Amanda McVitty
@dramandamcvitty.bsky.social
Researcher, writer, historian FRHistS | Gender, law and politics in medieval Europe and modern Aotearoa | Fuelled by strong tea and feminist rage. I report to 2 ginger cats.
Day 5 (the final day) of my virtual #writingretreat and I'm feeling positive about my week. I hit my goal of a full draft of Ch 3 yesterday, so today will be research / ideas for the next chapter. Goal is 6-8 🍅 Join me if you need a writing buddy! ✒️😀 #amwriting #writingcommunity #Ghostbook #history
June 26, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Day 5 (the final day) of my virtual #writingretreat and I'm feeling positive about my week. I hit my goal of a full draft of Ch 3 yesterday, so today will be research / ideas for the next chapter. Goal is 6-8 🍅 Join me if you need a writing buddy! ✒️😀 #amwriting #writingcommunity #Ghostbook #history
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
but the nectarines think you’re kind of an asshole
June 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
but the nectarines think you’re kind of an asshole
Sitting down for Day 4 of my virtual #writingretreat. Today's goal is 4-6 pomodoros editing Ch 3. It's close to done but needs a better balance of narrative and historical analysis in a few places. Feel free to join me if you need a writing buddy! ✒️😅 #amwriting #writingcommunity #Ghostbook #history
June 25, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Sitting down for Day 4 of my virtual #writingretreat. Today's goal is 4-6 pomodoros editing Ch 3. It's close to done but needs a better balance of narrative and historical analysis in a few places. Feel free to join me if you need a writing buddy! ✒️😅 #amwriting #writingcommunity #Ghostbook #history
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
I was asked not to write anything like an op-ed for sensible reasons, so I can potentially editorialize here instead.
Firstly, what Seymour is doing is a practiced playbook of an online harassment campaign: that's not accidental. The 'just a joke' defence is also textbook. 1/ #nzpol #kikorangi
Firstly, what Seymour is doing is a practiced playbook of an online harassment campaign: that's not accidental. The 'just a joke' defence is also textbook. 1/ #nzpol #kikorangi
This is the response (that I put together alongside the editorial staff of The Conversation) to David Seymour's defence of the "Victim of the Day" harassment campaign against experts in Aotearoa.
#nzpol #kikorangi
#nzpol #kikorangi
Playful or harmful? David Seymour’s posts raise questions about what’s OK to say online
The Deputy PM's "Victim of the Day" posts have now led to at least two official complaints to Cabinet.
www.rnz.co.nz
June 24, 2025 at 11:31 PM
I was asked not to write anything like an op-ed for sensible reasons, so I can potentially editorialize here instead.
Firstly, what Seymour is doing is a practiced playbook of an online harassment campaign: that's not accidental. The 'just a joke' defence is also textbook. 1/ #nzpol #kikorangi
Firstly, what Seymour is doing is a practiced playbook of an online harassment campaign: that's not accidental. The 'just a joke' defence is also textbook. 1/ #nzpol #kikorangi
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
For crying out loud Stuff, this is NOT "tit for tat" ... this is one person (the deputy PM no less) using his platform & power to target academics & others who speak up from evidence against his proposals, and another speaking up to defend folks & ask him to stop.
www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...
www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...
The tit for tat row between the deputy PM and an academic
It’s a standoff with no signs of retreat - one championing academic freedom, the other pressing for what he views as long-overdue regulatory reform.
www.stuff.co.nz
June 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
For crying out loud Stuff, this is NOT "tit for tat" ... this is one person (the deputy PM no less) using his platform & power to target academics & others who speak up from evidence against his proposals, and another speaking up to defend folks & ask him to stop.
www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...
www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...
Did you know part of the forest on the eastern side of Taranaki Maunga is called a goblin forest? I did not and was delighted to discover this today.
June 25, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Did you know part of the forest on the eastern side of Taranaki Maunga is called a goblin forest? I did not and was delighted to discover this today.
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
That moment when you're racing all over the Māniatoto looking for compositions & subjects & the late afternoon sun breaks through the cloud & everything starts glowing.
Kyeburn, Central Otago, NZ
#Nikon #Photography
Kyeburn, Central Otago, NZ
#Nikon #Photography
June 23, 2025 at 10:31 PM
That moment when you're racing all over the Māniatoto looking for compositions & subjects & the late afternoon sun breaks through the cloud & everything starts glowing.
Kyeburn, Central Otago, NZ
#Nikon #Photography
Kyeburn, Central Otago, NZ
#Nikon #Photography
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Has anyone written on the auctioning of goods (especially of the dead) in London in the first half of the seventeenth century? Interested in the work of criers, how estates are sold off etc.
June 23, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Has anyone written on the auctioning of goods (especially of the dead) in London in the first half of the seventeenth century? Interested in the work of criers, how estates are sold off etc.
