Rachel Moss
LightNews LightNews
banner
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Rachel Moss
@menysnoweballes.bsky.social
6.3K followers 700 following 2.3K posts
Associate Professor in History ‪@uninorthampton.bsky.social‬, Departmental Tutor @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social‬. Current research interests: late medieval family, gender, literary culture; medievalism and the extreme right.
Posts Replies Media Videos
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
I know in some parts of the world you just... go to your nearest school. Here you can apply for up to six schools & you have to rank them. Look at how the website advises you on making a "realistic" application.
The closest secondary school to Elijah's home (School G) is a school where, based on previous admission patterns, Elijah would have been offered a place for each of the last three years. Elijah's parents decide to apply for a secondary school (School A) further away from their home because Elijah's cousin attends there. The family also applied for other schools further away from their home, hoping that Elijah will be offered a place, rather than looking at each school's admissions criteria and previous admissions patterns, which would have indicated that it would be unlikely that Elijah would be offered a place at any of his six preferences. This includes two Catholic schools. Schools A, B, C and E give priority to children who live closest to the school after siblings of children already attending the school. Schools D and F are Catholic schools that give priority to children who are baptised, practising Catholics and who attend a Catholic feeder primary school. The preferences submitted for Elijah were: School A School B School C Catholic School D School E Catholic School F Elijah was not offered a place at any of the family's preferred schools. Elijah was not offered a place at Schools A, B, C and E as they were all filled with children who lived closer to the schools than Elijah. The fact Elijah's cousin attends School A did not give him priority as cousins are not part of the school's oversubscription criteria. Elijah was not offered a place at School D or School F as he is not a baptised, practising Catholic and does not attend a Catholic feeder primary school. Both schools were filled with children who met one of these criteria. As none of the preferences submitted for him could be met, Elijah was offered a place at one of the nearest schools to his home with places available at the time of the offer of places (School H). This school is 2,500 metres from his home. Elijah was not offered a place at School G (500m from the family's home address) as the …
September 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Look what just arrived in the post! Well-being Past and Present! A great volume edited by my great colleagues @uninorthampton.bsky.social 🗃️
A white woman with blonde hair holding an academic book Contributors vii Introduction: Well-being past and present Siobhán Hyland, Paul Jackson and Mark Rothery 1 1 Mindfulness and the mise-en-page: Women, well-being and the medieval book of hours Sue Niebrzydowski 13 2 'In this orchard, when you would be comforted': Using garden spaces for familial intimacy and well-being in late medieval England Rachel Moss 25 3 'In your well-being is cheife felicity': Physical, social and emotional health in seventeenth-century family letters Emma Marshall 41 4 "The only place that can heighten my enjoyment of my friends: Well-being at Wrest Park in the mid-eighteenth century Jemima Hubberstey 57 5 'Showing feelings: Exploring and exhibiting women's well-being and emotion in the English country house Ruby Rutter 75 6 Ecotherapy at Abington Park Museum: Lessons from the history of well-being Emily Bavellas 93 7 Women, welfare and well-being: Philanthropy in the Northamptonshire boot and shoe industry Katrina Perry 109 Michael Reeve 8 A panacea for wounds and panic: Tobacco, alcohol and well-being on the Western front during the First World War 123 vi 9 10 11 12 13 14 Well-being from the perspective of community groups: Notes from Abington Community Library, 1939-2023 Sue Botterill and Siobhán Hyland Well-being in mental health nurses' working lives and its impact on nursing shortages: Insights from the early years of the National Health Service Claire Chatterton 'Caring archives: Well-being challenges in an archive of extremism - Lessons and questions from a decade of the Searchlight Archive Siobhán Hyland and Daniel Jones Can heritage places change visitor subjective well-being? Amy Luck and Faye Sayer 'Art power': Creative workshops and social justice in the museum Tamsin Greaves 'Why we are not all going on a summer holiday? An examination of barriers to ethnic minority participation in leisure activities and domestic tourism in the UK Marcella Daye Index 155 173 191 213 227 249 2 In this orchard, when you would be comforted: Using garden spaces for familial intimacy and well-being in late medieval England Rachel Moss In the early summer of 1481, the young wool merchant Richard Cely wrote to his brother George about a conversation he had recently had