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Laurence Totelin

@ltotelin.bsky.social
3.3K followers 2.9K following 959 posts

Historian of Ancient Mediterranean science and medicine. Mother of two. Feminist. Plant lover. Trade unionist. Super Belgie. Welsh by adoption. Many typos.

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Reposted by Laurence Totelin
Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Other work by the Ladybird artists Llangollen Valley Artist: SR Badmin
A view over a green, lightly- wooded valley at Sunset or dawn 
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Dr Claire Millington ✍🏻🏺 @clairemillington.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Never not going to be excited at seeing my books in an actual honest to goodness bookshop. #RomanFortThursday
Book on a black shelf. Cover image is a grassy landscape of a rocky promontory stretching to the horizon with a stone wall snaking up it to the right. The sky above is dramatic grey clouds. In the foreground to the right is superimposed a stone statue of a seated man wearing draped robes. The book title Roman Life on Hadrian's Wall and author's name Claire Millington are prominent.
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Christine Kooi @christinekooi.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
For colleagues who do research in Belgium: the new Flemish government austerity budget cuts 47 million Euros in support to cultural institutions like archives, libraries and museums. It sounds truly awful. 🗃️ www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2340...
brusselstimes.com
'Difficult measures needed': Flemish government presents €2 billion in cuts
The Flemish government has approved nearly €2 billion in spending cuts, rising to €3 billion by 2029, to balance the region’s budget over the next three years.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Warning: the description of this botched execution is very distressing.
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Amnesty International USA @amnesty-usa.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tennessee’s botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, as witnessed by her attorneys, demonstrates why the death penalty truly is the ultimate cruel, inhuman & degrading punishment. All execution methods are inhumane & unacceptable. The death penalty must be abolished, everywhere. bit.ly/47stTB4
bit.ly
Tennessee unable to carry out the execution by lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike, witnesses say
Media witnesses say Tennessee officials were unable to carry out the execution of Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder on Wednesday.
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Katherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Looks like this would interest lots of @womeninclassicsuk.bsky.social and #wccwiki people!
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And it is not as if they destroyed fields without making deeply hurtful comments... because their comments are hardly better than what you read in some gutter press. But dignity at work y'all
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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The fragility of senior managers as they literally destroy whole careers and fields of study has really been something to behold. Is it hot in that kitchen?
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Squiddy @dr-squiddy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nobody could have seen this coming (except for anyone who has visited a previous exhibition at the BM and has spent a few seconds thinking about the logistics around blockbuster audiences and the logistics of having one massive object).
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The strange thing with this awful comment is that I have heard it made by people for whom English is not a main language ('native' can go and get lost in the sun in this context). And they confuse copyediting and proofreading.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So glad to come back to campus after working mostly from home/travelling this summer, to find the building has been repainted everywhere in different shades of grey.
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Stephen Green @stephenrgreen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
UoN: "While we know many of our students will be unaffected by this action, the timing of this to deliberately disrupt the start of the new academic year for our students is particularly disappointing.” What about your timing to decide to fire a quarter of the academics at your university?
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'The Westminster government’s contribution to funding domestic undergraduates studying in England fell in real terms from £8.9 billion in 2012-13 to just £3.3bn in 2024-25, a drop of more than 60 per cent, an analysis has found.'
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rogueclassicist ~ david meadows @rogueclassicist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Corpus Numericum Gemmarum Antiquorum cnga.me
cnga.me
Corpus Numericum Gemmarum Antiquorum - Glyptic Art & Intaglio Database
Digital corpus of glyptic art and hardstone carving from the Hellenistic and Roman era - Over 6,000 intaglio gems for archaeology and art history research
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Mark Walters @mark-walters.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I passed this 1930’s church on Bull Bay Road in Amlwch a few times and just had to take a look. This is the Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea & St Winefride. It was designed by an Italian architect to look like the upturned hull of a boat reflecting Amlwch’s maritime history.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A beautiful place on a beautiful island
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Women’s Classical Committee UK @womeninclassicsuk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
TODAY!! Come join us this afternoon 🏛️
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
'student representatives have described the proposal as “tone-deaf”, highlighting that two-thirds of undergraduates are now in term-time employment and describing an expectation for them to take on additional labour as “absolutely ridiculous”.'
timeshighereducation.com
Paid employment ‘biggest barrier’ to rolling out work placements
Survey comes after vice-chancellors said they wanted every undergraduate in England to undertake work experience as part of their degree
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Radcliffe Science Library @radcliffescilib.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is the last week of the wonderful @bodleian.ox.ac.uk exhibit : Pets & their People Our favourite part is the historical pictures of people with their pets are heart-warming. Check it out before it's gone in the Weston Library, Broad Street.
Illustrated poster for an exhibition titled "Pets & their People" at the Weston Library, Oxford. Features a cat dressed in a bonnet and blue dress. Dates: 11 March to 27 September 2026. Bodleian Libraries logo included.
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Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
We've decided to start a discussion series. Lunchtimes once a month, to remember why we 'do heritage' all welcome, please share with students and networks.
Poster for a discussion series. Text reads:

ButCH/*

Bureau for the Contemporary & Historic

Bureau Bites!

