What we suspected is, of course, true.

well helloooooo brill.com/view/journal...

So excited to contribute a chapter on slavery and the historical Jesus to @mbrandonmassey.bsky.social and Wolfgang Grünstäudl’s forthcoming volume! As I talk about here, slavery is conspicuously missing from most convos about the historical Jesus & really needs to be rectified

The latest Pasts Imperfect is out, focused on the closing of humanities depts. & museums. @otavano.bsky.social discusses the U. of Ottawa, @mokersel.bsky.social on the DePaul Art Museum, @meirazk.bsky.social & @vox-magica.bsky.social on shuttering religious studies depts, & Justin Vorhis on U. Iowa.

Nominations are open now for this year's Cribiore Award, which recognizes outstanding translations from Ancient Greek or Latin by Society members. Review eligibility requirements: classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f... and apply here: apply.classicalstudies.org

At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran so far, including 181 children.

This includes the the entire city of Sour (Tyre), one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with a population of ~135,200 people

I'm a palestinian with the right to a homeland & self determination not because my ancestors crawled out of the sea in ancient times onto the beach in yaffa as fully formed Palestinians. I have a right to a homeland and self determination because i'm a human being.

accommodations didn’t exist when i was in college in the early 00s. of course there’s a “spike.” that’s a good thing; it means we’re getting better at educating all students.

The SBL call for papers closes March 4. Consider submitting a proposal for the Christian apocrypha section.

Join us March 6 for the latest First Friday Christian Apocrypha Workshop with Jeremiah Coogan (Jesuit School of Theology).

for what it cost for our allies to shoot down three of our own planes by accident in a murderous illegal war we could have funded the NEH at 150% of its historic peak funding for a year

Thing is, I don't really believe that Israel forced the US's hand here, no matter what Rubio may say. The US just doesn't take actions it does not want to take. What is actually happening here is much darker - Rubio is using Israel as a scapegoat to avoid taking US responsibility for the war.

GW‘s student newspaper appears to have broken the story that the institution has sold a satellite campus to Amazon to be turned into a data center, which is just about chef’s kiss for the state of American higher education rn

Kash Patel and other Justice Department officials shut down a civil rights investigation into Renee Good’s killing. Unacceptable. The truth must come out.

"By killing [Khamenei], the US and Israel didn’t just strike Iran’s government. They struck a spiritual leader with transnational religious authority – and created exactly the kind of martyr that galvanizes movements for generations." - fascinating and important piece by Iran scholar Narges Bajoghli

OMFG they think we are the dumbest people who ever lived.

The US embassy in Riyadh is on fire. Just like the rest of the region x.com/timourazhari...

One last push as well for the Violence and Representations of Violence unit that I co-chair for #SBLAAR2026! Submit your papers and teach us about ancient violence members.sbl-site.org/cfp-detail?z...

One more push: submit papers for the Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom unit at SBL before the Friday deadline!

The Department of Education has hung a massive banner honoring a racist college dropout who built a lucrative career out of targeting professors for harassment

I'm hiring! 🏛️ This is a VA-based, hybrid 3-year position for a historian working on digital projects related to religious history. We'll also be hiring a historian working on onsite programming and training related to religious history. Feel free to reach out! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Years ago our admin did a red and black report. It took salaries & how much $ each instructor made in tuition $ for classes we taught-you were in the red or black. They released numbers once & shut it down bc humanities were producing huge $ for uni & engineers, business and scientists were losing $

Reading student essays about RA work reminds me how extremely exploitative St. Olaf's RA/JC compensation package was when I did it. $1500 for the year. No room/board remission. 10% of what many student RAs rightly get now for their residential work with undergrads.

Things in the academic world (and elsewhere) are pretty grim currently. I wanted to write something a bit more positive, and personal, about what an academic field can be. Partially inspired by a moment of existential terror when I opened a journal and didn't recognize any of the names. #medievalsky

Reminder to apply for our advising/teaching job and join us in Charlottesville

Teaching students and the public the difference between the descriptive and the prescriptive/normative is another reason we need humanities (and robust education in general). To explain, to contextualize, even to sympathetically elucidate the insider logic of something is obviously not to endorse it

Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.

Reminder that the last time the US had congressional approval to formally declare war was June 1942. Every war in my and my parents’ lives—and every war my grandparents were forced to fight in—has been illegal according to Article I Section 8, but it’s never stopped our bloodthirsty politicians

Grateful to participate in an event in solidarity with Palestine this Ramadan, and to read an excerpt from my forthcoming book on ancient Gazan literature

"The Islamists oppose women getting an education," I mutter, as I aim my missile at the girls school

Stop the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran! Rally and march in Times Square, NYC Feb. 28, 2026

Reports now that this has been revised up to 85 dead, with even more injured

A judge just tossed out Columbia University's disciplinary actions against 22 students over the 2024 Hamilton Hall occupation, finding the school relied on sealed arrest records and held individuals responsible for group actions, violating its own rules. iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/Documen...

My Ethics of Work and Leisure course is over, so no more teaching until next academic year! Next up is developing a course on ancient Mediterranean magic 🪄

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE My home department at Uppsala University is advertising an endowed professorship in the history of science. This is the best position in the field in Sweden, and probably in all of Scandinavia. Apply before 30 April 2026. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

not sure about listening to the whole thing? that's ok. have a little bit, as a treat. @profgabriele.com and @rachelschine.bsky.social get a bit shouty about why historians shouldn't blame shift but should tell the truth about the past! #medievalsky youtube.com/shorts/XTGB6...

God damn @historianca.bsky.social is a good writer.

Thus starts a vicious cycle: at research universities, fields that teach “skills,” rather than “produce research” are targeted for cuts. Nevermind that “research” gets defined as “generating IP for corporations to use to get rich”

The Iowa case also shows how demands that curricula align with the goal of producing “high-demand jobs and [meeting] workforce needs” is code for “cut the humanities and/or turn them into service departments that teach ‘skills,’ not produce knowledge“

“Low enrollment“ is always a bad argument (tho one that many humanists buy into in worries about “declining” majors) but it’s a particular sham at a research university. These are vital, active research fields that produce important knowledge, which is why research universities must support them.

The closing of African American Studies and GWSS at Iowa is absolutely heartbreaking. It is such an important time to study these subjects. Words really cannot express how upsetting this decision is. www.thegazette.com/higher-educa...

🚨 NEW: The British Museum & Palestine: On Misinformation, Zionist Lobbying, Cultural Erasure & Complicity in Genocide by @archagainstaparth.bsky.social Incl. a full timeline of the BM X Palestine saga + important connections btw this story & others everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/t...

👀

NAPS draft program up! t.e2ma.net/click/ywyjyj...

Good. But also? These headlines should be noted. Summers should be resigning. Not because of emails to Epstein, but what was IN those emails. He should be resigning for his racist fetishizing of an Asian protege. Of using his job to attempt to set up sexual encounters. Unprofessional behavior.

The answer of course is that the professors are too

I have been waiting 25 years for this day - Summers never had any business being a university leader in the first place