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Rachel Singer

@rachelbsinger.bsky.social

8.9K followers 1.6K following 130 posts

Environmental historian of post-Roman Britain and Merovingian Gaul. PhD Candidate at Georgetown University researching plague, climate, rebel nuns, and disaster. Philly sports fan and weird rescue animal enthusiast by night. rachelbsinger.com

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Nov 9

For those of you who (wisely) haven’t been on Twitter lately and may not know, I recently had an article come out in the EHR on early medieval British plague and its broader historiographical implications. Just message me if you don’t have access and need a pdf!

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Contextualising Edix Hill: First-Pandemic Plague and Britain*

Abstract:. The 2019 discovery of Yersinia pestis ancient DNA at Edix Hill in Cambridgeshire unquestionably confirms that plague was present in sixth-centur

academic.oup.com

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · 1d

Philly sports and I are on a break

Badly drawn, grainy, blue and gold award ribbon labeled “fell for it again award”

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Sep 4

Yes, and?

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Sep 4

Go birds 🦅🏈

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Reposted by Rachel Singer

George Clay @g-g-clay.bsky.social · Jun 6

An article I wrote about emotions and colonialism has just come out in The Sixteenth Century Journal - you can find it below or message me if you’d like a PDF!

The Sixteenth Century Journal: Vol 56, No 2 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

The Emotional Dimensions of Colonial Rule in the Sixteenth-Century Andes: José de Acosta, Jesuits, and Emotions During the Great Resettlement* | The Sixteenth Century Journal: Vol 56, No 2

This article examines the writings of the Jesuit José de Acosta (1540–1600) on Andean governance at the time of the Great Resettlement (a late-sixteenth-century Spanish attempt to resettle Andean peop...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · May 27

Can’t wait to read it!

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · May 25

Pangur Bán and his owner might disagree, lol

Medievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · May 25

Why Cats were Hated in Medieval Europe www.medievalists.net/2023/05/cats... #Cats

Why Cats were Hated in Medieval Europe - Medievalists.net

Cats in medieval Europe mostly had a bad reputation – they were associated with witches and heretics, and it was believed that the devil could transform himself into a black cat. How did this view of…

www.medievalists.net

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · May 23

Louse-borne relapsing fever is an important part of early British infectious disease history since William MacArthur’s 1949 speculation that it caused the mysterious, sixth-century outbreaks often assumed to be plague. It’s therefore Enormously exciting to have new paleoscientific evidence of it!

Pooja Swali @poojaswali.bsky.social · May 22

Excited to announce our paper on ancient Borrelia genomes is finally out! 🦠💀We document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever, published today in @science.org‬ with @lucyvandorp.bsky.social and @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social #aDNA 🏺🧪🧬
Main findings and paper below: 🧵⬇️

Reposted by Rachel Singer

Janet E Kay @janetekay.bsky.social · Apr 7

Want to learn how a careful study of burial #archaeology can improve our understanding of past disease events, especially the First #Plague #Pandemic (6th-8th centuries)? Check the #OpenAccess article I led in this month’s issue of Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies!

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Apr 5

lol, does it still count as East Coast bias if there’s only a 12-hour difference?

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Apr 4

It exists in the physical world!
@merleeisenberg.bsky.social

Photo of physical copy of “Burial Archaeology and the First Plague Pandemic” article

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Reposted by Rachel Singer

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast @mmapod.bsky.social · Apr 1

New #SpeculumSpotlight episode!! @medievalacademy.bsky.social

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Apr 1

My colleagues, Janet Kay, Jordan Wilson and I went on @mmapod.bsky.social to promote our new Speculum article, “Burial Archaeology and the First Plague Pandemic.” Give it a listen if you’re interested!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast

History Podcast · Updated Monthly · The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast brings medievalists from all professional and disciplinary tracks together to think and talk about the too-oft-unsung diversit...

podcasts.apple.com

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Reposted by Rachel Singer

Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · Mar 31

New issue of Speculum Vol. 100, No. 2 (2024) www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/spc/2025... @chicagojournals.bsky.social @medievalacademy.bsky.social @merleeisenberg.bsky.social
@rachelbsinger.bsky.social

Speculum | Vol 100, No 2

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 29

NB: we’ve updated this piece since the preprint went up in 2023, so consider giving it another look even if you’ve already read that!

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 29

New, OA article! Here my coauthors and I (led by the lovely Janet E. Kay) ponder what burial archaeology would bring to the table as we seek to understand the First Plague Pandemic (spoiler alert: we think it could contribute quite a lot!) www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Burial Archaeology and the First Plague Pandemic | Speculum: Vol 100, No 2

Abstract Archaeological evidence from funerary contexts is largely ignored in current scholarship on the First Plague Pandemic, despite the important information that burials and cemeteries can provid...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 25

Hooray, congrats!!

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 20

For folks in DC, I’m giving a talk on early Irish animal disease next week!

Global Irish Studies @guglobalirish.bsky.social · Mar 20

Join us next Thursday, 3/27, for “Coughing Cows, Mad Dogs, and Infected Bees: Making Sense of Animal Disease in Early Medieval Ireland”, with Rachel Singer! Register here: bit.ly/41K0D5N

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

Please do!!

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

Hopefully not all of this is too early for you! It may also be worth a look in the Cambridge Urban History of Britain for a survey of the field in 2000. And Simon Keynes has a good bibliography for pre-Norman English history that you could check (I’m pretty sure it has a section on urbanism).

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

And finally, Simon Losby has a book chapter on “Power and Towns in Late Roman Britain and Early Anglo-Saxon England” that’s worth a look.

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

For the how long Roman urbanism went on, much of the debate is centered on how late a specific building in Verulamium was constructed and on how we can interpret excavations at Wroxeter. Adam Rogers and Gavin Speed also both wrote seminal works on the issue in the 2010s.

Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

Pam Crabtree’s 2018 book on the process of reurbanization is solid, and if you want something on how post-Roman British people understood and reused Roman infrastructure, I’d recommend @calthalas.bsky.social’s 2021 book.

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 17

Most of my recommendations are admittedly on the absence of urbanism in immediately post-Roman period:

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 13

This is fabulous criticism! You should consider writing it up and sending it to the journal as a ‘comment’ on the article so that more people will see it.

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Rachel Singer @rachelbsinger.bsky.social · Mar 2

Split squad spring training game means 2 Phillies games at once let’s gooo

2 different Phillies baseball games playing on a laptop and a tv