Dr. Barry Torch

Now that I have MANY more followers than I ever expected, I think an introduction is necessary! Hi! I'm Barry Torch. I have a PhD in History from York University in Toronto, Canada, in medieval/early modern Italian history and intellectual culture. 1/ independentscholar.academia.edu/BarryTorch

Good publication news! A chapter I wrote on the Catalan poem of an imprisoned queen of Mallorca (either Constance of Aragon or Violante of Vilaragut, it's unknown) has been published! It's a part of the book, "España en la escena global. Redes de poder, comercio y cultura (siglos XV-XXI)! 🥳

In this cultural moment, we simultaneously believe university professorships have so much cultural cachet that they should be given as rewards to people distinguished in other fields, but also that the actual professoriate can be hollowed out, underinvested, and turned into a parade of adjuncts.

“Gifts for Men”: a basket of cleaning supplies and the complete works of bell hooks

It was the Dunning of tymes, it was the Kruger of tymes.

It’s always a good day when I convince someone to read Natalie Davis’ “The Return of Martin Guerre.”

In other news, the ebook is now available for pre-order - and happily significantly more affordable than the hardback! Get your Companions to Video Games and History here: www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

No ISBNs in Canada for AI writing. This is a fantastic policy, and every country should do the same. www.canada.ca/en/library-a...

I’m sorry to have to be the bad guy here but we need to recognize that we live in a compressed air thrusters world now. If you’re not finding ways to teach the critical use of compressed air thrusters in your classroom, you’re setting your students up to fail when you could be setting them up to fly

We know the names of apostles. What about the people who copied their words and read them aloud? In this Bible and Beyond Podcast, Candida Moss explores the overlooked enslaved workers who helped shape the Bible. earlychristiantexts.com/candida-moss...

We are sad to learn of the passing of Chris Wickham www.medievalists.net/2026/10/chri...

NRS E371/21, the final boss of archival documents, a century of assorted papers and parchments rolled together and stiffened with time, and sewed together through the middle of the bundle. I gave such a distressed look to the archivist that it got fast-tracked to conservation

Would you like to learn about the strange and scandalous way some 18th-century Venetians got out of dysfunctional marriages? Read my new article (open access!) about annulments for affinity by fornication! #earlymodern #18thcentury doi.org/10.1017/S073...

The Plan of Saint Gall in black and white. I couldn't find one that I thought was good for students to write on, so I made this. I took some liberties with the size of some spaces (to allow for text) and few descriptions, but overall I'm happy with the result.

1) Prof Drimmer does amazing work on art history and AI, and among dozens of other reasons, is worth following for her studies and thoughts on AI and the humanities 2) To quote her, “EVERY FIELD NEEDS TO ENGAGE IN CRITICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ITSELF!!!”

New Beforecast episode us up! More Machiavelli, this time zooming in on philosophy: youtu.be/YjvxKd-sORs

In today's @theguardian.com, an article about the #Voynich work Colin Layfield and I have been doing: www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

I still can’t watch “The Little Shop of Horrors” because of a very effective theatre production I ran out of when I was six. 😂😂😂

We spent a generation telling students the humanities are moribund, and they should all study STEM, only for the greatest advances in STEM in recent years to raise fundamental questions about the nature of personhood and identity that require the humanities to answer. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...

what's puzzling is that they are desperate to win approval from the Papacy -- to obtain a Papal imprimatur, as it were They basically want to convince the pope to entertain the notion that AI might be conscious (and, implicitly, might have a soul)

Users hate AI. So tech made it mandatory. Even if you don't use it, it pollutes what you read and how systems make decisions. The computer's hallucinated word is final. And it needs all of your data to do it. In the age of no consent, UX exists to normalized complete acquiescence to surveillance:

Jedi knights existed in the Middle Ages. Here's one with a lightsaber depicted in the 14th-century Luttrell Psalter. 🧵1/2

PSA: Stop being weird about the Talmud, folks. Being weird about the Talmud is Nazi garbage.

I know I'm screaming into the void here. But I still maintain my Academia account to download papers on my topic (I currently lack institutional library access), and accessing it on a computer now, I discovered their new UI. And the homepage is now completely useless.

Coming to a bookstore near you this summer! Thanks to everyone who made this possible. [Link in comments 👇]

Germany: No, let’s please forget.

It! Is! Live! (A friend sent me the heads-up bc I have The Best Friends!) English. Illuminated. Printed. Parchment. Bibliographical nerdery abounds. Read on!

I am happy to see that this book is now published! At Home in the Early Modern Dutch Dollhouse Gender, Materiality, and Collecting in the Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Netherlands by Michelle Moseley-Christian www.routledge.com/At-Home-in-t...

Watching Central Synagogue's Yom Kippur livestream services, and I cannot tell everybody enough how full my heart is seeing both men and women reading from the altar and reading and singing Torah. And singing *terribly* (just like me!) TORAH BELONGS TO EVERYONE! Happy Yom Kippur, y'all.