Today is the day! Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination is now widely available. I will be giving my first book talk at the University of Pittsburgh, with a specific focus on domestic violence. press.edu/books/gender-violence-in-late-antiquity/hardcover

AJR is kicking off its new leadership of Models of Piety with a happy hour meetup in Boston. Hope to see you there!

Today on AJR, read the new article from Ally Kateusz, "Art as Text: When Mary Was Lazarus’s Sole Sister" @allykateusz.bsky.social www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/9/...

Reminder that my department is hiring in early Christianity. Our search last year was canceled in the hiring freeze but we're happy to be able to conduct the search this year at the assistant professor level. Deadline for applications is 9/30/2025.

The cover for After Transformation. The @dukepress.bsky.social designers are just so great. dukeupress.edu/after-transf... #ancientbluesky #byzantinebluesky #classicsbluesky

Just published: SACRALIZING VIOLENCE IN BYZANTIUM! [Image caption: Plate with the Battle of David and Goliath, Byzantine, 629–630. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.]

Entering my Bartleby, the Scrivener era.

My friend @thejeremybjones.bsky.social has a new memoir about an ancestor's encrypted diary and what he learned when he cracked the code. CIPHER offers an unflinching reckoning with a complex, hidden family history and how that history shapes Jeremy's own self-understanding. Highly recommend!

Send Ancient Jew Review your pedagogy pitches! Or, really, any of your pitches!

Attempting to channel the energy of this cafe placemat today.

My review of Fredriksen's Ancient Christianities out now in @commonweal.bsky.social More important topics covered in the issue: US deportation violences, the natural-birth movement, environmental justice www.commonwealmagazine.org/issues/2025-...

It's officially publication day! Mirah is helping me promote the book since she has served as editorial assistant from birth. If you plan to acquire a copy, use code P327 for 30% off princetonupress.bsky.social. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

People love Israel and its Heirs in Late Antiquity. They especially love Heirs.

Is your university suddenly talking A LOT about "talent optimization"? Asking for a colleague.

If I'm reading this right, Trump has terminated $363,420,951 in existing NEH grants - literally a drop (0.000054%) in the federal budget, but of immense impact on the communities and people and disciplines which receive them. Utterly vile.

The Nominating Committee of the North American Patristics Society is still accepting nominations for positions on the board and other committees. Help shape the future of our society! Self-nominations welcome! #NAPS2025

The NEH grant I am PI on got cancelled effective immediately as of yesterday. The letter was found in the spam box of our Office of Sponsored Projects email account. We were in the final 2 months, with four summer curriculum development grants just awarded last week. What an end to 4 years of work.

It was such a pleasure to host @ashleyshoo.bsky.social this week at Bucknell. She engaged with a lit studies course, a computer science course, and gave a fantastic talk about Cyborgs in Corporate Care. The students and faculty of the Health Humanities program were grateful to engage with her!

Last night, I happened to catch a screening of Frank Capra's MEET JOHN DOE (1941) at a local theatre. The movie is about how fascism uses populism to destroy democratic institutions. It's really well done, worth watching, but unsettlingly relevant in 2025.

My review of Virginia Burrus's Earthquakes and Gardens is now up at SLA. I always find Burrus's writing generates new and unexpected modes of thinking about the past, and this book is certainly a perfect example of her creative-critical work.

🚨Job Alert | Please Share🚨 The Bucknell Department of Religious Studies is seeking a 1-year VAP focused on Religion & Ethics. I'm happy to answer any questions. The job description and the application portal can be found here: bucknell.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

hey the #NAPS2025 program is uuuuuup! www.patristics.org/wp-content/u...

🚨Job Alert | Please Share🚨 The Bucknell Department of Religious Studies is seeking a 1-year VAP focused on Religion & Ethics. I'm happy to answer any questions. The job description and the application portal can be found here: bucknell.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

I appreciated this analogy from Timothy Snyder's substack today (@timothysnyder.bsky.social). America, the chop-shop.

An anecdote: this year at UMass, the College of Humanities & Fine Arts slashed our funding to attend domestic conferences to $300, & if we apply to the union for funds first. But if we want to collaborate with the College of Computer and Information Science, then we are eligible for a $20k grant.

