This chart is everything. How do we (academics) get NYTimes education writers (and others) to realize this is the case? That most students major in business or health related stuff.

Why I love this blog/podcast: nails my thoughts in a single sentence better than I could.

A good day to remember that: "the point of learning history is learn from the past/not repeat past mistakes" or whatever version of that phrase has always been nonsensical.

Pulled out the key charts, but very glad APSA collects such detailed data whereas this does not exist in aggregate for history. My two cents: if only 1/3 of Poli Sci candidates get a TT job each year, then history is likely far lower.

Just re-upping this new episode which was a lot of fun and I learned a ton about masks.

Short break but we are back with Episode 143 on "The The History of Masks." Lee and I spoke with Bruno Strasser and Thomas Schlich about mask history, cultural questions, and writing this together during Covid. Give it a listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/12/19/t...

Brilliant response in the 2nd half and to Wednesday. Tell Eze we're playing Spurs every week, please, and by some distance that was Viktor Gyokeres' best game for Arsenal: 2 goals + solid all round play. Raya's save was absolutely brilliant & very timely, but 3 points won in exactly the right way

Medieval history is relevant! But seriously, I love how they found various historians who debated this, which actually reflects our field quite well. So kudos and well done by those quoted.

Hey look! It's the great Andrew Edwards talking about his life and his amazing new book. Plus, he's given me amazing help on improving my sourdough, since one of his previous lives was spent as a baker.

Given that the Atlantic article about the Mellon Foundation is making the rounds again, I'll just note that the structural change below would solve many (most?) funding issues.

Second half a bit of a non-event, but that is really nothing to complain about in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully the injury issues aren't too serious, but otherwise a drama free afternoon, passage through the next round, and we didn't need to go hell for leather given our schedule.

Here is my 3 step solutions for humanities funding. 1) Full-time jobs to meet teaching/research needs (not adjuncts, etc.). 2) Research semester off after every 3rd year of teaching and 3) $2-3k a year in research/conference money that could be saved if needed for bigger things. That's it.

Worth a read and thanks for flagging. Need to read both books (on my always growing list). We need more analysis engaging with politics and structural forces. How can any pre-modern history work at a standard R1 (like mine) where language study is (if even required at all) down to 2 semesters?

Super professional performance, real impact from the subs off the bench - and it was needed. Gyokeres and Martinelli offered a lot more than Jesus and Madueke. Eze good too when he came on,. Thought Trossard was superb today, Rice and Zubi such a great pairing, and a big win makes the gap 9 points!

This looks amazing and like a really needed resource. Check out more details below.

That was a truly horrible game of football made hilarious by the late Havertz goal. Sky waxing lyrical over Chelsea and Rosenior playing the long game when they just wasted at least an hour of a game when they were a goal down and had to score. Tactical disasterclass imo. Arsenal go to Wembley!

Great work from @brendanvduke.bsky.social even if the outcome here is depressing.

Great piece on salary compensation. I've put together one report on faculty salaries at OK State and should have another out this year, so have dug into the numbers in detail.

Did stuff this morning, so watched later knowing the score and without nerves. This was comprehensive and clinical. Even the few mins of the 2nd half had basically no threat. A classic score and squeeze the game. Also you realize how desperate color announcers get to try to create drama. Lol.

Done some academic work recently that made me realize I've probably started to move from "early career" to "mid-career" and it's really making it difficult for me to claim to undergrads that I'm a young and hip professor.

A classic academic blue sky question: is there an actual cost benefit analysis of buying snow plows/salt vs. not having enough and your metro area (cough OKC) closing for 5 weekdays straight? I found this, which has good stuff, but is broad: thehustle.co/why-snow-cos.... Other studies?

Great empirical response thread to a NYTimes interview where Douthat is unprepared (at the very least). What's clear is that Bhattacharya learned only in 2020 that politics matter when doing science (shockingly naive at best) and his lesson is now that only politics matters when designing science.

Second half a bit of a damb squib, and a bit of a shame we couldn't turn the screw from an attacking perspective. Martinelli had a good night, Eze grew into the game, Mosquera v good, but others who could have done with more end product couldn't find it. Not a big deal really tho, 8 wins from 8

Great job at KCL where I did an MA (many!) years ago. Always wonderful when a post is early medieval alone!

A great write up about Alan Stahl in the Daily Prince: www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026.... Sad that he's retiring, but what a legacy.

A great write up about Alan Stahl in the Daily Prince: www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2026.... Sad that he's retiring, but what a legacy.

FT Inter 1-3 Arsenal. 7 wins from 7 in the CL this season, this was an impressive one too. Obviously not all one way traffic, but Jesus was excellent, Saka really good down the right, a very useful goal for Gyokeres, and that's another big win to bolster our European reputation. Now for Sunday!

Arsenal had two great chances to make it 4-1 & basically end the tie as a contest, but we missed both and then Chelsea make it 3-2. I think we were the better side by some distance, & it's a good win away from home, but I suspect Arteta will feel this one should be more or less done. Cup football!

Given that there are new people coming this way in recent days, I'll just re-post the late antiquity starter pack: go.bsky.app/KP1nQVP. Enjoy!

A great afternoon for Gabriel Martinelli, three really well taken goals, and overall a much better second half from Arsenal. Good to see Jesus make a contribution with an excellent assist, Madueke had 2 assists despite being v flaky, and we got some minutes into the legs of Kai Havertz. Job done.

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.