Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social
Medievalist, Liverpool. She/Her. All DMs are blocked (Bluesky ID issue)
Reposted by Clare Downham
I’m reading @karenhao.bsky.social’s Empire of AI and I recommend it to everyone who wants to understand the modern world. ChatGPT has no goddamn place in a sustainable world.
No, these are very serious comments.
ChatGPT has absolutely no goddamn place in graduate education. It steals from other authors, routinely gets major facts wrong, hallucinates sources, and generally makes the prose flat and boring as hell.
And if you shill for it in my mentions, I'll block you.
ChatGPT has absolutely no goddamn place in graduate education. It steals from other authors, routinely gets major facts wrong, hallucinates sources, and generally makes the prose flat and boring as hell.
And if you shill for it in my mentions, I'll block you.
January 18, 2026 at 3:18 AM
I’m reading @karenhao.bsky.social’s Empire of AI and I recommend it to everyone who wants to understand the modern world. ChatGPT has no goddamn place in a sustainable world.
Regional names for alleyways…
January 17, 2026 at 9:51 AM
Regional names for alleyways…
Reposted by Clare Downham
New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.
readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
The Companies Behind ICE
Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.
readsludge.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:19 PM
New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.
readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
Reposted by Clare Downham
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Opinion | I'm a Minneapolis sociologist who studies violence. Here's how ICE observers are helping.
Research into how violence occurs shows that disapproval from the people around you can help reduce it.
www.ms.now
January 16, 2026 at 6:55 PM
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Reposted by Clare Downham
I love this idea, venues such as castles, stately homes & other institutions should have public library reading rooms to encourage learning, make the venue feel more personal & provide extra services to visitors!
‘We want people to sit, pause, relax’: National Trust to open its libraries for public use
Charity plans to make stately homes more welcoming by inviting visitors to use furniture and reading rooms
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:06 PM
I love this idea, venues such as castles, stately homes & other institutions should have public library reading rooms to encourage learning, make the venue feel more personal & provide extra services to visitors!
Reposted by Clare Downham
Learn more about @northernpicts.bsky.social at @britishacademy.bsky.social on 21st May www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...
The Northern Picts: the citadel project, rescue and research-led investigations at a Viking age power centre
This lecture explores major advances in Pictish archaeology arising from the University of Aberdeen’s Northern Picts project, shedding new light on a people long obscured by limited historical and arc...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
January 14, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Learn more about @northernpicts.bsky.social at @britishacademy.bsky.social on 21st May www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...
Reposted by Clare Downham
A haunted supernatural landscape with a wealth Arthurian connections- join me on a trip to Tarn Wadling in Cumberland, the site of a lost lake from which the ghost of Guinevere’s mother emerged to warn of things to come… www.mythicalbritain.co.uk/post/tarn-wa...
Tarn Wadling and the supernatural landscape of Arthurian Cumberland
Tarn Wadling near High Hesket, Cumberland, was the once watery setting for a series of fifteenth century Arthurian romances which now are largely lost to time. Michael Smith explores its supernatural...
www.mythicalbritain.co.uk
January 15, 2026 at 7:13 PM
A haunted supernatural landscape with a wealth Arthurian connections- join me on a trip to Tarn Wadling in Cumberland, the site of a lost lake from which the ghost of Guinevere’s mother emerged to warn of things to come… www.mythicalbritain.co.uk/post/tarn-wa...
Reposted by Clare Downham
Well this is bleak: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
ChatGPT wrote “Goodnight Moon” suicide lullaby for man who later killed himself
ChatGPT used a man's favorite children's book to romanticize his suicide.
arstechnica.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Well this is bleak: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Reposted by Clare Downham
This ought to be a huge national news story. But the quiet dismantling of a key sector barely registers outside HE. Maybe someone will care when the local economies that Unis sustain start to go bust too. Important story from @patrickjack.bsky.social & @timeshighered.bsky.social
Ninety UK universities to have posted accounts so far cut 13,300 jobs last year, spending £303 million on severance pay - sector-wide total clearly going to be well in excess of predicted 10,000. Great reporting by @patrickjack.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...
Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs
Analysis of UK sector accounts shows number of job losses well above predictions, with experts warning cuts are not over yet
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 15, 2026 at 9:10 AM
This ought to be a huge national news story. But the quiet dismantling of a key sector barely registers outside HE. Maybe someone will care when the local economies that Unis sustain start to go bust too. Important story from @patrickjack.bsky.social & @timeshighered.bsky.social
Reposted by Clare Downham
A coalition of nearly 30 advocacy groups is calling on Google and Apple to remove access to social media platform X and its AI app, Grok, from their app stores after Grok allowed users to generate sexualized images of minors and women.
Apple, Google face pressure to remove X and Grok from their app stores
Grok faces mounting scrutiny from government officials and advocacy groups after people used the AI chatbot
to create sexualized images of minors and women.
cbsn.ws
January 15, 2026 at 9:00 AM
A coalition of nearly 30 advocacy groups is calling on Google and Apple to remove access to social media platform X and its AI app, Grok, from their app stores after Grok allowed users to generate sexualized images of minors and women.
