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Tom Mazanec

@tommazanec.bsky.social
1.7K followers 528 following 632 posts

Author, Poet-Monks (Cornell UP). Assoc prof at UC Santa Barbara. Premodern Chinese lit & religion, translation, digital humanities. JASPA (formerly JAOS) editor. Father of 2. From NE Ohio. eastasian.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/t…

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Reposted by Tom Mazanec
Sarah Langs @slangsonsports.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Guardians are the first team to win division titles in consecutive years despite being at least 6 GB thru 125 games or more in both (divisions since 1969) h/t @EliasSports
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Society for the Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies @ssycds.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Job alert: The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in either middle period China (Six Dynasties to Yuan) or modern China (late Qing to present). Link in comments.
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Not my own, but I remember coming across this 9-page footnote about marrying Tang princesses off to foreign states in Paul Demiéville's Le Concil de Lhasa in a grad seminar. I had taken a summer of "French for Reading" and foolishly signed up to discuss this book.
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American Society for Premodern Asia @aspa1842.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Issue 146:3 of JASPA is out online www.lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/ja...: preface as genre, king Wen the parricide, insolvent debtors in Babylonia, infanticide ca. 600, Sanskrit grammar on 'and', oral sex in Sanskrit erotics, Hebrew & Egyptian soldiers as lions, & diverse accounts of Shimr
JASPA 146:3 table of contents
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Issue 146.3 of JASPA (formerly the JAOS) is out lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos East Asia section: Kay Duffy, Text and Paratext: Prefaces to Literary Gatherings in Early Medieval China Edward L. Shaughnessy, Did King Wen Kill His Father? A Question About Rewriting History in China 1/5
lockwoodonlinejournals.com
Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (ISSN 0003-0279) is published quarterly by the American Oriental Society.
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
My department is hiring an assistant professor of (post-1945) Korean history. Come work with me! recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10290 Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions about the position. And I'd be ever so grateful if you could spread the word to potentially interested parties.
recruit.ap.uci.edu
Assistant Professor of Korean History (post-1945)
University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Broadly enough defined that it could include Asian Art History
Position description

The Department of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley invites applications for an Assistant Professor in Arts of the Medieval World, tenure-track, with an expected start date of July 1, 2027.

