The search for the next director of the Classical Summer School at the AAR, to start in 2027-28, is now open. Be my successor! www.aarome.org/about/open-p... Please share with anyone who might be interested in applying. You’d get to shadow me for a week in 2026. Happy to answer any questions!

📖 Feiertags-Lesetipp: Jahrbuch des DAI Die aktuelle Ausgabe 140/2025 des #JdI wartet u.a. mit indischen, größtenteils lokal hergestellten Artefakten auf, die im ptolemäisch-römischen Berenike am Roten Meer in Ägypten ausgegraben wurden. 👉 Das und vieles mehr: publications.dainst.org/journals/jdi

today is all about watching people come up with entirely new ways of being wrong like we're experiencing breakthroughs in the field of error studies nobel committee rushing to cobble together a Prize for Inaccuracies epistemologists' heads spontaneously exploding from the falsity vibrations

Managed to stop by the Met’s “Divine Egypt” exhibit. Some of my favorites were on the later side!

Some important monkey business!

My latest for @hyperallergic.com looks at a new article in JRA on Berenike, Indo-Roman trade, and of course some pet monkeys which may have had pet piglets or kittens? 🐵 Really this is just amazing research showing us the extensive connections between the Mediterranean and India. #GlobalAntiquity

Excited to dive into this new book by @berangere.bsky.social on the routes through Egypt's Eastern Desert! #AncientBlueSky 🏺 books.openedition.org/momeditions/...

Nice to see all these recent finds—including an edition of the inscription—in a single publication!

This essay by @johannawinant.bsky.social is beautiful on what can happen in the classroom, and on the importance of *argument* to literary studies. I especially like how she writes about helping students to "believe in their own significance" www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

End of an era in American Jewish history.

Happy start to the autumn quarter to all who celebrate!

This is much more comprehensive than my own list, and reassuringly familiar from my experience of marking. I’ll be sharing the list with my students, both to think about writing for different audiences (encyclopaedia articles) and being aware of the weakness of LLM generated text.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

Another important review

An important review

After the Roman Republic fell in 27 BC, the Roman Empire flourished for another 450 years. Could the same thing happen here?

I did it the other way

Considering getting this passage from the NYT article printed on totes for our art history majors. Too much?

So, if humanities produce good job outcomes, humanities have a secure ROI that bring in more than they cost, and STEM now has an even lower ROI due to grant cuts…. shouldn’t we invest more in humanities where less $$ goes a longer way? Apparently not. We should ask why not. /9

as someone who doesn't have to imagine, let me tell you that it's ass

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

We certainly did *not* have Pompeii to ourselves—hot, crowded, and too much touching (had to tell off someone reaching for plastered human remains in the antiquarium!). But we managed to see some old and new favorites, as well as a friend who is excavating there

We (amazingly) had a lot of ancient stuff all to ourselves today. First, a series of *spectacular* hypogea, tombs in (re)use from the fourth c. BCE on. Such amazing details preserved on the walls and funerary couches. I got a kick out of the modern lamp bases next to the ancient painted candelabra

Had a bit of a time getting here (a wild flight delay), but started strong with some treats in Naples and on Ischia

We’re off to the Bay of Naples for some much needed R&R—with plenty of ancient sites and delectable eats @heintgestae.bsky.social

Congrats to the newly minted Dr. @heintgestae.bsky.social! So proud of her 😊

The linked article lists Classical Studies as one of the departments at Indiana University that "could lose its main offerings." This is a major US university with a distinguished tradition in Classics. Dire news.

In my book on the polis, I argue that despite of nativist ideology, the realities of citizenship, based on communal acceptance & successful performance of duties, meant a certain porosity. I.e. precisely not the maximalist cruelty of Miller's immigration policy, carried bout by ICE thugs.

A few new followers, so wanted to mention that Mercator will be a part of the upcoming June Steam Next Fest! It's a shopkeeper game about ancient trade from India to Rome and in between. Check out the trailer and the Steam page: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pp... store.steampowered.com/app/3268870/...

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 Erich S. Gruen Prize is now open for submissions! All graduate students in North America are invited to enter the annual competition for the best graduate research paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean www.classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

A student brought me baklava (yiayia-endorsed no less) 😋

In the midst of grading papers—lots of feral semicolons—so I just couldn't resist. 10/10

My contribution to this volume, "Coining Koine: Reading Numismatic Images in the Context of Global Exchange," looks at how visual aspects of coinage contributed to an interconnected Indian Ocean world. Check it out—open access! #AncientBlueSky 🏺

Teaching my last classes at UMD. Having all the feels

James Tan brings the economy back in. Our understanding of the Roman economy has advanced hugely in recent decades, but that hasn’t (yet) affected how we interpret the politics of the Republic’s fall. He shows some paths to do that. doi.org/10.1515/9783...

Spending some time with this bad boy in class today www.loc.gov/resource/g32...

India tries to halt auction of Piprahwa gems found with Buddha’s remains, which it says “constitute inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

If I may, I wouls also add this volume books.openedition.org/momeditions/.... More generally the Red Sea Conferences' publications are not cited.

While I agree with much of this article, it's limited by its Anglophone focus (it's also missing some key works in English). Archaeology/material evidence is the fastest growing area of the field, but there has been important work on other aspects too (e.g., textual sources, theoretical frameworks)

I have some personal news to share amidst all the chaos: in the fall, I’ll be joining the History department at the University of Chicago. I’m humbled and excited to be beginning this new chapter. Welcoming any and all Chicago recs!

Ahhh epigraphy

A+