Toddler holiday travel sleep schedule: 1 Peptide firming eye cream: 0

Reddit is telling me I can block and unshrink my cashmere sweater that accidentally went in *the dryer* (gah! I know), but is this false hope? I’ll report back. In a the meantime, please feel free to share carefully curated anecdotes of success.

French Army map of Mandate Syria in 1926. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...

Got a review request for a MS. The title looked familiar, but I forgot I had already reviewed it once and it was R&Red. Instead, I convinced myself that I agreed to review the paper eons ago but never submitted the review. Sent a completely hallucinatory apology to the editors. Why is this my brain?

Oof the title of this paper. Perfect strike. 🎳 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

I am not normally one to play up the subfield rivalries, but some IR folks out there are still sounding quite silly when they try to write about domestic institutions. 💖

An eerie read from the archives: "Closures, Cantons and the Palestinian Covenant" by Graham Usher, June 28, 1996: www.merip.org/1996/06/clos...

Common terms and phrases in my book, according to Google.

With a sickening amount of caffeine, truly anything is possible.

BREAKING: A federal judge ordered the government to restore Rümeysa Öztürk's SEVIS student record after it was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for exercising her freedom of speech. This allows her to fully engage with the opportunities of her PhD program.

FYI: @aneraorg.bsky.social 's timeline of events in Gaza is an invaluable resource: www.anera.org/gaza-war-tim... It also highlights the work of their teams, giving us a tiny sliver of a sense of what it has meant to do humanitarian work in Gaza over the past 26 months.

Every year or two I think about this photo and wonder about this kid. Where is this young man now? It hit me again today, hard, almost exactly 8 years after the picture was originally taken. (Photo credit: Abed Alhashlamoun, European Pressphoto Agency)

This is in the West Bank. Everyone should watch this footage. Amidst and on top of the continuous live stream of horrors from Gaza, this clip, too, will haunt me forever. www.dw.com/en/outrage-o...

This story is from last week - watch the video too: www.reuters.com/business/env... The UN reports today that “some 1.5 million people still require “urgent support” with regard to shelter: news.un.org/en/story/202... Most are living in tents like these.

”‘They want the international stabilizing force to come into Gaza and restore, quote unquote, law and order and disarm any resistance,‘ a senior official in Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. ‘So that’s the problem. Nobody wants to do that.’” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

There appear to be a number of simplistic takes on the broader implications of Israel's support for the Zaydi imamate during the North Yemen civil war, suggesting it is somehow surprising, or even ironic, now that the Houthis and Israel are staunch enemies. But... /1

Of all of the bell peppers, I suppose I will start with this one that my kid bit into in the grocery store. Welcome to my cooking show

This is horrible news. www.oudaily.com/news/ou-prof...

It was my pleasure to guest edit this essay section of the Arab Studies Journal, in which @mesaglobalacademy.bsky.social scholars were asked to reflect on whether the MENA region is undergoing a "seismic shift": www.arabstudiesjournal.org

Hind Khoudary reports IDF has moved deeper into Shuja'iya: “But the entire boundary has not been marked, so many Palestinians do not know exactly where it is...People say this is a cage, as they’re being pushed and squeezed into the western parts of Gaza.” www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

Some people make utterly perplexing design and formatting decisions with their CVs. I am currently reading one that is YELLING AT ME IN ALL CAPS.

I think I’ve been pronouncing “hermeneutics” wrong this whole time. (Positivist-trained lug nut trying to teach ethnographic methods over here. #sendhelp)

On settler violence in the West Bank: These words are striking if only because they come from a high-ranking former general in the Israeli Defense Forces. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

This is an insane clip. I feel insane.

Slowly pulling together the syllabus for my first doctoral course in @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social's political science department. Suggested readings welcome!

Great to meet Lucia Sorbera yesterday and host a discussion of feminist activism in Egypt with our students! Go get her book, a sweeping, collective biography that spans many years of field research and generations of Egyptian women: www.ucpress.edu/books/biogra...

Really looking forward to (virtually) hosting Prof. Jasmin Lillian Diab for this talk next Monday, November 24 at 11:00 AM ET. The webinar is open to the public; please join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/displaceme...

If you are in NY on Wednesday, I will be moderating this discussion of B'Tselem's research and recent report on the genocide in Gaza. Link to register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Can someone who knows more about this than me tell me if there is a class element to this whole shutdown struggle? SNAP/Medicaid recipients versus ACA-insured/beneficiaries of enhanced premium tax credits?

This doesn’t sound wrong.

MESA and the AAUP have released a critical report exposing the weaponization of civil rights law to suppress campus speech concerning Palestine. Read full report here: mesana.org/advocacy/tas...

A powerful essay by @hebagowayed.bsky.social: therumpus.net/2025/11/05/z...

I began class today with 10 minutes for my students to share their reflections on Mamdani’s victory and its significance — for them personally or for broader politics. Best 10 minutes of my day. CUNY students aren’t just the future. They are the present. They are New York, and they are America.

This is definitely gonna push him over 40k

Capitalism is now illegal

And NYC will have a Syrian-American artist as First Lady!

Duke University Press fall sale! www.dukeupress.edu I just ordered: _Unsettled Labors: Migrant Care Work in Palestine/Israel_ by Rachel H. Brown, and _Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants_ by @nsharma101.bsky.social!

I’ve been looking at this map for the last 20 minutes. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

This is a hell of a claim. I demand proof.

Another thing about this profession: Sometimes, teaching on the material that you "know best" goes relatively poorly, but teaching on the material that you "know worst" goes relatively well. There's a straightforward explanation but it still always catches me by surprise!

This is what my one-and-a-half year old picked out from Walgreens today, and I find it both intriguing and slightly unsettling. I want to be both close to and far away from this bird.

"One motivating question should come into sharper focus" is either feedback I just gave on a midterm essay or something in a fortune cookie

Woah. Mutsuhito was 14 when he became Emperor of Japan!

An estimated 1,500-2,000 killed in El-Fasher in 3 days. “Among those killed, according to the World Health Organization, are more than 460 people systematically slaughtered at el-Fasher’s Saudi Maternity Hospital.” www.commondreams.org/news/sudan-a...

CUNY students are super interested in discussing Mahmood Mamdani's work these days...How curious! 🤔

I am delighted to share the fall issue of the APSA MENA section newsletter, co-edited by @sebnemgumuscu.bsky.social, @samershehata.bsky.social, and me, available for download here: zenodo.org/records/1745...

The genocidal violence has not stopped in Gaza. apnews.com/article/isra...