Prepping the “Reality of the Rulers” from the Gnostic ‘Hypostasis of the Archons’ found in the Nag Hammadi library (c. 400 ce) & feel as though I am going to teach my students some avante-garde Star Trek fanfic.
#religion #gnostic #medieval #genesis #bible #history #theology #scifi
graphics with white background for the Order's February newsletter featuring a collage of various images inspired by the stories featured, including a science = death pin, an anatomical embroidery of a human head, a body being composted, cup of coffee in green mug, a human head fashioned out of natural elements like leaves and grass, and a hand holding a cell phone.
1. Here’s what we covered in this month’s Order Member newsletter!
• Human composting finally takes root in NY, & why legalization wasn’t the finish line
• When museums sanitize queer grief: what happens when context disappears from an AIDS-era masterpiece?
Puzzle Binding!
Tricky! These are almost as rare as hen's teeth, and we just...
Had One???
And, it includes HOW Many Books? (Five from Germany c. 1601 and a blank one at last count...) #Vexierbuch #DosADos @newberrylibrary.bsky.social (Case C 823 .966)
I knew I saw this somewhere before. Funny that it’s almost exactly what’s actually happening now.
Movie description of the B horror move Death PhD. Gawdawful movie.
Now this is a movie plot!!! Someone understands grad school.
Rebranding this version of “Wuthering Heights” as “Smutt-ering Heights” really helps with a change of perspective. Think, “I’m here for the visceral & the visual” not the historically accurate & emotionally vituperative.
#wutheringheights #emilybronte #bronte
CALL FOR PAPERS: PERFORMING EVIL: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres, 1700-2000'. 4 & 5 June 2026, Leuven. This conference explores the tangled histories of supernatural, diabolic evil and all kinds of spectral apparitions in the last three centuries – Walter Scott’s ‘malignant and unhappy beings’. Specifically, it is interested in how and why ghosts, spirits and related apparitional phenomena were framed as diabolic, demonic or malign manifestations from the afterlife. Diabolic connotations of ghosts and spirits did meaningful cultural work. They were mobilised to discredit ghost beliefs and spiritual practices, to delegitimise competing beliefs, or to invest doctrinal arguments with occult authority. They could also function as tools of scepticism and ridicule as well as triggers of wonder, fear and religiosity. Put differently, the nexus of ghosts and evil is deeply historical. And it was often articulated through performative means: in gestures and expressions of (dis)belief, in visual and textual representations, in séance rooms, on the stage and on the page. Emerging from this nexus are theatrical spirits of evil, staged, embodied, and made legible through mediation and display. In this sense, every ghost is a theatrical ghost. Through the focus on the construction and staging of diabolic spirits, this conference aims to develop a methodological framework for studying historical forms of occultism and demonology more broadly in terms of performance.
Exploring how the relationship of spectrality and evil has shifted in shape over time and across different cultures, the conference invites contributions that can consider a wide range of historical actors – clerics, mediums, ghost-hunters, debunkers, necromancers, stage performers, eyewitnesses. This conference aims to study cultural intersections and interactions to arrive at a more granular understanding of discursive, practical and material connections between spirits and evil. At the same time this lens zooms out, making visible broader dynamics of knowledge construction in specific historical moments. How, for instance, did hauntings and possessions shape communities and audiences? How did religious or folkloric ideas about the devil inform spectral encounters? We hope to bring together historians, art historians, theatre and literary scholars, folklorists and anthropologists from every stage in their career around the above questions. We welcome 20-minute papers on topics that include but are by no means limited to: - making spectral evil visible: performance, arts, media, technologies, popular cultures - making spectral evil invisible: popular and occult knowledge circulation - performing (un)belief: practices and rhetoric, summoning and debunking on the stage (from popular stages to the lecture hall and the laboratory) - materiality of spectres: the function of bodies and objects - diabolic spirits and (intellectual, vernacular, theological, folkloric) ideas about morality, mortality and temporality - occult performance and ‘cultural scripts’ of ghost encounters (from necromancy to poltergeists) - affect and emotions: fear, grief, trauma… and hope Send abstracts (c.250 words) and bios (c.100 words) to kristof.smeyers@kuleuven.be before 21 March 2026. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
Hi everyone, I'm organising a conference in Leuven, 4-5 June, and you're all invited*! It's called 'Performing evil: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres 1700-2000' and here is the call for papers (get in touch if you'd like a pdf!). Please share widely!
*to submit an abstract before 21/3
A poster for 'Falling in Love with Love: A History of Popular Romance: An Online Course' including front covers from the following books: Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Sheik by E M Hull, The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, Tabitha in Moonlight by Betty Neels, Indigo by Beverley Jenkins, Hen Fever by Olivia Waite, The Isle of the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
I'm running a popular romance course at the University of Liverpool... but only if enough people sign up!
