James A. Palmer

@jamespqr77.bsky.social

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Historian of medieval Italy; dad; cook; hockey fan
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0656-9110

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James A. Palmer

The publication of historical sources is always to be celebrated. Today's news brings a text I never previously heard of, a Pestchrift moralis from 1424: Bartolomeo da Ferrara's Tractatus predicandus in ciuitate pestilenciata (Treatise on preaching in a pestilential city): www.academia.edu/122342198

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James A. Palmer

It’s weird how the companies seeking to disrupt education keep failing

2U, a company "worth" $5 billion in 2018, is now filing for bankruptcy. They became famous helping colleges run online programs and infamous for some of their partnership terms (like USC's social work program) and the insane idea to spend money on edx in 2021. Gift link: www.wsj.com/business/2u-...

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James A. Palmer

JOB: Full Professor with speciality in Global, Environmental, and/or Gender History, Univ of Adelaide, Australia careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51... #envhist

careers.adelaide.edu.au Come and celebrate our 150th year. Explore our events, our history, and the foundation we’ve built for the future.

I started avoiding the day-to-day (social) media churn, about politics, four years ago. It's been great for my mental health. But once in a while (omg like this COUCH thing), it leads to some surreal moments when I have no idea what everyone is on about and have to decide whether to find out.

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James A. Palmer

Pay attention, because this is important: this week's Charter A Week is my favourite charter, an unrivalled bit of insight into the way belief and ideology mattered to medieval princes: salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2024/07/23/c...

Charter A Week 119: My Favourite Chartersalutemmundo.wordpress.com Yes, you read that right. This is a big one, because canonically ARTEM 1416, issued by Count Odo I of Blois-Chartres-Tours for the abbey of Bourgueil in 995, is my single favourite charter. I have see...

FSU's library copy of Ficino's De vita libri tres is very water damaged. I like to think someone was trying to follow the recipes.

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I want to blast this @nytimes.com article in the sun. Literally an entire article about how AI can write poetry that interviews exactly zero poets, writers, or experts on language on whether or not AI writing is good or original.

I like this essay. In grad school, my advisor made clear that he was not interested in seeing me exercise the virtue of viciousness as it is often learned in graduate seminars. Instead, I was to respect writers & try to understand what they were doing. Be generous first, critical second and fairly.

Reading as Moral Formationhedgehogreview.com Attentional humility opens us to sympathetic reading—a willingness to receive from the text on the author’s own terms.

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There is no way in hell I could have brought a 15 year book manuscript to completion without me caring deeply about the topic and wanting to find out the answer for myself.

Being self indulgent is literally the biggest game changer one can do when it comes to creating anything. People often forget that what you make should be for you first, others second. And people will be able to tell the difference...the enthusiasm will come through.

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James A. Palmer

Pro-Trump Billionaire Bill Ackman, who has thrown his weight and money around to get higher education to conform to his “anti-woke,” “evidence-based,” and “ideology-free” values, is out here retweeting one brain poisoned conspiracy theory after another.

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excited to listen to this! also a reminder that @letteney.bsky.social's book is OPEN ACCESS! download away! www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

Mark Letteney! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social @ancientjewreview.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/the-christia...

Mark Letteney, "The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity: Intellectual and Material Transformations" (Cambridge UP, 2023) - New Books Networknewbooksnetwork.com

The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquitywww.cambridge.org Cambridge Core - Church History - The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity

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James A. Palmer

New Online Course this January: The Magical World of the Early and High Middle Ages medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/magic #medieval

The Magical World of the Early and High Middle Agesmedievalstudies.thinkific.com Explore the fascinating world of magic, its practices, practitioners, and cultural impact. From court astrologers to village healers, we investigate the complex interplay between magic, religion, and science in shaping medieval European society.

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James A. Palmer

The great James C. Scott has passed away. May his memory be for a blessing. #polisky

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James A. Palmer

Amid the crazy news cycle today you may have missed the sudden passing of Pete Carmichael, one of the most charismatic, generous, & welcoming Civil War Era scholars—a constant supporter of junior scholars & those working outside academia. A great loss for us all. 🗃️ gettysburgian.com/2024/07/coll...

