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Daniel Sawyer

@danielsawyer.bsky.social
512 followers 315 following 178 posts

Lecturer, Jesus & Oriel, Oxford. Buy How to Read Middle English Poetry for £14/$20 using the code AAFLYG6: global.oup.com/academic/product/how…

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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Beginning to line up the term's teaching. Feel pretty excited about it! Do not ask me about this in three weeks' time.
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Mary Flannery @15thcgossipgirl.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This week’s Page by Page is in honour of one of the most wonderful colleagues I ever had the pleasure of working with: Julia Boffey (1953-2026). maryflannery.substack.com/p/for-julia-...
maryflannery.substack.com
For Julia, with gratitude
Remembering the kindness of a dear colleague
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New academic year, new intranets.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Had a very enjoyable time attending the 'Seeking the Wooing Group' conference last Friday and Saturday. Learned a lot from the real experts on these curious, striking early Middle English works.
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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Delighted that the first essay in CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW, a special issue of Public Humanities, ed by me & Eleanor Barraclough, is now available! Check out @thecelticist.bsky.social brilliant essay ‘De Ira’ & bookmark this page for further essays this autumn! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Special issue of Public Humanities journal on Creating the Medieval with artwork by Kristen Haas CurtisAbstract for Creating the Medieval Now special issue: essays by medievalists who are also creative practitioners on how their practice operates as their mode of scholarship.Elizabeth Boyle’s essay De IraAbstract for Elizabeth Boyle’s essay De Ira
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Getting back to my desk after a long spell of leave, and deeply saddened to learn of Julia Boffey's death. An excellent scholar, also unfailingly generous and great at teaching.
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Tamara Atkin @tamarajatkin.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Working on and with fragments is always an excitement and privilege, but as a scholar who sometimes writes about drama, identifying one of these fragments as derived from a fifteenth-century secular play text has been particularly thrilling.
bbc.co.uk
Medieval Guernsey reading habits revealed in hidden manuscripts
Archivists discover 17 manuscript fragments from medieval times were repurposed as book covers.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I've a block of leave coming up, so I've just finished writing a paper to give in late September (at the Wooing Group conference). Doing it this far ahead feels much more comfortable--like the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium papers, which *have* to be written a month in advance!
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I’m thrilled to be taking part in this year’s amazing @sims-mss.bsky.social mss online lecture series to share my work on the pecia system and university book production! 🤗📜🎉 www.library.upenn.edu/sims/event-s...
library.upenn.edu
The Pecia System and the Medieval University Book Trade, ca. 1200-1340
Alison Ray (Royal Irish Academy Library) explores how medieval manuscripts were mass-produced at universities in the thirteenth century at low cost for members of the academic milieu.
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Faculty of English, University of Oxford @engfac.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Save the date! The next Dorothy Whitelock Lecture will take place on 3 December at 4pm in the Schwarzman Centre. Prof Joyce Hill will talk on 'Nostri didascalus aevi: Pedagogic Creativity in the work of Bede and Ælfric’. All welcome! No booking required english.web.ox.ac.uk/event/nostri...
english.web.ox.ac.uk
Prof. Joyce Hill, 'Nostri didascalus aevi: Pedagogic Creativity in the work of Bede and Ælfric' (Dorothy Whitelock Lecture 2026)
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The CFP's out for the next Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, on 'Scandal', running next February:
sewaneemedievalcolloquium.com
2027 Call for Papers | Medieval Colloquium
Information about the 2025 meeting of the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, including the call for papers, plenary information, and more.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The 2026 Gender and Medieval Studies conference runs at Univ in Oxford on 8–10 September—registration's still open right now! Theme's 'gender and creativity'.
medievalgender.co.uk
2026 Oxford – Gender and Medieval Studies
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Enjoyed reading this systematic look at steady rhyme across what's often seen as a period divide. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Amanda Holton, /Rhyme and the Construction of Love in English Lyric 1300–1579/
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Very exciting to see the original, and people should. That said: the 1:1 replica in Reading town museum is very exact apart from a few bowdlerisations, and can be visited for free.
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Dr David Rundle @drdavidrundle.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Exciting news for anyone interested in the fifteenth century. The UK's annual conference will this year take place in the beautiful city of Canterbury on 3rd-5th September 2026, hosted by MEMS @kent.ac.uk - and registration is now open. Hope you can join us: blogs.kent.ac.uk/memsnews/202...
blogs.kent.ac.uk
Fifteenth Century Conference Open for Registration – MEMS News
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Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Great news, please share widely: the Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki will open a permanent university lecturer position in Digital Humanities in Autumn 2026. Teaching-focused, future-facing methods role, linked to LingDig, HELDIG and SSH-wide methods teaching. More details in August.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I learned a lot at the International Conference on Middle English last week! Many thanks to the organisers, the hard-working student helpers, and everyone who gamely laughed at the jokes in my plenary teaching workshop.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Off to Zurich tomorrow for this: www.icome2026.uzh.ch/en.html
icome2026.uzh.ch
14th International Conference on Middle English | 14th International Conference on Middle English | UZH
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Michael H Whitworth @profmhwhitworth.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Worcester College, Oxford, is advertising the Isenberg Junior Research Fellowship in 20th Century British or American Fiction or Literary Journalism (deadline 7th June) www.worc.ox.ac.uk/about/vacanc...
worc.ox.ac.uk
Isenberg Junior Research Fellowship in 20th Century British or American Fiction or Literary Journalism - Worcester College
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Got the first readable draft of a conclusion to the chapter I've been working on, which's always a good moment. And the typescript for New Verse-Craft in English has comfortably broken 70,000 words.
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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
"However, if some institution is interested in taking over a vital and well-tested resource, this is the time to make your interest known. In practical terms, this will presumably mean funding at least a half-time editorial position and undertaking to keep the MED free (with no paywall)."
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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
"The MED as an online service...will continue indefinitely; and I myself expect to continue to update the content as long as I am able, more or less as an unfunded hobby in retirement -- not all that different from what I do now. So do not worry: MED is not going away any time soon."
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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
