I went to an absolutely fabulous session about the historical environment of Scotland in the middle ages.  Seems as if many of our presumptions about land and resource utilization in the pre-modern world are really radically inaccurate…in other words, monks and monasteries often devastated environments in order to gain fuel or food.
But perhaps the most [...]

This is, I think, around my tenth time coming to Kalamazoo.  I cant even remember at this point.  But every time I drive up to Western Michigan University, I arrive on campus and register and am reminded of what often happens in Celtic myths about journeys to the Otherworld.  Invariably, a warrior is chasing a [...]

Well, this long year is now over in terms of classes (lots of grading still to do!), but what that also means is that its time for a trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies, the biggest gathering of medievalists in one place in the world.  SLU always has a [...]