iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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William Blanc @hmedievaliste.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dans deux semaines, le "Dictionnaire du Moyen Âge imaginaire" sort chez Gallimard. J'ai eu le plaisir de le co-diriger avec @annebesson.bsky.social @vincentferre.bsky.social 125 entrées. 300 iconos couleurs. 72 contributeurices comme @agemoyen.bsky.social @bretonjustine.bsky.social #joie

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

What do I love more- Marlowe's Dr Faustus or hating on AI? 🔥🔥🔥 Either way

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

That's a three times' increase in as many years, and about 12,000 more than the year I submitted mine in 2024.

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Sara Ellis-Nilsson (she/her), PhD 🕊️ @ellisnilsson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Interesting (and important) example that once again reminds us of the need to dispell the (seemingly neverending) myth that the digital equates to speed in all areas.

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Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

An update on this that I passed it on to reader services and it is being corrected...

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Very much hope there is some human checking going on here at some point in the process and this is just work in progres...

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Less disappointed than just baffled by noticing this ?new aspect of a SOLO entry (the online catalogue of the Bodleian libraries) - note the acknowledgement in the last line of AI use to populate metadata, apparently to create the most useless description of a book I've ever seen 🤔

Screenshot of a Bodleian library catalogue entry for a book called Anatole France en Pantoufles: the 'description' field reads "This book appears to be a detailed examination of a specific subject matter, potentially involving scientific, technical, or academic content. The dimensions and pricing suggest it might be a formal publication, possibly targeted at professionals or students in a particular field. Without additional context, it is challenging to determine the exact topic or the author's intent. However, the structured nature of the book implies a focus on providing in-depth information or analysis to an audience seeking specialized knowledge."

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Interested in any thoughts on this image...

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Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

i sometimes wonder if academia brought some of this efficiency BS on ourselves with our endless grind mindset. there’s always been value in slow, deliberate scholarship. when we truncated the process, we tend to most truncate the deliberating part.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

tell your friends #medievalsky... but for our main series we're interested in all periods, geographies, religions - non-medievalists, join us!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

And second, but with an earlier deadline of *15 Sept*, please propose a paper on the same theme of 'Saints Outside Hagiography' for @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2027 - a chance for more developed research to be put forward, in person at next year's Congress! Submit here: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Qqv6AA7q4K

The Saints Outside Hagiography online workshop has been an illuminating and generative space to explore the many ways people encounter and create holy figures and their lives.
To continue these discussions, we plan to host a panel series at the 2027
International Medieval Congress (5–8 July 2027) co-sponsored by the Hagiography Society. We hope these conversations will go deeper into some of our initial source explorations and make new connections between scholars interested in saints, hagiography, and their contexts.
We invite proposals for 15-20 minute conference papers on 'Saints Outside Hagiography', especially those that align with the IMC 2027 theme of 'Communities'.
Please follow the link in the post to submit a proposal.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Calling anyone & everyone interested in saints: Saints Outside Hagiography has *two* calls open for you to consider! First, for our next series of monthly online workshops: get in touch to propose a source from your research about saints and sanctity to discuss in an informal setting, by 25 Sept.

We invite expressions of interest to participate in the Saints Outside Hagiography workshop series 2026–2027. Our group examines how saints and holy people are represented outside the classic form of the single-text hagiography.
Sessions so far have examined texts including: visual art, poetry, mortuary rolls, chronicles, liturgical texts, didactic literature, and objects. We offer an informal, work-in-progress format focused on discussion of primary sources and key methodological questions in the study of saints.
Meetings consist of 1-2 brief presentations, discussing a text or object
precirculated along with a short description and the speaker’s guiding questions.
If you have a source related to sanctity that you would like to discuss, please get in touch with Laura Moncion (laura.moncion@philosophie.uni-tuebingen.de) and Alicia Smith (alicia.smith@uib.no) by 25 September 2026 with a brief description of the source, career stage, and institutional affiliation if any.
Guidelines:
• Chronological and geographical scope are open.
• Participants are free to contest whether a text is ‘outside hagiography’ – we aim to study saints and the construction of saint/sanctity beyond canonical textual forms, including troubling our understanding of those forms.
• If your source is not in English, we will need an English translation.

