I've been encouraged to apply for flair for my contributions to questions about the history of chess. Though questions on this topic do not come up quite so frequently, I have answered questions such as:

Why do chess pieces look like they do? (Nominated as an "Interesting and Overlooked Post")

How has the strategy of chess evolved over the years? I also answer several follow-up questions in that thread. (Nominated as an "Interesting and Overlooked Post").

I've heard at the Inca ruler Atahualpa learned to play chess while he was a prisoner of Pizarro in 1533. What are the primary sources on this? Are there any interesting anecdotes about that?

Apparently chess was popular in the soviet union. was it ever "altered" to be less of a symbol of feudalism and hierarchy?

How did the Soviets come to be so dominant at Chess? (This answer has been linked in a few more recent threads).

What is the earliest period of history that I, a modern man, could challenge a chess player to a match, and play with the same basic understanding of the pieces and rules?

There are other answers, but they go back more than a year. If accorded, I think I would fall into the "Other" category and simply put "Chess" in the flair.

Over the past few months I have found myself writing multi-post answers that deal at great length with the politics, ideologies and civil societies of the Achaemenid and Sasanian realms (and as ever cursed to parentheses, the Arsacids). I have even ended up voicing some strong objections to high-effort answers in this area. This is perhaps not all that surprising, with how inseparable the history of the religion is from the royal ideology of these realms. I had a look at my log, and I think it has reached a point where applying for a flair amendment reflecting this would not be unreasonable. Therefore I would like to apply for the addition of "|Pre-Islamic Iran" to my flair. If that is too broad, then "Pre-Islamic Iranian Empires" or even "Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires" would also be fine (if less elegant!), and within the character limits. Given the lack of a dedicated "Central Asian History" flair category, I'd prefer to stick with the category "History of Religion and Philosophy" since that is my primary angle anyway. So, without further ado, to the merits:

• Did the status of women in Iran improve following the Arab conquests?

• What role did the Persian Emperor play in Zoroastrian theology?

• Why did Zoroastrianism stop spreading? Was it because the Persian Empire was conquered?

And from Saturday Showcase, broadening the subject matter a little:

• The Cyrus Cylinder - Myth, Fact and Forgery

I do see on re-reading that there's a lot of overlap in these answers since they largely deal with royal ideology and its relation to the religion of the empires. So feel free to throw additional questions at me; the Achaemenids might be the better choice for a complementary one, since a good chunk of primary sources for the Sasanian Empire or making inferences about it are of a religious nature. Plus, I always enjoy opportunities to make use of Kuhrt's amazing Achaemenid source compendium :D

I've been invited to apply here. My formal education in history is a B.A. in history and government, with a special emphasis on American presidential rhetoric (sadly we don't get many questions about that!). Most of my answers in r/AskHistorians have been about Western naval history and military history from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. There are lots of curious people asking about these fields and it's been a subject I've personally studied for the last 5+ years.

Here are some selections of answers I've written. Several have been nominated as "Interesting and Overlooked Posts."

• Prizes and captured ships in the Age of Sail - Capturing Ships?
• WWI and WWII infantry weapon design and development - Why did it take so long for people to make viable self-loading rifles for infantry use?
• WWII and Korean War infantry combat - What was the typical engagement distance in WW2 between combatants?
• Racial policy in the WWII U.S. Army - If I were a black soldier who just enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attack, was it possible for me to be in the same unit with people from the states that had segregation laws?
• Pacific Islanders in WWII - What is the extent of Pacific Islander participation on the Pacific Front?
• The development of U.S. Navy carriers and fleet doctrine pre-WWII - The primary success of Pearl Harbor was crippling Americas battleship fleet. How did it's own lack of battleships affect the US Navy's approach to the conflict? What tactical and strategic limitations did this cause? Or were carriers an adequate replacement?

I'll leave it to you as to what flair would be appropriate. "Western Warfare 1800-1955" or "Western Military History 1800-1955" seems to fit. If that is too broad, then something like "U.S. Armed Forces 1917-1955" might also work.

Thanks!

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Hi :)

I'm an Australian history major with a keen interest in Australian colonialism and Indigenous history.

Was there ever a wild west era in Australia?

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What do we know about pre-European-contact Australian seafaring?

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Australia was famously colonized by people who didn't really want to go there. Who went to New Zealand, and why?

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The trading of Victoria, Australia for beads and scissors

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Is it true that Native Americans and Australian Aborigines cared more about the Environment than the Old World did, or is this just part of the noble savage stereotype?

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Why was the colonization of New Zealand so different to the rest of the New World?

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How do historians responsibly handle subject matter that makes them deeply uncomfortable, like cultural practices that most modern individuals would find immoral or even evil?

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I've also answered questions in the past as u/AnAngryPacifist, including this one which is in the Oceania FAQ.

