Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Austin Benson

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 10d

how it feels to inquire about the status of your manuscript

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 11d

do you want a picture of the human future? imagine someone posting this at their friends about a third person who isn't even in the room, forever.

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 14d

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it; it brings about consent and reconciliation with things as they really are.

—Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · 18d

Extremely normal!

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 23d

🚨THIS BOOK IS ALMOST REAL!!!🚨

@manchesterup.bsky.social out here making dreams come true!

Book cover preview of "Translating hell: Vernacular theology and apocrypha in the medieval North Sea" by yours truly.

Cover image of a hell mouth from the Utrecht Psalter (ca. 9th c)

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Sep 8

GOAT stories

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holden m. accountable @noahs.bsky.social · Sep 6

[ancient egyptian standup comic] see guys from the upper kingdom, they observe funerary rites like THIS. but us guys from the lower kingdom, we observe funerary rites like THIS. See this guy knows what I’m talking about [pointing at man with the head of a bird]

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Sep 1

Going to be extremely controversial and suggest that George Washington was not, in fact, a Catholic integralist

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Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · Aug 31

what if journal loyalty rewards program where your 5th submission automatically gets published

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · Aug 30

🚨Medievalist job alert! 🚨

Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · Aug 30

The University of Southern Maine, just down the street from me, is hiring a medievalist. jobs.chronicle.com/job/37871743....

Assistant Professor in English - Fall 2026 - Portland, Maine (US) job with University of Southern Maine | 37871743

The Department of English at the University of Southern Maine is seeking an Assistant Professor in English to start in the Fall Semester of 2026.

jobs.chronicle.com

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Elise Wang @elisewang.bsky.social · Aug 28

This failed because a local jury decided not to indict. We tend to think juries should be blank slates, impartial and uninformed.

But when the jury began it was trusted specifically because it was informed and partial. A medieval story time on the jury!

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Aug 27

The DOJ failed to secure a felony indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent in protest of Trump's D.C. crackdown

Trump Prosecutor Fails To Indict DC Man Who Threw Sandwich At Federal Agent

"Sandwich guy" has become a symbol of Trump’s militarized takeover of the nation's capital, and posters memorializing him have appeared all over the city.

www.huffpost.com

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Nabalkattu @nabalkattu.bsky.social · May 5

What makes a Classic? Homer, Gilgamesh, and the Hebrew Bible are all rooted in a time and region--the Iron Age Mediterranean--but does any shared magic make them "canonical"? Because these famed works come to us from a space whose western parts are notoriously blank in terms of textual evidence. 🧵

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Dr. Syntax @drsyntax.bsky.social · Aug 17

Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"

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Rebecca Menmuir @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social · Aug 13

My book is out! Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile, with Cambridge UP @universitypress.cambridge.org.

I am so grateful to the friends, family, colleagues, librarians and archivists who helped along the way. Nervous and excited to see it in the world!

www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...

Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile

Cambridge Core - Classical Literature - Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile

www.cambridge.org

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more mr. dice guy @juniorhoncho.bsky.social · Mar 17

my new AI powered lamp is trained on millions of lamp interactions so it understands that 50% of chain pulls are to turn it on and the other 50% are to turn it off. and honestly, it's a little spooky how it knows exactly what i want almost half of the time

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · Aug 9

there are several, but the big one would be cormac mccarthy

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · Aug 9

Here’s a question: who is the artist with politics you disagree strongly with, whose politics *do* (in your view) influence their art, that you still think is talented and whose work you enjoy?

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Aug 7

Goodreads but for academic articles

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Chris Towers is in Offseason Mode @cptowers.bsky.social · Aug 7

Re: the "Stomp clap hey" movement

-Lumineers were corny but mostly inoffensive
-Mumford & Sons have some legitimate jams and are a quite good live show
-Avett Brothers ruled once and now they're Dave Matthews Band for Millennials (not a judgment)
-That Avicii "Wake Me Up" song sucks

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Jul 31

This book is amazing

Yes I know I’m over two decades late but in my defense I was six when this hit the shelves

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Jul 30

Congrats Dr. Bradley!

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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · Jul 28

For the first time since the Princeton Geniza Project began in 1986, we have published our metadata collated from over 30,000 Geniza documents and the People, Places, and histories of the Middle East and premodern Jewish communities found therein!

zenodo.org/records/1583...

Princeton Geniza Project Dataset

Since 1986, the Princeton Geniza Lab has been studying and digitizing historical documents from the Cairo Geniza, a cache of roughly 400,000 fragments of paper and parchment preserved in a medieval Eg...

zenodo.org

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Anthony Clark @nedroid.com · Jul 28

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

"There are three kinds of magic," said Wizzler, handing us each a balloon. "You can control tigers, you can shoot tornadoes from your fingers, or you can fly by holding your breath. The color of confetti inside your balloon will reveal which kind of power you have."
I felt the panic rising in me. What if my confetti turned yellow, indicating that I was a Tiger-Talker? My family, a long line of proud Tornado-Fingers, would disown me. Could I ever return home, bearing such shame?
I tried to calm myself as I readied the ceremonial safety pin. Green, I thought, willing my hopes into reality. Please be green.
I popped the balloon, involuntarily shutting my eyes. When I opened them, would I see the green I hoped for? The yellow I feared? What if, gods forbid, the confetti were blue?
I opened my eyes, seeing shock on the faces of my classmates. Wizzler himself stared at me, wide-eye. Looking down, I saw myself covered in confetti... purple confetti.

“I don’t understand,” I growled, my body trembling with pain. “I combined eighty percent Earth-elemental mana with twenty percent Fire-elemental mana (Type B), focused through a twenty-four-sided icositetragon made of yellow topaz. This, in conjunction with my blood type, star sign, sense of humor, and nickname, should have produced a blazing column of lightning to vaporize my enemies. Instead, it made a big bubble that smells like fresh laundry. Why?”
Skullgrumbler began to laugh. “You fool! You don’t even realize…” he squealed. “You’re facing east!”

“It’s whatever you want,” explained Magemaster Grampledog. “Magic is just whatever you want.”
I knew he was speaking in riddles, but I couldn’t grasp his hidden meaning. “So the rules are…”
Grampledog lit a sliver of smokereed. “No rules. You say some words and you wave a stick and whatever you want just happens. You don’t even need the stick.”
His wisdom still eluded me. I stared into his face, trying to decipher what he was really saying.
“No, listen.” Grampledog snapped his fingers and his desk turned into a pile of chicken nuggets. “I didn’t even know that would happen.” His hat then came alive and began to yodel.
“It’s pandemonium,” he explained. “It’s complete nonsense.”

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David Stifter 🍵📄🦊 @davidstifter.bsky.social · Jul 28

I hadn't been aware of this recording of 11 Early Irish poems, read by Myles Dillon around 1956. Kindly made available by the School of Celtic in University College Cork.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=45WU...

(I am pleased to note that my own pronunciation of those poems isn't far off Dyllon's.)

Prof. Myles Dillon reads 11 Early Irish Lyrics, c. 1956

YouTube video by School of Irish Learning UCC

www.youtube.com

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Elaine Treharne @etreharne.bsky.social · Jul 27

Lordy. I’m trying to describe how palaeographers label scripts. This was my swotting-sheet as an undergrad. That was one system. Adding in Parkes, Derolez, Lieftinck… it becomes incomprehensible. Bah. And Latin no longer a lingua franca…

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Austin Benson @austinbenson.bsky.social · Jul 25

Exactly what I said after reading this

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