Tessera

Donna Trembinski

@medievalatx.bsky.social

New to bluesky! Finally leaving the darkside that was twitter. Who I am: Professor of Art and Material Culture at STFX Settler living in Mi'kma'ki, unceded territory Specialist training in medieval religion and medicine Student of the global premodern

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Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 2w ago

This right here is why I asked to stop teaching Western Civ and began teaching the global premodern. Why are any of us still teaching a constructed history that supports Western exceptionalism and (Judeo)Christian nationalism?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

Hegseth: "We need students of western civilization and the pillars of our republic. Leaders who understand the faith of Jerusalem, the philosophy of anthems -- Athens. The power of Rome, and the freedom of Philadelphia circa 1776."

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last mo.

Forgot to tag Shannon in the original post, sigh. @medievalmcsheff.bsky.social @canmedievalists.bsky.social

Donna Trembinski@medievalatx.bsky.social · last mo.

Hey @canmedievalists.bsky.social, please join me in congratulating Dr. Shannon McSheffrey on being elected as a fellow to the Royal Society of Canada. This honour is well-deserved! Congratulations Shannon!

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last mo.

Karen Z @nidanmere.bsky.social · last mo.

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/adding-inj...

Adding Injury to Insult, Canada Edition

This idiotic trade war will hurt more than people realize

paulkrugman.substack.com

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last mo.

Lots of hating on AI on bluesky at the moment, but as a second reader for difficult emails, I appreciate it. I don't always agree with its suggestions, but just thinking through them is helpful. AI can't replace good writing (good lord no), but it can help. mitsloan.mit.edu/press/humans...

Humans and AI: Do they work better together or alone? | MIT Sloan

“When Combinations of Humans and AI Are Useful” is the first large-scale meta-analysis conducted to better understand when human-AI combinations are useful in task completion, and when they are not.

mitsloan.mit.edu

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As a historian who understands where nationalism can lead, I am wary of the nationalist fervour gripping our nation right now. It's stronger than I have ever seen in my 50 year life. But as a Canadian, I am also proud of how we are standing up for our country and its distinctive bilingual culture.

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In response, I give you two post apocalyptic novels, both excellent: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice and the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. (I also have quite enjoyed seeing images of Christopher Plummer ripping the Nazi flag today).

Cover of The Handmaid's Tale. Black background with a stylized woman with a white wimple and a red dress. In white writing at the Top "The #1 Worldwide Bestseller. Below that in larger letters Margaret Atwood's name and then the title over the image of the woman "The Handmaid's Tale".

Cover of Moon of the Crusted snow. White background with an image of a snowscape in the bottom third. In the foreground is snow with a red truck stuck and snowed over. In the background, electrical wires, trees and buildings. The writing on the cover reads at the top "Chilling in the best way possible"- Eden Robinson. The Title in larger letters "Moon of the Crusted Snow". Underneath that in very small letters "A Novel". Then the authors name again in larger letters "Waubgeshig Rice".

Kate Armstrong@brainchain.ca · 2mo ago

Also - please join me if you will in flooding Bluesky with Canadian culture. Music, art, film, TV. Let’s show the vibrancy of this place I’m proud to call home.

Middle East Medievalists @mideastmedieval.bsky.social · 2mo ago

MEM’s Board is welcoming nominations (including self-nominations) for the following positions, with three-year terms beginning January 2027: Vice President Board Member (1 position) Graduate Student Representative

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 3mo ago

There are probably some errors (I am still digging through material and will be for a while) but as a tool for visualization this was incredibly helpful. My next task it to try to link it to know medieval Italian route/road data.

Donna Trembinski@medievalatx.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Playing with AI as a research tool. I'm working on a new project on networks of care around Francis. I was struggling to visualize the geographies of the religious houses that existed in his life and the generation after his death, but Claude drew this helpful map. franciscannetworks.netlify.app

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Churches & Monasteries of the Franciscan World, c. 1200–1270

Assisi, Perugia, Cortona and the territory between — the religious houses active in Francis's lifetime, mapped by order.

franciscannetworks.netlify.app

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm not posting much these days, but am taking slow steps back into social media. I have been doing other things like writing this opinion piece (I don't really think it is career advice in spite of the tag), on teaching AI lit. in my Global History classroom. universityaffairs.ca/news/help-ai...

