One of the challenges of being a chair—even of a small program—is that you really can't "unplug" from the university over the summer. Just a constant drip drip drip of time-sensitive matters that require action. Not a complaint¹ but an observation. _______ ¹ kind of a complaint tho

Science has not yet invented the instrument sensitive enough to measure how little sleep I will lose if Steyer doesn't make a late comeback to finish in top 2. But oof. Becerra and the whole Democratic field here is just so uninspiring. Where are the younger, sharper, more charismatic progressives?

Welp, I voted for Steyer. This was a 51/49 thing for me (over Becerra). My vote doesn't exactly fill me with joy. Don't love the guy's background (to put it mildly). Don't love the vibe. But I think he's *slightly* better on a couple of issues that matter to me (environment and trans rights). 🤷‍♂️

I really wish I could believe that AI in higher ed will become obsolete in the same way that MOOCs did. The similarity is that both technologies have been championed by (some) administrators as promising a revolutionary change to the organization, scope, and impact of higher education. 1/3

I still believe in the mission and promise of public higher education. [a quiet campus on a cool Friday afternoon in early summer invites such reverie]

Sunset over a northern stretch of the San Francisco Bay. May 28, 2026.

One of my professors in grad school (late '90s) used to point to the abandoned churches that are ubiquitous in American cityscapes as a warning that we should not take the permanence of modern universities for granted. Prescient, I think.

MIT (endowment: $27B) shuttering three of its four main libraries is one of those news items that just knocks you off balance, auguring, as it does, profound and permanent changes to the entire institutional apparatus of higher education in this country.

Carlos Noreña, a Possible 2028 Contender, Calls for the National League to Eliminate the Designated Hitter www.nytimes.com

If I had more time (and talent), I would write an ambitious, sociological essay about how LEGO's shift from big buckets of assorted bricks for creative play (my Gen X childhood) to branded sets with precise instructions signals a deeper (and malign) shift in the corporatization of our culture.

A fitting honor for a treasured colleague. Bravo to the AAACC for launching this!

The hemorrhaging of History as a professional discipline will accelerate an already widespread historical illiteracy in our population. Fewer Americans will be able to imagine different worlds. They will sleepwalk through their impoverished lives, seeing everything around them as natural. Oof.

The annual Academic Jobs Report by the AHA is here. For me, the two big takeaways are (i) a roughly 15% drop in the total number of History faculty since 2010, and (ii) a 20% drop from the previous year in tenure/tenure-track job ads in last year's hiring cycle. Not irreversible, but pretty grim.

Lots of data and interactive maps in this piece -- showing, among other things, that California in general, and the SF Bay Area in particular (and San Francisco more particularly), has the highest income-to-housing-cost ratio in the country. No big surprise there. 😱 More housing, please. Fast.

Experiment with optional term paper concluded. Great in one respect: I was able to work very closely with a small group of students who were really invested in the class and in writing. I gave a lot of feedback that will (I hope) serve them well in the future. I have no suspicion of AI use. 1/2

A winged Eros looks back on a crashed chariot and asks (in effect), "WTF?" We feel you, little winged Eros. We feel you. [Sarcophagus, 2nd-3rd c. CE; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen]

A pleasant perch in the shade on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

If your analytical ambition is to examine the recursive relationship between the representation and the reality of ancient Mediterranean warfare, then you really must attend to *both*. Impossible to do without some real military history! Excellent discussion by @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social. ⬇️

If you're interested in the comparative history of the Roman and Han Empires—or just want to know what all the fuss is about—you could do worse than begin with Michael Loewe's (posthumous) synthesis, favorably reviewed here. *Many* viable topics for further analysis lurking in these pages...

I'm not as smart as I look (case #4233). Driving from the Bay Area to San Diego to collect the kid from college. Stopping for night in Anaheim (too jet-lagged to make it in 1 day). Just wanted something quiet. Wasn't paying enough attention... I booked a spot in the HEART of Disneyland madness. 🤦‍♂️

An unpleasant shock to the system to spend a week in Denmark—and to see, first-hand, the prosperity, orderliness, inclusivity, and happiness—and to return to the US and be subjected right away to "Justice Department Considers Settling Trump's $10 Billion Claim Against IRS." Dumpster fire stuff.

An attitude that one encounters in the academic world is what I would call "joyless dismissiveness." It stems from a mix of high self-regard and expertise (as often as not genuine) and a default intellectual stance that always begins from "No; you're wrong; it's more complicated." 1/2

A balm for the soul. 💛

Two middle-aged men in Copenhagen: a study in contrasts. One has glasses and hair but no power. The other has absolute power¹ but no glasses or hair. _____________ ¹ Cf. the *lex de imperio Vespasiani*, esp. the sixth clause.

