James Harland
@jmharland.bsky.social
Late Roman & Early Medieval History & Archaeology @dependencybonn.de,
Exploring what happens when empires die.
Book available at http://t.ly/LfaV
http://jmharland.hcommons.org/publications
Exploring what happens when empires die.
Book available at http://t.ly/LfaV
http://jmharland.hcommons.org/publications
Pinned
Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems
For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, ...
www.routledge.com
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Reposted by James Harland
Another example of how AI - a supposedly productivity-enhancing technology - is creating more work for others and overwhelming/polluting communal goods.
In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
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November 28, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Another example of how AI - a supposedly productivity-enhancing technology - is creating more work for others and overwhelming/polluting communal goods.
Reposted by James Harland
I once went to a debate between Bourdieu and Hobsbawm. Audience question about the difference between a French and a British intellectual. Bourdieu wittered on for ages. Then Hobsbawm stood up and said “There is no such thing as a British intellectual” and sat down again to much applause.
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
This path leads to chaos.
November 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I once went to a debate between Bourdieu and Hobsbawm. Audience question about the difference between a French and a British intellectual. Bourdieu wittered on for ages. Then Hobsbawm stood up and said “There is no such thing as a British intellectual” and sat down again to much applause.
Just had an email through that was an exemplary model for how job rejection emails should be sent out, and it just goes to show that it can be done!
November 27, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Just had an email through that was an exemplary model for how job rejection emails should be sent out, and it just goes to show that it can be done!
Reposted by James Harland
One small step - now let’s take a long walk.
The founder of an investment company who bought an £8.5 million London flat after supplying 50 million faulty PPE masks during the pandemic has had a criminal restraint order imposed on the property.
www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
Financier’s £8.5m flat frozen amid tax investigation over PPE deal
Tim Horlick bought the Pimlico property shortly after his company was awarded the now-contentious £255m contract by the government
www.thetimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:05 AM
One small step - now let’s take a long walk.
Reposted by James Harland
Just a reminder that the people who run AI companies talk like this when amongst themselves and when you ask me if I'm anti-AI, well, I'm anti whatever the fuck this is
November 27, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Just a reminder that the people who run AI companies talk like this when amongst themselves and when you ask me if I'm anti-AI, well, I'm anti whatever the fuck this is
Reposted by James Harland
I've written a few, mostly scholarly, but this is probably the most publicly accessible. A short book written to introduce readers to how archaeologists get stories out of dirt, bones, and broken things
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 AM
I've written a few, mostly scholarly, but this is probably the most publicly accessible. A short book written to introduce readers to how archaeologists get stories out of dirt, bones, and broken things
Reposted by James Harland
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by James Harland
This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...
November 24, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...
Reposted by James Harland
And engaging in this kind of pedagogy is simply the entry-level version of when scholars do this, which I wrote about here. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
November 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
And engaging in this kind of pedagogy is simply the entry-level version of when scholars do this, which I wrote about here. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
Reposted by James Harland
Call for Applications!
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group invites submissions for the conference “Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom.”
📍 Bonn, 24–26 June 2026
More info: buff.ly/IvFb1wS
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dfg.de
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group invites submissions for the conference “Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom.”
📍 Bonn, 24–26 June 2026
More info: buff.ly/IvFb1wS
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dfg.de
November 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Call for Applications!
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group invites submissions for the conference “Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom.”
📍 Bonn, 24–26 June 2026
More info: buff.ly/IvFb1wS
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dfg.de
The Ottoman Slavery Working Group invites submissions for the conference “Ottoman Slaveries and Typologies of Unfreedom.”
📍 Bonn, 24–26 June 2026
More info: buff.ly/IvFb1wS
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dfg.de
Something I have long struggled to understand is what on earth exactly did people find so controversial about the Stuttgart 21 project in the first place?
www.dw.com/en/stuttgart...
www.dw.com/en/stuttgart...
'Stuttgart 21' high-speed rail opening delayed once more – DW – 11/19/2025
Conceived more than 30 years ago, Stuttgart's new high-speed rail connection and station project is billions over budget and years behind schedule. The latest planned opening date, December 2026, is n...
www.dw.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Something I have long struggled to understand is what on earth exactly did people find so controversial about the Stuttgart 21 project in the first place?
www.dw.com/en/stuttgart...
www.dw.com/en/stuttgart...
