That second half was hard work. Olympiacos were much tougher to play against, but I think we were also wasteful. Trossard had big chances, Odegaard denied by brilliant goalkeeping and defending. But he got the assist for Saka's late goal, the least his performance deserved. 3 points, clean sheet!

Episode 140 is now up on "Tuberculosis in WW1" with Eric Story: infectioushistorians.com/2025/07/08/t.... We look at the impact of TB on Canadian soldiers in particular along with writing this history during Covid. Maybe an interest to @benmschneider.bsky.social and his Oslo crew.

GET THE FUCK IN, THAT'S A HUGE WIN!

Great set of charts from Ben Schmidt to update his existing work. Worth a look for sure.

Job done. Trossard goal added a little gloss to the scoreline, after what was a fairly risk averse second half from Arsenal. Big game at the weekend perhaps in the back of our minds, played in 2nd gear, but we really didn't cause them enough problems with the talent we had on the pitch.

This outlines the structural problems in history and all humanities scholarship. Do more with less and then be shocked when people have to leave to make money and everyone left is overwhelmed.

Tamed the Bengals

Nice write up of the 3 year NEH Collaboration grant with Lee Mordechai that I just received. Really excited to get started soon and have some great people coming to give talks and work with us at Oklahoma State: news.okstate.edu/articles/art...

This series is well worth a read. It puts people behind the numbers I've collected here: www.themedievalacademyblog.org/wp-content/u... or the French History society in the US has done: www.wsfh.org/state-of-the.... FYI, I'm waiting until the end of the month to put together my newest update.

Hard work, but two great subs won us the game!

Question for the classics/ancient history hivemind: what's a recommended book on Alexander the Great for a non-academic person who is interested? Thanks!

Solid day's work. Zubimendi will get the headlines for his two goals, but impressive stuff from Cristhian Mosquera and Noni Madueke, and the Eze/Gyokeres link-up for the second goal is what we're hoping to see lots more of this season. With more final third precision, this could have been 4 or 5-0.

This is well worth a read.

STILL IN PLAY!!!!

Vikings vs. Bills Super Bowl let's go!!!! This would create huge fights within my family but week 1 hope is there after that insane comeback!

We are on the "big sweeping books are more about stories and ideas than being empirically correct" debate today. Have many thoughts, but will stay away.

History, autocrats and science: shorturl.at/3FfbJ. Includes quotes from an undergrad prof: “Despots want science that has practical results,” said Paul R. Josephson, an emeritus professor of history at Colby College...“They’re afraid that basic knowledge will expose their false claims.”

Other historians have already pointed out why the article in question has flawed methods and data, so I won't discuss. The underlying issues are power, publication venues, & collaboration. 1) Nature articles on history are almost always framed as "scientists figured out what historians couldn't." 1/

We critique the NYTimes a lot (for good reason), but this is a great article on class and wealth in the US: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o.... Reminds me of the idea of an essay about airline boarding and seat selection I've wanted to write for 5 years, but never have. Maybe I should.

People working in universities know a lot of the work that makes the organization function is outsourced to for-profit companies (catering, landscaping) or runs on platforms requiring payments to such companies: Workday, Canvas, Microsoft, Zoom. This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/

For anyone interested in the late antique intersection of religious institutions and economic activity, have a look at our CfP! Julia Koch and I will host a session in May 2026 in Aarhus at RAC/TRAC (Roman Archaeology Conference / Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference). Abstracts due 10 Oct.

Academic debate of the day, especially with the medieval call back: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o.... It has good ideas, but the quote text below is key IMO. All of this requires small classes or at least small sections, which goes against current university financial goals.

Episode 139 is now out on "Risk in Late Antiquity." Lee and I talked to Cam Grey (Penn) on disasters, risk, and scale in late antiquity and more generally. He reflects on these ideas as well in conversation with other periods and places. Find it: infectioushistorians.com/2025/06/26/r....