Hello fellow travelers. Nice to meet you here. I work on early Christianity, ancient medicine, and ritual. Thinking a lot rn about drugs in antiquity. In my spare time, I’m a hype-man for Ancient Jew Review. You might also know me from that one viral thing.

I would like to see the return of pneumatic tubes in the work place. Think of the whimsy, the charm, the enchantment of everyday life.

The student paper at Bucknell covered the launch of the Health Humanities minor, which I help to run. We've also had our first students declaring the minor. Two hopeful signs that student engagement with the program is growing steadily. bucknellian.net/127260/featu...

Are you keeping up with the AJR Pod, New Books in Late Antiquity? Hosted by the Ira Glass of Late Ancient studies @mikemotia.bsky.social

Lesson I should've learned years ago: I really do have to commit to not opening anything else on the desktop but the ms as soon as I get to work. One email, one minor task, whatever it may be, and all of a sudden an hour is gone. Being dept chair makes this incredibly challenging.

This will be fantastic. I can't wait to use it in my courses. I'm also grateful for scholars who take the time to write accessibly for undergraduates.

Hello fellow travelers. Nice to meet you here. I work on early Christianity, ancient medicine, and ritual. Thinking a lot rn about drugs in antiquity. In my spare time, I’m a hype-man for Ancient Jew Review. You might also know me from that one viral thing.

We are excited to welcome @mikemotia.bsky.social to the @ancientjewreview.bsky.social team, which will platform his "New Books in Late Antiquity" podcast. Check out the recent episode, discussing "Gospel Thrillers" with Andrew Jacobs (@drewjakeprof.bsky.social). newbooksnetwork.com/gospel-thril...

*updates CV*

"Both their research and teaching should cover some portion of the period from 700 CE to 1700 CE. " go work with @historiographos.bsky.social he's great! (also h/t to @emuehlbe.bsky.social for RTing & letting me know AHA Careers is on here now!)

Last week our union sat down at the table with Harvard admin. We organized to seek big changes to the nature of academic work at Harvard. Turns out there’s a precedent for that. Couldn't resist opening our first bargaining session with a little history lesson. www.thecrimson.com/article/2024...

Mike Motia interviews Laura Nasrallah as part of the New Books in Late Antiquity podcast, hosted by Ancient Jew Review. Check it out!

I'm teaching Digesting Divinity: Religion, Food, & Diet once again and trying to include more on dietetics. The course is now part of our health humanities curriculum at Bucknell. Here's the syllabus. If you have great, undergrad-level readings I need, please send! drive.google.com/file/d/18UsG...

I'm teaching Digesting Divinity: Religion, Food, & Diet once again and trying to include more on dietetics. The course is now part of our health humanities curriculum at Bucknell. Here's the syllabus. If you have great, undergrad-level readings I need, please send! drive.google.com/file/d/18UsG...

position at l'Ohio State University: assistant professor in race, ethnicity, and gender in ancient religion osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/OSUCar...

We have an AI chatbot embedded in our library website now and it sucks

Forthcoming from OUP, early 2025 (featuring Peter from GA 1751)

She has a cover and a webpage! Coming June 2025. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I teach a class on Religion, Solitude, & Loneliness. It explores ancient histories of social isolation alongside analysis of the loneliness epidemic in America. I recently talked about the course with Bucknell Magazine: magazine.bucknell.edu/issue/summer...

A reminder for late antiquity nerds: @mikemotia.bsky.social has a New Books in Late Antiquity podcast, hosted by our team @ancientjewreview.bsky.social. There are episodes featuring Mike Chin, Anna Freidin, @drewjakeprof.bsky.social, & Jae Han. Subscribe & listen 🎧 www.ancientjewreview.com/podcast

A new podcast episode with Anna Bonnell Freidin. "Birthing Romans sheds critical light on the diverse ways pregnancy and childbirth were understood, experienced, and managed in ancient Rome during the first three centuries"

AI folks have now discovered “thinking”

Mark Letteney! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social @ancientjewreview.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/the-christia...

We are excited to welcome @mikemotia.bsky.social to the @ancientjewreview.bsky.social team, which will platform his "New Books in Late Antiquity" podcast. Check out the recent episode, discussing "Gospel Thrillers" with Andrew Jacobs (@drewjakeprof.bsky.social). newbooksnetwork.com/gospel-thril...