Continuing with the "someone made a horrific database of poor AI translations of early medieval letters" thing, I had a good laugh at these entirely hallucinated ones. They aren't even based on existing letters! www.lateromanletters.org/letters/epis... www.lateromanletters.org/letters/epis...

Arioald to Pope Honorius I (c. 627 AD) | Roman Letters

Arioald, king, to the most holy Bishop…

lateromanletters.org

I fondly remember bumping into this αἴλουρος (lit. ’thing with a waving tail’) on my own short odyssey from @clarehallcambridge.bsky.social to @theul.bsky.social

Cambridge University Library@theul.bsky.social · 3d ago

Shh, don’t tell our colleagues at the Faculty of Classics Library, but this is the only Odysseus we’re really interested in 🤫🐾 #OdysseusTheCat #CambridgeUniversityLibrary

Seriously, please watch this. And make your non-academic friends and family and neighbours watch it. Only 45 minutes, free, and SO revealing about the people making money off squandering what is a public good.

Catherine Gander@catgander.bsky.social · 4d ago

A deeply damaging, unethical model designed to dismantle the university and rebuild it as a corporation. It’s caused a crisis in Australia and its causing a crisis in the U.K. Sad to see Irish universities watching the chaos and happily following suit. youtu.be/quc24Ot9Qwgr

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." Happy birthday, James Baldwin!

Thinking through the unedifying, un-evidence-based rush to an undefined, apparently unmodelled paradigm of 'specialisation, what's being lost/threatened? Herts History was an excellent example of performing to a top standard in REF, but also much more than that. Questions to think with include: 1/4

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

Just gonna go ahead and share this again, 'cause it keeps being annoying relevant.

Enjoying some sunshine in the garden, a coffee, and rereading Wilson’s translation of Homer when our cat Méone decides to make the morning even better #vacation #caturday

Still 3 weeks left to apply for a PhD position in runic & Latin epigraphy and for two postdocs, one in Latin and one in Old Norse on Alessandro Palumbo’s ERC project in Oslo www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/...

Vacancies - Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies

Read this story on the University of Oslo's website.

hf.uio.no

Barbarians.

(as Saint Augustine saith)

Excellent thread (and another great one embedded) debunking nationalist abuses of medieval history.

Actuel Moyen Âge@agemoyen.bsky.social · last wk.

Quand Philippe de Villiers utilise le Moyen Âge pour alimenter ses propos anti-islam : un exemple tiré de son dernier livre (Populicide), avec un chapitre consacré à la conquête islamique de l'Espagne wisigothique... Un fil (très) critique ⬇️ #debunking #histoire #medievalists #medievalsky

Had to endure overhearing a monologue from one dudebro to a random ditto in the gym shower room on his ’Spartan’ gym philosophy. Boy was it a mix of ‘history’, the movie 300, warped ideas of masculinity, and a touch of eugenics….

At both the Telegraph and NS had to navigate the hurt feelings of some politicians about things that those publications had done, sometimes 20 years in the past. Now loads of politicians will merrily post away on a website whose owner regularly endorses the idea they, personally, should be killed.

Emily is a genius; I am extremely, genuinely thrilled for her! But also: as The Odyssey sells out books and theaters alike, Classics departments and language classes are being decimated across the US. If you want more Emily Wilsons we have to FUND SCHOLARSHIP and FUND TRANSLATION AND TRANSLATORS.

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz@igallupd.bsky.social · 2w ago

“A Penn professor thought she’d sell 1000 copies of her ‘Odyssey’ translation. She sold a million this year alone, thanks to Christopher Nolan.” “West Philly's Emily Wilson, who penned a highly acclaimed translation of the epic poem in 2017, is having a big summer.”

Illustrated with a picture of things far more apocalyptic than blackouts.

