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Adam Shear

@adamshear.bsky.social
704 followers 414 following 284 posts

early modern Jewish history and history of the book at University of Pittsburgh (speaks for himself of course); chair of www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu; co-director of footprints.ctl.columbia.edu

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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Amazing opportunities for @pittprovost.bsky.social undergraduates in New York abd London.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I am going to have to work this into my seminar on religion and the book next time. From today's Corriere della Serra:
article and photo from Corriere della Sera with headline "Prevost,una torta di compleanno a forma di libro" showing the Pope in front of  birthday cake in the form of a book.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Hebraic Collections at the Library of Congress: An Online Orientation for New Researchers • September 17, 2026 • 12 PM EDT – 12:45 PM EDT • Zoom Register at: loc.zoomgov.com/.../WN_qcwLD...
loc.zoomgov.com
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Great opportunity for @pittprovost.bsky.social undergraduates to spend next summer in NYC, free housing, to do original research on any topic in #Jewishstudies using @columbiauniversity.bsky.social libraries and other collections. Use QR code to sign up info session. @mmargolis.bsky.social
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
#Pitt students & people who know them: A new program that will fund undergraduate research on Jewish topics in New York City in summer 2027. Yes, fully funded opportunity to engage with Columbia U Libraries and other relevant collections. #jewishstudies www.asundergrad.pitt.edu/.../new-york....
asundergrad.pitt.edu
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Maybe because I am gen X and maybe because I type slowly in Hebrew, but I find the combo of Bibliography of the Hebrew Book (online) with my hardcopy of Cowley's Catalogue of Hebrew Printed Books in the Bodleian Library to be much easier than using BHB alone. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Do you have an idea for a case study on early Hebrew printed books that connects with the Footprints project? Apply to be part of a collaborative research and writing project. drive.google.com/file/d/1jG8h... #JewishStudies #Bookhistory
drive.google.com
CFA Footprints Collaborative Research Project.pdf
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
"Jazz in a Muslim Key" by my colleague Yasmin Flodin-Ali. #ReligiousStudies www.undergods.org/1948?fbclid=...
undergods.org
Jazz in a Muslim Key | Under Gods
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Reposted by Adam Shear
Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture @csraac.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Welcome to the 2026 YSAR Cohort! Yasmine Flodin-Ali is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Religious Studies. She works on the history of Muslims in the United States, Islam and American Empire, race and religion, and Islamic theological diversity.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
By the way, Macray's Annals of the Bodleian has so many stories: the early 18C version of "Good Will Hunting"-- a tailor from Norwich is recommended for position of janitor which he doesn't get but since he knows 9 languages, he gets a part-time job working with the Oriental Mss. (p.194)
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Early modern antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews and English libraries. In a London "News-letter" of 1649, there is a report that "the Jews" were offering 600,000 pounds to buy St. Paul's to turn into a synagogue and another 200,000 for the "Oxford Library." 1/ #BookHistory #JewishStudies
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Lecture on Katrin Kogman-Appel and Ilona Steimann project on Ashkenazi Book Collections in Italy about to start in Cologne and on zoom: uni-koeln.zoom.us/j/9822559713...
uni-koeln.zoom.us
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Dorot Foundation is winding down endowment over next 8 years to deal with pressing, urgent issues. Already shifted focus from academic Jewish studies and culture but still supporting a few institutions in these areas. So another loss of a funding source for research/culture. #JewishStudies
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Amazing lecture series!
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
E-journals as the default for prof org membership is fine. But the lack of an easy-to-skim version not so fine. AHA--please let me read AHR on my ipad w/o having to download each article/review 1 by 1 from OUP's website. Let me browse the range of scholarship in the discipline. @historians.org
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Association for #JewishStudies members-- please read the email from the president of the organization today and vote/proxy vote yes.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
On Oprah and Ozempic: Weight-Loss Medications in Contemporary Culture April 9 | 11:00 am–1:00 pm University of Pittsburgh Posvar Hall, Room 5603 (in person) Register with QR code
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Ancient AI? Looking forward to this talk next week at the University of Pittsburgh. #ReligiousStudies #Pitt
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
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.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
newsroom.csun.edu/wp-content/u...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I think so-- pretty early in the admissions/recruitment timeframe as far as I know.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Intensive Hebrew this summer in Pittsburgh. 1 year in 6 weeks. Lots of scholarship aid. www.sli.pitt.edu #JewishStudies
Flyer for intensive Hebrew in Pitt summer Language Institute www.sli.pitt.edu
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Reposted by Adam Shear
Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture @csraac.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
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...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
#ReligiousStudies #Pitt Spread the word to undergrads interested in the intersections of religion, cultural diversity, and healthcare:
flyer for a panel discussion on Anne Fadiman book at the University of Pittsburgh
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
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?
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
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.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
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.
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.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The world needs the wisdom of early modernists --My Pitt colleague Todd Reeser: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
insidehighered.com
