iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The International Association of Byzantine Studies has just approved a new Commission for Byzantine Law! If you would like to be added to the email list, send me a message and I'll make it happen! #ByzantineLaw

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

It took a few days, but our job ad is finally up on all the normal online academic job sites! If you're an ancient historian looking for a good tenure-track job, you should take a look. Here it is on the Society for Classical Studies website, for example: www.classicalstudies.org/placement-se...

classicalstudies.org

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

🚨JOB ALERT: Are you a historian of the ancient world? Are you looking for a tenure-track assistant professor job? Would you like to earn a high salary and live in an exciting city? If so, you should read our job ad and apply online here: cuhk.taleo.net/careersectio...

cuhk.taleo.net

Assistant Professor (Ancient World History)

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Historians often try to explain why things happened, but this is an unusual case in which I tried to explain why something *didn’t* happen. Just published, ‘Untranslatable Law’ in Toma and Bara (edd.), ‘Latin Translations of Greek Texts from the 11th to the 13th Century’: brill.com/display/book...

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Wandering around the Met in New York, trying to fight off jet lag before the AHA begins tomorrow. I keep coming across artefacts, thinking ‘that looks familiar’, and then recognising them from images that I use in my lecture slides! #AHA25

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Happy New Year! I am at Hong Kong International Airport, waiting for a 3:20am flight to New York so that I can attend the annual conference of the American Historical Association. I wouldn’t stay up this late for a party, so why am I doing it for work?!? #AHA25

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

This was definitely the most memorable new headline this year

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Merry Christmas! God bless us, everyone!

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Is this a glimpse of the last #Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449-1453)? The Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaia discovered this fresco in a church near Aigio, possibly the only portrait of Constantine made during his lifetime: greekcitytimes.com/2024/12/13/p... #medievalsky

Fresco painting of Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449-1453) from the Taxiarches monastery of Aigialeia near Aigio

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I’m marking hand-written exams for the first time in years. It’s fascinating to see how many students were all drawn to one or two topics on the essay question (they had a choice of six). More fascinating still, one essay topic was so unpopular that literally nobody (out of a class of 30) chose it!

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

My best friend made it into the Financial Times!

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

On my way to invigilate my first ever in-person university exam today. I used to just give take-home final papers. However, thanks to the modern technological progress of #AI, they get to experience course assessment the same way I did when I was a student!

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Reposted by James Morton

War Mapper @warmapper.org · 08/12/2024

Welcome back Principality of Antioch

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Amazing developments in #Syria. When I woke up and read the news this morning, I thought it might all be over for Assad in a day or two. Turns out that it was more like an hour or two! It’s a useful reminder that historical change comes gradually at first… and then very suddenly.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

The Biden administration doing what it can to lose any remaining good will it still has in its last days.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I’m obviously not South Korean or very knowledgeable about South Korea, but I don’t find it reassuring that the attempt to impose martial law ended the way it did. Yes, lawmakers were able to overturn it with a vote, but they had to break into the National Assembly building first! #SouthKorea

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

In my #Byzantine History class yesterday, we discussed how the Ottoman Mehmed II took the title ‘Kayser-i Rum’ (1453) and Ivan IV of Moscow became ‘Tsar’ (1457). Made me wonder: how many ‘Roman Empires’ have there been in history? Original Western Eastern/Byzantine HRE Ottomans Russia … any others?

Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481) by Italian artist Gentile Bellini (1480)

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I’m lecturing on the 14th century this week, which means I get to show off the #Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320)! ‘It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.’ #medievalsky

An original copy of the Declaration of Arbroath (1320), by which the nobles of Scotland asserted the country’s independence and determination to refuse English rule. National Records of Scotland, SP13/7

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A couple of days ago, I shared an image of a 14th-century Italian classroom. In the interests of balance, here is a 12th-century #Byzantine classroom. Two ‘philosophers’ sit at the front and address a group of students in this folio from the Madrid Skylitzes. #medievalsky

Byzantine classroom scene from the 12th-century Madrid Skylitzes manuscript (f. 134r)

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

‘Embrace technology’ - easy words to throw out in a webinar, policy memo, or (in this case) a THE op-ed. Not so easy to define what this actually means for us in practice, though. Should we ‘embrace’ students using AI to cheat on homework? Fewer platitudes and more specifics, please.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

This is about onions, but I have the same complaint about recipe cooking times in general. Why is it that it takes me an hour to cook something that is supposed to take 30 minutes? Am I just a slow cook? Is the recipe optimistically assuming a best-case scenario? Or is it just lying?

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

The intersection of science and religion? This 14th-century #Byzantine monk is using an astrolabe to take astronomical readings while a scribe jots down the results. Natural science is an underappreciated aspect of the 'Palaiologan Renaissance' of late #Byzantium. #medievalsky

A monk uses an astrolabe while a scribe takes notes. From the 14th-century MS Ambros. H 57 sup., f. 1r (title page of Theon of Alexandria's short commentary on Ptolemy's Canons). Credit to Darin Hayton (https://dhayton.haverford.edu/blog/2021/01/26/monks-using-astronomical-instruments/)

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Replace the books with computers, and it isn't so different from a modern lecture! This C14 carving from Verona shows the physician Antonio Pelacani (d. 1327) lecturing to students in a medieval classroom. I'll be doing something similar when I show it to my own students tomorrow... #medievalsky

The physician Antonio Pelacani (d. 1327) gives a lecture to a group of four students. Carving from the tomb of Antonio Pelacani in the cloister of S. Fermo Maggiore in Verona.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

I was lucky to be able to present some of my research on Byzantine legal manuscripts at a conference in Taiwan recently (‘lucky’ in a very literal sense - there was a super typhoon the day before!). Here are some of my favourite highlights from the manuscripts that I discussed! #ByzantineLaw

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

This is wrong for the following reasons: 1. McClane wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t Christmas. 2. It’s the Christmas party that allows Hans Gruber to take over the building. 3. Killing terrorists helps McClane rediscover the true meaning of Christmas: it’s all about family.

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Pleased to see that I’ve been able to rebuild so much of my old Twitter network so quickly here! I do wonder, though, how to people make the time to read and write posts across so many different platforms?

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James Morton @jamesmorton.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Hello Bluesky! I’m a historian of law and religion in the Byzantine Empire (esp. 11th-12th centuries), though I’m also interested in medieval Western Europe and the Islamic world. I live and work in Hong Kong, so I like to follow Chinese and Asian current affairs too.

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