Mary Hitchman
@maryhitchman
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PhD-ing @OxfordHistory • reception of texts by late antique women • History tutor, Astrophoria Foundation Year
Oxford
Joined March 2012
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Pinned Tweet
An abbreviation of the name 'Perpetua' in a c.9th century manuscript. Very satisfying!
P with a line through = per
& = et
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A friend at uni told me he liked to walk around the city at night and listen to music with his headphones on. He asked why I didn’t do that too.
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My partner feeds the local birds from the kitchen window, and this morning I heard him saying to them: ‘Yes, I suppose everyone is hungry and upset after the storm.’
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Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45, largely due to societal pressures upon men to suppress their emotions. But, y'know, "man up".
I'm not convinced by this new trend of male public soul-bearing.
Time for our gender to get a grip, methinks. Life's tough- man up.
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A PhD is obviously a marathon and not a sprint, but why must I complete this marathon in flip-flops on a track made of lava
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How I think I look wearing a beret vs how I actually look wearing a beret
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'I wonder why my back hurts', I think idly, whilst hunched over my laptop like a goblin
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Plenty of nuns in France. Can't see police telling them to remove their clothes
#BurkiniBan
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Academics HATE her! Woman actually gets around to reading a PDF article she downloaded months ago
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I’m in a tiny bookshop in the Lake District. The shelves in the philosophy/self help section are labelled ‘deep things’, ‘deeper things’, ‘very deep things’, and ‘out of my depth’
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Every week I work a closing shift at Queen’s College library, and every week I get a variation on this view
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I'm just a girl, sitting in front of a Word doc, asking it to write a thesis for her.
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More photos of snowy Oxford! No one asked, but I cannot be stopped.
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Rude that I have to write my thesis as well as research it
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This streetlight looks like someone is gently tickling her neck
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Presenting Tove Jansson’s illustrated 1962 version of The Hobbit. I never knew this existed before today.
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New research technique - apparently you simply read the PDFs you've saved rather than downloading new ones?
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I am obsessed with this photo of Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet in 1899. The skull was given to her by Victor Hugo, because of course it was.
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It has finally dawned on me that I start my PhD tomorrow. Not a trial run, not a dress rehearsal, but an actual PhD. Heck.
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Studying classical Latin is like learning to drive a manual car; studying medieval Latin is like learning to drive an automatic. No I will not explain.
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An account by a medieval Chinese visitor to Byzantium - "They are very skilled sexually, and clever at weaving ... Cereal is scarce."
#wherearethecornflakes
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Last library day of 2020! I am being rewarded for my diligence by all this beautiful light.
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What is going on with Latin? I just want to know how 'capella' (type of meteor), 'capella' (goat), 'capella' (armpit odour) and 'capella' (chapel) all co-exist in the same language
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Sylvia Plath on academic life: ‘have deserted French and feel temporarily very wicked and shirking, must atone; also, feel stupid in discussion; what the hell is tragedy? I am’
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Things feel very difficult at the moment. Have some emotional support poetry (Mary Oliver)
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I read somewhere that with a first draft you set out to create a cathedral but what you end up with is a perfectly serviceable garden shed. I have just written a damp cardboard box.
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I just shot a man such an awful look after he told me to smile that he physically recoiled
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It’s thesis ghoul summer. I’ve all but moved into the library. I even got a fringe.
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My contract has been extended so I get to teach History for another year!
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The prettiest tree in Oxford has, to use the appropriate botanical terminology, absolutely popped off
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I, for one, like Roman numerals.
...I'll see myself out.
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If I were a ghost I could do some very good haunting here
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Dating another humanities PhD student seems like a great idea until you excitedly tell him that the word for ‘traitor’ in Latin is the same as the word for ‘translator’ (traditor, traditores) and he’s like, oh yeah I knew that
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Exciting news:
@fairban_c
and I are making a podcast! ‘On the Nature of Things’ explores how people of the past experienced, exploited and enjoyed the natural world, and it’s out this spring. We’re grateful to
@TORCHOxford
for supporting this project.
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Forgot the word for feathers. Got as far as ‘bird leaves’.
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An embarrassing and inescapable fact of my life is that my handwriting is based on the font of Edward Cullen's love notes in the Twilight series and now it's too late to change it
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Some lovely c.10th century Anglo-Saxon pen trials, which are inspiring me to up my doodle game.
BL MS Royal 15.A.xvi, fol.84v.
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Female historians on tv are always attacked for their appearance. If they look too polished or glamorous then they aren’t taken seriously. If they don’t conform to expectations of how women ‘should’ look they are ridiculed or criticised for lack of effort.
