Kathryn Leia

A photograph of metal railings covered in multicoloured ribbons, with text overlay that reads: Advance notice: Film screening plus Q&A Thursday 16th April 19:00-20:30 Arts Building, University of St Andrews online attendance option available. more info soon!

Do I want people to watch my film? Yes

Do I enjoy talking about my research?
Yes

Does being perceived and showing people my work give me the absolute fear?
YES

Thanks Vae! Looking forward to meeting you again and indulging in further history geekery 🖤

I'm delighted to share that my postgraduate degree classification has been announced - Master of Letters in Gender Studies with Merit

I’m looking for recommendations of tattooers who are good with woodcut print style - any suggestions?

A screenshot of a meme

A selfie of a white woman with wavy brown hair wearing an academic gown, smiling.

Me, a working class woman, talking in my state school educated regional accent in the hallowed halls of prestigious universities about widening access to HE, because academic elitism can get tae.

Screenshot of an article on the guardian about trinity college Cambridge targeting elite private schools for recruitment

Working class, state educated people like me aren’t inferior quality scholars. We’re priced out of pursuing academia, and we’re alienated by a classist culture of elitism.

Lyrics as a poem This is an audio recording with no images. I’m reading the lyrics to Frank Turner’s ‘Graveyard of the Outcast Dead’ without music, so it sounds more like a poem, in my own accent.

Lyrics as a poem

This is an audio recording with no images. I’m reading the lyrics to Frank Turner’s ‘Graveyard of the Outcast Dead’ without music, so it sounds more like a poem, in my own accent.

15,000 – a zine I really like zines as a way to communicate research. This is another element of my multimedia portfolio submission. As a dyscalculic, I find it difficult to visualise what 15,000 people would look like, so I used some familiar spaces to provide context. The full zine layout on A4 If you would like a printed copy of the zine, drop me an email.

15,000 – a zine

I really like zines as a way to communicate research. This is another element of my multimedia portfolio submission. As a dyscalculic, I find it difficult to visualise what 15,000 people would look like, so I used some familiar spaces to provide context. The full zine layout on A4…

Tactile aesthetic experience I submitted my MLitt multimedia project on 12th December (woo!). Alongside the short film, I handed in a selection of small handmade art pieces that are intended to be handled by viewers. The aim of this is to enhance the experience by providing a tactile dimension. Painting with bleach This is a 20 minutes of painting sped up to 1 minute.

Tactile aesthetic experience

I submitted my MLitt multimedia project on 12th December (woo!). Alongside the short film, I handed in a selection of small handmade art pieces that are intended to be handled by viewers. The aim of this is to enhance the experience by providing a tactile dimension.…

Being an “overly sensitive” neurodivergent who’s interested in history right now feels like being in a crowded building that’s on fire, trying to extinguish flames, yelling that we need to do something, with most people carrying on like nothing’s wrong. Or adding fuel.

Hey, so if you’re not familiar with Alice Wong’s work, I urge you to honour her memory by looking up the Disability Visibility Project, and reading the books she wrote and edited.

The view out the plane window approaching Faro. Sea and coastline.

Also, I’m on holiday this week in Faro. Aside from Capela dos Ossos - the bone chapel - what shouldn’t I miss?

I’m an avowed After Dark listener, but other podcasts are available. I listened to two episodes of @goingmedieval.bsky.social’s Gone Medieval on my flight today and they were SO GOOD. Ballads of Love and Death with Amy Jeffs, and The Real Lady Macbeth with @valmcdermid.bsky.social.

Historic evidence of bisexuals, who’ve been doing awkward thumbs up since at least c500 BCE

The outside of Younger Hall, a building in St Andrews, where graduations are held. There are trees in the foreground and it’s set against a blue sky.

Data visualisation by a dyscalculic cemeteries researcher:
If all the people estimated to be buried at Crossbones were to attend a University of St Andrews graduation ceremony, they'd fill Younger Hall 15 times over.

Your visible, vocal support of marginalised people’s rights, and willingness to speak out against violent predators are reminders to me that none of us are fighting alone. It’s hellish hard to care and feel, and know that silence isn’t an option. Solidarity, Robin.

A gravestone commemorating Joan Wytte near Bodmin Jail.

I had a brilliantly insightful conversation Bodmin Jail manager Jess Marlton earlier today about performative memorialisation, constructed narratives, and representation of women's historic experiences. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my research area?

Two carved pale stone skulls, looking away from each other, framed by golden painted wings and a garland of green painted leaves

This #MementoMoriMonday is from the tomb of Mr Richard Blisse in Southwark Cathedral.

A defibrillator machine, positioned just over a box marked “Express checkout.”

Unfortunate juxtaposition…

2,400 year-old skeleton mosaic reads:

“Be cheerful, enjoy your life”

Discovered in Turkey

Watch out for Ea Nasir this Halloween!

A memento mori skull and crossed bones carved into a wooden beam

This week’s #MementoMoriMonday is a day late because I was up in Aberdeen then down in Edinburgh, which was a lot of driving! This one’s from my thesis site, Crossbones, carved into the entranceway.

Right?

Matthew McFadyen as Mr Darcy

A Daily Mail journo describing Zack Polanski in weird detail

This Daily Mail journo appears to be writing fanfic about Zack Polanski #hatecrush

I can talk about my neurodivergence very openly. I’m happy to talk about having endometriosis and chronic pain. Ehlers Danlos Syndrome isn’t that well known, and I speak about my experiences no bother. But cPTSD is so much harder for me to explain to people. It’s painfully vulnerable.

I was raised by a single mother who worked as a nurse in the 80s and 90s. One of my earliest memories is being on an RCN / Unison anti-Thatcher march on (fittingly) Union Street in Aberdeen. I’ve always joined my workplace union, and I’ve been a rep. Unions are support and solidarity. Join yours.

Got through my first day at work since sabbatical followed by illness. Over four months away = inbox of horror, but it was good reconnecting with colleague-pals and using my day job skillset again.

A lichen covered carved skull with crossed bones and an hourglass to the right of it on a gravestone in Perthshire

#MementoMoriMonday comes from the pleasingly alliterative Moulin, a village just a mile outside Pitlochry. The church dates from the 1800’s when it was rebuilt after a fire, but there was a church on the site for a long time before that. The churchyard holds a 12th century crusader knight’s tomb!

probably most people know this but: if you have an age related or disabled Railcard you can ask London underground staff to put it on your oyster and you get 1/3 off off-peak fares on tube/DLR/overground. with a disabled railcard it works for peak fares too