Seán Thomas Kane

November & December mark the first two postdoctoral months of my career. Whereas in the past I would’ve leapt headfirst into work on the first monograph I’m instead taking time to rest & refresh by spending those months with some fun reading that I’ve had piling up. #postdoc #historyphd #reading

First up tonight between the 4th & 12th innings of WS Game 4 I read the delightful correspondence of “84, Charing Cross Road” by Helene Hanff. I remember watching the film with Bancroft & Hopkins years ago and loving the story. Glad to finally read it. Found a copy of the 1990 Penguin ed. #reading

I might write something more about this. As short as this trip has been (1 week exactly) were we to remove air travel from the mix it would probably take 9-10 days at a minimum to make it from KC by train to NYC and ship to Gothenburg each way.

I grew up flying frequently between Chicago & KC with my family, so the notion that air travel could not be an option seems alien. Yet, I think it’s beneficial to consider how else to travel great distances should there be a need for an alternate route, or a bit of adventure.

I’m off this week to present research on Thevet’s perception of ecological change on colonized Atlantic islands at the Renaissance Ecologies conference of the Nordic Network for Renaissance Studies at Uni Gothenburg. Hope to see some European colleagues there! #earlymodern #envihist

The map is Thevet’s rendering of Hispaniola from his “Cosmographie Universelle” of 1575. From the BnF.

sthosdkane.substack.comIdealismReflections on Scouting, Ellis Island, and my Doctorate

sthosdkane.substack.com/p/idealism?r... Bringing together the two greet project of my life to date: my Eagle Scout and my doctorate with a reflection on my family’s visit to Ellis Island two weeks ago today mixed in. #phd #eaglescout #ellisisland

I’m proud to announce that my dissertation was approved today! Onto the next project. #phd #earlymodern #histsci

Today I presented research from the final chapter of my diss. on Thevet’s recounting of the environmental impacts of colonization on Atlantic islands. Good reception. #earlymodern #histsci #envhist #atlantichistory

18 Sept

It occurred to me around 2 o’clock this morning as I was leaving home for a weekend in New York that traveling without plans for research or writing or conferencing is this strange, and almost surreal thing called a vacation. First one in a while.

sthosdkane.substack.comTravel in Multiple StagesWhy it seems like travel days are getting longer for me

17 Aug

I've gotten used to trips being long and somewhat circuitous, though on my return journey from Edinburgh to Kansas City last month I was starting to wonder if in future I should find more direct routes. "Travel in Multiple Stages" #travel sthosdkane.substack.com/p/travel-in-...

17 Aug

This came out of a thought I had at O'Hare wondering if there's something different that can be noticed in the travel fatigue of people living in bigger cities with airline hubs vs those of us who are stuck making connections resulting in most travel days (for me since 2019) taking 10+ hours.

open.substack.comA Month in BritainA reflection on the 27 days I just spent in London and Edinburgh

4 Aug

A look back at my big conference & research trip to London & Edinburgh in July. open.substack.com/pub/sthosdka...

18 July

This last week I was delighted to attend #ESHS2026 #HSS2026 in Edinburgh alongside nearly 2,000 other historians of science. I had my first run organizing & chairing a panel, Contested Conceptions of Atlantic Animals, which brought together 3 disparate papers in dialogue. #histsci #earlymodern

Animal Aspects (Art History Animalia)

18 July

And it remains one of my great delights to spend a week with my fellow @hssgecc.bsky.social officers. If you're interested in joining us and building sessions for your fellow grad students & early career scholars at #HSS2027 in DC let me know!

Seán Thomas Kane reposted

@animal-aspects.bsky.social

13 July

#HSS2026 #ESHS2026 come to “Contested Conceptions of Atlantic Animals” chaired by @sthosdkane.bsky.social from 2:30-4pm for a trio of animal talks, including mine! typo alert 😭 it’s “Coatis: From the Americas TO Europe, From the Familiar to the Exotic” convention2.allacademic.com/one/hss/hss2...

convention2.allacademic.comCoatis: From the Americas the Europe, From the Familiar to the ExoticAs endemic animals of the Americas, coatis have co-existed alongside Indigenous populations for millennia. The coati is named in the Popol Vuh as the daytime animal avatar of the Maya creator grandmot...

