Ireland votes by landslide to legalise abortion

From The Guardian:

Ireland has voted by a landslide to legalise abortion in a stunning outcome that marks a dramatic defeat for the Catholic church’s one-time domination of the Republic.

The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of abolishing a controversial constitutional amendment that gave equal legal status to the lives of a foetus and the woman carrying it. The result was a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no.

By voting yes in unexpectedly large numbers to abolish the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution, the country has enabled the government in Dublin to introduce abortion in Ireland’s health service up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.

FINAL RESULT

% Turnout		64.13%
Yes/Tá		66.40%
No/Níl		33.60%

see also Referendum Ireland

Be Celebrating the Treatment of Women in Anglo-Saxon England

Article from author Lynda Telford @ History News Network:

What was the way of life for most ordinary women during the early Middle Ages in England? The answer is surprising. In Anglo-Saxon England – before the Norman Conquest in 1066 – men and women enjoyed relatively equal rights and social, cultural and religious conditions. Compare that situation with the changes brought by the Norman Conquest – a woman became a possession.   Over eight hundred years of hard struggle for women’s basic rights – and to get back the legal safeguards that Anglo-Saxon women took for granted!

I write what I think is right…take it or leave it: Historian Romila Thapar

From Times - Mirror Now News:

As a globally renowned professional historian, she has in recent years been the target of vicious right-wing trolls who are out to spread their own version of history. If it doesn't seem to overly bother her, it is because, unknown to most, Romila Thapar's life has been one lived amidst sustained hate and criticism.

She maintains that arguing a particular position in any discipline is a constitutional mandate as long as she sticks to the given methodology and substantiates her research with enough evidence. 

"But I have been firm on the fact that as an academic historian, I will go on saying what I wish to say, on the basis of my research," she said.

Amelia Earhart bones found in Nikumaroro, claims scientist

From NEWS dot com dot au:

A SCIENTIFIC study claims to shed new light on the decades-long mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart.

According to the New York Post, Richard Jantz, an emeritus anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee, argues that bones discovered on the Pacific Island of Nikumaroro in 1940 were likely Earhart’s remains. The research contradicts a forensic analysis of the remains in 1941 that described the bones as belonging to a male.

The bones, which were subsequently lost, continue to be a source of debate.

Earhart, who was attempting to fly around the world, disappeared with navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937, during a flight from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island in the Pacific.

read more @ New York Post

Conference at Bryn Mawr Looks at Women Who Lived as Social Outliers

From Bryn Mawr College:

In the summer of 2018, faculty from a number of institutions and disciplines will come together at Bryn Mawr for a week-long research session around the topic of “Women’s Bodies as Sites of Social Navigation: The Cultivation, Display, and Consumption of Female Beauty and Sexuality.”

“Such women might include mistresses, courtesans, prostitutes, movie stars, and pagan mythological and epic characters.”   The session is being held June 4-9.

Obit: Joan Bershas

Obit by Anna Collins published in The Guardian:

Of Russian and European Jewish heritage, Joan developed a strong sense of her identity as European rather than American, and at 18 she left the US to study medieval history at Newcastle University. Thereafter she made her home in the UK, although she only renounced – or “denounced”, as she put it – her American citizenship towards the end of her life.

After two degrees in medieval history, Joan retrained in art and paper conservation, learning from experts in the field and becoming one herself. By the time formal qualifications for conservators had been introduced, Joan had been restoring for years and her high reputation was enough to secure her work.

Joan travelled widely in the course of numerous historic wallpaper conservation projects, including many for the National Trust. A highlight of her career was her involvement in a Royal Geographical Society project in Zanzibar, aimed at conserving British administrative archives, particularly correspondence from and about early explorers.