Sorry to be the bringer of bad news.

Dame Averil Cameron obituary Historian whose sparky, innovative Byzantines challenged the stereotype of a stagnant society with nothing new to offer

A beautiful obituary for the great historian Averil Cameron by @tigerlilyrocks.bsky.social

The Olympics’ trans policy polices womanhood | Moira Donegan Sports bans have humiliated trans women and girls across America. Now, the Olympics joins in

I wrote about the Olympics’ ban on trans women competing, and the stakes of the new women’s sex-testing regime for female athletes, trans and cis alike. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

All my solidarity to colleagues. Another university 'management team' with zero sense of accountability. All too easy to blame the government. And enough with the rhetoric of 'improved curricula'. Impoverished curricula and skills that will not longer be transmitted - that's the reality.

This is horrifying. Such awful rhetoric. I am so deeply sorry. I wish you and your colleagues much strength. All my solidarity.

and Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
He said, All men will be sailors then, until the sea shall free them

—Suzanne 2:1-4

The kids staying away from school Absenteeism that rose dramatically during Covid-19 has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels. The costs are mounting

International in scope, well worth a long read. The knock-on implications for universities need to enter into thinking about HE policy much more systematically. The pile-them-high, concentrate-them-in-fewer-HEIs 'policy' exacerbates the negative impacts of these trends. With a sharing link for 3.

Since @stewartbrookes.bsky.social is visiting an especially famous Tall Skinny Manuscript™ today, I thought I'd drop a thread of the ones I happened across during the year of Saints+MSS. In no particular order...

This thread had some discussion and other exx.: bsky.app/profile/cari...

Did anyone else see this message in the clouds this morning? #LookUpAtTheSkyDay

Glossary of 2020s slang - Wikipedia

I have discovered that Wikipedia (definitely the encyclopedia of Gen X) has a glossary of Gen Z vocabulary. Will absolutely not change my way of speaking, but an interesting resource: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossar...

I had to check what 'rizz' meant. I'm convinced that students prefer us to be ourselves. I have become more and more comfortable in that conviction.

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Chris de Lisle and to the Attic Inscriptions Online team, for new inscriptions published today!

🔗AIO's latest launch publishes or revises all the decrees, accounts, and leases of the deme of Rhamnous in eastern Attica. www.atticinscriptions.com/browse/bypub...

This work owes a lot to yours, Claire!

Mount Etna in Sicily (April 2025). "Afterwards, he sailed to Sicily,​ and there he climbed Mount Aetna to see the sunrise, which is many-hued, they say, like the rainbow." Historia Augusta

Sunrise at Mount Etna in Sicily (April 2025). "Afterwards, he sailed to Sicily,​ and there he climbed Mount Aetna to see the sunrise, which is many-hued, they say, like the rainbow." Historia Augusta

Mount Casius in Syria (Jebel Aqra in modern-day Turkey). Photo taken from Samandağ in 2017. "As he was sacrificing on Mount Casius,​ which he had ascended by night in order to see the sunrise, a storm arose, and a flash of lightning descended and struck both the victim and the attendant." Historia Augusta

#HadrianFactTuesday - Did you know that Hadrian was an avid mountain climber? 🗻 He ascended two of the most famous peaks in his empire: Mount Etna in Sicily to witness the sunrise (AD 125), and Mount Casius in Syria, where he narrowly escaped being struck by lightning (AD 129/130).

Selling Pharmaka, Buying Health in Ancient Greece and Rome: Retail Therapy This book examines Greek and Roman pharmacology in its mercantile dimensions, studying the people who were involved in the trade, the places where they worked, and the consumers whom they tried to att...

It looks like my new book is out! It is dedicated to my students for all that they have taught me. I started thinking about this as a Postdoc (almost 20 years ago), but teaching has contributed enormously to what and how I wrote.

www.routledge.com/Selling-Phar...

¹ See M. Bloch, Les Rois thaumaturges. Étude sur le caractère supernaturel attribué à la puissance royale particulièrement en France et en Angleterre, 1924 (The Royal Touch : Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, trl. J.E. Anderson, 1973).

Solidarity. I'm so sorry.