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
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."
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
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.
docs.google.com
Jewish Studies Jobs
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
But IU will probably win a national football championship and that's what really matters. :)
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Sometimes historians write for the general public and sometimes for specialists. Book reviews of history trade books do not need to praise the writing style by contrasting with "usual academic writing" or similar phrases. This is pointless. Happens often but right now looking at you @lrb.co.uk.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
I thought my entire department was ignoring me on scheduling something but it looking now like the emails I sent out on a listserv never went through. One anxiety relieved; another emerges.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Others have thought of this, I'm sure, but if time machines get invented, the study abroad/spring break course add-on opportunities are going to be amazing! (Yes, I am familiar with the novels of Connie Willis.)
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Help me understand this article: is OSU eliminating an "integrated math" & an "English" major or "integrated math and English" major? I don't understand what this would be, but I can't believe a major research university is eliminating its English major! www.thelantern.com/2025/11/ohio...
thelantern.com
Ohio State to cut eight majors and merge others in Senate Bill 1 compliance
Ohio State is cutting eight majors and has proposed combining 20 others to comply with Senate Bill 1.  Integrated mathematics and English, medieval and renaissance studies, music theory and musicology...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Do English readers ignore instructions or do French readers ignore English signs? Mysteries of Paris. (in the locker area of the BnF Mitterrand.)
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
not that many people born before WW1 who could have had a facebook page.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
I run across Seymour de Ricci (1881-1942) every so often & dip my toes into the rabbithole--one day I will fall in: bibliographer, Orientalist, a Montefiore, first wife a Dreyfus. Last biographical treatment = 8 pages in 1942? Daughter died in 2008. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Upcoming lectures in eligion and Healthcare Lecture Series at Pitt-- #JewishStudies #ReligiousStudies. bioethics.pitt.edu/health-human... Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online “In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster
bioethics.pitt.edu
Future Lectures | Institute for Bioethics | University of Pittsburgh
November 11, 2025 8:00 – 9:00 am Online
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Senior art historians who work on "pre-modernity" as defined in your geographic area, take a look at this: cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio.... Folks in related #earlymodern and other pre-modern areas share this widely.
cfopitt.taleo.net
William S. Dietrich II Professor of Premodern Arts and/or Architecture
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Does your university sponsor a mock ancient olympics as part of the study of classics and religious studies? www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/news/religio... #religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld
religiousstudies.pitt.edu
Religious Studies Students Compete in Catheopolis Games | Department of Religious Studies
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
I thought I knew a lot about Reuchlin but it's great to discover avenues I hadn't even considered--looking forward to reading this new book. #earlymodern #Jewishstudies #ChristianHebraism reforc.com/news/music-r...
reforc.com
Music, Rhetoric and Christian Hebraism in Early Modern Europe - REFORC
This book presents the first in-depth exploration of the relationship between music, rhetoric and Christian Hebraism, by re-appraising the significance of the “first German humanist” Johannes Reuchlin...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Settlement between Ohio attorney general and HUC on the rare book collection. www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-R...
ohioattorneygeneral.gov
Yost Strikes Deal With Hebrew Union College to Protect Rare-Book Collection in Cincinnati - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
My colleague Adam Lowenstein is such a great explainer of why horror films (and lit) are worth serious academic study. He even got me to watch a horror film once. www.as.pitt.edu/horror-studi...
as.pitt.edu
The Horror Studies Center at Pitt | Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences | University of Pittsburgh
About the Center The world’s first academic center dedicated to horror studies. The Horror Studies Center (HSC) positions the University of Pittsburgh as a global leader in interdisciplinary research,...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
With the decline of the humanities in American academia and the hard-sell to students to study anything that happened before 1800, I find it both annoying and gratifying that my university and the art museum next door feature 3 lectures on classical and early modern topics at the same time today!
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
@sammyshear.bsky.social
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
I went to a lecture 10 days ago that I though Jill Joshowitz would be at. Her spouse said she had a scheduling conflict and he couldn't say what it was but it was a big deal. And now I know: www.timesofisrael.com/48-surreal-h...
timesofisrael.com
48 surreal hours in Damascus — an Israeli reporter’s travelogue from an enemy capital
I had no idea what to expect from a visit to Syria, accompanying a US Jewish group to holy sites and meetings with Sharaa government officials. I found a nation poised between healing and fresh chaos,...
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Info about current and past job searches in academic Jewish studies here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)
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Reposted by Adam Shear
Annette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
“Syracuse University paused admission to 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences without faculty input” dailyorange.com/2025/09/coll...
dailyorange.com
College of Arts & Sciences pauses admission to 20 majors amid portfolio review
Syracuse University paused admission into 20 majors in the College of Arts & Sciences without faculty input amid its portfolio review.
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Adam Shear @adamshear.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Thursday September 25, 5-6:30 pm, Cathedral of Learning, 6th floor, Humanities Center
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