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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 9h

Link between academic freedom and understanding your university budget and its finances said the best way possible in the quote below. No better advertisement for the basic ideas discussed here: americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis.... My point is that it isn't that hard to learn!

2. Faculty governance: the versions that fully support academic freedom require faculty to acquire more advanced financial knowledge. Academia has its own version of the automotive “Treaty of Detroit,” which stabilized tenure, salaries, and limited non-interference in ground-level academic practices in exchange for faculty ceding authority over institutional finance and management. Faculty outsourced financial decisions, and offloaded financia knowledge along with it. This era of widespread tenure-with-non-interference is for the majority of faculty a thing of the past, but it never allowed faculty control over the funding that directly affects their teaching and research: for example, staff support varies wildly by discipline on any given campus, to an extent and for reasons that are generally opaque. If faculty continue to outsource financial analysis and authority and also the definition of extramural speech to a separate cadre of senior officials, they will continue to face today’s restrictions on research, funding, syllabi content, course methods, and so on. I’m sorry we don’t have time to discuss the valuable paper, “In Search of University Democracy,” (Daniel J. Hemel and David Pozen 2026). I can only say that at some point, the financial governance of the university will need to be democratized.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 19h

When this was first announced the data and the qualitative comments were available, so you could see these were not data-driven choices (they never are), but political choices in many cases. Highly recommend going through it all.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 19h

If I had to pick a genre I love to read the most, it is definitely homilies/sermons, so really excited to see this out. Also have known both editors since back in the day, so cool to see them both on this!

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It was an honor to present the keynote at OSU's inaugural humanities week, organized by the inspiring Professor Jennifer Borland. I was taking notes my whole visit on how she and her colleagues are raising the profile of the humanities. news.okstate.edu/articles/art...

news.okstate.edu

Center for the Humanities hosts first Humanities Week | Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University’s inaugural Humanities Week brought students, faculty and staff together to explore the humanities’ enduring relevance in an increasingly technology-driven world.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Went on American Campus Podcast with @llassabe.bsky.social to offer a primer on university budgets. Listen here or via Spotify, iTunes, etc: americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis.... The episode is broad on purpose, but I hope faculty use it to explore their budgets and ask questions.

americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com

The university budget with Merle Eisenberg - American Campus Podcast

Apologies for the mic difficulties on Lauren's end!References and suggested readings:Merle Eisenberg’s faculty pageInfectious Historians podcastDean O. Smith, How University Budgets Work (Johns Hopkin...

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 10/10/2026

That wasn't good at all from Arsenal, until it was. The equaliser sparked us into life, and the subs worked well. The Guimaraes goal is really lovely, and we probably should have scored more, chances for Gyokeres and Saka, Ode unlucky from brilliant Rice play in their box. Untidy but 3 points 👍

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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Since international student enrollment is once again in the news, here's some basic data about international students. jamessmurphy.com/2025/06/11/u...

jamessmurphy.com

How Trump's Policies Threaten International Student Enrollment

Explore how international students enhance U.S. research and innovation, and the impact of current policies on this crucial talent pool.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Pretty telling that I do my best writing now in places without WiFi in short bursts. And that I come up with essays I want to write watching movies on planes.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Since Russia and Plague are in the news. Figured I'd post my reply earlier based on what we (supposedly) know.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

AI teaching for today: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o.... The author's approach makes sense: students write an essay followed by a 45 minute oral discussion. But he teaches small seminars at Williams College, whereas most professors teach 30-200+ lectures. The solution is a structural non-starter.

nytimes.com

Opinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think. (Gift Article)

If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

These three opinion pieces lined up in a row on the Chronicle homepage reveal quite a bit.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great piece going into detail on budget questions from Chris Newfield who started me on the path of reading budgets. Good complement to my ongoing posts that started yesterday.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

New thread on various aspects of university budgets at top 50 research universities. It is all available online via HERD (ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/high...). There is a time lag to collected data, but such as it is. One budget fact per day until I get bored.

