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Helena L. Martin

@helenalmartin.bsky.social
515 followers 247 following 829 posts

priest + PhD student studying disability, demons, monsters, and magic in the NT and early Christianity. I find a typo in every single thing I read. (she/her) “Then God gives a command, and the ice melts ...” (Psalm 147:18)

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Reposted by Helena L. Martin
maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Hannah Bowman @hannahnpbowman.com · 28/09/2026
To prevent sexual harm we have to actually believe that normal people commit it
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Watching Ponyo for the first time while our real-world coastline got decimated by a surging ocean felt ... weird.
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Ponyo Mom Driving Car in Raining Waves - Ghibli
Alt: Scene from Ponyo: Sosuke's Mom driving their car in the dark as the road gets flooded by waves.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Why are these the people we've chosen to dream our collective future?
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A lot of people are not well right now: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. This is an excellent time to de-escalate conflicts and to lean into patience. This is true in our personal lives and also (maybe especially) online when it's overwhelmingly strangers crashing into each other.
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Alexi Chantziantoniou @alexichantz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
looks like i’m joining the cambridge elements crowd at CUP. 𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 will be coming your way in the new cambridge elements in pauline studies!
the top half of the first page of my author agreement with cambridge university press, which names the relevant parties (CUP and yours truly), the element series (“elements in pauline studies,” edited by ryan collman and matthew novenson), and the title of the work (“paul and magic”).
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BCP Minus Context @bcpminuscontext.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I remember the teachers' faces telling us that two planes had hit the towers. I remember early dismissal and the unknown fates of nearly all our fathers. (Mine, miraculously, was at home that day.) I remember going to the beach to see the smoke rising from the skyline. 25 years is no time at all.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
It doesn't matter, but I called this about 5 days after he took office. I'm actually shocked it took so long.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I have a different explanation than those in this thread. I asked a mentor priest about this in seminary, who told me that her elder colleagues began receiving last during the height of the AIDS crisis. To show faith in the common cup and that they were not afraid of their siblings in Christ. 📕
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I received an email addressed to "mid-stage PhDs," and ahh! I can't be "mid-stage" already! Don't they know that I'm a novice, a rookie, a neophyte? 😨
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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 17/07/2026
The Taco Bell finger pointing is a psyop to redirect attention from the real culprit, the deregulation and lack of oversight in our food supply
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Matt Tobey @mtobey.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I’m finally going to listen to my doctor and eat more vegetables and get more fresh air
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Before we Do A Discourse, note that the Articles of Religion says: "As we confess that vain and rash Swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ ... so we judge, that Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth..." 📕
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Chronic Historian ♾️♿️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💜🖤💛🦓🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍉🐺🐈‍⬛🧑‍🌾🌱🌳 @enbycriphistorian.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
We need everyone to realise that fascist hatred of trans people and fascist hatred of disabled ppl both come from the same place; a eugenicist place. Which is why those of us with either of those identities as well as those of us with both are in so much danger from the same people
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
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Dr Alison Ray @liber-ray.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Hebrew Palaeography Question! Could anyone please help translate the inscription below, from the end leaves of a Latin Pocket Bible? The Latin inscription added afterwards shows the book was also owned by a Dominican friar, and the book is continental but was later in Oxford! 📖🔎
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This summer I'm reading for a comprehensive/qualifying exam for my PhD. Three books down! Do I recommend reading these? Yes, especially Chin's book, which is so counterdisciplinary and delightful that it brought me to tears. Do I recommend reading them together, in this order? lol not really.
Book cover for "Life: The Natural History of an Early Christian Universe" by Catherine Michael Chin (2024)Book cover of "Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept" by Brent Nongbri (2015)Book cover for "Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning" by Karen Barad (2007)
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Me: Kill your lawn. Also me: Ahh no not like that!!!
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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I’m at the bread and circuses. I’m at the damnatio memoriae. I’m at the combination bread and circuses damnatio memoriae
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Dr. Chance Bonar @chancebonar.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
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Homodoxy @homodoxy.com · 13/06/2026
Wendy Mallette is a brilliant theologian, historian, and friend. Her first book, 'Lesbian Feminist Killjoys: Sin, Queer Negativity, and Inherited Guilt,' is available for pre-order from @nyupress.bsky.social! nyupress.org/978147983937...
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Evergreen.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Right wing extremists love the Roman Empire, so the damnatio memoriae throwback must be fun for them! To be historically accurate, make sure to leave a little damage visible on the wall so that future viewers remember who was erased.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I'm now learning to *speak* classical Greek. (That is, not just to read it.) The vocab in our lessons cracks me up. "Is the baby ugly?" "Yes, the baby is ugly, not beautiful." "Are you immortal?" "No, I am not immortal, but mortal." "Why?" "Because I am human." No "where is the bathroom?" here!
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
So my new role in group chats is, apparently, the jerk who has to say "that's not real; it's AI."
static.klipy.com
Michael Scott: The Office Headache
Alt: Michael Scott from The Office rubs his eyes as if to dispel a headache
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Happy to see the local news coverage of yesterday's anti-ICE protest. We shut down Hartford Main Street for an hour with singing and street theater. About 400 people on a Wednesday afternoon, organized w/o social media. Grateful to the organizers for making it effective and efficient! Keep going.
ctmirror.org
ICE protest at federal building calls attention to CT operations
The peaceful rally sought to bring renewed attention to ongoing ICE activity in CT, the first large anti-ICE action at the site since January.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I just submitted my last paper of the semester. This means two things: 1. I have completed coursework and language requirements for my PhD. Omg. 2. I am now allowed to play Relooted, a video game I downloaded 3 months ago but haven't had a second to check out yet.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 04/04/2026
When people say "save the bees," in the US we really need to include native bees, which do not include honeybees. Honeybees are invasive. They are not the worst invasive species out there; they have positive effects as well as negative. But they're invasive.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
A pack of these deer singled me out, surrounded me, and then attacked me when I went to Japan with some friends after we graduated from high school. It's a funny story now, but sadly it wasn't anywhere near as cute as this video.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
What does it say about me that I’m having the exact opposite reaction to these photos? I would love to tour this home, and this decor would make my husband and me *more* likely to put in an offer… 😬
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Non-academic people keep asking me if I’m gonna use ChatGPT to help me with my dissertation. And like… for so many reasons no, but mainly because it *is not able* to help me with my dissertation.
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Sandeha Lynch @sandehalynch.com · 09/01/2026
GenAI seems to be marketed towards folks who would like to or need to upskill but cannot (for whatever reason) while those who use it possibly cannot see how it effectively deskills and/or infantilises them.
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feeb | yuritober!! @magicmooshka.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI
recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen AI for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen AI for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good. and at my job, it seems like each department says that AI can be useful in every field except the one that they know best.

