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Edward Mills

@edwardmills.bsky.social
576 followers 315 following 138 posts

Hiya! I'm a postdoc at @exeter.ac.uk (on the 'Learning Anglo-French' project, over at @medievalfrench.bsky.social), working on all things medieval French. Also a brass-band conductor / cornet player, and a cat dad.

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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Absolutely heartbroken to learn yesterday that my university -- which I love, and is home to many people I adore even more so -- is putting over 500 staff on notice of redundancy, over 85% of whom are in Humanities and Social Sciences. These cuts are unfair, unjustified, and (crucially) unnecessary.
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Really enjoyed this article by @brackman1066.bsky.social in the new issue of @historytoday.com!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Bit of a long shot, but are there any medievalists in Cambridge at the moment who might be able to take pictures of a MS in the UL? Massive gratitude and thanks on offer ...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Emily is far too kind as ever, but yes -- free online classes in medieval French, starting in September! Sign up now! Venez nombreux! Moult alentatifs seez!* (* We'll cover this in session 1.)
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
But what if they unleash a horror from beyond time? @garybrannan.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Unique ice, 1.5m year old, to be melted to unlock mystery
BBC News went inside -23C freezers to see the ice that could
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
This week on the Exeter Medieval Studies blog … me! I’m talking about #Twitter, #MedievalSky, and the future of medievalist social media, with a lot of help from @aspencerhall.bsky.social sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstud...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
Medieval social media and Twitter's 'zombie corpse'
As the Centre joins Instagram, Edward Mills looks back on the rise and fall of Twitter for medievalists, and asks what might come next.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Ironically, if one thing needs a raise, it's the person doing the @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social's social media ...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Medievalists / friends / people with university library access: would anyone be able to help me out with one or two pictures from 'Maugis d'Aigremont : chanson de geste', ed. Philippe Vernay (1980)? I'm looking for Laisse XIV (begins l. 382 and lasts about 30 lines), so it shouldn't be too onerous!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Medievalists / friends / people with university library access: would anyone be able to help me out with one or two pictures from 'Maugis d'Aigremont : chanson de geste', ed. Philippe Vernay (1980)? I'm looking for Laisse XIV (begins l. 382 and lasts about 30 lines), so it shouldn't be too onerous!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
🐴 There's an equine theme to the @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social Medieval Studies Blog this week, Ollie Creighton tells us all about five years of research on the medieval horse -- and shares news about the project's upcoming book launch. #medievalsky
sites.exeter.ac.uk
Looking back on the 'Medieval Warhorse' project
With the conclusion of the 'Warhorse' project, regular contributor Oliver Creighton looks back on its findings - and forward, to a forthcoming book launch.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Really interesting news out of the rowing world, as the mixed eight becomes a World Champs event! I wonder whether will take the place of the M2+ (historically used as a development event), or whether we’ll see more established athletes doubling up?
worldrowing.com
World Rowing - World Rowing Quadrennial Congress 2025: A New Era for the Sport
The World Rowing Quadrennial Congress, held this past weekend in the Olympic Capital of Lausanne, Switzerland, marked a pivotal moment for the sport as delegates from across the globe gathered to shap...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Ahead of the Orme Lecture at @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social, we sat down with our speaker, Roberta Gilchrist (@uor-research.bsky.social), to discuss the Medieval Ritual Landscape project, her route to medieval studies, and how religious objects ended up buried! sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstud...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
'Medieval lived religion': the 2025 Orme Lecture
Roberta Gilchrist, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading, talks to us ahead of her 2025 Orme Lecture, 'Medieval Religion: the Complex Lives of Ritual Objects'.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
This week on the Medieval Studies blog at @uniofexeternews.bsky.social / @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social, Camille Vo Van Qui reports on the experience of turning their PhD thesis into ... a picture-book! A must for all fans of horses ...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
Turning my thesis into a picture book
Camille Vo Van Qui, a recent PhD graduate from the Centre, shares her experience of producing an altogether-less-common research output.
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Emma Cayley 谷曦 @emmacayley.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
‘Language is not an ancillary service. It is crucial for expanding understanding of key issues of our age beyond anglophone perspectives and assumptions.’ A response by @ilcs.bsky.social @ucflangs.bsky.social and St. Andrews School of Modern Languages. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/mode...
timeshighereducation.com
Modern languages departments are neither colonial nor obsolete
Advanced linguistic and cultural skills remain essential for deep insight into how people see themselves in the world, say five modern languages academics
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
The Centre for Medieval Studies blog this week welcomes back Jennifer Farrell, fresh from a series of speaking arrangements with Seed Talks. Read on for all things witchcraft and feminism! @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social #MedievalSky
sites.exeter.ac.uk
Talking about witchcraft and feminism (to a thousand people)
Here at the University of Exeter we have a particularly strong research and teaching presence in the histories of magic, esotericism, and witchcraft. Only last year we advertised the new MA in Magic a...
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Discussing this 2017 article on digital medieval history with MSc students later. 8 years after publication, 18.5% of its digital links no longer work. What implications does that have? www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
journals.uchicago.edu
The Digital Middle Ages: An Introduction | Speculum: Vol 92, No S1
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
I’m also in this — in amazing company, too! Looking forward to it.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Update: it's really good! Particularly enjoyed Chapter 15 on the ways that we sell 'education' to students, and the earlier examination of the primary-to-secondary disjuncture. I have to ask: were the three check-boxes on the front cover *meant* to map so well onto the three sections?
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
