Rachel Monsey
@rmonsey.bsky.social
History PhD candidate at Boston University
🪦Mourning 👑 Monarchy 🧠 Memory
1680s-1820s | Britain
🪦Mourning 👑 Monarchy 🧠 Memory
1680s-1820s | Britain
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Baby names aren’t just personal choices; they reflect culture, geography, gender, identity, and as i've been investigating, politics too. I’ve been analyzing 50 years of U.S. baby naming to see how they map onto political polarization in the U.S.
Here’s what I found 🧵
Here’s what I found 🧵
November 24, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Baby names aren’t just personal choices; they reflect culture, geography, gender, identity, and as i've been investigating, politics too. I’ve been analyzing 50 years of U.S. baby naming to see how they map onto political polarization in the U.S.
Here’s what I found 🧵
Here’s what I found 🧵
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
I don't make the medieval philosophy; I just translate it.
November 26, 2025 at 1:40 AM
I don't make the medieval philosophy; I just translate it.
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Armed Britannia Surveying Her Navies [reverse of a medal of Charles II], 1667 by Jan Roettiers (National Gallery of Art, Washington)
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Armed Britannia Surveying Her Navies [reverse of a medal of Charles II], 1667 by Jan Roettiers (National Gallery of Art, Washington)
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
can't believe jurgen habermas is alive. when i read that guy in college i just sort of assumed he was dead because everyone else i read in college was, too
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 PM
can't believe jurgen habermas is alive. when i read that guy in college i just sort of assumed he was dead because everyone else i read in college was, too
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Big news! The groundhog is back at my sister's and she gave him a plum
November 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Big news! The groundhog is back at my sister's and she gave him a plum
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
November 25, 1818: While Mary Shelley draws sketches of the Colosseum within the amphitheater during their Rome trip, Percy begins to pen his prose fragment, "The Coliseum." It is a romantic look at the ruins, overgrowth of plants & human hands that made the arena. Story: archive.org/details/essa...
November 25, 2025 at 12:23 PM
November 25, 1818: While Mary Shelley draws sketches of the Colosseum within the amphitheater during their Rome trip, Percy begins to pen his prose fragment, "The Coliseum." It is a romantic look at the ruins, overgrowth of plants & human hands that made the arena. Story: archive.org/details/essa...
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Doing all I could this morning to keep the few undergrads who even turned up awake, & even this ghastly but interesting image, a prop to my discussion of the female Gothic & "Get Out" didn't quite do the job.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Doing all I could this morning to keep the few undergrads who even turned up awake, & even this ghastly but interesting image, a prop to my discussion of the female Gothic & "Get Out" didn't quite do the job.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
📽️ The recording from our widely popular #RSVPDigiEvent "How to Get Published in an Academic Journal" is now live. We had a record-breaking 101 registrants for this panel! Since we did not quite hit that number in attendance, we know many will be interested to watch/re-watch: youtu.be/sP5Y1iicKJ0
How to Get Published in Academic Journal
YouTube video by Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
📽️ The recording from our widely popular #RSVPDigiEvent "How to Get Published in an Academic Journal" is now live. We had a record-breaking 101 registrants for this panel! Since we did not quite hit that number in attendance, we know many will be interested to watch/re-watch: youtu.be/sP5Y1iicKJ0
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
THATS RIGHT!!!! AND I UNLEASH MY FURY AT THE WORST THING PETARCH EVER DID (to me).
THIS THURSDAY ON TGS: I’m joined by David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social to get justice for Laura 700 years after this weirdo first wrote a poem about her.
November 24, 2025 at 6:01 PM
THATS RIGHT!!!! AND I UNLEASH MY FURY AT THE WORST THING PETARCH EVER DID (to me).
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.
November 23, 2025 at 1:31 PM
There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
the multi-year lack of a truly functional manuscripts catalog at the BL is finally over!!!!
Latest update from @britishlibrary.bsky.social says they are launching a new version of their main catalogue on Monday 8 December and around that time also launch an interim version of their Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue. Hooray!
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
Restoring our services – November 2025 update
In the coming weeks and months we will be restoring a number of key functions.
www.bl.uk
November 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM
the multi-year lack of a truly functional manuscripts catalog at the BL is finally over!!!!
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
Woke up to the news that my first article has cleared the reviewing stage and is going to be published next year!!!
a woman wearing glasses is dancing in a restaurant
ALT: a woman wearing glasses is dancing in a restaurant
media.tenor.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Woke up to the news that my first article has cleared the reviewing stage and is going to be published next year!!!
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
November 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
She was always THE woman. Looking right at you from 1590: Infanta Catalina Micaela (almost surely), painted by Sofonisba Anguissola (probably). Surely one of the greatest renaissance portraits.
November 16, 2025 at 7:52 PM
She was always THE woman. Looking right at you from 1590: Infanta Catalina Micaela (almost surely), painted by Sofonisba Anguissola (probably). Surely one of the greatest renaissance portraits.
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Gustav Klimt, Beech Grove I, 1902, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 100 cm (Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)
November 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Gustav Klimt, Beech Grove I, 1902, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 100 cm (Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
December 31, 2024 at 2:41 PM
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Once upon a time in a university near you, in-person teaching was a thing, as you can see in this image of 1612. Young people with hats came together, regularly and voluntarily, prepared for classes, and enjoying a lively learning situation of *checks notes*, a 90 minutes monolog of someone else ...
November 11, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Once upon a time in a university near you, in-person teaching was a thing, as you can see in this image of 1612. Young people with hats came together, regularly and voluntarily, prepared for classes, and enjoying a lively learning situation of *checks notes*, a 90 minutes monolog of someone else ...
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
preparing a class on animal histories
November 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
preparing a class on animal histories
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
The central chapter, 'Inky cloak', considers cloaks, mourning dress & funerals, prologues & paratexts, black pages, black wrappers, & the inky traffic between page & stage. Mostly Hamlet, but framed with Middleton's Black Book, with cameo appearances by the Field brothers (Nathan & Theophilus) 6/10
November 11, 2025 at 11:21 AM
The central chapter, 'Inky cloak', considers cloaks, mourning dress & funerals, prologues & paratexts, black pages, black wrappers, & the inky traffic between page & stage. Mostly Hamlet, but framed with Middleton's Black Book, with cameo appearances by the Field brothers (Nathan & Theophilus) 6/10
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10
November 11, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
9/ "So, there we were. A group of Black Americans confronted with all these dead white Americans… When they were alive, we couldn’t sit in the same room."
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 AM
9/ "So, there we were. A group of Black Americans confronted with all these dead white Americans… When they were alive, we couldn’t sit in the same room."
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 AM
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
My theory about Joyce Carol Oates is that all her bad posts are her charging up like Godzilla's spines until she lets loose with a radioactive blast that leaves the world's richest Nazi a pile of ash
November 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
My theory about Joyce Carol Oates is that all her bad posts are her charging up like Godzilla's spines until she lets loose with a radioactive blast that leaves the world's richest Nazi a pile of ash
Reposted by Rachel Monsey
Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...
Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo
Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...