iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

In an article on his arrival to NYC in 1940, Newsweek described Dugan the penguin as being almost three feet tall or "nearly twice as much as a run-of-the-ice penguin."

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Trying to do an hour today on penguins during September. Yesterday and today I was working on the story of Dugan, who was (not) the first emperor penguin brought North.

A clipping from the NYT of an emperor penguin, with a caption that reads "A South Polar 'Emperor' Visits US."

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Robert Groß @robertgro5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Early-career researchers and researchers from low-income countries need your help. @eseh.bsky.social has launched a campaign to raise funds for travel grants for the next conference in Salzburg in 2027. Donate now! #envhist #histtech www.betterplace.org/en/projects/...

betterplace.org

Travel Grants for ESEH Salzburg Conference 2027

Donate now to our ESEH Travel Grant Fundraising Campaign and help bring more diverse voices to Salzburg!

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Gabriella M. Petrick, Ph.D. 🍇🍇🍇 @gpetrick.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Check out the launch of @academic.oup.com Oxford Intersections: Environmental Change and Human Experience Here are the Food articles. If you are interested in writing for the Food series reach out! Many other cool topics as well academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

academic.oup.com

Oxford Intersections: Environmental Change and Human Experience

Abstract. Environmental change is a fundamental concern across the humanities and social sciences. This Intersection explores the changing interrelationshi

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

20 years ago this month I started my first academic teaching job post-grad school--a year as a visiting lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, where I had wonderful models from my colleagues of how to be generous, rigorous, and caring teachers and kind and supportive colleagues.

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American Medieval Podcast @americanmedieval.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

HEY THIS IS THIS WEEK. WE HAVE A SPECIAL, NEW FEATURE COMING ON THE PODCAST. ME & @lollardfish.bsky.social AND @tlecaque.bsky.social GET TOGETHER ONCE/ MONTH AND TALK ABOUT "MEDIEVAL IN THE NEWS" IT'S VERY GOOD AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN/ SUBSCRIBE --> AmericanMedieval.com

americanmedieval.com

American Medieval Podcast

A podcast about the Middle Ages (with an American twist), hosted by Professor Matthew Gabriele.

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Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

ICYMI, I wrote about the "editor impersonation" scam that authors are being bombarded with, and why frauds that play on your dreams of success and recognition are so powerful. Free post, but please subscribe if you can! www.patreon.com/MikeRothschi...

patreon.com

Beware the Editor Impersonation Scam | Mike Rothschild

It's every writer's dream come true. You're toiling along at your day job or on your latest pitch, hoping that this is the one that finally

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Some of my amazing colleagues wrote a paper in Nature about re-visiting medieval floods. Here's a Science article about it that I was interviewed for. www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Medieval Europe was battered with 16 catastrophic floods in just 2 years

The intense deluges, never before documented, represent the highest number of back-to-back extreme weather events in the past 700 years

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I am so excited that this is finally out! The series is the work of an amazing set of historians. I edited volume 2, with contributions from @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social and many others --intended for general reference and classroom use. Tell your librarians!!! www.bloomsbury.com/us/cultural-...

Picture of a book: A Cultural History of the Environment in the Age of Emperors, edited by Ellen Arnold. There is a medieval elephant on the cover.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This would be an EXCELLENT class project for a Canadian or North American EH class.....

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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

My god, what an image. Dead kings in a plastic box, carried off as the world burns.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

And there are also some hand-made penguins--this one personalized with the collector's name. I find "Karen" the penguin kind of charming.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This collection also includes a nice sampling of plastic penguin toys--ranging from traditional wind-up walking penguins to the quite questionable "penguin pooper." This also includes a Mary Poppins promo and an Avon summer straw cooler (an overlap with penguins and drinks--more on that soon)

A set of six plastic penguin toys--two blue and white wind up penguins, a penguin that poops candy (I can assure you penguin poop is NOT a treat), and other promotional toys.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I am beginning to book Public Scholar workshops for spring. I am bad at self-promotion but good at teaching people to bring their ideas to new and larger audiences. It's mid-August. Surely you will soon be planning your faculty workshops in January through May. www.davidmperry.com/go-public/

davidmperry.com

The Public Scholar Workshop

There’s no such thing as the Ivory Tower. Colleges and universities are not isolated enclaves, and they probably never were. Public engagement is an essential part of the core mission of higher educat...

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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

We are so pleased that this book, a project about 3 years in the making, is now out and available. Thank you so much to the contributors for making it happen! #envhist #envhum #histsci #STS #museumstudies #exploration #Antarctica #polar #oceanhist

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I've been spending some time moving books around and getting my home office set up. I described it to my husband as "mis-en-place" for the semester.

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Gabriella M. Petrick, Ph.D. 🍇🍇🍇 @gpetrick.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Putting a panel/roundtable together with @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social for ASEH. Join us. Maybe I'll even do a cool agro tour of central VA--off book. Know lots of great producers in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Also join the Food & the Environment SIG. DM with your email & I'll add you

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

So, this is my absolute least favorite kind of penguin kitsch: the penguins with polar bears or igloos. This is common, especially at Christmas, when the polar zones seem to become indistinguishable--they are simply "cold." One is a coca-cola collab--coke has used penguins several ways over time.

Three porcelain? items--a jar lid, a trinket jar, and a small decorative piece all featuring polar bears and penguins playing around human material culture--sleds, igloo, and (???) a wooden barrel?

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

And here's the overview. I'll post some more detail about specific items over the next few days as I figure out more about some of them.

