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Melissa Reynolds

@melkatrey.bsky.social

530 followers 350 following 92 posts

Historian of early modern European books, bodies, medicine & science | Author of Reading Practice: The Pursuit of Natural Knowledge from Manuscript to Print (Chicago, 2024) | Co-editor of The Recipes Project | Asst Prof at TCU | Taco enthusiast

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jun 4

I am always so grateful to scholars who engage with my work, but getting to read James Waddell review Reading Practice for the TLS was a high point, for sure. So much attention to detail, & so thoughtful in its critiques. Just brilliant to be read so carefully!

www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/b...

Practical knowledge from the age of the manuscript onwards

One of the great utopian promises of the internet was that it could teach you how to do anything. When we need to fix a water-damaged iPhone, cook a

www.the-tls.co.uk

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 10d

Relieved to read the editorial board of my local paper here in Fort Worth (largest republican majority city in Texas) come down on the side of free speech and academic freedom.

www.star-telegram.com/opinion/edit...

Texas colleges don’t need Abbott and Paxton’s meddling on free speech | Opinion

Texas A&M and North Texas are feeling the heat, and the Texas Tech system takes a big step on gender issues. | Opinion

www.star-telegram.com

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 13d

Heads up, #humanities scholars! @ransomcenter.bsky.social is hosting an online info session about our 2026-27 research fellowships.

Join me & Tracy Bonfitto next Thursday (Oct. 2) at 9 AM, CDT for details about our collections & application process.

events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ad72fe... 🗃️📜📚

Social media graphic promoting the Harry Ransom Center's fellowship program. A photograph of a fellow reading a postcard is surrounded by a blue frame with white text ("FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN") on each side.

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Ed @notdred.bsky.social · 14d

CHOTINER: And you didn’t know this person - what did you call him again?

CELEBRIMBOR GREATEST OF THE ELVEN SMITHS: Right, his name was Annatar but

CHOTINER: And you taught him to create a ring harnessing all his malice and cruelty?

CELEBRIMBOR: Well I mean I was deceived

CHOTINER: So you’ve said

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AAUP chapter @UT Austin @utaustinaaup.bsky.social · 17d

Op Ed by President of the AAUP chapter at UT Austin. Let teachers teach, let students learn. #AcademicFreedom #DefendHigherEd

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 18d

Found the best cure for the constant dread of creeping authoritarianism: taking my students to Special Collections!

Seriously though, it’s my favorite class every semester. Buncha intro to early modern Euro history students, almost no majors, just so jazzed about touching really old books.

Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Hannah Murphy @hsmurphy.bsky.social · 19d

First post of the new academic year and it's a good one: JOBS! There are THREE fixed-term research jobs in @kingshistory.bsky.social attached to my colleague Francisco Bethencourt's new ERC project on the Visual and Material Culture of New Christians. Please circulate!

#EarlyModern 🗃️

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · Aug 26

Many thanks to our friends @hyperallergic.com for spreading the word about @ransomcenter.bsky.social's 2026-27 #fellowships!

Learn more by visiting the Center's website: www.hrc.utexas.edu/fellowships/

#Humanities #Photography #Literature #ArtHistory #RareBooks #Theatre #FilmHistory 🗃️📜📚

UT Austin’s Harry Ransom Center Provides Funded Fellowships in the Arts and Humanities

The humanities library and museum will award up to 50 fellowships to support scholars, artists, and writers conducting on-site archival research.

hyperallergic.com

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 20d

What amazing company to keep! And what a thrill to see Reading Practice honored in this way by the NACBS!

@uchicagopress.bsky.social

TheNACBS @thenacbs.bsky.social · 20d

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 John Ben Snow Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period prior to 1800.

www.nacbs.org/news/snow-bo...

@yalepress.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social @melkatrey.bsky.social @asheeshksi.bsky.social

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

TheNACBS @thenacbs.bsky.social · 20d

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Stansky Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period since 1800.

www.nacbs.org/news/stansky...

