Oh wow it turns out there are memos even Elliot Gaiser and Josh Craddock won’t write

My latest book, on open access! Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a citizen of Israel and Russia, recounts a harrowing story of cruelty, survival, U.S. diplomatic pressure and, finally, release from the grip of a group backed by Iran. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/w...

Yep. And it shows in how he was able to reimagine the political canon. When was the last time a major candidate cited Vito Marcantonio? Eugene Debs? Jawaharlal Nehru? Heck, the premise of this ridiculous NYT piece was that it’s a scandal Mamdani studied the humanities.

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History

From Trump v. Hawaii to Trump v. US to the tariffs case, SCOTUS lives in the shadow of the "torture the terrorist to find the ticking nuke under Manhattan" scenario from after 9/11. Their hypos constantly come back to "what if the president has to break the law for National Security Reasons"?

Contemplating an argument that the Monroe Doctrine + 2001 AUMF both carve out parts of the world (Latin America and the Middle East) where Americans just assume the president can use low-level military force whenever he wants, Constitution or no Constitution. That doesn’t work in Europe or Asia.

論文　18世紀ウィーンのオスマン人ムスリム商人 Maximilian Hartmuth. "Ottoman Muslim Merchants in Eighteenth-Century Vienna." Diyâr 6(2) (2025): 392–404. otmn オスマン・キリスト教徒商人の存在はよく知られているが、少数のムスリム商人もキリスト教国で商売をしていたという www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/document/...

"The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good." lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...

This is a pretty significant and welcome move by the EU. Starmer and his education team are going the other way - a total disaster for research/knowledge and democracy. Universities will not become ‘skills machines’, EU warned share.google/DhbpW02PWdLA...

At some point Google will offer a Chromebook with no AI or wi-fi for educational use, right? This would be immensely useful. Or are they too dedicated to forcing everyone to use AI in everything to pursue that market niche?

“Higher ed aims to create cognitively mature adults, which in turn requires us to ensure students learn to read, think and write all on their own. It is easier than we think: Creating tech-free spaces and incentivizing students to spend time in them requires no new resources. All it takes is will.”

A ruler who aspires to dispense with parliament and to obtain revenues outside their control will often turn to conquest. What if Trump “lets” Maduro keep power in exchange for some oilfields, turned over to a friendly firm, which then “donates” the revenue to him “privately”?

Here it is: the Trump Administration "draft proposal" to the University of California. Published bc faculty sued for its disclosure. Its terms go beyond what Trump demands in similar compacts to other universities. EVERYONE should read: faculty, students, admins, alumni. ucop.edu/communicatio...

“The constitution supposes what the History of all Govts demonstrates, that the [executive] is the branch of power most interested in war & most prone to it. It has accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.” - Letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1798.

It's fascinating how Pete Hegseth always specifies the victims were MALE. As much as he hates and fears the law, at some level he must think that this legitimates the strike, because male=combatant. It's the tribute that lawlessness pays to law. Helen Kinsella's analysis remains undefeated.

This is interesting. I don't think Trump is denying that he gave Ukraine permission for using US intel to target long-range missiles--he's just saying it's up to Ukraine, and asking Putin not to blame him.

Fellow academics, I'm doing it. Going all in. Pulling the plug, literally. This is on my syllabus for Spring 2026: "This is an analog class. No Canvas; this syllabus is your guide." All readings are printed books; hand-written exams; no laptops. #academicbluesky #Highered #academia #Rutgers

Institutional neutrality in practice =/= in theory. The Kalven Report, which UT claims as its inspiration, expressly says institutions are OBLIGATED to comment on matters that “threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry.”

www.amnestyusa.org/press-releas... “It is gravely concerning that the Trump admin is demanding universities surrender their right to freedom of thought, expression & discourse. This compact threatens to dismantle the foundations of higher education and unravel the social fabric of university life.”

“The UT Austin Chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted to reject the compact, urging leaders to ‘defend UT’s independence, and uphold faculty’s and students’ academic freedom.’” Come on, @utaustin.bsky.social, just say NO! www.statesman.com/news/educati...

The cycles are accelerating. Putin demands total victory, Trump tries to give it to him, Ukraine+EU say no, Putin won’t accept less, Trump gets mad and talks about sanctions or weapons, Putin makes a phone call and meets with him, then it all starts over. Faster each time.