How I feel about Sandy Hook. The total failure to respond in a meaningful way to a mass shooting at an elementary school revealed the ugly truth that our precious human lives count for nothing. Nothing. There is no coming back from that.

Merely to say, "The rent is too high," though, is always already imbricated in a labile discursive field—itself immanent in an emergent subjectivity of vertical positionality, or, rather, intersectional positionalities—in which the use value of habitation is complexly determined by one's habitus.

I continue to see comparisons in the higher ed discourse between AI and MOOCs, with the failure of the latter serving as a comforting story we tell ourselves about the threat of the former. But this seems like a "category error" to me. The threat of AI is existential in a way that MOOCs never were.

"No systematic theory can explain without remainder the complex interweaving of human activities, especially if the course of events can be altered by the apparently contingent influence of individuals. And on this premiss the historian can never provide any complete explanation of the past." 1/2

slightly diminish a book Caesar, DE CERTAMINE GALLICO

I gave my last lecture of the year today, "The Roman Republic in Perspective." I have studiously avoided commentary on or even allusion to contemporary concerns in this course on the Roman Republic. Not today. Here's a bit of what I said (none of it particularly original). 1/5

I have begun referring to my favorite campus parking spot as "my precious." In my defense (such as it is), I should note that competition for spots is fierce -- nearly a blood sport -- and that I pay $120/month for the privilege of entering the daily tournament. But I might just be losing it. 😂

Had one of those magical and restorative office hours sessions today with a steady stream of students who were bubbling with excitement about class content and just wanted to ask a million questions and talk about *stuff*. Nothing about exams, nothing about grades. What a joy. And privilege.

Ari Bryen's new book is a remarkable historical sociology of Roman law *and* a compelling diachronic account of its transformation from a lively site for the telling of stories and making of meaning to a cold instrument of state power & social control. And the writing is sharp. Highly recommended.

Congratulations to this year's Rome Prize winners, especially to those in Ancient Studies, and more especially (if I may be permitted to cheer) to Berkeley's Cesca LaPasta! I also note that the RP winners across fields come from a wide range of institutions—not at all "the usual suspects." BRAVO.

Current mood as the academic year winds down is less "finish strong!" or "run through the tape!" than "just cross the finish line in one piece, bro." 🧟‍♂️

The University of California system and California State system together enroll 770,000 students. 770,000 That's three quarters of a MILLION students in a PUBLIC education system that ranges in quality from good to world-class. This is a miracle.

Referring to one's pets by type ("my cat," "our dog," etc.) or by name ("Spot," "Fido," etc.) when posting on social media is a sensitive indicator of how one conceptualizes one's "position" in a nested series of technologically mediated relationships. In this essay I will

Boards of Canada is back (big time) after . . . 13 years (!). 👍👍

Just finished this (as part of this semester's informal reading group of faculty and grad students in ancient history). A remarkable book that will (I hope) help to set an agenda for future work on the complex, fascinating, and (NB) increasingly well documented rural worlds of the Roman Empire.

The Designated Hitter in the National League is an abomination. It should be relegated to the junior circuit where it belongs.

📢 Not just a new SCS Blog Post, but an entirely new blog series: engagements with/responses to select articles in our association's official journal, TAPA. First up: Michael Taylor on Duncan MacRae's "Capitoline Futures." Please pitch us if you'd like to spotlight a piece in TAPA! 👍

Four Berkeley recipients, including my dear friend and colleague @hzeavin.bsky.social. Congratulations, Hannah!

My approach to advising smart undergrads on grad school is to lay out the facts, as I understand them. I then ask them to go away and reflect. *If* they're well informed (usually takes several convos) and still interested, *then* I begin to lay out "road maps" and offer whatever help I can. 1/2

Honest conversations with really serious, whip-smart, hard-working undergraduates about graduate school in history/classics, professional prospects in academia, and the state of higher education have become one of the hardest parts of my job, I think. So deflating. I'm sure I'm not alone.

"Late Antiquity" was not created out of thin air by a singular genius. Ahem. Nevertheless, I think we can identify a relatively small circle of foundational figures who built the field into the behemoth that it has become. On *any* reckoning, Averil Cameron belongs in that small circle. 1/4

Was very excited when I picked up this brochure at In-N-Out, but was pretty disappointed by the contents. No new critical editions of Latin texts, none of the excellent recent work on Hellenistic poetry, nothing at all on gender or space or narrative in Greek epic or Latin elegy. C'mon, man.

"Preparing them for the workforce" is code for "turning them into non-thinking widgets for the capitalist machine." Our frenzied rush into a dystopian future is such a tragedy.

Was gonna post that life is good, but it was 5-0 Mets before I even finished my drink.

It's a beautiful, sunny day on the Berkeley campus, and I see small groups of graduating seniors getting their professional photos in front of campus landmarks and larger groups of prospective students and families touring the grounds. Poignant vignettes in the current atmosphere around higher ed.