Dr Stuart McKie
@bigfridge224.bsky.social
Researching Roman magic and trying not to accidentally summon demons. Forever DM, Dad and Catholic.
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Rails thrum with trains that never arrive. Limbs made phantom by branch line butchery become ghost grooves for steam-powered spirits to move across the land. No aspect of what was once modernity is immune to temporal shading, is immune to being haunted. – #CJosiffe #Ghosts
November 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
The current REF system really encourages temporary staff to burn down their own careers - either you complete research because you need it for your CV, but an institution can claim any resulting outputs before making you redundant so you've nothing to take elsewhere, or...
November 7, 2025 at 10:03 AM
The current REF system really encourages temporary staff to burn down their own careers - either you complete research because you need it for your CV, but an institution can claim any resulting outputs before making you redundant so you've nothing to take elsewhere, or...
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Every time discover a new piece on the dangers of LLMs, particularly for research and teaching, I add it to a Zotero library. I figure that I might as well share it, so here's my library of Cautionary AI Tales: www.zotero.org/groups/62758...
October 28, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Every time discover a new piece on the dangers of LLMs, particularly for research and teaching, I add it to a Zotero library. I figure that I might as well share it, so here's my library of Cautionary AI Tales: www.zotero.org/groups/62758...
I wrote about Roman curse tablets in Ancient History Magazine - available now! www.karwansaraypublishers.com/en-gb/produc...
Ancient History Magazine 57
In ancient Rome, as throughout the ancient world, people's lives were structured around religious rituals and festivals, they prayed to the gods for guidance, and it was believed the gods even interce...
www.karwansaraypublishers.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
I wrote about Roman curse tablets in Ancient History Magazine - available now! www.karwansaraypublishers.com/en-gb/produc...
I've restarted Hades. For some reason endlessly and fruitlessly trying to climb out of hell felt like a good activity for Right Now.
September 14, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I've restarted Hades. For some reason endlessly and fruitlessly trying to climb out of hell felt like a good activity for Right Now.
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Here's your annual reminder: whether you received A-level results today, years ago, or never, there's space for you at the @openuniversity.bsky.social!
August 14, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Here's your annual reminder: whether you received A-level results today, years ago, or never, there's space for you at the @openuniversity.bsky.social!
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
We're 300 followers away from 70,000. 300 more would be really nice. But you know what would be even better? 300 plus 30,000.
Bluesky: help a museum out
Bluesky: help a museum out
August 13, 2025 at 3:03 PM
We're 300 followers away from 70,000. 300 more would be really nice. But you know what would be even better? 300 plus 30,000.
Bluesky: help a museum out
Bluesky: help a museum out
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
A useful reminder to permanent academic staff. Many of you may have temporary staff joining your departments soon. It's nice to at least pretend to think they are people - why not learn their names and their field of interest, to develop this basic level of polite collegiality?
August 13, 2025 at 10:30 AM
A useful reminder to permanent academic staff. Many of you may have temporary staff joining your departments soon. It's nice to at least pretend to think they are people - why not learn their names and their field of interest, to develop this basic level of polite collegiality?
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
One like, one Thucydides opinion.
One like, one history opinion
one like, one writing opinion.
July 26, 2025 at 6:20 AM
One like, one Thucydides opinion.
I'm knackered after a full day of travelling yesterday, so let's do this.
One like, one curse tablet.
One like, one curse tablet.
August 6, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I'm knackered after a full day of travelling yesterday, so let's do this.
One like, one curse tablet.
One like, one curse tablet.
This is Mark Fisher's Hauntology - we are haunted by a future that never materialised.
"We’re all dreaming of a better time from the past, since there is no future. We’ve stopped dreaming about building – now we dream of recreating."
"We’re all dreaming of a better time from the past, since there is no future. We’ve stopped dreaming about building – now we dream of recreating."
“You can find these rings of a tree in everything: generations on top of generations of us each trying to make our own existence matter and either cover or recover the ones before us.
So, do we seek comfort in the baby blanket of our past myths – or do we try to create our own new ones?”
So, do we seek comfort in the baby blanket of our past myths – or do we try to create our own new ones?”
Nostalgia is eating us alive. Instead of building a new world, we’re regurgitating a past that never existed | Martin Ingle
We want to go back to a time when we could drive our big cars and tease our hair – without thinking about the ozone or whatever
www.theguardian.com
August 3, 2025 at 10:07 AM
This is Mark Fisher's Hauntology - we are haunted by a future that never materialised.
"We’re all dreaming of a better time from the past, since there is no future. We’ve stopped dreaming about building – now we dream of recreating."
"We’re all dreaming of a better time from the past, since there is no future. We’ve stopped dreaming about building – now we dream of recreating."
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
4. Every other discipline thinks they can do history but they often cannot
July 28, 2025 at 12:06 AM
4. Every other discipline thinks they can do history but they often cannot
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions theonion.com/histori...
July 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions theonion.com/histori...
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Immortal fame.
July 22, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Immortal fame.
Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies aged 76.
An immortal legacy. Rock on Ozzy \m/
An immortal legacy. Rock on Ozzy \m/
Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies aged 76, his family announces
A statement from his family says Osbourne was with his family and
www.bbc.co.uk
July 22, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies aged 76.