At first glance I don’t know how Hillsdale and Grove City Colleges would survive the standard that Blum wants to be used here.

the conversation we should be having is that AI is developing and will certainly displace many workers, and we should develop government programs to even out the losses and gains between workers and capitalists. but instead we argue about whether a trans person was on netflix

this rocks. when indiana edu killed the student newspaper, Purdue stepped up, printed the forbidden issue, drove it to Bloomington and stocked the boxes.

Dartmouth is OUT! Thank goodness... a friend at U of A and I have been playing "Who will be the last of the 9 standing?" and it's not gonna be us!

論文　サファヴィー朝研究の史料としてのオスマン帝国文書 Vural Genç. "The Proxy Safavid Archive: The Ottoman Archives as a Source for the Study of the Safavid Period." Archivum Ottomanicum 41 (2024). otmn archott.abtk.hu?view=article...

UVA says no to the compact

Administrators at Indiana University baselessly fired the student media director and ordered the student paper to cease its print edition, so it'd sure be a shame if this excellent digital front page were to be widely shared today issuu.com/idsnews/docs...

If the admin has ironclad evidence that this was a drug boat, it should have no problem bringing them to the US for trial in federal court, right? LOL no, I bet we’re gonna have some 2000s-style detainee habeas litigation again, this time much sillier. (But very serious for the detained fishermen)

LAMAR ALEXANDER in the WSJ. Not where I would’ve looked for a defense of academic freedom, but I’ll take it.

Our (I & Alexander Morrison) article on Kars is out. The stronghold of strongholds: Kars and the Russian military, 1807-1878 @routledgehistory.bsky.social @crimeanwar.bsky.social @mesutuyar.bsky.social @mhafhs.bsky.social journals.openedition.org/chreecc/15443

USC IS OUT! Let me tell y'all, the emergency meetings that got called yesterday and today... dailytrojan.com/2025/10/16/u...

A college classmate once told me he wouldn’t major in history because he could just read books on his own. Leave aside that a history major is about thinking analytically and systematically, not just reading facts. Let’s just ask: did he read those books in the next 4 years? No, he did not.

Just received from a colleague: looks like Penn is going to join the universities refusing the extortionary Trump "compact". I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

Congratulations to Brown University. An institution dedicated to timeless principles must not yield to temporary improper pressures.

Brown rejected the compact! www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

Join the AAUP and other allied organizations across the nation on October 18 for a day of peaceful and impactful protest as we come together to make clear: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people! #NoKings #AAUP #AcademicFreedom #HigherEducation #DefendHigherEd #Education

new @teenvogue.com: students at the 9 colleges invited to Trump's "college compact" have been pushing their universities to reject it. + a bit of a scoop: @sunrisemvmt.bsky.social tells us that they're launching a national coalition to support students pushing their schools to fight the Trump admin

Our public money to support research at our universities is mandated by our Congress. It is not the personal slush fund of the president, to withhold at will or dole out as largesse, rewarding those who please him. Those who seek reform of universities can use laws, not arbitrary extortion.

It's shameful what Pamela Whitten has done to IU.

AAUP chapters across the nation in solidarity against Trump's compact! "Jonathan Gilligan, who proposed the resolution, [said] that the language of the resolution closely mirrored that of the University of Virginia’s...to 'help ensure unity & solidarity'" for others opposing the compact. Link👇

NEWS: Professor Tom Alter unlawfully terminated at Texas State in a blatant violation of first amendment rights and academic freedom. Please share on social media: #DefendTomAlter #FirstAmendmentTXST

論文　イスラーム法における属地性と国籍　オスマン帝国末期と1920年代エジプトのイスラーム法と国際私法 Ayoub, Samy. "Peace as a Legal Presumption in Islamic Law: Territoriality, Nationality, and the Promise of International Law", Islamic Law and Society (2025). otmn doi.org/10.1163/1568...

This is exactly right. Academic freedom and autonomy SERVE states and their residents, which is why we have public universities in the the first place. The White House is attempting to hijack them. It’s anti-democratic and anti-federalism.

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

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

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Thank you @nytopinion.nytimes.com for publishing this rot. Marc Rowan has run hundreds of companies into the dust to extract profits from their failure and bankruptcies. Now he wants to do the same to American higher education. Do not believe a word this man says. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...