New book giveaway: reply to this post with a suggested “easy win” that a program in our field might try to strengthen its situation. The post with the most likes gets a free book—let’s give it a week or so. @rutgersupress.bsky.social www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/our-primary-...

LSU opening. jobs.chronicle.com/job/37889510...

There are people walking around in this world who have never known the sharp, hot, chemical smell of a mimeograph or untangled the cord of a landline telephone. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

New initiative: The Religion Department www.religiondepartment.com

Out next month. Completed a year ago and hopefully not appearing too late for a field badly in need of retooling. @rutgersupress.bsky.social #RutgersUPress www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/our-primary-...

Cover design for a new edition due out from OUP in Feb ‘26

New book. @equinoxpub.bsky.social

"Colleges are cutting all types of departments | Religious studies in particular keeps appearing on lists of fated units. Examining why helps explain a complicated mix of forces acting on higher education." @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social @chronicle.com #religiousstudies #religion

The article interviews scholars who are trying to navigate these pressures with creativity & urgency (@vox-magica.bsky.social @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social & @profirmf.bsky.social). The author (@ngluckman.bsky.social) is thoughtful and sympathetic about the what is happening to Religious Studies. 2/4

Students in Religious Studies courses, as @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social further notes, learn lots of critical skills in the process—and we shouldn’t be afraid of defending our field by pointing this out

Religious Studies scholars may not have done enough to explain why our work matters, as @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social further notes here +

Pritzker seems to be preparing everyone for a moment that’s like “I have no choice but to defend my state.” I think T will back down.

I used to read books like Lord of the Rings or watch movies like Star Wars and think the villains were unbelievable. And of course, now watching the tech oligarchs (who could not spend all their money if they tried) destroy civilization for power, I’m like, guess I was wrong. People are that awful.

Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are speaking out, saying Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is endangering the health of Americans. abcnews.go.com/Health/forme...

“Cassian, I’ve cleared a path.” #Andor2

A pretty disturbing Zoom bombing started off this informal talk with an int’l group of scholars of Islam last weekend but we finished it out. If interested… youtu.be/WibL2o2OtIg

@jakebarrett25.bsky.social (in his PhD at UNC) had a chat with me about the new edition of my book. Always fun talking with him. newbooksnetwork.com/religion-and...

Frey: And don't just say, this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.

New book just out from @equinoxpub.bsky.social — from a @naasr.bsky.social remote conf during COVID lockdown. www.equinoxpub.com/home/crisis-...

This week on Wed. Dial in. It’s important. @aarweb.bsky.social aarweb.org/event/future...

And many pleasant hedge trimming to come.

Stole a pic from Adrian: Aaron Hughes speaking at the #IAHR2025 world congress, happening now in Poland.

If interested. Tomorrow. northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

You don’t go to Cracker Barrel because it is woke or not woke. You go to Cracker Barrel because you are not at Aunt Carol’s house yet.

@teemutaira.bsky.social has a new & timely ed volume (papers from a recent @naasr.bsky.social conf) due out in Jan ‘26 from @equinoxpub.bsky.social www.equinoxpub.com/home/univers...

Two more volumes in the primer series—scholars succinctly answering common questions—are due out soon. And the second/expanded edition of the volume that started the series comes out late Fall. @equinoxpub.bsky.social

More evidence of the crisis we're facing in higher education: Closing the religion and culture department at Virginia Tech. Because, you know, religion is not an important force in the world that we need to study and understand better. And then people wonder how our democracy collapsed.

So many religion departments in the US have been gutted in recent days (Virginia Tech, Oregon) that it feels churlish to announce that my Religion Department is hiring a TT professor of Religion in the United States. Or maybe it's actually the right time for it. slc.peopleadmin.com/postings/2425

Nice to end the day with a sliver of hope for Religious Studies after the brutal news from University of Oregon and Virginia Tech.

It's official! We have confirmed a date for the book launch! Wednesday 5th November 2.30pm at OCHS, Oxford. Who's coming? 😃🙋‍♀️ @ruthwestoby.bsky.social @jimmallinson.bsky.social @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social @[email protected] @philipdeslippe.bsky.social @aledjllthomas.bsky.social

Great to have three new MA students in the dept, hailing from Iowa, Georgia, and South Carolina. Social theory + digital skills = career diversity. #RELdoesitdifferently

New cohort starts today.

Unflattering numbers suggests we need new economists to generate better stats. This is how it works now, right?

Same rules as our dept lounge.

We could have had cancer vaccines, and instead the United States will contribute nothing whatsoever to mRNA research, condemning millions of people worldwide to unnecessary illness and death

Coming soon from @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

File this under “kill the messenger.”

Hulk Hogan died at 71. Keith Richards is alive at 81. Clearly, exuberant smoking, drinking and drug use > constant exercise. Hope medical researchers are on this.

been recently describing "having ideas" as "receiving ecstatic visions" in interviews about the new book to see if it casts me in a more mysterious light

Still time to get the link aarweb.org/event/steps-...

“I told them I was an American citizen. I questioned why they were using those tactics on me. I asked about my constitutional rights. An officer outright said out loud that I have no constitutional rights at a point of entry,” says Wilmer Chavarria, a school superintendent in Vermont.

Joey did a 180 so hard the Lolita Express had to re-calculate its flight path.

this is very, very bad