Can’t believe all these people are running a marathon through "war torn" Chicago today

#WarTorn Chicago

AAUP President Todd Wolfson unpacks the dangerous consequences of the Trump administration’s compact, which aims to exert ideological control over universities and colleges. As Wolfson makes clear, this partisan incursion into higher education affects ALL sectors. @proftwolf.bsky.social

Babylonian map of the world (© The Trustees of the British Museum) and c. AD 1620 Portuguese map of Basra, Iraq (© Hugo Refachinho / CC BY-SA 4.0). Despite both depicting the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab river, they are completely different, showcasing maps' subjectivity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

This. Many colleagues want to be helpful but clearly should just say no. Nagging reviewers is the worst part of my editor job.

No, we’d prefer to accept PhD applicants for 2026, but the previously lucky departments have joined with the unlucky in solidarity. Awesome colleagues! www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

A lot of overlap with subjects for which PhD admissions are paused for 2026 at UChicago. We are not unionised.

No PhD admissions for Middle Eastern Studies at UChicago in 2026. MES includes modern and all aspects of the ancient Near East: cuneiform languages, Egyptology, archaeology 🏺 www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...

UChicago’s phoenix is flying backwards into the ashes. #AcademicSky www.chronicle.com/article/they...

The government is “using levers of power that are completely unrelated to the underlying allegations…Cutting off research for diabetes, cancer, heart disease will not improve the safety of Jewish faculty & students on campus & will not address antisemitism.” —Mia McIver, AAUP Executive Director

FEATURED JOB: Klarman Postdoctoral Fellowship [Up to 3-Year Appointment] College of Arts & Sciences, Cornell University - New York networks.h-net.org/jobs/68922/c... #edusky #academicsky #humanities #socialsciences

If you want to hear the latest news from one of Iraq's most iconic sites, and how excavations work, episode 77 is for you

New volume of IRAQ Vol. 86 (2024) www.cambridge.org/core/journal... @universitypress.cambridge.org @augustamcmahon.bsky.social @petramcreamer.bsky.social

Day 3 of the Summer Institute begins! “Academic freedom is a job condition, not a privilege…this is a matter of democratic education.” —Rana Jaleel, Chair of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom & Tenure, Morning Plenary “Protecting Academic Freedom: How to Build an Effective Issue Campaign.”

So nice to chat to @jonjtaylor.bsky.social about our 2025 #Nippur excavations. Check out Episode 77! www.wedgepod.org/episode-list/

More archaeology of archaeology. ‘His Majesty’ [#NotMyKing either] in this case was George VI. #Nippur #PostExcavation 🏺

The archaeology of archaeology. #Nippur 🏺

Mood

I want to take a moment to share an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence's grievances against King George III. Sound familiar?

Every damn day I read things like this and it’s like a continuous stream of stories from The Onion. Except it’s not. Where is Congress?

Happy May 1st! Academics, keep fighting the regimes and budget cuts. Education should not be devalued. And neither should research. Try to opt out of projects that involve highly predatory journals or publishers. They charge top tier & we get nothing? Enough! Our labor matters! #academicsky

#MayDay2025 Resist

Trump’s executive order on accreditation is yet another attempt to dictate what is taught, learned, & said by college instructors & students. Threats to remove accreditors are transparent attempts to consolidate power in the hands of the administration in order to stifle teaching & research. 🧵

“If a pact is formed, the universities shall “commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund”. The fund will be in turn used to provide “immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement.” #defendhighered

If you're for taxing university endowments (which support student aid and programs) but decreasing taxes on the wealthy, then don't pretend you're about fairness. You're about hypocrisy and plutocracy.

Harvard will not comply. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” — Harvard President Alan M. Garber www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

BREAKING: Harvard AAUP & the nat'l AAUP have jointly filed a lawsuit & TRO to block the Trump admin from demanding that Harvard restrict speech & undermine academic freedom or else lose $8.7 billion in federal funds. This action challenges the Trump admin's misuse of funds for coercion. Stay tuned.

Look how Paris has improved their #airquality with encouraging cycling and reducing cars in the city! #carbrain #thewaroncars www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...

Whether it’s to “defed” or “defend”, do join the AAUP. I just signed up as a lifetime member, because the war on education is not going away any time soon.

Spring in Rome

Hello, Bluesky!! We are a collective of academics who are standing up for higher education. Join us: www.wearehighered.org

New paper 📝 ✨in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal (OpenAccess). I highlight #Glocalisation as a model to explain the regional nuances of the #Uruk Phenomenon in southern Iraqi #Kurdistan #archaeology #globalisation #Mesopotamia www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The bigger question we should be asking is: Why are Trump officials using Signal for their communications instead of formal, traceable channels? The answer seems clear — to avoid transparency.

We call on all those who care about the future of education & democracy in the US to stand up now against these monstrous assaults on our core principles of freedom of speech, student & faculty safety, & free inquiry and thought. Now is the time. When we fight, we win. #defendhighered #academicsky

If you give in to extortionists, they’ll extort you and others for more. If you let bullies get their way, those bullies will bully you and others even more menacingly. Which brings me to Columbia University. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-shame-of-columbia-university

Another #Nippur fieldwork season done, back to teaching on Tuesday (Assyrian Empire!). I thought I would never put together a team as good as the Brak team was, but this Nippur team is amazing. V proud of the work we did. Until next year. 🏺

Clearly I made an important point here about something on the ground. #Nippur 🏺

Scenes from a day trip to Baghdad to start the process of requesting sample export permission. #Nippur 🏺

Beadzzzzz. #Nippur🏺

From Day 1 at #Nippur we have had a small mouse problem. We have owls in the house, and I hoped the cycle of life would sort that out. No luck. Enter Yen, who refuses to chase mice but whose majestic presence may have solved the issue. 🏺 #ArchaeologyCats

The 10 Senate Democrats who voted with Trump to advance MAGA funding bill: -Catherine Cortez Masto -Dick Durbin -John Fetterman -Kirsten Gillibrand -Maggie Hassan -Angus King -Gary Peters -Brian Schatz -Chuck Schumer -Jeanne Shaheen Primary them all & elect a new Senate leader or start a new party.

Sometimes the potters of #Nippur just phoned it in. (Thanks @antiquityj.bsky.social for the swag.) 🏺

Beautiful sunset over the sherd dump at #Nippur.

Even though we are excavating in the Bronze and Iron Ages, it seems lithic technology was still alive and well at #Nippur (might also be prehistoric upchurn). 🏺

We have definitely shifted some soil this season: multiple stacked versions of the city wall and the most massive 1st mill BCE house that seems to go on forever. #Nippur 🏺

At #Nippur, we’re finding the breakage pattern on our 1st mill (top) and 3rd mill (centre and bottom) male figurines is the same. Weak points or persistence of use? 🏺

In our ongoing experiment in creating a hollow way at #Nippur, the recent rains show how and why hollow ways are widened. We’ve veered to each side of our path (mostly to the left) to avoid a very soggy patch. 🏺

At #Nippur, every day is #InternationalWomensDay for our strong women-dominant team. 🏺

Our pile of processed pottery is growing: all excavated, washed, counted, typed and analysed, drawn (a sample), and returned on site. 🏺🏺