An immortal legacy. Rock on Ozzy \m/
An immortal legacy. Rock on Ozzy \m/
Today I am collecting demons, much like all those evangelical Christians thought we were doing playing Pokémon in the 90s.
July 22, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Today I am collecting demons, much like all those evangelical Christians thought we were doing playing Pokémon in the 90s.
Maybe just because I want to see magic everywhere in the Roman world, but I love the idea that these were apotropaic. Can guard dogs protect against evil spirits?
A very good boy guarding his family home for 2,000 years! 🐾
Roman mosaic in the entrance passage of the House of Paquius Proculus, Pompeii.
📷 by me
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
Roman mosaic in the entrance passage of the House of Paquius Proculus, Pompeii.
📷 by me
#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
July 22, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Maybe just because I want to see magic everywhere in the Roman world, but I love the idea that these were apotropaic. Can guard dogs protect against evil spirits?
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
As a student of the classics I *already* have a degree which involves asking questions of oracles who are high on drugs or fumes and interpreting answers which have precious little basis in understanding the topic.
July 19, 2025 at 1:53 PM
As a student of the classics I *already* have a degree which involves asking questions of oracles who are high on drugs or fumes and interpreting answers which have precious little basis in understanding the topic.
OMG this is exactly the book I need at this precise moment - DEMONS
Appel à recension | Nous tenons un exemplaire du volume "L’iconographie des tablettes de malédiction. Envoûter et dessiner dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine" à la disposition d'un auteur ou d'une autrice pour une recension dans notre revue www.barpublishing.com/liconographi...
July 19, 2025 at 1:23 PM
OMG this is exactly the book I need at this precise moment - DEMONS
It's the earliest written evidence for beekeeping in Britain!
I’ve been reading through Latin curse tablets (defixiones) and thought this one from Roman-period Britain was neat: someone seemingly cursing the person who stole their beehive ‘vas apium’)! 🐝 (Brit. 48.10 10; text and images: romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions...; images by R.S.O. Tomlin)
July 19, 2025 at 7:46 AM
It's the earliest written evidence for beekeeping in Britain!
One of my summer research projects is an article about DEMONS!!!
Mostly it will be me looking at old line drawings of course tablets thinking "what the heck is that"?
Mostly it will be me looking at old line drawings of course tablets thinking "what the heck is that"?
July 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
One of my summer research projects is an article about DEMONS!!!
Mostly it will be me looking at old line drawings of course tablets thinking "what the heck is that"?
Mostly it will be me looking at old line drawings of course tablets thinking "what the heck is that"?
Calling all archaeology folk! Do you wish there was a stronger community around career support both in and out of the field? PastForwardHub are setting up just that, and they need your input. Their first community survey is open until October, so make your voice heard.
We are a team of freelance archaeologists working to develop PastForwardHub—a new global platform designed to support archaeologists through community, career guidance, networking, a dedicated job… | ...
We are a team of freelance archaeologists working to develop PastForwardHub—a new global platform designed to support archaeologists through community, career guidance, networking, a dedicated job boa...
www.linkedin.com
July 18, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Calling all archaeology folk! Do you wish there was a stronger community around career support both in and out of the field? PastForwardHub are setting up just that, and they need your input. Their first community survey is open until October, so make your voice heard.
Classics departments are being shuttered all over the place. Our response cannot be to hide in our libraries and pretend the world outside doesn't exist, and that our subject has nothing to say about it.
"This is a Classicists List not a political one."
A field of study is doomed when it surrenders its claim to be relevant to the real world, to how we live our lives in relation to other human beings, & cultivate mutual understanding. Isn't that the very point of the humanities?
A field of study is doomed when it surrenders its claim to be relevant to the real world, to how we live our lives in relation to other human beings, & cultivate mutual understanding. Isn't that the very point of the humanities?
July 5, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Classics departments are being shuttered all over the place. Our response cannot be to hide in our libraries and pretend the world outside doesn't exist, and that our subject has nothing to say about it.
Next year I'll be teaching a full Latin module for the first time, so one of my summer jobs is scrubbing up. I'm using the Cambridge Latin course's online resources and they are so so good!
myclc.co.uk
myclc.co.uk
MyCLC
myclc.co.uk
July 3, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Next year I'll be teaching a full Latin module for the first time, so one of my summer jobs is scrubbing up. I'm using the Cambridge Latin course's online resources and they are so so good!
myclc.co.uk
myclc.co.uk
Reposted by Dr Stuart McKie
Hello everyone who studies the ancient world, here is Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, calling archaeology the “ideological scaffolding” of apartheid.
Some of us have been trying to say this for years in the face of a discipline that believes itself “apolitical”.
Some of us have been trying to say this for years in the face of a discipline that believes itself “apolitical”.
July 3, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Hello everyone who studies the ancient world, here is Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, calling archaeology the “ideological scaffolding” of apartheid.
Some of us have been trying to say this for years in the face of a discipline that believes itself “apolitical”.
Some of us have been trying to say this for years in the face of a discipline that believes itself “apolitical”.