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Simon Thomson

@scfthomson

Easily excited medievalist working @hhu.bsky.social. I love manuscripts, stories and storytelling, teaching, @lfcr.bsky.social, antiracism, LGBTQ+ support, Nigeria, living in Germany, the Real Housewives, my wife, and gin (not always in that order)

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Latest posts by Simon Thomson @scfthomson

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Research Assistant / Post-Doc Researcher, Music - Maynooth, Ireland job with MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY | 408256 The Music Department at Maynooth University invites applications for a 12-month position as either a Research Assistant (Level 2) ...

The ERC-BROKENSONG project at Maynooth University, Ireland, is hiring (two positions - this is the second)! I'm also looking a new research assistant/postdoc to conduct image analysis of the medieval Insular music corpus recovered within the project. See: www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list...

09.03.2026 16:17 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Oh fuck yes. All hail the BL team who are working so hard to get this all back up and secure.

09.03.2026 20:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If you're scared of protesting or a general strike because you could lose your job, healthcare, and housing, or even go to jail, now you understand why the US has no universal healthcare or housing and no guaranteed parental leave, but DOES have the largest prison and police system on planet Earth.

09.03.2026 17:04 πŸ‘ 2087 πŸ” 889 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 19

Oh my god the only thing missing is jingling keys and him laughing and clapping like an infant

07.03.2026 18:26 πŸ‘ 1860 πŸ” 301 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 18
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I very often disagree with @lewisgoodall.com but he’s a great political writer, and often so precisely accurate that it stings. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

07.03.2026 21:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

SΓ‘nchez: β€œYou may have heard that Spain is alone. They’re the same people who said that when we recognized the State of Palestine, and then others followed.

β€œWe are not alone β€” we are the first. Those who will end up alone are the ones defending the indefensible.”

07.03.2026 11:55 πŸ‘ 2716 πŸ” 745 πŸ’¬ 27 πŸ“Œ 60

I knew I had seen a similar thing somewhere before

Labour is a far right party

05.03.2026 08:37 πŸ‘ 661 πŸ” 362 πŸ’¬ 27 πŸ“Œ 19
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One Year On: 13 people on the ruling that changed their lives On 16 April 2025, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on their biological sex assigned at birth. Forget the rage-bait headlines and attempts to divide us through...

my first piece (cowritten with Catriona Innes) in a print magazine comes out today: we interviewed 13 people, mostly trans women, about how the Supreme Court ruling has affected them for Cosmo UK

www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a...

05.03.2026 10:47 πŸ‘ 297 πŸ” 115 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 16

Ach nuts. Keep buggering on though. Pushing the boundaries of the field inevitably means knockbacks, but you'll drag us all forward with you in the end.

03.03.2026 18:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Katherina Reiche steht vor dem Scherbenhaufen ihrer Energiepolitik. Der Gaspreis an der europΓ€ischen BΓΆrse hat sich jetzt verdoppelt (+100%) gegenΓΌber dem Stand vor Beginn des Iran-Kriegs.
Die offene Frage ist, wie hoch wird er noch gehen, wenn die Straße von Hormuz weiterhin geschlossen bleibt?

03.03.2026 12:09 πŸ‘ 1918 πŸ” 701 πŸ’¬ 59 πŸ“Œ 41

In the last decade, the Atlantic has not platformed a single trans person to speak about issues affecting them or the broader trans community. Not a single one. Yet, they have monthly screeds by Helen Lewis and endless money to pay random transphobic grifters to pump stuff like this out.

03.03.2026 18:12 πŸ‘ 2151 πŸ” 486 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 14
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I’m honoured and delighted to have been invited to chair the upcoming online launch of @lukaempf.bsky.social’s book on Thurs 19 March 4.30-5.30pm CET.

Info is in the attached flyerβ€”please share widely, and join us!

03.03.2026 14:52 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Many alleged suicides of Black trans women are in fact modern-day lynchings, report finds Jill Collen Jefferson, the founder of JULIAN, explains what happens when a transgender woman’s death is ruled a suicide and a community calls it something else.

This is terrifying

www.advocate.com/news/crime/b...

03.03.2026 09:28 πŸ‘ 1227 πŸ” 525 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 37

Eine Chronologie des Scheitern:

Mi: Union schafft Heizungsgesetz ab
Fr: Reiche will FΓΆrderaus fΓΌr PV-Anlagen
Sa: USA und Iran greifen Iran an.
So: Iran sperrt Straße von Hormus
Mo: Deutsche Gasspeicher fast leer
Di: Gaspreis steigt um 50% - Reiche aktiviert Krisenplan

Ein RΓΌcktritt wΓ€re fΓ€llig!