Gosh. Camilla Long in Sunday Times review of Civilisations has become AA Gill. Says she couldn’t watch more than 20 mins of my episode (review??) as it was “nonsense”. But at least I had had a”boil wash” & was thankfully wearing “someone else’s clothes”. Intelligent critique eh?
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Why does the first coffee do nothing and the second coffee send me into outer space
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I find learning Latin grammar so difficult. My brain has an infinite capacity for vocab but as soon as it sees a verb table it is like :) no room :) bam bas bye bye
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I've passed my DPhil transfer of status! Also when I'm happy/excited my temperature rockets so you wouldn't believe how warm I am right now!
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Every time I think Piers Morgan can't get any worse, he manages to outdo himself. What an utter cockwomble.
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Routine is important in lockdown. I have a day hot water bottle and a night hot water bottle.
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Lockdown 2 is going well, thanks for asking. I made eye contact with someone outside the library yesterday and I was so surprised that I threw coffee down myself.
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What business does the Blackwell’s Caffè Nero have looking this good
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Had a Zoom call with my friend and I offered to make them a cup of tea! Reality is disintegrating!
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Me: I should take a long walk today. I need some open space.
Port Meadow: I will be a lake now :)
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Being told off for muttering Latin aloud whilst translating, 'in case you summon something'
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The moon, or something that Stevie Nicks might wear to the shops
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Wondrous is this wall stone; disastrous events have shattered it
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The Bodleian Library was officially opened in 1602 and it now contains over 13 million books, manuscripts, and other printed materials. Can you think of a better place to spend
#WorldBookDay
? 📚
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Impostor syndrome is my thing. Or maybe it’s your thing? Do I have enough experience to claim that it’s my thing? Hope no one realises.
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After resisting it for years I've finally accepted my writing method, which is as follows:
- Read widely and excitedly
- Read specifically
- Make jumbled notes
- Brain switches off for 3-5 days. Cue despair/doubt/guilt
- Write 2000 words in one go
- Repeat
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Good morning. I am making Old English less scary with gifs.
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I commissioned this tiny beige bat (and I am taking name suggestions)
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Oxford is so beautiful, and I don’t imagine I’ll ever get used to it
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Every year someone new experiences the mingled joy and horror of seeing Victorian Christmas cards for the first time and I wouldn’t want 2020 to be any different
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Women in the 3rd century were illuminating manuscripts and copying out scriptures and I have the nerve to write half-sentences about them in a ratty Moleskine
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Periodically I visit the Oxford natural history museum to check on my dinosaur friends
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I’m going to wander into the library and pick up the nearest painstakingly-catalogued book and claim that I discovered it, like a real historian
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Learning new skills means being bad at stuff, sometimes really bad, for a really long time. We want the end product but we forget about the process, which is arguably more important. Feeling out of your depth encourages humility and compassion!
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Glowy magical light on 1st December. Does anyone else say ‘rabbits’ on the first day of the month?
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Time for a rare moment of twitter sincerity: I am so grateful to be studying at Oxford. My grandparents’ ambition for my dad was for him to go to work wearing a suit, and I wish they could see where I am now. I’m not taking a single second for granted.
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I had a play around with Instagram Reels this morning. Snowy Oxford!
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I went to the hairdressers after cutting my own fringe a few weeks back. My hairdresser dried my fringe straight to show me how wonky it was, turned my chair to face the mirror, and said “Sit and think about what you’ve done.”
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In sort-of academic news, I'm going to be helping out with research for the 'Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth' exhibition at
@bodleianlibs
! Finally, a chance to combine scholarly rigour with DRAGONS.
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Latin word of the day is 'crapula' - sickness caused by excessive eating/drinking; gluttony; a hangover.
Suggestion for modern day-to-day usage: 'Wow, I had a big night on Friday and now I feel crapula.'
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I just came across the Old English word 'ælfscyne' (literally 'elf-beautiful') - I am obsessed with this language and want to know everything
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Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon hosts friendly squirrels and deceased playwrights alike. Very glowy. 11/10
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Good morning! May you, like this serious, dinky unicorn, charge onwards and upwards to meet your goals today.
@bodleianlibs
MS Douce 6, c.1320-1330
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I learned a new word today: archaeoastronomy. It's the study of how historical people thought about and interpreted the sky. And there's cute star drawings.
(fig. 1 from McCluskey 1990)
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Hopping back on here to say that I am okay, perhaps better than okay, because my springtime washi tape order has arrived
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This isn't actually a languages account but I start French next week? Or should I say... next ouik.
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