John Gallagher
@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social
Irishman in Yorkshire. Historian of language, education, migration at the University of Leeds. Co-editor of the Historical Journal; from 2026, editor of Renaissance Studies. Occasional BBC radio presenter. Currently learning Amharic. Dad!
Pinned
New editor and associate editor, Renaissance Studies – Society for Renaissance Studies
www.rensoc.org.uk
Some news: in 2026 I'll take over as Editor of Renaissance Studies. It's a journal that means a great deal to me and which occupies a uniquely important position in the interdisciplinary study of the early modern world. With our new Associate Editor, Dr Elizabeth Petcu, I can't wait to get started!
Reposted by John Gallagher
So proud of my @leidenhumanities.bsky.social colleague Lotte Fikkers, whose Open Access Book, Early Modern Women’s Life Writing & English law is out w/ @edinburghup.bsky.social ! A stunning achievement from our @erc.europa.eu project #FEATHERS. Don’t miss it
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Women in early modern courtrooms: 'A cross-section of society'
In early modern England, courts of law were working overtime. University lecturer Lotte Fikkers delved into the records of centuries-old court cases involving women. In Early Modern Women's Life-Writi...
www.universiteitleiden.nl
November 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
So proud of my @leidenhumanities.bsky.social colleague Lotte Fikkers, whose Open Access Book, Early Modern Women’s Life Writing & English law is out w/ @edinburghup.bsky.social ! A stunning achievement from our @erc.europa.eu project #FEATHERS. Don’t miss it
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Reposted by John Gallagher
Any journalists interesting in covering/following can DM here or contact me at pdkmitchell at gmail dot com. The most recent BBC and ITV coverage is here (CW: violence, femicide, suicide):
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.itv.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Any journalists interesting in covering/following can DM here or contact me at pdkmitchell at gmail dot com. The most recent BBC and ITV coverage is here (CW: violence, femicide, suicide):
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.itv.com/news/tyne-te...
Reposted by John Gallagher
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
Reposted by John Gallagher
This Underwood typewriter, likely the first with Irish characters, was used by the Gaelic League around 1905.
Now on display in the newly opened Changing Ireland Galleries in Collins Barracks, it’s a powerful symbol of everyday tools shaping Irish identity.
www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...
Now on display in the newly opened Changing Ireland Galleries in Collins Barracks, it’s a powerful symbol of everyday tools shaping Irish identity.
www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...
I kept finding cló gaelach everywhere this weekend - a typewriter @nmireland.bsky.social , font on school signage, and blocks of type at the National Print Museum #gaeilge #clógaelach
November 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
This Underwood typewriter, likely the first with Irish characters, was used by the Gaelic League around 1905.
Now on display in the newly opened Changing Ireland Galleries in Collins Barracks, it’s a powerful symbol of everyday tools shaping Irish identity.
www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...
Now on display in the newly opened Changing Ireland Galleries in Collins Barracks, it’s a powerful symbol of everyday tools shaping Irish identity.
www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...
Reposted by John Gallagher
I kept finding cló gaelach everywhere this weekend - a typewriter @nmireland.bsky.social , font on school signage, and blocks of type at the National Print Museum #gaeilge #clógaelach
November 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I kept finding cló gaelach everywhere this weekend - a typewriter @nmireland.bsky.social , font on school signage, and blocks of type at the National Print Museum #gaeilge #clógaelach
I would put my hat in the ring for director general of the BBC except that I am disqualified by the unacceptable attribute of really liking the BBC.
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
November 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I would put my hat in the ring for director general of the BBC except that I am disqualified by the unacceptable attribute of really liking the BBC.
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
November 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
Strongly feel that adults learning a new language should be treated like babies doing the same thing. Look, I'm going through a developmental leap this week, so I'm just going to be more cranky, hungrier, cry a lot at night etc.
November 7, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Strongly feel that adults learning a new language should be treated like babies doing the same thing. Look, I'm going through a developmental leap this week, so I'm just going to be more cranky, hungrier, cry a lot at night etc.
Reposted by John Gallagher
New favourite example of structural ambiguity
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 AM
New favourite example of structural ambiguity
Have to say fair play to Perlego for successfully selling to publishers and libraries everywhere a repository of academic ebooks which collapses entirely every time you try to check a footnote
November 5, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Have to say fair play to Perlego for successfully selling to publishers and libraries everywhere a repository of academic ebooks which collapses entirely every time you try to check a footnote
Reposted by John Gallagher
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
Reposted by John Gallagher
The judges asked Thiess why he had become a werewolf – what benefits did it bring? Thiess recalled that he took on his new identity calmly, but ‘hadn’t thought it would involve so much evil’.
