This week, I sent in full manuscript drafts to the publishers for both _A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity_ and _From Slave to Saint: Onesimus Throughout Christian History_ 🎉

I am thrilled (and a little overwhelmed) to share that my book God's Ghostwriters was award the 2026 Grawemeyer Award in religion. I am deeply honored to join this group of distinguished award winners. lpts.edu/friends/graw...

I love being in my late 30s so much. I love not giving a shit about being famous or successful anymore. I love prioritizing being comfortable, and being around people who love me. Could do without the aching joints and looming perimenopause, but everything else? Golden.

My latest for National Geographic on the pervasive myth that everyone in the ancient world was ableist and eugenist. Featuring the work of @debscavator.bsky.social www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti... @unibirmingham.bsky.social

Welcome to ASU @platanoclassics.bsky.social! “Dan-el Padilla Peralta is in the vanguard of scholars working to ensure that the complexities of the past are not flattened in service to the monochrome myths of our day,” said Jeffrey Cohen, dean of humanities at ASU. news.asu.edu/b/20251112-d...

In the U.S. Civil War, Colonel Charles F. Johnson was a commander in the so-called Invalid Corps, later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps. We have his letters to his wife and he shares interesting things, including on July 18, 1863 that he sharted after taking a new medication. What a pun!

For those presenting at SBL, please do consider making your presentations accessible for a wide range of attendees. It really does make a difference and helps make the meeting a more inclusive space: www.sbl-site.org/wp-content/u...

A lot of people who look like me will have a lot to say about Alice in coming days and I stand by this: We take up too much space, something Alice and I talked about a lot. I'm focusing on letting Alice speak for herself, and uplifting those she asked to represent her.

Alt text must provide context for people who cannot see the image. Describe the image's context and purpose. Do not write alt text for cute or clever jokes based on visual content you expect users can see. This is an abuse of alt text, as it violates the whole point of alt text.

Curtis Dozier, author of this forthcoming book on white supremacist engagement with Greece and Rome, has argued that it isn’t “misappropriation.” Sometimes white supremacists actually see the violence in classical texts which liberal readers conveniently gloss over bsky.app/profile/opie...

An important article discussing the challenges faced by young African archaeologists, in a wonderful example of collaboration by archaeologists from Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.ph...

These are the words that come to mind when I think of where Alice is now (written either by Rumi or Guillermo Del Toro): “Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love, it humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.”

The loss of Alice is huge, but what she started, what she fought for, will continue. Be the person you could be.

Here is an obituary for Alice Wong from The Sick Times, a publication aligned with disability rights and disability activism, if you are looking for an alternative to reading the nyt one: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...

Alice Wong was one of the most effective people challenging the Whiteness of disability communities and its many flaws, but who believed fiercely in us as a community, in disabled people as oracles. Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.

I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed. Here are the words she left behind: www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...

Delighted that from January 2026 all research articles published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology @cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org will be Open Access view.updates.cambridge.org?qs=85c24bbd7...

I want to tell a story about this. I was at the Acropolis Museum in Athens showing some esteemed scholars the statue in question and discussing its features when a woman approached and said, "Can I ask you a question about this sculpture? You seem to know about it." I said, of course!

It is hard to come up with a better analogy for whiteness than preferring the AI simulacra of your supposed authentic art form to whatever a Black woman from your art form’s cultural geography might make.

I want to tell a story about this. I was at the Acropolis Museum in Athens showing some esteemed scholars the statue in question and discussing its features when a woman approached and said, "Can I ask you a question about this sculpture? You seem to know about it." I said, of course!

Happy Article Proofs Day to all who celebrate

Alt text is about accessibility, intended for people who use screenreaders. If you use it for other things, like image credits, that's like parking construction equipment in an accessible parking space. Sure, that is a convenient space for that, but it's not what it's for.

Tuning in (3pm PT on Nov. 6) to hear Mason Shrader (PhD student, Brown University) talk about "Digging into Disability: How Experience Affects Theory." Join me! www.youtube.com/live/5Fg_QiU...

THIS! “I don't expect Zohran Mamdani to be perfect. None of us should. Perfection isn't the point of politics. Conviction is. What matters is that he believes the government should serve the people.” - Frederick Joseph

I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.

Included is a state-of-the-field piece about disability in antiquity (open access), which I co-wrote with @horusofnekhen.bsky.social and @tibg1312.bsky.social. See where we're at with this subfield!

In the early 2000s, the DoD made archaeology awareness playing cards, and I found a pack online! Here's a smattering of images from the deck. Each suit had its own theme and the goal was to educate service members on archaeology, cultural heritage and preservation, looting, etc.

"Denial precedes & facilitates the act and may linger for generations. It sustains the lie that historians must expose":Drawing from Pierre Vidal-Naquet's 📕 on Holocaust denialism, Ras Segal reflects on how genocide denial is the norm in 🇮🇱 www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel...

My favorite is always "there's not a racist bone in my body!" Like, I don't care about your bones. I care about your words and actions! Osteoracism is not a real condition.

The thing about slurs is, if you use one (like the r-word), that means that you don't think everyone is equally deserving of dignity, which means you think that there are lines between who deserves dignity and who doesn't, and you can't really be surprised when other people draw different lines.

In celebration of our recent fifth birthday, Peopling the Past is counting down the top 5 of each of our media categories! Today we are giving a shout-out to the top 5 #PeoplingPodcast episodes! 🧵👇 /1

My UCLA colleague, Adriana Vazquez, reviews Andrew Laird’s Aztec Latin bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2025/2025.10...

As some who spent seven intensive years in speech therapy, I will forever be grateful to my therapist for giving me the confidence to do it all anyway. Still in moments of stress you will hear it in my voice. Please take a moment to check out this blog.

🗣️ PLEASE SHARE 🗣️ I'm writing an intro & sourcebook on late ancient Gazan literature for Dar al-Kalima University Press. The press and I plan to produce an Arabic translation to make Gazan literature more accessible to Palestinians. Help me compensate the Gazan translator! spot.fund/dn8t744sc

This went great! There are some recordings up of this talk--the one I gave at UMBC is on YouTube already and the one from Nashville will be available soon. It's a new article that'll be published in Art Bulletin in December about an Archaic Greek statue from the Athenian Acropolis of a dwarf woman!

If you do not identify as disabled or neurodivergent but want to help, CripAntiquity has basically zero funds. Please consider donating!!! (3/3) paypal.com/donate/?host...

As the Co-Chair of @cripantiquity.bsky.social I am not surprised by the results of the @scsclassics.bsky.social census. Classics has a reputation for 'rigor' that informs attitudes towards things like accommodations and accessibility. (1/3) classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/tor...

I'm so excited to be giving a talk tonight (October 15) as part of Ancient Studies week at UMBC, 4pm Eastern! The talk will be live-streamed on YouTube, you can find the information at this link. Learn what disability, the Greek ideal, and Archaic sculpture have to do with one another.

Extremely excited to have Debby Sneed (@debscavator.bsky.social) here at UMBC today as part of our Ancient Studies Week, giving a talk on "Disability and the Ideal in Archaic Greek Art" dreshercenter.umbc.edu/humanities-f...

I love connecting with people on here 😂

27 years ago, hateful violence took the life of Matthew Shepard. His story reminds us of what happens when intolerance goes unchecked. Today, as extremists target our LGBTQ+ neighbors for who they are, we must recommit to building a nation rooted in love, safety, and equality for all.

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion. As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

Me, talking about autism in Higher Education! www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/three...

4 Blockbuster speakers on topics bringing connections in ancient cultures into focus in the way Classics should be studied! Qin, Tang, Han, India, Greece, & Rome! Students welcome also! ccasouth.org has all details, abstracts, bios. Check it out! Thx, @ancientlyric.bsky.social for leading this!

You can check out these top 5 videos, and all our other #PeoplingVideo content over at peoplingthepast.com/category/vid... /end

In celebration of our recent fifth birthday, Peopling the Past is counting down the top 5 of each of our media categories! Today we are giving a shout-out to the top 5 #PeoplingVideo contributions across the years /thread 🧵👇

social media opened a lot of professional doors for me - talks, invitations to submit things, getting my work out there, networking, etc. it's also helped with social anxiety: when i meet one of my pocket friends IRL, it's easier to talk because it doesn't feel like a "cold call."

It’s a "crisis" when immigrants "take jobs away", but "innovation" when machines do. Funny.

It is my pleasure to share the CFP for a special issue of #ResDiffJournal guest-edited by Yusi Liu, Chris Gipson, and Najee Olya, building on the Mountaintop Coalition's panel at the SCS earlier this year. "International Scholarship in a ‘Globalized’ World?" resdifficiles.com/internationa...

I woke up to a review of a book published by a convicted felon in my field, and it's interesting to read that in the book, he attempts to depersonalize Cicero, to separate the man from the work. That's probably a neutral choice.