Today is Day 2 of my home-based writing retreat. Yesterday I got 591 good words on Ch 3. Today's goal is a shitty first draft of the final case in that chapter, using newspaper accounts and a few other historical sources. Happy writing all! #amwriting #WritingCommunity #writingretreat #Ghostbook
June 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Today is Day 2 of my home-based writing retreat. Yesterday I got 591 good words on Ch 3. Today's goal is a shitty first draft of the final case in that chapter, using newspaper accounts and a few other historical sources. Happy writing all! #amwriting #WritingCommunity #writingretreat #Ghostbook
So I haven't been active on this platform for a while, but I'm back and looking forward to catching up with all my medievalist and historian friends 👋
June 22, 2025 at 10:40 PM
So I haven't been active on this platform for a while, but I'm back and looking forward to catching up with all my medievalist and historian friends 👋
I'm working on a new book project, and this week I'm doing a virtual writing retreat to make progress on Chapter 3. Today's goal is 4-6 pomodoros towards a 'shitty first draft' of Section 4. Who wants to join? #amwriting #writingretreat #ghostbook
June 22, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I'm working on a new book project, and this week I'm doing a virtual writing retreat to make progress on Chapter 3. Today's goal is 4-6 pomodoros towards a 'shitty first draft' of Section 4. Who wants to join? #amwriting #writingretreat #ghostbook
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Sanctions, performative traffic lights & threats of putting ppl to work "in the community" are designed to distract us from who is actually taking our money: the very rich
$14.6b in untaxable wealth
$101.3m Fletchers', Farmers & Whitcoulls' wage subsidies
Wage theft described as "systemic"
$14.6b in untaxable wealth
$101.3m Fletchers', Farmers & Whitcoulls' wage subsidies
Wage theft described as "systemic"
Wage theft: 'It’s widespread. It’s ugly. It’s a bloodsport in our country'.
MP's mission to criminalise wage theft traces back his own experiences of exploitation.
i.stuff.co.nz
September 27, 2023 at 5:30 AM
Sanctions, performative traffic lights & threats of putting ppl to work "in the community" are designed to distract us from who is actually taking our money: the very rich
$14.6b in untaxable wealth
$101.3m Fletchers', Farmers & Whitcoulls' wage subsidies
Wage theft described as "systemic"
$14.6b in untaxable wealth
$101.3m Fletchers', Farmers & Whitcoulls' wage subsidies
Wage theft described as "systemic"
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
wrote about benefit sanctions for The Spinoff but probably only posting about it here because I'm afraid I'll end up in a lengthy debate with Leigh Hart or a Nazi if I post it on Twitter thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-...
September 27, 2023 at 2:48 AM
wrote about benefit sanctions for The Spinoff but probably only posting about it here because I'm afraid I'll end up in a lengthy debate with Leigh Hart or a Nazi if I post it on Twitter thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-...
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
everyone saying "you have to convince students of the value of the humanities/higher ed/etc." has not seen what i've been seeing.
the students are not the ones who need convincing.
the students are not the ones who need convincing.
September 16, 2023 at 3:40 AM
everyone saying "you have to convince students of the value of the humanities/higher ed/etc." has not seen what i've been seeing.
the students are not the ones who need convincing.
the students are not the ones who need convincing.
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Yesterday was the feast day of the abbess St. Hildegard of Bingen, a polymath, mystic, & eel truth-teller.
Medieval thinkers agreed that eels reproduce asexually. But Hildegard suggested that eels mate at sea, where we can't watch.
No one listened to her. But she was right! 1/2 🗃️🧪
Medieval thinkers agreed that eels reproduce asexually. But Hildegard suggested that eels mate at sea, where we can't watch.
No one listened to her. But she was right! 1/2 🗃️🧪
September 18, 2023 at 5:39 PM
Yesterday was the feast day of the abbess St. Hildegard of Bingen, a polymath, mystic, & eel truth-teller.
Medieval thinkers agreed that eels reproduce asexually. But Hildegard suggested that eels mate at sea, where we can't watch.
No one listened to her. But she was right! 1/2 🗃️🧪
Medieval thinkers agreed that eels reproduce asexually. But Hildegard suggested that eels mate at sea, where we can't watch.
No one listened to her. But she was right! 1/2 🗃️🧪
This is quite possibly one of the bleakest and most disturbing things I’ve ever read. Humans, what the actual fuck are we doing to ourselves?!
September 27, 2023 at 2:56 AM
This is quite possibly one of the bleakest and most disturbing things I’ve ever read. Humans, what the actual fuck are we doing to ourselves?!
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Beneficiary bashing is structural DARVO enacted by politicians. Deny (the structural conditions of poverty), attack (individualise), reverse victim and offender (they’re stealing from hard working people and they’re lazy - versus equitable structures & redistribution of wealth). Don’t fall for it.