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International Medieval Congress Leeds @imc-leeds.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

🎊 Look at how many CfPs are on the #IMC2027 Padlet page! 🎊 Check out the IMC Padlet by clicking the link here: tinyurl.com/IMC2027Padlet If you’d like us to add your CFP to the Padlet, please tag us on bluesky at @imc-leeds.bsky.social, or email us at imc@leeds.ac.uk #MedievalSky

The IMC Padlet page full of many different Call for Papers

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Nathan Melson @nsmelson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I did this years ago on Twitter, but, here's a list of tools/utilities that every medievalist show know about and have bookmarked: #medievalsky

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Saints Outside Hagiography is going to Leeds 2027! Co-sponsored by the Hagiography Society (www.hagiographysociety.org) we are planning a panel series to go deeper into the issues our online workshop has opened up this year. Paper proposals can be submitted here: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Qqv6AA7q4K

Saints Outside Hagiography Leeds 2027 Call for Papers

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THAISIS @thaisisproject.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

One of my favourite images of Thais: something of a sly smile, and what is she looking at? 👀 Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS Esp. 44, f.219v.

A medieval manuscript page with an illuminated initial T showing a woman with a wimple looking out of the window of a small building.

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Amalia S. Levi, PhD @amaliasl.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My work at the moment is funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoc fellowship, and I've posted some updates in this thread on the project's own bsky @thaisisproject.bsky.social - will probably cross-post some here, but do follow if you're interested in all things 'harlot saints'!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

OED entry confirms this local variation in meaning (though an initial google came up with an AI summary which, predictably, had no trace of this nuance...) In any case, thought it was an interesting example of needing to be careful with overly strict definitions!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Seems like sth for #medievalsky: this (interesting!) BBC article about the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in London states that it is 'not actually a tapestry' but a wool embroidery; but my seamstress mother thought that wasn't right because embroidery with wool is broadly called tapestry in the UK.

bbc.co.uk

Bayeux Tapestry delivered to British Museum in dead of night

The famous artefact depicting events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England will go on display in September.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Hope to see anyone interested in Latin poetry, medieval education, and manuscript transmission at our session at @imc-leeds.bsky.social in the 14:15 session 📜

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Sneak peek of my powerpoint and the reaction I hope to elicit...!

Manuscript detail of a man with a comically shocked expression

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Looking forward to @imc-leeds.bsky.social starting Monday! I'm co-organising a panel presenting new manuscript research on the works of Marbod of Rennes. You may never have heard of him but come along if you're interested in poetry and education, manuscript compilation, & odd accidents of reception!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

We welcome proposals of sources from any time period, geography, or religious context - the variety has been a real strength of the series so far!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

And we're now calling for participants in our 2nd series starting autumn 2026 - if you have a source relating to saints and sanctity outside the classic hagiography form, which you'd like to discuss in an informal workshop format, see the CFP here drive.google.com/file/d/1O_qF... and get in touch 👑

drive.google.com

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The first series of the Saints Outside Hagiography workshop has been a fascinating set of discussions on sources from murals to tombs to birth girdles - we have one more meeting left this summer, so join us if you want to hear about St Nicholas and music teaching + Jain monasticism and ritual!

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Dr Naomi Scott @drnaomiscott.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.

A screenshot from here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02-07-inside-herculaneum-scroll-seen-first-time-almost-2000-years

It explains that the machine learning involves only the detection of ink

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Make it stop!!!! Sign below 👇😠

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

After experimenting with a low/no-screen environment last semester, I'd also like to hear about others' experiences!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

They broadly got on board, and I think it did help create a more active space of discussion; more than one student mentioned that the prompt to read on paper made them reflect on their reading habits more generally.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

More or less successfully did this in a Masters seminar at Bergen last semester; I framed it as inviting them to help create a good environment for listening well & thinking deeply. I printed copies of required reading, avoided using ppt / laptop myself in solidarity!