A coffee table full of penguins most from the 80s and 90s, ranging from salt shakers to Christmas ornaments.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Those of you who were connected with me on the other site might remember that during the pandemic I fell into probably the least probable online scam ever--I paid thousands of dollars for a fake penguin collection. (Ebay reimbursed me) Well.....today I had more luck. Nowhere near the scale, but:

A large cardboard box hastily folded closed with "Breakable Pengins" written on it.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Can you tell I've stolen a day to work on penguins? This was published in the Illustrated London News in 1933, for the Jubilee of the Royal College of Music

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

From an 1868 newspaper description of the penguin at the Regent's Park zoo: "looking not unlike a lump of a boy with an overcoat to big for him."

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The edited collection that I contributed a chapter on penguin eggs to is part of Berghan Books' summer sale! www.berghahnbooks.com/title/McCahe...

berghahnbooks.com

Antarctic Materialities | Berghahn Books

Independent Publishing since 1994

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Water in World History is part of Routledge's Summer Sale! If you assign the book in class, I'm happy to talk about the possibility of zooming in to meet your students! www.routledge.com/Water-in-Wor...

routledge.com

Water in World History

This book takes a thematic approach to the global history of water, covering a wide range of human interactions with water and the ways in which it carries both life and death. Water is one of the mos...

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Why does it always take so long to grade the last 5% of any set of assignments?

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Dex Anderson @dexanderson.com · 20/07/2026

Well. Good. Because boys aren't playing girls sports. Girls are, including trans girls. We need to absolutely reject this framing that trans girls are the same as boys. They fucking aren't and I'm tired of *Democrats* just accepting the right wing framing there.

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ESEH – European Society for Environmental History @eseh.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The call for ESEH 2027 is out! Submit your proposal by 15 October. We offer standard formats like panel sessions, individual papers, book presentations, and posters, but also repeat our creative Different World Sessions! Read more here: eseh.org/cfp-14th-bie... #EnvHist #EnvHum

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I am so over these random phishing things from "book agents" that are suddenly appearing in my work email.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Teaching an intensive 1-month food history summer class. So once again:

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Martin Knoll @mknoll.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

www.eseh2027.at Call is out now! See you in #Salzburg ! @eseh.bsky.social @esehnextgate.bsky.social #EnvHist #EnvHum

Photography of Salzburg University Unipark campus, c Martin Knoll

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Nicole Maceira Cumming @nicolemaceira.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🚨 Call for Papers 🚨 @joshuarushton8.bsky.social and I are holding an online colloquium 'Environmental Approaches to the Reformation World' on 30 Sept 2026 🌳 🌊 ⛪ 🐄 Deadline for submissions 1 September.

call for papers text with woodcut image of 1607 flood

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Can finally share! ASEH and Forest History Society are pleased to announce the search for the next editor of Environmental History has concluded with the appointment of Ellen F. Arnold, PhD. Ellen and her team at the Ohio State University will begin transitioning into their new roles this summer.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Summer class experiment: replacing 500 word "guided response essays" with 5 minute videos addressing same question.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Seem to be ok on jet lag now. But yesterday tired me rolled over on my glasses, bending them, so I have to wear my old ones for now and they are not quite the right prescription so I feel a bit out of sorts anyway. Harumph.

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Chad Topaz Queer DEI Race Traitor @chadtopaz.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Did you hear about the DC July 4 fireworks show? It promises 850,000 fireworks in 40 minutes. That's 354 per second. You'll miss up to 142 of them every time you blink. For your edutainment, I proudly present the nerdiest thing you will read about this dangerously absurd / absurdly dangerous event.

chadtopaz.com

Three Hundred Fifty-Four Fireworks per Second — Chad M. Topaz

Organizers promise 850,000 fireworks in roughly 40 minutes over the National Mall this Saturday. I did what a mathematician does with a big number: I divided. It did not make the show look better.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

My "Super Secret Penguin Project" began when I wondered....I wonder where penguins are in the archive.....I spent the last two days (plus today) at the @uva.nl archives, and once again the answer is--penguins are everywhere!

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Google translate options of the day--for Japanese zoo catalog for Tokyo zoo. Eventually it settled on Penguin (Humboldt's Penguin) for the caption, but it went through 2 alternates: Penguin (even when you struggle you're still a penguin) and Penguin (when you stand firm you look like a penguin)

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

after a rather long travel day, I'm in Amsterdam, prepped for three days of intense archive work before returning home.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The kind of small moment I'm chasing this week in sixth-century writing: “It was winter time, so they lit a fire, warmed some wine and fell asleep after they had drunk it.”

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Still using my ancient copy of Gregory's History of the Franks that I first read as an undergraduate. Layers of different readings all across the pages.

battered paperback copy of a book full of different note flags.

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

@aikerots.bsky.social has two new post-doc opportunities associated with his exciting interdisciplinary project on maritime goddesses: a historian of Chinese religion and a historian or anthropologist of Japanese religion. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

jobbnorge.no

Two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in East Asian Religions (303894) | University of Oslo

Job title: Two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in East Asian Religions (303894), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, August 31, 2026

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Ellen Arnold @medievalpenguin.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

New idea: Buddy show about Gregory of Tours (Cumberbatch) and Venantius Fortunatus (Martin Freeman--why mess with a good pairing?) They get into hi-jinx caused alternately by Gregory spinning tall tales and Fortunatus trying to sing and flirt with nuns.

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