I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.
Not necessarily. It might be worth sending an email to our general admissions email address to see what they say. People take Access courses but not always.
This book will be excellent. But if you really love Mercia Iβd recommend coming to study History in the heart of Mercia, at the University of Birmingham!
Detail of a Roman tomb wall with a semicircular painted lunette showing faded red and blue figures on a white background.
New discovery: A large burial ground dating from the Early Imperial Age to Late Antiquity has been uncovered in Romeβs Ostiense Necropolis during pre-construction works.
cultura.gov.it/comunicato/2...
Lead-alloy weight (image credit: St Albans council)
#FindsFriday
Time for trading; this week's trinket is a lead alloy weight used in the mixed coin / bullion economies of ninth-century viking army camps
BH-1DA0A5 (finds.org.uk/database/art...)
The real Dubai
Many place-names are deceptive, so itβs not surprising that many people have assumed that the striking place-name Pity Me canβt really be what it seems. What is it, though?
Today's name story is written by Emeritus Professor Diana Whaley of @newcastleuni.bsky.social.
www.snsbi.org.uk/exploring-na...
RΓV English #Radio - THE WEEK IN #ICELAND, FROM #AKUREYRI: #WEATHER, DAVΓΓ ODDSSON, #FLIGHTS, #GRINDAVΓK, #PEPTIDES
https://www.ruv.is/english/2026-03-03-ruv-english-radio-the-week-in-iceland-from-akureyri-weather-david-oddsson-flights-grindavik-peptides-468582
The response must be a safe system approach, not guardrail. We emphasise subsequent lines in the report: "We are also assessing common contributory factors in pedestrian KSls to establish appropriate interventions", "excessive or inappropriate speed remains the most prevalent contributory factor".
Predictably (for me) Iβd suggest addressing what historians do with them. Youβre ideally placed to talk about Anglophone and other scholarship.
Such a huge environmental impact for so little gain.
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2588713...
It looks like the job is to replace someone moving into a fixed-term management/leadership role so my guess is this really is very likely a seven-year post and definitely years not months.
A βtemporaryβ but seven-year post in Medieval English literature.
Update: Einstein cheatbot is "real" in that you can download an agent, but v. expensive, and it is a wrapper for openclaw so likely a massive, scary, data scrape/phish. With apols for substack link, couldn't find anyone elsewhere who'd done the test
michellekassorla.substack.com/p/the-first-...
Today was the first day in 2026 when I cycled home in the light, dry and without a fierce wind or aggressive driving. It felt good!
Join the Irish Historical Society on Tuesday, 24 February (7pm) for a panel on: βNew Directions in the Study of Early Medieval Irelandβ
Speakers: Dr Elva Johnston (UCD) Dr Immo Warntjes (TCD)
Chair: Prof DΓ‘ibhΓ Γ CrΓ³inΓn
Boston College, 43 St Stephenβs Green or online: tinyurl.com/mr59w9k2
We are hiring ....
Because John Nightingale is retiring...
for a Tutorial Fellowship in European History 400-1000...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQP650/t...
And you?
BBC with occasional excursions to ITV.
It is self-evident looking around cities, towns and the smallest villages that there are places of worship no longer used by those that built them. ποΈ
Some, of course, are houses. Others remain in devotional use. Some examples from our volumes, supplemented by other information - a short thread π§΅
For more ship-moving excitements, check out the #Vikingtidsmuseet YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@vikingtidsm...
If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.
It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.
www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...
A chance to study this fascinating text.
www.paideiainstitute.org/intermediate...
A scribe sits in a chair working on a book open before him. The book rests on a pedestal. From a copy of Gerald of Wales's Topography of Ireland in National Library of Ireland MS 700, fol. 29r
"Now that our leaders are no longer literate, no one, they say, has any time for humane letters."
- Gerald of Wales, c. 1193-94, in his Descriptio Cambriae
(trans. Lewis Thorpe, "The Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales" (London, 1978) p. 216)
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
Iβm glad to see that a former PhD student of mine is still producing good work on a period thatβs hugely under researched.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
bΓΊΓ°arvist (sb. f.): 3 cits, e.g. stay in a booth/(fishermanβs) hut // ophold i bod/(fisker)hytte βBΗ«Γ°varr hafΓ°i bΓΊΓ°arvist meΓ° ΓΓ³rΓ³lfi Sigmundarsyni ok hafΓ°i meiri rÑð yfir ΓΎingmΗ«nnum ok bΓΊΓ°arliΓ°i en ΓΓ³rΓ³lfrβ (Stu in AM 440 4Β°) onp.ku.dk/o12013 #OldNorse
To bring some sunshine to your timeline, an imitation gold solidus minted in Frisia in the 860s/870s, probably by Scandinavians, and ending up in Bickmarsh (Worcs.) in a hoard with coins of Burgred of Mercia. π· Treasure Hunting magazine
Ill be clear about why I am so angry and critical about it: Im seeing a good portion of my students who have imbibed the notion that they dont have to read, think or write for themselves because ChatGPT/CoPilot will do their thinking for them, and its terrifying. It should scare all of us.
A street scene dominated by a building on the left of the photo with a neo β classical frontage including columns and a pediment. A union flag aloft the top of the building. Other buildings further along the street. Crowds of people on either side of the road.
#PhotoFriday today is this photo of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists when located on New Street. Photographed by Percy J. Deakin of 19 Digbeth at precisely 10.12 hours on 27 June 1902. Ref: WK/B11/113 #LibraryofBham #Brumpic @rbsagallery.bsky.social
