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Cynthia Cyrus

@scholarfarmer.bsky.social
371 followers 293 following 351 posts

Medievalist monastic historian / musicologist working on nuns’ roles in 15thc soundscapes in Bregenz Austria. Manuscript fragments make me giddy. I also collect sunrises. Blog at SilencesAndSounds@blogspot.com

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
Truth in advertising, though: My service-related work comes and goes in this system – when I’m chairing a committee that needs to put out a report, it might become a line on the tracking list, but otherwise, it just lives in my day-to-day notebook
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
My practice may not be as elegant as Trello, but I've found it to be highly adaptable, and I don't have to learn another platform
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
Note that for individual projects, I use more specialized spreadsheets, including one for managing research bibliographies and reading progress: silencesandsounds.blogspot.com/2025/04/mana...
silencesandsounds.blogspot.com
Managing Bibliography By Spreadsheet
In this post, I walk through how I structure and use a bibliography spreadsheet—from initial setup to prioritization, assessment strategies,...
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
I wrote about my system here: silencesandsounds.blogspot.com/2026/08/firs...
silencesandsounds.blogspot.com
First Monday of a New Month: What to Write?
The first Monday of a new month is a day of possibilities, a day on which all kinds of streaks can start, a day on which… one wants to wi...
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
It's more of a "to-consider" list than a to-do list. (That distinction has been really useful for keeping the long horizon visible without turning every interesting idea into an obligation.)
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 20h
I never met a spreadsheet I didn’t love, so count me on Team Spreadsheet for the long-range planning. I keep a master list of research/writing projects (including the ones that may never actually happen), with priorities, possible venues, stages of completion, deadlines, and follow-up dates.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
There's never enough Classics content here so let's talk about a couple of (as I tell my students) 'load-bearing culture words' in Latin and some of their cultural significance: beneficium: a favor, kindness, service officium: a duty, kindness, service & munus: a service, favor, obligation, gift.
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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Many people like to laugh at medieval illuminations of stag-snails, oh those funny medieval artists making up anim...
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I spent my morning hiking to St Joseph's and back along the Lake Wobegon trail. Quite pretty!
Orange tinged trees but their cores are still green. A paved rail-to-trail paved path extends into the distance
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Kaleb E. Goldschmitt @kgoldschmitt.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
What kind of intellectual freedom exists if there is nobody left to understand the basic stakes of research
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Ross W. Duffin @rosswmd.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
In June/July's Choral Journal, I published an article about tuning for choirs. That led to a recent invitation for a wide-ranging discussion with Christopher Munce on his Choralosophy podcast. If you're interested, please check it out. youtu.be/8Iqz9g9YbE8?...
youtu.be
Episode 308: It’s Just Intonation After All with Ross W. Duffin
YouTube video by Choralosophy Podcast
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Working hard on reframing the scribe's hand as "an opportunity to dwell on the small details" instead of my gut reaction of "devilishly hard to read..."
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Wow! Texts are super rare for the Hittites, basically there’s just one archive and it’s 95% lists of prayer sacrifices to mountain gods, so this is really, really exciting!
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
should I add #HumanMade? So much slop out there. Anyway, go volunteer at your local outdoor thingy, whatever that thingy is. It's rewarding, and you learn a lot!
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Beavers, everybody. Beavers.
notesfrompoland.com
Beavers destroy sign warning about beavers
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I went looking for prairie seeds and mostly photographed flowers. Fortunately, the artists had rather better command of their materials. Seeds, Sculptures, and the Art of Paying Attention: silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #LandArt #Nature #blog #rewilding #prairie
Image of mown grass against prairie against trees, with a willow-and-grasses bison emerging from the prairiegrass. Blog title: Seeds, Sculptures, and the Art of Paying Attention
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The secret service woke me up to shake hands with President Jimmy Carter
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The Life of Sharks @thelifeofsharks.com · 07/10/2026
Tag.
