Society for the Study of the Past

🔔 New issue of @pluto-journals.bsky.social ReOrient!

@reorient.bsky.social is an international journal publishing quality research on the newly emerging field of #CriticalMuslimStudies.

👉 www.scienceopen.com/journal-issu...

Conservative Org. Requests Materials for 70 Chapel Hill Courses The Oversight Project, founded by the Heritage Foundation, is using an open records request to search for terms like “DEI” and “gender identity.” Faculty say it encroaches on academic freedom.

IMPORTANT: “‘At many public universities, syllabi are considered intellectual property. As such, professors are not required to share their syllabi in response to public records requests. Check your university policy prior to complying advance.’"

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

A Note On Leaving Substack This is a post on why I am leaving my substack site. I am publishing it on Substack and here, for users who do not want to contribute to that site’s metrics. This decision has been a longtime…

"As anyone who remembers the “cancel culture” panic of yesteryear can attest to, the people who cried most loudly about it, were those whose traditional power was being contested, almost entirely because other people were exercising their freedom."

sententiaeantiquae.com/2025/08/01/a...

Sealey Challenge Poetry Pledge Fundraiser All funds collected through this page will be sent to The Sameer Project, a donations-based initiative led by Palestinians in the diaspora working to supply aid to displaced families in Gaza. You can ...

This will be our thread for W4G's Sealey Challenge. To support us, fill out the sponsor pledge form or contribute directly now. Include W4G in the notes section so we can keep track. Our goal is $1k in pledges and contributions this month: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea...

There is no such thing as ‘Ancient Israel’ – #EOPalestine 22 by Marchella Ward Cover image: Ancient columns in Sebastia, 1925. Image: Wiki Commons. In May 2025, Walaa Ghazzal, the curator of the archaeological museum at Sebastia, in the occupied West Bank, s…

And in the second article I have out today (🤭🙈)… I wrote for Everyday Orientalism about the fact that - quite simply - there is no such thing as ancient Israel. The idea that there is, is a Zionist fairytale. 🦄

Read here: everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/07/31/t...

There is no such thing as ‘Ancient Israel’ – #EOPalestine 22 by Marchella Ward Cover image: Ancient columns in Sebastia, 1925. Image: Wiki Commons. In May 2025, Walaa Ghazzal, the curator of the archaeological museum at Sebastia, in the occupied West Bank, s…

"The idea that there is such a thing as ‘Ancient Israel’ – & that ‘Ancient Israel’ justifies the genocidal erasure of Palestinians – is where we get to if we fail to understand that history is always political." -@luxmea.bsky.social for #EOPalestine
everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/07/31/t...

Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers ‘Beyond Methodological Nationalism’ Methodological nationalism – or the idea that “the nation/state/society is the natural social a...

Don’t forget we have a conference coming up - a good place to present work that is explicitly pro-Palestine, anti-occupation and anti-colonial more generally - especially if you are tired of the apathy of existing subject organisations! 🍉

For more details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers ‘Beyond Methodological Nationalism’ Methodological nationalism – or the idea that “the nation/state/society is the natural social a...

Don’t forget today is the last day you can submit your abstracts for our first ever conference! Want to be part of a new way of studying the past in solidarity with the occupied and the oppressed? 🍉 Join us!

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Last few hours to get your abstracts in for the @socstudyofthepast.bsky.social conference! (Or email me if you need more time… 🥰)

<i>Bismillahs</i> and Beginnings: Notes from the Islamicate on ReOrienting Classicism <p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" dir="auto" id="d3588632e99">The story of the relationship between ancient (so-called “classical”) Greece and Rome and modern Europe...

There’s a new issue of the @reorient.bsky.social journal in town, including an article by me on beginnings. It’s the start of a much bigger (book) project for me but I can’t think of a better place to have shared its own beginning! 💚

Read here (open access): www.scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...

Stop arming Israel

#PhotoDuJour

We set up the Society for the Study of the Past because we had no faith that these institutions were going to change. Come and join us! And well done to @archagainstaparth.bsky.social for trying to give them a chance to be on the right side of history…

One day left to submit your abstracts! 👇🏻

[W4G] $11,000 Matching Campaign for The Sameer Project INCREDIBLE NEWS: THIS MATCH HAS BEEN INCREASED TO $11,000!  July 26: Our friends at the Refaat Alareer Mobile Library – a traveling, volunteer-operated, liberation library and mutual aid project based...

open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/...

