Or why I study the Middle Ages and dress like the 1940s. If you run in vaguely historical or vintage fashion-oriented circles online, you’ve probably run into the Vintage Egyptologist (whose work I can’t condone) or maybe, more recently, the Overdressed Archaeologist (whose work I absolutely encourage you to check out). These two women combine […]
Last year, I spent most of my time alone in Europe watching historical costuming YouTube (read: costube). After returning home for good and successfully finishing some knitting and crochet projects for pretty much the first time ever, I’m taking the plunge to get back into sewing. Read More Like procrastibaking, but you shouldn’t eat the […]
Happy new year. Read More Corduroy was one of my favorite books as a kid, but it wasn’t until I started reading it to children as an adult that I realized it has a political message. Read More Unless you are a very particular kind of musical theater nerd, there’s a good chance you don’t […]
I was able to get more done in the past week than in the past several months combined, thanks to a little thing called childcare. Read More This week started off very productive and then I just lost steam. Read More Did you know it’s hard to do research and also take care of two […]
It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that coffee sales are down as a result of the pandemic. Like makeup and gasoline, coffee is less in demand when people aren’t leaving their houses, and like the restaurant industry as a whole, coffee shops often rely on foot traffic or at the very least gathering indoors, […]
I maybe finished a full draft of my dissertation this week? Read More This week I checked in with my advisor about my progress and I returned to Chapter 5 so I could jump down a rabbit hole of alchemy. Read More Week one of archival research in London has been emotionally difficult but rewarding. […]
In the Passover seder, there is possibly no more controversial section than the Four Children. As the seder sets up a series of conversations and pedagogical devices around the Exodus story, the Four Children is the most explicit set of instructions for parents to teach their children how to internalize the preferred message. The four […]
I got irrationally angry today when I read this New Yorker article. It should be obvious by now that I have very strong opinions about history in general and certain topics in particular, one being the Black Death. And so when large publications make claims about the Black Death that I find … problematic … […]
My mom has a bit of a problem with experts. If you asked her, my mom would tell you that the problem with experts is that they don’t have to justify their opinions on the basis that they have implicitly earned that trust, and, in the reverse, other people who are not experts have not. […]
Happy new year. Read More I was able to get more done in the past week than in the past several months combined, thanks to a little thing called childcare. Read More Right now, my colleagues at Columbia are preparing for a strike in an attempt to pressure the university administration into bargaining with our […]
I started this week off with a visit to a class on plague. Most of my work time was spent compiling manuscripts into an appendix that no one will ever read. And I’m taking out my mounting anxiety by sewing a coat. Read More I arrived in Sicily this week, and after struggling through some […]
Not so much writing this week for a variety of reasons, so now is a good time to remind you that you can find me on Instagram (and Facebook). I post shorter thoughts, links to interesting history and science news, and food photos. I just recorded a few short videos on color in medieval art, […]
My mom has a bit of a problem with experts. If you asked her, my mom would tell you that the problem with experts is that they don’t have to justify their opinions on the basis that they have implicitly earned that trust, and, in the reverse, other people who are not experts have not. […]
Like most people who’ve seen it, I’m feeling that the new Netflix series on the history of the video game industry is… lackluster. The problem is that it’s a history of the industry. The major points in the story are technological paradigm shifts, legal battles, and corporate marketing strategies. These highlights are filled in with […]
