iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Raph Cormack @raphcormack.bsky.social · 3h

I really can't stop thinking about this article about AI agents desparately writing bad pitches to literary magazines to get the tokens that will keep them from going into "deep rest". substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

The AI Agents Pitching Lit Mags to Stay Alive

It’s not really working.

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 4h

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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Sebastian Hageneuer @archaeobasti.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

From the archive (2023): In the entrance area of the Nasrid Palace of the Alhambra, the foundations of two inner courtyards have been preserved. We were tasked with visualising both, with a focus on the glazed floor tiles and fountains in courtyard 2. 🔗 www.artefacts-berlin.de/portfolio-it...

Courtyard 2 in the front area of the Nasrid Palace at the Alhambra, Granada/Spain. © artefacts-berlin.de

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 04/10/2026

So much to look forward to in Series 2, including our first ever episode recorded in front of a live audience! Keep an eye out for ticket announcements...

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Writing something where I will be liberally citing @lilymasonphd.bsky.social's latest and realizing that I can't cite every single thing I would like to because then I'm just reprinting her work. So, I've gotta thread about it instead. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Screenshot of the article website. Title is: Polarization Is Not the Problem. Author is Lilliana Mason. Journal is the Journal of Democracy, Volume 37, Number 4, October 2026. From Johns Hopkins University Press.

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 01/10/2026

You know what happens when you walk away from men who think they're entitled to your attention? They follow you.

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Institute for Medieval Studies Leeds @leedsims.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Delighted to announce our autumn seminars. All welcome! All free and hybrid. To attend the first one online go to forms.cloud.microsoft/e/irxCe8c5mC or join us in Parkinson B.08 #medieval #leedsmedieval

Poster for Autumn research seminars at Institute for Medieval Studies Leeds. All hybrid (online and Parkinson B.08).
Tuesday 13 October, 5.30 pm
Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu (Universitatea ‘1 Decembrie 1918’, Alba Iulia, Romania)
‘Ethnic and Political Communities in Transylvania in the Late Medieval Period’

Tuesday 3 November, 5.30 pm
Matthew Townend (University of York, UK)
‘Court Poetry in the Viking Age: Performance and Reception’

Tuesday 24 November, 5.30 pm
Ellen Gallimore (University of Leeds, UK)
‘Early Medieval Law in Nineteenth-Century Reform Debates: Tithes, the Nation, and the Established Church’

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Swara A.S. ☀️🍉🌊🧿 @spiderswarz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

As much as delusional optimism is a thing (I say as an optimist myself) so is delusional pessimism and I really think we all do ourselves a disservice by not acknowledging that. As abolitionist Mariame Kaba says, "Hope is a Discipline."

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cmrn knzlmn @handle.invalid · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Two years ago, I sat on my balcony in Aarhus just before I moved apartment, exhausted and trying to grab some peace with a pistachio affagato. I just did the exact same thing on the window seat in my new place - a lot has changed since then but I'm still trying to treat overwork with bougie bits 🫣

Close up of a very tired blonde woman with a coffee cup, sat on a balcony with the autumn sun and some worse-for-wear balcony plants in the background.

Close up of the same very tired blonde woman scrunching up her face into a sort of smile, once again clutching a coffee cup, sat on a window seat with the autumn gloom, the river, and some thriving new plants in the background.

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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Two recent publications, on the more “public facing” side of academia, thanks to the good graces of a couple of friends, including @rhigarthjones.bsky.social

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 24/09/2026

Netanyahu after the UNGA emptied out ahead of his speech: "If there any other moral cowards who have not left the hall, please do so now."

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026

Going through these new enslavement records from the British Colonies and William Hinds Prescod, Esquire, who was the largest slaveholder in Barbados in his lifetime and probably owned my ancestors, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, about a century after Isaac Newton was

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Every aspect of this is horrifying and far too normalised, I am so heartbroken and furious at what we have allowed our society to become

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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Alaa lives in a tent pitched on the ruins of her house, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike that killed all three of her children. In one month, she’ll give birth again. The first of the Guardian’s series capturing the daily lives of 5 people in Gaza. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

theguardian.com

‘I lost my children, and I’m afraid of losing my baby again’: a day in the life of a pregnant woman in Gaza

Alaa lives in a tent pitched on the ruins of her house, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike that killed all three of her children. In one month, she will give birth again.

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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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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 20/09/2026

Holy smokes I fuckin' did it. As promised, I hard launched before Yom Kippur, with hours to spare! I am going to take a nap.

soraya.press

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

Look at me. I’m the publisher now.

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Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 20/09/2026

After I visited Sri Lanka during what turned out to be the cricket world cup (2008), I was tickled to stumble on cricket matches played in a parking lot in Beirut on Sundays. It's only today I learned the story. Excellent article! www.csmonitor.com/Perspectives...

csmonitor.com

How one man nurtures a network of cricket and community in Beirut

The gatherings each Sunday offer migrants not only a reminder of home, but also an opportunity to express solidarity and connect with others.

