I would very much like for people to stop making my life weirder than it needs to be. I'm extremely skilled at making my own weird.

Kevin it’s Monday.

Rachel, are you familiar with the new book "Judaism Is About Love"? I liked this interview with the author: onbeing.org/programs/sha... Food for thought :)

There's a fascinating history of sectarian politicking as a key element in diplomatic engagements between Muslim and Christian states. Famously the letters between Sultan Murad III and Elizabeth I contain much praise for English Protestantism (they also shared a certain adversary, Spain...).

Would've been faster to say "fuck Jews*," but ok. *And Samaritans! Can't forget the Samaritans!

More #histmed. @theguardian.com has changed the image accompanying their review of this new book on the Black Death, & explain the prior one was leprosy. But they don't acknowledge the source of the corrected information! Folks, this info comes from scholarship. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Geography isn’t destiny Islam "skipped" most of central Burkina Faso to move to northern Ghana because of people’s choices That it was adopted fairly late in Burkina Faso (mostly during colonialism and after) is again because of human agency

“Why erase Haiti & Toussaint Louverture? Why erase the theater? Why erase the avenging violence and Black victory?” Between 1943 & 1956, Aimé Césaire made substantial changes to his work “……And the Dogs Were Silent.” @elotroalex.bsky.social explains.

It is, meanwhile, entirely transparent why we all fear becoming Dean.

Alfred Kubin, Insect Of The Moon, 1910

Just unalloyed stupid evil.

[insert commentary on gender, race, and neurotypicality here]

I hereby demand dogs at every lecture.

Except mine, don’t read my book. I’ll tell you which ones to read instead.

My employer announced even more restrictions on course content today and in a second email reminded us of available counseling options to help handle the stress. Thanks?

I spent all week (re-)reading the Kitāb al-Tijān fī Mulūk Ḥimyar and there are *way* more dragons in here than I remembered there being on an initial skim. Someone should translate this ish.

First Plato—now Dr. Peterson—out the door at Texas A&M! Who’s next? Here is Dr. Peterson’s letter of resignation, which he just shared with the faculty.

This is what it looks like when institutions make good decisions! Congratulations!

Just in time for Passover. Thanks to Moment Magazine and Jacob Wirtschafter for this review of my recent book from @princetonupress.bsky.social! momentmag.com/book-review-...

Pleased to see that my latest article, entitled "The Alexamenos Graffito as Christian Self-Parody," is now out in NTS. In it I argue against the widely held view that this graffito is non-Christian in origin and that it could very well have been written by an enslaved Christian.

No like this is actually a thing in manuscript studies though, especially in South Asia: lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/l2go/-/get/v...

Tapping the sign

Having a final draft of an article sent for publication in the same interval of time when you're finalizing your tenure dossier is, pathetically, the closest I'll ever come to the feeling of hitting a last-second 3-pointer from half court. God that's so sad.

Not apologising for flooding the timeline with live news from Lebanon. I don't know how many people I know will still be alive by tomorrow. And all this because the fucking western nations won't call off the rabid dog they created.

I’m reading War and Peace, and you know, probably a lot more people would read it if they knew just how extremely cunty the dialogue is

I just feel like Americans authentically just don't want to people teaching what the crusades were because it would de-romanticize them. Anyway. Blah blah blah, medieval! *jazz hands*

If you guys need an absolutely cursed thread to mute today, might I suggest....

Anyone know why another term for الخط الحميري is المسند? Because I don't and I wanna know. They're used interchangeably in the source I'm reading.

Antarctic humpback whales have recovered to nearly pre-whaling levels. Humpbacks have been the fastest to rebound since commercial whaling was banned in 1986, with multiple groups of more than 100 whales recorded near the South Orkney Islands. The Guardian buff.ly/eSXtvdN #ShareGoodNewsToo

Teaching Byzantium, Constantinople, and the Arab Conquests in the 7th century CE today in my history of the Ancient and Medieval Middle East class today, which means it is Greek Fire day. And I can introduce everyone to the Madrid Skylitzes by Ἰωάννης Σκυλίτζης. www.bne.es/sites/defaul...

Birds might not be real, but they help you do real history! (This is extremely cool.)

Once again, the national average pay for adjunct professors with PhDs is a flat fee of $3900 per course.

you will never guess what this is a response to

So what degree of breaking the cycle of samsara is it when you actively feed off of others' derision...?

Fun fact: according to legend, Bilqīs wed Sulaymān a virgin because she didn't dig dudes until she met a Real One (read: a prophet). (This is a common trope in later Arabic popular literature, too, regarding heroic women who convert to Islam in adulthood.)

so, uh, how's all that online whining about the 25th amendment working out for folks? any progress?

You guys are all way too nice to your life partners is what I’m gleaning here.

Me too, bud.

For anyone in Kalamazoo this Wednesday…

Anyone else get in an annual fight with their Spousal Unit about whether Pesach is 7 days or 8? If so, provide your arguments. He’s a 7er (8 puts living in galut beneath living in haaretz, is unnecessary with modern timekeeping/tech). I’m an 8er because apparently I’m from the village of Anatevka.

‘The curators subtly dismiss the creaky old division between the fine and decorative arts that was introduced by mutton-chopped Victorians and efficiently eliminated the disciplines in which women tended to excel.’ Lucy Davies reviews a new exhibition about women artists from the Low Countries

I just got my COVID booster, so, uh, before I depart here's your reminder to not be a dumbass and vaccinate your asses.

Today, I've been reading a very old medical commentary from ancient Uruk, written in the Akkadian language. It's a tiny cuneiform tablet that explains words and phrases excerpted from another text - a diagnostic manual, known in antiquity as Sa-gig.

I’m so thrilled to learn that my book, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis, is the honorable mention for the W.E.B. Du Bois-John Hope Franklin Award from @oah.org! Thank you award committee and to everyone who helped bring the book to life www.oah.org/2026/03/26/o...

How the turn tables.

Popping back on for a couple of days and then deactivating at least through Pesach (none of you deserve my Prince of Egypt takes), because I have a small announcement. My review article of 3 monographs about medieval Muslim women and families as economic and social entities is now out in AHR...

idk, tbh my only logic here is that I think if this country were to elect its first Jewish pres (big swing that) it'd be a Shapiro sorta politician over an Ossoff... alas