@uchicagopress.bsky.social @oxunipress.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 23d

Yeah, sure, but I won’t look like a Mr. Potato Head with hair plugs either

CNN @cnn.com · 23d

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told analysts that people without smart glasses may one day be at a "significant cognitive disadvantage" compared to those who do use the tech: https://cnn.it/47L2Y5a

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Rebecca Wynter @rebeccawynter.bsky.social · 26d

💫New Workshop #CfP💫

'Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900', 5 December, online, organised by the very fabulous @annafranjam.bsky.social & @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social.

#HistMed #HistSTM #HistPsych #DisHist #HistNursing #MatCult #MaterialCulture #MedHums #Skystorians🗃️

Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham

x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · Sep 8

what a humiliating way for don jr. to find out his dad sends birthday cards.

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Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

ProPublica @propublica.org · Sep 4

More women have nearly bled to death during miscarriage under Texas’ abortion ban.

Experts say the trend paints a troubling picture of the harms of unnecessary delays in care. “This is striking,” one doctor said. “The trend is very clear.”

(Published July)

A “Striking” Trend: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage

A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

www.propublica.org

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Sep 1

Happy Labor Day! Feeling grateful for the unions that have made a real difference in my family’s life: @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social and @alliedpilots.bsky.social. Power to the workers, y’all!

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Aug 25

Oh gosh, it’s almost like those of us trained to assess knowledge claims and situate them within their social and economic context were on to something…

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Aug 25

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History

Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.

www.newyorker.com

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Aug 24

Texas banned phones in schools and my kids (in 7th and 10th grade) are so happy to have the weight of managing this addiction taken off their shoulders. They’re so happy.

My son (the sophomore) told me, “Mom, kids actually talk to each other again. It’s so nice.”

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Aug 24

A middle school I interact with is in a state with a school cellphone ban and y’all everybody in there is relieved. EVERYBODY. The kids, the teachers, the janitors. They are so relieved. Nobody is really uptight about it…except some parents.

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Aug 22

Just finished up the first week of the new semester, which began with a welcome back party last weekend, which turned into a super spreader event for a nasty stomach virus, which ended up taking down half the faculty and a bunch of our grad students.

How was your first week?

Reposted by Melissa Reynolds

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · Aug 18

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event

Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

www.theatlantic.com

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Aug 12

It's your lucky day! The Recipes Project's Summer 2025 issue on "Making" launched today, & this issue we're releasing a new season of our podcast, Around the Table with Sarah Peters Kernan. Click below to read the first two posts in this issue!

recipes.hypotheses.org

Summer 2025

Making Introduction By Sarah Peters Kernan, Kelli Kimura, and Melissa Reynolds, Editors Recipes are more than simple instructions—they invite us to enact their processes and physically engage with tex...

recipes.hypotheses.org

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Aug 3

Just a heads up that we’ve extended the deadline and are accepting proposals for these two panels through August 5!

Come hang in San Fran and talk global early modern #histmed #histsci

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jul 10

If you work on commerce, trade, religion, medicine, or science in the early modern Pacific, please consider submitting to one of two panels in a proposed series.

The first, co-organized with Seb Kroupa, considers connections between Latin America & Asia. Details here: www.rsa.org/forms/FormRe...

Renaissance Society of America

365 Fifth AvenueRoom 5405New York, NY 10016 • USA

www.rsa.org

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jul 22

Congrats Paul! This is such amazing news.

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jul 10

The second, co-organized with Wenrui Zhao, considers the Indigenous knowledges of the Indo-Pacific that were central to Renaissance medicine & science, and the commercial networks that connected Europe with Asia in the Renaissance.

Details here: www.rsa.org/forms/FormRe...

Renaissance Society of America

365 Fifth AvenueRoom 5405New York, NY 10016 • USA

www.rsa.org

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jul 10

Renaissance Society of America

365 Fifth AvenueRoom 5405New York, NY 10016 • USA

www.rsa.org

Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · Jul 10

If you work on art history, patronage, politics, material culture, history of science or medicine, please consider submitting to POLITICS, POWER, PATRONAGE: FUNDING MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN THE RENAISSANCE.

Details here: www.rsa.org/forms/FormRe...

Renaissance Society of America

365 Fifth AvenueRoom 5405New York, NY 10016 • USA