Framed rubbing of a memorial brass sitting on the floor of an antique shop.

Reader, I bought it. 💀 The perfect souvenir for a Reformation studies nerd.

A latte and a free cupcake

Not a bad start to #Shax2026

Full-color image of the Cathedral of Barcelona, composed on a typewriter by Montserrat Alberich Escardívol. Image from WikiMedia.

Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.

Guido Ubaldo Abbatini, Pope Alexander VII with Bernini's skull (1655-56), Art Collection of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Rome. Pope Alexander VII sits in an elaborately carved chair, carved with the Chigi coat of arms, and rests his hands on a carved skull on the desk in front of him and looks out at the viewer

A realistic, life-size marble skull with teeth missing, carved out of marble by Gian Lorenzo Bernini(1655)

On his election in 1655, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sculpt a skull in marble, which he kept on his desk as a reminder of death's omnipresence. The sculpture was rediscovered in 2021 at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden

A thousand yeses to this from Cole Arthur Riley.

A screenshot of a ChatGPT conversation reading: "can you write something about robert e. lee in the voice of washington post staff writer gillian brockell?" "Certainly! Here's an excerpt written in the voice of Gillian Brockell, a staff writer at The Washington Post, reflecting on Robert E. Lee's legacy: The Complicated Legacy of Robert E. Lee: A Figure Divided by History By Gillian Brockell When Robert E. Lee's name is invoked, it is often as a symbol of Southern pride military brilliance, or a tragic, doomed cause. But history has a way of shifting its lens, and in recent years, the image of Lee -- the Confederate general, the hero of lost causes -- has become increasingly more fraught. The man who stood as the face of a rebellion that tore the nation apart now stands at the center of an ongoing reckoning over the Confederacy's legacy, and our struggle to reconcile memory with reality."

When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable "zombies" to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles.

Today WaPo announced a partnership with OpenAI. And here it is: Zombie Gillian Brockell. I DID NOT WRITE THIS.

Black and white photograph of John Casteen speaking from a podium and holding a copy of the 1989-1990 University Report (1991 - RG-30/1/10.011) and quote: “Special Collections protect our civilization’s primary unwashed memory of itself, and in this regard they differ from all else, which is secondary, which is to say calculated, positioned, analyzed with an eye towards what posterity is desired to believe as opposed to what it must know.” 

Casteen’s 1993 speech ”Special Collections and the Public Good” offered: “Special Collections protect our civilization’s primary unwashed memory of itself, ...

John Casteen photographed sitting at table with a book (Dan Addison, UVA Communications, 2021).

Today we remember the late John Casteen—UVA’s seventh president from 1990-2010 who passed away last month. Casteen was a library student assistant while studying @uva in the 1960s and an avid supporter of the @uvalibrary system throughout his career.

Say Goodbye to Small-Town Libraries and Museums, Thanks to Trump’s Latest Cuts The NEH budget is tiny. The loss is huge.

My Slate piece on the widespread NEH grant cancellations is live. So much gratitude to everyone who took the time to talk with me these past few days while fighting fires on every side.

#humanities #highered #neh

slate.com/news-and-pol...

On Monday, March 31, 2025 we learned that DOGE is targeting the NEH with the aim of substantially reducing its staff, cutting the agency’s grant programs, and rescinding grants that have already been awarded.

Learn what steps you can take here: nhalliance.org/federal-fund...

Duke Says ‘White Lotus’ Went ‘Too Far’ With School References In a show that features an array of disturbing story lines, the actions — and wardrobe — of a character have gone “too far” for the university.

Yes it’s all fascism right now but holy cricket on a cracker, let’s all God’s children gather round to make fun of Duke being the saddest, most pathetic privileged whiners in the history of institutions:

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/s...

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal | Vol 19, No 2

Today is publication day! Check out our new issue with four articles, a conversation on race, an exhibition review, and many book reviews #EarlyModern www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/emw/curr...

He was, as he once described me, "a splendid colleague and friend." I will always be grateful that our paths crossed, and for the generous mentorship that he provided to me and to many others who worked for him. 3/3

He remained a mentor until his final illness, checking in on my both my career progress and my personal life: serving as a reference, taking me to lunch to celebrate career moves, sending me books to read as it struck his fancy, and answering my ongoing questions about saga literature. 2/3

OBITUARY: John Thomas Casteen III passes away at 81 Casteen may be best remembered as the founder of AccessUVA, a scholarship program to support undergraduate students whose qualifications were excellent, but whose families would be hard pressed to aff...

This one hurts. I was John's teaching assistant for his final Icelandic saga course in Fall 2020. While we initially had some trepidation about working together, we grew to like and respect each other a great deal. 1/3

A nice reminder that, to find queer people in the Renaissance, all you need to do is play the hits. It is in fact comphet that distorts the historical record!

This is a typically brilliant thread, & yet another reminder that when we delve into the unedited & non-canonical sources, the lives of women in the past are much more visible than we are often led to believe.

After decades, tiny 500-year-old royal portrait is identified as Mary Tudor Art historian says miniature is of Henry VIII’s daughter – not his sixth wife Katherine Parr

After decades, tiny 500-year-old royal portrait is identified as Mary Tudor
Art historian says miniature is of Henry VIII’s daughter – not his sixth wife Katherine Parr
by Richard Brooks for The Guardian
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...