They have a certain vibe to them
10.03.2026 15:44
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🚨Call for Papers!
3–4 September, Universität Augsburg: 2-day workshop on "theorising uncharismatic species in environmental history". Who are they? Where are their voices in the historical record? What insights do they offer to the field of environmental history? Be there! Abstracts due 15/05/2026!
My rats, Enkidu and Gilgamesh, pondering underneath a blanket
Sometimes I wonder if they wonder what I'm thinking about too
Just a few days left to apply for the Yuck workshop organised in collaboration with @northernenvhistory.bsky.social! Come talk about all that wriggles, invades, infects, disgusts and/or steals in York!
An excel spreadsheet that shows that 100% of my papers have been marked
LAST PAPER OF THE SEMESTER MARKED WOOOO
My footnotes are all variations on "I remember this" 🦖
I am 11,111 days old today
York is talking pests, vermin, weeds and germs next april! If you know anyone interested in historical approaches to these maligned beings, please send them this CFP (or apply yourself!)
Front cover of "Amsterdam Diaries, Life Writing and Identity: Urban Lives"
First page of my chapter, titled "fetching dogs from depositions"
A little while ago my very first publication came out - a chapter in a book on life in Amsterdam through the ages. It's based on a bit of my master's research on dogs in the Dutch capital. It explores methods of uncovering animal history and shows a glimpse of dogs' lives. Open access is pending!
A small wood carving of a murid sits on an otherwise empty desk
The move to a new desk begins...
Gilgamesh the rat and me the human making eye contact
After two weeks of travel I'm finally reunited with my rats :D
A print depicting a man reading in a train with a ghostly devil next to him. The text reads "Danger forever remains your invisible travelling partner. Insure yourself against travel accidents with Fatum" (my translation)
A print depicting a city in disarray: a bus drives into a pit, a car hits a lamp post, a piano is about to fall onto a pram, a man is falling out of a window, and many more disasters. Above it all hangs a bloody sword marked "accidents". The print is captioned "this sword hangs over all your heads! Insure yourself in a timely fashion with the M-Z" (my translations)
Dutch insurance advertisements used to hit different (translations in the alt texts)
A screenshot of google maps showing a train ride of 11+ hrs passing by the Dutch town Breukelen, which gives its name to Brooklyn, NY
No sleep till Breukelen
URL and ALT text to follow.
excited to share the call for the workshop
EXTRACTIVE NATURES / NATURES OF EXTRACTION
happening at @uobrisceh.bsky.social on 6-7 Nov 2025,
made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social
deadline: 10 September!
full call below ⤵
#envhist #envhum
Indeed! Wonderful conference and a great panel much enriched by your contribution!
Title page for a rat presentation, titled "Rats! Changing perceptions of (Early) Modern Britain and NL". The image depicts a medieval miniscule of rats rowing a boat
All geared up for a weedy, verminy and ratty discussion at session 12-06 this afternoon at #ESEH2025 🌱🐀🐾
Rapt multispecies audience this morning at the histories of soils and pesticides session at #ESEH2025
Great roundtable session on early modern art as sources for climate change! Tons of thoughts on its applicability to other "invisible" environmental processes, like invasive species 🤔 #eseh2025
An amazing pair of keynotes to kick off #ESEH2025 excited for the rest of the conference!
Last month was the @archaeorattus.bsky.social project's annual meeting and we realised that we're halfway through the project!
Read all about it on our blog! sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/r...
The ‘Loyalty in the Medieval World’ network welcomes proposals which explore the intersections between the concept of ‘loyalty’ and the IMC 2026 theme of ‘temporalities’. Was there a shift in how the concept of loyalty was used and perceived by people across the Middle Ages? To what extent, if at all, were bonds of loyalty an archaic predecessor to the coercive potential of a centralising medieval ‘state’? How did the language (e.g. treue, fides, leal), theories, and practices of loyalty change or stay the same in the medieval period? What can the study of loyalty do for the historian of medieval political society? Submissions could reflect on: • Emotional frameworks of loyalty • Political frameworks of loyalty • Ethical and legal frameworks of loyalty • The theory and practice of loyal behaviour • Loyalty and identity • Loyalty and power • Horizontal loyalties and solidarities • The material culture of loyalty • Contested and/or multiple loyalties • Disloyalty , such as women, children, exiles, and migrants. Please send a paper title, affiliation, and abstract of up to 150 words to Eleanor Bailey ejbailey98@outlook.com, Katy Bennett katy.bennett@york.ac.uk, AND Jenny McHugh j.mchugh@lancaster.ac.uk. Deadline 15th September.
Call for Papers @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2026 ‼️ The 'Loyalty in the Medieval World' network welcomes papers which explore the intersections between the concept of ‘loyalty’ and the conference theme of ‘temporalities’, c.500-1500! Get in touch by 15 September
Rat-nap
Enkidu (a rat) napping in a hammock, his brother's butt is in the background
Back home with my boys 🐀🐀❤️
Conference programme booklet on a notebook
From Zeeland to Scotland, Middelburg to St Andrews, conference to conference to learn all about histories of animal-borne diseases
I got to speak about rat history with some amazing people at the RIAS-DEHN conference in Middelburg this week! (Thanks to @chrmeijer.bsky.social for the photo!)
It's #worldratday! To celebrate, I wrote a pretty fun post for the @archaeorattus.bsky.social project blog about #rats nibbling on #archive material. Check it out! sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/r...
A screenshot of a news broadcast featuring a photo a group of protesters, with me prominently in the centre holding a sign that says "Rich Tice? I'd rather have head lice"
My beautiful sign and I have become the face of #antifa in English rightwing media this weekend after a peaceful protest against #ReformUK in #York! I couldn't be more proud :)
An adorable young rat peeks out of a hoodie
Today marks one year since I moved to the UK to start my ratty PhD journey! Since you can't do a PhD alone, I finally decided to get a friend! Meet Gilgamesh! (Don't worry, he has a brother - bonus points if you can guess his name) #rats
Could I be added to the list too? I work with early modern rats and dogs!
While you may have seen me around on Instagram (@animal_historian), I was never on Twitter so this is all a bit new to me. I’ll probably mostly be (re)posting about rats and other animals in history. So if you’re into that, stay tuned :D 🐀