I invite colleagues and students to let @ou.edu that the entire academic community stands with Mel Curth, academic freedom and academic judgment. The grotesque decision made by the University endangers all of us and the principle of academic freedom itself.

Join the ICS in collaboration with the British School at Rome for an upcoming event: Myth, History and Archaeology: Peter Wiseman in conversation with Christopher Smith and Liv Yarrow Monday 19 January 6-8pm Full details here: ics.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

It’s been a chaotic and exciting month: three talks squeezed between teaching and everything else. Kicked off on Nov 4th at Sapienza (online), talking Gramsci, normative grammar, and Latin education in today’s school debates in Italy.

Inviting all the classicists, archaeologists and historians who care about Palestinian colleagues/students/heritage to donate a little something to @gmandreou.bsky.social's fundraiser for Gazan students in archaeology and history: everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/05/19/h...

This guide from CAGE International should be required reading for anyone out and about for 🇵🇸 in the UK today ✊🏻 Read here: www.cage.ngo/articles/kno...

One can assume Sarah Pomeroy doesn't mind being identified given she is not shy to send horrendously anti-Palestinian emails to the huge number of folks on the Classics list, on the heel of Francesca Albanese's UN report naming archaeology as core to the ideological architecture of apartheid

Solidarity to @luxmea.bsky.social and all organisers of the Forum.

If you're a historian and you divide between slogan and fact, you're probably not a good historian. That's all I'm going to say about the jenn-o-cyde cheerleaders on professional mailing lists.

Quite apart from the ridiculously offensive paternalism of these people who seem to think they are personally in control of my own academic freedom, this is the worst aspect of that list. The past is political. If it were not there would be no reason for any of us to care about it at all.

. @uniteucu.bsky.social's dispute needs to be resolved. It needs to be resolved bc Congress voted for @ucu.org.uk leadership to do so. It needs to be resolved bc it's the right thing to do. It needs to be revolved bc not resolving it makes things harder for branches in dispute. Solidarity!

Royal Holloway UCU is now on bluesky! @rhucu.bsky.social

It gets worse… Members back at work today after taking lawful strike action are now being threaten with disciplinary procedures if their auto-replies mention the reason for their absence during future strikes. In what trade union world is this acceptable?

632 job cuts have been proposed by the executive team at the University of Dundee. Today we launch our first full-length video that highlights the devastating impact this news is having on staff, and how this will affect Dundee. Please share to amplify our voice. #WeAreThe632 youtu.be/oXkCu-bruiI

UCU leadership once again undermining the ballot and launching a weird internal democracy survey through the single most undemocratic instrument we have, the bloody e-ballot

In midst of heavy redundancies, with branch reps working into night & weekends, it’s v difficult to see how this q doesn’t: - position union members as passive consumers right when we need action - treat unpaid work of volunteers as something to be performance managed Is this trade unionism?

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Just in case this got lost on Friday, sharing again this WonkHE piece on Phase 1 of the project that I'm running with @emizuc.bsky.social, @zenakamash.bsky.social and Lee Dibben on supporting students in the Classics dept living with neurodivergence and/or mental illness. It is good, important work.

@lizgloyn.bsky.social @zenakamash.bsky.social, Lee Dibben and I have published an account of Phase 1 of our MINOTAUR project on @wonkhe.bsky.social today. It's work that we are very proud of; the project is now in its Phase 2, also thanks to support by @cucd.bsky.social wonkhe.com/blogs/asking...

First panel at #RomRep70 : Bertrand Augier snd Gaelle Perrot talked about their CRRITIC project and Ed Bispham guided us in a reading of the Pro Cluentio reflecting on what it can tell us about ancient narratives of the 70s #romanhistory #ancienthistory @rhulclassics.bsky.social

And we started: The conference "The Roman Republic and the 70s BCE: A Period of Uncertainty and Crises" started in Stewart House, London, and online. If you want to join us online just comment here or email me on my RHUL address to get the invitation to the Teams meeting.

For someone elected on to HEC to publicly sabotage a ballot, taking advantage of Tory TU laws, is deplorable.

Juan, Bertrand, Robinson and I are pleased to announce the programme of the upcoming “The Roman Republic and the 70s BCE: A Period of Uncertainty and Crises”, Stewart House, London, 9-11 January 2025.

Closely allied to #archaeology is #ancientbluesky @elliemackinroberts.net has created a list of starter packs on her blog. So, go dive in and check them all out. Many are near and dear friends & colleagues to me. and definitely go follow Ellie! www.elliemackinroberts.net/blog/the-blu...

Shameless seasonal plug as I begin to contemplate my own Christmas shopping list: my book Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture is affordable, accessibly written, and ideal for any bookworms in your life who like the ancient world and/or monsters. If you were short of ideas. #Books

Today, as Gramsci Research Network, we run a roundtable titled "Postcolonial Gramsci(s?) in transhistorical perspective" at the Biennial Conference of the Society for Italian Studies at Royal Holloway, with contribution by S. Agbamu, S. Kroonenberg, M. Puddu, V. Saldutti ->

I've avoided talking about colleagues who have made a career using "decolonisation" as a key word and have been silent about this or worse they refused to engage politically with what is happening in Gaza, because this is not about us but about the right to exist of Palestinian civilians.

Super hype for The Routledge Handbook of Classics and Queer Theory, co-edited by my UCLA colleague Ella Haselswerdt and containing contributions from many friends and collaborators.

Hey, Classics / Ancient Mediterranean folks, if you haven't come across the Queering the Past(s) online resource that focuses on LGBTQ+ subjects and the ancient world, may I draw your attention to it here: https://classicalassociation.org/queering-the-past/ Check it out!

As we're seeing more people following our account, this means we need a timely reminder of the feeds to follow: AncientBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lyrmsmhhg7vzz4ghj44y5xzq/feed/7cb2f06b13c0 🏺 (Archaeology): https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:l72uci4styb4jucsgcrrj5ap/feed/aaaaelwiya4c6

The magic of Civita di Bagnoregio, Tuscia, Italy

Maia Lee-Chin and I made a Classics directory to keep track of everyone and their social media profiles as we all migrate and jump between platforms. Please share! Check out our "Classics Connects" directory: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oVqhqDjaRVUw5KoF_Zin_uA2LyhuQi-nUUfis_HCbh0/

Blank feed syndrome

Okay folks... ive created a Classics feed... if you want yoir post on it (like a hashtag on the erstwhile bird site) include one of the following words (no hashtag needed) ClassicsBluesky or BlueskyClassics or AncientBluesky