If you have not found Roberta Magnusson's work yet, it may be of interest, especially Water Technology in the Middle Ages--she goes later than I do!
Medievalist, environmental historian, penguin historian, photographer, co-editor of Water History. Author of Medieval Riverscapes, Negotiating the Landscape, and Water in World History. EFArnold.com
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If you have not found Roberta Magnusson's work yet, it may be of interest, especially Water Technology in the Middle Ages--she goes later than I do!
wow, thanks! I love that this is being read--I'm really proud of it. Hope that you enjoy it.
Or assassins as in MN
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Join us Mon 1 Sept 2025 for @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talk with @richardfallon.bsky.social on Contesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture 1860-1935: Believers & Visionaries on the Borderlines of Geology & Palaeontology (Oxford UP 2025). newnatures.org/greenhouse/e... #histsci
Excellent!!!!!!
So I've written a book! Waterscapes is about how impactful our need for water is on the environment and people. It's also about the ways in which infrastructure projects can impact place for good or bad.
I told my food history class I was aware there were many approaches to AI in classroom but we were going vegan.
I loved the Wanderers
That is awesome
I found out yesterday that Medieval Riverscapes was one of the three finalists for the Turku book prize, a biennial award for best environmental history books on European history!!!!
At least I couldn’t oversleep on day 1 of jet lag?
Yes that one. 🫥 I just gave up and went down for coffee
My hotel in Uppsala is right near the botanical garden that Linnaeus worked in. It’s lovely.
Yay see you soon!
I applaud the ambition
On the program committee!
Also we accept solo paper applications
Come! Maybe check with Tim? Also there's a google doc for people looking for panelists. Link is in the call.
#ASEH2026 Call for proposals is live! We extended the deadline so that those attending #ESEH2025 could meet and plan, but that means the deadline is FINAL. No extensions, so get those proposals in! aseh.org/ASEH-Confere...
The CfP's open — don't wait! Submit by August 25, no debate. There’s no deadline extension, So give it attention — Learn how to submit (don’t be late)! aseh.org
I’m sorry. That’s hard. My dad lost his beloved dog this past month and hope he can get to the point of going Feb walk agin soon.
(coming soon) www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
And today I got to see penguins! Always a treat!
Spending time in a beloved place
I might have just come up with my next smaller bit of the penguin project to work on. (Besides the bigger book)
I am so impressed with my students' projects and how much they managed to learn and reflect in just a month. A sample: "Even a light Italian sponge cake carries centuries of movement, violence and survival."
Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky
Prefacing this with I am tickled, not judgey, about this. It's delightful watching college kids taking how to cook oatmeal or a cucumber and tomato salad VERY earnestly.
I am getting to watch the final audio-visual projects for my food history class and I am just delighted. I cannot wait to see what students can do when they have a whole semester to work on this instead of just a month!
Another thing I wrote this year! A book that sits on the boundary of primary and secondary source in fascinating ways.
This was also the last week of my intensive food history course. We ended with reading that connected war and imperialism to hunger and famines. History has lots to teach us about how systemic hunger has been used as or been a result of war and political oppression.
Pinch me. My research now legitimately involves watching things like this 1956 documentary produced by the NY Zoological Society. youtu.be/fw1nGxXhmno?...
Ohio is misery this week
What. The. Fuck.
Okay, this was incredibly productive! I wrote real, deliberate, and meaningful sections of this.
So happy that pico looks well!
About to start a two-day online writing retreat hosted by Ohio State's writing center. Hopeful that this virtual peer pressure will help me get focused and get work done.
Fuck you Petrarch you know what you did
Short version a) they didn’t live very long. B) different ideas about which animals are seen as individuals. Long version is for book ;)
Just found out that in the 1920s the penguins at the NY Zoo's aquarium were all named the same thing.
The cover of the Bulletin of the NY Zoological society when they announced the successful arrival and acclimatization of King penguins In 1926.
Ugh same plus coughing
I have found so many interesting penguin stories this week. Prepping for a two day writing "retreat". I will focus on "mid-century modern penguins"
One of the things I wrote this year: revisiting an early work on monastic water for the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medieval History. It’s open access thanks to OSU.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medieval History we’ve asked eight distinguished historians each to use an article from the journal’s first five years as a jumping off point to discuss historiographical trends. @tandfresearch.bsky.social
Ellen Arnold revisits the Plan of St Gall in the context of environmental history www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
So lovely!
