“it is heartbreaking to report on this news knowing how impactful these classes can be for students not only in the major, but also students who have taken classes as general education requirements or electives.”

Another win for viewpoint diversity dailyiowan.com/2026/02/12/o...

This “debate” about Claude’s selfhood just might be a reflection of how there actually isn’t consensus on “human” …a topic often explored in HUMANITIES classes

Age verification? I called a number I memorized to learn what the weather forecast was for the day.

The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis, before 1965, 📸 by @ScottStrazzante

Bouie rightly compares Trump with Wilson but what we often overlook with both is that their racism (devotion to white superiority) is inseparable from their commitment to patriarchy. Beyond “men as leaders” patriarchy here means men as sovereigns— the legitimate political authority over all others

Yes x 1000. I told my editors that all of the LLM drama came for romance (thanks to the Amazon marketplace) over a decade ago. Every iteration after that has been the same cycle over and over again. Can’t get serious people to treat it seriously, however, because it’s about women’s economic activity

Patricia Matthew and her contributors already explained how all faculty don’t have the same job (Written/Unwritten [2016]), but it’s about to be more transparent based where you work (not just your title and rank)

Thank you for contacting the void. How may we direct your scream?

you personally have the ability to secure elections for yourself and your neighbors.

There are at least 2 things here that humanities-based Religion scholars do well & can help students do too: 1. Analyze competing religious claims (Pope Leo vs Johnson’s Christianity) 2. Analyze Christian secularism(s) Poll data doesn’t help the public figure out what to do here

It’s shaping up to be quite the day in Iowa education news. 3 stories worth your time even if you’re not in Iowa There’s the Republican gubernatorial debate 👇which has all candidates seeking to target teacher training/higher education as a blueprint for attacking “leftist indoctrination” 1/

NEW: I was one of 3 reporters granted access to the convening of 600+ clergy in Minneapolis this week. It was a striking show of solidarity with MN clergy resisting ICE, but heralded something else: the emergence of a vast, faith-based network trained to resist ICE. religionnews.com/2026/01/23/i...

lol

So much to explore and analyze when it comes to religion, Jan 6, and our memories of it. @miketheprofessor.bsky.social and @petermanseau.bsky.social did us all a service by creating the Uncivil Religion digital resource. uncivilreligion.org/home/about-t...

If you, like me, will be talking about celebrity culture and religion this spring with students, I suggest checking out: Kathryn Lofton’s “Sacrificing Britney” in Consuming Religion (Chicago, 2017) as one way to get at these themes.

I hope to see you there!

RIP #MTV which I featured for the first time in American Religious Diversity this year to talk about the Tibetan Freedom concerts. A rich text of religion, politics, youth culture, and consumerism. youtu.be/2z-po-l-pVc?...

It's time for @laurenfturek.bsky.social & I to celebrate the book birthday for The Routledge History of Religion and Politics in the United States Since 1775! 44 chapters, 48 contributors representing both History & Religious Studies www.routledge.com/The-Routledg... 1/n

I'm teaching a course called "The Bible and Misinformation" next semester. The course will focus on information literacy skills, using the Bible as a focus. What topics would you consider the most interesting/relevant to include?

Seems like it's worth posting this one again.

Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things

This is happening beyond Texas. It’s considered in the purview of any centralized tech office bc they “own” the infrastructure. Routine exercises testing the system & their new shiny tools. Typically, there is no one in the room to say “hey. Wait a minute. Maybe we shouldn’t create a blacklist?”

Similarly after the Joplin, Mo E5 in 2011, tractors from family farms in our KS-MO border counties crawled to Joplin thru the night to clear debris. There were roads again by the time FEMA & the national guard arrived. We went without knowing if we could help but knowing we had to try.

“I never despaired about my students, who, when our conditions allowed it, showed me again and again how close reading requires and multiplies both trust and strength.”

i can not be the only person wondering about the five percent gap between bigfoot and the yeti i mean is this where u draw the line

We're concluding another successful AAR-SBL gathering, and it’s been wonderful to connect with all our authors in Boston! With tomorrow as the final day, we're giving away the remaining display books for free! Swing by Booth 813 starting at 8:30! #AAR #SBL #AARSBL2025

Met my editors in person for the first time! "Good Christian Girls: Nostalgia and the Making of Evangelical Girlhood" is as of a few weeks ago under contract with @uncpress.bsky.social. #AARSBL25

Calling all contingent historians and their editors--if you haven't submitted for this year's lists, why not? Seriously, these are our most highly read pieces of the year. They are a great way to get your scholarship in front of people and SELL YOUR BOOKS.

Chatbot Jesus is many things. one of them is a sign of how little many Christians seem to care about biblical exegesis. There could be really rich conversations about what informs the code (as @robertpjones.bsky.social suggests) but that seems absent. The goal is to offload interpretation entirely

Anyway, hire more religion reporters.

A Guide to AI Ethics Literacy: a growing collection of resources from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics www.scu.edu/ethics/focus...

ICE vs the clergy

My dept is hiring in Religious Ethics! 4/4 load, renewable term with path to promotion (not tenure stream). Specialty open in applied ethics. Happy to answer questions! #SBLAAR25 #AARSBL25 @aarwomenscaucus.bsky.social uni.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UNI/jo...

This Back Pages series is wonderful! I have been thinking about this book on and off for the last year! I’m so glad it’s featured here because, as AP notes, there are through lines to reckon with, especially when trying to understand how white Christian women wield piety as power.

Is there anything better than having scholars you admire engage closely with your work? Thanks Cara Burnidge, Karine Walther, Kate Moran, Mike Verney, and Jay Sexton! @burnidge.bsky.social @karinewalther.bsky.social networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

This quote: “writing requires an unending effort at something resembling authenticity. Most mistakes come from not being yourself, not saying what you think, or being afraid to figure out what you really think.”

"We want to gear on the side of entertainment," he said, "because we think especially biblical content is over-indexed to educational." …is a remarkable statement given Religious Studies Departments around the country closing.

I’m teaching modern US history survey in-person in the spring for the first time in six years. What are the new cool supplemental books to assign students? 🗃️

One of the reading groups this fall at my institution is @cjdenial.bsky.social Pedagogy of Kindness. Love to see it!

@uncpress.bsky.social is having a flash sale to celebrate their new website 🎉 You can save 50% off all books, including pre-orders of mine, for 48 hours with code 01NEWSITE50! uncpress.org/978146969032... Plus there are new blurbs from @therubellion.bsky.social and @rachelbgross.bsky.social!

In Arlington, a church and artist mark sidewalks where ICE tore families apart. These ‘stumbling stickers’ force memory onto public ground—reminders of grief, resistance, and the refusal to let erasure win.

So much is happening in the Sweeney ad and it’s not just the play on the word “jeans.” There’s also a play being had on emphasizing her jeans being “blue.” How did blue get passed down for generations? www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ame...

Critical secularism studies - are we still doing this? Any juice left in that lime? I say yes!

<turning to look directly at the camera from an office at a public, teaching-emphasis university>

thinking for no apparent reason about @felixh.bsky.social's brilliantly titled chapter "Invisible Umpires" in his book Ku Klux Kulture

www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/died... Excellent piece by @danielsilliman.bsky.social These two screen shots are horrifying

How to I not merely dislike a Spotify suggestion but make the algorithm feel shame for even suggesting it in the first place?

It’s always “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, drop out of the public sphere and become a tradwife” and never “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, form a union.”