An illustration from a 13th-century bestiary, showing a phoenix rising from the flames.
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Tell us your favourite British Library manuscript and we’ll post an image for you.
As evidence, the filing notes a list Mr. Fox compiled of what he called the "craziest" and "other bad" grants, which he planned to highlight on DOGE's X account. He used three dozen keywords, including "L.G.B.T.Q.""BIPOC," "tribal, "ethnicity," "gender," "equality," "immigration "citizenship" and "melting pot." (A majority of the two dozen grants deemed "craziest" related to L.G.B.T.Q. subjects.) In the deposition, Mr. Fox said the list reflected his "subjective" judgment about whether a grant might be out of line with Mr. Trump's executive order. "Crazy' is one way of saying it," he said. "Most incriminating' is another way."
Why did I think they simply canceled all of them. Nope it was discriminatory
Case in point for the importance of understanding theology and eschatology to understand politics
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Yet another example of how the anti-DEI rhetoric of a return to meritocracy has actually brought quite the opposite of meritocracy…
"The humanities endowment’s 17-member outside scholarly council, which by law must advise on most grants, voted not to recommend the Tikvah award, but Mr. McDonald overruled it. Last October, shortly after the grant was announced, the White House fired most of the board, with no reason given."
"Asked by the plaintiffs’ lawyers why Tikvah, which had never applied for a federal grant, was tapped for [the biggest grant in NEH history], Mr. Wolfson [whose wife works for a Tikvah-related group] said Mr. McDonald had been impressed by an episode of its podcast and asked him to reach out."
28 #Manuscripts from the #Vatican this week www.wiglaf.org/vatican/2026...
Includes tons of Ge'ez, 3 Lorenzo Valla, additional classical works, the Conclave for Gregory XIV, juridical works, a chronicle of Padua and more!
#MedievalSky #Skystorians
The Tower of Babel being destroyed by hammer wielding
angels.
BL Add 18850; 'Bedford Hours'; France, Central (Paris); c1410-1430; f.17v @blmedieval.bsky.social
It was wrong and harmful - and quite possibly unlawful - to cut already approved NEH grants because Donald Trump hates "DEI."
But the way DOGE went about doing it was even dumber than you probably imagined.
They fed abstracts into ChatGPT and demanded an answer in fewer than 120 characters.
Text, from The Jerusalem Post: “Tucker Carlson is right: A demonic spirit has been unleashed, but it's him - opinion // After Netanyahu and Trump struck Iran, Tucker Carlson claimed that a demonic spirit had been unleashed. He is 100% correct, but he is that demonic spirit.”
And so too with theorizing of demonology, demonization, and difference… www.jpost.com/middle-east/...
IMHO one need not appeal to “relevance” to defend the importance of academic Religious Studies for theorizing why classification and definition of “religion(s)” matters. But, um, if one did… www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-gr...
Poster with black and white photos of LoC exhibit; “Rediscovering the Discovery: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Their First Audience"/ A Lecture by Prof. Alex Jassen (NYU) / Wednesday, April 22, 2026 - 5:00-7:00 pm - Sever Hall 103, Cambridge, MA
Save the date - 4/22 Prof. Alex Jassen will be speaking at Harvard on the Dead Sea Scrolls & their first American audiences!!
Imagine viewing this and concluding that academic Gender Studies is no longer relevant as a field of inquiry.
⬇️ This.
Many collections everywhere, but particularly beyond Europe or N. America, are undercatalogued or not catalogued at all. When they burn, no trace survives.
For the "everything is online" crowd in the back:
Important to consider that "everything" cultural heritage related that is accessible online represents only 1% (one percent) of archives, libraries, and museum collections worldwide.
Ahem… bsky.app/profile/atru...
Today Jodi Magness takes us through her career and offers a retrospective on the significance of archaeology to the study of the ancient world.
The SBL call for papers closes March 4. Consider submitting a proposal for the Christian apocrypha section.
Jeremiah Coogan, "Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews." Friday, March 6, 2026 at 12:00 EST. Register at nasscalworkshop@gmail.com.
Join us March 6 for the latest First Friday Christian Apocrypha Workshop with Jeremiah Coogan (Jesuit School of Theology).
I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.
Yep, zero need for Religious Studies classes to help our students operate with a deeper understanding of our present world and how religious history and scriptures shape identities and actions
www.jpost.com/opinion/arti...
Good thing some US colleges are closing their Religious Studies departments—definitively not “useful” at all or an area of expertise that might be relevant for understanding our present…
Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.
At a Cleveland newspaper, reporters assigned to the suburbs “are now expected to file four stories a day with the help of AI.”
Also: one reporter “said they were caught off guard when their annual performance review indicated insufficient AI use.”
Gift link wapo.st/4aX44e1
Today I learned that tempura originated from Portuguese missionaries in 16th century Japan, who brought their tradition of breading and frying foods with them. The name apparently comes from the Latin phrase “ad tempora cuaresma” (in the time of Lent) because it was popular Lenten food.
TL;DR it's free; just go read it! The topic ended up way more "relevant" today than it was waaaaay back when he started. But his initial aim still holds: he thinks that these writings bear overlooked significance & thus gives the gift to non-Hebrew readers of the chance to decide for themselves
I grew up bilingual & am a poor translator; the very task fills me w/massive anxiousness about meanings lost in the process. I'm thus all the more impressed by people w/courage to face tht loss head-on & the skill to navigate it. We will lose a lot, alas, if translation becomes only a task for AI...
Shaul is best known for his public-facing work. But he spends a lot of time translating, mostly for himself, sometimes for classes, rarely for self-standing publication. And as anyone married to a translator no doubt knows, it is slooooow work--albeit w/a rhythm thus ringing deep into everyday life