Penguins…..
I LOVE their penguin habitat! Got a chance to visit two years ago.
In 1945, the NY Zoo gift shop sold 18,000 toy "Walking Penguins"
Stephen Colbert has the opportunity to do the funniest thing
I think one of the things I love most about the penguin project is that I am constantly learning new things about people AND nature. Today while researching the history of NY Zoo and Aquarium, I learned about the possibility of penguin hybrids. One of which, Rockhopper x Macaroni = Rockaroni.
It's a suburban box store, but you may still be right.
Oh, I made my mom hide that book in the freezer. :)
He’s thought so for a while but today saw them minutes apart in different places
UPDATE! There are TWO!
There is a wild rabbit living at my husband's work site. I get pictures the first time each day it is spotted. The relief I feel each time it is alive has made me realize that I am still deeply traumatized by Watership Down.
Today I'm writing a bit about the history of penguins in Bermuda. Yup. Bermuda.
I am loving the summer @aseh.bsky.social connects writing group. Every time I go, I get meaningful work done.
wow, F- is extreme.
I need a seven in one strike sash or similar so students know not to mess with me.
a) I hate it when I cannot trust students b) I am very good at catching cheating students c) I loathe reporting this sh*t
One of the clear disadvantages of this being online: I will not get to taste all the food that I suspect these students (mostly not history majors) will make.....
One of the onlilne class advantages (we know the disadvantages): one student is currently in China, so chose a Chinese cookbook from 1917 b/c they were aware their choice of ingredients if they wanted to cook things would work better with that one.
They have just done a very abbreviated decision process and chosen their cookbooks. LOVING their reasons for their choices.
Teaching a one month food in world history class, fully online. I'm sure you can imagine the AI stress that has. Delighted so far, though, by my class project, which I'll repeat at a slower pace next term-student audio-visual projects (such as a cooking vid or podcast) based on historical cookbooks.
She might have a cigarette
Mike asked the same thing. Her arms are crossed and she is wearing white gloves.
I am one of Mr. Popper's Penguins. :)
There is also a racing yacht called penguin that appears in MANY race reports in the NYT throughout the 30s.
AND my newspaper search just got harder (I'm moving chronologically through major newspapers looking for penguins) because penguin books entered the chat.
Today's vintage penguin advertisement: the penguin success ensemble. (my new band name?)
Health and "wellness" ads of the past are fascinating
Have spent a lot of time looking at random "display ad"s from the NYT today, and every once in a while I find a literal gem:
This was in 1940.
En route, "A mirror was in its pen becuase it seemed to enjoy looking at its reflection, possibly thinking it had the company of another penguin."
Meet Dugan, the first living emperor penguin to arrive in America (and possibly the first to make it across the equator alive). The bird (gender unknown) was shipped via refrigerator from Antarctica to Valparaiso to NYC, and then on the train to DC where it was exhibited at the National Zoo.
I also struggled with my piece for this issue, a weird thing to write but I hope decent in the end. I think the whole issue will be valuable and interesting; a lot of brainpower by a lot of people went into it!
Also this is a fabulous book with a lot of civic religious history: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Have you seen this? Fits the "creative things with tricky archives" for me: www.pennpress.org/978081222357...
Wow
That would feed many monks
It is about penguins too and so I want to say ALL THE THINGS
Academic agony: Trying to cut 500 words from a chapter after adding the things requested by editors!
That sounds awesome
I'll be the keynote here, talking about river monsters! midwestmedievalhc.wordpress.com/about/
This would be a horrible loss!
Oh no! That would be a tremendous loss!
This is a concentration camp
yoooooooooo flash sale of the ebook of THE BRIGHT AGES by me and @lollardfish.bsky.social only $2.99!!!!! #medievalsky #booksky bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
By which I mean Cantor not Brown
from my perspective (historian) you can read one of his for a sense of his style and tone and then look at reviews for others. Maybe Inventing the Middle Ages? Unless church state stuff is a primary interest.
I re read it and frequently
Peter Brown the Cult of the Saints: it’s Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
Mine starts tomorrow and I will have so much to grade that I am already behind
Important news for the #envhist crowd: We are hiring an Associate Professor of Environmental History! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... Application deadline is August 7. Some tips for those interested from abroad in thread 👇