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Amalia S. Levi, PhD

@amaliasl.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.3K following 435 posts

Archives, life writing, history. Research focus: slavery & dependency; record-keeping & archives; Caribbean Jewish history; digital humanities. hcommons.org/members/amaliasl and heritedge.org

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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Gabriella "Biella" Coleman @biella.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Chris Kelty's new book, now available (!!!) is stellar and unconventional. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
politybooks.com
The Internet We Could Have Had
The Internet We Could Have Had, What happened to the internet we could have had? Can we remember a future that did not come to pass? The Internet We Could Have Had takes up the challenge, revisiting t...
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Just published! New co-authored article in the edited collection Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief. Its title: "The Past(s) We Access Online: Ethical Challenges of Digital Archives." Editors: @kpalex91.bsky.social & @librarianchef.bsky.social bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/libraries-ar...
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Just published! New co-authored article in the edited collection Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief. Its title: "The Past(s) We Access Online: Ethical Challenges of Digital Archives." Editors: @kpalex91.bsky.social & @librarianchef.bsky.social bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/libraries-ar...
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Which was the premise of Jurassic Park 🙃
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Internet Archive @archive.org · 25/08/2026
We've been getting a lot of questions about how the Internet Archive digitizes books. The short answer: page by page, by hand. You may remember our viral 2021 video of Eliza Zhang scanning a book. That's still how we do it. Meet Eliza, and learn how we scan books: blog.archive.org/2021/02/09/m...
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Richard Jean So @richardjeanso.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Really worthwhile CFP f/ Computational Humanities Research on "Peripheries," inviting work that uses data-driven approaches to recovering marginalized, lost voices in the cultural record/archive & what's been lost through processes of mass corpus digitization: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Peripheries
Call for Papers: Peripheries
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
@digitaldante.bsky.social 😍🤗 Thank you! I'll check it out--looks fabulous and would love to submit something.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Archival research is rarely about what you really seek. It's about all those lives that you encounter along the way, some as simple mentions in mundane records, others whose name resists the enclosure of neat tables and is scribbled outside, and yet others who resist capture on paper thrgh silence.
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
We have published a new collection of advertisements about apothecaries and medicines in 18th c. Bridgetown, Barbados. dloc.com/collections/... More information in the thread. 1/
Screenshot of digital items of the collection Apothecaries and Medicines in colonial Bridgetown.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
5/5 Later phases of this project preview geolocation of the ads on Bridgetown’s historical map; various datasets derived from the ads with links to external thesauri; interpretive digital exhibits; and enrichment through information on enslaved medicine & folk wisdom through crowdsourcing events.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
4/ This digital collection will be part of a larger collection of newspaper advertisements about various topics from Bridgetown during the 18th and 19th centuries that is being built incrementally. Among others, theatres and spectacles, commerce and businesses, enslaved fugitives.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
3/ The ads are derived from extant 18th c. issues of The Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette. In the following months we will make available 1784, 1787, 1788, and 1789. We will then continue with the 19th century.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
2/ The first batch of this collection, ads from 1783, has been made available on @dlocaribbean.bsky.social . Each item in this collection consists of the clipped advertisement and its transcription and includes the link to the respective issue of the newspaper for context.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
We have published a new collection of advertisements about apothecaries and medicines in 18th c. Bridgetown, Barbados. dloc.com/collections/... More information in the thread. 1/
Screenshot of digital items of the collection Apothecaries and Medicines in colonial Bridgetown.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
📢 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.
