Dr. Lucia Akard
@luciaakard.bsky.social
Medievalist working on sexual violence, victim/survivor studies and sex work. British Academy Postdoc at University of York.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Call for Papers! Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis #medievalsky #Fissures2026
November 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Call for Papers! Fissures: Gender and Political Crisis #medievalsky #Fissures2026
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez
November 5, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Latest from me: on what Liverpool says about the housing crisis, and the uneasy state of politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
A waiting list of thousands, and just five new homes for social rent: this city shows the depth of Britain’s housing crisis | John Harris
Liverpool was once praised for its tolerance, but housing shortages are driving fearful, unsettling behaviours – and people are blaming outsiders, says Guardian columnist John Harris
www.theguardian.com
October 19, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Latest from me: on what Liverpool says about the housing crisis, and the uneasy state of politics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
August 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
@manongarcia.bsky.social @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social “It’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because there’s something about what it is for them to be a man, and to be entitled to women’s bodies, that makes them, I think, at least some of them, deeply convinced that they haven’t done anything wrong.”
‘These men think they’ve done nothing wrong’: the philosopher who tried to understand Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists
‘These men think they’ve done nothing wrong’: the philosopher who tried to understand Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists
When 50 men went on trial in France, accused of raping a woman who had been drugged by her husband, Manon Garcia was in the courtroom – and in the prosecutors’ closing arguments. How does she make sense of what happened?
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 11:55 AM
@manongarcia.bsky.social @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social “It’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because there’s something about what it is for them to be a man, and to be entitled to women’s bodies, that makes them, I think, at least some of them, deeply convinced that they haven’t done anything wrong.”
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
October 8, 2025 at 8:20 AM
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Oh, I was also double-paying into the system by paying into NI through my paychecks and also paying an immigration surcharge to access health care, while having an state-issued immigrant ID card which said 'NO ACCESS TO PUBLIC FUNDS'
Under Labour's plan, I wouldn't qualify for my ILR because I spent the first five years on my work visa in a new career, where I spent most of my time [checks notes] educating young adults.
BBC News - Mahmood to demand migrants earn right to settled status
www.bbc.com/news/article...
BBC News - Mahmood to demand migrants earn right to settled status
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Shabana Mahmood to demand migrants earn right to settled status
New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.
www.bbc.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Oh, I was also double-paying into the system by paying into NI through my paychecks and also paying an immigration surcharge to access health care, while having an state-issued immigrant ID card which said 'NO ACCESS TO PUBLIC FUNDS'
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
The point was never to have workable rules: the point was to have rules that could be enforced selectively and cruelly and leave all trans people in uncertainty and danger. Cf. the same approach to immigrants - allow yourself to target who you like and assure 'the good ones' that 'it'll be fine'
The EHRC transphobic “guidance” is unworkable say lots of firms.
Reminder: the government could repeal the Supreme Court misjudgment any time it likes.
Reminder: the government could repeal the Supreme Court misjudgment any time it likes.
Hundreds of firms warn new draft guidance on single sex spaces is ‘unworkable’
Exclusive: More than 650 organisations have urged Bridget Phillipson to ‘take immediate action to prevent these proposals from moving forward’
www.independent.co.uk
September 16, 2025 at 1:48 PM
The point was never to have workable rules: the point was to have rules that could be enforced selectively and cruelly and leave all trans people in uncertainty and danger. Cf. the same approach to immigrants - allow yourself to target who you like and assure 'the good ones' that 'it'll be fine'
When can we admit that it was weird to have a zoom event to announce that Chaucer wasn't a rapist. like. now that it's been a few years can we admit that was Not Good and that the evidence is still not as "clear" as was presented?
September 16, 2025 at 9:55 AM
When can we admit that it was weird to have a zoom event to announce that Chaucer wasn't a rapist. like. now that it's been a few years can we admit that was Not Good and that the evidence is still not as "clear" as was presented?
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
justice for the survivors
I’ve spent my career researching a thousand years of sex crimes. This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read. Justice for the survivors. www.axios.com/2025/09/08/e...
House panel releases birthday book and other records from Epstein estate
See the filings here.
www.axios.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:08 AM
justice for the survivors
daily reminder that immigrants pay twice for the NHS and don't have access to public funds!
‘Paying twice’: workers face NHS bills of thousands in immigration crackdown
Campaigners fear plans to make people wait longer for leave to remain could cost tax-paying skilled workers dearly
www.theguardian.com
September 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM
daily reminder that immigrants pay twice for the NHS and don't have access to public funds!