03.03.2026 11:54 πŸ‘ 1859 πŸ” 546 πŸ’¬ 78 πŸ“Œ 19

There’s lots significant here - not just the Greens in second place. Reform falling back, the combined right bloc vote being just 39%. British politics in a state of flux. Is it time for Labour MPs to act?

03.03.2026 07:38 πŸ‘ 209 πŸ” 47 πŸ’¬ 17 πŸ“Œ 7
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As a professional military strategist, I just wanted to make sure everyone has a full understanding of the American strategy in Iran, thank you for your attention to this matter

28.02.2026 08:27 πŸ‘ 6167 πŸ” 1821 πŸ’¬ 157 πŸ“Œ 96

Regime change.

Cos that's worked out really well before, eh?

FFS.

28.02.2026 10:12 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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The hidden ICE blueprint that should horrify every American | Will Bunch An internal Department of Homeland Security document shows how ICE plans to cram thousands of detained human beings inside a Georgia warehouse.

What's more shocking than ICE's plan to cram as many 8,500 humans into massive, soul-crushing warehouses?

Seeing the actual DHS floor plan that echoes slavery ships and history's worst gulags with no rec space but a gun range for guards

My new column on the camps www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

22.02.2026 18:10 πŸ‘ 8095 πŸ” 4397 πŸ’¬ 339 πŸ“Œ 376

Haha, okay. It’s the third of my previous options. Have a nice afternoon.

19.02.2026 10:54 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Are we talking about Charlemagne here or Britain? Or don’t you really know?

19.02.2026 09:04 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

*the Saxons in Britain, I should have said.

19.02.2026 08:32 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The Saxons converted about 150 years before Charlemagne was coronated in Rome. Let’s not be silly about this.

19.02.2026 08:31 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

05.02.2026 11:50 πŸ‘ 32287 πŸ” 13860 πŸ’¬ 589 πŸ“Œ 1595
Current Vacancies - Birkbeck, University of London Birkbeck

Wonderful news from Birkbeck's School of Historical Studies. We're hiring not one but TWO open-ended, full-time roles: Medieval Studies, and History of Art! cis7.bbk.ac.uk/home.html#fi...

29.01.2026 15:20 πŸ‘ 86 πŸ” 57 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 6
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We’re just not a free country.

Any American watching this play out between regime forces and journalists overseas would recognize it for what it is.

29.01.2026 05:49 πŸ‘ 5692 πŸ” 2390 πŸ’¬ 131 πŸ“Œ 201
NOW - Musk: "My prediction is there'll be more robots than people... everyone on Earth is going to have one and going to want one... who wouldn't want a robot to... watch over your kids, take care of your pets... we are in the most interesting time in history."

4:08 PM Jan 22, 2026
223.8K Views

NOW - Musk: "My prediction is there'll be more robots than people... everyone on Earth is going to have one and going to want one... who wouldn't want a robot to... watch over your kids, take care of your pets... we are in the most interesting time in history." 4:08 PM Jan 22, 2026 223.8K Views

Isn't this a telling aspiration? To want robots to look after your kids, so you can do stuff, rather than robots to do stuff, so you can spend time with your kids?

The darkness inside these shrivelled men must be like a gaping unfillable void.

22.01.2026 17:39 πŸ‘ 1680 πŸ” 509 πŸ’¬ 135 πŸ“Œ 59
Photo featuring the inside of a church with a view to an arched window with central oval design

Photo featuring the inside of a church with a view to an arched window with central oval design

East Window, 2008 by Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary, St Martin-in-the-Field, London #womensart

18.01.2026 05:43 πŸ‘ 619 πŸ” 87 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3

Are we honestly doing the World Cup over there? For real?

17.01.2026 18:30 πŸ‘ 725 πŸ” 86 πŸ’¬ 61 πŸ“Œ 19

Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking?

Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.

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17.01.2026 10:34 πŸ‘ 1048 πŸ” 478 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 108
Detail depicting an elephant from the British Library Collection: Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, fol. 81r.

Detail depicting an elephant from the British Library Collection: Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, fol. 81r.

Issue 42.2 of Parergon was released just before Christmas. A special issue focused on medieval English attitudes to the outside world, Alison Hudson's article 'Elephants in English Literature, Art, and Material Culture before the Reign of Henry III' is currently open access!

doi.org/10.1353/pgn....

17.01.2026 05:59 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0