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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Say hello to BASIRA (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art): basiraproject.org #medievalsky --------------- Video by Emily Brooks Music by J.D. Porter Narration by Iris Péron-Ames
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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
the tech industry is about to invent books
Andrew Yeung 
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Banning a booke ys extinguishing a beacon. Banning a booke ys silencinge a thousand voyces speakinge yn the heart. Banning a booke ys refusinge to looke at the stars. Banning a booke ys damming a streame of feelinge and invitinge flood. Banning a booke ys making a violent litel shryne to ignorance.
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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Wake up, everybody, new bovine species just dropped.
share.google
Extinct ice age bovine discovered in Siberian cave
Bone fragments show this yak-like animal likely went extinct about 27,000 years ago.
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Sam Bergman @violanorth.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I def don't have all the answers as to why there is such a persistent crisis/lull cycle in US orchestras, but one thing I do know from my 25 years at the high end of that business is that WAY too many execs and board leaders are convinced there is a magic sustainability formula hiding somewhere.
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Isabelle Marie @isabellemarie.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Nearly 600 Medieval Manuscripts from German Monasteries Now Online. www.medievalists.net/2026/09/600-...
medievalists.net
Nearly 600 Medieval Manuscripts from German Monasteries Now Online - Medievalists.net
Nearly 600 medieval manuscripts from the German monasteries of Heilsbronn and Sankt Jobst have been digitised and made available to explore online.
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Andy “voice of Brak” Merrill. 🎅🏻🤡🐒💩 @amerrill2.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I know this station all too well.
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U of T Centre for Medieval Studies @uoftcms.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congratulations to Shannon McSheffrey and Walid A. Saleh, who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/shannon...
Walid Saleh, Shannon McSheffrey
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I did the same -- three coffees and 8 atomic fireballs (okay. It's my weakness), then suddenly I mentally downshifted. Turns out real food actually matters to my biorhythms. <Huffs in frustration. So unfair!!!>
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Fine. I’ll update with a word count when I start writing again. @legalminimum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In case anyone wasn't clear that all the AI apocalypticism was a smokescreen to cover for wanting to delay their IPOs, here's your most recent proof. Not a gift link because the headline says it all.
ft.com
Sam Altman says OpenAI will delay its IPO until it overcomes safety concerns
ChatGPT maker launches new AI personal assistant as it faces challenge from Meta’s Muse
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I love this so much
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georgeanne elisabeth @georgeanne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
me writing my first email to admin requesting institutional $$$ for student travel to a conference
static.klipy.com
Adorable Cat with Big Sad Googly Eyes
ALT: Adorable Cat with Big Sad Googly Eyes
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Measuringe the value of educacioun by returne on ynvestment onlye ys lyke measuringe the value of a garden by the weight of the floweres
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
[looks at personal fiefdom of medieval eel history that runs up to 1938] That's cute.
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Kevin Moorebidity @kevinwmoore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
From this day on 2012: probably the most popular thing I’ve ever drawn.
TinTin discovers Edward Said.
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Schermerhorn will still host events. But after October 18, the Nashville Symphony’s musicians face an empty calendar. I wrote about the silence ahead, and the hope that this orchestra can return. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #NashvilleSymphony #ArtsFunding
Image of Nashville's Schermerhorn center with banners for jazz, classical, pops, and so on hanging down between the columns. Blog title: Silences That Hurt: The Nashville Symphony’s 2026–27 Season Suspension
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Some do know that live-tweeting at events became a thing in mid-eighteenth century when a certain someone found his trumpet and lost his manners ... #LiveTweetingAtEvents
You see a print of 1748 titled "The Royal Assembly A Representation of the several Potentates Signing the Peace", and a messenger with a posthorn or trumpet is standing next to the Kings and Queens singing the Treaty. Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-3857
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The issue itself came together as a quasi-thematic issue (not a planned special issue) about queer topics in current music scholarship. Five great articles. We wrote the intro reflecting on how rare this is in music studies! Coverage of queer topics is still not at all common in our field.
