Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in university:

1. Celtic Literary Renaissance
2. History of Religion in Canada
3. Political Theory
4. Narrative in English Literature
5. Rebellions of 1837-8

My history of religion in North America course has usually done well in terms of enrolments.

As the fall term rolls into October, this relatively unknown section of the Bayeux tapestry seems relevant...

Somewhere the ghost of Harold Innis is shaking his head in despair.

Slightly diminish a book.

The Apprentice and Margarita.

Quotations from primary sources "never speak for themselves."

"A good point poorly worded is no longer a good point."

Google told me that it was Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." That seems like a much more satisfactory answer. (And now back to grading. Sigh.)

And when did Gladstone become a Tory prime minister?

I’m using another Blaufarb edited collection in my “Age of Revolutions” course!

Ancient history joke!

A Faculty Member’s Self-Evaluation at the End of the Semester Dear Committee Members, As part of the faculty review process, I am pleased to report to you on my work. In this letter, I will offer information ...

"Under my leadership, we have instituted an assessment program where we assess how we assess what we already assessed, using learning outcomes that include all of the buzzwords someone in admin told us were important."

Marc Bloch to be interred at the Pantheon. Medievalists should punch Nazis #medievalsky

We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson review – a culture warrior out of his depth The popular psychologist’s blinkered reading of the Bible does his cause no favours

Rowan Williams's review of Jordan Peterson's latest foray is a wonderful example of a learned man responding respectfully but with devastating learnedness to a fanatic.

www.theguardian.com/books/2024/n...

It is a strange old world we live in, after all...

A new course that I’ll be teaching in Winter 2025!

This is definitely an “always look on the bright side of life” kind of message…

Exploring that final frontier…behind the television.

What are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?

1. Methodism
2. French Revolution
3. Cats
4. Laurentian University's disastrous insolvency (it's the three-year anniversary of its CCAA filing today!)
5. Pre-1900 Canadian history

Officer Kitty is prepared to report for duty...more or less...unless there's a snack somewhere...or a warm blanket...actually, never mind.

A man who would pun would pick a pocket.

I’ve been told it’s a good idea to start as you mean to go on: so here’s my cat, Christabel, named for the radical English suffragette, hanging out in her cave…