Help! AI stole my students’ brains! - University Affairs

Why professors must teach undergrads to think critically about artificial intelligence tools.

universityaffairs.ca

Stephen Brooke @sjbrooke.bsky.social · 4mo ago

here's a recording of a roundtable on London, 1984 @oupacademic.bsky.social thanks to @cndhistassoc.bsky.social and @medievalatx.bsky.social for hosting and @amyhelenbell.bsky.social, Catherine Ellis, Stephen Heathorn, and Guy Ortolano for their contributions: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oTi...

JCHA Roundtable | Table ronde de la RSHC : London, 1984 (Stephen Brooke)

YouTube video by CHA SHC

youtube.com

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The arts teach empathy, creativity, outside the box thinking, and generally enrich people's lives. The arts are generative and productive, and yes, technocrats that seek to cut the minimal funding they still receive, even in a financial sense. To the MLAs of NS who support such cuts, shame.

Donna Trembinski@medievalatx.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I've been taking a break from social media, but I am ready to hop back in. I could speak to the wider world (awful) but let's keep it local for now (also awful). Here's a very wise response to the Houston govt's planned cuts from Cornelia Schneider at MSVU. www.halifaxexaminer.ca/commentary/m...

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · 8mo ago

MSVU professor expresses 'deep concerns' about N.S. budget cuts - Halifax Examiner

I am asking you to listen to your constituents and not just engage in the very cruel trajectory your government unfortunately has started to follow.

halifaxexaminer.ca

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · last yr.

People of Connecticut and regions nearby. Come on out on September 16! Free and open to the public.

A poster for a talk I'm giving.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 4:30pm
Boger Hall, Room 112, 41 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, Connecticut

Free and open to the public.

"Extracting the Past: How the 'AI' Industry Exploits Art History and What We Can Do to Stop It."

Over the last several years, universities and museums have partnered with commercial technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, who have promised that their AI products will enhance both historical research and accessibility to historical collections. These promises, however, are not supported by the reality of what computer vision--the branch of AI most relevant to the history of art--can achieve. So why have major institutions in education and the arts been so quick to take up these firms' offers?

This talk responds to this question by providing an introduction to computer vision's origins in military surveillance, an overview of its development under late capitalist regimes of exploitative micro-labor, and an orientation to how computer vision works. However, the main focus of this talk is not what computer vision does. Rather, Drimmer considers the culture of the AI industry, its main objectives, and the dangerous vision for the future that it promises--and whether those promises are credible or even in good faith. This vision for the future has relied on extracting history, and art history in particular, and Drimmer argues that it is our responsibility as art historians to be knowledgeable about the forms this extraction takes. Drimmer concludes with suggestions about what we can do to protect the subjects and practitioners of our discipline, as well as education in the humanities more broadly, against this incursion. Drimmer does not intend an intransigent rejection of a given technology; rather this talk articulates a challenge that is grounded in knowledge of the historical origins and corporate practices of the AI industry today.

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Solidarity with the faculty Dalhousie who were locked out by their administration this morning. Thinking of them on the lines and I hope to be there to march with them on Friday.

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

More and more evidence to support movements of peoples in the EMA- here people from sub Saharan Africa buried in Kent. Every time I teach a finding like this to a class, they are surprised, because it up ends what they have been taught, often in grade school, about the hegemonic white Middle Ages.

Dr Tess Machling@tessmachling.bsky.social · last yr.

Lovely piece of work. I'm imagining the contortions the far-right history bros will be needing to do to get around this one... 🤣 #Archaeology 🏺 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · last yr.

