Tessera
Folgen

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦

@kfduggan.bsky.social

Professor | Historian of law, living standards, & social control in Western Europe, c.900-1300 | Dog lover | Pasta addict. Background picture is of Nanaimo. Portrait is from the Luttrell Psalter.

1578 Posts5112 Follower581 Folgt
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · yesterday

Need something cool and breezy to take your mind off the heat: how about a Christmas Fart? Roland the Farter was a jester who (according to the "Liber Feodorum") held his land in Suffolk in return for "one jump, a whistle and one fart" at King Henry II's Christmas court every year.

King David is seated, playing bells, while a musician and an acrobat perform for him. The acrobat is bent over, pointing his bum in the air in the direction of the king. Reference: Huth Psalter, c.1280-1300, British Library, Add MS 38116, f. 89r.
Pauline Stafford@pstafford.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is well worth the read - and the repost. It explains so many of the principles on which a working society is based - things which the right-wing are constantly trying to undermine. Progressives of all hues need to reassert them just as constantly.

Nettlecake@nettlecake.bsky.social · 2d ago

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 2d ago

Fantastic article by Tom Johnson @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on “Reckoning and Economic Life in Late Medieval England” in Past & Present. It’s open access and can be read now thanks to @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social offering early access to it! academic.oup.com/past/advance...

Reckoning and Economic Life in Late Medieval England*

Abstract. This article explores the practice of ‘reckoning’, a means of reciprocal accounting that becomes prominent in late-medieval England. Despite its

academic.oup.com

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 3d ago

In late 2023, the Society spent a day with Hertfordshire’s historians. We saw the quality, creativity and distinctiveness of teaching, research and engagement. We were told by a (now departed) senior manager that History was ‘a portfolio the university will guard very carefully’. bit.ly/4hLediN

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d 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)

Jillian@nogoodwyfe.bsky.social · 4d ago

I am also curious with supplemental Qs 1) do you have children or caretaking roles 2) how often can you afford/do you buy takeout or prepared food 3) how often do you exercise 4) how often do you see friends/family you don’t live with

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 4d ago

Academics who write during term (i.e. while teaching): 1. How many classes do you teach per term? 2. How often do you write (e.g. once/wk, when you can, etc.)? 3. When do you write (e.g. weekend, morning, at night, etc.)? 4. What's the biggest barrier(s) to you writing? 5. Do you have any tips?

A scribe in a ruby tunic with a dark purple cloak over top is seated on a wooden chair, and focusing on the task of writing in a manuscript that is resting on a lectern. The scribe appears inside a large, illuminated letter E that is blue. Within the E the background is made up of small dark blue squares with a circle in each square, almost like the wall behind the clerk is a quilt. The background outside the letter E is similar to the background in the letter E, only it is made up of red squares instead of blue ones. Reference: Durham Cathedral Library MS A.II.3 f.279v
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 4d ago

Love the August calendar images showing people "accidentally" spilling grain while filling a sac. It always reminds me of James C. Scott's comments about peasant resistance in his Weapons of the Weak. Also, excellent ALT text!

Richard III Society of Canada@richardiiisocca.bsky.social · 4d ago

It's August. The grain has been harvested & now it is time to thresh & winnow it. The two men on the left are doing the threshing while the man on the right puts the grain in a bag. If you look closely you'll see he is dropping quite a few as he does so. Image from University of Manchester MS 164 8r

Painting from a medieval manuscript. Two men, one in green, the other in red have flails for separating the grain from the stalk. Their leggings are rolled down. They are bareheaded. The man on the right, in blue, has a straw hat and his leggings are still up. His job isn't as hot. He is pouring grain into a burlap type bag using a long handled wooden spoon. Quite a few grains are falling around him.
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 4d ago

How to make tea like an academic: 1. Pour boiling water over a tea bag 2. Forget about it 3. Return to it 1-3 hours later 4. Remove the tea bag 5. Microwave the liquid (that could've been lovely tea) 6. Add milk 7. (Try to) Enjoy

A bearded man in a red cloak with a hood and a yellow tunic is sitting, holding a hay fork in his left hand and drinking from a bowl in his right hand. Reference: British Library, Psalter of Lambert le Bègue (France, 1255-65).
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 4d ago

Academics who write during term (i.e. while teaching): 1. How many classes do you teach per term? 2. How often do you write (e.g. once/wk, when you can, etc.)? 3. When do you write (e.g. weekend, morning, at night, etc.)? 4. What's the biggest barrier(s) to you writing? 5. Do you have any tips?

A scribe in a ruby tunic with a dark purple cloak over top is seated on a wooden chair, and focusing on the task of writing in a manuscript that is resting on a lectern. The scribe appears inside a large, illuminated letter E that is blue. Within the E the background is made up of small dark blue squares with a circle in each square, almost like the wall behind the clerk is a quilt. The background outside the letter E is similar to the background in the letter E, only it is made up of red squares instead of blue ones. Reference: Durham Cathedral Library MS A.II.3 f.279v
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · last wk.

Seeing someone used the unpublished work you sent them without acknowledging your work 😡 Seeing a mistake you made in that work before submitting it for publication, correcting it, and knowing that the error appears in their work 😁

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · last wk.

Matthew Sag’s piece on “AI, Accommodations, and Assessment Integrity” is excellent. It is worth reading if you’re thinking about making changes to assessments and final exams. Link for the blog by @matthewsag.bsky.social ⬇️ matthewsag.com/ai-accommoda...

AI, Accommodations, and Assessment Integrity – Matthew Sag

matthewsag.com

Orin Kerr@orinkerr.bsky.social · last wk.

Over at his personal blog, Emory Law Professor @matthewsag.bsky.social offers some very interesting thoughts on structuring law school exams in an era of AI and common extra-time accommodations. matthewsag.com/ai-accommoda...

Colin Danby@cdanby.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is great advice for PhD students of all kinds. Build a teaching portfolio! Experience as instructor of record also lets you write a teaching statement about what you actually do.

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Advice for History PhD Students If you want an academic job (in Canada, at least) get teaching experience before you graduate. Experience in the classroom – especially teaching a course – goes a long way when you're looking for work after the anticlimactic experience of submitting a dissertation.

Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · 3w ago

When Emma was found guilty of killing her husband in Lincolnshire in 1281, Justice Vaux's clerk said nothing of her punishment except "and therefore etc.". Fortunately, the record was process marked, so there's a note in the margin that reveals her grisly fate: she "was hanged and burned".

A close up of the case discussed in the post, in which Emma was found guilty of killing her husband circa 1281. The case appears in a Lincolnshire plea roll that was drawn up at the 1281-1284 judicial visitation. It is written in brownish-black ink on parchment in abbreviated Latin. In the margins are written "murdrum" for the murder fine, and "suspensa combusta", meaning "hanged and burned". Reference: The National Archives, London, JUST 1 from Lincolnshire 1281.
Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦@kfduggan.bsky.social · last mo.

Friends and family of medievalists: please stop telling us that we’d have loved your vacation because there was a medieval castle. Most of us really don’t care. Now, if you went to an archive and called up some medieval documents, then please do tell us – and share the pictures!