Why Didn't Other Cultures Colonise Australia?

I liked this one too. The others ramble on a bit.
When Gallipoli battle occured, Australia was only 13 years olds. Did the they consider/identify themselves as Australia,English Or even state based .

Thanks for your consideration. :)

Hi! I found myself replying a lot this last week, so I thought I'd finally bite the bullet and try applying for flair. Although I have a few other areas of personal interest, my formal academic areas are Victorian Literature and Weird Fiction 1920-1940. Should I say British Victorian Literature? The definition of "Victorian" is always murky...
In this thread I talked about romantic relationships between women in the Victorian era, with a sidenote about Victorian erotica that I won't be showing my mother when I try to convince her my PhD was a good idea.
In this thread I started by talking about H. Rider Haggard's use of terms for black Africans and also answered a question about science pre-Darwin linking humans to apes.
In this thread I talked about British attitudes towards the idea of the end of colonial rule in India, focusing especially on the building of New Delhi.
This thread isn't recent, but I wanted to include something I had written about my second (which was actually my first) specialization. The school I teach at didn't consider weird fiction academic enough, ^^but ^^that's ^^fine ^^^I ^^^like ^^^Victorian ^^^fiction ^^^too ^^^^I ^^^^guess....

Hey! I haven't been here for a while, but I used to post here and was wondering whether, based on a few of my comments today, I can get a flair! Of course, if you'd prefer to see more and longer posts over more than just one bored night :), I'd be glad to hold off and reapply, but I figure it's worth checking! I'm currently finishing a master's degree in modern Jewish history, and would love a flair in Modern Jewish History.

Samples:

Persecution of Jews in Japan

Cultural interaction of Jews in different countries before the modern era

Percentage of Orthodox Jewish victims of the Holocaust

Thank you for your consideration!

Hello! I'd like to apply for a flair alteration.

I've found myself (reflecting stuff that breaches the 20-year rule, perhaps?) answering more and more questions about interwar anti-fascism. I've felt for a while that my flair as it stands was a little redundant, and also perhaps suggests that my interests are more military than they actually are.

As such, I think "Spanish Civil War | Anti-Fascism" would better reflect the range of answers I'm actually giving these days. Ideally, I'd also like to be moved from 'Military' to 'European' category.

Some of my anti-fascism answers:

The Battle of Cable Street: Original answer and some follow ups.

Did anti-fascism, you know, actually work anywhere?

Who were anti-fascists actually opposing anyway?

I can probably dredge up a few Spain answers for which anti-fascism is a key component if you'd like more evidence - the two fields are not exactly distinct (as indicated by the middle answer...).

Howdy Moderinos,

I would like to apply for a flair! It would be under Art History, hopefully with something related to Lou Harrison, Bach Reception, and Early Music (if I can swing it somehow. Can always come back for this one later if I need more answers for it) and/or Western Music. Maybe something like Lou Harrison | Early Music| Bach Reception ?

Background: Have my undergrad in Music composition, am going to be a graduate assistant in Music history in Fall (still composition). Most of my research is to do with Lou Harrison, Early Music, and Bach reception. I'm a little bit knowledgeable in ethnomusicology due to my research in Harrison's cross-cultural "meddlings", hence knowing a little bit about Chinese music and Gamelan.

1+2: Some Lou Harrison stuff from the Saturday series talking about his artistic legacy, and starting to delve into his interactions with the West and World Music.

How are the motifs of Mozart's Symphony No.40 and Beethoven's Symphony No.5 more well-known than so many other classical pieces?I invoke Bach reception knowledge in order to talk about the Germanic pedagogical tradition

What was the standard tuning frequency for music in the ancient world?Talking about early chant as an example of how pitch was not standardized in early music.

How hard would it be for a low-income citizen to go and watch an orchestra?Doesn't invoke my topics at hand, but does show general Western Music knowledge.

(Bonus Lou Harrison-related content)

What did Chinese Musical Notation Look Like?Includes a self-made transcription of some more modern Chinese traditional notation, and fortunately slightly overlaps with my interest in Lou Harrison.

Hi, wanted to modify my flair. I realized that in my studies so far I really ended up focusing on three geographical areas the most, whether it was history or anthropology. These are the Philippines, China and Taiwan, and Viet Nam. I think it would be better to have something a bit more specific than before. To reflect this, I would want the new flair to say “Philippine Studies • China and Taiwan Studies • Viet Nam Studies”. I think this overall reflects the books I have contributed to the booklist and also the fact that my answers tend to be multidisciplinary (which is why I say “studies” rather than only “history” , or something too specific, in the flair). These are strong areas of interest and ones I stay up to date on very well even for recreational reading, and I think the flair should reflect that.

