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Michael Furman

@profboeotia.bsky.social

Ph.D. Ancient Historian - Thebes and Boeotia Award-Winning Teacher Historical Gaming Pedagogy Honors Education Golf ⛳ Hot Takes on Classics and Academia

92 Posts250 Follower336 Folgt
Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 5d ago

As someone with multiple massive LEGO sets proudly displayed in my office (including a UCS Razor Crest) I agree with all this. Might some other academics view it as childish? Maybe, but it's my office and I don't care.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 5d ago

This article in The Atlantic about the grown-up LEGO market struck me as off, written by someone who just can't quite bring themselves to understand why grown-ups would build LEGO sets (and notably didn't seem to talk to anyone to ask). www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

A text block from the atlantic article, reading, "Adult sets, by contrast, serve almost entirely as decor. Once you’ve constructed your model of a Gustav Klimt painting, potted hibiscus plant, or Darth Vader’s star destroyer—all currently available on Lego’s website—you can’t do anything else with it. It sits on a shelf as a trophy: gleaming, inert, and quasi-sculptural. These bricks do not invite further interaction. Some, forbiddingly, come with informational plaques to stand next to the finished object. At this point, Konstanski estimates, only about half of Lego’s sets are intended for play; the remainder are meant for display."
Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 2w ago

Kinda weird how the entirety of my academic training left out how incredibly well unbridled imperial ambition, brutal repression of 'allied' states, and willingness of citizens to be swayed by demagogues worked out for the Athenians...

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 3w ago

Ancient Aliens when they see this:

Spice Adams Rubbing Hands Meme: Yellow & Pink Suit

ALT: Spice Adams Rubbing Hands Meme: Yellow & Pink Suit

static.klipy.com

Alison Fisk@alisonfisk.bsky.social · 3w ago

This ancient Greek figure from the 2,500 year-old Douris Cup looks uncannily like someone working on a laptop! 😲 💻 He’s actually writing with a stylus on a hinged wax writing tablet! The technology has changed, the posture has not! 😂 Altes Museum, Berlin 📷 by me

My photo shows detail from an ancient Greek red-figure kylix (drinking cup) of a young man shown in profile seated on a stool facing right. He wears a knee length cloak (himation) over his left shoulder, which is shown in folds around his waist and upper legs. His right shoulder, chest, and arms are bare. His dark hair is short, and he wears a band around his head. He is looking down at an open rectangular wax writing tablet which he is supporting in his left hand above his lap. In his right hand he holds a metal stylus pen poised over the writing tablet. The wooden writing tablet is hinged like a book and, from this angle, resembles a modern laptop. The figure is part of a scene depicting school lessons in ancient Athens, painted by Douris around 480 BC. On display at the Altes Museum in Berlin.
Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Let's ban all these pieces period. The risks are well known, people just delude themselves into believing that they will be the exception to the long odds. Also a special 'shut up' to those who have made 'escaping academia' consulting their cottage industry after writing one of these pieces. Shills.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Alright, I'm putting a line in the stand: No more 'why I left academia' takes from dudes that never got their monograph out (in book fields). 'oh sure, I got a gold-plated academic job and bailed out in advance of the tenure decision without a book out, but it was BECAUSE OF WOKE!!' Sure, buddy.

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Certain people: We need to bring back the Classics and make people learn their virtues from the ancients. Make everyone read Plato! *Whips out Aristophanes' speech from Symposium* Those same people: OK. Wait. Not like that...

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Ok buckle up here is my review of the Odyssey coming from someone that is not as expert on the text itself as many of my fellow classicists who have reviewed it, but who asks his students to think a lot about how the ancient past is continually adapted and reshaped to suit modern audiences:

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · last yr.

I think a good place to start is not even asking for recommendation letters until very late in the process. It introduces more bias and begs questions about status and prestige. It's so much wasted labor on everyone's part to require them up front

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Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · last yr.

Having run multiple faculty searches now I can say this with confidence: There is absolutely no reason you can't inform unsuccessful candidates in a timely manner after every stage of the search process. It takes about five minutes to write and send blanket rejections through your HR portal...

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · last yr.

This so much. It makes me so angry to hear jokes about this. What does it say about you and your relationship with your students that your position is essentially 'my students are lying to me until they prove they aren't.' Some basic humanity in this scenario costs you nothing.

Dr. Karen Carr@quatrus.bsky.social · last yr.

reminder, based on recent experiences: when all your undergraduates claim that their grandparents are dying, that's because their grandparents really are dying, that's just the age when a lot of people lose their grandparents.

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · last yr.

80 years ago today my grandparents, a WAAF who spent months living in a subway tunnel while her city burned above her and a kid from the Bronx who lied above his age and landed in Normandy, celebrated what they thought was the defeat of fascism.

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 2y ago

Reading through the comments on the annual faculty poll and it's hilariously sad how petty some of them are. Like with so many things to talk about, you chose parking as the hill to die on??

Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 2y ago

Exactly what I would want in upper administration. The inability to parse complex ideas into tangible positions and not giving enough of a shit about the crowning achievement of your students to sit your ass down and write a meaningful speech just for them to show you actually think about them.

Roxanne Shirazi@roxanneshirazi.bsky.social · 2y ago

Oh, just reading about how this college president uses AI in academic leadership and wondering why, exactly, they need such salaries?

Screenshot from Inside Higher Ed article: Al also helped me manage my team. During a challenging period involving conflicting viewpoints among senior administrators, I fed anonymized email threads into an Al tool that summarized key positions and highlighted shared values we could build upon. This helped to provide clarity by distilling complex arguments into actionable insights. We were able to move forward with solutions that felt fair and aligned with our institutional mission. Encouraged, I expanded my use of Al into speechwriting. For convocation, l uploaded historical documents about our institution's 125-year history and outlined key themes I wanted to address. The Al suggested connections between past milestones and current challenges and helped me refine a narrative that celebrated resilience while inspiring hope for the future.
Michael Furman@profboeotia.bsky.social · 2y ago

To mark the occasion, I'm starting a series of posts called 'Give Me A (Spring) Break' Every day I will address some common practice that I have encountered in higher ed pedagogy and then explain why it sucks. First up: Not accepting late work because students need to 'prepare for the real world'