travis proctor is going to visit my demonology seminar this term, and talk about a silver lining, y’all. check out his book:

Congrats to all @scsclassics.bsky.social outreach award winners last night! Outreach sustains our field and grows our community to include everyone interested in the ancient world. Can’t thank @candidamoss.bsky.social, Anne Groton, @lexie-henning.bsky.social, & @tastinghistory.bsky.social enough.

Pasts Imperfect is back from break! This week, we focus on AI ethics and labor with @illdottore.bsky.social, Christine Johnston & Leigh Anne Lieberman. Then, ancient bees in jawbones, Roman camels in Basel, a book on temple robbery, new ancient world journals @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social & much more

Apply to be the 2026-7 Munby Fellow in bibliography and history of the book @theul.bsky.social www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ688/m...

It’s here! I’m delighted to share a new theme issue of @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social, “Philology Now.” Valeria López Fadul and I edited this issue, featuring smart contributions by Emily Apter, Peter de Bolla, Alan Durston, Cymone Fourshey, Claire Gilbert, Anthony Grafton… historyandtheory.org/64-4

Seeing lots of folks incorporating "critical university studies" lessons into their spring classes. For what it's worth, my 2022 Redesigning the Academy class site is totally open, and I've got a bunch of relevant (open) Arena channels, too... [1/2] redesigningacademy.wordsinspace.net/spring2022/

My (free) website for learning to read from Greek manuscripts is available. Still some tweaks to be made but it’s ready with 12 lessons, tips and hints, downloadable reports if you use it for a class, and links to lots of resources. Please share and give feedback! xeirographa.com

2026 Grawemeyer religion award honors ‘God’s Ghostwriters’ Biblical scholar Candida Moss wins the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for "God’s Ghostwriters," highlighting enslaved collaborators who helped shape the New Testament. @candidamoss.bsky.social

So excited to see Susan Harvey's new book out this month! And it's available for free download! www.ucpress.edu/books/minist...

A compelling interview with the brilliant Ellen Muehlberger about her new book. So many great insights!!

Die Uni Frankfurt richtet ein neues LOEWE-Zentrum „Dynamiken des Religiösen: Ambivalente Nachbarschaften zwischen Judentum, Christentum und Islam in historischen und gegenwärtigen Konstellationen“ ein, und hat zur Zeit 25(!) Promotions- und Postdoc-Stellen ausgeschrieben, viele auch offen für […]

📕 “In partnership w/Dumbarton Oaks, @visithmml.bsky.social will host an intensive 4-week course on the Ge’ez language at an introductory level in summer 2026. This course is intended for doctoral students or recent PhDs who can demonstrate a need for Ge’ez in their research” hmml.org/programs/int...

Congratulations to James Ker, Andrew Laird, and Julia Mebane, this year's recipients of the Goodwin Award of Merit from the Society for Classical Studies! And thanks to Andrew Riggsby and the rest of the committee for their work!

Call for Papers: Scribes, Transmission, and Bilingual Traditions: A Fresh Examination of GA 629, 10-12 June 2026, Irish College, Leuven. Proposals due Dec 31, 2025.

I’ve put together a list of funding sources for graduate students in biblical studies and early Christianity. Most of these are only available to students in the U.S. but many of them don’t have citizenship requirements. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

📣Did you read someone's great first article from either 2024 or 2025? Is the author a NAPS member? Would they like cash money? Nominate them by sending a PDF of their piece to [email protected] by January 31, 2026 Best First Article prize and a cool $250 awarded at the NAPS annual meeting!

Next week is the last week of classes here. As I say every semester, I try and end many of my history seminars with a quote from James Baldwin that answers the question of: why take humanities courses? (Time Magazine, May 24, 1963).

Interesting review of what seems like a fascinating book. One of the major conclusions-- that painters were flexible, small-scale, and itinerant and could not make enough to live on just a Pompeii-- fits well with increased attention to mobility & with Kim Bowes'... bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2025/2025.12...

⭐ The inaugural RAFFAELLA CRIBIORE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TRANSLATION from the Society for Classical Studies has just been announced ⭐ C. Luke Soucy, *Ovid's Metamorphoses* (University of California Press, 2023).

Only one more presentation to go for this year ...

