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Alison Beach

@alisonibeach.bsky.social
3K followers 1.3K following 58 posts

Medieval Historian at the University of St Andrews. Leader of #TeamNun and the Word of Mouth AHRC-funded project. Works at the intersection of history and archaeology. Humanist with a trowel and a microscope!

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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Visit History in our Bones: Thinking together about Medieval Disability at the St Andrews Wardlaw Museum Research Studio or online!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
❤️
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Happy International Women's Day from TeamNun! We'll be sharing stories of premodern (and modern!) women at work throughout Women's History Month. Stay tuned and check out our project website for updates: teamnun.org
teamnun.org
TeamNun | history and archaeology
TeamNun is a project that engages History and Archaeology to uncover the stories of medieval religious women
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St Andrews School of History @standrewshist.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
We have loads of exciting events on this week, featuring Alison More, @alisonibeach.bsky.social, Amir M.A.H. Parsa, Hannah Dawson and @zbrookman.bsky.social!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Did I mention the @lindoresabbey.bsky.social Distillery cats, Friar John Claw and Vesper -- cats so cool they have their own Instagram account with over 78,000 followers (friarandvesper)? Vesper is shy, but Friar John loves to drape himself all over the archaeology and tea tables!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Join us for the 2025 Monastic Archaeology Field School at Lindores Abbey! History, Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Heritage Management! Applications are open until 17 March but admissions are rolling and we are filling quickly! Links below for applications and requests for one-on-one information chats!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
TeamNun on the road in Italy! Read here about our most recent adventures in the archives of the monastery of Santa Maria della Stella. www.teamnun.org/news/teamnun...
teamnun.org
Meet the women of Santa Maria della Stella | Word of Mouth
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Dr Nic @eldergoth.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Paper rec: Hayward, M. (2015) 'Dressed in blue: the impact of woad on English clothing, c.1350-c.1670', Costume, 49(2), pp. 168-185. doi.org/10.1179/0590... Interesting article, especially with woad being such an old, recorded, dye. #DressHistory #HistoricalTextiles
Photo taken from the article, it shows balls of woad, which is how the dyestuff would have been sold.
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Archaeological scientists in the archives, historians in the lab -- the #TeamNun way! We work together to understand the strengths and limitations of our various academic specialties and how they work together!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
#TeamNun on the road in Saluzzo, Italy! Working our way through 6 centuries of a Cistercian women’s monastery. Riffredo/Santa Maria della Stella 🤩
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David A. Jaeger (econ) @davidajaeger.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
A suggestion on how UK universities can save money and reduce faculty burnout in one fell swoop: drop the surveillance culture of moderators, externals, etc., etc. Hire good people and trust that they will do their job.
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Istituto Storico Germanico | German Historical Institute Rome @dhiroma.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Postdoctoral fellowship in the field of medieval studies for a period of 12 months (2025/2026). Together with the École française de Rome and the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo. Application deadline 31 January 2025: t1p.de/6nu6q @maxweberstiftung.bsky.social #medievalsky #medievalstudies
Initial 'D' with strawberries in a gradual from the Dominican convent of St Nicholas in Gdansk. Graz University Library, Cod. 2067, I (fol. 24r), REALonline image no. 007997.
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Welcome to St Andrews, the School of History, and TeamNun, Nora! @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @standrewshist.bsky.social @teamnun.bsky.social #medielvalsky #archaeology
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Carolin Gluchowski (Germany) -- studies reform and reformation in 16th-century women's monasteries in Germany. Key player in an innovative team exploring the impact of religious change on the lives of nuns in a stunning graphic novel, Breaking Walls! #TeamNun loves innovative approaches to impact!
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Institute of English Studies @ies-sas.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Discover our selection of our short courses (in person and online) at The London Rare Books School in 2025! Discover our current offering and secure your spot here: buff.ly/3Za70PK More courses are coming! #RareBooks #OnlineCourses #DigitalEditing #MedievalSky
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Applications are coming in for our 2024 Monastic Archaeology Field School at Lindores Abbey in Fife, Scotland! Hands-on history and archaeology, course credit from the University of St Andrews. Admission is rolling until we fill (final date 17 March 2025) -- don't miss out! mafs-scot.org
mafs-scot.org
Monastic Archaeology Field School - Scotland
Visit the post for more.