JOIN US AT THE BUREAU FOR A MONTHLY LUNCHTIME BITE

13.15-14.00

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/353204848682706?p=kTQLxkqUay7odEGmUi

Meeting ID: 353 204 848 682 706

Passcode: 72My9df2

Start your week with us in the Bureau for our new series, Bureau Bites. These informal, 45min online gatherings are open to all, whether you're a postgraduate student, a heritage manager or a senior consultant. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn account where we'll post a link to a short text (30 min read) the week before we meet. We understand how dynamic, energetic and enterprising (ie busy) we all are so please join the conversation even you haven't been able to make time to read and reflect in advance. Readings will be a mix of websites, blogs, reports, excerpts from academic papers.

The aim is to reconnect us with our communities of practice and to create space for the kind of thinking we might not be able to do on the daily grind. We invite participants to start a light-touch reflective journal to help document these conversations, which you may find useful in your work.

These gatherings also mark the start of ButCH's journey towards being a business partnership and launch of our redesigned website https://37looestreet.org/home/butch/

Monday, 12 October: Does heritage really matter?

Monday, 9 November: When loss is more!

Monday, 7 December: Beyond engagement? Art, heritage and placemaking

Monday, 11 January: Strategies, frameworks and plans why have them?

Monday, 8 February: Nothing ages faster than the future

Monday, 8 March: Place, land and more-than-human interve

Monday, 5 April: 'No, I don't want to do workshops with NEETs! Beyond instrumentalising heritage 

