Final(ish) Call for Papers for the ILO 2026 Conference on The Alterity of Deserts and Arid Environments. The abstract deadline is Monday (April 20).
We've received fascinating wonderfully diverse set of abstracts so far!
Full CFP Link: www.academia.edu/146003339/IL...
Call for Papers for our newest conference venture!
This one is co-organized by Tiana Blazevic, Charlotte Spence and myself, and the start of larger project on cultural ideas of demons and blood over a long timespan.
The link to the abstract submissions website: sites.google.com/view/bloodan...
Newest academic book review from me!
This one in The Medieval Review on an insightful volume devoted the examining the understudied short oral narratives within the Late Antique and Early Byzantine worlds.
scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/ind...
A reminder that the CFP deadline for the Imaginative Landscapes and Otherworlds 2026 conference closes in just under a month.This year’s theme being on deserts and other arid environments.
We’re received a fantastic set of abstracts so far, and there’s still room for more!
Nice to see the sea monsters book now up on the Kindle store for pre-order too, and set to be out in August (a month before the physical copies’ release date), along with a pair of very kind academic endorsements already!
Proofs to start off the week!
This one will be published in Folklore as part of their June issue. It was a very fun one to write, especially for this interdisciplinary context.
. . . And just got the front/back cover proofs now as well!
Proofs in for the sea monsters book with Bloomsbury!
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/a-zoobiog...
Just sent off the finalized chapters for Charlotte Spence’s and my edited volume with Trivent.
This has been fantastic working on a very international volume with contributors currently living in eight different countries. And, likewise, they’ve supplied a phenomenal variety of topics!
Following up on the recent publication of a special issue of Preternature (Spring 2026), which was based on papers from the ILO 2024 conference, we're happy to announce the upcoming theme for ILO 2026. The theme now turns from such aquatic spaces, to more desert-like environments!
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural Vol. 15, No.1 (2026) muse.jhu.edu/issue/56223 @projectmuse.bsky.social @psupress.bsky.social @seamonsterscholar.bsky.social @drpolina.bsky.social
Can happily say that we now have a (tentative) release date of September for the ancient sea monsters book with Bloomsbury Academic! 🐋🦈📚
It’s now been put up on their website for pre-orders as well, should anyone want to go ahead and reserve a copy . . .
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/a-zoobiog...
New bit of public outreach stuff out from me!
I was very much delighted to be interviewed for National Geographic on the uncertainties around identifying Procopius’ sea monster that he claims terriorized the ships around Constantinople for fifty years!
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
Exciting news on the academic publications front! Charlotte Spence’s and my Trivent edited volume,The Christian and the Supernatural in Late Antiquity, now has a finalized cover design!
I wonder how many people can name which biblical episode this is depicting off-hand?
We should note the language of “invasion” in her email (feels kinda Islamophobic ngl?!) as well. I’m a professional classicist, I have as much right to be on that listserv as Zionist professors, I’m not invading anything. 🤷🏼♀️
What she calls our “cabal” is actually… a research group, like any other. 😂
Excited to finally put out the programme for the conference we’re organizing here in Katowice!
Email bizancjum@us.edu.pl to request request a Zoom link
All times listed here are CEST (GMT + 2)
A PDF version of the programme with the full abstracts is at: www.academia.edu/129598297/Pr...
Finally putting this programme out into the world for the next iteration of the ILO conference - to be held online on June 14 (all times BST).
Eventbrite registration: www.eventbrite.com/e/imaginativ...
Officially have a cover design finalized for the sea monsters book being published for Bloomsbury’s Ancient Environments series!
The lovely depiction is from a fourth-century mosaic from Roman Sicily.
They’ve also put it up on their website for pre-orders. 😊
www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-zoobiog...
Thank you! Hopefully, I'll get to chat with Liv again on the podcast for the book once it's finally out too!
Thanks for the interest in this! They actually just put up the page for this on the Bloomsbury website - with the cover image hopefully to follow soon!
www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-zoobiog...
Delighted to put our CFP for a summer conference on nature in hexaemeral literature out into the world.
It’s being run by us here in the Center for Byzantine Studies, but we’re broadening our horizons for this one to attract a wider scope of papers on the subject beyond the usual suspects alone.
Nature is satisfied with very little, while nothing satisfies avarice. -Boethius, Consolation 3 Prose 3
I will not post much on this topic, but I'm the Head of Ancient History and Religion at Cardiff University. Our staff and students are nothing short of amazing. Those who know me will know that I'm doing all I can.
Also put this out recently - the CFP for the fourth annual iteration of the ILO conferences that have been co-organized by myself and Ali Norton.
Very much looking forward to seeing what sort of abstracts this year’s theme drags in.
Bit late in jumping over here from the decaying rot of the old place, but still looking forward to new academic friends and promoting my works here.
The main one right now is my forthcoming book entitled A Zoobiography of the Ancient Sea Monster for Bloomsbury’s Ancient Environments series.