Congratulations to @candidamoss.bsky.social for this honor!!God’s Ghostwriters is a field-altering book, as truly all of her work has been. 🤓

did anyone make a roundup of book discount codes for this year's #aarsbl25 #sblaar25 ?

Nordic New Testament conference call for papers! www.gu.se/en/literatur...

I am thrilled (and a little overwhelmed) to share that my book God's Ghostwriters was award the 2026 Grawemeyer Award in religion. I am deeply honored to join this group of distinguished award winners. lpts.edu/friends/graw...

Two fully paid PhD positions at Lund University! One in Hebrew Bible and the other in Jewish studies, focus late antiquity. Gorgeous location and gorgeous colleagues. Don't sleep on this! (Set filter to HT to access these two in particular.) lunduniversity.lu.se/vacancies

For ABSOLUTELY NO REASON at all, did you know that the Critical Ancient World Studies volume has three chapters on critical philology which are all OPEN ACCESS?

Join us on the First Friday of December for a workshop with Sam Cook on the Monastic Use of Coptic Apocrypha!

Belated #sblaar25 post: I had the privilege of reviewing this wonderful book by @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social, @candidamoss.bsky.social, and Joseph Howley at this year’s conference. It was a pleasure to read and you should definitely check it out!

A notification this morning that my Grants.gov account would be deleted led to the discovery that, it seems, all record of my awarded-then-cancelled NEH Summer Stipend has been erased from their database.

Please share! Two new postdoc positions have opened in the RADHEART project at the University of Bergen. The first is on ancient Rabbinic literature from the 2nd – 7th century CE. #AcRel #sblaar #AncientBlueSky www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

I'm writing a textbook for the study of medieval manuscripts in the 21st century & am developing a framework that will be referenced throughout the book: ten touchpoints for medieval book history in Europe with six drivers of change. Here's how it will play out... (image: Codex Amiatinus) 🧵

November 30, 1817: Birthday of the great Theodor Mommsen, perhaps the best Roman epigrapher and legal expert of all time. In addition to having epic hair, Max Weber was Mommsen’s star pupil. If you have time, check out the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) via the BBAW database. cil.bbaw.de/en/

QUADRENNIAL NUMISMATIC PRIZE 2026 The Royal Belgian Society for Numismatics is pleased to announce the next edition of its quadrennial Numismatic Prize. This prize of €2.000 rewards an original scholarly work in the field of numismatics.

New job: Fellowships at The New York Historical The New York Historical jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69540

It was a really stark and sobering contrast to go from the tremendous session @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social arranged at the Boston Athanaeum, where we reveled in the craft and care that has poured into the material text in the history of biblical studies… /1

Probably the best session for me at this year‘s SBL. Offsite: Material Texts at Boston Atheneum with the Ancient Education program unit. Thank you @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social for organizing.

Hey #SBLAAR25, looking for funding for your project on the Ancient Mediterranean? We're accepting applications through February 1 for the Shohet Scholars Grant.

Laura Nasrallah's hot take: "Leave Paul alone" or "give Paul a sabbatical."

Kathy Ehrensperger's hot take: (bonus: Paul perhaps focuses on gentiles also experiencing Roman colonization) Paul's pharisaism was flexible and adaptable rather than rigid (and thus in line with the sort criticized by the Qumran sectarians), thus he is "well-equipped" to guide and include gentiles

Michael Peppard's hot take: 2 Timothy when considered on its own has a good case for being accepted as authentic. There is also evidence that 2 Tim circulated in some cases as 1 Tim.

Paula Fredriksen's hot take: Rom 1:4 should be read as Christ's designation in power by the resurrection of the dead plural and in reference to the broad resurrection of the dead rather than his own

"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe

@jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social delivers his A.R. Pete Diamond award-winning paper “Synoptic Work: Compositional Practices, Invisible Labor, and the Synoptic Problem”. Brent Nongbri responds. Follow QR code for Jeremiah’s notes. #aarsbl25 #sblaar25

New at PB: Stephanie Wong interviews Seth Rockman (@sethrockman.bsky.social) about his latest book, "Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) and his experience learning to work on a late 18th-century loom.

Conference advice from and for #AARSBL25 folks!

Congratulations to Jeremiah Coogan, recipient of the A. R. Pete Diamond Award for Integrative Scholarship for his paper “Synoptic Work: Compositional Practices, Invisible Labor, and the Synoptic Problem.” buff.ly/cGfwZes