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Kate Wiles

@katemond.bsky.social

7.6K followers 320 following 230 posts

Medievalist, linguist, manuscript botherer ❧ Co-Editor of History Today ☞ LOST VOICES (Penguin/Stanford, forthcoming, one day) ❧ Posting in a personal capacity ❡

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · Nov 10

Hello friends old and new! On the Bad Old Place I did history, language, bad jokes, magazine stuff. Expect largely exactly the same here. I am what I am.

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 7h

It must be an issue with my institution then, because I've tried safari and chrome, cleared cookies and a private tab and none of them work. Sigh. Thanks for checking.

Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 7h

Oh. Hmm. Ever since the redesign I've had problems with it. I'll try clearing the cookies?? Thanks for checking!

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 7h

Is the OED broken again? I already have to use it in a private tab because for some reason the search doesn't work in a normal browser, and now it's not logging me in, even when it seems to accept my login details?

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 2d

Beyond Library!

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Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Michael Erard @michaelerard.bsky.social · 2d

solid language journalism here www.science.org/content/arti...

China bolsters controversial claim to Pacific languages with new museum

Nationalist narrative holds that Austronesian language and culture originated in China, not Taiwan

www.science.org

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 6d

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Sky News @news.sky.com · 6d

Woman named as new Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first

Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, a former nurse, has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the first time a woman has been appointed to the role in the Church of England's history.

news.sky.com

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 6d

I've just made the longest to-read list

Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 6d

Literary hivemind: suggestions for excellent creative work (fiction, poetry, other) that engages somehow with the history or literature of the medieval period?

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Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 6d

incredible thread from @masinger.bsky.social on a vintage tale of scented books bsky.app/profile/masi...

Melissa Ann Singer @masinger.bsky.social · 7d

Did anyone ever tell you about the scented westerns?

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Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · 9d

Sending this round again as I'd like to teach this poem! Irish Revival period specialists, do repost.

Have heard about Easter Rising prisoners making Tara-style brooches out of spoons etc. could that be it? I still find "dish" a weird word for that though

Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · Dec 17

Any guesses as to what the titular "Shining Dish" is in this poem by Alice Milligan, about visiting Easter Rising prisoners at Frongoch internment camp? Medieval Irish literary reference? Something particular to the prison?

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Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social · 10d

just published on BBC website, an article on #Aethelstan inspired by David Woodman's new book (with a bit of commentary from Sarah Foot and er, me) #medievalsky www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

How England misplaced its first king

In his lifetime, the first king of England was renowned throughout Europe. But over the centuries, he has been sidelined by history.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 9d

Today's cultural theory: I think 'Conclave' is basically a Merchant/Ivory film of the 'yes what is it, Sebastian, can't you see I'm arranging matches' variety and that's why we all loved it so much. The public longs for ARCHITECTURE and MIDDLE-AGED ACTORS in RESTRAINED AGONY.

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Wolfson History Prize @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social · 9d

We're excited to reveal the #WolfsonHistoryPrize 2025 shortlist, celebrating the finest historical non-fiction works from the past year.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors! 👏📚

www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk/2025-wolfson...

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Robert Gallagher @hwaetspur.bsky.social · 10d

Interested in letter-writing in early medieval Britain? A three-year postdoc on @francescatinti.bsky.social’s and my project is now available. Apps close on 17th Oct. Let me know if you have any questions and please circulate! 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Postdoctoral Research Associate

Are you passionate about early medieval Britain? Do you have advanced knowledge of Medieval Latin and interested in the analysis of Latin letter-writing? If yes, then you may be interested in this f...

jobs.kent.ac.uk

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 12d

Not very effable

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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 14d

Look what we have here then.

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Richard Wells @slipperyjack.bsky.social · 16d

In Intriguing Furniture news: yesterday I visited Lichfield Cathedral and found a new 13 metre long table made from a 5000-year-old oak log discovered perfectly preserved in a peat bog in 2016. The cut planks took 9 months to dry out, losing 2 tonnes of weight in the process. Definitely haunted...

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Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 17d

New email sign-off courtesy of original poetry in the India Gazette, 1823:

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 20d

who called them "the Huns" and not "H from Steppes"

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · 22d

I have a friend who's being threatened with an AI product called 'Teachermatic', which aside from anything else is extremely Wallace and Gromit.

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · Sep 9

... how much more value is attached to a scrap left by a scarcely literate machine minder, than to all the most elegantly turned dispatches of one of Her Majesty's ambassadors abroad.

Possibly this retreat into social history is an aspect of Britain's decline in the world generally…

Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · Sep 9

Schoolboys used to know as much about Mehmet Ali and Don Pacifico as they did about anything in the nineteenth century; now they are likely to be taught more about the conditions of factory workers in Victorian Rochdale…

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Kate Wiles @katemond.bsky.social · Sep 9

Some INCREDIBLE lines here. Hard to pick a favourite...

www.jstor.org/stable/2638715

Diplomatic history has rather fallen from academic grace recently. Schoolboys used to know as much about Mehmet Ali and Don Pacifico as they did about anything in the nineteenth century; now they are likely to be taught more about the conditions of factory workers in Victorian Rochdale. On the research level too the diplomatic field has been largely deserted for newer and greener pastures. Social history is the growth industry, diplomatic history an old and declining staple. For those nineteenth-century statesmen and diplomats whose sense of their own lasting importance is evidenced by the meticulous care with which most of them preserved their papers for posterity, it would have been galling to learn how indifferent that posterity has become to what they bequeathed to it, and how much more value is attached to a scrap left by a scarcely literate machine minder, than to all the most elegantly turned dispatches of one of Her Majesty's ambassadors abroad. Possibly this retreat into social history is an aspect of Britain's decline in the world generally. Only 'great powers' can expect to have foreign policies which are effective. Britain has long ceased to be, or even to consider herself to be, a great power.

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John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · Sep 3

A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.

Melvyn Bragg decides to step down from presenting In Our Time

After 26 years on the programme, the legendary presenter bids farewell to the series

www.bbc.co.uk

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