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The worst depiction of an archivist in media is the archivist in Minas Tirith who brings FIRE into the record store. The best depiction of an archivist in media is Brother Armbruster in A Canticle for Leibowitz, who absolutely Gets It™
A screenshot from the LOTR films showing ol' Gandalf himself walking through the archives beneath Minas Tirith. He's being escorted by an absolutely psychopathic 'archivist' who is walking around with a FLAMING TORCH next to documents. No wonder Denethor is losing his mind, we'd be doing the same if this is the staff we employed.An extract from the book 'A Canticle for Leibowitz', with Brother Armbruster (the librarian/archivist at the monastery) begrudgingly producing documents from their storage. He philosophises that the reason to look after books is that they can then be looked after forever, and actually using them to research is a threat to this purpose.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Thank you.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
The competition asks young people (16-25 y.o.) to reinterpret historical advertisements for “runaway slaves” through a lens of agency, resistance, and possibility, thus disrupting the narrative within these notices that reduced enslaved people to property and framed their actions as criminal. 3/3
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
The booklet is part of the "Drawing Self-Emancipation," a art competition and exhibition for young people residing in Barbados. You can learn more about the competition here: heritedge.org/events/drawi... Please share widely with your networks. 2/
Flyer for the competition "Drawing Self-Emancipation"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
We have created a booklet with advertisements of self-emancipating enslaved people in Barbados in the 18th and 19th centuries. It aims to make these ads more accessible and contains images of c. 20 ads, their transcriptions, and a short introduction contextualizing them. tinyurl.com/26zkuxf7 1/
Cover of a booklet of advertisements for Self-Emancipating enslaved people in Barbados, in 18th and 19th centuries.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
@mmargolis.bsky.social some possible footprints?
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This is a companion essay to our forthcoming article “The Past(s) We Access Online: Ethical Challenges of Digital Archives” in Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief, edited by @librarianchef.bsky.social l and @kpalex91.bsky.social bsky.social bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/libraries-ar...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief
Libraries, Archives and Collective Grief; This collection explores grief and memorialization through librarianship. International contributors highlight how information professionals contribute to dea...
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
I've written a new piece, together with my colleague Virginia Dressler. Thank you to @cliocontemporary.bsky.social for providing the platform. Special thanks to the many archivists, librarians, and information professionals who work on making these stories accessible.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
😫
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
🤬 You do not "fill the gap" in archives. You ask *why* the gap is there in the first place. That is where the real information resides. Also: LLMs train on digitized materials. Do you have any idea how little has been digitized? LLMs train on a *sliver* of the human past and human knowledge.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Here is a bug among the pages of the #BarbadosMercury newspaper, May 17, 1814. (The bound volumes are at the Barbados Archives, the newspaper has been digitized and is available online).
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
On this #InternationalArchivesWeek I'd like to repost this absolute gem by the @bucksarchives.bsky.social!
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
HMML @visithmml.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
For #InternationalArchivesWeek, consider how digitized copies of manuscripts can preserve access to a manuscript's contents, provide a record of ownership if the object is removed, and provide access to cultural heritage if a community is displaced. Learn more: hmml.org/stories/reversal-of-fates
The same manuscript, in the collection of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Patriarchate of Baghdad, Iraq. The manuscript was photographed by Arthur Vööbus (1) and decades later by the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux and HMML (2), where it was identified by Grigory Kessel. Its texts include poetry, a commentary on the Nicene Creed, and Ephrem of Qirqesion’s "Explanation of Yawsep Ḥazzāyā’s Chapters of Knowledge." Both photographic copies are preserved by HMML. (Baghdad 513; CPB 00463)The same manuscript, in the collection of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Patriarchate of Baghdad, Iraq. The manuscript was photographed by Arthur Vööbus (1) and decades later by the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux and HMML (2), where it was identified by Grigory Kessel. Its texts include poetry, a commentary on the Nicene Creed, and Ephrem of Qirqesion’s "Explanation of Yawsep Ḥazzāyā’s Chapters of Knowledge." Both photographic copies are preserved by HMML. (Baghdad 513; CPB 00463)
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The Foundling Hospital Archive: coramstory.org.uk/the-foundlin...