Spread word! In memory of the late Walter Goffart, we kindly invite scholars to submit proposals for papers on a range of topics clustered around quintessential Goffartian subjects Maps, Migrations, and the Mechanics of Settlement & Taxation in Late Antiquity. To be held at @imc-leeds.bsky.social.

CALL FOR PAPERS:
MAPS, MIGRATIONS, AND THE MECHANICS OF
SETTLEMENT & TAXATION IN LATE ANTIQUITY.
PAPERS IN MEMORY OF WALTER GOFFART
(INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS, LEEDS 6-9 JULY 2026)

Just before turning 91 this year, Walter Goffart passed away on Friday 14 February at New Haven. For more than six decades, Goffart delivered seminal contributions to a wide rang of subjects, ranging from Carolingian monastic manuscripts, to Constantinopolitan policy on the “barbarian question” or Early Modern cartography.

In honour of his intellectual legacy, we will organize sessions and a roundtable at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, the largest gathering of scholars working on Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe. We kindly invite researchers at any stage (from PhD student to Professor) to propose papers on a range of topics close - but certainly not limited - to quintessential Goffartian subjects, such as:

- Critical approaches to ‘Barbarian’ ethnicity and identity
- Eastern Roman foreign policy on the West
- Late Roman institutional history
- The Early Modern and Modern reception of die Völkerwanderung
- The first historiographers of the Early Medieval Kingdoms

Those interested in joining, are kindly asked to send an abstract of max. 300 words (plus brief bio of max. 100 words), for twenty-minute papers before Monday 15 September to jeroen.wijnendaele@ugent.be. Accepted speakers will be notified on Monday 22 September, and are expected to arrange their own funding to cover expenses for registration, accommodation and travel. We will consider publishing select papers of sufficient quality afterwards.

Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele
(also on behalf of Guy Halsall, Michael Kulikowski & Danuta Shanzer)
Ghent University & Gerda Henkel Stiftung

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

This is amazing!

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD@greenleejw.bsky.social · last yr.

The other day I drew a subway-style map for The Hobbit, and it was very well received. Some of you asked if I could do one for LoTR, so I have! Forgive the eel watermark; I'm working on making these something you can buy, if you like.

Subway style map to go with The Lord of the Rings, showing the different pathways of various parties throughout the book. The title reads: "Lord of the Rings Transit Map: One Does Not Simply Walk Ino Mordor When One Can Ride." The map takes up the middle part of the page, and there are two keys. The one on the left is titles "Standard Service Lines, and has color keys matched to the subway lines on the map. Lines are named:
"Shire-Bree Commuter Line
Old Forrest Crescent
Wildland Scenic Line
Fellowship Line
Gollum / Sméagol Line
Uruk Hai Express
Three Hunters Line
Fangorn Slow Service
Rohan to Gondor Business Line
Black Ships Ferry Service
Oliphant Direct Line
Army of the West Line
Gandalf Express

A smaller key on the right side of the map is labeled: "Limited Service Lines" and has color keys matched to the following names lines:
"Eagle Express
Paths of the Dead Line
Nazgûl Search & Resuce
Valinor Ltd."

A note at the bottom reads:
"* Mount Doom station only accepts Rings of Power in payment. Plan accordingly."

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

This whole thread is important. Sad to see what has been an excellent medievalist press gobbled up by T and F. And of course, this is the result. At the end of the thread, @aspencerhall.bsky.social has recced some excellent books from AUP, doing T and F's job for them.

Alicia Spencer-Hall@aspencerhall.bsky.social · last yr.

New era of @amsterdamupress.bsky.social under T&F ownership is not going well for its medievalist authors. This week is the flagship European conference for medieval studies @imc-leeds.bsky.social #IMC2025. AUP listed as an exhibitor at book fair, incl in programme. No sign of them, online or irl

Cdn Society of Medievalists/Société Canadienne des médiévistes @canmedievalists.bsky.social · last yr.

Another day, another session summary! To begin, Katherine Pierpont used municipal records to trace the presence of troubadours and jongleurs in medieval Toulouse. Her work enables her to sometimes place individuals in precise domiciles and allows her to start to understand their social networks.