ncses.nsf.gov

Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey 2024 | NCSES | NSF

Higher Education Research and Development Survey

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Great piece reflecting on years of collaborative work. Given my own collaborations, this really resonated.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Graduate School training idea: all students should have to learn how to discuss and policies, procedures, and bylaws. It is a large part of what faculty do!

static.klipy.com

Dodgeball: Shatner's By-Law

Alt: Dodgeball: Shatner's By-Law

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Posted this late last night, so reposting now if anyone has thoughts, happy to hear.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm going to get around to writing up this year's medieval jobs data in late October (for real this time!). My initial take: I'm baffled to explain the job market/lottery this year. Almost every subfield in history looks catastrophic, but medieval looks the same as the last 3 years. Thoughts?

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Taking a mandatory online course in research security, disclosure, and ethics. This has obviously not been updated to reflect what is really happening. The difference between what I'm supposed to say is important - disclosure, ethics, and merit - and what is happening is huge. Kind of remarkable.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Going down the road to give a talk at OU tomorrow on "Medieval Pandemics and Grand Narrative: History, Science, and Interdisciplinary Research Talk" Should be fun!

Medieval Pandemics and Grand Narrative: History, Science, and Interdisciplinary Research Talk

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 15/09/2026

Decent night's football for Arsenal. Dowman with two goals, good performance from Madueke on the right, team responded well to a lot of change from the manager, managed minutes well, and won a cup tie away from home. Really liked Marli Salmon too, at 17 that's impressive even at EFL Cup level.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Classics Jobs Sept. 15 update: drop in classics job postings vs. last year. Based on a simple count of the Classics Wiki: All Classics: 37 --> 19 Ancient History: 20 --> 6 Caveat: another 4-6 weeks for new jobs to appear, so will return to this thread Oct. 15. Not sure why the drop.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The article is about messed up refereeing due to data, etc. Mikel knew a bad decision was coming and pre-planned his response. BTW, no evidence of that. Hot take: Ronay had the article pre-planned and used Arsenal as his (bad) example of his own pre-planned take. Or he doesn't see the irony.

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 12/09/2026

Some games you really, really have to scrap to win. This was one of those. Raya's penalty save so important, Bruno's goal absolutely sensational especially given his Newcastle connection, but I loved the fight and determination. Konsa absolutely having no bullshit from Xhaka! Great 3 points.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Two things made this 9/11 stand out. 1) My colleague is teaching a History of 9/11 and had me talk about my personal experience for the first time. 2) My son loves the "I Survived" books, especially one about a 16 year old boy who plays football surviving 9/11. Led to some discussions.

The Stuyvesant Spectator 9/11 Edition cover page

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Funding humanities and social sciences research is up again, so I'll tap my sign: A semester off after every 3rd year, and a full year off after every six. $3k a year in research funds, with extra $1.5k for when on leave and you can roll over funds with no applications. No one will complain again.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Champions League just means hit the 3 points in the Group Stage with rotations and move on. Got our second hardest away game done with a win.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Champions League commentators on Paramount+ are just generally bad, since they don't seem to know anything about the teams, tactics, or even what is happening. (They may be remote so can't see.) Why pay for the Champions League and then have a bad product?

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Rudy Giuliani is a terrible person for many reasons, but I think him repeatedly saying the air was fine might lead (and already has led) to the most deaths. One of the topics that hits home. I'll leave it at that.

After 9/11, Documents Suggest New Yorkers Were Misled About Air Quality

New York City officials are making public more than 170,000 pages of documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center site in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Reposting for the morning. Give David's article a read!

