September 30 October 1

Well well well, looks like my multi-year procrastination to update my academia. edu account with any work has paid off.

Digital heritage and virtual realities class in “The Ancient World in Video Games” course went smoothly thanks to the excellent people at the UIUC VR Lab. Not pictured, me hitting the table to pick up the wands.

Set of three endearingly wonky DIY hoplite aspides done 24 hours before the Greek Warfare lecture by my wonderful husband, check.

Turning 32 today which means I have one more year before I traditionally weep at the base of a statue of Alexander during my quaestorship in Spain.

Uttered the phrase “testicular bath bomb” in class today when describing Aphrodite’s birth if you’re wondering how I’m doing.

Out of all the insanity coming out about the shooter, seeing older journalists and online accounts parse internet memes like they’re Greek and Roman texts might be one of the most surreal aspects of this whole thing.

Here's a conundrum... What a great @peoplingthepast.bsky.social post: peoplingthepast.com/2025/09/12/b... . But as full disclosure, the author is an @isawnyu.bsky.social student. I'm her chair (my great honor). So don't believe me, go check it out. (And my congrats/empathy to Lylaah!)

Liberal pundits extolling someone who had a watch list of college professors whose political views he disagreed with and actively targeted minorities as a saint of free speech, WaPotheosis in real time.

Call me crazy, but I am capable of both disagreeing with political violence and also not being forced to express empathy for someone who wanted me stoned to death.

New pre lecture hype song found for the rest of the semester.

The censorious liberals have advanced an agenda of cancel culture to make colleges safe spaces where students never have to hear ideas that challenge them and also if you teach me one thing I don’t want to hear I will fucking report you to my congressman, I don’t BELIEVE in mitochondria “Professor”

The return of the Chaos Dwarfs to Warhammer means more chances for Mesopotamian-inspired Dwarvish cuneiform and ziggurats. Must…resist…urge…buy…

God bless Plamen Genov, the principal 2D artist at Creative Assembly Sofia for TW:R II Rise of the Republic, for giving me the best Brennus react image for my lecture on Rome today.

Time to relax after teaching and play the long-awaited Anno 117 demo.

Illinois Gov. Pritzker ahead of Trump National Guard deployment: "To Chicagoans... Look out for your communities and your neighbours. Know your rights. Film things that you see happening... Authoritarians thrive on your silence. Be loud for America."

The internet has ruined certain quasi-historical vignettes in my head. I cannot envision Augustus on his deathbed asking for applause without thinking of Jeb Bush.

Ptolemy II to the Alexandrians

Rome after Sulla announces the proscriptions

Don’t know who needs to know this, but you can buy your very own Skaven buddy at Spirit Halloween this year.

When it does happen, I expect DeSantis to steal the body from the royal procession and bury him in Florida to legitimize his succession.

Swift Hermes has many epithets like οἰοπόλος (“sheep-tending”), λόγιος (“eloquent”), and ἀκάκητα (“guileless”) For easy shorthand, one can call him an Α.Ο.Λ. Instant Messenger.

We decided to wear matching coats today.

There are many of us available for hire, experts in numerous cuneiform scripts and the history and culture surrounding their use. There are so many experts who are excited to teach these things to students who are excited to learn them. This doesn't have to be esoteric or specialist knowledge!

English teacher this, gym teacher that. Meanwhile, Classics already has its icon.

“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

Thank you to Dropout, Game Changer, and Brennan Lee Mulligan for getting my husband to rush into the living room last night to get me to translate some Latin.

Talked to student about ancient economics and, either to stop me from talking or out of genuine interest, they admitted grain can be interesting. Slowly but surely, I will corrupt the youth. From poetic to economic to caloric to imperialistic matters, the shadow of grain looms large over all.

Did the ancient Greeks believe cats would go to the Underworld? Yes, directed there by Hermes who led the souls of the deceased under his role as Pspspspsychopomps.

Man, my dollar-store Caesar can’t even thrice refuse a kingly crown.

Compulsory first day of classes as a professor picture after…oh god, 14 years. At least we’re getting some good fall weather here to distract me from the passage and ravages of time.

Fall is approaching which means it's almost time to read "The Pumpkinspiceification of the Divine Claudius."

This is true, it’s why Cato always used to say Carthago paciscenda est.

I’ve been asked to redesign an old course for next year and I think we’re going with my pitch for a cross-comparative empire study, “How to Run an Ancient Empire.” Part of my plan to attract undergrads with the Romans and Han before ambushing them with surprise Seleukids.

In composing a poem sharing agricultural advice on working the land and developing a poetic persona, the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod engaged in aura farming farming.

I see the kids are reading Isocrates.

Going to develop a fitness trackers/step counter like people have done with the Walk to Mordor, but based on Xenophon's Anabasis.

Such household deities are known to ancient historians as the CDi Penates.

A new Cambridge Element volume on Linear A by Ester Salgarella, free to download for a limited window - grab it now! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

You want me to roll out the red carpet? The thing that killed Agamemnon?

Following colleagues, decided to have an intro slide for classes next week. I think this is an accurate summation of my whole being.

When the dust settles, and if universities have meaningfully survived, it will be worth asking how institutions usually so resistant to thoroughgoing change chose to leap with both feet into an untested technology they didn't understand and didn't know how to use.

Couldn't contain my excitement at seeing Caesar's Legion in the Season 2 trailer for Fallout. Post-apocalyptic legionaries!

Well, UChicago has paused new PhD admissions in my department now, too. One of the flagship departments for anthropology in the US and worldwide. This on top of hum, social thought, social work, and others. What happens to UChicago's brand--the so-called "life of the mind"--now?

Today AIO launches 107 new inscriptions: all votives of artisans and workers, boundary stones of the Athenian empire on Aigina, all remaining dedications of Asklepios, Health, Telesphoros & Amynos, and all remaining inscriptions on the Rural Dionysia. See www.atticinscriptions.com/browse/bypub...

Decreased public funding for state schools is not a red state vs blue state issue. It isn’t a Trump issue. It’s symptomatic of a bipartisan disinvestment in higher ed as a foundational public good. It’s been happening for decades. It doesn’t have to be this way. www.opb.org/article/2024...

A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.

In which Cliff Ando concentrates his formidable powers of analysis in a broad-based and razor-sharp indictment of the University of Chicago over the last few decades. My lord. This is *withering*.

Sic pepper tyrannis

Here’s a better written essay form about the two myths that tend to prop up cutting the humanities. And the damage we do to students when we believe them or let others believe them.