one of my favourite thing to spring on my old norse students is what a nightmare the production of the cleasby-vigfússon dictionary was

YES! I tell this to my students all the time! They even sometimes believe me!

Oh no #medievalsky

This is an inspired choice.

I definitely think that Cael Keegan’s article on “On the Necessity of Bad Trans Objects” would be a great fit, as it analyses some “bad” trans media.

I’m not sure yet - in my heart of hearts, I hope Melion (as a werewolf) is the one human. My student confirmed that his lover from Ireland will be Miss Piggy though, which I’m excited about !

A very exciting day coming up at the Barbican!

They’re making a picture book! They’re going to be thinking about issues of “stock characters”, genre convention, and pop culture in medieval romance through Muppets !

The students are good. I have fabulous creative/critical projects in medieval class - rewriting Wulf and Eadwacer as a story of deportation; Melion and the Muppets; 'bad deaths' in Völsunga saga; wetland (mis)management in Beowulf, just to name a few!

We thought we were living in a cyberpunk dystopia but this is actually straight from Warhammer 40K. The machine spirit must be appeased using the proper rituals. Blessings affixed with purity seals will keep the cogitator functioning.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

The President of Rutgers continues to dismantle DEI despite the fact that we are a state school and the voters of New Jersey roundly rejected all things Trump last November. It is infuriating. He and the entire leadership team at Rutgers are all Black people btw.

Exciting things are happening at UCLA next week -- "Odious Comparisons," a symposium I organised with Nancy Martínez! With a star studded program. If you're in the LA area, do join us -- in-person only, sadly.

update: they hated this and hopefully not me!

To my students: I’m sorry that Gísla saga has three major characters named Þorkell, and two major characters named Þorgrímur. 🤷

Helping to spread the word:

Western Washington University is hiring a one-year VAP in Medieval European History for the 2026-2027 academic year. Review of applications begins April 15, 2026!

hr.wwu.edu/careers-facu...

#medievalsky

Chag Pesach Sameach to all who are observing.
My heart is heavy this year. May we all find peace, freedom, self-determination, and sacred moments of love and joy.

📣If you plan on attending ICMS Kalamazoo or IMC Leeds, there are still some few seats remaining for the Digital Medieval Studies Institute. Join us for hands-on sessions with Digital Methods for Medieval Data!

#medievalsky #digitalhumanities #DMSI

This is silly, but what a gorgeous G!

This is why I think Judith Butler’s idea of a “phantasm” is useful for talking about “””gender ideology”””

Early modern literature job in my department!

Permanent which is the UK equivalent to tenure track

#earlymodern #acjobs

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

New on the SUP blog: in consideration of current events, we have put together a list of books on Iran that we hope provides context and provokes careful thought.

#ReadUP

one great consequence of teaching völsunga saga: all my students HATE sigurðr

🚨 LATE SUBMISSION WINDOW OPEN 🚨

We've had a withdrawal from one of these sessions and would be very keen to include another paper - please do not hesitate to reach out if you're interested, and to help us spread the word. Many thanks!!

#skystorians #medieval #medievalsky #premodernrace #imc2026

Sign the Petition Keep the Classical Languages Major at the University of Iowa

Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.

the party that wants to require ID to vote abruptly invalidating a thousand people’s IDs overnight seems like a pretty giant flashing red light

I’ve had that happen with Beowulf ! We’ll see how they manage with Völsung saga …