James Worth
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worthjrw.bsky.social
James Worth
@worthjrw.bsky.social
160 followers 360 following 50 posts
Doctoral Candidate at UCL. Investigating Langobard Ethnic Identity, Language, and Onomastic Practice in the Medieval Charters, 568-774 CE. I have bones to pick with Philology. He/Him.
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worthjrw.bsky.social
The Lombards are travelling through Time (not via TARDIS) to @imc-leeds.bsky.social for 2026!

Especial thanks to @samdrowe.bsky.social and Kaiyue Zhang for their significant efforts in bringing this together. We can't wait to see you all!
Four sessions are noted for the Lombard Panel on Tuesday 7th July 2026: 521. 9:00-10:30: The Lombards through Time, I: Historiography. 621. 9:00-10:30: The Lombards through Time, II: Gender. 721. 9:00-10:30: The Lombards through Time, III: Southern Italy. 821. 9:00-10:30: The Lombards through Time, IV: Networks.
November 28, 2025 at 8:40 PM
worthjrw.bsky.social
The Lombards - not to be confused with the Lumbar - form the backbone of this panel. Whether you specialise in Late Antiquity or the Renaissance, we'd love to hear from you! After all, who *are* the Lombards to you? #IMC2026 #MedievalSky
Call for Papers Identifying the Lombards through Time: Constructing Lombard Identities and Social Norms The place of the Lombards within the history of Medieval Italy is remarkably ambiguous and mired by the ideas of legacy. Machiavelli, in posing the “Lombard Question”, stated that by the fall of the Kingdom, ‘they retained nothing of their foreignness except their name’ (Istorie Fiorentine, I.11). It is of no surprise therefore that earlier, often nationalistic, treatises had tended to dismiss the Lombard settlement as a temporary disruption, after which Italian history returned to its “natural course”. However, more recent research has often emphasised the complex, multifaceted impact of Lombard rule across Italy. In deconstructing the image of Lombards as “Germanic barbarians”, studies into Lombard religion, law, language, and customs have highlighted distinctions between the various polities (the Northern Kingdom and the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento). But Lombard identity was not simply geographically determined: both prior to the AD 568 settlement and after the 774 Carolingian conquest, the referent intended by the term “Lombard” transformed in various ways. This strand aims to consider this diachronic perspective: to understand these changes, not just of who the Lombards were to themselves, but how in turn we and others have perceived them. We welcome papers on, but not limited to, the following topics: - Memory and Historicisation - Social or Familial Stratification - Gender and the structuring of Power - “Romanising” the “Germanic” - Political Dynasties and Legacies - The Language of Legal Dialectic - Religious Syncretism and Isolationism - Linguistic Development and Survivalism Prospective speakers are asked to send prospective titles and abstracts of 300 words with a short bibliography and biography to James Worth (james.worth.18@ucl.ac.uk) and Kaiyue Zhang (kaiyue.zhang@history.ox.ac.uk) by Friday 19th September 2025.
August 22, 2025 at 9:05 AM
worthjrw.bsky.social
One of my favourite cinematic scenes will always be Théoden's crisis just before the climax of The Two Towers.

His struggle with personal insecurity and the weight of responsibility for the lives of those he lead to this point, all whilst facing an inevitability, is powerful and moving.
May 31, 2025 at 10:47 AM