The Department seeks candidates maintaining an active research agenda in the study of the Arts of the Medieval World, broadly defined. The position is open in terms of geographical and chronological focus, welcoming a range of local, regional, transregional, or comparative approaches to the study of art and the built environment in Africa, Asia, and/or Europe from the 7th to the 15th century. Candidates' teaching and research might also engage historic trade routes, sites of pilgrimage, axes of scholarly exchange, or itineraries of conquest and enslavement, such as the Trans-Saharan Trade, the Indian Ocean System, or the Silk Road. The department seeks applicants whose scholarship advances new insights on circulation, transmission, translation, reuse/adaptation, and material cultures across overlapping medieval worlds. Candidates' teaching and research should demonstrate engagement with the changing dynamics of the discipline both methodologically and topically, including, among others, studies of race, disability, empire, ecology, gender, sexuality, and the digital humanities.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Related to Kern’s new book. I edited the first few drafts then passed it along to Brill when it got too big for JASPA. Definitely worth reading as it synthesizes, and builds upon, much scholarship on recently excavated manuscripts related to the Odes 詩經 brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com
Writing and Community in 300 BCE China
"Writing and Community in 300 BCE China" published on 23 Jun 2026 by Brill.
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Bryan Lowe @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Check out the StoryMap I made about Kenneth Ch'en, one of the founding figures of Buddhist Studies in North America, who also led a fascinating life: arcg.is/1uaGG51
arcg.is
Kenneth Ch'en (1907–1993)
A Life of the Move
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
saddened to hear of the recent passing of Victor Mair, one of the giants in my academic field, sinology. A few reflections on my own encounters with him and his work. (Warning: long thread that originally appeared as a long Facebook post: 15 posts below.)
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I know he was also working on a dictionary of Tang vernacular Chinese, much of it based on Dunhuang manuscripts and the poetry of Wang Fanzhi 王梵志. I hope that this was finished or near finished, as it will be (yet another) invaluable contribution to the (yet another) field.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
I co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Chinese History (published by @universitypress.cambridge.org) on the topic of "The History of Chinese Food Culture" with my former advisee Wandi Wang. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 1/
cambridge.org
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊: Volume 10 - History of Chinese Food Culture | Cambridge Core
Cambridge Core - Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 - Volume 10 - History of Chinese Food Culture
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
I co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Chinese History (published by @universitypress.cambridge.org) on the topic of "The History of Chinese Food Culture" with my former advisee Wandi Wang. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 1/
cambridge.org
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊: Volume 10 - History of Chinese Food Culture | Cambridge Core
Cambridge Core - Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 - Volume 10 - History of Chinese Food Culture
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
(Unofficial) Hucker for Pleco.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Issue 146.2 of JASPA has been published and is now available online at lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos. Here's the East Asia section, which I edited. Touches on everything from the earliest poetry translation into Chinese to Tangut Buddhism to Tang Christianity. @aspa1842.bsky.social 1/
lockwoodonlinejournals.com
Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (ISSN 0003-0279) is published quarterly by the American Oriental Society.
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Cornell University Press @cornellupress.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Three incredible books—one big honor: 📚 Poet-Monks (@tommazanec.bsky.social) 📚 Ecological States (Jesse Rodenbiker) 📚 Border of Water and Ice (Joseph A. Seeley) All 2026 ACLS OA Book Prize + Arcadia Awards finalists! Congrats! 🎉 🔗 bsky.app/profile/acls...
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Honored to have my book, Poet-Monks (published with @cornellupress.bsky.social), be a finalist for the American Council of Learned Society's Open Access Book Prize in the category of Literary / Media Studies. Winning titles will be announced in the fall. www.acls.org/programs/ope...
acls.org
Open Access Book Prizes
ACLS offers new prizes for open access monographs, funded by Arcadia—a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia (JASPA) Vol. 146 No. 1 (2026) lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/ja... @aspa1842.bsky.social @tommazanec.bsky.social
journal cover
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Another article now out, on literary and religious infrastructure in the Tang. Pleased to see it published in the journal Religion & Literature, from Notre Dame. Let me tell you why this one is important to me... 1/
Photo showing cover of the journal Religion and Literature, plus page 1 of an offprint of "Religious and Literary Infrastructure in the Tang-Song Transition: Bai Juyi and Beyond" by Thomas J. Mazanec
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Latest is out in History of Religions. "Buddhist Poetry by Its Persecutors: The Cases of Li Shen and Li Deyu." www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... If you don't have institutional access to this journal, feel free to reach out to me for a copy.
journals.uchicago.edu
Buddhist Poetry by Its Persecutors: The Cases of Li Shen and Li Deyu | History of Religions: Vol 65, No 3
Abstract As the highest ministers in the Tang empire in 842–45 CE, Li Shen and Li Deyu were responsible for overseeing one of the most intense persecutions of Buddhism. For this reason, scholars have ...
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Hey all, I’ll be presenting at 2 AAS events, one on Friday, one on Saturday. See below. I’ve been super limited lately as I’ve been recovering from a broken ankle for two months, so I’ll be incoherent, but come for my amazing co-presenters! #AAS2026 #Sinology🀄️📚
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 02/03/2026
It also remains the case that the Trump NEH will not fund work that 'promotes' "gender ideology," "discriminatory equity ideology," "support for diversity, equity, and inclusion," "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility," or "environmental justice initiatives or activities"
Screenshot from Trump NEH NOFO stating that NEH will not fund any humanities research about race or gender or environmental justice
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Fun update on National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships: they have to focus on "American history and culture and Western civilization." Sinologists et al. are no longer welcome. www.neh.gov/grants/resea... #Sinology 🀄️📚
Screenshot from NEH webpage, text reads: "Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, e-books, born-digital materials, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus, or critical editions resulting from previous research. Projects may be at any stage of development.

NEH encourages submissions from independent scholars and junior scholars.

