iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 7h

Jealous! I’ve only been to the one in Las Vegas and it was amazing (and a total sensory overload, too). Their “What Is Butter?” magnet makes me smile pretty much daily 😅

A fridge magnet from Meow Wolf in Las Vegas, designed as a visual riff on “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” packaging.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

As someone who used to live in Moscow, ID (and now lives 10 minutes away, across the state line): nobody hates CREC more than half of the population of Moscow. Local people will greet you as liberators.

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I'm giving a lecture on this tomorrow and it prompted a reminder I should plug my book: if you've seen Marco Rubio's nonsense about Western Civilisation and want some reading on how we ended up here and better ways to see the world today, may I humbly All Roads Lead to Rome? geni.us/AllRoadsLead...

geni.us

All Roads Lead to Rome: Why we think of the Roman Empire daily

Order your copy now!

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The boyars can't be trusted?! Quick, someone tell it to our good tsar!

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American Medieval Podcast @americanmedieval.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It’s here! New episode! @profgabriele.com talks with @sarannmcd.bsky.social about her new book JUSTICE FOR JEHANNE, the silences of medieval sources, and the violence and bravery we can see in everyday life. Enjoy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

Medieval True Crime with Sara McDougall

Podcast Episode · American Medieval · October 14 · 1h

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

That’s an awesome assignment! I do something similar in my Rome class by making students plan out a trading expedition using the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea but I wonder if the two could be combined somehow: “Ok, take your goods from Barygaza to Alexandria to Londinium (or another random place)!”

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

My students and I are literally scheduled to discuss Nirenberg’s Communities of Violence tomorrow 🙃

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

There will be a lot of equivocating about all the times search warrants have been executed on members of Congress for corruption investigations and the like, and it can't be stressed enough in how many ways HSI raiding Ilhan Omar is extremely not like that.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Earlier this year my wife and I were in Sevile and had an exciting opportunity to flip off Columbus’ tomb at the local cathedral.

A photo with the tomb of Columbus in the background and my wife’s middle finger in the foreground.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

real men prefer Ursula le Guin

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I got my BA and MA at SFState and this crap makes me incandescent with rage. Silicon Valley is a scourge on San Francisco, worse than the 1906 earthquake. At least the earthquake doesn’t hide the destruction it wreaks under layers of PR-vetted tech speak.

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Elise Wang @elisewang.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A return to firing squad everywhere might finally end the death penalty. Why? Because people have to be directly involved in executions (not pressing a button) it’s terrifically difficult to get them to do it. Medieval executions had the same problem!

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Sam Barber @barber-samj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

For me as for so many others, Chris Wickham has been fundamental for how I think about the early medieval world--I'd even go so far as to say how I think about history writ large. An enormous loss.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

If you are interested in medieval Waldensianism (or in medieval heresy and inquisition more broadly), this should be your first port of call.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The review took a bit to come out, but it was my absolute pleasure to review this collected volume filled to the brim with contributions by so many excellent scholars of medieval Waldensians and their persecution. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

journals.uchicago.edu

Marina Benedetti and Euan Cameron, eds., A Companion to the Waldenses in the Middle Ages. (Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition 103.) Leiden: Brill, 2022. Pp. xvi, 560; color and black-and-wh...

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Matthew Fisher @bookhand.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

STOP using “medieval” to describe the atrocities people commit today. “Evil” and “morally repugnant” will suffice.

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wrote something a while back about imperialism and claims to meritocracy. The same thing happens over and over because it's always about power. jonn.substack.com/p/rhiannon-g...

jonn.substack.com

Rhiannon Garth Jones on lessons from Rome – and why they’re bad

A guest post from the author of "All Roads Lead to Rome: Why we think of the Roman Empire daily’.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The last chapter of my current project talks about far right political movements taking all of the “Dark Middle Ages” myths developed since the Enlightenment (including the “first night”) and building them into their platform.

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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

a little louder for the cheap seats in the back

One of the biggest myths is that men rape by mistake. Like, "Oh, they need consent training." But research is very clear: Sexual violence is not a mistake. It is an intentionally made decision by people who know they don't have consent. They just don't prioritize consent over things like status, power, domination, and sexual gratification.
For my research, I got a certificate of confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health, so my notes couldn't be subpoenaed. One of the reasons I call them perpetrators in my work is because every single person I interviewed confessed in that context. The first question I would ask them was, "When you received that email from Title IX that you were under investigation, did you know what it was about?" Every perpetrator I interviewed said "yes." If sexual assault were a miscommunication, you would be wondering, What have I possibly done wrong? That is not the way that any of them reacted because they knew.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

How cool! I am talking about Black Death in my honors class and was super excited to update my slides with all the amazing research that came out in the few years since the last time I taught it. Thank you for all the great work you’ve been doing!

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Why I shouldn't answer emails before I am fully caffeinated. Exhibit one million: Today, answering an email from a student, I caught myself writing: "And in the meantime, if you have any questions, please let me know if you have any questions."

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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Greek system should be put to the torch and the earth salted so nothing can grow in its place.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a great point why “but we teach marketable skills” argument (which I still think has merit in certain contexts) can only get us so far.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

ability to appreciate diverse viewpoints and ideas, curiosity and intellectual flexibility, as well as interpersonal skills and empathy. So even from a purely job market perspective (which is not my favorite perspective, but let’s roll with it) taking a history class or two is highly beneficial!

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The funny thing is that even if you think about jobs taking history is great for students. Every year employers are asked about the skills they want from the grads they hire. Skills that a student can practice in history classes (or humanities classes more broadly): critical thinking, communication

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's been said, but Mamdani's media presence is built on playfulness and joy in stark contrast with both "serious"/ boring Dem leadership and the evil/weird Trump admin. A breath of fresh air, really.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I had a respiratory infection that pretty much lasted the whole last term of my PhD. Just awful. Three rounds of antibiotics, if memory serves.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A diet of worms. Or, as historians call it, luthermaxxing.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I once applied for (and got) a job at a Canadian university. I remember the ad included a link to detailed information about salary ranges, teaching loads, and benefits. Because unions. And it really should be like that everywhere.

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I wish I knew the answer, but as a fellow 40-something, I am also invested in this question. Personally, trying to be introspective and take pauses, instead of rushing through, can be very helpful. And being kind to yourself and others (I always find the "others" part easier to do).

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American Medieval Podcast @americanmedieval.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hello! Humpday means a new episode! @profgabriele.com and @tlecaque.bsky.social and @lollardfish.bsky.social talk the Bayeux Tapestry and the end of grim dark medieval vibes (among other things). Enjoy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

September Medieval News with David M. Perry & Thomas Lecaque

Podcast Episode · American Medieval · September 23 · 1h 6m

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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 23/09/2026

please to see that my latest academic article is out now: "Ghost in the Machine. Crusade Medievalisms in the 21st-century United States" I take on the ghost of Samuel Huntington and some right-wing tropes in scholarship open access so free to read --> www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It’s all part of their cycle of bets: first you bet on something stupid with borrowed money and then other people get to bet on how quickly a loan shark arrives to break your legs

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

JKR's non-HP books are so awful, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if one day we learn that HP books were ghostwritten. She even tried to write her crappy detective novels under a pen name at first and then promptly revealed that she was in fact the author, because nobody would buy them otherwise. 😆

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Bro-jan Horse was a slippery slop to the Bros Age collapsing

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Think if it a blood sacrifice to the spirits of history

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Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦 @eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I imagine finding an elephant bone is like a dog Hall of Fame-level achievement. The Nobel Prize in Dogness.

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