Today is the official publication day for my new book, Sedimentary Aesthetics: Painting on Stone and the Ecology of Early Modern Art. It is out in the world, and I would like to thank @yalepress.bsky.social for all they did. I’d also like to tell you a bit about why this publication means so much.

Fuck cancer

Spread the word! My department at UMass-Amherst is inaugurating a Pre-College Summer Program in the History of Art: Visual Analysis and Exhibition Design. www.umass.edu/art-history/...

When Bender shared our piece a couple of months ago, she issued an important quibble w respect to my & @cnygren.bsky.social's specific argument regarding resistance to the AI industry's takeover of education. A story broken by student journalists at GW reveals that quibble to have been prescient. 1/

Art History will continue to be seen as an elitist discipline if the public apparatuses for communicating it refuse to acknowledge the scholarship that has drawn attention to art's role in serving and subverting power. Read the righteous review by Sherry Lindqiust here. hnanews.org/hnar/reviews...

If you are attending @historians.org #aha2026 please join us at 330 this afternoon when we discuss our project, “Transforming Humanities Education in a Time of Gun Violence.” We discuss various approaches to tracing the long history of guns, gun control, and legislation.

Really not sure what to make of this as a prediction for 2026…

For any early modernists who are upset by the Compact piece, this is a great thread. And the point about Celenza’s “Lost Renaissance” is spot on. Some people saw changes to the field coming a mile away. Others got bitter

What we see in the last paragraph is striking wrt some discourse on here in the last few days re: AI. 10 children _claimed_ to have been killed by COVID vaccine, and now the whole of Gov is moving to pull the hand break.

Take a few to read this. it is fire. “The humanities are not in crisis. The humanities are in the vanguard. The project of public education, perhaps the closest thing there is to a lasting success authored amid the broader failure of Reconstruction, is in danger.”

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵 Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

I’m very pleased to announce the latest from me and the inimitable @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social. In it, we lay out vision for why and how faculty and students should be resisting the AI in education. Please share.

My department is hiring a tenure track assistant professor in in the visual arts, architecture, and/or material culture of the Islamic world. Please circulate! careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...

Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.

More exciting news coming out of Pittsburgh! My department is searching for a Teaching Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies. This is a permanent position in the Appointment Stream (i.e. non-tenure-track). networks.h-net.org/jobs/69451/u...

🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!! I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨 cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

If Chotiner calls, you’re not obliged to pick up the phone. My god… This man just continues to destroy people. By…. By simply asking follow up questions. Others could really take note.

This is worth a read. As he says, this shouldn’t be on us. Companies do have agency, and that also implies culpability

Students never asked for this and done like it

I mean…

Attention early modernists! Now is a great moment for you to get a copy of Titian’s Icons. 60% discount on @psupress.bsky.social using code WHS25. It’s a beautiful book, and it won a major award, so it is worth having a copy on your shelf! www.psupress.org/two_week_sal...

Good luck to all those starting the academic year today. This is going to be a tough year for Higher Ed. I will try to remember why I got into this: to help students realize that art shows us how many different ways humanity has manifest itself across time. The future is not yet written.

I do not know of a single public university president or chancellor who has even _tried_ making this point to the student body and their parents. It is such a pathetic abdication of leadership

I am giong to sound snooty, but if you can outsource your wine list to ChatGPT, you should not be running a place with a wine list.... and other stories from our dystopian present all wrapped up in one little article www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Art Historians still live in the wake of Obama's derisive comment from 2014. Study after study shows that the humanities provide skills that are evergreen - the ability to critically assess sources and data far exceed the "skills' of any moment (see prompt engineering). harpers.org/harpers-index

“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception." www.mellon.org/voices/human...

One year ago today, we had to say goodbye to Zenzero, King of Cats and Loaf of Loafs. Yesterday, we welcomed into our home Slinky. Like his name, he is long and squirmy. Z shall never be replaced, but I look forward to smothering this guy with love (the "cone of shame" will be off soon!)

Very pleased to announce that my forthcoming book, Sedimentary Aesthetics: Painting on Stone and the Ecology of Early Modern Art, has been awarded a Millard Meiss Publication subvention. Get it from @yalepress.bsky.social in spring 2026! www.collegeart.org/news/2025/07...

I got the official jersey (no number) in fifth grade. In sixth grade I begged my parents to have the numbers added. Wire it for game 7 in 2016. Rest in peace, Ryno

I got the official jersey (no number) in fifth grade. In sixth grade I begged my parents to have the numbers added. Wire it for game 7 in 2016. Rest in peace, Ryno

This is amazing. And the second post has a link to the actual job advert. This is not a hoax. Any university president ought to be able to write their own speeches. If they cannot, one might fairly argue that they are not qualified to lead an institution of higher ed.

Whole thread worth your attention

Whatever you do, don't use this online form to tell them to resign in shame. Don't do that. Do not do that.

After today, should make it crystal clear for everyone that "all lives matter" was a lie.

poetry can be amazing

This is awful...

This is a really thoughtful piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the threat that AI presents to history and historians alike:

“ICE gets a bigger budget than the Marine Corps” is a simple fact that should be communicated very widely because it clearly expresses how crazy and radical this is

Focuses on K-12 education in contrast with higher ed. But on point and shows that educators need solidarity across that divide. “Calling time savings an 'AI dividend' reveals everything wrong with how we're thinking about this technology. Dividends go to shareholders, not workers.”

Things are getting very real... Wherever fine books are sold in spring 2026 yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

I know this is a fool's errand, but let's just for a moment play the game of "what if a Dem president had said something like this?" "I said it's fine." .... it's fine.

From Hunter S. Thompson’s ESPN page 2 column one week after 9/11.

This is so out of control. If congress ever decides to take its job seriously, there are so many reforms to make to law enforcement.

👇👇

ICE is so far out of control...

Trump Mouths Lyrics To ‘Happy Birthday’ While National Anthem Plays

Watch the slow motion: it appears to me that the officers discuss the photographer and reporter before the one on the end fires on them (it looks to me like he's aiming at the camera, not the reporter, but you decide)

wow.