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
My main professional organization, @medievalacademy.bsky.social, has just pub'd a statement about the use of AI in its journal. Basically, DON'T! "AI tools cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for their output or enter into legal agreements." www.medievalacademy.org/page/AIPolicy #MedievalSky
AI Policy - The Medieval Academy of America
10/24/2025 » 10/25/2025Always Here: Non-Binary Gender, Trans Identities, and Queerness in the Global Middle Ages (c. 250–16
www.medievalacademy.org
September 2, 2025 at 9:30 PM
My main professional organization, @medievalacademy.bsky.social, has just pub'd a statement about the use of AI in its journal. Basically, DON'T! "AI tools cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for their output or enter into legal agreements." www.medievalacademy.org/page/AIPolicy #MedievalSky
external monitor? no thanks, I prefer to do my transcribing hunched over my macbook on the couch, like god intended.
August 29, 2025 at 1:39 PM
external monitor? no thanks, I prefer to do my transcribing hunched over my macbook on the couch, like god intended.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Seriously, fuck off.
I say that with all due gravity.
I say that with all due gravity.
August 5, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Seriously, fuck off.
I say that with all due gravity.
I say that with all due gravity.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
For a medieval monastic chronicler, a headline to die for
August 2, 2025 at 7:19 PM
For a medieval monastic chronicler, a headline to die for
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
I'm so tired of hearing that we need to "teach our students how to use AI" when the thing they most need to use it is a critical-thinking skill set that can only be acquired by NOT using it. I'm tired of hearing that it's inevitable. I'm tired.
August 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
I'm so tired of hearing that we need to "teach our students how to use AI" when the thing they most need to use it is a critical-thinking skill set that can only be acquired by NOT using it. I'm tired of hearing that it's inevitable. I'm tired.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Why isn’t bell hooks’s writing around men and love not seen as a progressive text on how men can get laid, i.e., form healthy romantic relationships with people in their lives?
August 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Why isn’t bell hooks’s writing around men and love not seen as a progressive text on how men can get laid, i.e., form healthy romantic relationships with people in their lives?
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Not so fun fact: in the Middle Ages people hated procuresses. I knew this, and wrote about it with @lollardfish.bsky.social for @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol... Another not so fun fact I learned this summer. While there was a lot of hatred of procuresses they sometimes pardoned them.
July 29, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Not so fun fact: in the Middle Ages people hated procuresses. I knew this, and wrote about it with @lollardfish.bsky.social for @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol... Another not so fun fact I learned this summer. While there was a lot of hatred of procuresses they sometimes pardoned them.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Over the weekend I drew these two subway maps for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and shared them. A lot of you asked about purchasing them, and now you can!
You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop:
surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com
You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop:
surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com
July 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Over the weekend I drew these two subway maps for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and shared them. A lot of you asked about purchasing them, and now you can!
You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop:
surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com
You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop:
surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com
never not insane that Oxford colleges that have endowments in the hundreds of millions of pounds continue to pay lecturers salaries that are near impossible to live on in one of the most expensive cities in the UK.
July 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
never not insane that Oxford colleges that have endowments in the hundreds of millions of pounds continue to pay lecturers salaries that are near impossible to live on in one of the most expensive cities in the UK.
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
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
Thrilled to announce that for the next three years I'll be a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at @york.ac.uk!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...
Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards 2024-25
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
July 25, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Thrilled to announce that for the next three years I'll be a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at @york.ac.uk!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/post...
How are immigrants to blame for poor public services when a) we pay an NHS surcharge that's like 1k a year or more b) pay for the NHS again in our taxes and c) many of us are not allowed any public funds
May 14, 2025 at 10:55 AM
How are immigrants to blame for poor public services when a) we pay an NHS surcharge that's like 1k a year or more b) pay for the NHS again in our taxes and c) many of us are not allowed any public funds
Reposted by Dr. Lucia Akard
Today, Starmer said he’d “take back control of our borders” and claimed that soaring immigration had done “incalculable damage” to our country.
No. That damage is done by the ruinous dishonesty of our politicians and the hatred whipped up by their ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Shame on you, Starmer.
No. That damage is done by the ruinous dishonesty of our politicians and the hatred whipped up by their ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Shame on you, Starmer.
May 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Today, Starmer said he’d “take back control of our borders” and claimed that soaring immigration had done “incalculable damage” to our country.
No. That damage is done by the ruinous dishonesty of our politicians and the hatred whipped up by their ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Shame on you, Starmer.
No. That damage is done by the ruinous dishonesty of our politicians and the hatred whipped up by their ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Shame on you, Starmer.
on the one hand soooo lovely to be told by students that my class is their favorite. on the other, sooooo depressing that it's unlikely I'll get to do this job I'm clearly really good at into the future.
May 9, 2025 at 9:49 AM
on the one hand soooo lovely to be told by students that my class is their favorite. on the other, sooooo depressing that it's unlikely I'll get to do this job I'm clearly really good at into the future.