@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on a Livonian werewolf, from 2022.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on a Livonian werewolf, from 2022.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
John Gallagher · Where wolf? Everyone knows I’m a werewolf
That he was a werewolf seems to have been common knowledge and Thiess himself freely admitted it – in fact, he said,...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 31, 2025 at 7:55 PM
The judges asked Thiess why he had become a werewolf – what benefits did it bring? Thiess recalled that he took on his new identity calmly, but ‘hadn’t thought it would involve so much evil’.
@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on a Livonian werewolf, from 2022.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on a Livonian werewolf, from 2022.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by John Gallagher
Comórtas Rapcheol ag #OnaS25 😎
Moltóirí: DJ Próvaí agus Móglaí Bap ó Kneecap 🙏
Comhghairdeas le Piaras Mac Dugláis ó Ghaelscoil Bharra, Baile Átha Claith 7, a fuair an chéad áit 🏆
📸 Clive Wasson @oirnagaeilge.bsky.social
Moltóirí: DJ Próvaí agus Móglaí Bap ó Kneecap 🙏
Comhghairdeas le Piaras Mac Dugláis ó Ghaelscoil Bharra, Baile Átha Claith 7, a fuair an chéad áit 🏆
📸 Clive Wasson @oirnagaeilge.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Comórtas Rapcheol ag #OnaS25 😎
Moltóirí: DJ Próvaí agus Móglaí Bap ó Kneecap 🙏
Comhghairdeas le Piaras Mac Dugláis ó Ghaelscoil Bharra, Baile Átha Claith 7, a fuair an chéad áit 🏆
📸 Clive Wasson @oirnagaeilge.bsky.social
Moltóirí: DJ Próvaí agus Móglaí Bap ó Kneecap 🙏
Comhghairdeas le Piaras Mac Dugláis ó Ghaelscoil Bharra, Baile Átha Claith 7, a fuair an chéad áit 🏆
📸 Clive Wasson @oirnagaeilge.bsky.social
I sometimes wonder if Randle Cotgrave was able to write dictionary definitions that weren't pure poetry. 'Canadelle: f. The smallest of rock-fishes, beautified with spots of sundry colours, and very good meat.'
October 31, 2025 at 11:30 AM
I sometimes wonder if Randle Cotgrave was able to write dictionary definitions that weren't pure poetry. 'Canadelle: f. The smallest of rock-fishes, beautified with spots of sundry colours, and very good meat.'
An-bhródúil ar fad as mo nia Pearse a bhuaigh comórtas rapcheol ag Oireachtas na Samhna i mBéal Feirste inné -- le Móglaí Bap agus DJ Próvaí ina moltóirí!
www.thejournal.ie/ba-moltoiri-...
www.thejournal.ie/ba-moltoiri-...
Moglaí Bap agus DJ Próvaí ó Kneecap ina moltóirí ar chomórtas rap cheol an Oireachtais
Is sean fhocal traidisiúnta Gaeilge é Mol an Óige ach thug baill Kneecap brí nua do ag an Oireachtas inné.
www.thejournal.ie
October 31, 2025 at 10:45 AM
An-bhródúil ar fad as mo nia Pearse a bhuaigh comórtas rapcheol ag Oireachtas na Samhna i mBéal Feirste inné -- le Móglaí Bap agus DJ Próvaí ina moltóirí!
www.thejournal.ie/ba-moltoiri-...
www.thejournal.ie/ba-moltoiri-...
Reposted by John Gallagher
#earlymodern news! Not brand new news, but barely yesterday for an early modernist. Congratulations, @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social!
#renaissance 🗃
#renaissance 🗃
Some news: in 2026 I'll take over as Editor of Renaissance Studies. It's a journal that means a great deal to me and which occupies a uniquely important position in the interdisciplinary study of the early modern world. With our new Associate Editor, Dr Elizabeth Petcu, I can't wait to get started!
New editor and associate editor, Renaissance Studies – Society for Renaissance Studies
www.rensoc.org.uk
October 30, 2025 at 12:51 PM
#earlymodern news! Not brand new news, but barely yesterday for an early modernist. Congratulations, @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social!
#renaissance 🗃
#renaissance 🗃
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
I'm always so grateful when an archive has digitised a manuscript I'm interested in but why must they always only be viewable image by image on a website viewer that's a tiny window within a window where every page takes an eternity to load. Let me have a PDF, please, I beg!
October 28, 2025 at 7:20 PM
I'm always so grateful when an archive has digitised a manuscript I'm interested in but why must they always only be viewable image by image on a website viewer that's a tiny window within a window where every page takes an eternity to load. Let me have a PDF, please, I beg!
Reposted by John Gallagher
Great that the Viabundus map is gaining more visibility! It's a great tool for anyone interested in medieval and early modern travel, roads, and maps. Greetings from the Finnish team!
A neat tool I just came across: Viabundus, a digital road map of northern Europe 1350-1650, that lets you calculate contemporary travel routes/times. In 1500, going Amiens → Köln by horse took almost 7 days and 13 toll payments.
