No historian can fail to be appalled by this exaltation of murder.

Oi biblical scholars: Stop saying “the” Old Testament without specifying which one you mean. Decenter the Protestant collection as the unspoken norm (especially if you’re referring to a collection of texts that predates the Reformation). ‘K thanks.

Expert here: We were not, in fact, ever puzzled. It has been and always will be a writing tablet. www.indy100.com/news/ancient...

It's emails day. A day in which I write all the emails. I loathe emails day.

My favourite Rosh Hashanah card! 🍎🍯

For the second time in The Kid’s 7 years of schooling, he heard “the Jews killed Jesus” in a lesson. This time the teacher apologized with an “I’m sorry if you were offended” and told The Kid to speak up in the future if something bothers them. I’m tired.

omg.

The firing of Jimmy Kimmel due to government pressure has rightly shaken those committed to free speech. Entertainers have always criticized politicians. The sign of a good politician who values free speech is to let them; only authoritarians take revenge - just ask the Romans./1

You forfeit any pretense of a world class education, never mind a concern for education *at all*, with this move.

Everyone on here is already a yawning pit of despair, go tell people on Facebook or down at the coffee shop.

The main function of AI is to make all text on the internet untrustworthy unless you personally know the source. We will boil the oceans and price people out of heat in winter for this.

The ability for independent scholars, like me, to get their work noticed, while also standing firm against gross copyright infringement (AI theft, etc) is shrinking fast.

Potential workaround if you're already logged in and get prompted by the ToS notification: opening this "privacy policy" link www.academia.edu/privacytakes you to a page where you can access the drop-down menu and reach "account settings." From there I was able to delete my account without agreeing.

I've followed @josephscales.bsky.social example and replaced all my work on academia[dot]edu with a statement on their new ToC.

A lot of the terms also specify use of materials for AI generation. I think I’ll remove what’s on there this week although perhaps the data has already been plundered

just did a fun podcast interview about GOSPEL THRILLERS so I thought i'd remind blooskie: i wrote a book! GOSPEL THRILLERS! it's a fun, somewhat quirky dive into fiction, conspiracy, and the Bible in (mainly) US culture! available wherever you like to get books! www.google.com/books/editio...

StopAntisemitism is calling actresses Nazis for boycotting certain Israeli film institutions. Whether you agree with a cultural boycott, baseless name-calling demeans the memories of the 6,000,000 Jews who perished at the hands of Nazis, including Nexus Project Director Jonathan Jacoby's own uncle.

And so it begins… is this the start of a new era for British universities, with their increasingly broken financial models? In any case, good luck to the new ’London & South East’ university! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I spoke to the Irish Times for this very good and rounded piece on the real-world effects of C***GPT in the humanities classroom: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/educ...

#MedievalSky I've forgotten where I've read something and hoping for some suggestions on scholarship covering 1. the increased taxation of Jewish communities in England (pre-expulsion) 2. whether that money was used to build churches / monasteries #MedievalHistory #Medieval #Skystorians

#MedievalSky I've forgotten where I've read something and hoping for some suggestions on scholarship covering 1. the increased taxation of Jewish communities in England (pre-expulsion) 2. whether that money was used to build churches / monasteries #MedievalHistory #Medieval #Skystorians

Thrilled to be the "teacher" for @theb4np.bsky.social's September class called "Shaped By Suffering: How Trauma Impacts the Bible and Its Readers." Join me on Saturday, September 27th at 12P EST: thebiblefornormalpeople.com/classes/shap...

unfortunately they won't, IME

Academics are under unrelenting pressure to accept the narrative of the inevitability of #generativeAI & to embrace it in teaching & learning. We resist - because it is ecologically destructive, ethically corrupt, & because it undermines the thinking abilities that make us both human & intelligent.

Can anybody suggest any good articles on the underlying racism (and other problems) of computer-generated (AI or otherwise)"reconstructions" of Roman emperors? I feel like I read something a number of years ago... Maybe by @sarahebond.bsky.social?

That feeling when I, a independent scholar, read something I *should* be cited in, in which the author cites other chapters from the same volume my work was published in, and yet...nada. bupkis. Frustration? Annoyance? Marginalization? Whatever the feeling, it's making it hard to focus.

My main professional organization, @medievalacademy.bsky.social, has just pub'd a statement about the use of AI in its journal. Basically, DON'T! "AI tools cannot take ethical or legal responsibility for their output or enter into legal agreements." www.medievalacademy.org/page/AIPolicy #MedievalSky

This Labor Day (US) I’d like to take a moment to honour Prof Judith Wishnia —Judy to me, Bubbe to her (great-) grandkids— a close family friend, French historian*, and ardent union activist. As a grad student she organized the first … *her house epitomizes the eclectic, eccentric academic

This Labor Day (US) I’d like to take a moment to honour Prof Judith Wishnia —Judy to me, Bubbe to her (great-) grandkids— a close family friend, French historian*, and ardent union activist. As a grad student she organized the first … *her house epitomizes the eclectic, eccentric academic

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

"Being in a colonizing discipline first demands and then encourages an attitude that might be called intellectual hubris." Turkle, Sherry (1984). The second self: Computers and the human spirit

4. Every other discipline thinks they can do history but they often cannot

I don't remember writing this but I do stand by it.

it was called "the dark ages" because all the lens filters were covered in soot and muck

Wow. Periscope Film just put this up, from 1950. It's a short (presumably made by Hollywood Film Companies) telling you that you should *definitely* trust the historical accuracy of Hollywood films. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPuU... @fakehistoryhunter.net

May his name be erased

Academics who want to comment on news should, please, consider local outlets. It's a place where your voice will ring out and, who knows, maybe even change some minds -- or give arguments and language to people who already agree with you, but need your support.

No cover image yet, but look what's coming from CUP 🤓 Veiling in the Late Antique World | Cambridge University Press & Assessment share.google/LTK0QdIDGuWF...

"What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet & the planet, reorient our economy & leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises?" 💯

Most lecturers at universities like Chicago would be eminently well-qualified to be on the tenure track at Chicago. The most salient difference between a lecturer and an assistant prof is luck—that a TT position in one’s field happens to open, that one is judged the best fit. /2

Society of Biblical Literature webinar on engaging in public scholarship about the Bible in our present context. www.sbl-site.org/news/webinar...

😂😂😂😂😭😭😭😭

Having enjoyed a few such threads, let’s do a “for every like I’ll post something I find interesting about ancient Judaism” thread.

16. Ancient Jews dressed in the same general way as other people in the Roman Empire. No Roman author who wrote about Jews and how they were distinguished from Romans (a topic they liked to get into) discusses differences in dress practices. This is apparent also in archaeological finds and artwork.

17. The aforementioned dress practices included socks and sandals (shout-out to @katieturnerphd.com for this and basically all of my clothing knowledge). See an Egyptian example here: www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Yes! Humanities majors get jobs! Which is quite separate from humanities *departments* getting funding. We're under-funded for ideological reasons, alongside mistaken cultural assumptions about employability. But our majors get jobs! At a high rate! History is a *good* major, so is Classics!

A PhD is, famously, an original contribution to knowledge. So no, I very much doubt a gen-AI built on copying other people’s texts could write or defend a PhD thesis. If it’s so good, why can’t ChatGPT craft Sam Altman a business model that doesn’t involve begging governments to relax copyright laws