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Lads, are we watching Fra v Aussie because it's currently: 1 x permanent red (gouging) 1 x 20-min red (high tackle) 2 x yellow cards (lost track but don't think they're bunker yellows). ALL FOR LES BLEUS. IN SEVEN MINUTES.

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The Israeli demand to strip NAZA filmmakers Abraham and Szor of citizenship so that they can be executed, their homes demolished, and their families expelled is neatly illustrative of how and why the apartheid state renders Palestinians as non-human www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

A speaker at the demonstration also called to execute the film's co-creators, Szor and Yuval Abraham, while the crowd chanted
"Execute the traitors.' The man also called for their families' houses to be
demolished.
"When they return to Israel, they should be put on trial and sent to the gallows.
And their family should be deported and their home sealed, just as is done to terrorists," a man said through a megaphone.
"That is the only solution for traitors.
There is only one language to use with traitors. We're tired of being on the defensive. The people of Israel need to go on the offensive so that the next person knows not to mess with IDF soldiers."

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It really struck me last month, when looking for a place to rent in the UK for the first time in 10 years, that there felt like no serious expectation you would have rented before and "live with parents" was the default option. Bleak.

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Raph Cormack @raphcormack.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My first piece of writing on a new project, a biography of James Sanua, Egyptian-Jewish anti-colonial satirist of the 19th century. evergreenreview.com/read/the-his...

evergreenreview.com

The Historians of a Nation Are Not Careless Men

Evergreen Review

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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"In some places Rome does not fall at all. In others, such as Italy, there are multiple, sometimes repeated farewell parties, where the guests do not want to leave and the host does not switch the music off." How do we think about the Fall of Rome today? www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Towards and beyond the ‘Fall’: rethinking Rome’s end | The Journal of Roman Studies | Cambridge Core

Towards and beyond the ‘Fall’: rethinking Rome’s end

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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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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I enjoyed reading a draft of this and I reckon I'll enjoy reading it again as I think more about Orientalism and imperialism before the semester ‘The worst of all Turkish peoples’: Ibn Faḍlān’s travel account as British naval intelligence by Tonicha Mae Upham link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

‘The worst of all Turkish peoples’: Ibn Faḍlān’s travel account as British naval intelligence - postmedieval

The tenth-century CE Arabic travel account of Aḥmad Ibn Faḍlān has seen many reactions, receptions, and afterlives in Islamicate languages and in European settings. These relate both to the identity a...

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Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture @mjcbac.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New book: Anthony Kaldellis. Phantom Byzantium: Europe, Empire, and Identity from Late Antiquity to World War II (University of Chicago Press, 2026) maryjahariscenter.org/blog/phantom...

maryjahariscenter.org

Phantom Byzantium: Europe, Empire, and Identity from Late Antiquity to World War II | Mary Jaharis Center

There are currently no approaching deadlines.

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Brendan @chinatownbranch.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Beoga’s Bandcamp page->> continentalrecordservices.bandcamp.com/album/before...

continentalrecordservices.bandcamp.com

Before We Change Our Mind, by Beoga

11 track album

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This feeling does not get old, so cool to see my book out in the big wide world 😍😍

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 14/09/2026

Pals one thing about me is that I am never gonna judge someone for typos or even misspelling I simply neither care nor really notice, I am fluent enough in English to get your meaning. You do not ever need to apologise for this in my mentions

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Alexander Jabbari @ajab.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Some Thai words of Persian #etymology : Thai กุหลาบ gù-làap "rose", from Persian گلاب golāb "rosewater". (The Persian is also ultimately the source of English "julep", as in "mint julep".) Thai has borowed other words from Persian, including...

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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I’m on Opinion newsletter duty this morning and I wanted to start with a few words on The Telegraph’s toxic “How having a disability became cool” article.

Back in 2024, I wrote about “sickfluencers” – a rightwing moniker for disabled people who use social media to help others apply for benefits. Recently, I’ve noticed the term has expanded to include women who commit the crime of … using a mobility aid in public. This week, the Telegraph ran a piece claiming young women are “turning chronic illness into a lifestyle trend”, including by not working. The headline? “How having a disability became cool.”

It’s hard to think of a nastier narrative. You can say that the writers and editors publishing this stuff are just ignorant of disability, but I struggle to believe it. It feels like wilful ignorance: repeating tropes that fuel an agenda casting doubt on disabled people and the state’s duty to support us if we need it.

Readers who use mobility aids often tell me about the impact of seeing these stories spread online; a growing sense of shame that eats at the stomach until one day, they put their cane back in the cupboard and walk to Tesco in pain. Or they don’t go out at all. Someone should be ashamed in all of this, sure, but it’s not disabled readers.

