Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)
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drsurekhadavies.bsky.social
Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)
@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social
Historian of science, art & ideas.
Words: Smithsonian, LA Times, TLS, Aeon, Nature, Science, Reactor.
Buy HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY now: https://www.surekhadavies.org/humans-a-monstrous-history
Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/surekhadavies?tag=bluesky
And if you're gift-shopping in the coming weeks, know that the hardback is GORGEOUS!
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November 13, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Free book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, hosted by the Linda Hall Library:
Thurs Dec 4th, 7-8pm CST (8-9pm EST)

Register at link below.
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💙📚 🧪 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH

events.lindahall.org/humansamonst...
November 13, 2025 at 7:42 PM
In that case I have just the thing for you: HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, out earlier this year from the University of California Press (links in bio):
November 10, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Couldn't help thinking about trips to NOLA and meals! a fave dish from my spring book tour was apple hand pies. The alligator is from a swamp tour on an earlier visit as is the street scene with historic buildings on which skeletons are a-lounging in "Skull Paradise."

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November 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Hung out with NYT best-selling author @danielkraus.com before a masterclass around one of his novels!

This was PAY THE PIPER, Daniel's alchemical rendering of horror director & writer the late George A. Romero’s notes into a lyrical, atmospheric novel.
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💙📚 #horror #NOLA #zombies #monsters
November 5, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I talked with @bethbarany.bsky.social about how curating an exhibition got me into monsters; on what makes a good #SFF monster; #StarTrek’s Borg Collective; and lessons from Monsters, Inc. Listen wherever you get your podcasts! 1/
💙📚 🗃 #histsci #politics #HAMH
writersfunzone.com/blog/2025/11...
November 4, 2025 at 3:22 PM
This disturbing 16th-century painting of hell linked Satan and his demons with the New World beyond Europe:

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www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this...
October 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Delighted that HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is on sale at the @folger.edu (Folger Shakespeare Library) on Capitol Hill in #DC! If you're heading that way for #renaissance, #earlymodern, or #Shakespeare books, free exhibition galleries, or the terrific theatre this spooky season, check it out!
October 28, 2025 at 1:13 PM
What to expect in Hell: an early sixteenth-century painting that's so striking that it's setting off all the content filters on here! Here are some details; essay in @smithsonianmag.bsky.social.
#Monstertober #Spookyseason 🗃
October 27, 2025 at 5:35 PM
"Hell appeared at a turning point in world history.[It] offers an example of how the events of the day could feed anxieties on earth that were, in turn, believed to portend what awaited viewers in the afterlife."
For more like this, read HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, @ucpress.bsky.social (in bio).4/4
October 27, 2025 at 11:55 AM
“I spent my childhood watching too much Star Trek and have been searching for monsters and aliens ever since." Opening lines of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, and how this historian of science realized that monsters are how we define categories.

Paragraph and TOC in the alt-text. #StarTrek #SFF 💙📚 🗃
October 26, 2025 at 5:47 AM
Image: Program for The Tempest, Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration, New York, 1916. The cover shows Caliban. Program Collection, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. 4/
October 25, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Grendel and Grendel’s mother from the Beowulf poem. Here’s the Old English Beowulf manuscript in The British Library, dated to the end of the 10th century. 2/
October 25, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Spring 2026 catalog for @ucpress.bsky.social has dropped! Check out their fabulous trade, academic trade, and scholarly books for all of you nerds with a conscience.

And HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY will be out in paperback in March! Page 38 (p. 40 of the pdf) for more.

💙📚 🧪 🗃 #sociology
October 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
IKR?! The press did a fabulous job of production, cover, the whole jacket, and the interior.
October 22, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Am writing about a 16th-century painting of Hell! Essay will be out next week.
Here's a visual snack to keep you going in the meantime: three details from one of Bosch’s magnificent depictions of hell. 1/2

#spookyseason #monsters #monstertober #medieval #renaissance #earlymodern #art #arthistory
October 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I spoke with Kate on writing tech, writing habits, newsletters, getting a literary agent, and how I chose the shape and structure of my new book, HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, out earlier this year from @ucpress.bsky.social.

2/2

draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...
October 19, 2025 at 7:04 PM
@cathfletcher.bsky.social and I are offering a webinar, Pitching a Nonfiction Book for General Readers, for @rsaorg.bsky.social's Professional Development webinar series.

Thurs, Nov 6, 2025, at 12-1pm. EST / 5-6pm GMT (& recorded)

#renaissance #earlymodern #histsci #writingcommunity 💙📚 🗃
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October 16, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Thanks, Allyson! Re: my monstery writing, I've published 2 books on the history of monsters and monster making, most recently HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY from @ucpress.bsky.social.
Sign up for my free mailing-list to receive an excerpt & occasional monster musings!

Links in bio.
October 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Nice! Wish I were going; this historian of monsters is there in spirit - and yes, that's a xenomorph climbing up the cover of my new book out from @ucpress.bsky.social, HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY (link in bio).
October 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Thanks so much for posting this! If you're able to rate/review the book on Amzn, Goodreads, or Storygraph that would be *so helpful*! The number of reviews drives the algorithms that suggest books. Reviews can be as short as a sentence or even a word; just informal notes!
October 11, 2025 at 7:46 AM
What's the naughtiest thing you could do in a research library besides writing in one of the books? Read my newsletter to find out & to learn what's special about this 1599 Latin edition of Walter Ralegh's "Discoverie of Guiana".
💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci
buttondown.com/surekhadavie...
October 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
RENAISSANCE ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (2016) showed how European mapmakers devised map imagery & captions about the peoples of the Americas that re-configured how Europeans understood the human. 2/n

www.surekhadavies.org/renaissance-...
October 2, 2025 at 5:42 AM
It's #spookyseason or #monstertober! Everything is a horror show but some stories about monsters are charming and escapist, or at least weird and ancient. ICYMI, here's an essay from me about some of the theories about monsters in the ancient Mediterranean.

pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperf...
October 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Thrilled to hear and meet @nhannahjones.bsky.social in person! Event hosted by De Dépendance, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; chair and moderator, Hani Salih. 💙📚 🗃
September 30, 2025 at 9:37 PM