This thread is worth a read. But having different views purposefully in a room to discuss their perspectives in academia is actually quite rare (from what I've seen), so should be encouraged. Only wish I could go!

A great response to Hankins: washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/06/h.... Correctly notes that the collapse of faculty hiring and humanities' enrollments as structurally key to all these "debates."

It does feel like we're addicted to 1 goal leads, but when you score three away from home, you have a little margin for error. Huge contribution from Declan Rice tonight ⚽️⚽️, and that's only the second game Bournemouth have lost at home this season. Three points, pressure on City, job done

What a game and a great win. Let's keep it going.

Based on the discussions about what fields get hired and such, I can see I need to dust off my other dataset about total numbers of historians across every field and analyze 50 year trends. Task for the New Year.

Just going to use this to one up the job reports: www.themedievalacademyblog.org/wp-content/u... and www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-job.... New one in the new year. Also, the quote below from Speculum (the Medieval Studies journal) is relevant.

Nice shout out to my medieval studies jobs' report in the recent issue of Speculum "Stuck in the Dark Ages: Medieval Studies in the K–12 Classroom," by Courtney Luckhardt, Julianne Bruneau, and Bradley Phillis. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... Sometimes I come up with good one liners.

Worth a read from Michelle Wang: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10..... A really useful forward thinking suggestion is the screenshot below.

Mad how neither keeper got near a penalty until that last one. Some great pens. Horrible night for Lacroix, own goal and the missing the pen, but that's cup football for you. Through to the semis, more to unpack at a later date, for now though - merry Christmas everyone!

KEPA SAVES! Arsenal advance.

As I finish up the medieval job numbers, what would be - feel free to guess or suggest other ways of measuring - an ideal number of medieval history jobs per year? I'm trying to get a sense of what a baseline might be to hope/aim/wish for.

Top of the table at Christmas, can't argue with our league position, but that wasn't the kind of convincing performance you'd have hoped for after Wolves. Hit the post twice, but also got away with one when Everton could easily have had a penalty. Still, 3 points the most important thing!

As I finish data collection, it has become obvious that the Wiki Jobs website that used to have all the jobs, no longer does. Not sure if the website is updated less or (since it is crowd sourced) people stopped posting all the jobs. Anyone know? See: academicjobs.fandom.com/wiki/Academi...

Rather than complain about the academic job debate, I'll do actual work and finalize my update for medieval studies. Should take me a bit and will pass it along for sending out. Previous reports are: www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-job... and www.themedievalacademyblog.org/wp-content/u....

Man City and Arsenal are inverses, which I'm sure someone must have said. City have a mess of a midfield, blah defending, and mistake prone, but with a striker who scores constantly. Arsenal have (when not hurt) an amazing middle core, but as the Wolves game revealed, still problems finishing.

Well, I like it when we do things the easy way

A good night really. The two 'second choice' wide players stepped up and scored the goals, two of them genuinely excellent, rotated well enough, kept a clean sheet and we saw the return of Gabriel Jesus after a long time out with injury. Nice little cameo from Nwaneri, and 16 year old debutant!

Spent my morning coffee reading the Board of Regents meeting agenda for an upcoming meeting. Highly recommend it to academics at a U.S. public university, so you actually know what's happening at your university. (Also read the minutes afterward.)

Great article and worth a read. It turns out: budgets, strategic vision, and branding of what a university is all really matter. Changing plans every 3-5 years is less than ideal.

Brentford made that really hard work in the second half with a very intense press, but we also had chances to score a second before we did, and they didn't really threaten in any significant way. Goal + assist for Merino, Saka on the scoresheet, 3 points and a clean sheet again. Solid work.

Check out Kelly Austin and I chatting about our book on the Infectious Historians podcast!

Episode 142 is out. Lee and I talked to @brentzkaup.bsky.social and Kelly Austin about the links between financialization and diseases in the U.S. and in Uganda. We also talked about writing a book together. Give it a listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/09/17/c... (or via Spotify, iTunes, etc.)

This is a fantastic book: amazingly well-written and tells a new history of American Revolution. Can't recommend highly enough.

Great thread as a whole and the original article is: www.nber.org/papers/w34498. Given that the impending "enrollment cliff" is constantly used for austerity this paper suggests otherwise (among other insights).

Don't think you can really say we deserved more than a point today. Couldn't make the man advantage count. It's good to have the attacking players back, but probably fair to say there's a degree of rustiness to all of them. 2 wins and a draw in a very hard week not a bad return though.

