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Dr. Lucia Akard

@luciaakard.bsky.social
342 followers 240 following 48 posts

Medievalist working on sexual violence, victim/survivor studies and sex work. British Academy Postdoc at University of York.

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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
psa historians new game just dropped
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Taking a moment away from editing my monograph to say that this Telegraph piece is infuriating and insulting. And dangerously conservative to boot.
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Alice Raw @aliceraw.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
In 2021, @luciaakard.bsky.social and I ran Medieval Consent: A Symposium. We are so happy to release the co-edited Special Issue! scholarworks.wmich.edu/mff/vol61/is...
scholarworks.wmich.edu
Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality | Vol 61 | No. 1
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
@aliceraw.bsky.social and I ran our Medieval Consent symposium way back in 2021 and I'm so happy to announce that a special issue of the papers is now out! You can read it open access, too. scholarworks.wmich.edu/mff/vol61/is...
scholarworks.wmich.edu
Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality | Vol 61 | No. 1
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Dr Gillian Jack @drgillhistory.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
My book has a release date (15 Oct) and page on the publisher's website now: uolpress.co.uk/book/prostit... 🎉🎉🎉
uolpress.co.uk
Prostitution, Repentance and Social Welfare in Renaissance Florence - University of London Press
From the fourteenth century, prostitutes in Florence were encouraged to leave their profession and spend their lives in repentance at the monastery of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite. Many did over i...
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3
insidehighered.com
Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship
Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
My most anticipated book of the year!
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Here she comes #booknews @lollardfish.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
Justice for Jehanne
A spellbinding narrative history that defies modern assumptions about women’s lives in the Middle Ages and informs contemporary debates about sexual violence and the limits of justice
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
honestly bring back shame into teaching bc our students need the motivation...no I won't tell you how to find the book I linked on the reading list...or how to use google...you ought to be so full of shame that you don't understand that you are motivated to figure it out.
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All In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
@chrislhayes.bsky.social: “A 37-year-old American citizen, the mother of a young child is dead tonight. She was shot in the face by an agent of the federal government, and that government has spent the day telling despicable lies about her.”
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Alice Raw @aliceraw.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Call for Papers! Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis #medievalsky #Fissures2026
Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis
17-18 September 2026
Pembroke College, University of Cambridge


Gendered work on medieval popular politics has tended to revolve around the exceptional. This workshop explores how studies of gender can reconfigure discourses of medieval political community. We ask how attending to gendered bodies and identities might help us better understand the fissures in political culture in medieval Europe. Marking, for example, women’s participation as either absent or rare confines their involvement to the historical margins. How did literary as well as non-literary texts from various genres, ranging from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, engage with gendered political action? How did ideas of gender stabilise or destabilise political performances? 

We invite abstracts for 25-minute papers, as well as expressions of interest for participation. We welcome papers with a historical, literary, or interdisciplinary focus. Potential topics could include but are not limited to:

•	Frameworks for understanding non-normative gender expressions in political spaces.
•	Studies of politics at the intersection of gendered, queer, or trans methodologies. 
•	Histories of masculinities in political community. 
•	Emotion and/or Affect
•	Weaponized/defensive gender
•	Manoeuvring bodies through political crisis
•	Inclusion and exclusion
•	Different sites of political discourse, such as domestic and non-violent conflict. 

Collectively, the papers will interrogate the role of gender in political discourse. Selected papers may be considered for inclusion in an edited volume. Means-based bursaries for speakers may be available by further application.

