Russell T. McCutcheon
@mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
I’m University Research Professor in the Study of Religion and was a longtime Dept Chair but now teach, read, write, and have opinions on the fate of higher ed.
We await the flying spaghetti monster’s response.
BREAKING NEWS: with productivity gains due to AI, Sisyphus now able to push rock up hill 10x more often
Your regular reminder that the solution to ~every single problem with 🇺🇸 higher education - both real & imagined - is to <all together now> Fund. The. Damn. Public. Universities. Like. We. Used. To. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Karl Jacoby@karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 2w agoThe soaring costs of public universities is a political decision. When these schools predominantly served white students, they tended to be free (UC, CCNY, etc.) But as the number of students of color has increased, funding for the public universities has decreased. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/b...
This evening’s Lowe Lecture at Macalester College.
The faculty committee in our Dept that recently worked on thinking through possible new graduate degrees have joined me for a weekend workshop on the future of REL programs, hosted at Macalester College in St Paul MN.
A pleasant surprise in my mailbox--congrats to the editors and to @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social! 🤓 I am so grateful to celebrate Russell and to exercise my obsessions with #MargaretFuller and the #transcendentalists Contact me for a copy! equinoxonlinelibrary.com/book/59018/t...
Lol. Princeton University praised Nobel laureate Anne Carson, a former classics professor at the school, on social media, despite denying her tenure in the 1980s.
Princeton Celebrates Anne Carson, a Nobel Prize Winner Who Was Denied Tenure (Gift Article)
Carson, who was awarded the Literature prize on Thursday, was denied tenure when teaching at the university in the 1980s, leading social media users to mock a congratulatory message.
nytimes.com
Harvard just dropped a study AI productivity in software engineering and it found the average increase in productivity from using Claude code is.....zero and for exactly the reasons you'd think fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf
When do the routine economic laws of supply & demand turn into price gouging? Discuss.
Once again elite university prof has opinions. Last paragraph that quickly brushes aside issues of workload, deans, requirements, etc, tells you everything you need to know about the disconnect between his world and the world where most of us labor in #highered www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
Opinion | The Humanities Need to Do More to Reach Non-Majors
What we can learn from the “service departments.”
chronicle.com
Child: This is my first time meeting a mayor. Mamdani: Wow, have you ever met a prime minister? Child: No Norway PM Jonas Gahr Støre: *walks over*
EXC: 90 programmes in Edinburgh University's College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are to be closed. The casualties, which include 48 language and literature programmes, will be 'taught out', w/ no admissions after 2027. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2655839...
Ninety programmes to close at leading university as savings plan takes shape
According to the document, a total of 90 programmes will be “taught out” over the next several years, including 48 in the School of Language.
heraldscotland.com
Attending the second of 2 faculty town halls on my Univ’s development of a state-mandated 5 year post-tenure review policy—a process to be rolled out in the coming months.
You don't have a right to safe drinking water, a US court just ruled. A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.
You don't have a right to safe drinking water, US court rules
A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.
motherjones.com
Downgrade a movie It’s a Mad World.
Kaiser of Crisps@kaiserofcrisps.bsky.social · 2mo agoDowngrade a movie 1 Dalmatian
Programmers screw up, supercomputer kills people, and, while being unplugged, sings old timey song about tandem bicycles.
Let the Right Hon In@danhon.com · 2mo agoMake your favorite film sound as boring as possible without giving away the title: A chief technology officer is worried about keeping his spreadsheets private.
“Wars between writers blaze up frequently, but I have observed that they settle down eventually into smudges” - Sylvia Beach (1956)
Universities often ask faculty to sit on special committees, claiming "shared governance" and "having a voice" when really they are asking professors to take part in their own undoing. It is 2026, and if academics cannot see through this then US highered really is doomed
Jed Brown@jedbrown.org · 2mo agoFaculty cannot afford to be so naive. University counsel is an inherently political appointment and their politics are revealed through deference to federal directives, even as those directives fall in the courts due to the courageous efforts of @aaup.org et al. We must build power in every state.
Our next virtual event is coming! Mark your calendars for September 2nd! 💻 #naasr #religiousstudies #religion #highered #digitalhumanuties ua-edu.zoom.us/j/84942191810
Not all relationships are transactional…
Constance Lee Menefee@conniemenefee.bsky.social · 2mo agoSoon to be the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States ... I reflect on the kindness of our Canadian neighbors during a grim, wrenching period. How in the ever loving hell did we get to this despicable moment? <https://allthatsinteresting.com/gander-newfoundland-9-11
New book alert.: “Neoliberalism and authoritarian populism are some of the main forces endangering contemporary universities. This applies to the study of religion in several ways…” @teemutaira.bsky.social @equinoxpub.bsky.social @naasr.bsky.social
History of Religions Vol. 66, No. 1 (2026) www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/hr/2026/... @chicagojournals.bsky.social Bruce Lincoln's Secrets, Lies, and Consequences: A Review Symposium @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social @adeler.bsky.social
History of Religions | Vol 66, No 1
journals.uchicago.edu
@vtouna.bsky.social — our grad director — ran an orientation today for our new MA cohort (joined here by two second year grad students). It’s the program’s 10th anniv. #RELMA10
Just as a matter of interest, *any* use of AI in scholarly writing is tantamount to plagiarism. You don’t know whose work the AI has trained on, so you can’t give them proper acknowledgment or make an appropriate citation.
