Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Yes and yet several European countries are embracing a far-right worldview that would burn these policies to the ground, so let’s be not be smug or complacent here - particularly as Mamdani‘s pro-immigration stance is radical by European standards.

I’m reminded that the French pillaged artifacts of national heritage around the world and claimed it was others weren’t sufficiently modern enough or advanced enough to properly care for these important objects. When it happens (again and again) in France, it’s an “aberration”

In ‘Muslim Wales: A History in 9 Places’ Abdul-Azim Ahmed explores the stories of 9 Welsh places, and the people, artefacts and buildings associated with them, which highlight the deep history of Islam in Wales. Publishing 23 February 2026. Pre-order our website www.serenbooks.com/book/muslim-...

It’s been a pleasure working with Lex and everyone in the politics vertical at Teen Vogue. I’m heartbroken that my column, Disability Visibility, is gone. Teen Vogue was one of the few places that published disabled journalists regularly. I just spent the last 2 months working on my next column

I'm in PastsImperfect! along with a lot of very cool and exciting news 😍

In our latest History Workshop article, Sara Kazmi presents a curation of two protest poems in translation from the Punjabi anticolonial tradition.

A few years ago, we did a series called Personal Pan Histories. Each piece came with a recipe by the author. We didn't ask people to pitch simple comfort foods, but they did. Anyway, it's a good time to revisit a series of six pieces about what food means to us.

I am so upset. Last week Time Magazine solicited a piece from me on Zohran Mamdani & anti-Muslim hate. I pitched a framing re the dehumanization of Muslims & how Mamdani’s inclusive, socialist campaign in its content resists that. They agreed. I wrote the piece. 1/

And yet they are full of rich centrists telling us to listen more to working class people

Before we at @contingent-mag.bsky.social do our Face/Off project in the new year, we want to try a few with editors as participants so we can get the wrinkles smoothed out. Any contingent non-historian who studies women’s friendship (19th c US good but not required) want to try w/me? (it’s paid!)

🗣️ PLEASE SHARE 🗣️ I'm writing an intro & sourcebook on late ancient Gazan literature for Dar al-Kalima University Press. The press and I plan to produce an Arabic translation to make Gazan literature more accessible to Palestinians. Help me compensate the Gazan translator! spot.fund/dn8t744sc

This from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social is a clear and horrifying explanation of the atrocities underway in El Fasher. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kindly share as much as you can I’m not okay I don’t even have the strength to show up anymore. But my family still holds on to me as their only hope. Please donate for them so that there’s still something in this life worth surviving for.😞

one of the things I love about a well-written book is the part where the writer succeeded! I just wanna high five them and be like FUCK YEAH YOU DID IT!

🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!! I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨 cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

Every single chance I get I teach the history of Haiti. Because it absolutely did teach the world not just about freedom but also the violent repercussions often inflicted on those who seek freedom and justice.

NEW: 300+ writers, scholars, and public figures refuse to contribute to the New York Times Opinion section until the paper takes accountability for its role in the genocide of the Palestinian people. It includes 150+ NYTs contributors. boycottdivestunsubscribe.com

No one is coming to save us but us.

The language that politicians always use to respond to allegations of racism, such as "I'm not racist in my heart," is always premised on the idea that there is a pure, stable interior self that can be abstracted from the way it acts in the world. We are all post-Enlightenment Protestants.

Most histories of hoodies go with 12th century monks as the originator, but I like to show my students this one from 5th-7th century Egypt.

My blog post with the ADAM network has now been published. It's about precarity, the future of small subjects, and communal approaches to academic work. I hope it will resonate with some. #IchBinHanna #KleineFaecher #SkandiRetten difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...

... & the way that the precaritization of the academy leads to disabling of more & more scholars [from www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi..., pp. 100-01]

A useful animated video, illustrating how everyday noises—ones non-autistic people may not notice—can overwhelm an autistic person, in some cases leading to bolting and meltdowns that uninformed people dismiss as "autistic behaviors." Please watch and share. youtu.be/K2P4Ed6G3gw?... #neurodiversity

My dearest friend set up the weekly and monthly donation options so that we can stay alive after a tent was destroyed just 100 meters away from us last night. The sand covered our faces while we were still alive. I’m deeply depressed and can’t keep begging one by one for help anymore.

So Asmaa had trouble with the link when it first posted and now Bluesky has deleted her account- if you can help her it would be appreciated

#OTD 1966 • Aberfan Disaster 🥀 On Friday the 21st of October 1966, a wave of coal waste slid down the Aberfan Valley, taking the lives of 116 children and 28 adults with it. #Wales #History

archaeologists: this structure replicates and elaborates an architecture of power and domination linking it to earlier imperial expansions and creating a symbolic genealogy typing it to ancient European cultures, and thus to a very 19th c idea of inherited white Christian power 1/2

Kurt Vonnegut famously said that “History is merely a list of surprises. … It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." But, honestly, a lot of history from below is written so no one continues to be surprised by these people, their existence, and their abilities in the future.

I'm really looking forward to this! All my interactions with colleagues and students within IMS have been really positive so far. Register on zoom to join us here:

“At first glance, Alom Shaha's book is another of those compact hardbacks with six or seven essays that have done so well in the popular science field…But in reality, Shaha is doing something far more original and interesting”. Amazing Amazon review from someone who writes their own pop sci books!

This week on my Patreon I wrote about how different people see spaces differently, and how we map that. And I show off the maps that I did for Nicholas Trepanier's recent book on medieval Anatolia! The post is free and public, so give it a read! www.patreon.com/posts/it-ain...

Today I published a new section of my website with resources for those who wish to learn, study, and/or teach ancient languages using braille. It rests on work we did over the past year to expand screen reader access to these languages through the LibLouis library. Check it out and share around!

A reminder that the #Medieval #MiddleEast was commonly polyglot, and therefore the academic divisions between (Greek) #Byzantine Studies, #Armenology, #Syriac Studies, and "Christian #Arabic" Studies distort the lived reality of the medieval past.

Every time I hear a politician talk nonsense about "Judeo-Christian values," I want to start using the phrase "Judeo-Islamic" more widely.

Aftonbladet's interview with Greta Thunberg is now available in English - it raises many serious questions, not least about the Swedish govt. effectively abandoning its citizens to torture because it doesn't agree with their politics. A thundering disgrace. www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25...

After a warm reception at Dorchester, I've been invited to give my Women of the Roman Arena talk again. This time I'm headed to the Grovesnor Museum in Chester. If anyone is nearby on the 15th of January, I'd love to see you there! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-of-t...

Usually, to show an author love, the first rule is: buy the book. And, you can totally buy this book---but, it's also available OA, which means you can in a few weeks' time get it for free. luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1... So, the updated rule: to show an author love, get her book and read it!

Thrilled and touched by a truly generous donation of $1,000 just now. That means we are only $739 from this student's goal! 🎉 🥹 Fifteen $50 donations. That’s all it will take. Let’s get him into the home stretch this week! Grateful for anything you can give to this truly worthy cause.

COVER REVEAL AND PREORDER: The Public Scholar - A Practical Handbook. "Perry focuses on the practical details of how to approach public scholarship. How do you pitch a piece to an editor? When should you follow or ignore the rules of the genre? And what happens once your piece is out in the world?"

Hear Ye! The #IMC2026 Bursary portal is working! www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/about/bursary/ 🥳 Thank you for being patient while we fixed the issue! If you have already started an application, please go back to it and resume where you left off.😊 Deadline: Friday, 17 October 2025 at 23:59:59 BST (GMT +1)

As an author in a world where it is so hard to get news about your books out there, it really does help when people take the time to support your books online. If you like a book and you take the time to support it online, it really helps authors out. Thanks, Mick. #booksky #writing

"In the images of the area, even the sunlight looks different and otherworldly. I couldn’t figure out why, until I realised it was because there were no structures to filter it. No shade, no shadows. A home returned to is just a plot on which to pitch another tent and wait for aid."

The notion that those who took part in slavery or conquest were merely abiding by the moral standards of their time necessary excludes those they targeted and kidnapped from those standards; *they* were never confused about this. But other white people were frequently disgusted by this stuff too!

‘My heart is broken’: Palestinians begin searching the Gaza rubble for their dead. Using manual tools and their bare hands, people start the immense task of trying to find their loved ones’ remains. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

History and memory are not the same thing (even when they overlap). As Prof Otele says, statues are about collective memory. And people have always taken down statues and built new ones - statues mark who society wants to acknowledge as important (and why), something that changes over time.

Here's a tale for anyone who'd like to know what I've been up to over the last year... and if you're able to help/share, I'd really appreciate it. Autistic StoryTime – Classical Studies Support share.google/0XfKZucMCoAr...

Joy is actually a shared experience if you let it be. It’s infectious and that makes it motivating. Even if it’s not happening directly to you, it’s a sign of possibility and hope. And also, just, like, it’s nice when people are happy! That’s a state we should wish on everyone!

I’m sharing a Palestinian account every day and today is Azza. Before this Azza worked in a kindergarten and her husband owned a small coffee shop. They lost their home in the first two weeks of the war. They are trying to survive with their children Nisreen, 16, Layan, 14 and Ibrahim, 11.

They're cutting religious studies programs so everyone can study tech, just when the tech world increasingly demands religious studies education to understand it.