Celebrating the Year of the Horse 馬年 with the most auspicious ancient Chinese postal horse names: Wholly Fortunate 完幸, Laden with Jade 載玉, and Son of Dragons 龍子, who all worked at the Xuanquan 懸泉 Postal Station in the Han dynasty! 🐎🐎🐎

#yearofthehorse #chinesenewyear #馬年

Rounding out 2025 with an essay for T'oung Pao discussing recent publications on Chinese animals, including books on talking parrots, sacred oxen, marital camels, and bathing elephants! It's definitely been an exciting year in an exciting field of research 🐉🐘🐫🐃🦜

brill.com/view/journal...

Excited to say that my article on horse names in China's ancient postal system has been published with Early China! 🐎✉️🌿 Meet Skittish Fish, Calm at the Carriage, and, my personal fave, Cinnamon Stick, at the link below:
#animalhistory

Recently did a guest article with @sahavoice.bsky.social about presenting your research in the media as an ECR 📻📺📖

Media engagement can be a great training ground to learn how to present your research to people way outside your field - a much-needed skill for job interviews and grant apps!

Was amazing to be part of BBC R4's In Our Time talking about all things Dragon 🐲 If you want to know more about the Chinese zodiac, rain dragons, and The Dragon Boat Festival, you can listen online! 🐉
#inourtime #herebedragons #BBCRadio4

We were totally blown away by the interest in our first workshop, so thank you again to all applicants and participants! #casn2025 #casnmunster 🐯

My book review of "Insect Histories of East Asia" has just been published in the latest issue of Animal History 🪰🪲🐞 It's a fantastic issue with articles on saints, street dogs, and serpents, all of which you can read here:
online.ucpress.edu/ah/issue/1/2

Hi Bluesky 👋 I'm a historian of pre-1200 China and the wider Silk Roads, mostly looking at all things animal! 🐾 Currently working on papers related to postal horses, lapdogs, and pet parrots 🐎🐩🦜