September 27, 2023 at 1:47 AM
Beneficiary bashing is structural DARVO enacted by politicians. Deny (the structural conditions of poverty), attack (individualise), reverse victim and offender (they’re stealing from hard working people and they’re lazy - versus equitable structures & redistribution of wealth). Don’t fall for it.
Proud moment for me today, fixing a nasty tech problem all by myself with only a modicum of yelling and swearing.😇
September 27, 2023 at 2:27 AM
Proud moment for me today, fixing a nasty tech problem all by myself with only a modicum of yelling and swearing.😇
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Remembering Evelyn Fox Keller.
I've learned so much about how to really think about methodologies for getting at sex differences as a consequence of her work. In part due to her influence on the work of Rebecca Jordan-Young and as well as her work in the Extended evolutionary synthesis.
I've learned so much about how to really think about methodologies for getting at sex differences as a consequence of her work. In part due to her influence on the work of Rebecca Jordan-Young and as well as her work in the Extended evolutionary synthesis.
Trailblazing feminist #histsci #philsci #sts scholar Evelyn Fox Keller (1936-2023) passed away yesterday. Her early books were a tremendous influence on me & so many other women going into field.
There was a conference to celebrate her yesterday too💔
ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/full-pr...
#womenInSTEM 🧪
There was a conference to celebrate her yesterday too💔
ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/full-pr...
#womenInSTEM 🧪
September 25, 2023 at 9:43 PM
Remembering Evelyn Fox Keller.
I've learned so much about how to really think about methodologies for getting at sex differences as a consequence of her work. In part due to her influence on the work of Rebecca Jordan-Young and as well as her work in the Extended evolutionary synthesis.
I've learned so much about how to really think about methodologies for getting at sex differences as a consequence of her work. In part due to her influence on the work of Rebecca Jordan-Young and as well as her work in the Extended evolutionary synthesis.
Heads up Pōneke folks, the cookers are coming. Info here ⬇️ on expected protest sites, road closures and other disruptions. Stay safe out there!
The Post sent me this link - it works! www.stuff.co.nz/national/133...
September 26, 2023 at 4:06 AM
Heads up Pōneke folks, the cookers are coming. Info here ⬇️ on expected protest sites, road closures and other disruptions. Stay safe out there!
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
📚 📜 #libraries
CalRBS has two codes to this site available. Do you know of a book, library, academic, or professional organization that needs one? Would like to facilitate more organizational/society activity here!
September 25, 2023 at 6:37 PM
📚 📜 #libraries
Shout-out to medieval, #earlymodern and medievalism folks: the CFP date for ANZAMEMS 2024 has been extended so there’s still time to get your abstract in! Conference in Feb at the University of Canterbury, Ōtautahi/ Christchurch medievalsky
Revised CFP, extended deadline for our 2024 conference. Want to join us in NZ? We're welcoming paper and panel proposals on all aspects of medieval and early modern studies, including medievalism. Get your submissions in by 15 October anzamems.org?p=12384
September 26, 2023 at 3:24 AM
Shout-out to medieval, #earlymodern and medievalism folks: the CFP date for ANZAMEMS 2024 has been extended so there’s still time to get your abstract in! Conference in Feb at the University of Canterbury, Ōtautahi/ Christchurch medievalsky
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
I'm no expert but this sure looks like the moment the Counter-Reformation jumped the shark 😁 #EarlyModern
("The Miraculous Lactation of St. Bernard" by Alonso Cano, c. 1650).
("The Miraculous Lactation of St. Bernard" by Alonso Cano, c. 1650).
September 25, 2023 at 4:38 PM
I'm no expert but this sure looks like the moment the Counter-Reformation jumped the shark 😁 #EarlyModern
("The Miraculous Lactation of St. Bernard" by Alonso Cano, c. 1650).
("The Miraculous Lactation of St. Bernard" by Alonso Cano, c. 1650).
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
I really hope no one actually needs to hear this but don’t scab for the machine that wants not just to leave you starving in the street but also wants to destroy art, period, because they will make more profit this way
Most AI creative writing is… bad, so firms are on a spree hiring poets, novelists, and other humanities experts to try to fix it
Why Silicon Valley’s biggest AI developers are hiring poets
Training data companies are grabbing writers of fiction, drama, poetry, and also general humanities experts to improve AI creative writing.
restofworld.org
September 25, 2023 at 3:01 PM
I really hope no one actually needs to hear this but don’t scab for the machine that wants not just to leave you starving in the street but also wants to destroy art, period, because they will make more profit this way
Reposted by Amanda McVitty
Don't forget our launch next week of End Times by Rebecca Priestley, it will be apocalyptic:
September 25, 2023 at 10:23 PM
Don't forget our launch next week of End Times by Rebecca Priestley, it will be apocalyptic: