Alex Drace-Francis
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alexdrace.bsky.social
Alex Drace-Francis
@alexdrace.bsky.social
1.8K followers 930 following 1.5K posts
Cultural historian, modern Europe @uvahumanities.bsky.social. Books: The Making of Mămăligă (CEU Press); Networks, Narratives and Nations (Amsterdam UP). Amateur gardener.
https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/d/r/a.j.drace-francis/a.j.drace-francis.html
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alexdrace.bsky.social
Karl Lanzedelly, Ein Jahrmarkt in der Wallachei [A Wallachian Fair], coloured lithograph, 1840s
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Un...
Karl Lanzedelly, Ein Jahrmarkt in der Wallachei [A Wallachian Fair],
November 20, 2025 at 12:26 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
"A Railroad through the Wild East. Ottoman Dobrudja at the Dawn of the Capitalist Era" - Constantin Ardeleanu's new book. Love the cover and as someone familiar with the project I can say the contents will be great too...
humanitas.ro/humanitas/ca...
Constantin Ardeleanu, "A Railroad through the Wild East. Ottoman Dobrudja at the Dawn of the Capitalist Era" (book cover, Romanian)
November 19, 2025 at 4:59 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
But if brevity is the aim, surely the poor answer is the good answer?
November 14, 2025 at 5:17 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Elena Hartulari, “Nefericita petrecere a vieţii mele [My Life’s Unhappy Course]” the first Romanian-language women’s autobiography, now in a critical edition by the fabulous Constanţa Vintilă – a must read!
humanitas.ro/humanitas/ca...
Elena Hartulari, “Nefericita petrecere a vieţii mele [My Life’s Unhappy Course]” - book cover of new critical edition
November 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Letters from Bucharest to Prague, 1840s: feel the texture
November 12, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Alex Drace-Francis
purseigle.bsky.social
Please sign to protest the closure of Modern Languages programmes at Nottingham.

Solidarity with affected colleagues and students in Modern Languages and other departments.
👇👇👇
c.org/xYPmDLcXBn
c.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Alex Drace-Francis
houseofbast777.bsky.social
Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato
by Anny Gaul
Shows how Egyptians' embrace of the tomato & the emergence of Egypt's modern national identity were both driven by the modernization of the country's food system & driven by predominantly woman cooks.
#Booksky
November 1, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Alex Drace-Francis
petermandler.bsky.social
Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.
November 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
📖 Proofs! The introduction is called "A World in Motion"
O lume în mişcare [A world in motion], introduction proofs
November 6, 2025 at 12:42 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Quantitative analysis - I hope there's no mis-stakes in the data...
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 19d
Historian Dénes Harai appeared on Radio 4's 'More or Less' this weekend to discuss findings from his recent article published in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

Dénes's TRHS article, 'Counting the Stakes', is available here bit.ly/49hXy2n #Skystorians
BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, Halloween special: How many people did the real Dracula impale?
Looking at the math's behind the myth
www.bbc.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 6:26 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
"We had some seriously good turnips" - good to see the real reveal in this feature on Paul McCartney
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
"We put our backs into it, tilling the fields, and grew all sorts in our vegetable garden. We had some seriously good turnips." (Paul McCartney)
November 2, 2025 at 4:24 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
J’ai faim / Am foamé
French-Romanian dialogue about asking for food. From “Annuaire de la Principauté de Valachie” (1842)
November 2, 2025 at 12:11 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Plan de Bucarest, 1842
Map of Bucharest, 1842 (published in Annuaire de la Principaute de Valachie)
November 2, 2025 at 10:11 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
In Bucharest Strada Mecet commemorates the site of a former Turkish cemetery. So much for 'no Turks ever settled here'
Snippet of Bucharest (Google Maps) showing Strada Mecet (= 'cemetery' < Turkish)
November 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
November #Saturday ##ilfautcultiver
November 1, 2025 at 9:02 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Such a great colleague - such a sad loss. But what a lovely gesture!
uclssees.bsky.social UCL SSEES @uclssees.bsky.social · 23d
Earlier this week, SSEES staff gathered for the unveiling of a portrait of our late colleague, Dr Philippa Hetherington. Philippa was a historian and much-loved colleague, teacher and friend. The portrait now stands as a tribute to her scholarship, warmth, and enduring presence at UCL SSEES.
Colleagues gathered around the portrait of our late colleague Dr Philippa Hetherington on 29 October 2025. The portrait was unveiled by Philippa's husband, Dr Alessandro Iandolo.
October 31, 2025 at 6:41 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
The gastronomical origins of Common Slavic (Curta 2001) Not quite sure what to make of this intriguing beef-porridge theory
www.routledge.com/Slavs-in-the...
The disposition to express oneself in particular ways accommodating other people’s behavior finds its direct and concrete expression in language as koiné, but also in practice as “intentional matrix” of cognitive, affective, and volitive values. To put it in different yet simpler terms, if the Slavic koiné came into being because of real-life communicative acts, there must have been some practices that speakers of that koiné shared or wanted to share. A number of such practices are documented archaeologically and may well signal the social transformations responsible for the linguistic convergence. For example, the sudden appearance on many sites of a specific ceramic category, the clay pans, has been linked to radical changes in food preparation which are also signaled by frequent closed cooking pots and the greater number of cattle bones indicating the consumption of beef-based stews or semi-liquid, porridge-like foods. Because of its great nutritional and organoleptic properties, the resulting “soup” may have been consumed separately, possibly with large quantities of bread, such as that baked in clay pans. Moreover, clay pans seem to be associated with special kinds of flour-based foods, the consumption of which was reserved for communal ceremonies or feasts. Flat-bread baking and the associated clay pan phenomenon started at some point during the second half of the 6th century, perhaps during its last third, and then quickly became widespread during the first half of the 7th century. The accompanying culinary changes must have involved some components of the “intentional matrix,” particularly affective (tastes and feelings) and cognitive (concepts, perhaps also beliefs) values. To speak Slavic meant perhaps to be able to explain to others how certain new things were supposed to be done.
October 19, 2025 at 5:05 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
October Saturday ##ilfautcultiver
Raspberries Potatoes
October 18, 2025 at 7:35 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Anyone know who translated Foucault's Les mots et les chose into English?
Sad that the recent edition gives no details
www.google.nl/books/editio...
The Order of Things
When one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He di...
www.google.nl
October 16, 2025 at 9:56 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Applications are open for postdoctoral and other fellowships at New Europe College.
nec.ro/fellowships/...
Apply for a fellowship : NEC
NEC Institute for Advanced Study
nec.ro
October 14, 2025 at 7:42 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Stories in monosyllables from 1886, for didactic purposes
(Creangă, Metoda nouă)
dspace.bcu-iasi.ro/handle/12345...
"merg în târg. mă tund pe cap. văd un om sub cort. pe sus văd un corb. nu rîd ca un tont. văd cum duc un om mort. un cal murg şi un mânz pe câmp. torn must în vas. un băţ, de corn. un ţap cu un corn rupt. când mă culc, nu dorm mult. torc in. pun fân în ţarc. de turc nu mă tem."
October 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
New book: Tudor Dinu, "Grecia din România: Mănăstirile închinate din Ţara Românească şi Moldova, 1564–1866" [Greece in Romania: The Dedicated Monasteries of Wallachia and Moldavia, 1564-1866] humanitas.ro/humanitas/ca....
Tudor Dinu, Grecia din Romania (coperta)
October 12, 2025 at 12:34 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
amăgi related to magic - ultimately μαγεύω 'bewitch, enchant'
cf. farmec < φάρμακον 'drug, enchantment'
alexdrace.bsky.social Alex Drace-Francis @alexdrace.bsky.social · Oct 11
autoamăgire 'deluding yourself' - definitely a thing but a word that people actually use? Comments appreciated
dexonline.ro/definitie/au...
October 12, 2025 at 6:11 AM
alexdrace.bsky.social
autoamăgire 'deluding yourself' - definitely a thing but a word that people actually use? Comments appreciated
dexonline.ro/definitie/au...
October 11, 2025 at 5:40 PM
alexdrace.bsky.social
Proofs!
alexdrace.bsky.social Alex Drace-Francis @alexdrace.bsky.social · Jun 30
Today I press send on a book ms *and* an article - wish me luck!
October 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM