A great couple days learning from smart colleagues and thinking about my own material from another direction. What a privilege this job is.

This. A thousand times this.

2 Postdoc Positions in Milan! Are you (or is someone you know) interested in modern (17th and 18th C) moral philosophy? Come join Stefano Bacin and I on the @erc.europa.eu Grant '18ETHICS': 18ethics.unimi.it/two-further-... Please share widely!

I had the honor of joining In Our Time for last year’s Sack of Rome episode. I recorded in Chicago so didn’t get to meet Melvyn in person, but I was struck by his preparation, curiosity, and erudition. His team was also incredibly impressive. I hope the show finds a way to continue Melvyn’s success.

Gain confidence reading Renaissance Italian sources with our intensive 5-day online course. 📅 17–19 & 22–23 Sept 2025 🕒 11am–1pm & 2–3pm daily 💻 Online via Zoom Early booking advised:

Want.

One of those times I wished I lived in the UK!

How do I become the academic equivalent of that billionaire tech bro who injects his son’s blood in a quixotic attempt to stay forever young?

We are thrilled to announce that the Conflict, War and Violence in the Early Modern World Conference, with a keynote address by Professor Mark Stoyle, will be held on 30-31 October at the University of Exeter. Please help us spread the world, and consider submitting a proposal!🗡️

Respectfully, Senator, “agonizing” is trying to figure out what on earth to do when your sick, frail parent has to leave their nursing home.

Virtual attendance option for this great event on early modern war’

#Renaissance & #earlymodern folks: Delighted that my intermittent recommending of BlueSky to @rsaorg.bsky.social for years is over. Time & bandwidth have aligned enough for them to arrive! Do add them to your #StarterPacks and personal lists, and share with interested folks. 🗃 #AcademicSky

When you finally submit a big project…

The Medici Archive Project is offering 12 short-term fellowships for pre-doc students and postdoc candidates, working on fields related to early modern Italy (preferably with a specific emphasis on Tuscan or Medici history). Deadline: 15 June. www.medici.org/fellowships/

Kennell Staten filed a complaint with HUD, saying he was denied an apartment for being gay — a complaint the agency had long taken seriously. Two days later, HUD informed him that it did not view allegations like his as subject to federal law.

“A” for “A good first day back in the archives”

As long as we don’t deprive students of real skills in the humanities as an offering to the AI gods in the meantime…

Very keen to read this, and excited I can do so via open access!

Happy #WorldBeeDay! 🐝 Silver tetradrachm coin minted in Ephesus, 390-380 BC. Photo Getty Museum #Archaeology

On May 15 and 16, the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa will host the conference "I Triumphi di Petrarca: testo, esegesi, fortuna". The meeting will be an opportunity for scholars to discuss the most recent philological and hermeneutical acquisitions relating to Petrarch's poem. Online via Teams

Any suggestions out there for student-friendly studies on dress, fashion, and cosmetics in Ancient Rome? Will serve as an intro unit for a course on the cultural history of Italian fashion.

🚨HIT THE PHONES TO SAVE MEDICAID - PLEASE AMPLIFY & ACT 🚨 TODAY the House will be marking up deeply unpopular massive Medicaid cuts. MANY GOP on the committee are in tight districts. Calls and pressure ARE effective here. Call today. Type your zip to get a script ⬇️ OcasioCortez.com/savemedicaid

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

Health care analyst @charlesgaba.com estimates that at least 15 million people could lose Medicaid coverage if congressional Republicans get their way. Read how MAGA Republicans plan to gut the ACA without actually repealing it. www.lincolnsquare.media/p/death-by-a...

If your grant was terminated & you are an MLA member (or in a related discipline), please fill out our My NEH Grant Story form. Your story can help inform the actions we are taking to protect the NEH. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Mellon to help offset the funding cuts to the NEH for state humanities councils: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/a...

You can also keep your crap “AI overview,” please and thank you 🙄

The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy awards an annual prize of $500 for the best paper on medieval or renaissance philosophy by a younger scholar. Details here: smrpblog.wordpress.com/founders-awa...

Email your representativies! There's a new bicameral Dear Colleague letter in support of reinstating everything at the #neh ! It's important for them to sign on in support. Use the National Humanities Alliance direct action email to send 1 email to all yr reps. Customize the msg: p2a.co/SBQi8e7

We’ve extended the deadline to submit an abstract for our colloquium on early modern war narratives! Please share widely and send us your abstracts! #earlymodern #history

A little rain wasn’t going to stop NYC. #handsoff

Statement from National Humanities Alliance, on saving the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): nhalliance.org/nha-statemen...

If you're in NYC on Friday, April 5th, check out this fantastic program at Columbia, Early Modern Women on the Move with leading lights of the field including Merry Wiesner-Hanks, @martinevanelk.bsky.social, and @ninalamal.bsky.social. (and it's free): www.eventbrite.com/e/early-mode...

Looks interesting!

Getting informal reports that as part of the mass layoffs at the Department of Education, the International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) Office has been "abolished." IFLE administers Title VI and Fulbright-Hays grant and fellowship programs. A disaster. www.ed.gov/about/ed-off...

Great thread, much needed timeline cleanse

In its 60 years, Medicaid has grown from a small program that provided medical care to poor Americans receiving cash assistance to the largest source of public insurance, covering 72 million people. Here is where enrollment in the program is highest. nyti.ms/4intZxz

the weekend, but at what cost

Naively I thought that the NEH and NEA would be the first to see major cuts…

Wish I were still in Chicago for this!

Now accepting announcements for book-length works published in the second half of 2024, which will come out in our next installment of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender New Book Digest. We will also accept early 2024 announcements from anyone who missed the original calls.

[CfP] Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of Early Modern Natural Philosophy. Deadline: 3 March 2025. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/... #earlymodern #poetics #femaleauthorship #naturalphilosophy

This June at the American Antiquarian Society: “Sex, Gender, and Print”: The 2025 Summer Seminar in the History of the Book, taught by Greta LaFleur and Jordan Alexander Stein. Apply by April 4, 2025. Scholarships available for grad students and other early career scholars. Link in comments.

Study sections are the review panels that allocate NIH research grants. They bring in experts from around the country and have to be scheduled many months in advance; they provide the funds that keep the nation's biomedical research going. It's hard to overstate the disruption this causes.

Megan Moran's 'Gender and Family Networks in Early Modern Italy' is out now! The book argues that a network model offers a framework to deconstruct #patriarchy as a system of institutionalized dominance in #earlymodern Italy. Read a preview🔗 www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Renaissance art history lesson: detail from Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Bad Government, Siena, fresco, 1338-1339. #inauguration

More writing on a snowy Sunday morning. Help me out #earlymodern folks: I'm looking for works that conceptualize/theorize what we mean when we say "household." I think we all have an idea of what it means as a convenient shorthand, but I want to unpack the idea a bit more. Readings, thoughts?

Sure to be a great presentation of this wonderful book!