ocean later today!

🚨 CFP "Forced Mobility and the Making of Knowledge (16c Naples, Rome & Venice)"

Organised by Fiona Lejosne, Oury Goldman and myself
4-6 March 2026 @ehess.fr
Proposals in French/English/Italian welcome
Deadline: 1 July 2025

Don't hesitate to apply & share widely

ihmc.ens.psl.eu/mobilites-co...

Ceci étant le premier épisode enregistré à distance (c'est loin Florence), j'en appelle à votre indulgence sur la qualité de ma voix...

Une fois le dernier épisode fini, n'hésitez pas à parcourir les sessions des autres intervenants tous aussi passionants les uns que les autres ! Je recommande bien sûr le premier épisode avec @anastruillou.bsky.social
Merci encore à Lucie et Romane, et bonne écoute !

For French speakers:

Lucie Ecorchard et Romane Suchet m'ont donné la chance de participer à un épisode de leur podcast, L'Objet de la Recherche, pour discuter d'histoire matérielle des pavillons modernes et de mes recherches en général. Vous pouvez le retrouver ici: open.spotify.com/episode/66mF...

Members of the project will participate in the conference "Early Modern Diplomacy across the Religious Divide: Justification, Defamation, Obfuscation, and Misapprehension" (Dubrovnik, 16-17 May 2025)

Turns out explaining my PhD in one minute is even harder than writing it!

Thank you @eui-eu.bsky.social for the challenge!

Books for Review Diplomatica – Review List – May 2025 Anna Popkova (ed.), Disruption and Dissent in Public Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Hendrik W. Ohnesorge (ed.), Soft Power and the Future of US Foreign P…

The list of books available to review for Diplomatica has been updated! You can find it here:
newdiplomatichistory.org/books-for-re...

If one of them catches your eye, please feel free to write us at diplomatica.bookreviews@gmail.com. There's something for everyone!

That sentence may be worth the read haha
Will credit you if this becomes the intro of my thesis

a man in a knight 's armor is standing on a brick wall with his arms in the air . Alt: A French soldier from Monty Python's "Holy Grail!" taunts King Arthur, "so called English king", from the walls of his castle.

Found the French Monty Python soldier in my English archives today: "I hailed him [a French ship] and called to him from off my poop to strike [his flag] for the King of England. He made answer that hee wore the King of France's Colours and would not strike and immediately filled his sails"

A marginalia (marginalium?) of a roughly-drawn human face in ink in a 1686 record. The face looks somewhat confused.

This little guy from 1686 is an accurate depiction of my face when trying to read some of these records

This staging could be especially useful during peace congresses, such as the Congress of Carlowitz, during which Konstantinos Poulios demonstrates that strategies of negotiation worked best for diplomats able to combine an orator's arguing skills with a merchant's bargaining abilities.

La Méditerranée : un sujet impérial - Costanza Lugnani - OpCit ! La Méditerranée : un sujet impérial avec Costanza Lugnani Comment la mer permet-elle de mieux comprendre le fonctionnement du Saint-Empire romain germanique ? De qui le pavillon impérial, cet étend...

Nouvel épisode ! Et aujourd'hui, Costanza Lugnani vient nous parler du pavillon impérial en mer du Nord et en Méditerranée au XVIIIe siècle. De qui ce pavillon du Saint-Empire, hissé en haut des mâts des navires, est-il l’emblème et que nous apprend-il ?
pdca.st/FSw4

Updated prog for NDH6
Aix-en-Provence
22-24 May
ndh2025.sciencesconf.org
Thanks to Nic Badalassi as our host 👍
@luikki.bsky.social @dwebster.bsky.social @florianwagner.bsky.social @maximemorel.bsky.social @pavoljakubec.bsky.social @lukasschemper.bsky.social @karenskjoldager.bsky.social

Thank you!