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Great new plague article by David Gyllenhaal just dropped. Find it: online.ucpress.edu/SLA/article/.... Abstract below and it is open-access. But it's a brilliant explanation of why plague is prominent in early Islam and why it remains central to Islamic thought before the Black Death

This article attempts to explain why the Muslims of the first two hijri centuries came to view as martyrs those who died of a mysterious illness that they called the Stabber (al-ṭāʿūn). It finds the answer to that question at the intersection of the unique social pressures attendant on the Arab conquests, the presence of endemic Yersinia pestis in Greater Syria, the prior inheritance of Jewish and Christian ideas about the meaning of disease, and the distinctive view of salvation history found in the Qurʾan. Early Muslims simultaneously affirmed the ancient Jewish and Christian theory of epidemic disease as divine punishment and gave it a separate meaning for their own community, as a martyrdom and a mercy, which set the conquering minority of Muhajirun apart in death as well as in life. In illuminating this process, the article writes a new cultural history of epidemic disease in the late antique world and revisits some of our fundamental assumptions about retrospective diagnosis and the discourse of disease in premodern culture. Its findings should be relevant to scholars of Christianity and Islam, to Syriacists, scholars of premodern disease, and to anyone invested in the current conversation about Yersinia pestis, epidemic disease, and environmental history in Late Antiquity.

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 06/09/2026

It's early season, but that feels like a big, big win. The second goal of the game was absolutely fantastic, Odegaard and Havertz so good for us today, and beyond the brilliant late save I thought Raya's assurance was really important. No better team at grinding those single-goal wins. Important.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I turned off the Michigan game cause, you know, the clock was at zero. Apparently they won? And the rules expert has no idea how the time was found?

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Obligatory pro-OK State post: www.oudaily.com/news/norman-.... Please repost this as: "OU Cancels Halloween."

Norman officials recommend moving trick-or-treating early due to home OU football game

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Here's a higher ed question: is it not a winning idea to take the conservative discourse of "Humanities for civic education to rebuild American civic norms" and repurpose it elsewhere? How do you add the needed material support? What else do you need? @asheeshks.org

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 31/08/2026

Can't argue too much with a 1-0 away from home against a difficult side to play against. Calafiori's movement for the goal superb, Eze pass excellent, Saka on hand to poke home. I liked what Bruno brought in terms of passing when he came on, so a clean sheet and 3 points a good return.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Great article on how betting markets are used to hedge sports teams succeeding/failing, which "makes sense" from the perspective of the team, but just a complete mess. The LSU part leads the article, but Osasuna owners (see screenshot) betting for their own relegation as a hedge is even crazier.

on Spanish soccer club Osasuna to get relegated from La Liga, with Susquehanna International Group taking the other side, as part of an insurance policy.

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Sara McDougall @sarannmcd.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

#medievalsky #skystorians this was something special @ceaubin.com is the real deal. Check out @thisguysucked.com

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Classics Wiki makes this easy to calculate at a brief glance so open-rank numbers for the last 3 years: 24-25: 9 25-26: 7 26-27: 7 I may be off by 1-2, since I looked quickly. At the moment, higher, but numbers are not set until about September 30 to compare year to year for full time jobs.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Because the late antiquity starter pack got super popular again, here's the disease & pandemic one I made a few years ago if there is interest in that too: go.bsky.app/M2ptNQM

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Wonderful turnout at our event on Monday with Lee and Ned taking questions from the audience.

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Starter packs seem to be back so here's a Late Antiquity one if people want to use it: go.bsky.app/KP1nQVP

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Forgot to post this here about upcoming lectures by Tim Newfield and Ned Schoolman tomorrow (August 24). Very excited!

Living East and Dying What New Science tells us about the Middle Ages

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Forgot to post this here about upcoming lectures by Tim Newfield and Ned Schoolman tomorrow (August 24). Very excited!

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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Amazing. I think I need to find more OKC-based Arsenal fans to watch with more often.

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 21/08/2026

It all went a bit flat after the third goal, but that was a very comfortable evening. Goals for Saka, Ode and Kai (our best attacking trio), a clean sheet, minutes into the legs of Merino, Zubimendi and Eze, and three points of course – all done without really having to hit top gear. 👌

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Published in an out-of-the-way place, so easily missed, but this new book on Late Antique letters by Ralph Mathisen looks great: www.cambridgescholars.com/product/9781...

cambridgescholars.com

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Quality Academic Books and Journals - Browse, discover and purchase scholarly publications.

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