BBC today correct Nigel Farage's false claim to Nick Robinson on Political Thinking (13th February 2026) that net migration was only down due to an "exodus" of people leaving the UK since 90% of net migration fall was a fall in immigration. After my 3rd complaint!
www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedb...
It's so funny to me that right-wingers love to pretend to love the Middle Ages and the Crusades and all that and then complain that the Pope shouldn't get involved in politics.
Yeah, the papacy was famously an apolitical entity for nearly two millennia.
I am once again asking
CFP: New Research on Venetian Art.
Those interested in participating should submit a proposed title and an abstract (maximum 200 words) to venetianahg@gmail.com by Tuesday, 30 June 2026.
#venice #venetianart #cfp #postdoc #phd
Work/life balance, family, and exercise are important and should not be sacrificed on the altar of your research
Screenshot of an Instagram video capturing pope Leo with his mouth open in astonishment
Pop Leo asked if he should put on gloves to turn pages in the gorgeous Renaissance Bible and the librarian explained why it’s better to do so with bare hands. Glorious reaction.
Every rare books librarian & archivist feeling very seen, I gather. www.instagram.com/reel/DUcpEBY... #BookHistory
Burgundy background with pale blue/grey strip at the bottom with the pheonix logo in white on it, right aligned. To the left, 'Book Launch' in sans serif lettering is positioned vertically with the book covers to the right of it - Lillywhite positioned directly above Zanon. Text to the right reads: "Reforming Art in Renaissance Venice by Marie-Louise Lillywhite • • Cittadini of Venice: Shaping Identities between Networks and Patronage (c. 1530-1690) by Giulia Zanon • Join the authors in conversation with Alex Bamji and Philip Cottrell Wednesday 18th March 2026, 09.00 pdt / 12.00 edt / 16.00 gmt / 17.00 cet Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/lillywhite-zanon" The book titles are in an italicised serif font and the author's names are in the same serif font, without italics. The rest of the text is in a sans serif font that gestures towards a serif font. All text is in white.
#SRSlyGood BOOK LAUNCH! Join Marie-Louise Lillywhite & Giulia Zanon in conversation with @alexbamji.bsky.social & Philip Cottrell as they celebrate the publication of "Reforming Art in Renaissance Venice" & "Cittadini of Venice" 18 March 2026, 16.00GMT
www.crowdcast.io/c/lillywhite... #Skystorians
“First Among Equals: Visions of Equality Before Egalitarianism”
Teresa M. Bejan
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
Delighted to share the news of an upcoming public event organised by Queen Mary University and German Historical Institute of London. This event celebrates the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Communities of Violence’, by Prof David Nirenberg. This was a ground-breaking book that changed scholarly perspectives on religious violence and attitudes towards religious minorities in the late medieval and early modern periods. We are incredibly grateful to say that we will have Prof Nirenberg himself joining us and engaging in conversation with other scholars. They will discuss Prof Nirenberg’s work, its ongoing impact on the field, and the history of religious confrontations and religious persecution more broadly. We would like to warmly invite you all to join us for this event. It will take place on 14th April 2026, 5:30-7:30pm at the Art Workers’ Guild London. If you wish to attend, please register via the link provided. We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible!
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of 'Communities of Violence' by Prof David Nirenberg! He will be engaging in conversation with other scholars about his work and the history of religious persecution.
Join us on 14 April at @ghilondon.bsky.social 😊
#skystorians #medievalsky #earlymodern #medieval
The term for that is White supremacy and any coverage of Reform that does not include that term is complicit in whitewashing White supremacy. Sometimes things really are that simple.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
🚨 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
Poster for a talk that includes the following text: University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies and the Centre for the History of Ibero-America (CHIA) present: Núria Silleras-Fernández (University of Colorado, Boulder): ‘When the Political is Personal: Gendering Mourning in the Royal Courts of Castile and Portugal’ Wednesday 4 March, 4 pm GMT (online only via zoom). Please register at https://forms.office.com/e/pF2WeLQX3d The image background is of an elaborate monastic cloister - specifically the one at Batalha in Portugal dating to the 15th century (author Raph)
If you are interested in queenship, gender studies, or the history of death and grief, please join us on 4 March for an online only talk at 4 pm GMT. Please register at forms.office.com/e/pF2WeLQX3d #medievalsky #earlymodern #historyofemotions #historyofdeath #queenship #kingship
Less than a week away! Sign up now for an exciting evening of Scottish castles and a study of masculinity!
Opening pages of Pauline Stafford's British Academy memoir of Dame Jinty Nelson with abstract text: Summary. Jinty Nelson was a leading scholar of early medieval European history, with a special focus on Francia in the late 8th and 9th centuries. She was at the forefront of a generation that re-vivified the study of the early middle ages, in her case especially concerned with the working of the Carolingian political system and the re-evaluation of the role of the aristocracy alongside king and church in early medieval politics. She was a pioneer of the study of women’s and gender history, demonstrating not only its intrinsic interest and importance, but also that political history could not be understood without attention to both. She had a deep and humane interest in the people of the past. Her academic career was spent entirely at King’s College, London, where she was an outstanding and much-loved teacher. Her professional contribution and recognition went far beyond that, and were marked by her election in 2000 as the first woman President of the Royal Historical Society. She became a champion of the subject and its teaching, wherever that was practised. In 2006 she was made a Dame of the British Empire for services to History.
Now available, the British Academy memoir of Dame Jinty Nelson (1942-2024), historian and first female President of the Royal Historical Society: bit.ly/4qUa0ua
The memoir is written by Professor Pauline Stafford @pstafford.bsky.social and available via @britishacademy.bsky.social #Skystorians
More very sad news for medievalists … www.cai.cam.ac.uk/news/david-a...
Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power
Ill Colloquium on Late Medieval and Early Modern Cities in Europe: Moving and Being Moved Call for Papers London, 11-12 June 2026 We are delighted to launch the Call for Papers for the III Colloquium on Late Medieval and Early Modern Cities in Europe, which will take place in London on 11-12 June 2026. After two successful editions, this year's Colloquium will focus on movements) within and accross late medieval and early modern cities (ca. 1300-1800). Topics to be addressed may include but are not limited to: • Mobile people in urban centres, e.g. migrants, merchants, vagrants, enslaved people, minstrels, mendicants, and pilgrims. • The exchange of goods and knowledge. • Transitory urban events and performances that moved bodies and minds, including social uprisings, civic performances, dances and urban processions. • Lack of 'movement: considerations of what it means to stay put and belong in a city or to be forced to remain in a city. This is an interdisciplinary and international Colloquium which offers an opportunity for PhD students and early career scholars to share their research through 20-minute long presentations, and to receive feedback through constructive discussion. Established scholars will also be invited to present their research and methods and to contribute to discussion. There will also be opportunities for all participants to continue the conversation over coffee and lunch. Interested applicants are encouraged to send an abstract of 200 words along with a short bio to Ana Roda Sánchez (Queen Mary University of London), Eliot Benbow (Institute of Historical Research) and Emma Olson (University of Cambridge) in colloquiumcities@gmail.com by 31 January 2026. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us. We look forward to receiving your proposals and learning about your research!
*Reposted CFP with alt text*
III Colloquium on Late Medieval and Early Modern Cities: Moving and Being Moved
London, 11-12 June 2026
Deadline abstract submissions: 31 January 2026
Looking forward to meeting everyone! 🤗🤗
#medievalsky #skystorians #medieval #earlymodern #callforpapers #history
PhD Student Lucy Beall Lott (University of St Andrews) will discuss her research on a lesser-known Medieval saint for the London Society for Medieval Studies lecture series. Her talk, ‘Out of the Mouths of Babes': Reassessing the Lost Miracle Statue of Saint Rumwald at Boxley Abbey, is on 17th Feb.
A delegate walking across campus holding a suitcase and looking at their phone.
Registration for #IMC2026 will be open on Tuesday 10 February 2026! Are you getting prepared? 👀
Our hotel options this year are
Ibis Leeds Centre Marlborough Street
Ibis Styles Leeds City Centre Arena
Park Plaza Leeds
Radisson Blu Hotel
Roomzzz Aparthotel Leeds City Centre
#MedievalSky
Headline: 90 percent of Reform-supporting comments on social media are bots
Nobody could have predicted this.
One of the first things a Reform govern- ment will do is make sure the young are taught correctly about our history,
One of the first things a Farage government will do will be to make sure "the young are
taught correctly about our history," and if that doesn't set off all manner of alarm bells then it should. (MAIL)
Ed Muir told all of his graduate students that our job was to tell him and his generation why they were wrong. A field in which younger scholars aren't doing that is no longer a field. It's just a museum of itself.
FINANCIAL TIMES I was amused - and saddened - to read the latest instalment of the Brexiters' excuses for the poor performance over recent years of the UK economy and the UK's politics. In "Implementation of Brexit became a business fiasco" (Markets Insight, December 19), Paul Marshall acknowledges the cost of the UK's decision to leave the EU. But rather than acknowledge that his analysis was wrong - cutting ties with your biggest trading partner is never a good idea - Marshall blames bad implementation, and the fact that the EU didn't cut the UK some slack.
Implementation of Brexit by the UK has indeed been poor, but that's a direct consequence of the political crisis that everyone should have expected following such a major decision on the back of one simple 52/48 referendum vote at the conclusion of a mind-bogglingly uninformed debate by both sides. That includes the Brexiters' naive insistence that the EU would bend to UK demands and grant it all sorts of privileges not enjoyed by others. So, the roughly 8 per cent of GDP loss in UK output since the Brexit decision in 2016 is easily explained by three perfectly predictable factors: it was a bad economic decision; it has split UK society politically; and the EU27 has moved on.
It's time for those who led the UK down this disastrous path to stand up and acknowledge their wrong analysis and naive understanding of Europe. Until that happens, how can one even hope that the UK will begin to heal? Erik Fossing Nielsen Senior Adviser, Independent Economics (a London-based economics advisory firm); Former Chief Economist, UniCredit, and Former Chief European Economist, Goldman Sachs, Berlin, Germany
Letter to the FT that stingingly sums up Brexit and the shit creek we now find ourselves in.
A terrible idea (naive, prejudiced and uninformed) that has deeply divided us and left us poorer and less secure… but unwilling to face up to the damage we’ve done to ourselves. While the EU moves on.
This has been out a while now, but very happy to have written a short blog post for @lampallib.bsky.social as part of my recent placement. I delve into the interesting workings of Henry Wharton and what his choice of medieval transcription may tell us about his own lifetime...
monumentoffame.org
I'm a bit late to the party, but very happy to see the Constructing Masculinities sessions accepted. Looking forward to a day of fantastic new research on #premodern #masculinities @imc-leeds.bsky.social #IMC2026
Screenshot of the session timeslot information
placard saying "I have been accepted for the Leeds International Medieval Congress 6-9 July 2026"
Looking forward to rocking up at #imc2026 to talk about all the fun (and surprising!) things you can find in the wills of single men across early modern England, alongside other fascinating talks on fatherhood, masculinity, and emotions on the Constructing Masculinities Panel.
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
