Brian Hillman

At a student-faculty event about the role of AI in education I, perhaps flippantly (and out of frustration) said I wanted to teach a freshmen seminar on "inefficiency": how sometimes doing stuff the hard way is essential to skill development. If I am around for several more years, I will do this.

Advising Fellow, College of Arts & Sciences in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America | Student Services, Health, & Wellness at University of Virginia Apply for Advising Fellow, College of Arts & Sciences job with University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America. Student Services, Health, & Wellness at University of Virg...

Friends, I am hiring two scholar-advisors this year! Come join the best advising team in the country (for real). Please help me spread the news about this great opportunity! This is a permanent, non-time limited instructional staff position, and I will be happy to answer questions!

I reviewed Movies and the Church of Baseball: Religion in the Cinema of the National Pastime by Jonathan Plummer for the International Journal of Sport and Religion

muse.jhu.edu/pub/16/artic...

The Spirit of the Game - Reading Religion The star quarterback takes the field for the national championship game, "John 3:16" scrawled on his eye black. The NBA's Most Valuable Player leads his team...

I reviewed Paul Emory Putz's The Spirit of the Game American Christianity and Big-Time Sports for Reading Religion

readingreligion.org/978019009106...

How many times should a you be brought nearly to tears in completing a "revise and resubmit"? Asking for a friend.

It looks like Bun-B (from UGK who did "Big Pimpin'" with Jay-Z)

Nothing like editing my own writing to show me how badly I need to improve the quality and clarity of what I produce.

Crude Creatures: Confronting Representations of Black People in Yiddish Culture Gil Ribak’s Crude Creatures: Confronting Representations of Black People in Yiddish Culture seeks to overturn a comfortable notion about Jewish history.

I reviewed another book!
www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/crude-c...

I know academia is a hellscape but I will continue to get emotional when I submit recommendation letters for students applying to the same graduate program(s) I attended.

Michael Jordan: A Hero with a Thousand Faces In The Myth of Michael Jordan in Popular Culture (Routledge), Tomasz Jacheć examines the life and career of Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports, asking how he transce...

I reviewed a Religious Studies book about Michael Jordan 🐐

idrottsforum.org/hilbri_jache...

I didn't share it at the time, but a few months ago I wrote about AI Plagiarism as a form of gaslighting. All my assignments this semester are in-class but a few students have smuggled in AI-written work that they copied without me catching them in the moment
wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/bl...

I reviewed a book that is not about religion! As a recovered Yankees fan, this is rather ironic. muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...

link me your email or email me at my university and I'll send it!

I wrote about coping with students dropping my class. www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/2025/03/help...

A Fool's Kabbalah Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) was one of the greatest academics of the twentieth century.

I reviewed Steve Stern's new novel about Gershom Scholem, A Fool's Kabbalah www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/a-fools...

My article on a 19th-century Mitnagdic defense of Kabbalah is out. Happy to send a PDF if anyone is interested or needs something to help them get to sleep. www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/l...

Your book's intro is on the syllabus too! (Race, Gender, and Sexuality and Judaism)

The Jewish Body An encyclopedic survey of the Jewish body as it has existed and as it has been imagined from biblical times to the presentThat the human body can be the obje...

You probably know this but I found the intro worth assigning to undergrads: site.pennpress.org/ajs-2023/978...

If anyone wants to see my 400-level Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Judaism syllabus I'm happy to share. My institution starts next Monday and I think everything is ready.

It turns out that it isn't "Publish or Perish" but rather "Publish or Parish" so if I don't get tenure I will be forced to enter the priesthood.

That feeling when you finally sneak under the maximum world count...

There should be a 3-on-3 tournament at AJS

Have there been any CFPs for conferences/edited volumes about BRAT? I'm 100 percent serious.

I have made a list of the top 100 or so (mostly non-academic) books coming out in 2025 that I want to read. I've ranked the list according to my excitement about reading them. If anyone wants the list to learn about forthcoming books and/or judge my taste in reading, I'm happy to share.

The devilish bargain I've made with myself is that I'm allowed to listen to Drake even though he is an inveterate loser if I'm writing something that, if it gets published, will count as "research" for tenure.

AI is bad for education. I might repost this daily to remind folks.

I'm still working out the details but Kendrick's "tv off" can be read as critique of speculative metaphysics.
See:
"F- being rational"
"say you bigger than myself but it's not enough"
"few solid [people] left but it's not enough"
"MUSTAAAAAAAAARD" (showing the centrality of emotion in the world)

AI is bad for the academic humanities. I will die on this hill.

Intrusive thought: I, an unmarried 35-year-old assistant professor of religious studies, am less uncool than Drake. I'm not saying that entails that I am cooler than Drake, but I think I am less cringy, creepy, problematic, and uncool. It's a sad day for Champagne Papi.

I have decided that it's worth the effort to move to a more interesting city for the next academic year even if the effort it takes to find a place and move detracts from my writing time.