Abigail Mitchell
@abbimitchell.bsky.social
hextorian / soton english postgrad researcher queering the history of the 1645 tendring witch trials. occasional writer and editor for dk, scholastic, and more. poet: THE YEAR OF THE BUTTERFLY (write bloody uk, 2023)
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
Two of my motheres systeres lyve yn Trastevere and make jokes and jestes all the tyme except when thei playe yn their pop punke bande.
Thei are My Comical Rome aunts.
Thei are My Comical Rome aunts.
September 1, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Two of my motheres systeres lyve yn Trastevere and make jokes and jestes all the tyme except when thei playe yn their pop punke bande.
Thei are My Comical Rome aunts.
Thei are My Comical Rome aunts.
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
R.I.P. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), you wolde have lovid "Kyoto" (2020) by Phoebe Bridgers.
August 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
R.I.P. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), you wolde have lovid "Kyoto" (2020) by Phoebe Bridgers.
*starts excitedly frothing at the mouth*
“It's time to recognize the productive relationship between queerness and magic in so many different histories” - @willpooley.bsky.social, magic and queerness touch one another constantly he says. #SHS2025
July 7, 2025 at 5:24 PM
*starts excitedly frothing at the mouth*
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
I find it very telling that the "community group" is happy there may be no more Mighty Hoopla or City Splash but excited to bring back the Lambeth Country Show "as it used to be"
May 17, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I find it very telling that the "community group" is happy there may be no more Mighty Hoopla or City Splash but excited to bring back the Lambeth Country Show "as it used to be"
Awful lot of academics reposting that Harvard did this without fact checking. ‘Harvard’ did not in fact do this.
Like how we should stop pretending this is Harvard. It's just some dude on X named Daniel who originally posted this.
May 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Awful lot of academics reposting that Harvard did this without fact checking. ‘Harvard’ did not in fact do this.
At that point in my PhD where I am stressed every time I see something new and relevant pop up. How do people deal with the fear of some big development coming out before your thing is fully cooked?
March 25, 2025 at 9:52 AM
At that point in my PhD where I am stressed every time I see something new and relevant pop up. How do people deal with the fear of some big development coming out before your thing is fully cooked?
Whose decision was it to have the Cher Uber Eats ad see her burned at the stake for witchcraft in 1680s England? (From those accents, at least, it seems to be England…)
I may have just killed the conversation at a party with a rant about historical accuracy after someone put it on…
I may have just killed the conversation at a party with a rant about historical accuracy after someone put it on…
March 2, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Whose decision was it to have the Cher Uber Eats ad see her burned at the stake for witchcraft in 1680s England? (From those accents, at least, it seems to be England…)
I may have just killed the conversation at a party with a rant about historical accuracy after someone put it on…
I may have just killed the conversation at a party with a rant about historical accuracy after someone put it on…
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
And, if you’re feeling inspired, share some love for @abbimitchell.bsky.social and @mossyair.bsky.social, and get your copies of their books in our @bookshop-org.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/ExpoBookshop.
February 8, 2025 at 1:12 AM
And, if you’re feeling inspired, share some love for @abbimitchell.bsky.social and @mossyair.bsky.social, and get your copies of their books in our @bookshop-org.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/ExpoBookshop.
Question related to previous post about new witch plays: any tips on approaching playwrights to ask to have a look at the script if the play is not currently being performed? Is this something that they’d do, for a fee? Obviously looking as a historian and not someone aiming to stage it.
January 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Question related to previous post about new witch plays: any tips on approaching playwrights to ask to have a look at the script if the play is not currently being performed? Is this something that they’d do, for a fee? Obviously looking as a historian and not someone aiming to stage it.
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
So I have seen the whole "medieval alewives are the archetype for the modern stereotypical witch depictions" thing going around.... again, and I thought I would do a bit of myth-busting. Grab a seat, this is a long one.
#skystorians
#skystorians
January 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
So I have seen the whole "medieval alewives are the archetype for the modern stereotypical witch depictions" thing going around.... again, and I thought I would do a bit of myth-busting. Grab a seat, this is a long one.
#skystorians
#skystorians
So anyway, I just spent an hour donating to top surgery and FFS fundraisers. It’s the closest I can get today to peace.
January 20, 2025 at 10:34 PM
So anyway, I just spent an hour donating to top surgery and FFS fundraisers. It’s the closest I can get today to peace.
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
Chaucer (noted fan of the singular "they" btw) knows what's up:
Trans rights are human rights
January 20, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Chaucer (noted fan of the singular "they" btw) knows what's up:
Have spent the last two weeks in conversation with my teammates trying to come up with ways to fight England Hockey’s terrible new trans policy. The Trump news feels like particularly demoralizing timing, and my heart breaks for our American siblings. Happy Blue Monday I guess xx
January 20, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Have spent the last two weeks in conversation with my teammates trying to come up with ways to fight England Hockey’s terrible new trans policy. The Trump news feels like particularly demoralizing timing, and my heart breaks for our American siblings. Happy Blue Monday I guess xx
Began the year as I usually do: unwell, exhausted, and dragging my body around a European city.