🚨 #medievalsky 🚨 Middle English Dictionary update via FB: "In its 100-year history, MED has enjoyed periods of support, and periods when that support was lacking. It is about to enter on one of the latter. After this year...UMich will no longer fund ongoing editorial work and maintenance." 🧵
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Dr David Rundle @drdavidrundle.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Interested in Caroline Minuscule or in things Celtic or in Alfred the Great? Then come and hear Dr Jason Chess at the latest London Palaeography Seminar @ies-sas.bsky.social: Tuesday 28th April, 5:30pm. Book here for in person or online attendance: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
ies.sas.ac.uk
The Celtic reception of Caroline and its contribution to the Alfredian Renaissance
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Eleven(!) funded doctoral positions spread around Europe!
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Giving two papers on Middle English poetry this week: one in person in Geneva on Wednesday, one remotely for DIMEV on Saturday.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I'm amused that the automoderation has decided the engraving of statuary in the preview card counts as adult content. There's a 'grow up and think about form' slogan here somewhere.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Fun-looking 1-day conference on 22 July, 'Reframing Poetics: Language, Structure, Form'. Proposal abstracts due by 15 May. Sounds like the sort of thing that benefits from a whisper in the ear from the Middle Ages. (I'm otherwise engaged and can't attend to offer any whispering myself.)
eventbrite.com
Reframing Poetics: Language, Structure, Form
A one day symposium at the UCL Institute of Advanced Study, considering the materiality of language in poetics.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Chapter I've been chipping away at has reached the stage where I raise my head from the fine detail and have to recover the overall argument.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I had the equivalent job 2019–22; I've no special insights, but will happily try to make the job and the system it sits within more legible if you're thinking of applying and aren't familiar with Oxford. Email me.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Merton College, Oxford are advertising a career development fellowship in medieval English—a four-year teaching-and-research post: www.merton.ox.ac.uk/vacancies. D/l 9 AM, 24 February (think of it as 23 February!).
merton.ox.ac.uk
Vacancies
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Made a macro for single-key-press en-dash. How did I live without this?
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Sam Kaislaniemi @samklai.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Honestly thought this was a nice, quite legible hand! Maybe it's all the 18C hands I've been staring at this month. This prompts me to make a short 🧵 about recent thoughts about handwriting and palaeography: (1/11)
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Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
‘No wonder I got drunk that night. I’d been Chaucer for a week!’ - my article on Kipling’s Dayspring Mishandled, his entertaining and peculiar account of a Chaucerian forgery, is out now with the Review of English Studies! I absolutely *loved* working on this. academic.oup.com/res/advance-...
academic.oup.com
‘I’d been Chaucer for a week!’: Forging the Medieval in Kipling’s ‘Dayspring Mishandled’
ABSTRACT. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Dayspring Mishandled’ describes the creation of a Chaucerian forgery in immense detail. The short story, first published in 19
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
British Library placements for doctoral students at UK universities: www.bl.uk/services/res... Good opportunity to spend focused months at the BL. One of these is 'Describing the British Library’s Illustrated and Illuminated Incunabula'! Deadline's 27 February.
bl.uk
PhD placement scheme
Our annual placement scheme offers doctoral researchers from all disciplines the chance to develop and apply skills and expertise outside the university sector.
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Kirsty Bolton @lusignanmermaid.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
My book published yesterday! If it looks like your thing, maybe suggest your library buys a copy, or offer to review it for a journal, or you can get 35% off with code BB135 boydellandbrewer.com/book/motherh...
Cover image for Motherhood and its Spaces in Medieval Romance by Kirsty Bolton. Illustration shows a group of women helping a post-partum woman in bed.
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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
A pleasure to chair Stacie Vos’s paper at the Medieval English Research Seminar yday and to catch up with her at the Creative Medievalisms symposium last week, where Stacie read from her microfiction book MORE NAMES (The Keys to the Buttery here is inspired by Margery Kempe!)
More Names, book by Stacie VosMicrofiction by Stacie VosMicrofiction by Stacie Vos
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The best thirty-quid spend of the year: the Early English Text Society subscription.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I want to write an extremely niche article on how the cover designs for books on the history of medieval England rarely feature works of art produced *in* England bc surviving works of art are rarely sufficiently naturalistic to illustrate the books' claims the way a book cover is expected to do.
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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The deadline for expressions of interest is approaching (15 Jan) - please do consider getting in touch!
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Dr. Erika Graham-Goering @jeanneologist.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
An interesting PhD opportunity (i.e. job!) at Oslo on the project POLYCHROME: "Candidates should propose a research project that examines, in one form or another, historical sources that shed light on changing attitudes to medieval objects after the Reformations in the Scandinavian countries."
jobbnorge.no
Doctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1017) at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (293057) | University of Oslo
Job title: Doctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1017) at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (293057), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Sunday, March 22, 2026
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Recommending this for any grad student or postdoc who's even just curious. I went to a similar EETS workshop during my doctorate, and on top of arming me to edit it also made me a better reader of editions—which's useful in all kinds of work!
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Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures @mediumaevum.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
We are delighted to announce the release of issue 94.1 of Medium Ævum, the journal of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature. Medium Ævum (94.1) contains: [1/7]
An image of the bright green cover of Medium Aevum which details the names of its editors: David Rundle, Corinne Saunders, Sylvia Huot, and Stephen Mossman. An image of the article contents list of the 94.1 issue of Medium Aevum, which is also given in the following posts.
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Digital Medievalist @digitalmedievalist.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
🚨Phd Position in #Digital #Medieval Manuscripts Studies You will be part of an international research project, applying innovative computational methods to the study of the transmission history of the Latin Physiologus and the Bestiary. 📍Radbout University (NL) 📆15 Jan 2026 ▶️ tinyurl.com/3wtcxpfc
tinyurl.com
PhD Position in Medieval Manuscript Studies | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a PhD Candidate in Medieval Manuscript Studies at the Faculty of Arts? Check our vacancy!
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Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
If you want to do an MA in London but have 'barriers accessing education or may face greater challenges while undertaking their degree' (specific criteria below), you can apply for a £3,000 tuition grant at Birkbeck. Lots of choices at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social: www.bbk.ac.uk/student-serv...
Eligibility

To be eligible for this bursary, you must meet all of the conditions for application set out below and at least one of the eligibility criteria. Identifying in more than one category may be used as a factor to prioritise applicants to receive this award.
Conditions for application

    You have been accepted onto a master’s degree programme at Birkbeck beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. If you have made an application but not yet received a decision, you may still apply but your application will only be considered if you have been accepted onto your course by the scholarship application deadline (31 July 2026).
    You have made provision to fund the remainder of your studies should you be successful in your application for this bursary.
    You do not already hold a master's degree or other level 7 qualification.
    You have Home fee status.
    Your household income is less than £42,875.

Eligibility criteria

We welcome applications from students who meet one or more of the following criteria (in addition to the above):

    Have a declared disability.
    Identify as a care leaver (a care leaver is a young person, under the age of 25 who is currently or has been in public care for a minimum of three months. This would include foster care, semi-independent living, residential care homes).
    Are single parents.
    Are carers (a carer is someone who, without payment, provides help and support to a friend, neighbour or relative who could not manage otherwise because of frailty, illness or disability).
    Hold refugee status.
    Have Black or Black mixed heritage.
    Are the first generation in their family to participate in Higher Education.

Masters in History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck
MA Historical Research
MA Contemporary History and Politics
MA Public History and Heritage
MA European History
MA Global History
MA Classical Civilisation
MA Archaeology and Heritage
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Dr David Rundle @drdavidrundle.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Calling all fifteenth-century scholars: if you have not yet submitted your proposal for this year's conference hosted by @memsunikent.bsky.social, now is the time to do so. CfP open until 31st January.
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Daniel Sawyer @danielsawyer.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Starting the new year with some work on everyone's favourite early poet (Orrm).
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Paula Clarke Bain @baindex.org · 07/01/2026
A 2026 reshare of my starter pack of freelance book indexers on Bluesky, including members of @indexers.bsky.social and other indexing societies. It’s opt-in/out by request, so just let me know if you wish to join or leave it. Good to see you all in the #IndexSky. go.bsky.app/GzqinPu
go.bsky.app
Book indexers (starter pack)
Join the conversation
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Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
I don't know anything about D. H. Lawrence's writing, but his delivery company is a joke.
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Carrie Griffin @carriegrif.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Grateful for a very positive review of this volume in the newest _Studies in the Age of Chaucer_. Indebted to our fantastic contributors and to editor supreme Clare Litt @livunipress.bsky.social! Remember the paperback is imminent and can be preordered now with a good discount.
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