The debate about "what students are like" for the 500th time. As always perspective matters: where you teach (university type), what you teach, what type of format (online, etc.), what size course, what level course, etc. Social media can't deal with nuance, so we dunk on each other instead. Joy.

That second half from Arsenal was fucking sensational. As good as you could possibly hope to put in against a team as good as this. Bossed it 100%. Madueke with his first goal, and then Martinelli, no less than we deserved. And Bayern offered NOTHING after the break. Hello Europe, we're Arsenal

Enjoyed this article, so highly recommend. Just wanted to pull out a thread discussed in it that reverberates back to Covid and all infectious diseases in public thought: how people get sick and who dies. When it comes to 9/11 deaths on the day are perceived very differently than others 1/

As a high schooler downtown on 9/11, this looks very cool as an article and resonates both because I saw the dust at the time and for months afterward along with knowing people who are sick. Also reached the stage where events in my life are history. Guess I'm officially "old." 🤷‍♂️

Lots of reading and grading to do today before Thanksgiving, so instead I'll just re-watch key moments of the Arsenal game from Sunday for the 10th time.

This is horrible news. www.oudaily.com/news/ou-prof...

What an amazing day for Arsenal and for Eberechi Eze. Incredible for him in any context, but with his history, his journey, it's just really, really special. Also a massive win, and a statement/fuck off win in this title race after the results yesterday Huge day, lots of fun to be had after this!

Spurs game plan more or less worked ... until it didn't. Merino's pass for the first goal is superb, and we stretched them well for the second which allowed that chance to develop for Eze. What a moment for him. In a great position now, but clearly they'll do something different 2nd half.

Was just using their archives last summer and a great place to work. Will miss being able to visit, but hopefully finds new people who can visit from the midwest.

The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.

Alright I'll list out what I've read and been reading in case anyone is interested. Given that I serve as Chair of the Faculty Budget Committee I started with that side of the ledger so: Dean Smith, University Finances and How University Budgets Work. Pretty dry, but very important. 1/

How do I turn myself into a (temporary) sovereign country and get money for all my costs going up?

Alright let me try this ask again: what should I read about how higher ed works to continue my learning?

Trying to build up knowledge and maybe start a discussion group (locally? online?) for academics working in the field, but don't research higher ed. Read lots of Chris Newfield, lots of finance/budget books, other books from Hopkins on Critical University Studies. What else should I read/add?

Nice! Give a listen to Sarah's just published book! I'm obviously biased, since she is a great friend and colleague, but worth a listen to learn about her book.

Comfortable enough in the end. Second goal was really lovely from Trossard and Merino, the third made it safe, so we could make changes. 4 from 4 in the CL so far this season, 0 goals conceded, 12 scored. And with the players we're missing, that shouldn't be taken for granted. Momentum.

Great conversation on "Foreign Healthcare Workers" with Eram Alam (Harvard). We talked about how immigration, especially from South Asia, has been how the US has historically addressed doctor shortages. Relevant for immigration debates going on now! Listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/08/29/f...

Not much of a second half but we did more than enough in the first half to deserve it. Great 1st 45 from Gyokeres, and thought Declan Rice was everywhere for Arsenal in the second. 3 points. Clean sheet. Job done.

I spend many days dithering about essays that I want to write (or do write) instead of my research to write. Anyone figure out a good balance of doing both want to share?

Good second half from Arsenal. Two lovely open play goals ("should backheels be allowed?!!). MLS assist for Ethan is lovely, but a great flick from Merino in the build-up. Saka off the bench to score. Youngsters did well. Another clean sheet. Solid night's work.

Definitely worth a read as today's article on university management, research, and costs: www.chronicle.com/article/rese...

I approve of this mix up of UConn WBB and Arsenal: www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Oooof - that was hard work, but exactly the kind of game you have to be able to grind out if you want to win the title. Maybe a bit of a hangover from midweek, but Eze had the moment of quality to earn three points. With Man City and Liverpool both losing, this was a really big win.

Yesterday a post on German higher ed, so today a post on UK higher ed. Worth a read in full for parsing of policies, which (ironically?) is a key skill set of humanities/social sciences that is not valued since it cannot be quantified.

Well worth the read, especially for US based medievalists, to get a sense that the lack of jobs and the slow deterioration of medieval studies as a global problem. Do what you can individually, but also build networks and communities.