What are the things you inevitably bring up in classes regardless of topic, to the point that students joke about it/identify it with you? Mine are: -Righteous Discontent by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham -1893 World's Parliament of Religion -Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah -Shakers

I have not been on here in forever, but, some assorted updates: I am leaving New College after this semester. I am glad to have been here to work with amazing students, but the VAP life has worn me down, among other things. I'm headed back to SLC at the end of the summer.

This is my semi-regular public apology to students for the fact that I can never just mention Swedenborgianism, I have to go on a 15 minute tangent, it's involuntary on my part honestly

This week in things said by students that made me feel like I am 900 years old: "I got really into Hamilton in middle school"

If you're in Utah, please call your state senators and ask them to vote against HB 257.

Today's upsetting realization that I feel obligated to share with everyone else my age: Chutes Too Narrow is now old enough to legally drink

"all the cool kids are at the conference without me" tweet, ACHA/AHA edition

My wife's superpower is that every Christmas she somehow finds some Rankin/Bass special I've never even heard of, and they get weirder every year

the Wikipedia entry for axolotls reads like a Cake song

Extremely random question but a student asked me and I genuinely don't know: if the Pope was a Franciscan or another order with a very distinctive habit, would he wear the standard pope outfit(s), or would he need to wear the habit for his order, or what?

Today, my Religion in America class is reading children's books (because we read the chapter of Rachel Gross's Beyond the Synagogue about children's books). I feel like it's a good point in the semester to chill out with some picture books.

Thanks @skestenbaum.bsky.social for joining my Religion in America class by Zoom to talk to them about religion journalism!

Pope Francis said he would evict Cardinal Raymond Burke — a prominent American critic of the pope from the Catholic Church's traditionalist wing — from his Vatican apartment and cut off his salary, according to a Vatican official.

I will never recover from this student email.

Ok NOW this tweet is correct.

Cabin crew: Is there a Dr on board? Me: I am a Dr Cabin crew: Thank God. We have a question about the 18th century textile trade in Northern Africa Me: Ah. I'm afraid my PhD is in the ceramics of Northern Europe, 1672 - 1701

A pond in Hawaii became a social media spectacle this week after turning bubble-gum pink. However, experts said the new hue, seen at the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge on Maui, was not just a photo opportunity but an indicator of environmental stress. nyti.ms/3QAazt5

All the cool kids are at AAR and I'm not :(

Check us out at #aarsbl2023. We're excited to see friends in our AAR networks and would love to talk with SBL folks about their work related to Black religions.