About a 2 week trip to lots of state & national parks and visiting family: VA -> KC BBQ pit stop -> CO -> MT -> WY -> SD -> CHI Deep Dish pit stop -> OH -> VA

Getting a PhD is hard. But the intellectual growth from that difficulty is worth it (I can't say the difficulties of navigating the system are worth it though...). I can't imagine using AI for this, going through all this hell, just to come away with nothing but a piece of paper.

My first thought at seeing this image: Wow, that LiDAR looks an awful lot like a ravioli. And boy was I right and wrong in ways I didn't expect.

Comps! 1. Queer Theory & Archaeology/Anthropology 2. Sensory Spatial Analysis of Landscapes (this one is the hardest to define...) 3. African American Diasporic Archaeology

Definitely Much Ado About Nothing! I always felt like I ~should~ love Midsummer Night's Dream, but I could never get into it

We’re just innocent men

Really proud of this work, where we combined traditional archaeological methods and AI simulation to say that yes, this object was more likely than not a game board. How did we do it? I’ll explain 👇👇 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Another addition to the website to help us built *systems* and not just have me trying to do everything alone: If you'd like to adopt a rent that you can either *cover immediately* and fundraise for, or just pay outright, please fill out this form and we will contact you via Signal.

I can officially confirm that the snow in NC is roughly one (1) corgi deep

Never Known Hearing you snore Is safety I've never known #poems #poetry #love

Morning

Commentary: The Wayne National Forest is Ohio's only national forest, and remains a sanctuary for people who need an escape from their hectic lives. But Ohio officials are now looking to lease 41 oil and gas parcels, totaling 2,795 acres ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/01/14/w...

PRI REACHED THEIR GOAL!!! MUSEUM OF THE EARTH IS STAYING OPEN!!! Thank you all so much for donating and spreading the word, I'm so overjoyed! Good things are still possible! www.priweb.org/blog-post/pr...

NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research. Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪

I know not everyone is who they thought they would be under a fascist, authoritarian regime. That's okay. But it's time to do more than react and post about it. It's time to get organized—including mapping or creating lines of support and defense in your community.

"what if AI takes over the world?" if it ever gets so advanced that it could do that, which it won't, I would simply switch it off.

the trans music archive has announced a residency for 2 trans bands/artists at their recording studio in NY, plus a $1000 stipend www.transmusicarchive.org/residency

Off to labor all my possessions into a new home 💪 (I'm moving apartments)

#ICYMI free "Queer Book History" zine is out! Built on the great new LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography (led by @bibliowingate.bsky.social), by me + Alex, @nicolekeller.bsky.social @caitcoker.bsky.social +rest of the LGBTQIA+ #BookHist Bib team. A free, printable 32-page research+teaching resource:+

The Department of Energy said it will close FOIA requests from last year unless the requester emails the agency to say they are still interested. Experts say it's an "attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible." 🔗 www.404media.co/trump-admini...

Okay so there is apparently a Scientist Wanted But We Won’t Or Can’t Say It Secret Code for policy jobs. This is ridiculous. Here’s what I found 🧵

I don't think I've ever posted this here on Bluesky, so have some bug-drawing tutorials... (1/3)

Reading Queer Phenomenology by @saranahmed.bsky.social again 🥰

Twas accepted 🥳

Just got back from excavation & forgot what day it was & I'm hoping a last minute emailed abstract still gets into SHA 2026 🤞😬🤞

ICYDK: Godot, the open-source game creation software used to make Dome Keeper, Cassette Beasts, and Brotato, has a VERY beginner-friendly series of online tutorials here. gdquest.github.io/learn-gdscri... It says it requires absolutely zero prior experience with coding, and it means it.

We need a little break from the 18th century, so let's take a journey back in time to the early 20th. At the 2015 excavation of the former Dorchester Industrial School for Girls, City of Boston archaeologists & volunteers came across something cool, which we've never really shown off before. (1/6)

Pleasantly surprised by the hotel coffee ☕

Y'ALL. @flomask.bsky.social is going all out on this sale -- entire site, buy one get one half off. Thank you for giving us a great, safe option! www.flomask.com

Paging archaeology + history peeps: "We are raising funds to support 12 History & Archaeology students at the Islamic University of Gaza so they can finish their degrees. Together, they owe approximately $12,790 USD in unpaid tuition. Without financial help, they will not be able to graduate"

Do you know of a museum, library, or archive that offers images from their collection for publication or presenting, for free? Please use the form below to help crowd-source a list of these magical places!

Take the fictional characters quiz and post the first four you know: openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac... Idk what this says about me, yet it feels right somehow

My parents used to read me these before bed ♥️

I love my job 🥰

Literally, you cant be an anth/arch without confronting the simple truth that Anthro/Archs were the tools of Colonial, Imperial, Racist bullshit. If you're gonna be in the discipline today, you have to know it and deconstruct some stuff about yourself.

Va has SO MANY colleges, too 😬

Hey, who wants something nice? So I was on tour this month, and when I was doing my event for the Princeton University Library and the Princeton Public Library, I ended up at the graveyard, where I found this gravestone:

I've never bought something so quickly

Almost lost my trowel!

EVERYTHING ELSE ASIDE, Trump et al are destroying/flooding with applicants most of the career fields I’m interested in right now: -academia -museums/heritage institutions -non gov orgs (ie, nuke nonpro) -social justice orgs What a nasty incentive structure.

I am teaching my phd writing workshop course this quarter, question: are there any words/phrases said to you by an advisor/mentor that stuck with you, were memorable, or particularly helpful? If so please reply below!

Bleedin me dry like a goddamn vampire 🎶

One of the world’s most chilling ruins is the Ploutonion at Hierapolis, otherwise known as “the Gate to Hell”. Here crowds once watched priests lead animal sacrifices down into a cave, where they died mysteriously as if dragged down to the underworld. And no one knew how they did it until recently.

Today, the Ploutonion at Hierapolis reminds us of a time when gods and demons used to breathe out of the cracks in the earth. It reminds us that another world used to exist just out of sight, beneath the surface of our own.

This is neat!

Combine this with the capitulation of Columbia and the imminent capitulation of Yale and you learn one important thing about science and academia. Class exists there too.