Note to my future self: the Dutch do not believe in cold and flu tablets. Paracetamol, caffeine, and vitamin C it is…
Note to my future self: the Dutch do not believe in cold and flu tablets. Paracetamol, caffeine, and vitamin C it is…
January 6, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Began the year as I usually do: unwell, exhausted, and dragging my body around a European city.
Note to my future self: the Dutch do not believe in cold and flu tablets. Paracetamol, caffeine, and vitamin C it is…
Note to my future self: the Dutch do not believe in cold and flu tablets. Paracetamol, caffeine, and vitamin C it is…
Cut to me trying to figure out whether a record is at the ERO or the National Archives by their online searches. Spoiler: both claim it’s with the other and don’t have it digitized
to share with your friends and colleagues if necessary
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 29, 2024 at 5:16 PM
Cut to me trying to figure out whether a record is at the ERO or the National Archives by their online searches. Spoiler: both claim it’s with the other and don’t have it digitized
At Christmas Eve dinner this year with my brother’s girlfriend I learned about not one but TWO new plays on Matthew Hopkins’ trials, including one on mine. Naturally I now NEED to see them for discussion in my thesis. Please, people, I only have three months of this PhD left… let me live!
December 26, 2024 at 3:21 PM
At Christmas Eve dinner this year with my brother’s girlfriend I learned about not one but TWO new plays on Matthew Hopkins’ trials, including one on mine. Naturally I now NEED to see them for discussion in my thesis. Please, people, I only have three months of this PhD left… let me live!
A few years ago I wrote a chapter of a book for Britannica (for a kid’s encyclopedia). They seemed particularly keen to fact check every sentence against the online EB. It wasn’t perfect then, but this undermines what used to be an institution in the publishing world for fact-checking and research.
Excuse me while I run in circles screaming in horror.
Encyclopedia Britannica Is Now an AI Company
The 200 year-old company may soon go public on the back of AI-powered education products.
gizmodo.com
December 26, 2024 at 3:17 PM
A few years ago I wrote a chapter of a book for Britannica (for a kid’s encyclopedia). They seemed particularly keen to fact check every sentence against the online EB. It wasn’t perfect then, but this undermines what used to be an institution in the publishing world for fact-checking and research.
My original copy was spirited away by the postal demons but I finally have this beautiful thing in my possession (pardon the puns). Just as I’m finishing up work on the next book in the series and about to start the newest one, too. This continues to be a brilliant series to work on and help shape!
December 13, 2024 at 5:23 PM
My original copy was spirited away by the postal demons but I finally have this beautiful thing in my possession (pardon the puns). Just as I’m finishing up work on the next book in the series and about to start the newest one, too. This continues to be a brilliant series to work on and help shape!
Made a triumphant return to Valhalla tonight! Good memories of coming here after the @crems-york.bsky.social witchcraft conference last year…
December 9, 2024 at 9:19 PM
Made a triumphant return to Valhalla tonight! Good memories of coming here after the @crems-york.bsky.social witchcraft conference last year…
Still recovering from the latest illness flareup but I DID manage to stay out long enough to try the famed Yorkshire pudding burrito at Camden Lock. 100/10, no notes.
December 4, 2024 at 9:55 PM
Still recovering from the latest illness flareup but I DID manage to stay out long enough to try the famed Yorkshire pudding burrito at Camden Lock. 100/10, no notes.
Reposted by Abigail Mitchell
Happy anniversary to my favorite copy editor comment of all time.
"You use 'long eighteenth century' a lot in this book, but each century is exactly as long as another."
"You use 'long eighteenth century' a lot in this book, but each century is exactly as long as another."
December 1, 2024 at 6:53 PM
Happy anniversary to my favorite copy editor comment of all time.
"You use 'long eighteenth century' a lot in this book, but each century is exactly as long as another."
"You use 'long eighteenth century' a lot in this book, but each century is exactly as long as another."
Been in bed all week with a chronic illness flareup, so naturally this evening I hosted a dinner party for 10 people and undid any and all recovery from resting 🙃
November 30, 2024 at 12:47 AM
Been in bed all week with a chronic illness flareup, so naturally this evening I hosted a dinner party for 10 people and undid any and all recovery from resting 🙃
An excellent read:
A tour-de-force of scholarship and detective work: Fara Dabhoiwala reveals that a portrait of an 18th-century Black scientist, long dismissed as a caricature, is in fact a record of the man's mastery of Newtonian physics—and the only painting made in 1759 of the return of Halley's comet.
Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due
The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 30, 2024 at 12:39 AM
An excellent read:
Just discovered that Hampton Court Palace is holding a Christmas ‘Fayre’ on the grounds… alas I can already feel my wallet getting lighter.
November 29, 2024 at 1:47 PM
Just discovered that Hampton Court Palace is holding a Christmas ‘Fayre’ on the grounds… alas I can already feel my wallet getting lighter.
Having to rebuild my Zotero library on the new laptop and cannot for the life of me find this: I could have sworn I had a link to an interactive map charting Matthew Hopkins’ movements between towns in 1645. Am I imagining it or does it ring a bell for anyone else?
November 29, 2024 at 10:47 AM
Having to rebuild my Zotero library on the new laptop and cannot for the life of me find this: I could have sworn I had a link to an interactive map charting Matthew Hopkins’ movements between towns in 1645. Am I imagining it or does it ring a bell for anyone else?