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here's the introduction to the new issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies (JPMS), written by me and my co-editor Dr Alisha Lola Jones: online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...
online.ucpress.edu
Editors’ Introduction
America is now in a moment—not its first—where backlash enjoys the full force of political authority. The lines between paramilitary and military, militia and police force, vigilante justice and the l...
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Sleestak @sleestak.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
and behold a pale horse. and the name that sat on him was death. and hell followed with him
cat on a statue
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Rhetorical, right? But the work does speak for itself, and it is good work. Important work. Work that only you can do. My students love your work. So there's that...
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 26/09/2026
What earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slept in the lap of social labor?
centralbylines.co.uk
M&S Custard Cream Spread: Britain has completed food
One jar of M&S Custard Cream Spread has caused us to question civilisation, breakfast, mashed potato and the limits of human restraint
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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hello Saturday. 🐇 A little marginalia. #InternationalRabbitDay
Rabbit sat reading, marginalia.
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Medieval miracle stories contain some very relatable misery: sore throats, missed work, and the desperate desire to feel useful again. Also: one cantrix gets her voice back just in time. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #nuntastic #monasticlife #Catholic #medievalsky
A photo of the ruins of the Dominican convent from St Margaret's Island, Budapest; blog post title “I Sang with the Others”: Voice, Healing, and Margaret of Hungary
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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
nurse giving me my flu shot: “be sure to move your arms around a lot and that will help you not get sore” *looks at me for a minute* “typing doesn’t count”
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Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History @smmnh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
450 million years ago the majority of life in the oceans had soft bodies that did not fossilize very well. Their fossilized remains often appear as blurry stains upon a rock, but now and then a specimen is found with a well preserved body part, like this strange marrelomorph.
450 million years ago the majority of life in the oceans had soft bodies that did not fossilize very well. Their fossilized remains often appear as blurry stains upon a rock, but now and then a specimen is found with a well preserved body part, like this strange marrelomorph.
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
lol my flight got diverted because of a medical emergency and they landed us in reykjavik in the middle of the night and deplaned us and sent us through passport control and then the crew vanished and then british airways sent us links to book an overnight hotel room but for a hotel at heathrow
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Art Herstory @artherstory.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Claudia del Bufalo Identified as Painter in Murder Trial, Not Noblewoman by Sarah Mitchell for USA Art News usaartnews.com/news/claudia... #womenartists #artherstory
usaartnews.com
Claudia del Bufalo Identified as Painter in Murder Trial, Not Noblewoman
New research uncovers 17th-century painter Claudia del Bufalo's life as a poet and impresario, implicated in a murder trial in Rome.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 22/09/2026
Apropos to discussions today, a piece I wrote in 2017 -- the "before times" here on Bluesky -- about how the Brain Eater comes for (some, not all) writers and other creatives, and what happens then. whatever.scalzi.com/2017/05/03/t...
whatever.scalzi.com
The Brain Eater
So, let’s say, there’s this writer. (It doesn’t have to be a writer. It could be a musician, or painter, or actor, any aspirant in any creative or indeed competitive field, in whi…
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Dr Craig Barker @drcraigb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Apparently episode one was first broadcast on the BBC 50 years ago today. Still one of the most remarkable television dramas ever. I Claudius
Scene from opening credits of the BBC TV series I Claudius (1976)
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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Reading is research. Reading is important. Reading can also be an extremely sophisticated way of avoiding writing. A few thoughts on reading with a job to do — including that crucial scholarly skill of knowing when to STOP. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #AcademicWriting #Scholarship
Photo of a bunch of slips of paper with quotes and attributions scattered on top of a page of loose-leaf paper with ink scrawl; a pen in the upper RH margin. Blog post title: Reading with a Job to Do
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