The 2026 Fellowships competition will only accept projects for research in American history and culture and Western civilization. Competitive applications must focus on topics in the history, culture, and government of the United States in any period from the Colonial Era to the present, or topics in Western civilization from antiquity to the present."
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Issue 146.1 of the Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia (JASPA, formerly JAOS) has been published and can be found online at lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos. Here is the content of the East Asia section. 1/
lockwoodonlinejournals.com
Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (ISSN 0003-0279) is published quarterly by the American Oriental Society.
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Wolfgang Behr / 畢鶚 (氒/厥/攸) @behrwolf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Director of Scholarly Programs and Education (Senior Leadership Role) at the Elling Eide Center (ellingoeide.org). Ph.D. in Chinese Studies and proficiency in Classical Chinese required. (www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/...).
ellingoeide.org
home | Elling Eide Center
Research We support research of premodern Asian Studies. Each year, we invite scholars from around the world to conduct research in our library, collaborate ...
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
An 8-vol translation of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō 正法眼藏 (13th cent.) has been published & is available on Jstor. A milestone in the history of East Asian Buddhism. Translators include Carl Bielefeldt, William M. Bodiford, T. Griffith Foulk, and the late Stanley Weinstein. www.jstor.org/stable/jj.13...
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Miranda Brown @muda.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Hot off the presses--and yes, this *is* open access! For those of you who want to know more about #milk and #medicine and #Chinesefood #TCM www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Tummy Troubles: When Chinese Healers Administered Milk | Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 | Cambridge Core
Tummy Troubles: When Chinese Healers Administered Milk
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Craig Clunas @craigclunas.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
There are bunch of different #scholarships/#fellowships going in Cambridge at the Needham Research Institute and its East Asian History of Science library #historyofscience #科技史 Here are details: www.nri.cam.ac.uk/opportunitie...
nri.cam.ac.uk
Needham Research Institute - Research Opportunities
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Ya Zuo 左娅 @zuoya.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
My new piece on the history of the chickpea in premodern China just came out. Wishing you a health near year full of good food! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I recently did an interview with the New Books Network about my book, Poet-Monks. I can't stand to hear my own voice, so I won't listen to it, but in case you wanted to, here it is: newbooksnetwork.com/poet-monks. @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com
Thomas J. Mazanec, "Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China" (Cornell UP, 2024) - New Books Network
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
The latest issue of JAOS has been published, #145.4 (2025). This will be the last one under the old name. Starting next year, the journal will appear under its new name, JASPA: Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia. lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/ja... @aspa1842.bsky.social 1/
lockwoodonlinejournals.com
JAOS
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (ISSN 0003-0279) is published quarterly by the American Oriental Society.
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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 18/11/2025
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
On official UC letterhead: 
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]After learning more about the history and success of the program and weighing the thoughtful perspectives that have been shared, I have concluded that barring extraordinary financial setbacks, the PPFP faculty hiring incentive program will continue while the University continues to assess the program's structure as well as its long-term financial sustainability. As a result of our continuing consultation and review, there may be consideration of some changes to elements of the program including the total number of incentives supported, a number that has fluctuated significantly over the years, and how the awards are distributed among campuses. In the meantime, the University will continue to fund the PPFP faculty hiring incentive program and campuses may continue to take advantage of these incentives. We will have an opportunity to discuss any potential changes prior to adoption.
As we look to the future, I will continue to engage with faculty leaders, program stakeholders, and UC community members about this important program. I especially appreciate the thoughtful perspectives shared in recent weeks by Academic Council Chair Palazoglu and Vice Chair Scott, the Council of Graduate Deans, UC faculty members, and you as our campus leaders.