coramstory.org.uk
Foundling Hospital Archive - Coram Story
The Foundling Hospital archive contains some half a million documents dating from the 1730s and reveals the lives of the children in its care.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
The more things change, the more they stay the same... Nice study that essentially corroborates Michel Rolph Trouillot's silencing framework. The diagram embodies all silencing processes (fact creation/assembly/retrieval/retrospective significance), a bleak reminder on how power operates today.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Nicholas Mayers Genealogist; Clerical Officer – Library and Information Services Unit – Central Bank of Barbados "Runaway Slave Ads as Genealogical Sources: Reconstructing Enslaved Lives"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Michelle Hinkson-Cox Playwright; applied theatre specialist & artistic director; PhD Candidate (University of Glasgow); Theatre Arts Associate Degree Coordinator (Barbados Community College) "Excavating the Silences: “Runaway” advertisements as source material for theatrical performances"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Amalia S. Levi Archivist; historian; Director of Programs, HeritEdge "From records of persecution to records for life writing: “Runaway” advertisements as archival records"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Andreana S. Cunningham Anthropologist; Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Archaeology, and African American and Black Diaspora studies, Boston University "Using fugitive slave advertisements in the study of the biosocial effects of enslavement"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Nicholas Mayers Genealogist; Clerical Officer – Library and Information Services Unit – Central Bank of Barbados "Runaway Slave Ads as Genealogical Sources: Reconstructing Enslaved Lives"
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Michelle Hinkson-Cox Playwright; applied theatre specialist & artistic director; PhD Candidate (University of Glasgow); Theatre Arts Associate Degree Coordinator (Barbados Community College) "Excavating the Silences: “Runaway” advertisements as source material for theatrical performances"
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Dr. Felicia Fricke @feliciafricke.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
This data article about fugitive adverisements in eastern #Caribbean newspapers is the result of years of work by the team at @inthesamesea.bsky.social Read it at scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsdp/ar... and find the dataset at enslaved.org - an open-access research resource!
Image from the online interactive map with data from the fugitive advertisements, showing the islands of ghe eastern Caribbean from Puerto Rico to Isla de Margarita. See article for full reference.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
@heatherfreund.bsky.social congrats! Great piece (and of course, amazing work behind it!
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Heather Freund @heatherfreund.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I'm excited this is out! We spent countless hours building the database in a way that will hopefully be usable for other scholars and students of fugitivity in the Caribbean. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/jsdp/ar...
scholarlypublishingcollective.org
Enslaved Fugitives in the Lesser Antilles, 1760s-1860s
Dataset CreatorsRasmus Christensen, University of CopenhagenGunvor Simonsen, University of CopenhagenHeather Freund, University of CopenhagenFelicia Fricke, University of CopenhagenGabriëlle La Croix,...
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Beautiful essay, and...recordkeeping galore in the thread. 😍 It took a lot of effort (and intention) for information to 'travel' to us today. #histarchives
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
🔥🔥🔥
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Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Emily Higgs Kopin (spooky) @ehkopin.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Cross-disciplinary solidarity
Handshake meme between “medievalists” and “digital archivists” with the joined hands labeled “hating the phrase ‘dark age’”
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
My condolences, James.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
⬇️ I can't repost this 🔥 thread about the fragility of humanity's digital memory enough.
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
•Discern infrastructures that only become obvious when they break--and only when we take the time to trace them, •Sit with archival collections even when they are traumatic. In fact, because they are traumatic, they require more time to yield concealed, omitted, and excluded information. 4/4
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Slow research allows us to: •Understand context. The links between documents, often geographically or temporally distanced, are more meaningful than the documents themselves, •See the people behind processes that are usually ingrained, thus invisible, 3/
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Slowness is not in the reading or the comprehending--it is in the unearthing of information. Slow research allows us to: •Go beyond the content that is written on page. Often that’s not where information resides 2/
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
In an era of speed and volume, there is value in slow research in archives. Let me start out by clarifying what slow research is and is 𝒏𝒐𝒕: Slow research is not slow. You can still go through hundreds of pages in one day, even in one hour. 1/
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
This essay had previously been published as part of the Life Writing journal special issue. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
‘Runaway’ Ads as Records of Life Writing: Ariadne’s Story
This article explores the methodological and epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean as a starting point for life writing about the enslaved. It does so thro...
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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I have a chapter in this newly published book. "‘Runaway’ Ads as Records of Life Writing: Ariadne’s Story." The essay explores methodological & epistemological issues of using colonial records of violence from the Caribbean in life writing abt enslaved people. www.routledge.com/InDependent-...
routledge.com
(In)Dependent Selves: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Life Writing, Slavery and Dependency
This book brings into conversation perspectives from the disciplines of history, literary studies, archival studies and religious studies, and explores the entanglements of life writing and dependency...
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