Adam Shear
@adamshear.bsky.social
early modern Jewish history and history of the book at University of Pittsburgh (speaks for himself of course); chair of https://www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/; co-director of https://footprints.ctl.columbia.edu/
#Pitt students & people who know them: A new program that will fund undergraduate research on Jewish topics in New York City in summer 2027. Yes, fully funded opportunity to engage with Columbia U Libraries and other relevant collections. #jewishstudies www.asundergrad.pitt.edu/.../new-york....
asundergrad.pitt.edu
Maybe because I am gen X and maybe because I type slowly in Hebrew, but I find the combo of Bibliography of the Hebrew Book (online) with my hardcopy of Cowley's Catalogue of Hebrew Printed Books in the Bodleian Library to be much easier than using BHB alone. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies
Do you have an idea for a case study on early Hebrew printed books that connects with the Footprints project? Apply to be part of a collaborative research and writing project. drive.google.com/file/d/1jG8h... #JewishStudies #Bookhistory
CFA Footprints Collaborative Research Project.pdf
drive.google.com
"Jazz in a Muslim Key" by my colleague Yasmin Flodin-Ali. #ReligiousStudies www.undergods.org/1948?fbclid=...
Jazz in a Muslim Key | Under Gods
undergods.org
Welcome to the 2026 YSAR Cohort! Yasmine Flodin-Ali is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Religious Studies. She works on the history of Muslims in the United States, Islam and American Empire, race and religion, and Islamic theological diversity.
By the way, Macray's Annals of the Bodleian has so many stories: the early 18C version of "Good Will Hunting"-- a tailor from Norwich is recommended for position of janitor which he doesn't get but since he knows 9 languages, he gets a part-time job working with the Oriental Mss. (p.194)
Early modern antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews and English libraries. In a London "News-letter" of 1649, there is a report that "the Jews" were offering 600,000 pounds to buy St. Paul's to turn into a synagogue and another 200,000 for the "Oxford Library." 1/ #BookHistory #JewishStudies
Lecture on Katrin Kogman-Appel and Ilona Steimann project on Ashkenazi Book Collections in Italy about to start in Cologne and on zoom: uni-koeln.zoom.us/j/9822559713...
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Dorot Foundation is winding down endowment over next 8 years to deal with pressing, urgent issues. Already shifted focus from academic Jewish studies and culture but still supporting a few institutions in these areas. So another loss of a funding source for research/culture. #JewishStudies
E-journals as the default for prof org membership is fine. But the lack of an easy-to-skim version not so fine. AHA--please let me read AHR on my ipad w/o having to download each article/review 1 by 1 from OUP's website. Let me browse the range of scholarship in the discipline. @historians.org
Association for #JewishStudies members-- please read the email from the president of the organization today and vote/proxy vote yes.
On Oprah and Ozempic: Weight-Loss Medications in Contemporary Culture April 9 | 11:00 am–1:00 pm University of Pittsburgh Posvar Hall, Room 5603 (in person) Register with QR code
Ancient AI? Looking forward to this talk next week at the University of Pittsburgh. #ReligiousStudies #Pitt
US Support for humanities research has long been weak. Private foundation support has narrowed to topics that fit their agendas (mostly left-wing) and now the Trump administration further narrows the NEH to "American history and culture and Western civilization" to fit their (right-wing) agenda.
I think so-- pretty early in the admissions/recruitment timeframe as far as I know.
Intensive Hebrew this summer in Pittsburgh. 1 year in 6 weeks. Lots of scholarship aid. www.sli.pitt.edu #JewishStudies
Join us Thursday Feb. 19 at 3pm for Religion & the Promise of Career Readiness where panelists will dive into the opportunities, challenges, and debates surrounding these shifts and what it means for the future of Religious Studies. Learn more & register: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/rel...
#ReligiousStudies #Pitt Spread the word to undergrads interested in the intersections of religion, cultural diversity, and healthcare:
It warms my heart to know that I teach and do research at the 79th best "arts and humanities" university in the world, especially when #1 in the category is... MIT?
I find it astonishing that someone who has been teaching for a long time at a notoriously administratively dysfunctional university could extrapolate from a few anecdotes of bad behavior there to the rest of higher education.
Divination in the ancient world. Talking to god(s)? Could be useful knowledge. Definitely a great series of scholars doing interesting research in the history of religion. At University of Pittsburgh this spring term.
The world needs the wisdom of early modernists --My Pitt colleague Todd Reeser: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
insidehighered.com
Seymour de Ricci describing Solomon Reinach: "...always impartial, [but] never neutral. He believed that his duty as a scholar obliged him to speak out at all times in favor of the truth and against error."
Some new #Jewishstudies jobs and post-docs for AY 25 posted to my spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Some gaps on who filled jobs starting this year (AY 26) so please make yourself known if you are in one of those. Appearance here is not an endorsement.
Jewish Studies Jobs
docs.google.com
But IU will probably win a national football championship and that's what really matters. :)
Rebecca Spang@rlspang.bsky.social · last yr.So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Sometimes historians write for the general public and sometimes for specialists. Book reviews of history trade books do not need to praise the writing style by contrasting with "usual academic writing" or similar phrases. This is pointless. Happens often but right now looking at you @lrb.co.uk.
I thought my entire department was ignoring me on scheduling something but it looking now like the emails I sent out on a listserv never went through. One anxiety relieved; another emerges.
Others have thought of this, I'm sure, but if time machines get invented, the study abroad/spring break course add-on opportunities are going to be amazing! (Yes, I am familiar with the novels of Connie Willis.)
