It’s so incredibly depressing to see this garbage destroying everything that was good about an entire public university system. A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/m...

A wonderful time with wonderful people in a wonderful place!

This was awesome. Many many thanks to everyone who participated. @nasscal.bsky.social

kudos to @janetspittler.bsky.social and @ingerkuin.bsky.social and the whole @nasscal.bsky.social team for putting on an extraordinary 2 days of papers and fellowship!

The First Friday of May coincides with the NASSCAL conference here at the University of Virginia. While most of the conference is in-person only, we’re maintaining the regular online First Friday workshop, this week with TWO papers.

We had never needed the Arts and Humanities more.

Wonder Bread factory in Natick, MA. I can smell it just thinking about it.

Applications due in two days, be there or be square

Join us this Friday for our workshop with Jeremiah Coogan! The topic is “Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews.” Regular time, regular place.

Tomorrow!

Please join us on February 6 at noon (EST) for the first First Friday Workshop of the new semester!

Please share widely! 3-year Postdoc in Early Christian Studies. Deadline: 8 March. Let me know if you have any questions or want to nominate a colleague.

In case you haven't yet heard about it, there is an interesting new project on 'Ethnicity and (In)Equality in Early Christianity' being led by Matthijs den Dulk (Radboud University). Currently hiring for a 3-year postdoc. Application deadline is 8 March. www.eiec.info/home

Well, this is a delight. Many thanks @abigailspanberger.com for appointing serious people!

We have concerns! www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2026...

Is it true that the TLG is no longer accepting credit card payments for individual subscriptions? I gotta mail a check to California?

So many of my recent pieces for National Geographic would have suffered were it not for my ability to link to the amazing resources supplied by @nasscal.bsky.social. If you are interested in early Christian literature you must check out this invaluable site. www.nasscal.com

Do you need last minute gift ideas for an enemy or antagonistic family member? Look no further: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526175038/

The Cavalier Daily strikes again. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 "Scott Beardsley’s appointment [as UVA president] epitomizes a semester defined by absence, secrecy and institutional disregard." www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

Nag Hammadi friends: If you had to choose one “gnostic” text to read in a grad seminar on religious thinkers in antiquity, which would you choose and why? Bonus if it comes with an article that is readable for students with no Coptic and little experience with the corpus.

If your crèche has an ox and an ass or exactly three magi, congratulations: You’re having a very apocryphal Christmas already! Tony will explain.

Holiday Mutual Aid: PLEASE SHARE WIDELY! It’s time for YEAR 6! With recent federal-level changes creating new challenges in our community, we’re prioritizing core necessities. We are still welcoming traditional gifts. More info below. We take care of us. To Give C: $zyahnab Venmo: Zbryant01

UVa faculty senate resolves that “any individual selected for the presidency under the current search timeline and by a Board that does not have its full complement of 17 members including 12 alumni and 12 Virginia residents should be aware…” 1/3

For every democracy which has enjoyed prosperity for a lengthy period first develops by nature an attitude of discontent towards the existing order, and then looks around for a master. When it has found one, it soon begins to hate him. So was it in this case for the Tarentines. – Polybius 8.24.1

He’s got my vote. m.youtube.com/watch?v=C2AQ...

We just sent out the December edition of our newsletter! It covers the announcement of our next webinar on preventing displacement, our first ever holiday gift guide, a city bike infrastructure advocacy opportunity, the vigil for those who died while homeless, and more. mailchi.mp/livablecvill...

Excellent editorial by the student paper: “Perhaps the most obvious epitomization of Mahoney’s desire to be protected from, rather than to protect, the University community, was his decision to be accompanied by a police guard as he entered the Faculty Senate.” www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

“Boys also have lower mean scores on the SAT in reading and writing, score lower overall on the ACT and have lower grade point averages in high school. “If we were going to eliminate preferences for men, the undergraduate population would skew to 65 percent female overnight,” Mitchell said.”

Once again: the presidential and provost search must be paused, Sheridan and Wilkinson must resign, and the student newspaper is utterly outpacing all other news sources. Wahoowa!

Join us on the First Friday of December for a workshop with Sam Cook on the Monastic Use of Coptic Apocrypha!

An election for the 2025-2027 NASSCAL Board of Directors will take place at this week's First Friday Workshop (Dec. 5). The slate of nominees can be found here: www.nasscal.com/2025/12/02/n...

I do love an advent calendar!

well, what the heck. it's the tuesday before thanksgiving, and whoever is on here deserves a treat: the first new translation I've posted in a long while: the Life and Martyrdom of Susanna: andrewjacobs.org/translations...

I love this pope.

Happy St Katherine's Day to all scholars, librarians, and Katherines. May you win an argument against an annoying man today, in the true spirit of Katherine herself.

I agree with the UVa faculty senate: the Rector and Vice Rector must resign, and the presidential search must be paused.

AAR/SBL folks: Sunday, 8-11pm First Church Boston (on Marlborough between Clarendon and Berkeley)!

lovely and enlightening event about @ingerkuin.bsky.social's new DIOGENES book in conversation w @aristofontes.bsky.social. there were sheet cookies with the cover!

Early Christian Epistolarity is out now! Get your copy (or, you know, get your library to order it) at brill.com/display/titl.... It was an honor to work on this project with Judith Lieu @greggiven.bsky.social @angelastandh.bsky.social @cavanconcannon.bsky.social, Harry Maier (1/2)

From the inimitable @ingerkuin.bsky.social!

Teaching post-doc position in UVa’s College, renewable for up to three years total. Apply!

Former BOV Rector Hardie to current Rector Sheridan and BOV member Manning: “I am very disappointed that two of my closest friends decided to leave their friend the Rector out of such a conservation. Stand by your president. This is sickening to me. I am appalled.”

Shopping for new books at SBL 2025? Here are some suggestions for titles related to Christian apocrypha. www.apocryphicity.ca/2025/11/16/c...

youngkin serving the commonwealth by conspiring with the white house to destroy one of its flagship educational institutions

Governor Elect Spanberger advises the UVA BOV to pause selection of a new President until they have a Board approved by the General Assembly. A good and fair call.

Thank you, @abigailspanberger.com! This is the right path for restoring faculty, staff, student, and alumni trust in our BOV. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...

Alumni and friends of UVa Religious Studies: you are invited to our reception at the AAR/SBL annual meeting! Sunday, November 23, 8-11pm at First Church Boston. The venue is not a literal ship as in years past, but the etymology of “nave” keeps us in line with UVa tradition.

my already pretty reasonably priced LIFE OF THECLA translation/introduction is now UNreasonably cheap with the code CONFSHIP! $9.50! I think it includes US shipping? stocking stuffers for all of your apocrypha lovers! wipfandstock.com/978166674640...

I did not write the headline, but I have an op ed on Prop 50 over at the @sfchronicle.com. Shorter version: the nationalization and polarization of our politics is what got us here, and it's also the most likely way out. It will take national partisan Democratic hardball to enact anti-hardball.