Hello, I've by chance replied some questions in this subreddit since last month, and encouraged to apply a flair. Though without Ph. D (having M. Litt. and MPhil), I've taught some history classes mainly about Medieval Europe both in undergraduate and in graduate levels for a few years.

Some of my answers mentioned in Sunday Digests in the past are in the following question threads:

• How aware of each other were Jewish communities in distant parts of the world before the the Modern (1492) era?: mentioned in here.
• Why did Snorri write the Prose Edda?: mentioned in here.
• When and how did straits like those of Gibraltar, Bosporus and Denmark become an unpassable obstacle for ships that were rejected passage? : mentioned in here.
• Why did the Pope move to Avignon?: also mentioned above.
• Why were wooden ships just not burned/destroyed by fire in battels?: also mentioned above.
• In Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain there is a large section of prophecies attributed to Merlin. Would readers of the time have understood these prophecies to be legitimate and accurate, or would they have believed them to be a literary invention?: mentioned in here.

There are also some more my personal favorite answers in the following question thread:

• Use of the Iron Ram in the battle of Svolder, how did it work?: What I answered in this thread is just an example of how to distinguish the 'older layer' of information in Old Norse skaldic verses, supposedly made in the 11th century, from other prose saga narrative written in the 13th century Iceland.
• How far could a small group travel in medieval Europe per day?: employed an Old Norse itinerary to estimate the average travel speed of the medieval pligrim on road, though very crude one.
• As a student, how would one read/notetake Viking Age Sagas (or Middle Age Chronicles in general) constructively?: is a summary of the historiographical trends on the approach to the Icelandic sagas.
• Getting into Valhalla- representations of Dane religion in the show “The Last Kingdom”: among the answers I posted for pre-Christian Norse religion(s), this is probably the most well-written.
• What knowledge did mainland Europeans have of Iceland, Greenland and Vinland during the Middle Ages?: As some of the readers have probably already noticed, I know rather better about the Scandinavians after the Viking Age than the Vikings.

To what flair would be appropriate is entirely up to you, I suppose: something like 'Medieval Scandinavia' or 'Medieval North~~~~Northern~~~~ Atlantic ca. 1000-1500' (?) in European History?

Hi,

I'm interested in applying for flair for 19th Century North America. My graduate work in history is on the US Civil War era, but I do a lot with Canada and British America generally as well. I was a flaired user before under a different username, but I let that lapse for privacy reasons.

I commented here recently on Unionism in east Tennessee.

I commented on immigrants in the Union Army here.

I comment here on US-British relations in the 19th century, with further replies here and here.

I also comment here on slave escapes to British colonies.

For flair text, I think "19th Century North America | Filibustering" is probably best - you can leave off the filibustering part if its too long or too specific. If you'd like to see my previous flaired life, PM me and I can direct you to it.

Hi, I'd like to receive a flair for "17th & 18th century Dutch political history, political thought, and media".

As this topic only comes up very rarely I've only written one contribution so far: Lesbian relationships among 18th century European elites

I do however have a master's degree in History (wrote my bachelor thesis on 18th century political thought in the Dutch Republic and my master's thesis on the relation between the economic and political elite, again in the 18th century Dutch Republic). I also have one published article about pamphlets, newspapers and letters in the seventeenth century.

I can provide proof of this in a personal message of course.

Hi! I am looking to apply for a flair based off some answers I have given pertaining to Japan's Sengoku period. For a bit of background, I am self taught on the topic, and my degrees are outside the field of history.
AH responses:

I wrote this multi-part response to a question asking about peasants in Japan from the 12th-17th century. The user who asked the question deleted his/her account, and it seems the body of his original post is no longer there. It was a list of questions pertaining to the topic which I went into in my response. He/her also asked a follow up set of questions asking about merchants, which i also provided a multi-part response.

I wrote this multi-part response to a question asking about rural samurai that worked the countryside, which i provided information on the jizamurai, which fit the description.

I wrote this response to a question asking about why warrior monks fought during the Sengoku period. This post was featured on your weekly overlooked responses thread.

I wrote this multi-part response to a recent question asking about the shift from bows to firearms in Japan.

As for the flair, I believe something along the lines of Sengoku Japan would be appropriate. Thank you for the consideration.

Hello,

I was recently given a "Quality Contributor" flair and I suppose it is about time to actually apply for one then. I would like to apply for a flair indicating that my area of expertise is "Indian Buddhism and Minority religions in South and Southeast Asia," or something along those lines. I'm an anthro-undergrad in the later area and have a personal interest in the formation of Indian religion, particularly the Śramanic ones. I have answered a number of questions including:

How did the Sinhalese end up in Sri Lanka,

Despite the Influence of Monotheistic faiths, how has Hinduism survived in India;

Indian historian's book could categorically change the history of Buddhism if it's indeed true. Was the Buddha not born in Lumbini, Nepal but in Odisha, India;

Was the Kama Sutra really a reflection/influencer of Indian sexual culture, or was it just refined erotica targeted at a small noble audience? Was it known among the general public before modern times;

and the long What are the origins of the LTTE and the related issues of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka?

