I think so-- pretty early in the admissions/recruitment timeframe as far as I know.

Intensive Hebrew this summer in Pittsburgh. 1 year in 6 weeks. Lots of scholarship aid. www.sli.pitt.edu #JewishStudies

Join us Thursday Feb. 19 at 3pm for Religion & the Promise of Career Readiness where panelists will dive into the opportunities, challenges, and debates surrounding these shifts and what it means for the future of Religious Studies. Learn more & register: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/rel...

#ReligiousStudies #Pitt Spread the word to undergrads interested in the intersections of religion, cultural diversity, and healthcare:

It warms my heart to know that I teach and do research at the 79th best "arts and humanities" university in the world, especially when #1 in the category is... MIT?

I find it astonishing that someone who has been teaching for a long time at a notoriously administratively dysfunctional university could extrapolate from a few anecdotes of bad behavior there to the rest of higher education.

Divination in the ancient world. Talking to god(s)? Could be useful knowledge. Definitely a great series of scholars doing interesting research in the history of religion. At University of Pittsburgh this spring term.

The world needs the wisdom of early modernists --My Pitt colleague Todd Reeser: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Seymour de Ricci describing Solomon Reinach: "...always impartial, [but] never neutral. He believed that his duty as a scholar obliged him to speak out at all times in favor of the truth and against error."

Some new #Jewishstudies jobs and post-docs for AY 25 posted to my spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Some gaps on who filled jobs starting this year (AY 26) so please make yourself known if you are in one of those. Appearance here is not an endorsement.

But IU will probably win a national football championship and that's what really matters. :)

Sometimes historians write for the general public and sometimes for specialists. Book reviews of history trade books do not need to praise the writing style by contrasting with "usual academic writing" or similar phrases. This is pointless. Happens often but right now looking at you @lrb.co.uk.

I thought my entire department was ignoring me on scheduling something but it looking now like the emails I sent out on a listserv never went through. One anxiety relieved; another emerges.

Others have thought of this, I'm sure, but if time machines get invented, the study abroad/spring break course add-on opportunities are going to be amazing! (Yes, I am familiar with the novels of Connie Willis.)

Help me understand this article: is OSU eliminating an "integrated math" & an "English" major or "integrated math and English" major? I don't understand what this would be, but I can't believe a major research university is eliminating its English major! www.thelantern.com/2025/11/ohio...

Do English readers ignore instructions or do French readers ignore English signs? Mysteries of Paris. (in the locker area of the BnF Mitterrand.)

not that many people born before WW1 who could have had a facebook page.

I run across Seymour de Ricci (1881-1942) every so often & dip my toes into the rabbithole--one day I will fall in: bibliographer, Orientalist, a Montefiore, first wife a Dreyfus. Last biographical treatment = 8 pages in 1942? Daughter died in 2008. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies.

Upcoming lectures in eligion and Healthcare Lecture Series at Pitt-- #JewishStudies #ReligiousStudies. bioethics.pitt.edu/health-human... Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online “In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster

Senior art historians who work on "pre-modernity" as defined in your geographic area, take a look at this: cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio.... Folks in related #earlymodern and other pre-modern areas share this widely.

Does your university sponsor a mock ancient olympics as part of the study of classics and religious studies? www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/news/religio... #religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld

I thought I knew a lot about Reuchlin but it's great to discover avenues I hadn't even considered--looking forward to reading this new book. #earlymodern #Jewishstudies #ChristianHebraism reforc.com/news/music-r...

Settlement between Ohio attorney general and HUC on the rare book collection. www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-R...

My colleague Adam Lowenstein is such a great explainer of why horror films (and lit) are worth serious academic study. He even got me to watch a horror film once. www.as.pitt.edu/horror-studi...

With the decline of the humanities in American academia and the hard-sell to students to study anything that happened before 1800, I find it both annoying and gratifying that my university and the art museum next door feature 3 lectures on classical and early modern topics at the same time today!

I went to a lecture 10 days ago that I though Jill Joshowitz would be at. Her spouse said she had a scheduling conflict and he couldn't say what it was but it was a big deal. And now I know: www.timesofisrael.com/48-surreal-h...

Info about current and past job searches in academic Jewish studies here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)

“Syracuse University paused admission to 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences without faculty input” dailyorange.com/2025/09/coll...

Thursday September 25, 5-6:30 pm, Cathedral of Learning, 6th floor, Humanities Center

Interesting reading on academic freedom cases in Pittsburgh: I was not aware of the Turner case at all. www.publicsource.org/historic-pit...

It is not that hard for people who schedule events to take a calendar a year ahead, look up major Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu holidays on the Internet search engine of choice, and block them out. Cultural literacy should be part of the job.

This is terrible news--shocking given the generosity of the Schnitzer gift. In addition to being terrible on the merits, it seems terrible from a long-term perspective of cultivating relationships with donors. Take the money and run?

Our August issue, 29.4, is now available online! This issue opens with an open-access article by Yonatan Glazer-Eytan and Giuseppe Marcocci, "Material Culture and Early Modern Archivality: A Dialogue." brill.com/view/journal...

An interesting read. A comment says that a conference on Wolfson is in the works. I hope attention is paid to his library. When I used to spend time in the Widener JS seminar room c. 2000, saw a lot of his books on the upper shelves, seemingly un-cataloged. Marginalia and ephemera to be discovered!

There is an article on "The Dispatch" by a Yale faculty member that makes specious arguments, stereotypes academic disciplines, misreads the present political moment, and doesn't understand at all how university budgets work. Is this typical for this website (which I have never encountered before)?

Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.

#JewishStudies jobs--dept websites are always behind. If you have information on who got these jobs please send me an email. I will only post confirmed and public info. If you were on or involved in the search and it was cancelled, you can also let me know. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Sometimes we get cynical about the places we work. But my institution does a lot of important work and people should recognize that. Go to this one first-- probably the most important ophthalmology research in the world and then cycle through the other examples: www.pitt.edu/research-mat...

If I remember, Henry Rosovsky, legendary Harvard dean, said that parking was always the #1 contentious issue among faculty. Now listening to a university town hall webinar and OMG the vice-chancellor for operations and finance feels obligated to answer several questions that came in about parking.

"My Oxford Year"--not my cup of tea. but not quite as bad as I expected. My quick takes (mild spoilers): 1) Enjoyed the shots of @magdalenoxford.bsky.social but the fictional world of film definitely slights the role of the porters (and swipe cards).

Can people (in this case museum staff) no longer distinguish between factual errors and differences in interpretation? www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I love my frequent trips to @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social but I am enjoying my time this summer in the @theulspeccoll.bsky.social and learning to say "classmark" instead of "shelfmark." Travel is broadening!

The June issue of the JEMH is out! #earlymodern

good news! modern science has fulfilled the alchemist dream. bad news! it was only for like a second and it will take a really long time to make a scrooge mcduck vault if they have to go proton by proton

The discussion of a great book continues.

Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity (@stanfordpress.bsky.social) has launched (at Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh)!

This was a great event. Enjoyed hearing a range of interesting perspectives on this terrific book and @elirubin.bsky.social 's responses.

While the gospels say that Judas led the Romans to Jesus, a new theory is gaining traction with some Biblical scholars. There is evidence, some say, that Judas merely shared Christ's location on an insecure group chat that accidentally included several Roman officials and journalists.

Today, I wish to express a sentiment that is unusual for me: Fair Harvard-- Fight! Fight! Fight!