Some exciting postdoctoral research opportunities in East Asian religions at University of Oslo, where you can work with the excellent Aike Rots! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

"More New Yorkers are borrowing books from the New York Public Library today than 15 years ago; borrowing is up 27 percent since 2010." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/o...

It's okay to hate AI, actually. www.thehandbasket.co/p/hating-ai-...

Another successful "Religious Studies Cake-Off" on the books at Lewis & Clark!

Excited to be returning this weekend to my graduate alma mater, the University of Virginia, to participate in the East Asia Center's 50th anniversary conference! eastasiacenter.as.virginia.edu/east-asia-ce...

🚨New preprint and our results are rather concerning.. We find the "boiling frog" equivalent of AI use. Using large-scale RCTs, we provide *casual* evidence that AI assistance reduces persistence and hurts independent performance. And these effects emerge after just 10–15 minutes of AI use! 1/

Looking forward to hosting @vox-magica.bsky.social at Lewis & Clark next week!

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

Job Opportunity: Harvard Art Musuems are hiring for a position of Associate Curator for Asian Art, specialising in Japan. Please help us circulate widely! careers.harvard.edu/job/abby-ald...

Lots of teargas at ICE tonight in Portland. People were just standing and chanting.

Princeton is hiring a one-year lecturer position in Asian Religions. Please spread the word: apply.interfolio.com/180148

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

Religious Studies friends, a question: I'm writing a response to the 2nd ed of Critical Terms for Religious Studies (2025). The first one was before my time, academically (1998), but some of its chapters--especially Smith (RRR) and Sharf (Experience)--cast long shadows on my grad school years -->

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

It’s useful to think about things like this in numbers of tenure track professors. $33M is 358 assistant professors. Or about fourteen percent of the total number of full-time faculty at Michigan State.

Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ. It's a surreal--and troubling--read. drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...

Universities must cut ties with OpenAI. And no, "cocaine is available on the streets, there's no reason we shouldn't dispense it in the dorms" is not a good argument. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/o...

Join me at Lewis & Clark next year to teach 3-5 courses in Korean Studies! lewisandclark.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/Faculty/job/...

somewhere in portland, there's one person, or a small handful of people, who came up with the inflatable costume idea, and I feel like they deserve our immense respect for defining the obvious developing aesthetic of the contemporary battle against fascism

UVA says no to the compact

i am feeling, i am seeing, i am hearing, i am getting the vibes, that students this sem are better than they've been in years because learning offers a rare haven from authoritarianism, a place to convene, commune, think together, refuel for the fight

"This 'compact' is more like an invitation to borrow money from the mob, with substantial control and future penalties assured" - Siva Vaidhyanathan, media scholar at UVA newrepublic.com/article/2013...

under this language charlie kirk would not have been allowed to speak on clemson’s campus

Opinion | I’ve dedicated my career to promoting free speech on college campuses. Here’s why the murder of a red state college dropout by another red state college dropout means it’s time to fire liberal professors in blue states.

Each Friday, I summarize what is happening to American science & higher ed. 🧪 This was Week 34: - UC Berkeley feeds the administration a list of targets - Dept of Ed rescinds $350M from minority serving institutions - faculty firings at Texas A&M & so (SO) much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

The president plans to invade Chicago this week. Now to schedule the vet appointment and get the kids’ backpacks ready for school!

The attack on core departments, tenured, and tenure track faculty is now accelerating in blue states, building upon the assault on NTT colleagues. Far from resisting Trump’s assault on higher ed, University admins in Democratic run states are spraying fuel on the fire to make it burn faster.

I found this website full of usable resources as well as "solidarity solace for educators who might find themselves inventing wheels alone while their administrators, trustees, and bosses unrelentingly hype AI and nakedly enthuse the negative consequences for educator labor."

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

I'm so sorry to hear about the troubles at my graduate alma mater. I hope the faculty will keep fighting the good fight, as they have been. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.

Come work with me for a year, and help make sure religion in the ancient world continues to be taught at Lewis & Clark! lewisandclark.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Facult...

No indication here of why Dr. Jeon's visa was suddenly revoked. UH states: "We are aware that one University of Houston faculty member has been affected by the SEVIS visa terminations based on his recent status as a doctoral student at (Ohio State)."

New job: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Japanese Buddhism University of California - Berkeley www.h-net.org/jobs/job_displa...

Very happy to have been a part of this great volume that explores exciting new perspectives on Japan, religion, and Japanese religions. If you speak Japanese, have a look at this conversation between the editors of the OG and new Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions!

Did You Work on a Terminated NIH Grant? ProPublica Wants to Hear From You. www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

This is insane. “Everyone is welcome here” should be the principle guiding every classroom, not a banned phrase

When I was a teenager in an evangelical church in Arizona, my pastor would have used this as an illustration of the Antichrist.

The deadline for proposals for the 2025 American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Boston has been extended to March 10. Here is the CFP for the Japanese Religions Unit: papers.aarweb.org/group/14930

"Our Arabic program is half a millennium old but couldn't withstand the corporatization of the contemporary university because it isn't nuclear engineering"

Outstanding job opening in a legendary Buddhist Studies Department with an absolutely top-notch Japan Studies program as well. Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA is searching for a tenure stream assistant professor in Japanese Buddhism! recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF09824?fbc...