Hearing the cool story from the new dean of an institution I'm working for about how she got a tenure-track teaching job right out of her PhD program with zero teaching experience. I mean bully for her, but FULLY unrelatable in the year of our lord 2026.

That nearing-40 urge to live an itinerant life out of a backpack and wake up to a new sunrise over an unfamiliar horizon rather than pay rent.

I'm leading a whirlwind intro to cuneiform through World Virtual Tours! Sept. 9, 1 pm ET, and totally free. Come play/write/learn/laugh/love! www.worldvirtualtours.online/events/cunei... www.tiktok.com/t/ZTD3sK26Y/

CUNEIFORM: Writing Like a Mesopotamian Scribe Join for FREE 🆓 on our website (LINK IN BIO) Delve into cuneiform—the wedge-shaped script that shaped administration, literature, and recordkeeping across...

TikTok video by World Virtual Tours

tiktok.com

Come read Akkadian with me! I'm teaching an intro course (based around my fav Babylonian astronomical compendium -- but really, how can you choose?) and three intermediate courses on myth, astronomy, and math through the Paideia Institute! All virtual! All materials provided!

Come read Akkadian with me! I'm teaching an intro course (based around my fav Babylonian astronomical compendium -- but really, how can you choose?) and three intermediate courses on myth, astronomy, and math through the Paideia Institute! All virtual! All materials provided!

Before Europeans arrived, these were some of the names for The Great Lakes: Superior: gichi-gami (great sea) Erie: erielhonan (long tail) Michigan: michigami (long body of water) Ontario: Ontarí'io\kanadario (great lake\beautiful water) Huron: karegnondi (fresh water sea)

Truly deeply

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · 3w ago

Sometimes I wish I'd made the kind of decisions in life that would have led me to knowing much less about the past but being much more able to afford my prescriptions.

FTM (female to Melancholia)

Guys. The Ancient Greeks weren't white. They were more like cephalopods than modern humans -- their skin was bioluminescent and constantly shifting its color. And they didn't live in in idyllic seaside villages; they could only survive near deep-ocean vents. They DID have Matt Damon accents, though

I also use Zelle, or like any money app you've got. The Zelle account is associated with my partner's name, since we're both in the bank account and he's male so I guess institutions just think he's the only important one.

E.L. Meszaros@iastranger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Help! I need $1500 in the next two hours to make rent for this month. ANYTHING you are able to give will help. venmo.com/code?user_id... I'm currently adjuncting, teaching three online courses, freelance tutoring, selling on Etsy, and actively applying to jobs, but still can't keep up.

Help! I need $1500 in the next two hours to make rent for this month. ANYTHING you are able to give will help. venmo.com/code?user_id... I'm currently adjuncting, teaching three online courses, freelance tutoring, selling on Etsy, and actively applying to jobs, but still can't keep up.

“. . . it’s not just that most academic writing doesn’t earn you anything—most of the time, it costs you.”

How Much Money Do Historians Make From Their Writing?

In general, academic writing doesn’t earn you anything, and most of the time, it costs you.

contingentmagazine.org

Resharing for the new week. Help me eat or pay rent or grieve, if you're able! I promise cool info in return.

We all do harm by being.

In this cynical Sumerian proverb, we get a cheery sentiment: your destiny may suck, but at least you can't escape it. #AncientSayings Ancient Sayings #50: You can't dodge fate https://youtu.be/0dCrLTBRUK4

Ancient Sayings #50: You can't dodge fate

YouTube video by Parchment and Clay

youtu.be

You could take a live class with me! This summer I'm doing an into to Akkadian course that reads through the astronomical compendium MUL.APIN. www.paideiainstitute.org/mul_apin_an_...

MUL.APIN: An Introduction to Akkadian and Early Babylonian Astronomy

Living Latin and Ancient Greek

paideiainstitute.org

Or you can take an online course with me! I've got a six-lecture, pre-recorded course introducing you to Mesopotamian Astronomy for @digital-hammurabi.bsky.social. This was such a joy to teach, and I think the class is pretty fun! digitalhammurabi.thrivecart.com/mesopotamian...

Cataloguing the Heavens: Introduction to Mesopotamian Astronomy

Checkout page for Cataloguing the Heavens: Introduction to Mesopotamian Astronomy.

digitalhammurabi.thrivecart.com

I've got an Etsy shop! Get transliterated cuneiform (great for D&D campaigns and script lovers in your life) or a Babylonian-style horoscope (for those astrology fans in your life) www.etsy.com/shop/CustomC...

I'm running free "tours" through ancient Mesopotamian science with World Virtual Tours! Join in for talks filled with visuals (usually planetarium software!) about the ancient night sky and how Babylonian practitioners saw it. www.worldvirtualtours.online/erica/

Erica Meszaros - World Virtual Tours

Erica Meszaros TIP ERICA Latest Reviews Leave a review

worldvirtualtours.online

A THREAD OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION because it's the end of the month and rent is due soon and this is what i've got :shrug: Share if you can or want to!

Had to hire a babysitter to get my toddler to daycare so I can go teach an 8 am class, but they just didn't show up. How are other folks doing the parent/academic combo? 'cause my methods are clearly not working 🙃

Got a spam email about conference travel, which is how I learned I had been accepted to present at that conference because I never got an acceptance notification lol www.regionalstudies.org/news/scam-em...

We're excited to welcome our new Journalist in Residence, Adrija Roychowdhury. Adrija will work on her project "Encoding Ancient History. The Curious Case of Mathematics, #ArtificalIntelligence, and the #IndusScript" at the MPIWG. 🔍 📰 🔗 buff.ly/SBJYSPn #SciComm @indianexpress.com

An episode of House MD called 'Of Leaves' where he realizes that the hospital is slightly bigger on the inside than the outside.

Me, to every email from academia.edu or researchgate, asking if I'm the author of some article: "I've never written anything."

Contingent Magazine@contingent-mag.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"Public forgetting, like public memorialization, can have a swift and easy outcome if the forces intent on causing the loss of memory have enough power and put enough effort into the project."

We therefore learn from this learned commentary made by a Babylonian scribe over 2000 years ago, that in the Akkadian language, the word shitti means "shit"

new publication alert: a little commentary I wrote about 🔎 clues 🔎 and the detection of AI-generated material is out in American Ethnologist (paywalled at the moment, but hit me up if you can't access it): doi.org/10.1111/amet...

Okay, can we have a moment for the Interimaginary Departures Gate at Austin’s airport?

Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Have you read this? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...