Sincerely,
James B. Milliken
President
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Cornell University Press is having a sale of 44% off. If you wanted to get a physical copy of my book, Poet-Monks, you can do so for $27 (paperback) including shipping. Just use the code 09WINTER. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Screenshot showing the cost breakdown of the book with shipping, discount, etc., as $27.21.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
My latest publication is now online. "Literary Virtue: A Moral Cornerstone of Chinese Literary Theory." In this essay, Zhou Xinglu 周興陸 of Peking University and I explore the history of the concept of literary virtue (wende 文德) across 2000 years. #Sinology🀄️📚 read.dukeupress.edu/jclc/article... 1/3
read.dukeupress.edu
Literary Virtue: A Moral Cornerstone of Chinese Literary Theory | Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture | Duke University Press
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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 25/09/2025
To read the university’s triumphant all-campus email about restored NIH funding, you’d think UC administrators made it happen. But that’s not true. In fact the UC *Faculty Association* organized the lawsuit; administrators kept their heads down and hoped it’d go away.
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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 17/09/2025
UC faculty, please take note of who is being fearless and decisive in standing up for our rights. It’s not the admin, it’s not the senate. They’re structurally unsuited to the way we need to fight right now. It’s @uc-faculty.bsky.social. It’s time to join, if you haven’t already.
theguardian.com
University of California students and faculty sue the Trump administration
White House using civil rights laws to wage campaign against school system to undermine free speech, says suit
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
I love the idea of a (better) bot getting all the big-picture data so I can focus on close reading and the real work of literary studies, but I loathe the fact that a dean will think that because a bot can accurately describe a printed text it can *analyze* it too.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Sometimes I am impressed by what OCR can do for recognizing digital texts. But then sometimes I come across things like this. (from ctext: ctext.org/library.pl?i...)
Laughably inaccurate OCR for an old printed Chinese book.
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Here is the East Asia content, which I edited: Xiaofei Tian, "The Turning Point: A Model of Becoming in Early Medieval Chinese Autobiographical Writings." Zhaokun Xin, "Diagnosing, Misdiagnosing, and Rediagnosing Women’s Anger in the Jin Ping Mei." 1/3
lockwoodonlinejournals.com
JAOS
The Journal of the American Oriental Society (ISSN 0003-0279) is published quarterly by the American Oriental Society.
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Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
New issue of the JAOS Vol. 145 No. 3 (2025) lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/ja... @tommazanec.bsky.social @aspa1842.bsky.social
journal cover
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
For my China studies friends here: new Wilkinson just dropped. 7th edition, huge news. On Pleco, too. If you don’t know what that means, do you even sinologize, bro? @pleco.com #Sinology🀄️📚
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
New translation tool for the languages of Buddhism—Pāli, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. dharmamitra.org Still makes mistakes (I just tested it on the 宋高僧傳 biography of the poet-monk Guanxiu 貫休 and noticed a few errors), but 1000x more accurate than anything I've seen before.
dharmamitra.org
Dharmamitra · a toolkit for the languages of the Dharma
A toolkit for the languages of the Dharma
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
I picked the wrong year to start really following baseball again.* I'll keep on watching the Guardians and look for nice individual performances to enjoy as they slide toward non-competitiveness. That part will be fun. 1/5
media.tenor.com
a baseball with wings and a letter g on a blue background
ALT: a baseball with wings and a letter g on a blue background
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
It’s finally happened: a reader’s report on an article manuscript faults me for not sufficiently engaging with the scholarship of Thomas Mazanec. Achievement unlocked!
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
One for the ages. The only anthology of High Tang poetry that was actually compiled during the High Tang, now translated into English by Paul Kroll.
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Christopher Nugent @cmbnugent.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Open access, like all of the Library of Chinese Humanities volumes!
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Position: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Chinese, Williams College, applications due 9/30/25. Language teaching + open specialization. apply.interfolio.com/169464 Glad to see at least one TT job out there for our students!
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Tom Mazanec @tommazanec.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I currently teach 4 courses per year on the quarter system. If we switched to semesters, they would have to reduce my load if they wanted me to continue the same research output (and that’s not happening). Don’t expect a book from me for 10 more years in this case.
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Alan Liu @alanyliu.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
My personal 5-min. video: vimeo.com/84252711 on why humanities matter. I can’t improve on the message. But my passion now is the Center for Humanities Communication, which I cofounded to assist the humanities in methods, resources, tools for telling its _why_, center-humanities-communication.org
vimeo.com
Why the Humanities Matter -- A Story About Borders
A story and statement about the importance of the humanities in today's world by Alan Liu, an English professor who started out a chemistry major. Video created…
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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Author copy fresh out of the box! I'm shaking! @uofmpress.bsky.social made the publication process so smooth! And huge thanks for hosting an open access version, which will be available on my official publication date: August 5. But if you'd rather buy a hard copy, use code UMWEB30 for 30% off!
Slightly blurry selfie of me, a middle aged white woman wearing glasses, holding a copy of my book after just having unboxed it. Back cover of my book, which includes the summary and two blurbs that are available in full here: https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/Teaching-and-Transformation-in-Popular-Confucian-Literature-of-the-Late-Qing3
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