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Claire E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 12/09/2026

One of the theses that is emerging as I write this book on Great Man history is that modern elites, who are provably attracted to it, view themselves not just as potential Great Men but as the *last* Great Men - not just as powerful but as the final form of power. Which should scare us.

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SOAS Gallery, London @soasgallery.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

✨ One week left! Embroidery Traditions of Afghanistan closes on 19 September. From embroidered coats and shirts to veils, bags and furnishings, discover the extraordinary skill and diversity of Afghanistan’s textile traditions. 📍 SOAS Gallery | Free

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Dr Renske Janssen🟥 @renskejanssen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

As happy as I am that people are visiting museums and showing an interest in history, it does strike me that this rush on tickets to see the Bayeux tapestry may in fact make an interesting case for returning contested artifacts from the British Museum's collection. www.reuters.com/world/uk/bay...

reuters.com

Bayeux mania peaks as 1,000-year-old tapestry exhibition opens in London

The first visitors to the British Museum's blockbuster ‌Bayeux Tapestry exhibition spoke of their excitement at seeing with their own eyes the 1,000-year-old embroidery many remember from school lesso...

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

There's a LOT of discourse on the Bayeaux Tapestry rn. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a special issue of a medieval history mag packed full of background info, expert detail, nuanced analysis and more? There is! Get @medievalworldmag.bsky.social here: www.karwansaraypublishers.com/en-gb/produc...

karwansaraypublishers.com

Medieval World Issue 23 Pre-Order - Discover the Past

Dive into the fascinating world of Medieval history with this single issue of Medieval World. Explore the Bayeux Tapestry's rich stories and significance.

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 11/09/2026

Hey ya'll, wanted to give you an update on my site: we're hard launching sometime between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (I appreciate your patience!) AND I want to share this piece on BLACK ZOMBIE, an incredible work of media criticism, history, and ethnography about the zombie's Haitian origins

theguardian.com

‘An embodiment of white fears’: how zombies went from Haitian spiritual tradition to Hollywood monsters

Maya Annik Bedward’s fascinating new documentary goes beyond reductive imagery to place the zombie and vodou in their true historical context

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Rhiannon Garth Jones @rhigarthjones.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I am such a huge fan of Razaullah calmly ignoring the chaos of this Pakistan-England series and introducing himself as an immediate favourite for all reasonable observers. This is the good stuff.

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"The clever thing is that, so long as we don't accidentally announce it to an undercover journalist, nobody will ever know we're doing crime." Forgot to post this week's @thenewworldmag.bsky.social column

thenewworld.co.uk

21 other shocking quotes from the undercover footage of senior members of Reform

If you think the Channel 4 undercover investigation was revealing, wait until you read what Farage’s inner circle are really saying

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Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I wrote for @theguardian.com on how the Gaza genocide paved the way for Trump’s repeated threats to “wipe out” Iran | www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Text extract from Guardian article: “Trump's threat to obliterate Iran is partly a manifestation of a new international order that emerged over the past three years, as the US supplied billions of dollars in weapons and protected Israel as it carried out a genocidal war in Gaza.
In his second term, Trump has behaved more erratically and like an autocrat drunk with power. But he has also taken advantage of a nascent global order, in which western leaders destroyed decades of international norms and the facade of rule of law - all to enable Israel to continue its bloodshed in Gaza, and more recently, in Lebanon.

As they did with Gaza, most western powers and leaders have become numb to the loss and suffering of Palestinians, Iranians, Lebanese and others in the Middle East. And as long as this numbness and impunity continue, it will become normal for the US president to threaten wholesale destruction of societies and civilizations, as Trump has done in Iran.”

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Bhoot and Pret-ima 👻 @ismipratima.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A piece by yours truly about the first reference to a Deccan merchant association in a Geniza document. I had fun writing this one! Come for the merchant associations, and stay for the Ina Garten quote www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...

lib.cam.ac.uk

Fragment of the Month: August 2026

In August's Fragment of the Month, Pratima Gopalakrishnan finds evidence for a Deccan merchant association in a Genizah document.

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Jeremy Simmons @caeliambulator.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A really fun piece to write—amazing how much of what I explore in Sea of Treasures (@princetonupress.bsky.social) keeps cropping up today. Thanks to @sarahebond.bsky.social and the Pasts Imperfect team for everything they do!

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Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 10/09/2026

Here is a snapshot of how devastating it is to be a precariously employed academic in the UK right now: I feel SO LUCKY that I have a part-time teaching-only position for this year, that I have been shortlisted for jobs (though I made slightly under 1/4 of the applications I made three years ago...

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Mae Nick Phra Khanong @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

With Yemen back in the news and people maybe trying to learn about its very complex geography and local political identities, it could be good to re-up this thread I did two years ago on the geography, politics, economy, and culture of each of Yemen's mainland governorates

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