Dr. Chance Bonar

I was afraid to look. Apparently my grant got a "no" not DEI evaluation by gen AI and DOGE canceled it anyway. The whole thing is bananas. The ARCE grant to digitize their library on pharaonic, Coptic, Jewish, Islamic Egyptian material got a "yes." Racist, stupid, nonsensical, non-logical

Wish I could be surprised by this. I’m declining my NEH, and it was the only project explicitly dealing with slavery this year.

But at least millions are funding the celebration of 250 years of a warmongering settler state. Great system we got here

Seeing ppl circulate projects whose NEH grants were canceled by DOGE reaffirms my argument about AI as a permission structure. Some grants were canceled w/o a “no” from the generated summary. DOGE had a mandate to slash humanities funding & AI gave them the veneer of a rationale for their actions.

And all 60 years' worth of NEH grants will be outspent in a week of attacks on Iran

I'm going through the discovery materials for the MLA/AHA/ACLS lawsuit to restore funding to DOGE-canceled NEH grants. The disregard for humanities scholarship and public humanities is just astonishingly stupid. DOGE literally compiled a spreadsheet of "craziest grants."

On Parenthood and Genocide A new mother and scholar of forced displacement writes about Israel's mass murder of Palestinian children in Gaza.

In Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Congo — mothers are mourning their babies.

Resharing this piece I wrote over two years ago because we’re still watching a genocide happen, watching even more parents mourn.

Women’s day includes these women too.

inthesetimes.com/article/gaza...

Left to right: Walid Khalidi, Sally Kassab, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Rasha Salam, and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra in the garden of the Khalidis’ house on the premises of the Arab College, Jerusalem, c. 1945.

RIP Walid Khalidi, who died today at the age of 100. Founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies and author of a number of essential works in the field. Here he is in 1945 with a group of friends the historian Sonja Mejcher-Atassi has dubbed “the ecumenical circle.”

HORMUZ TRACKER: Iran-Linked Ships Are the Only Ones to Transit Strait of Hormuz transit remains near a standstill for a seventh day, with Iran-linked ships the only commercial vessels making the crossing in the past 24 hours.

Bloomberg’s built a ship tracker and absolutely nothing is moving in the Persian Gulf rn — www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

The article also points to the corruption of the selection process for new NEH grants.

BREAKING: The US has bombed Tehran’s main refinery and burning oil is now flooding down the streets into the city’s sewers.

This is a vision from hell, unleashed by the US tonight.

(🎥 Vahid Online)

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

What we suspected is, of course, true.

“A Clear Account of the Codex Simonideios:” Ideological Infrastructures of Biblical Vulnerability in the Nineteenth Century In: Philological Encounters Author: Andrew S. Jacobs Online Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026 Abstract Metadata References Metrics Abstract Soon after Constantin Tischendorf (1815–74) publicized his “discovery” of the Codex Sinaiticus, notorious manuscript broker (and forger) Konstantinos Simonides stunned elite literary circles by announcing that Simonides himself had produced this biblical codex in his youth as a gift for the Russian tsar. Simonides claimed that his “Codex Simonideios” was illicitly being passed off as an ancient biblical codex after being mutilated and disfigured. I argue that this brief but explosive debate about manuscripts, forgeries, and “find” narratives produces a biblical text liable to revision and emendation, due to new discoveries or new methods, and so vulnerable to mischievous actors manipulating the possibilities of new discoveries and methods. The iterative process of attack and defense on display in this codicological debate has remained, in various guises, from collegial disagreement to scorched earth campaigns, an ideological component of critical biblical studies.

well helloooooo

brill.com/view/journal...

Not me, I’m only 32

Luckily, the important work of folks like @norbertnagy.bsky.social (also included in this volume) will be moving our field forward!

Plus, I was lucky enough to mentor the two scholars who wrote a contribution on fat studies & the historical Jesus for this volume

So excited to contribute a chapter on slavery and the historical Jesus to @mbrandonmassey.bsky.social and Wolfgang Grünstäudl’s forthcoming volume!

As I talk about here, slavery is conspicuously missing from most convos about the historical Jesus & really needs to be rectified

Pasts Imperfect (3.5.26) Across the world—from the United States to Canada to Australia—departments and museums within higher education are closing. This week, ancient historian Geoffrey Greatrex discusses the suspension of t...

The latest Pasts Imperfect is out, focused on the closing of humanities depts. & museums. @otavano.bsky.social discusses the U. of Ottawa, @mokersel.bsky.social on the DePaul Art Museum, @meirazk.bsky.social & @vox-magica.bsky.social on shuttering religious studies depts, & Justin Vorhis on U. Iowa.

Nominations are open now for this year's Cribiore Award, which recognizes outstanding translations from Ancient Greek or Latin by Society members. Review eligibility requirements: classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f... and apply here: apply.classicalstudies.org

CNN: More than 1,000 civilians killed in Iran since war began, rights group reports By Helen Regan More than 1,000 people, including children, have been killed in Iran since the war began on Saturday, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The rights group said as of Tuesday afternoon ET, at least 1,097 civilians had been killed, including 181 children. More than 5,400 civilians, including 100 children, have been injured, HRANA reported. The group said its report is preliminary and is veritying hundreds more reported deaths.

At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran so far, including 181 children.

This includes the the entire city of Sour (Tyre), one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with a population of ~135,200 people

accommodations didn’t exist when i was in college in the early 00s. of course there’s a “spike.” that’s a good thing; it means we’re getting better at educating all students.

The SBL call for papers closes March 4. Consider submitting a proposal for the Christian apocrypha section.

Jeremiah Coogan, "Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews." Friday, March 6, 2026 at 12:00 EST. Register at nasscalworkshop@gmail.com.

Join us March 6 for the latest First Friday Christian Apocrypha Workshop with Jeremiah Coogan (Jesuit School of Theology).

for what it cost for our allies to shoot down three of our own planes by accident in a murderous illegal war we could have funded the NEH at 150% of its historic peak funding for a year

Thing is, I don't really believe that Israel forced the US's hand here, no matter what Rubio may say. The US just doesn't take actions it does not want to take. What is actually happening here is much darker - Rubio is using Israel as a scapegoat to avoid taking US responsibility for the war.

Screenshot of a 3hr old post from the GW Hatchet: “BREAKING: GW sold its Virginia campus to Amazon Data Services, an Amazon subsidiary that manages the company's data centers, for $427 million on Friday. The deed, obtained by The Hatchet, authorizes ADS to develop the campus into a data or information technology center. STORY TK”

GW‘s student newspaper appears to have broken the story that the institution has sold a satellite campus to Amazon to be turned into a data center, which is just about chef’s kiss for the state of American higher education rn

Kash Patel and other Justice Department officials shut down a civil rights investigation into Renee Good’s killing.

Unacceptable.

The truth must come out.

By Killing Khamenei, the West Created a Martyr – and Mainstream Media Is Ignoring the Muslim Backlash Ali Khamenei was not Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi. Killing him will have religious reverberations throughout the Muslim world for years to come.

"By killing [Khamenei], the US and Israel didn’t just strike Iran’s government. They struck a spiritual leader with transnational religious authority – and created exactly the kind of martyr that galvanizes movements for generations." - fascinating and important piece by Iran scholar Narges Bajoghli