Alicia Smith
@timekeptcity.bsky.social
Researcher & teacher in medieval studies. Currently Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway, researching sex, money, & power in the story of the 'harlot saint' Thais: see @thaisisproject.bsky.social for more!
🎊 Look at how many CfPs are on the #IMC2027 Padlet page! 🎊 Check out the IMC Padlet by clicking the link here: tinyurl.com/IMC2027Padlet If you’d like us to add your CFP to the Padlet, please tag us on bluesky at @imc-leeds.bsky.social, or email us at imc@leeds.ac.uk #MedievalSky
I did this years ago on Twitter, but, here's a list of tools/utilities that every medievalist show know about and have bookmarked: #medievalsky
Saints Outside Hagiography is going to Leeds 2027! Co-sponsored by the Hagiography Society (www.hagiographysociety.org) we are planning a panel series to go deeper into the issues our online workshop has opened up this year. Paper proposals can be submitted here: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Qqv6AA7q4K
One of my favourite images of Thais: something of a sly smile, and what is she looking at? 👀 Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS Esp. 44, f.219v.
📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.
Jesse Locker@jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3w agoGiving myself a headache in the archives
My work at the moment is funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoc fellowship, and I've posted some updates in this thread on the project's own bsky @thaisisproject.bsky.social - will probably cross-post some here, but do follow if you're interested in all things 'harlot saints'!
THAISIS@thaisisproject.bsky.social · 3w agoFinally getting project social media up and running! It's been a rollercoaster first few months as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoc @ec.europa.eu at the University of Bergen, Norway 🇳🇴, and some great stuff has happened so far.
Seems like sth for #medievalsky: this (interesting!) BBC article about the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in London states that it is 'not actually a tapestry' but a wool embroidery; but my seamstress mother thought that wasn't right because embroidery with wool is broadly called tapestry in the UK.
Bayeux Tapestry delivered to British Museum in dead of night
The famous artefact depicting events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England will go on display in September.
bbc.co.uk
Hope to see anyone interested in Latin poetry, medieval education, and manuscript transmission at our session at @imc-leeds.bsky.social in the 14:15 session 📜
Alicia Smith@timekeptcity.bsky.social · last mo.Looking forward to @imc-leeds.bsky.social starting Monday! I'm co-organising a panel presenting new manuscript research on the works of Marbod of Rennes. You may never have heard of him but come along if you're interested in poetry and education, manuscript compilation, & odd accidents of reception!
Looking forward to @imc-leeds.bsky.social starting Monday! I'm co-organising a panel presenting new manuscript research on the works of Marbod of Rennes. You may never have heard of him but come along if you're interested in poetry and education, manuscript compilation, & odd accidents of reception!
The first series of the Saints Outside Hagiography workshop has been a fascinating set of discussions on sources from murals to tombs to birth girdles - we have one more meeting left this summer, so join us if you want to hear about St Nicholas and music teaching + Jain monasticism and ritual!
A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.
Make it stop!!!! Sign below 👇😠
Benjamin Myers@benjaminmyers76.bsky.social · 2mo agoAI data centres are coming to Britain - from the US and beyond. This one's in the village where I write my books. It'll use the same amount of power equivalent to 1 million homes and will wreck the natural environment. Please sign if you value nature. www.change.org/p/save-the-l...
After experimenting with a low/no-screen environment last semester, I'd also like to hear about others' experiences!
Kara N. Slade@karanslade.bsky.social · 3mo agoLove to hear from anyone on ProfessorSky who has successfully kept screens out of a seminar (with exceptions for accomodations, obvs). Reinhard Hütter did it for his Aquinas seminar and it was one of the best classes I took in grad school.
I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE LEARN THIS
Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · 4mo agoPop 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
So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:
Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe new project mapping 7,000+ ancient letters is impressive: romanletters.org . The database & geolocation (although noting Pleiades rather than just AWMC would be nice) are great. But I absolutely cannot get over use of AI—however transparent—for translation. 🚨 Value human translators 🚨
This is an excellent thread on the need for grinding through the sources in order to know them. There is no shortcut to this kind of work. It is only through intensive source analysis that we are able to recognise patterns & - just as important - recognise what is not a pattern.
Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 5mo agoOn the value organizing using your own brain: 🧵 For my PhD, I read a mountain of books and over 2,000 European printed and manuscript maps & atlases c.1450-1650 (and some older ones). I identified 200-ish maps/atlases with distinctive imagery of peoples of the Americas (not just stick figures). 1/
Next Friday 27th, I'll be speaking at the Birkbeck Medieval Seminar - a day thinking about medievalism and 'Whose Middle Ages?'. Should be a great day, and it has been organised excellently by Daniel Sawyer (@danielsawyer.bsky.social) and Nick Evans. All welcome! www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
Birkbeck Medieval Seminar 2026: Whose Middle Ages?
Join us for our annual interdisciplinary medieval research day. This year we will be discussing claims people make on the Middle Ages today.
bbk.ac.uk
digital tools are going to change the world! btw that database you rely on no longer exists; that website you got a grant for will be gone in 3 years; have you considered doing an online edition instead?; we only do PDF review copies, For The Planet; would you like me to summarise that PDF for you?
Do you know somebody who needs to learn Latin from scratch or improve their Latin to PhD standard? CMS Toronto's summer Latin program is now entirely online and a remarkable bargain for the intensity and quality of instruction. Details here: www.medieval.utoronto.ca/latin/summer... #medievalsky
Summer Latin Program | Centre for Medieval Studies
Find out about studying Latin at the Centre during the summer. Includes application information, fees, and available courses.
medieval.utoronto.ca
Our first session of Saints Outside Hagiography is today! @lgisseleire.bsky.social on mortuary rolls and me on the Throckmorton prayer roll. Excited to get started!
Alicia Smith@timekeptcity.bsky.social · 6mo agoSaints Outside Hagiography starts next month! A new workshop-style series, discussing work in progress on saints in unusual sources. Come and join us ❤️🔥 drive.google.com/file/d/1-BPc...
I wrote a brief review for Thinking Faith Network of a new book I found really invigorating and urgent - highly recommended 🌀 thinkfaith.net/2026/02/18/r...
Review: Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement » Thinking Faith Network
"You are correct: something is seriously wrong." This manifesto is an urgent call to arms about the capacity of human attention and what is threatening it today.
thinkfaith.net
Students had it tough during the worst of covid. But their education continued and they were able to get their degrees, despite a global pandemic and dysfunctional government. Like 1000s of colleagues, I worked way over the odds, while dealing with domestic pressures. This action feels very cruel.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 6mo agoI feel so miserable about this. Nearly broke myself working 16, 18 hour days during the pandemic. We did everything we possibly could, then doubled it, tripled it. HE is still struggling to get back off the floor, years later. Now another financial punch in the face. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#medievalsky does anyone know if there are any texts (biblical, medieval, or anything in between) about whether Judas was thought to have been born before Jesus, or the other way around? Grateful for any advice!
Talking about postcolonial literature and magic with my Masters class this week has me thinking back to my brief (as in, one-off!) pandemic-era venture into podcasting - if you don't know Elizabeth Knox's work and you're at all interested in SFF, worth a listen! podcasts.ox.ac.uk/elizabeth-knox
Elizabeth Knox
An analysis and discussion of the contemporary fantasy writer Elizabeth Know, by Dr Alicia Smith.
podcasts.ox.ac.uk
Feb 11: Feast of Cædmon (†680), monk of Streanæshalch (Whitby). Cowherd who, in his advanced years, was divinely endowed with a gift for poetry and song. Bede says the scriptures were interpreted for him and he would create religious compositions beyond compare. #medievalsky
A lovely email to receive first thing on a Monday: my article 'Poet-Bishop and Harlot Saint: Marbod of Rennes's Life of Thais in Context' was selected as Feminae's Article of the Month! inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/Arti...
Feminae - Article of the Month
inpress.lib.uiowa.edu
Look what arrived today, or at least the ebook did. This is the first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to medieval women’s writing globally,focusing on the thousand-year period between 500-1500. Entries on about 250 women writers plus longer thematic essays. You’re welcome.
Saints Outside Hagiography starts next month! A new workshop-style series, discussing work in progress on saints in unusual sources. Come and join us ❤️🔥 drive.google.com/file/d/1-BPc...
And later this term, we'll be hosting ‘Whose Middle Ages?’, the Annual Birkbeck Medieval Seminar, with Daniel Sawyer, Rebecca Menmuir, Olenka Pevny, George Bartlett. More information about the event and booking here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event... www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