A part of a conference schedule noting the names of scholars and titles of papers for a particular panel, details below.

Session 5A: Mapping Medieval People's
Lives || Cartographier la vie des
médiévaux
Location: SJ2-2003

Katherine Pierpont, University of Toronto
The Proof is in the Property: Digital Maps as
Historical Narratives in Toulouse (c. 1150-1250)

Emily Hutchison, Mount Royal University
Healthscaping in a Time of Climate Change: Mapping
the Evidence in Late Medieval Paris

Lucie Laumonier, Concordia University
Neighborly Relations: the Montpellier Butchers c.
1380-1500
Chair: Isabelle Cochelin, University of Toronto

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Hey at CSM Medievalists! I know we just finished our annual conference, but is there any interest in a DH workshop/sharing what we are doing at CSM 2025? Just a thought right now...

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm biased, but i think broad approach means we are often publishing cutting edge work. Come join us!

Donna Trembinski@medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Putting on my JCHA co-editor hat. JCHA publishes original research on all aspects, places and periods of history and its related disciplines. If you are interested in publishing with us, see our submission guidelines here: jcha-rshc.ca/index.php/jc...

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Submissions | Journal of the Canadian Historical Association | Revue de la Société historique du Canada

jcha-rshc.ca

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Fascinating find near my hometown, where a rock was carved in a Futhark version of the Lord's Prayer. The version is from 1611 but was republished (and copied into stone to claim space) in the 19th c. But the comments make clear why we need to teach the skills of history. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Mysterious carving found in northern Ontario wilderness | CBC News

Seven years after it was discovered in the northern Ontario bush near the town of Wawa, a carving in the bedrock remains an archaeological, mystery. But plans are in the works to develop it into a tou...

cbc.ca

University of Illinois Press @illinoispress.bsky.social · last yr.

The Outstanding Dissertation in Disability History prize, in partnership with the Disability Histories series & the Disability History Association, is now open for submissions! Visit go.illinois.edu/DisabilityHi... for guidelines. *Submissions due by June 30, 2025* #DisabilityHistory #DisHist

Now Announcing
The Outstanding Dissertation in Disability History Prize
Submissions due by June 30, 2025
University of Illinois Press

The Medieval Academy of America @medievalacademy.bsky.social · last yr.

Symposium - Ritual Cultures of Medieval Religious Women A symposium of new research on nuns, beguines, recluses, and other sisters. DATE: 14-15 July 2025 HOSTED BY: Notre Dame Rome and the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame. www.themedievalacademyblog.org/symposium-ri...

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm in a new department @stfx-university.bsky.social, Art and Material Cultures so I'm designing new courses like this one that looks at the social and architectural realities of building cathedrals and castles in the Middle Ages. So exciting to be teaching this in the fall! I'll see you in Art 395!

A page that explains what the course is (Art 395: Castles and Cathedrals, Rebuilding Notre Dame) and what it's about (materials, architecture, space, craft, economics, society, catastrophe, rebuilding, nostalgia) and the assessments planned for the course including planning and executing a day camp for kids, planning an art scheme for a portion of the cathedral and in class workshops.

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

Every democracy has understood that an educated voting population was necessary for its survival (even if, in the past, the voting population and so education was limited by class/gender). Hollowing out education only benefits those who can afford access to it anyway- elites in a failing democracy.

Modern Language Association@modernlanguage.bsky.social · last yr.

The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the unlawful dismantling of the NEH: "Congress believed NEH to be essential to the functioning of our democracy, and the public interest would be served by honoring that determination."

Donna Trembinski @medievalatx.bsky.social · last yr.

So appreciative of Shami Ghosh's review of Ziolkowski's new book (Nostalgia and the German(ic) Past) in the TMR today. A really important reminder that there is no neutral position, no matter how much we might wish or pretend there is. It's hard to read, but oh so important in our field right now.