Please submit a title and abstract of no more than 200 words to Alice Raw (ar889@cam.ac.uk) and Abbie Fray (abigail.fray@unibe.ch) by 16 January 2026.
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Samantha Maldonado @smaldo.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez
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John Harris @johnharris1969.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Latest from me: on what Liverpool says about the housing crisis, and the uneasy state of politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
A waiting list of thousands, and just five new homes for social rent: this city shows the depth of Britain’s housing crisis | John Harris
Liverpool was once praised for its tolerance, but housing shortages are driving fearful, unsettling behaviours – and people are blaming outsiders, says Guardian columnist John Harris
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jeremy kaplowitz @jeremykaplowitz.com · 03/08/2025
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
@manongarcia.bsky.social @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social “It’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because there’s something about what it is for them to be a man, and to be entitled to women’s bodies, that makes them, I think, at least some of them, deeply convinced that they haven’t done anything wrong.”
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Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
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Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Oh, I was also double-paying into the system by paying into NI through my paychecks and also paying an immigration surcharge to access health care, while having an state-issued immigrant ID card which said 'NO ACCESS TO PUBLIC FUNDS'
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
When can we admit that it was weird to have a zoom event to announce that Chaucer wasn't a rapist. like. now that it's been a few years can we admit that was Not Good and that the evidence is still not as "clear" as was presented?
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
justice for the survivors
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
daily reminder that immigrants pay twice for the NHS and don't have access to public funds!
theguardian.com
‘Paying twice’: workers face NHS bills of thousands in immigration crackdown
Campaigners fear plans to make people wait longer for leave to remain could cost tax-paying skilled workers dearly
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
My main professional organization, @medievalacademy.bsky.social, has just pub'd a statement about the use of AI in its journal. Basically, DON'T! "AI tools cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for their output or enter into legal agreements." www.medievalacademy.org/page/AIPolicy #MedievalSky
medievalacademy.org
AI Policy - The Medieval Academy of America
10/24/2025 » 10/25/2025Always Here: Non-Binary Gender, Trans Identities, and Queerness in the Global Middle Ages (c. 250–16
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
external monitor? no thanks, I prefer to do my transcribing hunched over my macbook on the couch, like god intended.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Seriously, fuck off. I say that with all due gravity.
Task Could this be
acceptable use?
Under what conditions?
Ask generative AI to identify
or summarize key points in
an article before you read it
Yes Acceptable without explicit citation
Use an AI chatbot as a
writing partner to help
generate and develop ideas
Yes Acceptable, may require explicit citation
depending on circumstances
Ask generative AI to produce
a starter bibliography
Yes Acceptable without explicit citation only if
each reference is checked and additional
databases and sources are mined
Ask generative AI to produce
a historical image for a paper
or presentation
Yes Image should be clearly marked as AI
generated and with explicit discussion as to
how the image was created. Images should
not be shared beyond the classroom
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James D'Emilio @demiliopics2.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
For a medieval monastic chronicler, a headline to die for
A Fish Falls From the Sky and Sparks a Brush Fire in British Columbia
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 01/08/2025
Why isn’t bell hooks’s writing around men and love not seen as a progressive text on how men can get laid, i.e., form healthy romantic relationships with people in their lives?
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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Not so fun fact: in the Middle Ages people hated procuresses. I knew this, and wrote about it with @lollardfish.bsky.social for @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol... Another not so fun fact I learned this summer. While there was a lot of hatred of procuresses they sometimes pardoned them.
slate.com
What Medieval Women Who Trafficked Girls Can Teach Us About Ghislaine Maxwell
It’s an old, old story.
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Over the weekend I drew these two subway maps for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and shared them. A lot of you asked about purchasing them, and now you can! You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop: surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com
Subway-style map of the itinerary in The Hobbit. The main journey is show in three different lines: red (Hobbiton to Goblin Town); green (Goblin Town to the Elvenking's Halls); and blue (Elvenking's Halls to Erebor). There are multiple stops on these lines. There is a yellow line going back from Erebor to Hobbiton, making stops at Beorn's Hall, Rivendell, and the Troll's Lair. There is an orange line directly from the Iron Hills on the map's right side to Erebor, and a purple line from Gundabad directly to Erebor.

The map's title reads: "Hobbit Transit Map" and there are directions for both There and Back Again listing the lines and transfer points. Between them, in the middle of the page, is a dragon drawn to resemble the dragon on Thror's Map from The Hobbit.

A key shows the names of each colored line: 
Red: Western Lands Line
Green: Mountains and Forests Line
Blue: Barrel Line
Yellow: Gandalf Express
Orange: Iron Hills Business Line
Purple: Orc and Goblin Reserve Line

Text at the bottom right reads Surprised Eel Maps, 2025Subway style map to go with The Lord of the Rings, showing the different pathways of various parties throughout the book. The title reads: "Lord of the Rings Transit Map: One Does Not Simply Walk Ino Mordor When One Can Ride." The map takes up the middle part of the page, and there are two keys. The one on the left is titles "Standard Service Lines, and has color keys matched to the subway lines on the map. Lines are named:
"Shire-Bree Commuter Line
Old Forrest Crescent
Wildland Scenic Line
Fellowship Line
Gollum / Sméagol Line
Uruk Hai Express
Three Hunters Line
Fangorn Slow Service
Rohan to Gondor Business Line
Black Ships Ferry Service
Oliphant Direct Line
Army of the West Line
Gandalf Express

A smaller key on the right side of the map is labeled: "Limited Service Lines" and has color keys matched to the following names lines:
"Eagle Express
Paths of the Dead Line
Nazgûl Search & Resuce
Valinor Ltd."

