Rebecca Dean

@rmdean.bsky.social

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Archaeologist (animals, agriculture, ecology, and social systems). Higher Ed Assessment (student success and learning are more important than box-checking). Former Michigan diaspora now home but missing Minnesota. UMich grad working at MSU.

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My dad's birthday is next week, so I've been thinking about him. Then today we sang one of the hymns from his funeral, so I ended up with tears running down my face and ducking out so nobody would notice. Spent some time with him in the memorial garden. Grief gotta grief, I guess.

Força Portugal!🇵🇹

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#Metoo ruined lives: the women’s. For the summer issue of Bookforum, I wrote about Christine Blasey Ford’s memoir “One Way Back,” the aftermath of disclosure, and what it means to be a public survivor when storytelling has proven futile. www.bookforum.com/culture/disp...

Disposable Heroeswww.bookforum.com Christine Blasey Ford’s memoir captures the hazards of “coming forward” – Moira Donegan

Wuv. Twue wuv.

My mom was a public librarian for 30+ years. She's a big part of who I became.

today is my NINETEEN YEAR anniversary working at my local library In honor of that, I ask you to get a card to your local public library today! If you ALREADY have a card to your local public library, check out their digital resources! Their summer programs! And yeah, they have books too.

Today in feeling ancient: I had a Nirvana song stuck in my head so I played it on YouTube. The ads included AARP and prescriptions for arthritis medication.

Ugh. Much whizz. Very bang. All the kitties under the bed.

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Amazing! Archaeologists have discovered the only brewery from the #Roman times in Italy. www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/07/t...

This is 100% true.

Also I want to tell everyone that we cradle Catholics utterly reject any kind of Catholic convert, except for your cousin-in-law who did it so your cousin could have a church wedding because we know what Catholic converts are about, which is weirdness

I always make my kids listen to this on the 4th. Which is probably why my kids are so eager to move out of the house. 🤣

If you've never heard this before, there's no better day than today www.democracynow.org/2024/7/4/wha...

“What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speechwww.democracynow.org We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester...

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Yes I ended my talk with a poetry reading. I send this poem to my parents every 4th of July. Here it is in full if you've never read it: poets.org/poem/let-ame...

In my early career award lecture at AERA last weekend, I ended my talk with a reading of an excerpt from Let America Be America Again

Happy Birthday to our republic...if we can keep it.

Etymologically speaking, that is not a redundant name. Smdh. (I like to complain about crosswords.)

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I’ll say a little more about this later. But the fun part of this essay was that I wasn’t allowed to assume any knowledge at all about gaming for my reader. None. I had amazing editors work me really hard for each sentence.

There's a neat essay on the influence of D&D in @smithsonianmag.bsky.social. I'm still blown away by how RPGs have become this American — really worldwide — institution. www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...

How Dungeons & Dragons Sparked a Revolution in How We Play Just About Everythingwww.smithsonianmag.com Created more than 50 years ago, the game has captured the imaginations of generations of Americans, and not just the nerdy ones

Here’s my cynical Gen X take on the Supreme Court: this country has no history of holding powerful people accountable, and nothing has changed.

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New from me: this is a really cool study with amazing implications for archaeology and community-led research! 🧪🏺 www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

12,000-year-old Aboriginal sticks may be evidence of the oldest known culturally transmitted ritual in the worldwww.livescience.com Aboriginal artifacts in Australia that were likely used for ritual spells may be evidence of the oldest culturally transmitted ritual on record.

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Julia Azari

couple of observations from reading the decision: 1. this is really bad. 2. in practice, the status quo has also been bad, and i'm honestly unsure how much of a departure this is from the status quo. i'm still mad about the lack of accountability for Nixon, George W. Bush etc. ...

Hot. Mess. Summer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court sends Trump’s immunity case back to a lower court in Washington, dimming prospect of a pre-election trial.

It's hot mess summer.

I ran out of word puzzles and was forced to do Sudoku. 😱

My mulberry hardly had any berries this year and I’m bummed. My favorite fruit.

I agree with frustration about the media’s handling of the debate, and also recognize that any brokered convention could be a disaster. Gotta say, though, that I’d LOVE a choice other than Trump or Biden.

I had "Be Thou my Vision" stuck in my head, so I looked up the origin, and it turns out that versions of it have been sung since it was first written as a 6th century Irish hymn. Which kinda blows my mind, tbh.

Watching the BoT meeting and the SCOTUS opinions simultaneously because apparently I need more anxiety in my life. 😂

Yup.

The Democratic Party’s reaction to their candidate having a bad debate substantially outpaces the Republican Party’s reaction to their candidate being convicted of multiple felonies, held liable for rape, and owing judgments in the hundreds of millions for defamation and fraud.

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#Anthropology

First case of Down syndrome in Neanderthals documented in new studyphys.org A new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, documents the first case of Down syndrome in N...

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This is a really well reported piece on what the border crisis looks like for members of the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona. www.cnn.com/2024/06/24/a...

How the US-Mexico border brought trouble to the Tohono O’odham Nation | CNNwww.cnn.com The border has become impossible to ignore amid record numbers of migrants crossing into the US from Mexico and a bitter political storm over what to do with them.

John Carpenter passed away recently. RIP. And condolences to Lupita and the rest of their family.

Panic! In the Office: I made my coffee then realized I was out of creamer.

I effed up my wrist while writing my dissertation 20 years ago. Every once in a while, it acts up and I have to wear a brace. I think of it like a mom who always reminds her child, "I was in labor for 36 hours straight with you." Only this was, like, 2 years.