with their father: Sir, our father and I came together in the new orchard last Friday, and he asked me many questions of you, and I told him all as it was, and he was right sorry for the death of the child, and I told him of the good will that the Whigstons and Daltons have to you, and how I liked the young gentlewoman, and he commanded me to write to you that he would gladly that it were brought about and that you laboured it betimes.' Like all the Cely correspondence it gives the impression of being written in haste, personal details tightly packed alongside matters of business. Yet the letter records a potential moment of peace in the lives of these busy merchants: an opportunity for father and son to catch up in the open air in a location commonly understood by medieval people to be productive in both literal and figurative senses. Cultivated outdoor spaces were essential to medieval well-being. Scholars have long been aware that gardens occupied an important place in the medieval spiritual imagination.? A garden not only offered an actual physical space to experience the health-giving, spiritually enriching benefits of the natural world but also formed a vital part of the medieval mental landscape. There has been relatively limited work on orchards as a subset of medieval gardens, although they were a common feature of monastic, elite, rural and urban landscapes - that is, everywhere - but what work there has been indicates that orchards were considered to be particularly healthful, generative spaces beyond the literal fact of their fruit production. Recent research also sugests that as literary landscapes, orchards were imbued with ques potential, as spaces that offered the possibility of…
September 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
We had a fun games afternoon with our new @uninorthampton.bsky.social History students today… But do you feel one of these games is a bit close to the bone?! 😅
Four people (faces cut off for privacy) playing a card game with sweets and snacks in the foreground Three card games: Guillotine, Gonuts for Donuts and Revise & Resubmit
September 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Re-reading this chapter now (I haven't since we submitted the corrections!) I do feel quite proud of it and hope colleagues working in popular culture will consider citing it. If your institution doesn't have access let me know! #Barbie
Both Ken and the Trump of the 2016 Presidential election campaign can be seen as absurd figures on the fringes of the political community, united as much by their distinctive hair and tans as by their line in garbled non-sequiturs. Just as serious political commentators dismissed Trump when he first ran for office, the Barbie film tells us repeatedly ‘we’re never worried about Ken’. But much like Trump, who successfully moved from the margin of politics to the highest office of the US state in both 2016 and 2024, Ken is not a misunderstood and ultimately unthreatening buffoon. In Barbie, Ken becomes an active, and eventually actively malevolent, political agent extending significant influence over his own community of ‘deplorables’.
September 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
I have just been in Marrakesh! My first time in Morocco. A vibrant, multilingual city. Got lots of warnings about harassment before I went but found I was treated respectfully and made very welcome! Much to think about with the backdrop of that white supremacist rally back home.
The vibrant blues, oranges and yellows of the Jardin Majorelle A Marrakesh doorway Beautiful window at the Bahia Palace
September 15, 2025 at 6:42 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
If you need to hear this today… #WorldSuicidePreventionDay
September 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Another 365 days around the sun- I leave it to you to guess how many times! Feeling on brand today 🪩
Me, a white woman with blonde hair, wearing a disco print dress by Popsy and disco ball earrings by Tatty Devine
August 23, 2025 at 5:15 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Once again this academic’s favourite output of the year is my daughter’s birthday cake - belated this year as I was sick around her actual birthday, and this way it’ll also celebrate my birthday tomorrow!
A cauldron cake with flames around the base and a jelly potion in the top, with candy floss smoke
August 22, 2025 at 11:47 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
I’ve been a parent for a DECADE today - though that journey started earlier. In lots of ways it began when I was worried I might be about to miscarry & had an early scan - so early what they found was only classed as “probably” viable. Baby, I’ve loved you since before you had a heartbeat. 💗
A pile of waffles with fruit and chocolate sauce with two candles - a 1 and a 0
August 13, 2025 at 12:54 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
I had a wonderful trip to Spain with my kid and a friend and her kid - first time I’ve done a friends&kids holiday abroad! - but I brought back norovirus/food poisoning 😭 Tell me something nice you’ve done this week while I sit sadly on the sofa!
