There Are Monsters Under All of Your Beds

The answer: men are awful, and they like to make women pose with dick surrogates And before you think, “Well at least Barbara is fully dressed,” remind yourself that that is only because, if she wasn’t, she’d be medieval slut-shamed. So it’s really a lose lose. For more uplifting insight into medieval patriarchy, read this.

Writing a junky paper, and had to cut this out. But I quite liked it, so ta-da!

While many modern films depicting the Middle Ages—or some fantasy variant thereof—borrow or reproduce medieval tropes, they do so in a way that insists on the alterity of the Middle Ages and its actors. This can be rather clearly laid out in comparing a medieval text and modern films that borrow some of its tropes.

In…

I haven’t been an active blogger, lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been active. Say hello to a new Twitter account, @medievalinsults! Swing by for a semi-daily dose of some (slightly cleaned up) medieval insults.

Work in Progress: Defamation in Medieval Valencia

At the moment I am doing research for a paper about cases of injurious speech–insults and verbal altercations–in thirteenth and fourteenth century Valencia using (a transcription of) court documents. I am very far from being done, but this is the first time I’ve used these kinds of sources and I am very excited to write about them! So, after translating some witness testimony about a case that I…

John Kerry is doing it. Chris Matthews is doing it. Huffington Post is doing it. Everyone’s doing it!

Over the past couple weeks, I have been thinking about (and bothered by) the dehumanizing language of barbarism/savagery surrounding ISIS. I have been hesitant to post about it, and am still not sure I can formulate my thoughts into a coherent post. So, in lieu of that, here are some stray…

Aside: The Consequences of Being a Medievalist

Last night I had a series of unusual dreams.

First, I had a dream that I walked in on one of my friends–who has always been very religions–levitating and speaking to demons. When I began telling people what I had seen, my demonic friend flew to where I was to shut me up with a series of threats.

Then, I dreamt that my boyfriend–a gentle and honest person in the non-dream world–killed someone as a…

The Adventures of the Reluctant Hermit and Death Angel! Medieval Morality and Modern Sensibilities

Even though I study the Middle Ages, and love them in a “No, I would never want to live back then” kind of way, I am often surprised by how much certain aspects of medieval culture resonate with modern sexy sensibilities.

You see, yesterday my friend and I translated a passage from the Gesta Romanorum, a 13th century collection of Latin stories. I had translated some stories from the Gesta…

Since last year, when I first started this blog, a lot of my posts have had to do with work I was doing for my Master’s thesis. You know, maps, Gog and Magog, and the like. Well, since June, I have finished my thesis and have completed my Master’s Degree, and I am now preparing to embark on a new journey as a PhD student. As a part of this new journey, I am turning my focus to some new topics and…