I realise the importance of this is symbolic but the comments and images to this post are a thing of joy.
BREAKING: The UK is sending a single military officer to Greenland at the request of Denmark to participate in a multi-nation exercise
January 15, 2026 at 10:02 AM
I realise the importance of this is symbolic but the comments and images to this post are a thing of joy.
Reposted by Clare Downham
The wonderful @caitlinrgreen.bsky.social has a hugely interesting new article just out in Early Medieval England & its Neighbours, all about Alfred the Great's embassy to India - free to read here #India #AlfredtheGreat #medieval www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
King Alfred and India: an Anglo-Saxon Embassy to Southern India in the Ninth Century | Early Medieval England and its Neighbours | Cambridge Core
King Alfred and India: an Anglo-Saxon Embassy to Southern India in the Ninth Century - Volume 52
www.cambridge.org
January 14, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Clare Downham
In case you missed the broadcast, the #TalkingHistory podcast with our Prof @downham.bsky.social is now available at www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig.... Enjoy!
January 14, 2026 at 10:49 AM
In case you missed the broadcast, the #TalkingHistory podcast with our Prof @downham.bsky.social is now available at www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig.... Enjoy!
Currently going through the books of my former partner who died in 2024 to prepare them for sale and came across this little gem, definitely a keeper. There’s a lot of #palaeography and #medieval history if anyone is interested! #booksky
January 14, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Currently going through the books of my former partner who died in 2024 to prepare them for sale and came across this little gem, definitely a keeper. There’s a lot of #palaeography and #medieval history if anyone is interested! #booksky
Reposted by Clare Downham
When someone in a crowd yells “pedophile protector” and you instantly think “hey that’s ME, I better respond!”
…well, that seems problematic for you.
…well, that seems problematic for you.
January 13, 2026 at 10:07 PM
When someone in a crowd yells “pedophile protector” and you instantly think “hey that’s ME, I better respond!”
…well, that seems problematic for you.
…well, that seems problematic for you.
Reposted by Clare Downham
Someone inside DHS leaked the names of 4,500 ICE and CBP officers to a nonprofit that tracks ICE. About 80 percent of those name are active.
www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-d...
www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-d...
Whistleblower drops 'largest ever' ICE leak to unmask agents: 'The last straw'
A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has released the identities of about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees Tuesday in what has been called potentially the largest agency data breach fo...
www.rawstory.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Someone inside DHS leaked the names of 4,500 ICE and CBP officers to a nonprofit that tracks ICE. About 80 percent of those name are active.
www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-d...
www.rawstory.com/ice-agents-d...
Reposted by Clare Downham
Sad to hear that Robert Maltby, Prof. Emeritus of Latin Philology at the University of Leeds, died last week. I browsed through his Latin Love Elegy this morning, just hours before hearing the news of his passing. His 7th vol. of Fragmentary Republican Latin is due to appear soon in the Loeb series.
January 12, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Sad to hear that Robert Maltby, Prof. Emeritus of Latin Philology at the University of Leeds, died last week. I browsed through his Latin Love Elegy this morning, just hours before hearing the news of his passing. His 7th vol. of Fragmentary Republican Latin is due to appear soon in the Loeb series.
Kind of delighted my train from Crewe to Carlisle today has announcements in Welsh (I’m guessing it originated in Holyhead) also appropriate for heading to the Brittonic Old North.
January 12, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Kind of delighted my train from Crewe to Carlisle today has announcements in Welsh (I’m guessing it originated in Holyhead) also appropriate for heading to the Brittonic Old North.
Reposted by Clare Downham
Such rare and remarkable objects demonstrate that you never know what you can find inside Britain’s humble medieval parish churches.
8/8
8/8
January 12, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Such rare and remarkable objects demonstrate that you never know what you can find inside Britain’s humble medieval parish churches.
8/8
8/8
Reposted by Clare Downham
Poor FOX News. Not the sound bite they were looking for.
FOX: Where’s the protest against the regime that's killing people in the street right now?
Trent: They are doing those today. It’s called the ICE protests
FOX: Are they talking about Iran at the ICE protests?
Trent: No, I think they are talking about the regime that is shooting people in the face
Trent: They are doing those today. It’s called the ICE protests
FOX: Are they talking about Iran at the ICE protests?
Trent: No, I think they are talking about the regime that is shooting people in the face
January 11, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Poor FOX News. Not the sound bite they were looking for.
For women in #academia, signs of achieving high status seem to include (bad to good) 1. a stalker 2. unqualified nutter following & griping on every interview & output bringing you more publicity & follows 3. Lots of positive public engagement 4. Seeing your ideas & students having a big impact.
January 11, 2026 at 6:47 PM
For women in #academia, signs of achieving high status seem to include (bad to good) 1. a stalker 2. unqualified nutter following & griping on every interview & output bringing you more publicity & follows 3. Lots of positive public engagement 4. Seeing your ideas & students having a big impact.
Reposted by Clare Downham