It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen AI will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence relies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don't.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Just thinking about what MAGA would say about me if the secret police shot me in cold blood one afternoon when I was driving around with toys in my car for my kid. Hbu?
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
The people who mock gender studies are perversely the most compelling case for studying it
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Memento Mori Kira @kmaustinyoung.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
If you’re more offended by a politician saying the F-word publicly than you are by ICE murdering a woman, you need to fix your heart.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Coming tomorrow to #SCS2026: "Touch Across Time: A Crip Reading of the Anatomical Votives at the Corinth Asklepieion" by me! So excited to get to share this project. So nervous to do it in a room full of classicists who know so much more about this time period than I do.
Screenshot of a title slide from a slideshow presentation.

Title: "Touch Across Time: A Crip Reading of the Anatomical Votives at the Corinth Asklepieion."

Author: Helena L. Martin

Description: Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, January 2026, San Francisco, CA
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jourdain searles @judysquirrels.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
there is no reason for ICE to exist. immigrants aren’t doing anything wrong by trying to live and work and provide for their loved ones. I don’t care how people got here. if they want to be here that’s good. leave them alone.
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 05/01/2026
Ban stock trading by lawmakers in Congress. Full stop.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
The other thing about normalizing gAI use in higher ed is that we are teaching our students that they cannot trust their own creativity, their own thoughts and brains, their own skills without having it reshaped/shellacked/transmogrified by LLMs. We’re setting them up for failure and dependence.
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, sound garden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.
Album cover for Jeff Buckley’s Grace. A photo of the singer looking downward and clasping a microphone
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Daniel @buckmeister.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
It's instructive to ask what exactly it is the LLMs do very well. Produce fluent text and are useful for situations where there a near one-to-one mappings between sets of tokens (machine translation, converting code from one language to a other) but they are very lossy for information retrieval
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
On the plus side, though, gen AI garbage has made me almost entirely lose my taste for social media. It’s all slop. I can’t see updates from my friends. What is it for?
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Hi I'm Helena and I wrote 10,500 words in 26 hours because I am not always good at managing my time. 🫠
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Helena L. Martin @helenalmartin.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
I’m not sure how I did this. On video-based apps, the algorithms feed me wifeguys, people reenacting their own toddler’s behavior, and middle-aged people dancing earnestly (though not necessarily well). This is the darkest timeline. But I’m glad to have a delightful doomscroll every now and then.
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Bridget O’Brien @bridgetemob.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
People: I just don’t see how these patristic trinitarian & christological controversies are relevant TODAY. Also people: I mean why couldn’t Jesus be AI?
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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom
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Daniel C. Smith @dcsmith.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Amid the atmospheric river of academic austerity nonsense lately, I must admit that students presenting their final papers and excitedly discussing them with one another remains such a source of joy.
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