As much as delusional optimism is a thing (I say as an optimist myself) so is delusional pessimism and I really think we all do ourselves a disservice by not acknowledging that. As abolitionist Mariame Kaba says, "Hope is a Discipline."
Rhiannon Garth Jones
@rhigarthjones.bsky.social
Lecturer in Global Medieval History at IMS, Uni of Leeds. Early Islamic architecture & shared traditions of West Asia. General geek, chronically ill, dreaming of boat life again. She/her. Buy *All Roads Lead to Rome*: https://geni.us/AllRoadsLeadtoRomepb
If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!
Two years ago, I sat on my balcony in Aarhus just before I moved apartment, exhausted and trying to grab some peace with a pistachio affagato. I just did the exact same thing on the window seat in my new place - a lot has changed since then but I'm still trying to treat overwork with bougie bits 🫣
Two recent publications, on the more “public facing” side of academia, thanks to the good graces of a couple of friends, including @rhigarthjones.bsky.social
Netanyahu after the UNGA emptied out ahead of his speech: "If there any other moral cowards who have not left the hall, please do so now."
Going through these new enslavement records from the British Colonies and William Hinds Prescod, Esquire, who was the largest slaveholder in Barbados in his lifetime and probably owned my ancestors, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, about a century after Isaac Newton was
Every aspect of this is horrifying and far too normalised, I am so heartbroken and furious at what we have allowed our society to become
Emma Yeomans@yeomans.bsky.social · last wk.Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
Alaa lives in a tent pitched on the ruins of her house, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike that killed all three of her children. In one month, she’ll give birth again. The first of the Guardian’s series capturing the daily lives of 5 people in Gaza. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
‘I lost my children, and I’m afraid of losing my baby again’: a day in the life of a pregnant woman in Gaza
Alaa lives in a tent pitched on the ruins of her house, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike that killed all three of her children. In one month, she will give birth again.
theguardian.com
40 years ago Ahmed Iqbal Ullah was murdered in a racist attack at school. This article discusses his family’s remarkable attempts to tackle the root causes of the murder. Heading to a memorial event and wishing him, and his family, true justice and peace. hyphenonline.com/2026/09/17/a...
The legacy of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah's murder, 40 years on - Hyphen
The racist killing would rally hundreds to campaign for justice. Now, his family feel a ‘duty’ to speak up again amid the rise of the far right
hyphenonline.com
Holy smokes I fuckin' did it. As promised, I hard launched before Yom Kippur, with hours to spare! I am going to take a nap.
Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself
Look at me. I’m the publisher now.
soraya.press
After I visited Sri Lanka during what turned out to be the cricket world cup (2008), I was tickled to stumble on cricket matches played in a parking lot in Beirut on Sundays. It's only today I learned the story. Excellent article! www.csmonitor.com/Perspectives...
How one man nurtures a network of cricket and community in Beirut
The gatherings each Sunday offer migrants not only a reminder of home, but also an opportunity to express solidarity and connect with others.
csmonitor.com
Lads, are we watching Fra v Aussie because it's currently: 1 x permanent red (gouging) 1 x 20-min red (high tackle) 2 x yellow cards (lost track but don't think they're bunker yellows). ALL FOR LES BLEUS. IN SEVEN MINUTES.
The Israeli demand to strip NAZA filmmakers Abraham and Szor of citizenship so that they can be executed, their homes demolished, and their families expelled is neatly illustrative of how and why the apartheid state renders Palestinians as non-human www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
It really struck me last month, when looking for a place to rent in the UK for the first time in 10 years, that there felt like no serious expectation you would have rented before and "live with parents" was the default option. Bleak.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2w agoHere's a chart from the post.... quite a change in a single generation.
My first piece of writing on a new project, a biography of James Sanua, Egyptian-Jewish anti-colonial satirist of the 19th century. evergreenreview.com/read/the-his...
The Historians of a Nation Are Not Careless Men
Evergreen Review
evergreenreview.com
"In some places Rome does not fall at all. In others, such as Italy, there are multiple, sometimes repeated farewell parties, where the guests do not want to leave and the host does not switch the music off." How do we think about the Fall of Rome today? www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Towards and beyond the ‘Fall’: rethinking Rome’s end | The Journal of Roman Studies | Cambridge Core
Towards and beyond the ‘Fall’: rethinking Rome’s end
cambridge.org
We're hiring a (full-time, permanent) colleague to join us as Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage in @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSY235/l...
Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage at Birkbeck, University of London
Apply for the Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
jobs.ac.uk
*sigh*
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 2w agoIn Rome and the Rise of the West, historian Taco Terpstra argues that if we want to understand how the rise of the West unfolded, we need to look further back—all the way to the Neolithic, when an upward trend in social development began. Available Oct 6 (1 Dec UK pub). Learn more: buff.ly/wapDOH9
I enjoyed reading a draft of this and I reckon I'll enjoy reading it again as I think more about Orientalism and imperialism before the semester ‘The worst of all Turkish peoples’: Ibn Faḍlān’s travel account as British naval intelligence by Tonicha Mae Upham link.springer.com/article/10.1...
‘The worst of all Turkish peoples’: Ibn Faḍlān’s travel account as British naval intelligence - postmedieval
The tenth-century CE Arabic travel account of Aḥmad Ibn Faḍlān has seen many reactions, receptions, and afterlives in Islamicate languages and in European settings. These relate both to the identity a...
link.springer.com
New book: Anthony Kaldellis. Phantom Byzantium: Europe, Empire, and Identity from Late Antiquity to World War II (University of Chicago Press, 2026) maryjahariscenter.org/blog/phantom...
Phantom Byzantium: Europe, Empire, and Identity from Late Antiquity to World War II | Mary Jaharis Center
There are currently no approaching deadlines.
maryjahariscenter.org
It's finally out! www.himalmag.com/mary-slusser...
Mary Slusser’s secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage
A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States
himalmag.com
Erin L. Thompson@artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 2mo agoAbout to publish an investigation into stolen art that is the greatest possible demonstration of this core research principle:
This feeling does not get old, so cool to see my book out in the big wide world 😍😍
lyra tasis🪬🧿✡︎@tribhuwana.bsky.social · 2w ago@rhigarthjones.bsky.social spotted at Heffers in Cambridge!
Pals one thing about me is that I am never gonna judge someone for typos or even misspelling I simply neither care nor really notice, I am fluent enough in English to get your meaning. You do not ever need to apologise for this in my mentions
Ley@ahemhem.bsky.social · 2w agoLast* time** not lay fine ffs proofread your text for half a second you dumbass jeez
Some Thai words of Persian #etymology : Thai กุหลาบ gù-làap "rose", from Persian گلاب golāb "rosewater". (The Persian is also ultimately the source of English "julep", as in "mint julep".) Thai has borowed other words from Persian, including...
Nick Brumfield@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 3w agoIn addition to the use of Thai in government and Pali in religion, Ayutthaya had several additional lingua franca like Malay (used with India), Persian, and Portuguese Per "usual procedure," a 1628 Dutch message was translated from Dutch to Portuguese, Portuguese to Malay, then Malay into Siamese
I’m on Opinion newsletter duty this morning and I wanted to start with a few words on The Telegraph’s toxic “How having a disability became cool” article.
One of the theses that is emerging as I write this book on Great Man history is that modern elites, who are provably attracted to it, view themselves not just as potential Great Men but as the *last* Great Men - not just as powerful but as the final form of power. Which should scare us.
Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 3w ago"as the world changes our elites are changing, becoming more fascist, attracted to ideas justifying that only some people are going to make it. it’s the job of a credible left to put forward a vision of the future for how we live together well on this planet." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/m...