Monday, 10 May: Not another toolkit! Working with creative approaches to unblock cross-sector heritage research, management and policy
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I don't know the answer to this question. What I know: if things continue as they are, and optionally dwindles, then they should be called 'courses'. 'Modules' imply some modularity.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Automation did, in fact, drastically reduce housework, both in length and intensity of physical labour. What people were able to do with that time & energy is an intersectional issue. As usual. penntoday.upenn.edu/news/how-app...
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Sadiah Qureshi 🦈 @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
40 years ago Ahmed Iqbal Ullah was murdered in a racist attack at school. This article discusses his family’s remarkable attempts to tackle the root causes of the murder. Heading to a memorial event and wishing him, and his family, true justice and peace. hyphenonline.com/2026/09/17/a...
hyphenonline.com
The legacy of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah's murder, 40 years on - Hyphen
The racist killing would rally hundreds to campaign for justice. Now, his family feel a ‘duty’ to speak up again amid the rise of the far right
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Chris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Universities have managed staff costs significantly below inflation,[between 2016-17 and 2023-24] increasing only 14% compared to the 41.2% increase in RPIX [measure of inflation]” Substantial real terms pay cut, which continues a trend existing years before that…
gov.uk
Cost of undergraduate provision and qualifications in England
A study of the full economic cost of providing undergraduate-level higher education and other qualifications in England.
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Jen Baird @jenbaird.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We're hiring a (full-time, permanent) colleague to join us as Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage in @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSY235/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage at Birkbeck, University of London
Apply for the Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I had no idea of this extraordinary episode. I reminds us of how easily people can be declared "illegal" or "immigrant" rather than native. These are not natural kinds, but administrative categories. Striking parallels with the Windrush scandal. Of interest to all, but tagging @spe07.bsky.social
theguardian.com
The spectre of ‘remigration’ is haunting Europe. Slovenia in 1992 gives us a blueprint for this state terror | Miha Mazzini
In February that year, the Slovenian government officially deleted 25,000 citizens, turning them overnight into illegal immigrants, says writer and film-maker Miha Mazzini
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is very important! A meeting with HR in attendance is not informal! You have the right to adjourn meetings. I know that people fear that being a 'trouble maker' will expose them, but the reality is that there is often no rhyme or reason to who becomes a target
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Sadiah Qureshi 🦈 @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
An insight into how staff are being treated across the sector while trying to convince students all will be well while expecting staff to also perpetuate the fiction. Staggering.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Solidarity with all colleagues. Reading the list of courses cut is important: mostly joint honours in the Humanities, many of which have a 'Celtic' or 'Scottish' element. Where is the duty of Universities to preserve knowledge?
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Absolutely devastating.
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Edinburgh, have you received the data used to determine which courses were 'not viable'? Because Nous has a track record of (a) failing to capture the full sign-up because of varying course codes for the same course in different Schools (b) only measuring fee-capture, not cost-of-delivery.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It's not Caturday, but here's a #medieval description of "cattys mynte" (catnip), from the Middle English #herbal of Henry Daniel, written ca.1380: “cattes louyn it souerynly, in so mykel þat þey walwen hem þat ar yn & þeron, & eten it by þe grounde, but if þer be þe more plente of....
static.klipy.com
Catnip Kitty Enjoys Catnip
ALT: Catnip Kitty Enjoys Catnip
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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just a little tour of Livia’s garden fresco. #AncientBluesky🏺
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"C'est le cancer Que tu as pris sous ton bras Maintenant Tu es en cendres, cendres La mort C'est comme une chose impossible"
lemonde.fr
Catherine Ringer, célèbre voix des Rita Mitsouko, est morte à l’âge de 68 ans
La chanteuse s’était fait connaître grâce au succès du groupe Les Rita Mitsouko, formé avec Fred Chichin, et notamment de leurs tubes « Marcia Baïla » et « Andy ».
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Éditions Libertalia @libertalialivre.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Iconique. Catherine Ringer (1957-2026).
Catherine Ringer en concert
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I know all university leaders hate trades unions but at Brighton they’re about to find out what happens when their workforce doesn’t have a structure and negotiating team to represent them and to head off trouble. It won’t be pretty. Employees won’t submit - they’ll resist in unpredictable ways.
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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This ia beyond comprehension. Is this where we are heading in UK HE?
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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Today my heart is with all colleagues facing redundancy (some for the umpteenth time), who were made redundant over the summer or who have simply had enough and left. Our sector is having its guts ripped out.
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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I love maths, I did a PhD in it, I do a job where I use maths everyday. But I also love history, music, literature, and they are as important as maths. And I studied maths because I like it, not because it "offers most value to the nation". We need all subjects in universities.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Chris McDonald studied chemical engineering, which is by no means safe in the current HE climate. Like many subjects that are expensive to teach, it was cross-funded by the Arts and Humanities, until the collapse that we are witnessing.
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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
More positively I am really pleased that SNIFF: A HISTORY OF SMELLS is out today!! Published by @yalebooks.bsky.social and out in all good bookshops. It's a history of smell across time and space that takes in a panoply of pongs and perfume from paper and ink to stink bombs and whale oil.
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Frosted Poptart @toastertrollop.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Perched on a Brentwood Heights hill, it's at risk of what’s known as “demolition by neglect.” Neighbors have reported seeing wildlife entering the house. news.artnet.com/art-world/fr...
news.artnet.com
Frank Lloyd Wright's Only Usonian Home in L.A. Is Falling Into Disrepair
The stunning Sturges House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, just joined the L.A. Conservancy's watch list.
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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A lioness and a leopard in this gorgeous art deco picture, I've noted as being by an artist called Maltsev, but on whom I can find no info (it's certainly not by the contemporary artist of that name). Anyone have any intel? It would be good to see more of his/her work. #Caturday #artdeco #art
A sepia-tone drawing of a lioness and a leopard perched on a rock, looking left. Below them a seated youth is nuzzling a deer, with three partridges at his feet.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
No compulsory redundancies is good news, but it means that management was successful in scaring enough people to leave. And that has serious implications, outlined in this thread. Solidarity
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Jenn Borgioli Binis @jennbinis.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This is spectacular.
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Laurence Totelin @ltotelin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What a giant she was. A great obituary www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/u...
nytimes.com
Gloria Steinem, Personification of the Feminist Movement, Dies at 92
She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women develop a sense of self-worth and gain a measure of equality at work, at home and in society at large.
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
autumn is fast approaching which means it's time for pannage: the ancient commoner's right of taking your pigs to the forest to feast on fallen acorns, chestnuts, and beechmast
four pigs underneath a blossoming tree
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 01/09/2026
🏛️ Before the Internet, computer clubs helped people learn, trade software & explore personal computing. A surviving binder of 50 Atari newsletters from August 1987 offers a time capsule of that world. Explore the Atari collection & more computer history: blog.archive.org/2026/08/27/a... 🧵
A 2x2 grid of four 1987 Atari computer club newsletter covers. Upper left: the tan-toned "SBACE" cover with a desktop interface and tiger image. Upper right: the white "ST Potpourri" cover with a digital illustration of spheres reading "JACS" in a checkerboard room. Lower left: the white "The Communicator" cover with a pixelated UFO illustration. Lower right: the yellow-toned "G.R.A.S.P. Gazette" cover with a line-art illustration of a raised fist and a coastal lighthouse scene.
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