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Spencer Strub

@spencerstrub.bsky.social
66 followers 51 following 10 posts

Medievalist, for better or worse

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Reposted by Spencer Strub
Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Closing the Writing Center and removing its leadership now sends a disturbing signal about how seriously Harvard actually takes [its] mission.” Closing a writing center or library or dept or program or university press—an attack on one is an attack on all. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
In Defense of the Harvard College Writing Center | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
As current and former Harvard College Writing Center tutors, we write to condemn the dissolution of the Writing Center as an independent entity and the laying off of its director, Jane Rosenzweig.
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Karl Steel @karlsteel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Well we still have one at the CUNY grad center (that's right! A writing center for grad students!) and it's great. Harvard should take a page from us.
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Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 28/07/2026
Holy shit Jane Rosenzweig was my freshman expository writing teacher back in 2004 A genius and a true defender of human ingenuity Her firing by Harvard is fucking outrageous DOWN WITH THE CHATBOTS
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
Harvard College Lays Off Writing Center Director, Consolidates Center | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard College Writing Center will no longer operate as a standalone unit after its director was laid off and its functions were consolidated as part of a restructuring in the Faculty of Arts and...
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Spencer Strub @spencerstrub.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Some PRO archivist back in the day had an impressive sense of style.
Large vellum folder with stylish writing on it, reading:
Exch:Q.R.
Church Goods
Hereford
2/88 to 101
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Spencer Strub @spencerstrub.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I should log onto this website more often. Thank you for the shout out, @aschurchhistory.bsky.social!
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American Society of Church History @aschurchhistory.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Today's featured book: Spencer Strub, "Scorn, Shame, and the Simple Reader: Lay Piety and Literature in Late Medieval England," University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026 @pennpress.bsky.social @spencerstrub.bsky.social www.pennpress.org/978151282938...
Spencer Strub, "Scorn, Shame, and the Simple Reader: Lay Piety and Literature in Late Medieval England," University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The Danse Macabre interpreted in 1450 as a hand-drawn polonaise...
Drawn Detail of a Dance of the Death from Sigismundus Gossembrot (BSB Clm 3941). Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/details/bsb00064971
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Spencer Strub @spencerstrub.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
All "peasants had it easier" discourse probably derives from the bit of Juliet Schor's Overworked American (1989) arguing that medieval English peasants worked fewer hours on net than modern Americans. A super debatable claim, omitting the huge burden of reproductive labor, but it's not risible...
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
#MedievalSky I received a very important announcement today. Feminae, the bibliographical database on medieval women created and run by Margaret Schaus for the past couple of decades, is going offline as of 1 April. Download as much as you can ASAP: inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/Feminae/Adva...
inpress.lib.uiowa.edu
Feminae- Advanced Search
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Esther Liberman Cuenca @estherlcuenca.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Really proud to be part of this special issue.
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Bloody hell, Thomas Aquinas was massive. I think he's the only kaiju to have been a Doctor of the Church.
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Liz Schirmer @bertilak.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Join us!!
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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
"No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue."
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Spencer Strub @spencerstrub.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
"For some people can actually move their ears, either one at a time or both together... Some people produce at will without any stench such rhythmical sounds from their bottom that they appear to be making music even from that quarter... I know of a man who used to perspire at will."
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Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Do you do fun DH/sciency things with late medieval books? Do you want to present at the New Chaucer Society congress in Freiburg, GR in July 2026? Then now is the time to apply to my panel (there are also many other fine opportunities)! Deadline is 27 April cdn.ymaws.com/newchaucerso...
Call for papers for a session at the 2026 New Chaucer Society Congress, reading as follows: Old Books, New Science
Organizer: Megan Cook (mlcook@colby.edu)
Session format: Short papers

In the Parliament of Fowles, Chaucer writes ‘And out of olde bokes, in good
feith, / Cometh al this newe science that men lere’. But how, exactly, is this
new science to be derived from old books? This panel invites short papers
that discuss the application of twenty-first century methods to the study of
the medieval codex. Emerging technologies have the potential to impact the
study of manuscripts and early printed books at every level, from
microscopy to large-scale quantitative data analysis. Case studies of current
projects are welcome as well as retrospectives of the role of the digital
humanities studies in medieval book studies and discussions of the
methodological and ethical implications of current technologies such as
artificial intelligence.
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Spencer Strub @spencerstrub.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
I reviewed Diarmaid MacCulloch's very good, very long book about sex and Christianity, which is (among other things) a healthy reminder that "traditional values" aren't very old at all.
nytimes.com
Book Review: ‘Lower Than the Angels,’ by Diarmaid MacCulloch
In “Lower Than the Angels,” the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch traces two millenniums of libidinal frustration.
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