#medievalsky
www.landesgeschichte.uni-goettingen.de/handelsstras...
#medievalsky
www.landesgeschichte.uni-goettingen.de/handelsstras...
October 27, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Great that the Viabundus map is gaining more visibility! It's a great tool for anyone interested in medieval and early modern travel, roads, and maps. Greetings from the Finnish team!
Reposted by John Gallagher
🗣️Speakers:
🗽Melanie Chambliss, Assistant Professor of History (Rochester)
💂♂️Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture (Leeds)
🗽Autumn Haag, Assistant Director, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation (Rochester)
💂♂️Kate Dossett, Professor of American History (Leeds)
🗽Melanie Chambliss, Assistant Professor of History (Rochester)
💂♂️Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture (Leeds)
🗽Autumn Haag, Assistant Director, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation (Rochester)
💂♂️Kate Dossett, Professor of American History (Leeds)
📚 “Archives across the Atlantic: Unearthing Black History”
🗓️ Thu 23 Oct, 4-5pm (BST)
Explore anti-slavery, resistance & archival activism from @universityofleeds.bsky.social and University of Rochester.
Online - register: leeds.libcal.com/event/4443892
#BlackHistory #Archives #Leeds #Rochester
🗓️ Thu 23 Oct, 4-5pm (BST)
Explore anti-slavery, resistance & archival activism from @universityofleeds.bsky.social and University of Rochester.
Online - register: leeds.libcal.com/event/4443892
#BlackHistory #Archives #Leeds #Rochester
Archives across the Atlantic: Unearthing Black History. A conversation with the University of Rochester.
Leeds has a rich, though still under-discussed, history of anti-slavery activism. For instance, the Leeds Anti-Slavery Association was established in 1853 at The Leeds Library on...
leeds.libcal.com
October 17, 2025 at 7:58 AM
🗣️Speakers:
🗽Melanie Chambliss, Assistant Professor of History (Rochester)
💂♂️Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture (Leeds)
🗽Autumn Haag, Assistant Director, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation (Rochester)
💂♂️Kate Dossett, Professor of American History (Leeds)
🗽Melanie Chambliss, Assistant Professor of History (Rochester)
💂♂️Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture (Leeds)
🗽Autumn Haag, Assistant Director, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation (Rochester)
💂♂️Kate Dossett, Professor of American History (Leeds)
Reposted by John Gallagher
ONLY migrants though, no one else is to study English because it's a rip off and a waste of time, am I getting this right.
October 14, 2025 at 2:16 PM
ONLY migrants though, no one else is to study English because it's a rip off and a waste of time, am I getting this right.
After a couple of days beating my head against the Amharic gerundive, allow me to formally retract all my pro-language learning content from over the years and say whatever, I don't care, let ChatGPT do it, get the Mark Zuckerberg pervert translation glasses, I'm out
October 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
After a couple of days beating my head against the Amharic gerundive, allow me to formally retract all my pro-language learning content from over the years and say whatever, I don't care, let ChatGPT do it, get the Mark Zuckerberg pervert translation glasses, I'm out
Reposted by John Gallagher
Pleased to see that an article I wrote w/ Rachel Rich, @adamcrymble.bsky.social and @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social is out! We look at George III's use of food for masculine self-fashioning. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Self-Fashioning, Food, and Masculinity in George III’s Monarchy | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core
Self-Fashioning, Food, and Masculinity in George III’s Monarchy
www.cambridge.org
October 13, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Pleased to see that an article I wrote w/ Rachel Rich, @adamcrymble.bsky.social and @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social is out! We look at George III's use of food for masculine self-fashioning. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by John Gallagher
We are advertising for an Assistant Director to join us in Marsh's Library. Full details about this exciting post here: marshlibrary.ie/vacancy-for-...
October 13, 2025 at 11:18 AM
We are advertising for an Assistant Director to join us in Marsh's Library. Full details about this exciting post here: marshlibrary.ie/vacancy-for-...
Reposted by John Gallagher
This week we're back at the IHR on Weds 15 October, where we welcome Maroula Perisanidi (Leeds), speaking on "Beyond Punishment: Speech Difference, Sin and Disability in Byzantine Thought, c. 1000-1200". All welcome, please sign up here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Beyond Punishment: Speech Difference, Sin and Disability in Byzantine Thought, c. 1000-1200
Earlier Middle Ages Seminar- Session 2
www.history.ac.uk
October 13, 2025 at 8:52 AM
This week we're back at the IHR on Weds 15 October, where we welcome Maroula Perisanidi (Leeds), speaking on "Beyond Punishment: Speech Difference, Sin and Disability in Byzantine Thought, c. 1000-1200". All welcome, please sign up here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...