This week on the Medieval Studies blog at @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social, we have a fascinating ‘Spotlight’ post featuring Emily Selove. Read on for talismans, parties, and a healthy dose of obscenity … sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstud...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
Spotlight: magic spells and medieval Baghdad
Our recent 'Spotlight' entries have tended towards broadening definitions of what constitutes the 'medieval'. While Richard Flower's entry took us back in time to late Antiquity, this week's post -- c...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Had a lot of fun writing this for the @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social Medieval Studies blog -- who remembers 'bardcore'?
sites.exeter.ac.uk
'Bardcore': 'medieval' music for modern ears
Medieval music doesn't typically occupy a prominent place on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Nevertheless, a couple of weeks ago saw an unexpected collision of the two, as a discussion of new acoustic mus...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Looking forward to a couple of hours with this — picked up earlier at @mrbsemporium.bsky.social! (@sammywright.bsky.social)
The cover of a book: ‘Exam Nation: Why Our Obsession with Grades Fails Everyone and a Better Way to Think About School’.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Presenting ... possibly the derpiest horse ever. Bucephalus presented to Alexander, from @labnf.bsky.social, MS français 24364, fol. 4r.
Alexander (the Great) is made a knight, in a 14th-century manuscript of a medieval French text. His horse, Bucephalus, looks on from left, with comically round eyes and an elongated neck.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
At last, my everyone's favourite journal whose title fits perfectly to the tune of 'Panic' by the Smiths is on BlueSky!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
I've taught this text! It's great fun ... Here's the relevant illustration of Fauvel being curried ('torché' in Middle French), from MS français 146 in the Bibliothèque national de France.
An image from a medieval French manuscript of Fauvel (the horse whose name embodies the seven vices) being stroked by monks, cardinals, kings, and priests.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Definitely not me plugging my own article on the project account I run … hope it’s not too cheeky!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Question of the day: is there a standard signal for ‘I-see-you-oncoming-bus-but-I’m-waiting-for-a-different-one-so-no-need-to-stop’? The awkward head-shake-and-step-back seems a little over the top …
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Humanities people of BlueSky: any advice on how to approach the nitty-gritty of ‘turning-the-thesis-into-a-book’? Context: I have lucked out in all the areas possible (great press, contract signed, generous eleven months to first draft, etc.), but I’m keen to hear as many thoughts as possible.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
It feels almost sacrilegious to read this on a bus, but I’m very much enjoying @garethdennis.bsky.social’s wonderful and insightful new book on TRAINS. Absolutely eviscerating Hyperloop …
The cover of Gareth Dennis’s book, ‘How Railways Will Fix the Future’A passage of text from the book.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Do I know any Swedish speakers on here? Have a quick ‘how-to-say-something’ question, and don’t want to rely on Google Translate … 🇸🇪
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Well, the contract's signed and countersigned, so time for the obligatory post ... 'Language, Learning, and the French of Medieval England' will be coming out with @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social (scheduled for December 2026)!
An image from a manuscript of the 'Distichs of Cato'. The Latin text is followed by a translation into French. London, British Library, MS Harley 4657 (fol. 93v)
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Important update: met Carrie on the train this morning. She’s a Very Good Girl.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Delighted to confirm that it’s ’really me’ in this platform, via what im told is the ultimate ID: #ProofOfCat. This is Percy, who (based on this photo) doesn’t in fact know that he is indeed a cat.
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
This seems like an appropriate reaction to having a document from 1377 in your rucksack. #medievalsky
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Optimist: the cup is half-full. Pessimist: the cup is half-empty. Anglo-Normanist: the lemma ‘cuppe’ is attested in both Middle English and insular French matrix-language texts, problematising a straightforward reading of the term as belonging to any one of medieval Britain’s vernaculars. Hence …
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Wifey’s on BlueSky! (Although in fairness, she’s much better-known, rightly, as an educator developer, Lego fan, super-auntie, and all-round Good Egg.) Go followe @kellylouisepreece.bsky.social!
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Really fun #ShutUpAndWrite symposium thus far! Particularly enjoyed @thesiswhisperer.bsky.social's multiple 'lenses' on writing spaces (I may have had a happy little weep at the neurodivergent one!) ...
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Back in Cambridge today for the #ShutUpAndWrite Symposium 2024! Safe to say that they have the best -- and most appropriate -- swag. Plus, I might get to meet @thesiswhisperer.bsky.social ...
A 'Shut Up and Write!'-branded notebook and pen.
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Learning Anglo-French @medievalfrench.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
We made a Starter Pack of Centres (sorry, US followers) for Medieval Studies in the UK and beyond. Do let us know if you’d like to be added … go.bsky.app/PAQh2go
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Musical theatre fans of BlueSky: out of curiosity, does anyone know how they choose which of the multiple child actors in a show appear on the cast recording? Asking in the wake of the wonderful ‘Starlight Express’ album …
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I persuaded my PI to let me bring 'Learning Anglo-French' over to BlueSky! Please do give us a follow (and justify my optimism ...) #medievalsky
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
I seem to have picked up a few followers lately — have I somehow made it onto one of those mythical Starter Packs?
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Celine Camps @celinecamps.bsky.social · 10/10/2023
#Skystorians #earlymodern #medievalsky historians 🗃️: I am about to start my archival research and I find it rather daunting. I'd love to hear your suggestions/advice/tips for working in the archives. Any recommendations for best practices, tools/technology to use, preparation tips, etc.?
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 16/09/2024
No, *you've* spent the morning on a bus in a traffic jam and reading wistfully about Exeter's historic tram network
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Edward Mills @edwardmills.bsky.social · 03/09/2024
Hello, Bluesky-ers! I've decided to spend more time over here, after watching what's been happening to the once-vibrant world of #medievaltwitter since the takeover. Here's a quick 'about me' thread, for anyone coming across my witterings for the first time ...
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