Two notes at the bottom read: 
"* Mount Doom station only accepts Rings of Power in payment. Plan accordingly.
+ Transfer voucher for ferry service at Grey Havens station is for outbound tafle only."
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
never not insane that Oxford colleges that have endowments in the hundreds of millions of pounds continue to pay lecturers salaries that are near impossible to live on in one of the most expensive cities in the UK.
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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
4. Every other discipline thinks they can do history but they often cannot
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Thrilled to announce that for the next three years I'll be a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at @york.ac.uk! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards 2024-25
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
How are immigrants to blame for poor public services when a) we pay an NHS surcharge that's like 1k a year or more b) pay for the NHS again in our taxes and c) many of us are not allowed any public funds
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Today, Starmer said he’d “take back control of our borders” and claimed that soaring immigration had done “incalculable damage” to our country. No. That damage is done by the ruinous dishonesty of our politicians and the hatred whipped up by their ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric. Shame on you, Starmer.
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
on the one hand soooo lovely to be told by students that my class is their favorite. on the other, sooooo depressing that it's unlikely I'll get to do this job I'm clearly really good at into the future.
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
me when asked what jobs I'm applying for
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Carris Harris's Obscene Pedagogies is so good it genuinely makes me weep at points. One of those books that I will be reading for years and years to come
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
absolutely wild to me that the government has not seemed to factor in the massively disabling pandemic we had just a few years ago in their discussion of why the number of benefits claimants has increased so much
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
every class I teach: I'll make a gender historian out of you [sung to the tune of I'll Make a Man Out of You from Disney's Mulan]
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I am begging scholars of medieval British law to explain their terms more clearly. Students do not know what eg an eyre court is and it is not readily apparent to them! or frankly to scholars coming from any other field trying to engage with your work
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I prefer my government to not accidentally cancel Ebola prevention. Just me though.
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
excited bc I get to lecture on my favorite weird horrendous perfect little sources tomorrow - letters of remission
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Manchester University Press @manchesterup.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Calling researchers in Queer & Trans Histories ⚧️🌈 This #LGBTplusHM25 we want your proposals for our new series. Ed. by the UK’s first permanently endowed professor in LGBTQ+ History, Matt Cook, @psimonetto.bsky.social & Jennifer V Evans. Find more info here: buff.ly/4hoB1lo
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Slate @slate.com · 22/12/2024
It was a trial for the ages, with deep implications for France.
slate.com
The Shocking Trial That Was Unlike Any This Legal Historian Has Ever Seen
Historian Sara McDougall specializes in rape and abuse trials. This one really hit different.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
One of the telling characteristics of the AI-gen’d student essays I’ve seen is their insipid both-sidesism, fully assimilating the noncommittal banalities that tech corps demand from employees, and hovering sufficiently in a colorless nowhere of opinion where one is neither right nor wrong.
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
One seminar paper to give, one Christmas party, 4 classes, and then DONE for the semester!!
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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
The cfp is out for #GMS2025, join us! The wonderful theme is gender, charity & care: medievalgender.co.uk/2025-canterb...
medievalgender.co.uk
2025 Christ Church University Canterbury – Gender and Medieval Studies
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Dr. Lucia Akard @luciaakard.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
sooo funny to me when ppl ask, aghast, what job I'll do if I have to leave academia. like, idk, I'll wait tables? work in a shop? all I know is that I've had a job every year since I was 13, leaving academia wouldn't change that.
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Dr Elena Rossi @elenarossi.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Calling #medievalsky! I have a question regarding surnames: Thomas Gerson was the only son of Jean Gerson's sister, Marion. Given that Gerson is not the name from Thomas' father, but in fact his maternal family name, is this a conscious choice? I assumed paternal surnames were most commonly adopted?
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