12 July

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend the @sochistnathist.bsky.social meeting at @zslofficial.bsky.social celebrating ZSL’s 200th anniversary year. Today then, I’m off to Edinburgh for the big #HSS2026 #ESHS2026 #HistSci conference. Looking forward to seeing so many friends & colleagues.

20 June

I’m proud to announce that I was selected to join the Friends of Art Council at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It’s an honor to serve my community with this group of fellow museum members. #kansascity

open.substack.comDear DriversWritten after I was nearly hit by a car this morning.

6 June

open.substack.com/pub/sthosdka... A letter I wrote this morning after I was almost hit by a car walking through my neighborhood.

open.substack.comThank You, StephenIn appreciation for Stephen Colbert's run on late night

23 May

Thank You, Stephen #Colbert #Substack #NótaíasStaraí open.substack.com/pub/sthosdka...

commonwealmagazine.orgColbert the CriticBy serving as a voice for truth and challenging Americans to think critically about complex political issues, Colbert will go down in history as more than a comedian.

22 May

Of the handful of analyses I've read about the end of Colbert's run on CBS, this one from #Commonweal might be my favorite. #Colbert #LiberalCatholic www.commonwealmagazine.org/schlumpf-col...

open.substack.comNew PublicationAn Announcement

8 May

I'm launching a new Substack, "Nótaí as Staraí • Notes from a Historian." I'll publish essays, stories, and occasional poetry at least monthly about my work in #earlymodern #histsci in an informal outlet. #skystorians open.substack.com/pub/sthosdka...

nytimes.comFrance Passes Law Easing Process of Returning Looted Art

7 May

I have an article in the review process which addresses the provenance of two Tupi artifacts at #QuaiBranly that Thevet brought to France in 1556. It's interesting that this law excludes pre-revolutionary contributions to the national collections. #frhistory #museums www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/a...

contingentmagazine.orgThey Thought What?Unpacking the history (and present) of science

27 Apr

I'm proud to announce that my dissertation defense is scheduled for Friday, 15 May at 10:30 am EDT, 9:30 am CDT. Those of you in Bing are welcome to attend in person (LN 2200). Everyone else can watch on Zoom on mute if interested. Please let me know and I will share further details with you. #PhD

Seán Thomas Kane reposted

Ben Gross

@bhgross144.bsky.social

24 Apr

"Sometimes science 'progresses' in terrible ways...Brushing off these practices as unscientific implies that 'true' science is, and always has been, unimpeachable." Today's #histSTM lunch read: @wbarlowrobles.bsky.social's @contingent-mag.bsky.social piece on the dangers of Whiggish #histsci 🗃️📜

Seán Thomas Kane reposted

Nina Willburger

@drnwillburger.bsky.social

5 Apr

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating today! 🐰 Have a wonderful day. 📷 aprilmunday.wordpress.com/2022/06/19/t...

5 Apr

Tonight as my parish choir was doing a final rehearsal before the Easter Vigil Mass I noted to the tenors & altos around me that “O Filii et Filiae” is a French hymn “from just before the time I study.” It’s attributed to one of Thevet’s fellow cordeliers. Felt a sense of timelessness tonight.

16 Mar

Also, on Saturday we had 75°F (24°C) temps and beautiful sunshine. Great weather for my neighborhood St. Patrick’s Day Parade and tonight it’s sustained 60 mph winds and snow. I keep saying how nice San Francisco was a few weeks ago during the RSA. My video from the valet drive at my place of work.

16 Mar

I usually bring light reading material to fill the downtime in my theatre job. It’s easier to follow the plot than the scholarship we read professionally when you’ve got a radio going off in your earpiece. On Friday I was able to make progress reading one new book during a symphony dress rehearsal…

16 Mar

This evening though when I figured I’d have plenty of downtime in what was supposed to be an easy going 6.5 hr shift I ended up on my feet with constant radio traffic for the full 7.25 hr shift as it rounded out. The job is how I keep afloat at the end of the PhD, as well as I can.

20 Feb

Took a break this morning from #RenSa26 to visit the SF Zoo. Sharing the history of animals with readers everywhere. #earlymodern #histsci #animalhistory

17 Feb

I’m excited to present my paper “Parlaying Parrots and Sighing Sloths: Animal Utterances in Thevet’s Singularitez de la France Antarctique” about cultural interpretations of animal expression. Come hear my paper this Thursday at 14:30 PST at the #rensa26. #earlymodern #histsci

17 Feb

It’s part of a pair of intriguing panels on “Animal and Interspecies Histories in the Early Modern World” this Thursday afternoon in Continental Ballroom 7.

15 Jan

Bhuail mé leis nuair bhí 14 bliana d'aois. Bhí guth aige a chaint sé chuig an anama. I met him when I was 14. He had a voice that sang to the soul. RIP, a Seáin Ó Sé.

TG4@tg4.bsky.social

💔

13 Jan

I got the opportunity this morning to do some research in the Field Museum Library for an upcoming diss. chapter. I didn’t take any photos up there on the 3rd floor yet it was neat getting to see the professional side of the museum, somewhere I’d love to work if the opportunity arises. #histsci

11 Jan

If the Bears can win that game all of us ABDs can finish our dissertations and earn our PhDs and maybe even find a good job on the other side. From this Chicago area native at the #AHA2026, Bear down!

8 Jan

Spent the morning reading Guillaume Rondelet’s “De piscibus marinis” in the UChicago Library’s Special Collections. I’ve been working on sorting out what sort of marine mammal was Thevet’s “marousin,” when that name applied to dolphins, orcas, and porpoises alike. #earlymodern #histsci

7 Jan

This Friday @ 8:30 am, I’m presenting “Sufficiently Strange Beasts: André Thevet’s Catholic Comprehension of Neotropical Animals” in the @achahistory.bsky.social meeting adjoining the #AHA26 conference in the Chicago Hilton. A strange paper to write means it should be fun, right? #earlymodern

youtu.beIreland's Invisible RainforestYouTube video by Aidin Robbins

31 Dec 2025

youtu.be/8Qq9MhGJv2A?... #envhist #irishhistory This video touches on a lot of questions that are central to my own research on what counts as native, and the impermanence of nature, and the colonial impact upon island ecologies which André Thevet discussed in his #earlymodern cosmographies. /1

31 Dec 2025

/2 I found Aidin Robbins's videos only a few weeks ago and I really like his style and method of storytelling. I've heard stories as long as I can remember about how Ireland used to be covered by forests, yet this film gives life to those old stories in a way that I haven't seen before.

nytimes.comCan Apple’s AirPod Translation Get You Through Tokyo? We Tested It.

/1 Can Apple’s AirPod Translation Get You Through Tokyo? We Tested It. — A couple thoughts in this thread. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/t...

View full thread

/4 I’ve only used the translation headphones once: at the 2016 Eisteddfod in Abergavenny. I thought I was going to see some choirs but it turned out to be the Aberystwyth U-6 rap ensemble singing Bieber’s “Baby” while a 60-something guy in the booth translated the lyrics back into English.

/5 I had to leave because I was laughing too hard at the silliness of the situation.

nytimes.comCan Apple’s AirPod Translation Get You Through Tokyo? We Tested It.

/1 Can Apple’s AirPod Translation Get You Through Tokyo? We Tested It. — A couple thoughts in this thread. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/t...

/2 On the one hand this is one of the sci-fi technologies that I’m most curious about from the Babel fish to the universal translator. It’s a natural outgrowth of having translators in a booth doing it live.

/3 Yet this tech will work best with some education in the language. I need to have an inkling that the translation tech is accurate if I’m going to trust that I’m asking someone “where is the station” instead of insulting their mother à la Connery on SNL’s Jeopardy.

Seán Thomas Kane reposted

Brepols

@brepols.net

19 Nov 2025

The International #Bibliography of #Humanism and the #Renaissance (IBHR) has been updated. 3,022 records were added More Info: bit.ly/4o8eWKH #EarlyModern #RenaissanceSky #HumanismSky #Bibliographies #DigitalHumanities

19 Nov 2025

Last day of this trip and I decided to make one final stop at NYPL to read their Parisian edition of Marco Polo published in 1556. Another fascinating mile marker in the history of the European perception of everyone else that will be useful in my dissertation. #earlymodern #skystorians

19 Nov 2025

I always try to do something fun after a research stop. Today I was happy to learn that SUNY students get free admission to MOMA. Neat collection in a labyrinthine building. Along with neat art, I gave myself a strong dose of vertigo zooming my camera out to take the 2nd photo from the 5th floor.

18 Nov 2025

I'm making a quick stop on the way home from #HSS2025 in NYC to read the NYPL's copy of Vespucci's 1503 "Mundus Novus" and look through some of the objects on display at @amnh.org that relate to my current research. #earlymodern #histsci #skystorians