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medieval marginalia @medievalmarginalia.com · 25/03/2026

I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE LEARN THIS

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Dan Conway @magisterconway.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

This is an excellent thread on the need for grinding through the sources in order to know them. There is no shortcut to this kind of work. It is only through intensive source analysis that we are able to recognise patterns & - just as important - recognise what is not a pattern.

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Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Next Friday 27th, I'll be speaking at the Birkbeck Medieval Seminar - a day thinking about medievalism and 'Whose Middle Ages?'. Should be a great day, and it has been organised excellently by Daniel Sawyer (@danielsawyer.bsky.social) and Nick Evans. All welcome! www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

bbk.ac.uk

Birkbeck Medieval Seminar 2026: Whose Middle Ages?

Join us for our annual interdisciplinary medieval research day. This year we will be discussing claims people make on the Middle Ages today.

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Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

digital tools are going to change the world! btw that database you rely on no longer exists; that website you got a grant for will be gone in 3 years; have you considered doing an online edition instead?; we only do PDF review copies, For The Planet; would you like me to summarise that PDF for you?

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Do you know somebody who needs to learn Latin from scratch or improve their Latin to PhD standard? CMS Toronto's summer Latin program is now entirely online and a remarkable bargain for the intensity and quality of instruction. Details here: www.medieval.utoronto.ca/latin/summer... #medievalsky

medieval.utoronto.ca

Summer Latin Program | Centre for Medieval Studies

Find out about studying Latin at the Centre during the summer. Includes application information, fees, and available courses.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

It probably depends a bit on time of day and busyness, there can be a bit of queueing for security, but to be honest an hour is likely to be fine in my recent experience - both times I did it last summer we did not board until about 10 mins before departure.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Our first session of Saints Outside Hagiography is today! @lgisseleire.bsky.social on mortuary rolls and me on the Throckmorton prayer roll. Excited to get started!

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Students had it tough during the worst of covid. But their education continued and they were able to get their degrees, despite a global pandemic and dysfunctional government. Like 1000s of colleagues, I worked way over the odds, while dealing with domestic pressures. This action feels very cruel.

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Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

#medievalsky does anyone know if there are any texts (biblical, medieval, or anything in between) about whether Judas was thought to have been born before Jesus, or the other way around? Grateful for any advice!

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Talking about postcolonial literature and magic with my Masters class this week has me thinking back to my brief (as in, one-off!) pandemic-era venture into podcasting - if you don't know Elizabeth Knox's work and you're at all interested in SFF, worth a listen! podcasts.ox.ac.uk/elizabeth-knox

podcasts.ox.ac.uk

Elizabeth Knox

An analysis and discussion of the contemporary fantasy writer Elizabeth Know, by Dr Alicia Smith.

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North Ages @northages.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Feb 11: Feast of Cædmon (†680), monk of Streanæshalch (Whitby). Cowherd who, in his advanced years, was divinely endowed with a gift for poetry and song. Bede says the scriptures were interpreted for him and he would create religious compositions beyond compare. #medievalsky

Stone memorial to the saint in St Mary's Churchyard, Whitby, showing Cædmon clutching a lyre as an angel touches it.

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

(If you're interested in harlot saints / medieval depictions of sex work, male/female pastoral relationships, hagiography etc, and would like to read the article but don't have institutional access, feel free to get in touch!)

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Alicia Smith @timekeptcity.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

A lovely email to receive first thing on a Monday: my article 'Poet-Bishop and Harlot Saint: Marbod of Rennes's Life of Thais in Context' was selected as Feminae's Article of the Month! inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/Arti...

inpress.lib.uiowa.edu

Feminae - Article of the Month

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