Come and join us!
www.liverpool.ac.uk/continuing-e...
semi-regular reminder that ICE was only created in 2003
when you are asked to imagine a world without ICE, you're basically being asked to remember where you were when Lilo & Stitch came out
Slowing returning to “reality” with @drjaninaramirez.bsky.social & a cheeky pint
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#medieval #history #saints #hagiography #academia #literature
graphic featuring a painting of a woman holding a duster reading a book in a library
graphic featuring book covers for over 35 books included in the giveaway
Win an entire library on death, grief, and what it means to be human. Which book are you reading first?
Enter today by becoming a Tier 2 Order Member by December 19th: www.orderofthegooddeath.com/membership
*Must have a U.S. mailing address.
Seminar for ‘History of Forensic Science & Medicine’ is about polygraphs & LFPEs today so naturally I’m showing a clip of Pedro Pascal’s @vanityfair.com interview. #forensics #history
Folklore front cover
Folklore back cover
Publishing today!
From village rituals and fairytales to UFOs and fanfiction, witches, wizards and wickermen, British folklore is a living tradition that continues on.
Available from all good bookshops and online now.
@cerihoulbrook.bsky.social
@odavies9.bsky.social
#folklore #booksky
I recommend this article, which provides an excellent introduction to the history both of the term autism and the ways in which the label has been applied to a changing set of human characteristics, in line with changing scientific and diagnostic approaches.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Or read one of Dr Evans' journal articles on the issue - you can access a list of publications through this link.
research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/b...
Cover of Dr Bonnie Evans' book The Metamorphosis of Autism: A History of Child Development in Britain (Manchester University Press, 2017)
Autism is back on the front pages. Why not read the book that my excellent @manchester.ac.uk @manchstm.bsky.social colleague Dr Bonnie Evans has published on the history of autism? It's open access and you can read it online for free.
www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
open.spotify.com/episode/3yXe...
New episode of Dames Macabre now live!!!
#buffythevampireslayer #podcast #history #medieval #culture #Gothic #vampire
How can the divine exist in cyberspace? What even IS the divine?
Tune in to the newest episode of Dames Macabre to hear our insights & thoughts on Sunnydale’s resident “technopagan” Jenny Calendar (including her connections to early #medieval time reckoning).
#podcast #buffy #history #culture
The Dames Macabre website is now live!!!
damesmacabre.com
#podcast #medieval #gothic #phdlife #history #literature #culture #buffy #vampire #darkacademia
Job alert! Come and join us for 12 months in our lovely @chppc.bsky.social team. We're seeking a fixed-term Lecturer in Historic Environment, who'll work on our projects, including research, publishing and digitisation. Closing date 29 August. Please share!
www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
New episode of Dames Macabre with @alexcarabine.bsky.social has dropped discussing the #femmefatale in episodes ‘Witch’ & ‘Teachers Pet’!
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#Buffy #Buffythevampireslayer #gothic #medieval #vampire #podcast #history
Stop using WeTransfer right now.
Oh my goodness ANOTHER episode has dropped! Listen to @alexcarabine.bsky.social and myself talk all thing medieval in *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* episode 'The Harvest' (S1.E2).
open.spotify.com/episode/7A7w...
#medieval #culture #buffythevampireslayer #vampire #history #gothic #podcast
People throw out treasure. I’m not going to say which library was throwing out this scrapbook of newspaper clippings from 1910-1911 DOCUMENTING THE ENTIRE CRIPPEN CASE, but it’s in the right hands now (mine). Literal archival material, including things I’d never seen before. #StoryofaMurder
Please rate, review, and subscribe!
(And share with your friends, family, and peers!)
open.spotify.com/show/0hpB1Wt...
New episodes on ‘Welcome to the (Medieval) Hellmouth’, Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ (2025), and more!
#buffythevampireslayer #podcast #history #medievalages #gothic #horror #hellmouth #DamesMacabre #vampire #medievalism
Want to learn about how the modern is really #medieval? About how H.P. Lovecraft is connected to #BuffytheVampireSlayer and Aristotle?
CHECK OUT DAMES MACABRE!
open.spotify.com/episode/0Ulk...
Wonderful presentation from Amanda Power on “sacrifice zones” at today’s NWMSN Annual Conference
✨Slightly blurry phone screenshots of my first ever official business cards!!! Square format with rounded corners because why not? 🤷🏻♀️ ✨
#medieval #phd #historian #Buffy
Any Medievalists want a copy of the newest edition of Debating #Medieval Europe - The central and later Middle Ages - for... free?
Our DME books serve as an entry point for understanding the distinctive historiography of their periods.
Hit repost and we'll add you to the giveaway 📗👇 #booksky
