Trevor Wiley
@mearcsteppende.bsky.social
History PhD candidate at Boston College dissertating on the environment, community, and landscape on the 4th-8th century Forth, Clyde, and Tay in Scotland. Originally from Appalachia.
Saying goodbye to the beautiful venue of #Haskins2025 after two and a half days of brilliant papers and even better conversations over coffee and drinks. Eagerly looking forward to the next one.
November 16, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Saying goodbye to the beautiful venue of #Haskins2025 after two and a half days of brilliant papers and even better conversations over coffee and drinks. Eagerly looking forward to the next one.
A reminder that if you live in a place with elections today, no matter how local, you should get out and vote!
November 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
A reminder that if you live in a place with elections today, no matter how local, you should get out and vote!
Our seals are a great reminder that big societal shifts changed life all the way down, and that in turn, they transformed the ways people lived their very ordinary coastal lives.
Also, they remind us that we have some great non-text sources for studying a poorly-understood place and time! (11/11)
Also, they remind us that we have some great non-text sources for studying a poorly-understood place and time! (11/11)
October 17, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Our seals are a great reminder that big societal shifts changed life all the way down, and that in turn, they transformed the ways people lived their very ordinary coastal lives.
Also, they remind us that we have some great non-text sources for studying a poorly-understood place and time! (11/11)
Also, they remind us that we have some great non-text sources for studying a poorly-understood place and time! (11/11)
It's Friday afternoon and I have a little time between meetings, so let's do a little mini-thread on early medieval seals in the Firth of Forth and why I think it's useful to us to study them. Join me as I bounce through a tiny bit of my dissertation! (1/11)
October 17, 2025 at 7:17 PM
It's Friday afternoon and I have a little time between meetings, so let's do a little mini-thread on early medieval seals in the Firth of Forth and why I think it's useful to us to study them. Join me as I bounce through a tiny bit of my dissertation! (1/11)
Celebrating a successful guest lecture with a little reading by the Charles on this beautiful day.
September 16, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Celebrating a successful guest lecture with a little reading by the Charles on this beautiful day.
For #StandingStoneSunday (though this might be more of a sitting stone), I had to go back a couple years to a visit to the Neolithic Carrowmore cemetery in County Sligo. This worn stone sentinel - Tomb 52 - silently declares the memory of those interred in and around it, 5-6,000 years on.
September 14, 2025 at 2:56 PM
For #StandingStoneSunday (though this might be more of a sitting stone), I had to go back a couple years to a visit to the Neolithic Carrowmore cemetery in County Sligo. This worn stone sentinel - Tomb 52 - silently declares the memory of those interred in and around it, 5-6,000 years on.
After years of living in Boston, finally went and visited Lowell and the mills and now am rabid to read more about them, which cannot be good for my very medieval dissertation
July 29, 2025 at 2:36 AM
After years of living in Boston, finally went and visited Lowell and the mills and now am rabid to read more about them, which cannot be good for my very medieval dissertation
planning a chapter looking at a lot of different animals in the landscape vs. actually incorporating the vast amount of scholarship done on each and every animal
July 22, 2025 at 2:02 PM
planning a chapter looking at a lot of different animals in the landscape vs. actually incorporating the vast amount of scholarship done on each and every animal
It's #CowAppreciationDay and one of my favorite dissertation chapters so far involves a lot of cows, so here's three of my favorite cow-related things I've read in my research so far. There's a lot to learn about past societies through the medium of the beloved bovine! (1/4)
July 8, 2025 at 4:35 PM
It's #CowAppreciationDay and one of my favorite dissertation chapters so far involves a lot of cows, so here's three of my favorite cow-related things I've read in my research so far. There's a lot to learn about past societies through the medium of the beloved bovine! (1/4)
Saw a seal, good weekend.
July 6, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Saw a seal, good weekend.
Spending some time hiking around American Atlantic fjords to jog that writing spirit
July 4, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Spending some time hiking around American Atlantic fjords to jog that writing spirit
A very early morning Atlantic sunrise, rewarded by a visit from my favorite research subjects, grey and harbour seals!
June 17, 2025 at 9:34 AM
A very early morning Atlantic sunrise, rewarded by a visit from my favorite research subjects, grey and harbour seals!
To fly back home to Boston is mundane, to look out the window at pretty American coastal estuaries (the one below, edited for contrast, is Bombay Hook on the Delaware) is divine
June 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
To fly back home to Boston is mundane, to look out the window at pretty American coastal estuaries (the one below, edited for contrast, is Bombay Hook on the Delaware) is divine
There was also a bit of driftwood decked in a hundred shells brought from the sea by many, many people, so we left our offerings for safe travels
May 27, 2025 at 10:49 PM
There was also a bit of driftwood decked in a hundred shells brought from the sea by many, many people, so we left our offerings for safe travels
Not a beach person when it's sunny and hot, but man, there's nothing like the sea when it's getting stormy
May 27, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Not a beach person when it's sunny and hot, but man, there's nothing like the sea when it's getting stormy
Thrilled to find that one of my favorite bookstores in the world had the newly-published @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social book, allowing me to read it at the edge of an estuary marsh on an Outer Banks island.
I can't recommend book or bookstore enough!
I can't recommend book or bookstore enough!
May 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Thrilled to find that one of my favorite bookstores in the world had the newly-published @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social book, allowing me to read it at the edge of an estuary marsh on an Outer Banks island.
I can't recommend book or bookstore enough!
I can't recommend book or bookstore enough!
Finished painting the custom minis for the group (and printing my homebrew world's map) so we are ready to rock
May 16, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Finished painting the custom minis for the group (and printing my homebrew world's map) so we are ready to rock
Spending the bus commute home reading my new copy @mapicone.bsky.social's brilliant book after listening to her lecture about it! A really wonderful work of spatial history and borderland studies.
April 30, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Spending the bus commute home reading my new copy @mapicone.bsky.social's brilliant book after listening to her lecture about it! A really wonderful work of spatial history and borderland studies.
The city's looking good today.
April 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The city's looking good today.
A movie that takes place where you're from (or as close as I could get it - the next county over!)
April 16, 2025 at 9:41 PM
A movie that takes place where you're from (or as close as I could get it - the next county over!)
Writing about sea-birds on the firths makes my time dodging and weaving to escape the voracious seagulls on the beaches of St Andrews retroactive phenomenological research!
It also keenly summons memories of being dive-bombed by breeding terns when I stepped off the boat on the Isle of May...
It also keenly summons memories of being dive-bombed by breeding terns when I stepped off the boat on the Isle of May...
April 16, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Writing about sea-birds on the firths makes my time dodging and weaving to escape the voracious seagulls on the beaches of St Andrews retroactive phenomenological research!
It also keenly summons memories of being dive-bombed by breeding terns when I stepped off the boat on the Isle of May...
It also keenly summons memories of being dive-bombed by breeding terns when I stepped off the boat on the Isle of May...
It's a good day when I get to put a bunch of little seagulls on my dissertation GIS map.
April 16, 2025 at 7:01 PM
It's a good day when I get to put a bunch of little seagulls on my dissertation GIS map.
Spent a fair amount of time marveling at similarities between it and my old favorite Abercorn stones!
March 20, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Spent a fair amount of time marveling at similarities between it and my old favorite Abercorn stones!
Our small road trip crew on my 2023 research visits round northern Britain took the detour to see Bewcastle, its weird fort, and lovely cross. One of my favorite places we visited.
March 20, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Our small road trip crew on my 2023 research visits round northern Britain took the detour to see Bewcastle, its weird fort, and lovely cross. One of my favorite places we visited.