So a little bit about federal grants being suspended from the perspective of a retired person who was funded by NIH grants for 20-odd years. I first want to extend my sorrow to colleagues who are affected by this. Next, for those of you who don’t work in academic science, I want to share how…1/4

I can't stop thinking about these people risking their lives to save this city and the people in it who voted just a few months ago to keep them working in these unimaginable conditions

Mask bans in NY are once again being portrayed as necessary in the fight against antisemitism. This ableist piece of security theater is bad for everyone so if you are Jewish - and especially if you live in NY and most especially if you have a title like Rabbi - please sign.

ILL librarians are real live heroes of the revolution

From Rubel, this: “You can get pickle everything now. This is really my time.”

Still thinking on @rachelbgross.bsky.social’s point. There’s something lovely about a certain kind of innovation, one made intentionally to enhance a tradition. Many of my favorite traditions became traditions within living memory!

We're not ruining holidays, we're enhancing them ✨🤣

Potato latkes aren't really that old — but they *feel* old. That's what scholars call an "invented tradition," writes SF State Professor @rachelbgross.bsky.social:

My thoughts on the very recent history of potato latkes, now online as an opinion piece in @jewishsf.bsky.social: Hanukkah potato pancakes are less than 200 years old, but learning how quickly new rituals become meaningful can add to holiday magic if we let it. jweekly.com/2024/12/30/p...

In @theguardian.com, Deena Prichep tells us about the Reformed Druids of North America, the religion that began as a way to get around a @carletoncollege.bsky.social requirement. I love this so much. #AmRel www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Read some great food history!

Love this! And yes, to punch up Rachel’s closing point—understanding how rituals become meaningful makes them all the more meaningful, not less!

I wrote about the shockingly recent history of potato latkes and teaching about the development of holiday traditions for @jewishsf.bsky.social, included in a recipe booklet sent out to donors PDF: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fu583...

Appreciate this! My work is challenging conventional narratives of Mary Antin, esp.: "She disappeared into relative obscurity, spending much of the rest of her life in and out of mental hospitals" In fact, she spent 3 decades immersed in exciting spiritual communities that supported her like family

... and HBI's Scholar in Residence Program. The deadline to apply for the 2025-26 academic year is coming up in February. bit.ly/HBIScholar /end

More on the HBI Research Awards... bit.ly/HBIResearchA... 2/3

Congratulations to @rachelbgross.bsky.social on this publication in the AJS @jewishstudies.bsky.social Perspectives. HBI is delighted to have supported Gross’ work on her Mary Antin project through a Research Award and HBI Residency. 1/3

I rarely save memes after sharing them with whoever but I’m saving this one

I will never stop being aghast that the United States built a higher education system that was literally the envy of the entire world—our bitterest political enemies nonetheless sent their children to us to be educated, it was so good—& then just decided to systematically, ruthlessly dismantle it

Sometimes people tell me they admire my work. If thats you, i hope you'll hear the most important thing I can say as an academic: you are more important than this system and the ways it'll break you. You break because you're human and it's not built for us. Its not weak to pause, pivot, or quit.

SO VERY EXCITED to share this NEH Summer Institute website on Jewish print culture!! #nehgrant @nehgov.bsky.social @barbaramann.bsky.social #bookhistory 📜 artsci.case.edu/neh/

Thrilled to have a short piece on my current project—the spiritual adventures of 20th-century Jewish writer Mary Antin—in @jewishstudies.bsky.social Perspectives, in the fascinating new conversion issue. Full issue: www.associationforjewishstudies.org/docs/default...

hey bluesky, in case anyone's interested, I wrote this for my students about why I don't want them to use anything AI in my classes. It interrupts the course calendar part of the syllabus, coming immediately after the first day there's a writing assignment assigned. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Hi @adriennelaf.bsky.social. There have been some studies on medieval violence published since 1939. Would you like to know more?

Are you a PhD student working on a dissertation that somehow deals with Mormonism? You should apply for the University of Utah's phenomenal graduate fellowship. They have a great record of helping a long line of stellar scholars. mormon.utah.edu/graduate-res...

I taught at Virginia Tech from 2007-2022 with Nikki Giovanni, whose office was a few doors down the hall from mine. Her spirit was as big as her laugh, and her poems always brought people together. There was often a film crew making some kind of documentary parked in our hallway. 🧵

Wednesday 12/11, 12 pm at San Francisco State University: funeral march for longtime lecturers who are suddenly losing their jobs Context: www.kqed.org/news/1201631...

A t-shirt for mid-career academics that says, “As I have argued elsewhere.”

Appreciative of good coverage of the bad situation at SF State by @katiedebe.bsky.social at @kqednews.bsky.social. Hundreds of lecturers are being laid off and the administration threatens program cuts.

In joyous things, it was my birthday on Thanksgiving and I claimed the apple pie as my birthday cake

I wrote a history of the hymn my father sang to me as a kid & ended up finding that it locates the origins of white evangelical nostalgia. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Gemara: If it is exactly 26 minutes or more after sundown then you can say the bracha over the half full cup, however if it is before that you must say the bracha over the half empty cup.

there are more people on bluesky than there are Jews in the world

@davidamwilensky.bsky.social in @jewishsf.bsky.social

Looking forward to being in conversation with @laura-yares.bsky.social, Cara Rock-Singer, and Chumie Juni about lived religion and U.S. Jewish studies, with @mariegriffith.bsky.social chairing, at #SBLAAR24 on Monday, 3:00–4:30 pm Image from AJHS, HIAS collections: www.instagram.com/ajhsnyc/p/DB...

It's my last year as co-chair of the AAR Religion & Memory Unit! We've got 3 great panels: The Costs of Memory *w/the Religion and Economy Unit* Saturday, 9:00 am-11:00 pm Feat. Laura Simpson, Zachary Taylor, Jeannine Hill Fletcher. Rebecca Bartel presiding, Timothy Rainy responding. #SBLAAR24

I made a feed for #SBL and #AAR discussion ahead of the annual meeting next week. It grabs a bunch of related tags and gives us all one place to look. Check it out and share it! Tags are not case-sensitive, including: #sbl #aar #aarsbl #sblaar #aarsbl24 #sblaar24

A colleague's therapist: "Are you depressed or is it week 13 of the semester?"

Fantastic piece from my friend Michal Raucher in The Revealer: "Jewish advocates for reproductive justice in America have an opportunity to push back against [anti-choice claims]. But if they remain preoccupied with proving their religious authenticity in conservative terms, they’ll squander it."

A bit silly to call academia a job when its actually like 12 jobs in a coat pretending to be one job

Love the amazing CFA union posters appearing around campus at SF State

This 1897 Rosh Hashanah blessing from the Emanu-El (now J. The Jewish News of Northern California) is my current favorite thing. Thanks to David A.M. Wilensky for sharing it in his latest J. Sunday newsletter: “To our readers, all hail! May the new year bring them life, health and happiness.”

Hi folks. I am creating a custom feed for scholars of American religion on Bluesky. If you would like to be on the feed, please sign up: https://forms.gle/ZSh8Y5YjcTPrtCyd7 Here is the feed: https://bsky.app/profile/lincolnmullen.com/feed/aaanmet56tqp4