I teach at a small American-style liberal arts university, many of my friends are academics, and all of us are utterly miserable about the epidemic of A.I. cheating. www.ft.com/content/2ada...
UK universities told to go analogue to stop AI cheating
Office for Students says technology poses ‘generational risk’ to sector’s integrity and reputation
ft.com
Gen Z has a variety of responses to Menocchio, ranging from “diva icon” to “stoner” to “woke.” Many interesting lines of analysis.
Reading about Menocchio of “Cheese and Worms” fame (again) and concluding (again) that he was a GOAT comedian. “Everybody has his calling, some to plow, some to hoe, and I have mine, which is to blaspheme.”
The UK laws around Palestine Action are a national embarrassment. They’re routinely used to arrest peaceful protesters. And the government enforcing them is currently trying to say (correctly!) that the Gaza protesters were right, and that UK policy is changing in response to Israeli crimes!
Ian Dunt@iandunt.bsky.social · last mo.This is all utterly mad and the responsibility lies squarely with the British government www.rte.ie/entertainmen...
New book review: Clay on Munoz Arbelaez, Santiago: _New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire, The_. Duke University Press, 2025. Published by H-Early-America. Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20163796
Munoz Arbelaez, Santiago. The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire. : Duke University Press, 2025. 315 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 9781478031840.$104.95 (cloth), ISBN 9781478028611. Reviewed by George Clay (American University in Bulgaria) Published on H-Early-America (September, 2026) Commissioned by Camden R. Elliott (Auburn University)
networks.h-net.org
Very happy, very grateful, and really looking forward to reading everyone else’s wonderful work!
LACS-SHA@lacs-sha.bsky.social · last mo.Please join us in congratulating George Clay (American University in Bulgaria, @g-g-clay.bsky.social) on receiving the LACS-SHA 2026 Kimberly S. Hanger Article Prize!
Really excited to see this book - by a dear friend and colleague - available for pre-order. Please spread the word! uncpress.org/979889088809...
Empire of Consuls
With duties ranging from issuing passports to offering commercial counsel to providing diplomatic mediation, consuls are a ubiquitous feature of our modern w...
uncpress.org
This is such a great book, everyone should read it!
LACS-SHA@lacs-sha.bsky.social · last mo.Please join us in congratulating Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez (University of Texas at Austin, @smunozar.bsky.social), whose book The New Kingdom of Granada: the Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire (Duke University Press, 2025) was awarded the LACS-SHA 2026 Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize!
Please join us in congratulating Alexander M. Stephens (University of Michigan), whose dissertation "Excludable: Race, Policing, and Migration in Cuba and the United States, 1959-1986" was awarded the LACS-SHA 2026 Richmond Brown Dissertation Prize!
I really enjoyed Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez’s great new book, “The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain’s Atlantic Empire.” You can read my review for H-Early America here:
H-Net Reviews
h-net.org
The Six Laws of History 1. The most interesting documents have the worst handwriting. 2. You won’t find the most interesting documents because they’re buried under the other six hundred in that pile you didn’t read.
Is Philip II responsible for your student evaluations? Lewis Hanke thought so. Philip “seems to have invented that plague so typical of the 20th century, the questionnaire, in order to manage the wide variety of questions sent to the Indies in his unceasing demands for information.”
Rough news for 38-year-olds, from Martin Luther: “One’s thirty eighth year is an evil and dangerous year, bringing many heavy and great sicknesses; naturally, by reason perhaps, of the comets and conjunctions of Saturn and Mars, but spiritually, by reason of the innumerable sins of the people.”
“History of Emotions” this semester”: Lisa Feldman Barrett - How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Johan Huizinga - The Waning of the Middle Ages Lucien Febvre - “Sensibility and History” Barbara Rosenwein - “Worrying about Emotions in History”
Eric Columbus@ericcolumbus.bsky.social · last mo.In all seriousness I wish every professor on here would post their reading lists each semester
“Early Modern Europe” this semester: Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince Thomas More - Utopia Martin Luther - Table Talk Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus - Erasmus and Luther: The Battle over Free Will (edited by Clarence Miller)
Eric Columbus@ericcolumbus.bsky.social · last mo.In all seriousness I wish every professor on here would post their reading lists each semester
“History of Magic” class from this semester: Alison Games - Witchcraft in Early North America Lyndal Roper - Witch Craze Chelsea Berry - Poisoned Relations Vincent Brown - “Spiritual Terror and Sacred Authority in Jamaican Slave Society” (continued below….)
Eric Columbus@ericcolumbus.bsky.social · last mo.In all seriousness I wish every professor on here would post their reading lists each semester
Celebrating Hall-of-Famer Holly on the day her son, Backpack, is crowned Fat Bear Week Champion
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo agoHolly too had a career which took her to the very top of the sport, and pitted her against the absolute GOATs. She raced to her first final in 2016, losing only to Otis the GOATis at the wire. Undeterred she raced back to the final in 2019.
2019 Fat Bear Week Champion Holly, with her son, 2026 Fat Bear Week Champion Backpack. The first mother-son pair ever to win the title. History playing out before our eyes.
It was Backpack’s year, but he took it by c 5000 votes with 200,000 cast. This final came down to the wire. They both left it all out on the field. You need two great champions to get sport on this level.
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo ago910 prepares for her first ever Fat Bear Week Final today. Facing her across the proverbial net: 89 Backpack.
I’m disappointed this wasn’t 901’s year, but form comes and goes, careers have their ups and downs. Talent, though, is immortal. She’ll be back.
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo agoHard to overstate my admiration for 901 as an athlete. What a performer.
All eyes turning to Katmai today to see if Beadnose’s daughter, 910, can get the upset win over this year’s dominant male champion, 89 Backpack. Fat Bear Week is cinema.
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo agoBeadnose also defeated a GOAT-contender, 747 Bear Force One, head to head in a Fat Bear Week Final.
Early exit polling gives the lead to Backpack, hovering just shy of 60%. Lots of vote still out there, can it break for 910? Or, another possibility, have the polls been off yet again?
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo ago910 prepares for her first ever Fat Bear Week Final today. Facing her across the proverbial net: 89 Backpack.
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” 89 Backpack, paying tribute to his mother 435 Holly, before today’s Fat Bear Week Final.
Just a couple of iconic Fat Bear Week finalists, enjoying a swim in pearly waters
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo ago89 Backpack of course the son of 435 Holly, Champion of Fat Bear Week in 2019 and icon of the sport
Spare a thought, this Fat Bear Week Finals Day, for two All Time Greats: 435 Holly and 409 Beadnose. Two Hall-of-Famers who paved the way for so much of what the sport looks like today. And in a twist that could never be scripted: their children, 910 and Backpack, face each other in today’s final.
910 has put in quality performance after quality performance. Even going into the Round of 16 the fireworks-potential was clear.
George Clay@g-g-clay.bsky.social · 2mo agoOn pure pounds you’d think 910 may have it. Her volume looks absolutely formidable. Elegant curves, a lot of heft there. She also has pedigree: her mother is two-time champ 409 Beadnose