I'm not particularly active due to a lack of free time, but I tend to post around once a month or a few times in a burst.

Edit: I just noticed that Anthropology is not a flair type, so maybe History of Religion and Philosophy would work.

Hello Mods,

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I got a shout out in this week's Sunday Digest from u/gankom and that inspired me to put together a flair application.

Here are some of my posts, the first three from the last few months:

-How Rutherford B. Hayes became a hero to Paraguay

-What Italian cooking was like before tomatoes -the closest post to my research interests

-The end of the House of Aviz in Portugal (and House Gardener of Highgarden)

-Feeding the Roman Army

-Peter the Great traveling 'incognito' -not sure if it's my best post ever but it has the most upvotes, and apparently I made a lot of further comments throughout the thread.

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Admittedly, there's not a central theme among these, and somehow they all manage to be at best tangentially related to my actual area of study/research (as I am working on a dissertation early modern Spanish cookery). My optimal flair would be (Spanish Empire | Culinary History)- but I fear that this application does not have enough to justify both of those. If it helps, I also have a nice post about encomiendas, but went with the post on Roman logistics here because "Culinary History" is more important to me as a potential flair, even if it does not come up too often as a topic (at least not when I am prepared to make a post!).

Thank you for your consideration

Hello there, I'd like to apply for a 19th and 20th Century Geopolitics Flair.

Research, studies and demography from the Napoleonic Wars up until the end of the cold war has always been a passion of mine. When I was in grade 6 my social studies teacher let me pass the time reading some of the books he kept around. One of which was his university level history textbook. Since that time studying this period and understanding the foundation basis of national traditions or entities has been a particular joy for me.

Here is some examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/awxlik/ito_hirobumi_was_nominally_opposed_to_the/ehpzaqm/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/azj4ls/people_talk_a_lot_about_ottoman_decline_and_the/

For the latter I answered why the Ottoman Empire was considered a "Sick man of Europe" and why Austria-Hungary was not in two separate answers for the same thread.

Looking forward to a possible response.

Another six months, another flair revision request (sorry.) I'd like to request an alteration to Taiping Rebellion | Later Qing Dynasty or Taiping Rebellion | China 1800-1911, as 'Opium Wars' is probably (well, definitely) problematically Eurocentric and doesn't quite reflect the range of answers I've been writing recently. For examples,

1. From this month, Parsi merchants in southern China;
2. Also this month, Late Qing court finances;
3. From February, the development of provincial warlordism;
4. From January, the relationship between the Taiping, Arrow and Sino-French Wars; and
5. From December, early colonial Hong Kong.

Hello mods,

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I'm currently an undergraduate student at an Ivy League university working with our history and east asian studies department on my undergraduate thesis. I'm not sure if my answers thus far have reached the level of technical detail required for a flair, and my account is rather young, but I'm going to give this a shot anyways. I'm requesting 'Late Imperial China|Wanli to Kangxi'. Related Coursework includes two capstones in late Ming and early Qing urban culture, a graduate level class on the Imperial examination system, and another capstone course on the imperial exams, in addition to other courses in history.

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My answers so far:

To What extent was the Ming-Qing transition noticed by European powers?

Was there ever a Standardization of the Chinese language before Putonghua? (Contains an over-generalization, my bad)

Shout-outs in the Sunday digests:

How, if at all, did contact with the West influence 19th and 20th century historiography in East Asia (esp. Qing and post-Revolution China, Japan)? What independent schools of formal historical study existed in these places before extensive Western contact? And are they still relevant today?

I am a Chinese Imperial Bureaucrat in the Song dynasty. What do I do in my daily life?

What was the full title of the Chinese Emperor?

Other, shorter answers include:

Why are European style muskets the only ones that use bayonets? I felt that with this one, there wasn't much explaining to do. I just pulled a primary source, and translated it for OP to provide a straightforward answer.

For the sake of the record: have updated my flair to European History color: Sexuality & Obscenity | History of Privacy | Archives & Archivy

Howdy, I'd like to get /u/gingerkid1234's flair, as we're the same person.

edit: but we'd like to share if that's alright, since we might switch around or something.

If you have any questions about the flairing process or otherwise related to this topic, please restrict them as a response to this stickied comment only to prevent cluttering of the thread. Thank you!

Hey lovely mods! Just rerouting my request for a changed flair (to "Modern Jewish History") to its proper place, as originally mentioned here!