Cynthia Cyrus
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scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Cynthia Cyrus
@scholarfarmer.bsky.social
250 followers 220 following 200 posts
Medievalist monastic historian / musicologist working on nuns’ roles in 15thc soundscapes in Bregenz Austria. Manuscript fragments make me giddy. I also collect sunrises. Blog at SilencesAndSounds@blogspot.com
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scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today (Nov 11) is the feast of St Martin of Tours; to celebrate, I talk a bit about Martinmas customs and about the celebration of the Feast at Thalbach in Bregenz in 1595 in today's blog post

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #research #Martinmas #medieval #chant
image of the saint in green with a brown cloak and red leggings; he has the sword with which he will divide his cloak to share with the beggar, who is kneeling and has lost a foot. St Martin looks on. Blog title: Singing to St Martin of Tours.
November 11, 2025 at 6:31 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post is on chant performance, and addresses the way in which our popular listening tastes -- exemplified by Taylor Swift -- have come to influence our chant performance practice and consumption

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com
Title: The Taylor Swifting of Chant Performance; an image of the Sequentia cover of Hildegard von Bingen's Canticles of Ecstasy with the manuscript illumination of an upright person against a swirled orange and then (outer rings) blue background a bit like a migraine nimbus; and on the right, Taylor Swift in a dance move in front of an architecturally rich and ornate marble backdrop
October 24, 2025 at 2:21 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post asks: what do space alien dreams have to do with checking historical data? More than you might think!

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #Research #AcademicChatter #data #narrative #history #AcademicPractice
A frog foot and a couple of manuscript snail images, one black and white, one colored. Blog title: Of Space Aliens and Their Tentacles (Data and story-telling)
October 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
I wrote a blog post about office hours, the most silent time of the day. Enjoy!

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#AcademicChatter #Faculty #FacultyLife #OfficeHours #Academia #AcademicHumor
a picture of a sealed box and a clock set to 1:30. "The silent office hour: I'm in my box on the clock. Does it help?"
October 16, 2025 at 1:15 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
I wrote a (short) thing! Blog post on the surprising absence of smell from the multisensory details covered in memorial endowments in early modern Bregenz

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#smell #multisensory #liturgy #memorial #blog #research #history #15thc #16thc
A nose and a bell; blog post title: Smells and bells? Just bells!
October 13, 2025 at 1:33 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
A blog post on that journey "From Draft to Done" in a scholarly context...

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#draft #outline #ScholarlyPractices #blog #AmWriting #Research #AcademicChatter
A messy opening in a handwritten notebook with lists and numbers on the left and other lists and notes and more numbers on the right. Blog title: "From Draft to Done."
October 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
I wrote a thing! This is my first extended assessment of Vorarlberg prayerbooks, focused on prayers "before" the image of Mary

www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16...

#prayer #15thc #16thc #nuntastic #Catholic #BVM
www.mdpi.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Cynthia Cyrus
profgabriele.com
everything is terrible, but at least it's all really fucking stupid too
October 6, 2025 at 2:35 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
today's blog post addresses my bad mental habit of thinking of the woods as silent. Plus, some #hiking pictures. And a couple #fungi

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#woods #forest #silence #sound #blog
mossy tree roots gripping a boulder by the stream's edge; blog title: The silence of the woods is full of noise
October 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Cynthia Cyrus
dbellingradt.bsky.social
Seasonal greetings for both the #bookhistory and #digitalhistory folks: a keyboard waffle iron. 🗃️
A waffle iron that forms keyboard waffles.
December 8, 2023 at 2:35 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
If you like paper structure models, I've got another blog post for you -- part two of yesterday's post

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#pedagogy #AmWriting #TeachingWriting #Blog #PaperWriting #structure
Musicological Paper Structures 102; gives a template for the "problem-driven" outline, and then adds other types -- causative, historical, analytical stories; paradigm shifts; I invented a thing. These are explained in the accompanying blog post.
October 2, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Cynthia Cyrus
burritojustice.bsky.social
quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric
October 1, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Cynthia Cyrus
levostregc.bsky.social
booke
booke
reade a booke
then anothir booke
aftir that anothir booke
bookes are freakinge awesome
October 1, 2025 at 9:47 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post shares a writing how-to that I use with my undergraduates. (Not my only model, but a place to start!)

