Professional update: this summer my family will be moving out of Michigan and (back!) to Texas. My wife and I will be joining the faculty at Abilene Christian University (which is where we met!). I’ll be in the History and Global Studies department, and she’ll be in the Graduate Scool of Theology.

Syriaca.org is hosting it's third annual summer workshop on digital humanities for Syriac Studies. If you are interested in learning DH skills, our data model, and how you can be a part of the work we're doing, please consider applying for the workshop.

Students, if you’re thinking about dropping a note to that teacher or professor about what their class/project/mentorship has meant to you, but you worry it will be cringe or cheesy, let me just tell you they will coast on the fuzzy feelings prompted by that note for months, if not years

Research associate position at the University of Oxford: Women in Syriac Christianity, 1500-1800 my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

The AHA has released a statement opposing the new Texas Tech University Course Content Guidelines, which prohibit content related to sexual orientation & gender identity in undergraduate courses, without defining these terms. Students deserve full and accurate histories. Read the statement:

with degrees in Religious Studies and the history of religion.

It is with great sorrow that we share the news that Averil Cameron has passed away. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her and her work. Further information will be shared in due course.

She was an wonderful scholar and an absolutely lovely human being. I'm heartbroken.

given the modern conservative fascination with Sparta it's at least a little funny that they've engineered a situation in which Persia is able to level a dramatically uneven battlefield by forcing the conflict into a narrow pathway

According to Academic Freedom Index, an annual benchmarking report compiled by researchers at Germany’s University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the decline in university autonomy in the US has been faster than in places such as Hungary, India and Turkey. 😮😡 www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Posted as self-criticism.

can you teach something at Texas A&M? just follow this flowchart. www.chronicle.com/article/insi... via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social and @mzahneis.bsky.social

Careers for History Majors, revamped and updated for 2026, conveys the value of the undergraduate study of history through clear graphs and informal prose. Readers will find hard data, practical advice, and answers to common questions from students and their parents. 🗃️

JUST IN: Texas A&M professor Melissa McCoul sues over firing linked to gender-related content in youth literature class. TX Gov. Abbott called for her firing. Among the defendants: former POLITICO owner & NOTUS founder, Robert Allbritton. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Two brave Texas Tech history majors speak on the record here. One would like to ask the Chancellor, "should I drop out?" www.texastribune.org/2026/02/04/t...

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

New Texas School Prayer Law Seems a Tad Fuzzy www.patheos.com/blogs/therel...

With all the AI spyware built into Windows 11 and AI's inability to prevent spewing protected information if prompted, some university lawyers should really investigate whether teachers using Windows 11 violates FERPA.

Publicly funded research should be publicly available!

I have been informed by the good folks at @gorgiaspress.bsky.social that my translation of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (aka 2 Baruch) is officially in print, though I don't have a hard copy yet. Here's a link: www.gorgiaspress.com/maccabees-3-...

History majors have lower unemployment than computer science majors. Folks with humanities graduate degrees are more sought after by corporate recruiters than those with MBAs. Study history! Get a job!

If forced to recommend a prayer for Texas school children, I'd probably go with Psalm 10.

Our team has been working on a major Open Education Resource (OER) about U.S. legal history for teaching and learning. If you are teaching U.S. legal history, we hope that EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW will help you and your students. Check out our initial launch site at: teachinglegalhistory.unl.edu

I was so happy to participate in the original roundtable discussion and this publication that came out of it. Many thanks to Dave Michelson for his work to bring this together!

A poem from this morning.

The ruling deems the government's termination of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities "unlawful" and allows a lawsuit brought by humanities groups to move forward.

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

BECOME UNGOVERNABLE

Congratulations to Prof. Salvesen! This is a very well-deserved honor.

Syriaca.org has been committed to curating linked data in the field of Syriac studies for over a decade. We are thrilled to see researchers using this infrastructure to do amazing work!

#booksky #writingcommunity

NEW: The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a 2021 censorship law can't be used to ban teaching about race and gender in Oklahoma's higher education institutions. This is a win for academic freedom and the First Amendment.

Exciting news! @unileiden.bsky.social now has its very own Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (L*CeSAR), run by my wonderful colleagues Kim Beerden and Rafał Matuszewski. Working on ancient religion, and looking to connect? Check out the website: ancientreligions.lucdh.nl

Free Workshop: Digital Encoding for Syriac Studies Syriaca.org invites applications for a virtual workshop on “Digital Encoding for Syriac Studies” on Tuesday, July 29th and Thursday, July 31, 2025. For details and registration information, see blog.syriaca.org/2025/06/digi...

Has there ever been a government office that has felt more fully a part of the community it represents? A staff as universally respected? An absolutely devastating blow.

It’s hard for me to quantify just how much the NEH has meant to my career. Beyond just direct funding, there are *so many* foundational DH projects, methods, and tools that were launched because the NEH was there to support them. It’s a dark day indeed.

Worth noting today that the entire budget of the NEH is about $200M.

I’m just gonna say, if you are not prepared and able to burn up your career defending the people you represent, do not run for a leadership position right now. Let someone else do it, someone braver.

I had the privilege of working with numerous NEH staffers as a grant recipient and as a grant reviewer. They were invariably smart, thoughtful, hard working people. The loss of having my NEH grant terminated without review in nothing compared to the loss of the NEH and its staff. I'm so sorry.

@utaustinaaup.bsky.social Pres. Polly Strong: “SB 37 will greatly harm the reputation of our research universities + lead to a brain drain of faculty + students. We are grateful to the reps who supported faculty on the floor…” www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...

Here some of Coptic Scriptorium’s next steps in the wake of the NEH mass cancellations. It includes ways to give, if you have the capacity blog.copticscriptorium.org

For those who have had NEH or other grants terminated, how are you handling this on your CV? I feel like we need an industry standard for this kind of thing so that readers know the nature of this termination, i.e. no finding of fault, just incompatibility with "the President's agenda." Ideas?

We have been effected: with @lizhebbard.bsky.social I posted a story on DailyKos last Sunday about the effects here in Bloomington, Indiana. www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...