2 kids playing in the sea by night My sandy feet in the foreground of a sunny beach photo
August 8, 2025 at 10:33 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
In other worlds, I'm - a classicist (Latin/Roman), an art historian (C15th), a Victorianist (early), a palaeontologist (vertebrate), a geographer (human), a planetary scientist... 🌟🦕🌔🌎🎨
Go then, there are other worlds than these. -stephen King, the Gunslinger
August 1, 2025 at 8:56 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
sigh
July 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Correct!!
July 22, 2025 at 5:02 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Obligatory castle pic from medievalist on holiday - who will be the first to guess *which* castle?
July 22, 2025 at 3:16 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Yes becoming an ass 🍑prof is nice, but more importantly I made a blueberry lemon curd cake tonight
A freshly baked cake studded with blueberries in a square tin
July 15, 2025 at 9:31 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Thanks for all the good wishes, friends! I treated myself to a Too Good to Go flower bundle and was rewarded with tons of stocks and roses for £4.99!
Three vases filled with flowers
July 8, 2025 at 7:38 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
What a wonderful generative @medievalgender.bsky.social! It was an honour to get to close out the conference.
Me standing in front of a PowerPoint that says What does a truly feminist conference look like when the world is on fire? The assembled cast of GMS
July 4, 2025 at 10:04 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Listening to @lusignanmermaid.bsky.social giving the ECR Plenary at @medievalgender.bsky.social - great stuff. I’m proud that I established this plenary & that it’s become an annual part of GMS: so important to centre our early career scholars.
July 4, 2025 at 8:42 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Fantastic storytelling workshop with @daisyeblack.bsky.social - good Qs about what we owe to our audiences
responsibilities as performers and public medievalists a) to the original text b) to our scholarship c) to marginalised groups represented in texts d) to our audiences Acting as bridge, guide, ally and friend. BFIPLAYER Activate your account today 'Knowledge, information, context and understanding'
July 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Look at this adorable whale!! Diane Heath @medievalgender.bsky.social telling us that whales were seen as symbols of hypocrisy and deceit - poor whales!
Diane Heath introducing medieval whales
July 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
The lovely @drlauravarnam.bsky.social coordinating with her PowerPoint at @medievalgender.bsky.social and talking about using creative criticism as care for The Book of Margery Kempe
Laura looking elegant in a floral dress in front of a PowerPoint presentation with a book cover on it
July 3, 2025 at 9:48 AM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
My book club celebrated its fifth birthday this weekend. So happy to have this community!
A birthday cake with white icing and sprinkles and a number 5 candle
June 29, 2025 at 2:52 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Tag urself (thanks Daisy for the pic!)
Me standing in front of a room filled with people with a PowerPoint slide saying “ten minute despair vent”
June 25, 2025 at 4:30 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Nearly 40 people at my @themamoconf.bsky.social workshop 😍
A classroom with people sat at tables and a PowerPoint slide saying what ways have we seen the medieval evoked by the far/extreme right?
June 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
menysnoweballes.bsky.social
Excited for our session!! @themamoconf.bsky.social
Wednesday 25th June 10:00-10:30 Arrival [with refreshments in the Council Room] 10:30-12:00 Parallel Sessions 1 Session 1A: Online Use and Misuse [Room K016] Chair: Gwen Seabourne • Kenna L. Olsen (Mount Royal University): Beyond Medieval Mimicry to Chaucer's Wicker House: Evoking Medieval English Experientialiality via Immersive Performances of Medieval English Texts • Andrew B.R. Elliott (Independent Researcher): Amusing, Awful, and Artificial: Al & Medievalism • Rachel Moss (University of Northampton): Medieval chivalry, social media and the emotional drivers of radicalisation into extreme right online cultures Session 1B: The Middle Ages in Modern Games
June 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM