dead bugs, etc

erica | 29 | they/them phd - history of natural history i like museums, insect collections, and weird old academia stuff [sideblog - i follow from exoentomologist]

[paulromijn]

Sign outside coffee lounge in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

[deadnaturalhistories]

7 November 2025 / I've done a terrible job of keeping up on my academic committments, and that also shows in my failure to post in forever! Today's pics are from some antiquing adventures Dad and I have gone on recently - we visited the Honolulu House in Marshall as a side quest.

Most everything has been same old, same old - teaching lab, grading, working on bee research, failing to work on my article publication goals or anything else to do with history research.

This weekend, I need to both grade this week's lab reports and hopefully make some headway on editing my paper on a series of insect migration studies in the 1930s and 1940s.

I also just started Tom's Crossing, so I'm probably going to have Big Thoughts about MZD's new book soon.

[deadnaturalhistories]

1 October 2025 / About a month ago, I managed to get to a quilt show! I'm always amazed - I quilt, but I could never. The ransom note quilt was my absolute favorite.

Since my last update, the actual lecturer for the history of medicine class returned! I had fun teaching it for a month, but it is nice to be back to a normal workload instead of trying to teach 5 labs and learn the material for the history lecture and then give the history lecture twice a week!

I've also gotten started on both an AHRC fellowship proposal and revising a chapter of my thesis for submission to a journal. I'm really hoping that getting back into the swing of Doing History Stuff through teaching will continue to get my butt in gear publishing.

Tomorrow I teach three labs (which should all be short); in between sessions, I need to catch up on grading lab reports and continue to edit the thesis-chapter-for-journal-submission.

[1five1two]

Miroslav Šašek.

[deadnaturalhistories]

19 September 2025 / I did manage to get out to the lakeshore before teaching started back up last month. :)

Today was as expected - survived two meetings, graded a bunch of presentations, graded a bunch of lab reports, and got started on the readings for the next history of medicine lecture I have to give.

[deadnaturalhistories]

18 September 2025 / More of Ely! That really was the highlight of my summer, even if the trains were bad that day.

I'm just barely keeping my head above water with teaching to be honest. This week has been a lot.

I have a bee meeting and a lab meeting tomorrow, then I think I'm mostly just grading papers.

[deadnaturalhistories]

10 September 2025 / I am a huge fan of finding big old churches in rural England!

I managed to give my best lecture yet today!! Woo!!! I also got through my second lab of the week and tracked down something that was going weird in the bee research data.

Tomorrow I teach 3 labs and that's all I'm doing for the day.

[deadnaturalhistories]

9 September 2025 / This guildhall/old gaol in King's Lynn was a personal favorite - I'm a big fan of the weird-ass checkery brickwork.

No real updates outside of I'm almost ready for tomorrow's lecture (I have two slides to finish) and I survived our first post-Labor Day lab! I also survived Monday's lecture, but it was Rough.

Tomorrow, I have to give the lecture, figure out some bee stuff, and teach an evening lab.

[amnhnyc]

On this day in 1936, the last known thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) died at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. The animal’s passing marked the extinction of its species. Also known as the “Tasmanian wolf,” the thylacine was Australia’s largest marsupial predator. It sported a dog-like form, with distinctive stripes, and a jaw that could open up to 80 degrees—one of the largest gapes of any mammal. 

The thylacine fed primarily on small mammals and birds. Nocturnal and shy, it was seldom seen by humans. However, beginning in the 19th century, settlers believed the animals threatened their livestock and, spurred on by a bounty offered by the government, hunted them relentlessly. Attempts at protecting the species in the wild came too late: Despite numerous unconfirmed reports of sightings in recent decades, no definitive sightings have occurred since the 1930s.

Photo: Tasmanian Archives, PD, Wikimedia Commons

[the-evil-clergyman]

Fireflies in the Early Summer by Watanabe Shoka (19th Century)

[deadnaturalhistories]

7 September 2025 / Also part of my week of bugging my fellow volunteer in Norfolk: exploring King's Lynn! This is the inside of a very old chapel and pilgrimage site that had really cool, really old graffiti inside. We managed to remember to stop in on the one day we could when it was actually open - volunteers only open it for a few hours twice a week.

I was significantly less productive in terms of number of tasks completed today than I was yesterday, but at least my lecture and slides are assembled! I also helped a friend clean up her apartment. But mostly I finished up my slides with help from a curator friend in London and refined my lecture notes using a lecture from this class a few years ago.

Tomorrow, I need to give the lecture, start on the readings for Wednesday's lecture, and make my planner for October. Hopefully I can get some sewing done later this week.

I am really hoping that teaching this class gets me motivated to work on publishing all of my PhD research, which I'm still just sitting on.

[deadnaturalhistories]

6 September 2025 / I also managed to spend a week bugging my bestie/fellow museum volunteer at his new house in Norfolk! We did some serious bug hunting in absolutely beautiful bits of countryside.

Well, I accomplished ....some serious something today! I managed to finish the last reading for the History of Med class, dealt with some bee data, graded my last three sections worth of lab reports, AND drafted up slides and lecture notes. The slides need photos and like. Actual information, and the lecture notes need refining, but that's Sunday Erica's problem.

Tomorrow I need to finish up slides and lecture notes. Ideally, I'd also start on the readings for Wednesday's history class, but we'll see if I have any brains left for that. I also need to make my October planner. And maybe do some mending.

[deadnaturalhistories]

5 September 2025 / One of the cooler things I got to see while back in the UK was Bodiam Castle! Definitely weird in that it's THE stereotypical medieval castle.

Anyway, I survived giving my first lecture EVER on Wednesday!

It wasn't ideal, but the students were kind about it (and none of them did any of the readings...). I got to share some insider bits and photos from some of the medical school collections in London where I have friends, which was fun for me and clearly interesting for them!

Today I had lunch with my old supervisor (who got me the position as a sub in the first place), which was really nice and reassuring in terms of Doing A Bad Job Of Lecturing. I also had a lab meeting afterwards, and news of me teaching in the History Department has spread through the Biology Department like WILDFIRE - one of my old profs showed up to my office to get all the news direct from me having heard about it all through the grapevine, which was very funny.

I also managed to get through all but one of the readings for the lecture on Monday - I need to be more efficient this week, since all of my labs are also running on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tomorrow I need to finish the last reading, grade at least one section worth of lab reports, and start assembling slides and lecture notes for Monday.

[deadnaturalhistories]

2 September 2025 / When I went back for graduation, I also went and stayed with my museum bestie for a week in northern Norfolk - we did a daytrip to Ely, Cambridgeshire, and it was LOVELY. The cathedral was beautiful!!

I managed to finish the last reading for tomorrow's class pretty fast, then spent annoying amounts of time fielding emails and dealing with bee research. I have all but two slides done and 80% of a lecture assembled! So I'm cutting it closer than I'd like but so be it.

Tomorrow I need to finish the lecture materials, give the lecture, and grade lab reports.

[deadnaturalhistories]

1 September 2025 / Ooops. I passed my viva and then fell off the face of the planet, apparently. Anyway, I recently went back to London to walk at my own graduation - the horror all of the PhDs felt when we realized the poor announcer man was reading our entire thesis titles out loud was Real.

Of course I stopped in to the Natural History Museum!!!

I'm back to teaching labs part-time but with the temporary bonus addition of a History of Medicine lecture thanks to an unknown emergency for the lecturer. Which is fun for me, but presumably not for her. As such, today I spent most of my time working through all but one of the readings in the syllabus. I know very little about the history of medicine, but apparently I'm the one person the department could think of who could step in last minute who was at least tangentially qualified??

Tomorrow, I have a meeting with one of my PhD supervisors who's actually a historian of medicine to talk through some stuff for the lecture I have to give this class this week, then I need to do the last reading and also.....assemble my lecture slides. And write a short lecture to go with them. I'm also going to phone in a favor and see if I can get some fun (relevant) photos of wax dissection models from a museum where I know the curator and which is not open to the public (so these students would never see them).

More generally this week, I need to grade last week's lab reports, do more of the readings for my New Class, and meet with my old old old advisor who's the one who put my name in the ring for this class and who's kindly sending me her materials from when she used to teach it! And I need to get ambitious again and edit some thesis chapters for publication. Like. Seriously.

[peaceinthestorm]

Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922, Australian) ~ One hundred and fifty-eight medium- and small-sized moths, in seven columns. A wide range of families is represented, including the NOCTUIDAE, ARCTIIDAE, LASIOCAMPIDAE, LYMANTRIIDAE, GEOMETRIDAE, PYRALIDAE, SESIIDAE, etc. 

Watercolour with bodycolour on green paper

[Source: Christie’s]

[deadnaturalhistories]

10 December 2024 / I PASSED MY VIVA WITH NO CORRECTIONS TODAY

more to come eventually about this whole thing, including a broader update, to come but for now I did it! In the meantime, please enjoy this raccoon I found in an antiques store