Reposted by James Harland
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems
For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, ...
www.routledge.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
The paperback of Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum is now available to pre-order. There is currently a Black Friday discount of 25% available with the code BF2025S, making it < €39/£33!
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
www.routledge.com/Ethnic-Ident...
Does the TAG programme offer any means of seeing the individual papers?
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Does the TAG programme offer any means of seeing the individual papers?
Reposted by James Harland
Deutschlands Hochschulen im Stresstest: Wenn Populismus auf Wissenschaftsfinanzierung trifft
Das Wissenschaftssystem ist weniger geschützt, als viele glauben. Programme könnten durch einfache Haushaltsbeschlüsse gestrichen werden. Justus Henke im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/11...
Das Wissenschaftssystem ist weniger geschützt, als viele glauben. Programme könnten durch einfache Haushaltsbeschlüsse gestrichen werden. Justus Henke im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/11...
Deutschlands Hochschulen im Stresstest: Wenn Populismus auf Wissenschaftsfinanzierung trifft
www.jmwiarda.de
November 18, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Deutschlands Hochschulen im Stresstest: Wenn Populismus auf Wissenschaftsfinanzierung trifft
Das Wissenschaftssystem ist weniger geschützt, als viele glauben. Programme könnten durch einfache Haushaltsbeschlüsse gestrichen werden. Justus Henke im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/11...
Das Wissenschaftssystem ist weniger geschützt, als viele glauben. Programme könnten durch einfache Haushaltsbeschlüsse gestrichen werden. Justus Henke im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/11...
Reposted by James Harland
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
Reposted by James Harland
Science fraud is on the rise, facilitated by for-profit, open-access journals (Richardson et al, 2025, PNAS). These same journals are accelerating author and reviewer burnout by profiting from quantity while neglecting quality. Choose society journals where reputation and community are everything!
November 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Science fraud is on the rise, facilitated by for-profit, open-access journals (Richardson et al, 2025, PNAS). These same journals are accelerating author and reviewer burnout by profiting from quantity while neglecting quality. Choose society journals where reputation and community are everything!
Reposted by James Harland
ok folks! big announcement! AusTAG 2026 call for papers is open! so is registration! are you an archaeologist doing neat theory things and in Australia 22-23 May 2026? come to Adelaide for AusTAG!
Call for Papers: AusTAG 2026
Every business has a unique potential waiting to be tapped. Recognizing the keys to unlock this growth can set an enterprise on the path to unprecedented success.
austag.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
ok folks! big announcement! AusTAG 2026 call for papers is open! so is registration! are you an archaeologist doing neat theory things and in Australia 22-23 May 2026? come to Adelaide for AusTAG!
Reposted by James Harland
Ich. Kann. Das. Verstopfungsargument. Nicht. Mehr. Hören. #IchBinHanna
November 17, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Ich. Kann. Das. Verstopfungsargument. Nicht. Mehr. Hören. #IchBinHanna
So Merz is turning out to be the German Boris Johnson and/or Berlusconi huh.
November 19, 2025 at 7:21 AM
So Merz is turning out to be the German Boris Johnson and/or Berlusconi huh.
Reposted by James Harland
Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter
Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
This is who the man has always been, and his refusal to offer contrition or admit it shows that it is who he, and his party with him, will always be.
‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
This is who the man has always been, and his refusal to offer contrition or admit it shows that it is who he, and his party with him, will always be.
What a joy it is to be facing the prospect of this a second time before barely getting out of my mid-30s.
"We divorced the stock market from any real reflection of value by hyping up how our bogus product will change humanity. Now you have to bail us out when this all comes crashing down, because it'll screw you too."
November 18, 2025 at 7:58 AM
What a joy it is to be facing the prospect of this a second time before barely getting out of my mid-30s.
Reposted by James Harland
I miss new tech being actually interesting and exciting, instead of just the latest in running series of scams and/or spyware.
I miss when technology used to be fun.
November 16, 2025 at 4:47 PM
I miss new tech being actually interesting and exciting, instead of just the latest in running series of scams and/or spyware.