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Christina Warinner @christinawarinner.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
For those of you in the Boston area, I'll be hosting a Q&A after a special screening of the documentary film Hunt for the Oldest DNA at the MIT Museum on December 3 at 6pm. Tickets to the screening and after show are available here: mitmuseum.mit.edu/programs/sel...
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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Ford Lectures! Jocelyn Wogan-Browne! Bet these'll be great! @oxmedstud.bsky.social #medievalsky www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-l...
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Pétra @petra777.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
"If you embrace diversity but ignore disability, you are doing it wrong." #DisabilityIsDiversity
Sticker that says "If you embrace diversity but ignore disability, you are doing it wrong."
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Perfect row on the North Sea. Cormorants, oystercatchers, herons and a very curious grey seal.
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
I live in a beautiful place. Sunrise from our window 😍
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David A. Jaeger (econ) @davidajaeger.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Are you an applied microeconomist and golfer? Come to Fife & do both! The 1st annual Fife Applied Microeconomics and Golf conference will be held 2-4 June. Golf on Balcomie (Old Tom Morris) and Craighead Links (Gil Hanse). Deadline 15 Jan. Info: applied-microecon.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/fifeamgolf/
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Tired of the modern world? Come dig into the Middle Ages this June-July at Lindores Abbey in Scotland. Learn about medieval monasticism, and gain practical experience in field archaeology, bioarchaeology, and heritage. U of St Andrews credit. Link below. #MedievalSky #Archaeology
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bri watson 🐝 @brimwats.com · 25/11/2024
next week I have two (!) sessions where I'll be piloting a new research method based on focus groups and participatory action. the first group of co-researchers (aka participants) have a combined 100+ years of experience in the field 😱😱
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Come dig with us! Applications are now open for our 2025 Lindores Abbey Excavations! Hands on history, heritage, and archaeological skills - earn St Andrews credit. Information and application below!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Come dig with us! Applications are now open for our 2025 Lindores Abbey Excavations! Hands on history, heritage, and archaeological skills - earn St Andrews credit. Information and application below!
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Prof Ben Pohl @benpohl.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Happy St Martin's Day with this splendid #medievalsky miniature from an 11th-century manuscript made at Fulda and preserved at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (MS Lit. 1, fol. 170r: nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:b...; CC BY-SA 4.0). Get your lanterns ready! 🏮
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 06/11/2024
I'm sorry but I don't think you can do "oh the Dems didn't talk about this one issue I love so that's why they lost" in *this* election, democracy was and is on the line, Trump is a horrible man who ran a horrible campaign, sometimes you have to just face the reality of the electorate being awful
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Monastic Archaeology Field School- Scotland @mafs-scot.bsky.social · 01/11/2024
We are in the 2024 Celebrating Archaeology from Historic Envrionment Scotland magazine. Out today! #medievalsky #archaeology archaeologystrategy.scot/wp-content/u...
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Monastic Archaeology Field School- Scotland @mafs-scot.bsky.social · 01/11/2024
Want to join us at a spectacular site of Lindores Abbey in Fife, Scotland in June 2025? Are you an undergraduate and want to learn archaeology, heritage, and h istory skills? We are taking expressions of interest for 2025. Share with friends, colleagues, students!
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Monastic Archaeology Field School- Scotland @mafs-scot.bsky.social · 01/11/2024
We have migrated from TwitX and are now here for all Monastic Archaeology Field School musings! We are back at Lindores Abbey, Fife in June 2025.
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 01/11/2024
Come dig with us in 2025! Great site, great team, great field archaeology experience!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 21/05/2024
Steve Medema (USA) -- Influential historian of economic thought whose research focuses on the twentieth century, but whose interests stretch back to Ancient Greece and the Middle Ages! #TeamNun loves our allied supporters!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 19/05/2024
Derek Hall (Scotland) -- superstar archaeologist leading the dig at Lindores Abbey Distillery for Mafs Scotland. Some day he will find Kimm Curran and me some Scottish nuns! #TeamNun loves monks too!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 19/05/2024
Erin Redfern (USA) -- award-winning poet whose brilliant poem, "The Artist" -- inspired by hearing the story of the "lapis lazuli nun" on NPR -- was runner-up for the 2020 James Hearst Poetry Prize. #TeamNun loves engaging with creative writers!
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 29/04/2024
St Andrews ME4757 -- Monks & Nuns, Saints & Bishops: Germany in the High Middle Ages (Scotland) -- you get a class like this once in a career if you are lucky. Hardworking, smart, and creative. It was such fun to introduce them to medieval Germany.
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Alison Beach @alisonibeach.bsky.social · 18/04/2024
Great colleagues and conversations at the Future of Molecular Paleography workshop organized to close the @ercb2c project. Scientists and humanists thinking together about ways to collaborate on the study of manuscripts at the lovely Fuglsang manor house and estate in southern Denmark
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James T Palmer @jtpmedieval.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
This week in Exciting New Books That Have Arrived #medievalsky
Lawrence Nees's new book "Illuminating the Word in the Early Middle Ages"
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Yvonne Seale @yvonneseale.bsky.social · 26/01/2024
I've made some updates to my prosopographical (group biography) database of #medieval #Premonstratensian women—it now includes records for more than 1600 women across various parts of western and central Europe who were members of the order in some capacity, 12th-17th centuries. #MedievalSky 🗃️
yvonneseale.org
The Sisters of Prémontré: A Prosopographical Database
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Elizabeth (Liz) Lehfeldt (she/her/hers) @lizlehfeldt.bsky.social · 14/01/2024
That time my tweet got quoted in a New Republic article 🙂 This is why I'm working so hard to pitch more public-facing pieces about premodern women. We've to to change the narrative. And, as ever, huge shout-out to @alisonibeach.bsky.social and her amazing work! newrepublic.com/article/1528...
newrepublic.com
What’s So Controversial About a Medieval Nun’s Teeth?
How an archaeological discovery involving lapis lazuli and an 11th-century skeleton turned into an online drama
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 09/01/2024
So much to be learned about the lives of individuals underrepresented in the textual record: children, the poor, and of course (religious) women.
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Elizabeth (Liz) Lehfeldt (she/her/hers) @lizlehfeldt.bsky.social · 03/01/2024
Thank you so much for the kind shout out, @teamnun.bsky.social!
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St Andrews Centre for Archaeology, Technology, and History @standrewscath.bsky.social · 03/01/2024
Looking for a great archaeology field school experience this June? Come and break ground with us at medieval Lindores Abbey in Scotland! Earn University of St Andrews credit while studying medieval monasticism in the field! www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study-abroad...
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
Anne E. Lester (USA) -- whose important early-career work on Cistercian nuns has led her ever deeper into the intertwining religious and social contexts of medieval France and beyond. #TeamNun thrives at the intersection of textual and material evidence!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
Miriam Shadis (USA) -- framed by the volumes of charters she expertly scours for the voices of royal women (and hundreds of nuns!) in the central Middle Ages! #TeamNun loves medieval charters!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 13/12/2023
Jackie Jung (USA) -- channeling her inner B78 (the religious woman with blue pigment her dental calculus) via lapis ring and blue pencil. #TeamNun would expect nothing less from Jackie...
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 13/12/2023
Lára Janusdóttir (Iceland) -- MA student in Archaeology at \ U of Iceland and mastermind of public-facing aspects of the dig at Kirkjubæjarklaustur -- the first women's monastery in Iceland -- as part of the Benedictines in Iceland project. #TeamNun loves impact and public engagement!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 12/12/2023
CJ Jones (USA) -- studies savvy religious women in Germany who used the many dimensions of liturgy to negotiate gendered and religious structures of authority and to create and perform communal identity. #TeamNun loves the sights, sounds, and smells of liturgy!
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 12/12/2023
Louisa Burnham (USA) -- Prefers religious women of the heretical sort, especially in late medieval southern Europe. Definitely #TeamNun at the core.
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#TeamNun @teamnun.bsky.social · 12/12/2023
Scott Riddell (Iceland) -- soils wizard on the Fornleifarannsókn: Benedictines in Iceland team. Key member of #TeamNun Iceland -- digging at Kirkjubærklastur, the first women's monastery in Iceland! Amazing what you can learn from soil cores! #TeamNun loves paleoecology!
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