11000 dollar matching campaign for The Sameer Project. 11,000= 22,000. Please contribute. Make your donation go further.

“Good can be radical”: Ancient Papyri and Ethics in Evil Times by Usama Ali Gad and Katherine Blouin Cover picture: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion arrives by helicopter at the archaeological excavations at Hatzor, accompanied by Shimon Peres and former Hagana…

Did you know an unprovenanced papyrus possibly from the West Bank held by 🇮🇱 + published by a 🇦🇹🇮🇱 team will be presented at the international congress of papyrology in 🇩🇪this week?
We wrote about why we are boycotting the conference 👇 & the papylist admin refused to share our post🙃 tinyurl.com/3vc4byyw

Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers Society for the Study of the Past – Annual Meeting – Call for Papers ‘Beyond Methodological Nationalism’ Methodological nationalism – or the idea that “the nation/state/society is the natural social a...

Don’t forget there are only a few days left to submit your abstracts for our first conference ‘Beyond Methodological Nationalism’.🏺

All welcome (you don’t need to be a historian!) especially those doing history in solidarity with the occupied and oppressed. 🍉

Info: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Why do we need a new Society for the Study of the Past? The brilliant George Connor of @workingclassicists.bsky.social explains!

here is your chance today to show solidarity with a Palestinian student who is pursuing study to help children with trauma

A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism Academics around the country are raising alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration.

One of the most prominent scholars of historical memory in the field of Jewish Studies, who teaches at Columbia, fears she will no longer be able to teach Hannah Arendt with the new federal government control over the university: apnews.com/article/colu...

I’m behind on all of my planned reading these last couple of months, but I’ve taken peeks at the three of these because I just can’t wait. Mandatory reading, all of them.

Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom

"If the universities – or in this case a university press – are not willing to stand up for what is core to their mission, I don’t know what they’re doing. What’s the point?”

[W4G] Life Funds for Gaza Scholars, writers, educators & artists -- stop sending funds to the orgs & institutions that continue to double down on their allegiance to the death machines of Zionism and empire. Send funds to support life in Gaza instead!  Resign and donate your membership fees Refuse to attend their conferences and donate

Academics, if you need a reason, in these urgent times, reminder that @workshops4gaza.bsky.social has set up a tab where you can redirect membership fees and conference costs from AHA, MLA, AWP & PEN to the Sameer Project, run by Palestinians open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/w4g...

The Sameer Project has been doing crucial work to get food into Gaza. Gaza is facing mass, created starvation- people are dropping in the street from lack of food and water. Never again is now. Donate if you can and spread the ord. linktr.ee/thesameerpro...

Why the American School of Overseas Research might be legally liable for complicity w genocide as per Francesca Albanese's new report
Despite 2 years of genocide, ASOR continues to fund work in Israel. Take this seemingly innocent post 1/ 🧵

Read this whole thread. We all need to be more aware of the structure of complicity with Israeli war crimes that exists within archaeology, and actively and vocally refuse cooperation and collaboration #archaeology #archaeology🏺 #🏺

Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed

Sara Ahmed in Conversation with Heidi Safia Mirza Acclaimed feminist scholar Sara Ahmed discusses her latest incisive work, on complaint and institutional injustice, with Heidi Safia Mirza

It will be such a killjoy joy to share No is not a Lonely Utterance next fall. Especially glad to be in conversation with my killjoy sister in arms, Heidi Mirza on Sept 22 at Foyles. Info here!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sara-ahmed...

Sunday. Register today!

www.workshops4gaza.com/calendar/ped...

Working Classicists Guide to Event Accessibility — Working Classicists This weekend past we were delighted to host our first panel at the Classical Association Conference in St Andrews. The panel, featuring contributions from Jordan Lynch, Alex Imrie, and Sam Newingt...

After announcing it at the Classical Association Conference over the weekend, today we launch our Working Classicists Guide to Event Accessibility.

In it, we suggest ways to equalise access and eliminate anxieties around event attendance.

Read more: www.workingclassicists.com/zine/working...

Oh look it’s me! Chairing this event for the @socstudyofthepast.bsky.social on archaeology and apartheid 👇🏻😊