with degrees in Religious Studies and the history of religion.

Agreed. I just finished it and it was fantastic!

It is with great sorrow that we share the news that Averil Cameron has passed away. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her and her work. Further information will be shared in due course.

She was an wonderful scholar and an absolutely lovely human being. I'm heartbroken.

I've seen the same. However, those same students tell me they feel like they are in an arms race with those who do use it and they feel some anxiety about that fact.

How did this research project pass IRB?

given the modern conservative fascination with Sparta it's at least a little funny that they've engineered a situation in which Persia is able to level a dramatically uneven battlefield by forcing the conflict into a narrow pathway

Decline in U.S. University Autonomy, Index Shows Drop in institutional autonomy of 50 percent since 2015 means country is now only rated as “moderate” by experts.

According to Academic Freedom Index, an annual benchmarking report compiled by researchers at Germany’s University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the decline in university autonomy in the US has been faster than in places such as Hungary, India and Turkey. 😮😡

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

My favorite LA fieldtrip was the La Brea Tar Pits. All those fossils coming out of the ground so close to my home was mind-blowing to me as a kid.

Academics often say yes to things with long lead times. They think they'll somehow have more time in the future.

Posted as self-criticism.

can you teach something at Texas A&M? just follow this flowchart.

www.chronicle.com/article/insi... via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social and @mzahneis.bsky.social

I stayed in longer than I should have because all I ever posted there was pdfs containing a link to my institutional repository. I'm still glad to be long gone!

The Romans had a name for a ruler whose speech (dicta) was law: dictator.

Careers for History Majors - AHA Studying History Can Enrich Our Lives The Value of a History Degree With clear data and informal prose, Careers for History Majors equips readers with data, practical advice, specific strategies, and ...

Careers for History Majors, revamped and updated for 2026, conveys the value of the undergraduate study of history through clear graphs and informal prose. Readers will find hard data, practical advice, and answers to common questions from students and their parents. 🗃️

#1 in McCoul v. Texas A&M University System (S.D. Tex., 4:26-cv-00865) – CourtListener.com COMPLAINT against All Defendants (Filing fee $ 405 receipt number ATXSDC-35013427) filed by Melissa McCoul. (Reichek, Amanda) (Entered: 02/04/2026)

JUST IN: Texas A&M professor Melissa McCoul sues over firing linked to gender-related content in youth literature class. TX Gov. Abbott called for her firing. Among the defendants: former POLITICO owner & NOTUS founder, Robert Allbritton. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Two brave Texas Tech history majors speak on the record here. One would like to ask the Chancellor, "should I drop out?" www.texastribune.org/2026/02/04/t...

Someone needs to edit the beginning of this video, as he rubs his hands together, with a thought bubble reading "Out damn spot!"

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

New Texas School Prayer Law Seems A Tad Fuzzy Texas has a new prayer in public school law that went into effect September 1.  It's not clear if there has been any public school praying going on yet,

New Texas School Prayer Law Seems a Tad Fuzzy www.patheos.com/blogs/therel...

With all the AI spyware built into Windows 11 and AI's inability to prevent spewing protected information if prompted, some university lawyers should really investigate whether teachers using Windows 11 violates FERPA.

I used to go there as a kid. I loved that place.

Publicly funded research should be publicly available!

3-4 Maccabees and the Apocalypse of Baruch According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars.

I have been informed by the good folks at @gorgiaspress.bsky.social that my translation of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (aka 2 Baruch) is officially in print, though I don't have a hard copy yet. Here's a link: www.gorgiaspress.com/maccabees-3-...

The Romans gave us a word for a person whose speech (dicta) is law. Just hearing this claim feels like a gut punch.

History majors have lower unemployment than computer science majors.

Folks with humanities graduate degrees are more sought after by corporate recruiters than those with MBAs.

Study history! Get a job!

If forced to recommend a prayer for Texas school children, I'd probably go with Psalm 10.