Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

What a great book! Wonderful chat with Saundra Weddle @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social chat about The #Brothel and Beyond: An #UrbanHistory of the #SexTrade in #EarlyModern #Venice @psupress.bsky.social #Skystorians #HistSex #Venetianist
newbooksnetwork.com/the-brothel-...

January 29, 2026 at 7:34 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

#Witches? Oh yes! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social talk with Alison Rowlands about the new edition of her classic @manchesterup.bsky.social #Witchcraft Narratives in #Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652.
#skystorians #EarlyModern #BookSky

newbooksnetwork.com/witchcraft-n...

January 22, 2026 at 7:13 PM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Cam Banks 🇳🇿 ❌👑

@rustysellsword.com

Somehow “I want Greenland because you don’t give me the Nobel Peace Prize for being the best at Peace” makes total sense for such an incredibly childish and petty despot.

January 19, 2026 at 4:11 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Another from the vault: @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social chat with Sara Petrosillo about Hawking #Women: #Falconry, #Gender, and Control in #Medieval Literary Culture @ohiostatepress.bsky.social #skystorians #medievalist

newbooksnetwork.com/hawking-women

January 19, 2026 at 12:57 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Hot @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview with @elwinhofman.bsky.social about @leuvenup.bsky.social The Business of Pleasure: A History of Paid Sex in the Heart of #Europe. Magaly Rodriguez Garcia and Pieter VanHees, eds. #skystorians #HistSex #Belgium

newbooksnetwork.com/the-business...

January 17, 2026 at 12:23 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Sam Fullerton joined me on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social to talk about the paperback release of @manchesterup.bsky.social Sexual Politics in Revolutionary #England. Learn a lot you did not know about #Stuart discourse. #skystorians #EarlyModern #HistSex

newbooksnetwork.com/sexual-polit...

January 16, 2026 at 1:35 PM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Henk Looijesteijn

@henklooijesteijn.bsky.social

January 16, 2026 at 7:06 AM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

@rmidura.bsky.social joins me on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social to talk about her @cornellupress.bsky.social release #Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and #Communications Revolution in #EarlyModern Europe #skystorians #BookSky 📚💙

newbooksnetwork.com/postal-intel...

January 11, 2026 at 10:04 PM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Henk Looijesteijn

@henklooijesteijn.bsky.social

Interessante column van Europakenner Hendrik Vos: de EU is veel sterker dan het zelf denkt, en Trumps brute optreden is geen teken van kracht maar van zwakte.

January 8, 2026 at 6:27 AM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Sherrilyn Ifill

@sifill.bsky.social

Make it viral.

January 8, 2026 at 3:22 AM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Connections
Puzzle #942
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨

I know this account isn't about this, but I just need to tell someone when I get the reverse rainbow.

January 8, 2026 at 7:30 AM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Ted Karamanski joins me on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social to talk about his @uofmpress.bsky.social Great Lake: An Unnatural History of #LakeMichigan. She's the best lake and I love her with my whole heart. #skystorians #Michigan #EnvHist
newbooksnetwork.com/great-lake

January 6, 2026 at 5:34 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Academic superwoman Ulinka Rublack joined me for an @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview about #Durer 's Coats: #Renaissance #Men and #MaterialCulture of Social Recognition @routledgebooks.bsky.social
#skystorians #ArtHistory #EarlyModern #Medievalists

newbooksnetwork.com/d%C3%BCrers-...

December 15, 2025 at 9:08 AM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

This was one was so fun! Check out my @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview with Bradley Borougerdi about @reaktionbooks.bsky.social #Cannabis: A #GlobalHistory #skystorians #anthropology #FoodHistory #

newbooksnetwork.com/cannabis

December 8, 2025 at 1:50 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Joseph Harley joins me on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social to talk about his and Vicky Holmes' fantastic @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social volume Objects of #Poverty: #MaterialCulture in #Britain from 1700.
#skystorians #BookSky 📚💙 #anthropology

newbooksnetwork.com/objects-of-p...

December 3, 2025 at 9:14 AM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Dr. Amuly (she/he)

@amuly.bsky.social

Reading Liboiron's "Pollution is Colonialism" for my engineering ethics class and what an excellent first footnote.

[highlight] Hello, Reader! Thank you for being here. [end highlight] These footnotes are a place of nuance and politics, where the protocols of gratitude and recognition play out (sometimes also called citation), [highlight] where warnings and care work are carried out (including calling certain readers aside for a chat or a joke), [end highlight] and where I contextualize, expand, and emplace work. The footnotes support the text above, representing the shoulders on which I stand and the relations I want to build. They are part of doing good relations within a text, through a text. Since a
main goal of Pollution Is Colonialism is to show how methodology is a way of being in the world and that ways of being are tied up in obligation, these footnotes are one way to enact that argument. Thank you to Duke University Press for these footnotes.
[highlight] For this first footnote of the introduction, we have a simple citation: Stouffer, “Plastics Packaging,” 1–3. Don’t worry. They’ll get better. [end highlight]
2 Packard, Waste Makers; Strasser, Waste and Want; M. Liboiron, “Modern Waste as Strategy.”

December 1, 2025 at 1:33 PM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Another one from the vault! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social talk with Taylor McCall about The Art of #Anatomy in #Medieval Europe @reaktionbooks.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com/the-art-of-a.... #skystorians #Medievalist #HistoryofScience #BookSky 📚💙

December 2, 2025 at 11:18 AM

Jana Byars

@janalena.bsky.social

Enjoy my new @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview with Patricia Anne Simpson of @unlincoln.bsky.social about her @routledgebooks.bsky.social #EarlyModern Women's Work: #kinship, #community, and #SocialJustice. #skystorians #GenderHistory.

newbooksnetwork.com/early-modern...

Patricia Anne Simpson, "Early Modern Women's Work: Kinship, Community, and Social Justice" (Routledge, 2025) - New Books Network

newbooksnetwork.com

December 1, 2025 at 2:37 PM

Reposted by Jana Byars

Dr. Rachel Schine

@rachelschine.bsky.social

My annual traveling turkeys post! What do you do when a New World bird visits the Mughal court? Paint it in miniature, of course! This essay by Neha Vermani follows the Muslim reception of our feathered friends.
www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...