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 2w ago

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

This is an excellent graduation address which sadly had to take place outside the hall, giving good insight into where inspiration comes from in universities. UKHE is in a bad place which it cannot fix itself, constrained as it is by poor governance & perverse incentives

Dr Laura Sangha@lsangha.bsky.social · 2w ago

Last week, about a third of the History department were able to gather together on graduation day. Rather than lend our intellectual authority to the official procession and ceremony we invited our students to come and celebrate their achievements with us in a shady courtyard. They came. 1/

'Finally, being a historian is also about understanding and exploring what it is to be human. As historians, we focus on human societies - we are specialists in humanity. And our studies and research mean that we recognise and appreciate the diversity of human experience across time and space.' 5/

'As your studies have shown, being a historian is not merely learning 'what happened'. It is a way of thinking. It’s about critically assessing claims, and demanding to see evidence to support them. In this world of fake news, fake images, and outright lies, these are life-long critical skills'. 4/

Maximilien Lamy #AFP

🚩 My 2010 PhD thesis is ‘70% AI’ I ran my 2010 PhD thesis through an AI detector. It flagged 70% as AI, then tried to sell me a ‘humanise’ fix. Either I am a time traveller, or these tools do not work. Link to my thesis in the comments to try yourself. #AIDetection #HigherEd 🧪 #AI

From the LinkedIn of an academic I have a lot of respect for.

TBH, monks abducting and beating up their abbot is regular medieval Benedictine stuff… www.midilibre.fr/2026/07/22/l...

Le supérieur d’une abbaye disparaît en pleine nuit : le moine victime d’un mystérieux enlèvement sur fond de règlements de comptes

Le père Placide, supérieur de l’abbaye bénédictine Notre-Dame de Bellaigue, à Virlet (Puy-de-Dôme), a disparu dans la nuit du 23 au 24 juin avant d’être retrouvé blessé deux jours plus tard, près de L...

midilibre.fr

exCUSE me??????????? I take a week off and there’s a KIDNAPPING?!!?!????????

Job Polak@jobpolak.eurosky.social · 2w ago

You saw that Schismwatch France is getting extra spicy @clairewillett.bsky.social? SSPX affiliated Monks abducted and assaulted an Abbot for two days in a coup attempt;

Continuing with the animal theme! A new post on an unusual gift in a charter for Marmoutier, an obscure land measure, and the 'small creatures' about to become the monks' neighbours 🐇. alicehicklin.co.uk/2026/07/23/t...

Those Small Creatures Called Conini

This very short document records a gift made by Géraud Rufus of Talmont, who appeared before the chapter of Marmoutier to gave some land at an unidentified place known as ad Saburas to honour Saint…

alicehicklin.co.uk

Alice Hicklin@alicehicklin.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’ve (finally) made a blog to share some of the more intriguing charters I encounter 1st up: an 11th-century land sale where the price included “excellent cloth” called zafalbafal, possibly ṣūf al-baḥr, or sea silk, made from the fibres of Mediterranean shells 🐚 alicehicklin.co.uk/2026/07/14/c...

Grok show me a historically accurate cyclops.

Watcher Guru@watcher.guru · 2w ago

JUST IN: Elon Musk says Grok will make a "full-length movie" of The Odyssey that is "historically accurate" by the end of this year.

Applications for the Postdoctoral Fellowships are open. We're inviting proposals from early-career researchers in the humanities and social sciences wishing to pursue an independent research project. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4xWduAS

Cambridge historians John Arnold and Mia Bay elected as Fellows of the British Academy in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities 👏👏 They are among six Cambridge academics to be elected to @britishacademy.bsky.social for 2026. 🔎 www.hist.cam.ac.uk/news/british...

"To accountants, some courses or departments may be viewed as cost centres. But to lecturers and students, and the places in which they are based, they are cultural resources – repositories of knowledge built up over decades." bit.ly/4gOTZo2 #Skystorians

The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial

Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed

bit.ly

"Shabana Mahmood staying as Home Secretary to presumably continue her appalling record of performative cruelty towards migrants and refugees is a warning sign that Burnham has not learnt the lessons from Starmer's failure," says Zack Polanski