"While some paintings of artists in their studios depict the moment before work begins or give a glimpse midway through the process, this picture shows a triumphant completion. Holding her palette, brushes, and a mahl stick, used to steady the painter’s arm, Schalcken looks out at us and points at her creation. This painting was once attributed to her brother and teacher, Godfried. But a cleaning revealed Maria’s signature in the upper left corner—making it clear that the picture is a self-portrait. This is one of only two known paintings by the artist." https://collections.mfa.org/objects/549580/selfportrait-in-her-studio?ctx=a825a090-74d4-4e9b-bfa5-5731d1426cc5&idx=4

Maria Schalcken, Self-Portrait in Her Studio, Oil on panel, 44.1 x 34.3 cm (17 3/8 x 13 1/2 in.), Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Meme. Photo of greek statue bust. It is not Philetaerus, but we will pretend it is. He can't object, and history is what we make of it now. The figure is looking to his left, and he has short, somewhat curly hair, plastered close to his head. Likely he has been exercising. The figure looks somewhat jowly, as befits one who loves eels a bit too much. He might do well to exercise, honestly. His nose is hidden behind the letter "T" in the meme text, but you can rest assured that it is glorious. Pseudo-Philetaerus's eyes are blank and vacant, making him look a bit like a villain from the Little Orphan Annie cartoon strip. You should pity him for his fate, but also be somewhat jealous because he is immortalized in marble while you are merely scrolling social media. Meme text reads: "Death ain't nothin' But a grave lack of eels" FWIW: this is a refreshing change from the usual worries about damnation and existential FOMO. If there ain't eels in heaven, why even go? Eelysium or bust, dawg.

Most of us worry sometimes about death and the afterlife. Most of us don't think about it in terms of eels.

But the 4th-Century BC poet Philetaerus was not most of us. “Fear death," he warned us. "For when you are dead, you cannot eat eels.”
🗃️🧪

I love the archives. Here is a diary from 1875 complete with dried flowers, beautifully preserved

NOUS is wrecking destruction all over the #UKHE sector. The list of clients isn’t pretty, seeing how they’re the ones with the most dire stories in a sector full of dire stories: Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Plymouth, Edinburgh, QMUL.

Who else has got NOUS in? Cc @timeshighered.bsky.social

Unsolicited writing advice, no 14:
Rejection sucks. But any writer who tries to explain their lack of success by saying “readers like trash” or “publishers don’t appreciate real quality” has no business expecting to attract readers, or a publisher. If you want respect, you need to show it.

We lived in Cambridge when my eldest was born. He had asthma and eczema. I remember the asthma nurse referring to Cambridge as the UK capital of allergies. Solidarity

As we mourn the great Averil Cameron, I point you to her autobiographical talk from 2017: on being working class and female in Ancient History wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/05/22/s...

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.”

After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

As if the world wasn't a dark enough place, just received world Averil Cameron has passed away. She was a scholar of monumental stature in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies. Her work on Procopius made a tremendous impression when I was still an MA student. And that's just the tip of iceberg.

Been talking about this for years: Skills wheels, compulsory team teaching, generic content that anyone can cover, modeled on Starbucks and stripping out the content of degrees to avoid a “single point of failure” (that’s management-speak for an academic off sick). This is how you kill HE.

Fido the Lion - a handmade toy lion looking up out of a packing crate. His mane is soft and fluffy and his feet are inturned. He has a 'help me' expression. He belonged to, and provided much comfort to, a young girl who in 1916 had to cross the Atlantic due to the war.

Two plaster casts of the Formby prehistoric footprints

A model of a ferry boat painted in multi-coloured patches with stripes and patterns - created to honour the wartime dazzleships. It is displayed inside a packing crate with labels and storage mounts still attached.

General view of the exhibition, where visitors are looking at objects displayed in or on packing crates.

National Museums Liverpool is 40! The World Museum has a special exhibition, which opened today, of 40 objects from the stores, chosen by curators and staff to represent the collections. Well worth a visit! My faves included Fido the Lion, casts of the Formby footprints and a dazzleship ferry model.

Congratulations! I wish you lots of success in your new role.