@nakhthor.bsky.social Congregations!

We’ve entered the period of the evening when I can’t tell whether the “it’s all over now” vagueposts are about Platner, the USMNT or McConnell.

Does anyone have to hand the JRA 1991 supplement on LIteracy in the Roman World? I need a few pages, and my copy has disappeared on me.

Also of interest to Classicists!

I checked with a colleague of mine at Exeter, and he thought that it was worthwhile for people to sign this petition about the absurd down-sizing proposed there: www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

The excitement continues!!! Come to the SCS in Boston in January to see @dominicmachado.bsky.social and I give our joint paper “Uncritical Fabulation - Subjection, Subjectivity, and the Study of Slavery.” Excited to be going back to the SCS in person! 🧐🧐

Academic question. This has now happened to me a few times. I referee an article for a journal, and it is not accepted. At some later point a different journal asks me to referee the exact same article. My strong instinct is to decline, though I can't exactly articulate why. Thoughts?

Out today. it means a lot for this to be published on Juneteenth and before Father’s Day. classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/jav...

Dramatic announcement incoming: After over 3 years yours truly has written for the SCS blog once again. Stay tuned for “Fatherlessness in Antiquity and Now” this week.

Noted without comment, especially not about the top line.

Anthony Head was an Ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats home for more than two decades. Thanks for everything Tony x

Everything you every wanted to know about the history of American immigration and citizensip policy. At UT Sept. 10. bsky.app/profile/unla...

One more thing from me on standardization (one more in the pipeline, and then I think I'm done). www.academia.edu/167894508/St...

It’s out!!! Late on posting this but this new chapter and the volume it’s published in is out now! Shout out to Hilary Lehmann and @chrissieplastow.bsky.social for their great editorial work and to @dominicmachado.bsky.social @foodoriented.bsky.social amongst others who read this whole before!!

Living Precariously in the Roman World by Astrid Van Oyen This book investigates the lived experiences of inequality in the Roman world through qualitative analysis of archaeological data. https://cup.org/4dHoTvl #archaeology

My book is real.

Applications for the 2026 Erich S. Gruen prize, which recognizes graduate research, are now open at apply.classicalstudies.org. Find out more information about the prize at classicalstudies.org/awards.

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...

Happy Birthday, Erich! The 2026 SCS Erich S. Gruen Prize competition is now open! @scsclassics.bsky.social classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

I wonder if part of the problem here is that while "credentialing" is a terrible description of what college does, it's less implausible as a description of what distinguishes colleges.

Niche humor (and probably marginal at that. My wife just bought this new feeder toy for the dogs, and it came with its own sekoma/tabula mensoria.

Anybody know why the Yale digital objects catalog doesn't (I think) have PDura numbers for their papyri from there? E.g. why can't I find this as PDura 100?

I am co-editing a special issue of Epigraphy Graffiti Iconography on the theme "Writing, place-making and architecture". More information here: journals.wisethorough.com/index.php/EG... All scripts, areas, periods welcome, from ancient to modern. Please share!

Our AJR book review #forum on Sarah E. Bond's Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire continues with an essay from Richard Last @yalepress.bsky.social @sarahebond.bsky.social www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/4/...

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.

📢 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! 👍

a volume I'm a co-editor on has just been published. Contributions aim to center urban peripheries in the Roman world (heavy on Rome and Italy) from a variety of perspectives (The paper version will cost you mightily, but an open-access digital version should be available within a day or two) 🏺

I’m confused. They seem to suggest that this view of categorization is inherent in adopting a predictive processing approach. But there are in fact PP theories which don’t do categorization this way, right?

Hey, @nathanielskatz.bsky.social, any thoughts on this?

You see this @illdottore.bsky.social ?

Bluesky friends, I am happy to advertise a conference on ancient and medieval slave trading in the Mediterranean, co-organized by myself and Elizabeth Fentress, to be held in Toronto next month (April 15-17, 2026). Contact me via email (rather than here) or the email on the poster for more info!

I don't do it for work, but I have a different name specifically to make restaurant reservations over the phone in Italy (Andrea Ricci).

@apistone.bsky.social Sorry.

If you're anywhere near Kalamazoo, join us tomorrow with @bretdevereaux.bsky.social to campus to discuss "The Appearance of Accuracy: The Perils of Historical Verisimilitude and the Public's Understanding of History." This is the 1st of 4 lectures for our dept this year on Public & Ancient History.

Apart from the AI issue, I'd be interested in the long-form version of this explanation. That's coming from a field which engages with a very long history of past scholarship but where the formal literature review isn't a part of most of the kinds of things we write.

Any of my UK colleagues know anything about this? I’m pretty sure it’s not fake, but I’m a little hesitant about government interventions in humanities research (there or here).

We’re delighted to welcome three new fellows joining IAS CEU this March: Rajshree Chandra, Michael Robinson, and Benedek Totth.

I enjoyed talking with @kensycoop.bsky.social on the Many Minds podcast about the metaphors we use to conceptualize AI. manyminds.libsyn.com/seven-metaph...

I didn't realize this was already out, and the deadline is near, but here's the CFP for a really interesting conference on "Willful Imprecision" (aka non/failure/gap standardization) in Louvain in September. www.fabula.org/actualites/1...

@zacharyherz.bsky.social explains his new book in this engaging conversation: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

This is probably correct, right?

A big proofs day!!! I worked on this chapter for a long time and it’s so exciting to finally see it in this form! This is part of a wonderful volume edited by @chrissieplastow.bsky.social and @hilarylehmann. Shoutout to @dominicmachado.bsky.social @antiquethought.bsky.social

Fun Fact: You can find more praise, info, and - wait, great news, team - an *OA* edition of her electric blue book from the @cornellupress.bsky.social book page: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501... (2/2)

Call for EOI: The Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (BICS) is establishing an Emerging Editors Board made up of early career researchers and/or those outside of traditional academic roles who are in the earlier stages of building editorial experience. Full details: shorturl.at/19eW8

OK, it finally happened! My new article, "Gradience as a cognitive principle for evaluating numerical notations", is now out today in @pnas.org. By focusing on numerals' use for communication instead of arithmetic, we have a new tool to assess their efficiency. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...