The question here is a debate over what the phraase "led by conservatives" means and the verb matters here. Who leads a university? Boards of Regents/Trustees do. For a public university, these are appointed by a governor generally, so they reflect state politics. Hence, UVA firing its president. 1/

A great way to get the home season going. 5 goals, 2 for Gyokeres which will ease the pressure, a clean sheet, and an impactful debut for 15 year old Max Dowman. Bitter-sweet though because of the injuries, losing Saka and Odegaard ahead of a trip to Anfield a real worry, but a fantastic win ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽

As a mortality researcher, I haven’t generally paid a lot of attention to people my own age (elder Millennial here). That’s, unfortunately, changing. (With @astokespop.bsky.social and Jacob Bor)

This is likely only the beginning of this process and is not about what state you are in, but part of an ongoing structural push. UConn was the other day, Oregon today, and also at Virginia Tech today.

One-Nothing to the Arsenal. Not at our best, but I'll take it.

Medieval Studies MA/PhD to be cut among others.

This piece is definitely worth a read: www.compactmag.com/article/the-.... This line in particular "economics PhDs are going unemployed; finance and computer science BAs have higher unemployment rates than do Art History graduates; coding is a path to Chipotle."

This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.

Top 10 in Infectious Disease Podcasts! Also, the only humanities/social science podcast in the top 10 so that is doubly great. Check out the full list: www.millionpodcasts.com/Infectious-D.... Give us a listen if you are interested as well: infectioushistorians.com (or via Spotify, iTunes, etc.)

Brendan bringing the stats and the right message: class warfare.

After a short break, episode 138 on Tuberculosis in Tanzania with Christoph Gradmann is up. Find it: infectioushistorians.com/2025/05/16/t.... Great conversation covering his new book on Kibong’oto Hospital, the ongoing effects of TB, his unique sources, and writing during Covid. Give it a listen!

Ben knows the data the best. All these articles on education from the NYTimes, etc. show how little the media knows about how higher ed works. Same problem when the media discusses sciences vs. humanities funding, with the latter subsidizing the former even before federal grant cuts. etc.

I was a late 20th century historian in the archives this week and the amount of documents is mind blowing compared to what I'm used to. Best find: fundraising brochure from my high school (where he went 50+ years before me) that features my friend, so sent her the photo. Full circle and all that.

Interesting essay with which I disagree at points: aeon.co/essays/the-g.... But the quote is useful since historical analysis is about perspectives. The framing as 99% v 1% is not a great binary, even if I get the genre: pushing back on the public belief that historical states & empires are "good."

I have just learned of the death of William E. Metcalf. Bill introduced me to numismatics at the ANS ("you didn't even know the difference between an obverse and a reverse when I met you," he used to say) and was a hugely important mentor for me, serving on my dissertation committee at Penn. 1/3

Website for the Balzan Seminar, "The Making and Unmaking of States in the Muslim World, 600-1800" that I've been a part of of for the last 5 years is now live. Take a look at what we've been up to: balzanseminar.com. Great group, great meetings, and lots of publications.

Absolutely fantastic book !

I held off publishing my Medieval Studies jobs report this year since I thought the market would be worse (for obvious reasons). But in history there are 4 jobs so far (a lot for the end of July). New one at TN: tinyurl.com/3z3buz7j. The others are Hunter, Baylor, T-A&M-San Antonio.

This looks quite fun, so definitely have a look below!

Alright so do we stop using Canvas now? Back to excel files for grading or maybe a graph book?

Jinty Nelson's impact through discussions of a number of her articles. A great collection.

I'd love to see the cost modeling on all of this along with the 10 year revenues/expenditures in humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

End of an era certainly.

My sister set my dad up to write short posts about movies he's seen. Titled appropriately "Professor Curmudgeon" since he is an old guy snarkily reviewing films. Give his short excerpts a read if you are interested. See his example below and link: professorcurmudgeon.substack.com/p/jurassic-w...

New book from Paolo Tedesco is now forthcoming, "Living at the Margins African Peasants in an Age of Extremes 300 – 900 CE." I've read this in manuscript form and it is fantastic. I talk about it in my AHR essay: (doi.org/10.1093/ahr/...). Find the book: www.hiersemann.de/Living-at-th....

Didn't realize 1 Cor. 10 no longer counted: "To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife." Removing passages for fun!

Infectious Historians, Episode 137 is up on Covid in Taiwan. Lee & I talked to Wayne Soon (U. of Minn.) about preparation & responses to Covid & Taiwanese health insurance. A great conversation, since I had read about Taiwan's (much better) response. Here: infectioushistorians.com/2025/05/09/c...