College Announces Death of Professor Peter Carmichaelgettysburgian.com By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief Civil War Institute director and history professor Peter Carmichael, 58, has died from a sudden illness. President Bob Iuliano announced his death in an email to…

Using land for pig pasture is called "pannage" because it produces bacon, right? Don't answer. I've already decided the answer is yes.

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I would any recs for books, articles, or essays making a case for the importance of the more distant past. I'm currently rereading Smail and Shryock in the AHR. Read Cronon on the importance of history yesterday, but his distant past was the early 19thc. Interesting but not precisely what I want.

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James A. Palmer

job fairy: tenure track asst prof. in the history of technology at Yale Uni www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis... #histSTM 🗃️

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James A. Palmer

Crowdsourcing #HistorySky: Contemplating creating a class called "Rethinking History: More Than Moments" & spend the semester examining "big moments" that have been taught simplisticly: what led Rosa Parks to stay seated? how important was the shooting of the Archduke? etc? Questions in thread:

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James A. Palmer

the circular-firing-squad drama of the weeks since the debate has reminded me of why I do not identify as Democrat in the social-psychological sense despite voting for Democratic candidates 99.5% of the time

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James A. Palmer

Ridiculous to me that people are giving Denzel Washington major flack for having a "NY accent in a movie set in Ancient Rome.” Like, bros, do you think they had refined British accents in the early 3rd century CE in Rome? British accents are just as ahistorical. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A New York accent in ancient Rome? So what, it’s no less accurate than speaking in RP | Rebecca Ridealwww.theguardian.com Denzel Washington has been accused of inauthenticity in Gladiator II. But why is upper-class, southern English considered the norm, asks historian Rebecca Rideal

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James A. Palmer

Higher Ed Cuts update: in 6 weeks since I shared the spreadsheet, 20 more colleges & universities have been added: a total of 126 institutions closing, laying off staff, eliminating programs in the last 10 months. Thanks to those who have written to me with updates. Let me know what I've missed.

Update on the grim US Higher Ed Cuts spreadsheet: it now lists 106 colleges & universities announcing closure, layoffs, hiring freezes, program eliminations, etc. since summer 2023. Thanks to many colleagues who sent information, sources, additions, edits. If you'd like a copy, send me an email.

US higher ed cuts 8/2023-docs.google.com Sheet1 Cuts at 2-year and 4-year US higher education institutions since August 2023. Please send additions, edits, updates, corrections to [email protected]. Some data has been incorporated from "<a ...

Just rearranged class so an exam wouldn't fall on election day. I feel like people might have other things on their mind.

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James A. Palmer

When I did the summer classical school in Rome, damn near every site had a sequence of our instructors' overview on "And here's where Mussolini destroyed all the stuff that wasn't useful to his ideological narrative."

Archaeology is not & never has been "neutral." A few recent examples? China’s government manipulating ancient sites to support claims that Xinjiang has always been a part of Han China; a proposal to have the IAA oversee antiquities in the West Bank; Putin's use of underwater arch. to claim Crimea.

There are two books reviewed in the medieval and ancient section of the newest AHR.

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It's possible to get rich people to support the humanities in public higher education: newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla...

Alumni couple gives $25 million to propel UCLA’s Department of History into the futurenewsroom.ucla.edu The landmark gift from Meyer and Renee Luskin will support the department’s mission of leveraging historical knowledge for the public good.

Oh good, now we can get our umpteen billionth round of bloviating about "unity" and "division" as if those terms helpfully describe anything.

I'm vexed by journals that include both full chicago footnotes and a bibliography, and then count them toward word count for submissions. That bibliography seems like pure dead weight to me. Am I crazy?

My favorite part of writing is the brief window when you have a full draft but haven't yet had to pull off the band aid and just submit the piece somewhere. Just chilling to some music, fleshing out the footnotes, and feeling vaguely done for a bit, before someone tells you that you aren't.

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So a thing about AI is that, not understanding the material itself, it cannot understand what the gap is in someone else’s understanding. Students already have access to materials that will repeat important points over and over. They don’t need more.

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.