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#pedagogy #AmWriting #TeachingWriting #Blog #PaperWriting #structure
A visual model of how to organize a paper with arrows showing sections moving around. The blog post title: Musicological Paper Structures 101. Details of the model are explained in the linked post.
October 1, 2025 at 10:23 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
The three Augustinian Sisters make the case that the church needs to give back by letting them inhabit their cloister as they'd been promised. I blogged about them today

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#nuns #nuntastic #dignity #autonomy #ChurchPolitics #nunsontherun #goldenstein #blog #AmWriting
Three elderly nuns in black and white Augustinian habits sitting in front of a salmon-colored wall with sacred artwork. Blog post title: Listening in on the Nuns' Rebellion at Kloster Goldenstein
September 27, 2025 at 2:46 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
A new blog post on the summer's Asia trip -- this one on morning experiences in Kathmandu, with its integration of the sacred into daily life

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#Kathmandu #travel #Soundscape
Image of a courtyard with gilt-eaved temple, several humans, and a dog. Post title: Asian Sojourn 3: Living in Sacred Space – Kathmandu
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Earlids are back! A post on attentional earlids, engaging with the work of Ananya Mandal and her teams on noise and its impact on attention and focus

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#earlids #blog #AmWriting #AcademicChatter #soundscape #filtering #focus
An image of noise-canceling headphones with Blog post title: Attention filtering: the voluntary earlid. To the side, 3 key phrases: attentional earlid, sound-glasses, and noise-canceling headphones.
September 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's post is short, sweet, and to the point, and addresses the "when" of writing...

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#Blog #AmWriting #AcWri #WritingPractice
Image of an analogue clock showing 10:07; blog post title: The Perfect Time to Write
September 17, 2025 at 1:21 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
I've been writing blog posts about some of the interesting prayers from the 16thc Thalbach prayerbook. Today's contribution: a prayer on Mary's sorrows as redemptive

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #AmWriting #AcWri #16thc #prayer #FranciscanTertiaries #nuntastic
A woodcut of a haloed Mary of Swords, with seven swords piercing her breast; on the right, the word "schwert" (sword) and "Scharfen todes" (bitter death). Blog title: An indulgence prayer for Mary of Swords
September 16, 2025 at 10:38 AM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post went in the history direction -- a brief overview of Nazi impact on Catholic Vorarlberg

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #History #20thC #Vorarlberg #Catholic #Bregenz #nuns #AmWriting
Black and White image of a Nazi parade -- soldiers on foot, led by a man on horse -- through Feldkirch city streets in Vorarlberg, with blog post title: When the Gestapo Came for the Sisters
September 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Cynthia Cyrus
davidjroth.bsky.social
We took the paywall down on this one. defector.com/how-the-fuck...
How Are You Supposed To Get The COVID Vaccine Now? An Explainer | Defector
As the muggy malaise of summer winds down, you might find yourself interested in taking advantage of one of several safe and proven vaccines to help protect you from the inevitable brumal surge of res...
defector.com
September 4, 2025 at 5:27 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post is on editing the old fashioned way -- with scissors and tape and notecards and physical sorting

#blog #AmWriting #AcWri #WritingStrategies #AcademicChatter
Slice! Dice! Sort! Cogitate! Organize! Tape into place! These instructions for how to edit are shown as a cloud of floating words adjacent to slips of paper with scholarly writing on them, clearly cut out from an earlier draft. Blog post title: Writing with scissors and tape
September 1, 2025 at 9:53 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post is on a tourist day in Kathmandu, featuring a parade

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #travel #Nepal #Kathmandu #parade #soundscape
soldiers marching by old buildings, curving around the corner of a square; the drummers are in the back. Blog post title: Asian sojourn 2: Kathmandu: Parade rest!
August 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
Today's blog post is on using research questions, and what makes a good one.

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#blog #Academia #AcademicChatter #Writing #ResearchQuestions #editing
Blog title (in blue/purple): Using Research Questions: Defeat data-hoarding and discard the chaff. Photo images: one of the 1911 image of the dragon Fafner with his hoard, and another of wheat and chaff.
August 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
scholarfarmer.bsky.social
As I sort my photos, I will be blogging about my seven-week Asian sojourn this summer. Today is my first post, and talks about an interesting night in Delhi...

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

#Asia, #AsianSojourn, #Blog, #Delhi, #HotelStories, #Tourism, #Travel
Blog title: Asian Sojourn 1: The Hotel That Wasn't There (Delhi). Image is a photo of an after-dark street scene with shops, a number of people, a couple of motor bikes/scooters, and an opensided truck. The scene is colorful and well-lit with all the advertising lights.
August 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM