@adamshear
early modern Jewish history and history of the book at University of Pittsburgh (speaks for himself of course); chair of https://www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/; co-director of https://footprints.ctl.columbia.edu/
I "heart" this in appreciate of your comment not expressing love for the situation. You and your colleagues did good work with the limited funds and that makes all this more tragic.
US support for humanities research, #8. Limiting to American history & the fictional construct of "Western civ" doesn't mean that there isn't good, critical, non-partisan, non-cheerleading scholarship going on that is eligible for these grants. Will they be funded? Ah, who know?
US support for humanities research, #7. A community of researchers working together/in tandem on interesting research problems that require resources & time. Say, what NIH/NSF fund. NEH not likely to grow--even if it does, currently all directed at pet hobbyhorses of the lunatic right.
US support for humanities research, #6. Compare this to what is typical in Europe and other places: money for teaching release for a PI, money to hire a team of post-docs and grad students, funding for library and archival work, etc. Collaboration on research from start to end, not at the end.
US support for humanities research, #5. NEH expanded to more collaborative projects, especially in the DH realm (gone now), but focus has tended to be on digital apparatus for analysis of evidence (already amassed.) Funding to get into libraries and archives and amass the dataset-- slim.
US support for humanities research, #4. It would take me a long-time to unpack what I mean by this but the biggest buckets of support from NEH are for individual fellowships (write a book), followed by collaborative fellowships (write a book together).
US support for humanities research, #3. Problem is the weakness of government support. Well before Trump destruction, it's been obvious that NEH was a) a tiny amount of support & b) not set up to support broad-based "basic" research the way the ERC & national agencies do in other countries.
US support for humanities research, #2.. on foundation support, see the recent article in the Atlantic Monthly.
I have no objection to a private foundation saying these are our goals and this is what we fund and if you don't like it, tough. (Mellon can do what they want, so can Templeton.)
US Support for humanities research has long been weak. Private foundation support has narrowed to topics that fit their agendas (mostly left-wing) and now the Trump administration further narrows the NEH to "American history and culture and Western civilization" to fit their (right-wing) agenda.
When the "Reader" title got changed at some places to "Associate Professor" and "Associate Professor" became the entry level at Oxford, an already chaotic system got just a little more confusing.
newsroom.csun.edu/wp-content/u...
@cnygren.bsky.social @pernilleblues.bsky.social
I think so-- pretty early in the admissions/recruitment timeframe as far as I know.
Flyer for intensive Hebrew in Pitt summer Language Institute www.sli.pitt.edu
Intensive Hebrew this summer in Pittsburgh. 1 year in 6 weeks. Lots of scholarship aid. www.sli.pitt.edu #JewishStudies
I know a conference that Statler and Waldorf attend.
Join us Thursday Feb. 19 at 3pm for Religion & the Promise of Career Readiness where panelists will dive into the opportunities, challenges, and debates surrounding these shifts and what it means for the future of Religious Studies.
Learn more & register: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/rel...
flyer for a panel discussion on Anne Fadiman book at the University of Pittsburgh
#ReligiousStudies #Pitt Spread the word to undergrads interested in the intersections of religion, cultural diversity, and healthcare:
It warms my heart to know that I teach and do research at the 79th best "arts and humanities" university in the world, especially when #1 in the category is... MIT?
I find it astonishing that someone who has been teaching for a long time at a notoriously administratively dysfunctional university could extrapolate from a few anecdotes of bad behavior there to the rest of higher education.
did you not think to check if Chabad had something to say about Greenland right now? www.facebook.com/watch/?v=144...
Flyer for spring speaker series at University of Pittsburgh "Conversations with Gods: Divination in the Ancient World." Details can be found on the University of Pittsburgh Religious Studies Department calendar website.
Divination in the ancient world. Talking to god(s)? Could be useful knowledge. Definitely a great series of scholars doing interesting research in the history of religion. At University of Pittsburgh this spring term.
What would I do? Probably continue to study Jewish history; make comments on bluesky threads; and feel guilty about not getting enough exercise.
And some of the institutional grants seem reasonable-- conservation programs, Vermont religion and secularism, etc. But fair to say that the "legit" side masks and legitimates the corrupt/crony/ideologically framed side and that is a problem that all the winners should at least think about.
Emily Litella says "orcas for transport. Sounds dangerous." Oh, orca is the name of the transit card. "Never mind."
Seems to be a marked difference between the grants to institutions and the grants to individuals. Agree with you on the institutional grants, but I'm withholding judgement on the individual fellowship projects. Some are suggesting the individual winners should turn down the grants on principle.
The world needs the wisdom of early modernists --My Pitt colleague Todd Reeser: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
"Salomon Reinach fut toujours impartial, il ne fut jamais neutre. Il crut que son devoir de savant l'obligeait à tout moment à se prononcer pour la vérité et contre l'erreur."
("La méthode comparative dans l'histoire des religions et l'oeuvre de Salomon Reinach," Revue de l'histoire des religions, 110 (1934): 5-28, p.15)
Seymour de Ricci describing Solomon Reinach: "...always impartial, [but] never neutral. He believed that his duty as a scholar obliged him to speak out at all times in favor of the truth and against error."
Some new #Jewishstudies jobs and post-docs for AY 25 posted to my spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Some gaps on who filled jobs starting this year (AY 26) so please make yourself known if you are in one of those.
Appearance here is not an endorsement.