Dr. Chance Bonar

New episode drops tomorrow! @rhigarthjones.bsky.social

Trump And Miller Compel Colleges Not To Enroll International Students Trump officials are using rules, policies and agreements to compel and discourage U.S. universities from enrolling international students.

Wow. Had not realized that Columbia’s settlement with Trump admin included a commitment to decrease international student enrollment. In what way does this help “combat antisemitism,” which is supposedly the administration’s objective?
www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

This website update is shared as a reminder that if you are interested in writing for the Anchor Yale Bible Series (a monograph or a commentary) you should contact me and not the previous editor John Collins...

yalebooks.yale.edu/the-anchor-y...

One day, the entire Palestinian population of Gaza will just *not be there any more*, and guys like Eitan here will be saying "Palestinians? What Palestinians?"

They want you to watch them covering up genocide, and agree that they're not covering up genocide.

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

Hello is Jamal from Gaza. My family and I are living through one of the harshest times of our lives. No income. No safety

We’re out of options and we urgently need your help.
If you’re reading this: donate, repost. Your repost might be the reason survive us

chuffed.org/project/1389...

What is the Meaning of Ancient Israel? The main question in the history of the ancient Levant today is whether the existence of ancient kingdoms in Judah and Israel has modern political implications. Every excavation and scholarly publi…

How is the ancient kingdom of Israel relevant today? To do history or archaeology here is inevitably to take a moral and political stand on genocide. Gut Shabbes, chevrei!

This statement critical of Columbia’s adoption of IHRA appears to have been removed from the website of the Incite Institute (“A home for unconventional ideas”) incite.columbia.edu/news/the-ihr...

Bumper sticker on a green car that reads “pardon my mournful and somber driving…I’m thinking about crumbling Roman temples”

My wonderful partner got me this bumper sticker and I’m obsessed 🏛️

Ynet report, 30 July 2025

Bezalel Smotrich on French, British, Canadian recognition of a Palestinian state: "we just need to make sure there's nothing to recognise" (30 July 25)

My article "Jewish Interconnectivity and Diasporic Unrest under Trajan" is out in the Journal of Ancient Judaism!

Check it out if you're interested in transregional relationships between Jews between North Africa & West Asia. DM if you don't have institutional access!

brill.com/view/journal...

What is the Meaning of Ancient Israel? The main question in the history of the ancient Levant today is whether the existence of ancient kingdoms in Judah and Israel has modern political implications. 🧵

Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel Cambridge Core - Archaeology: General Interest - Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel

It's out, and now free to download for the next 2 weeks!
Go give my new book a read (it's short enough to finish in a sitting) and then share it far and wide to your friends who live for the connections between myth, ritual, and economics (all of them)!

He concluded: “Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university that was once a site of free inquiry and learning into a shadow of its former self, an anti-university, a place of fear and loathing, where faculty and students are told from on high what they can say and teach, under penalty of severe sanctions.”

Khalidi on fire here

New work from new UVa colleague!

My article "Jewish Interconnectivity and Diasporic Unrest under Trajan" is out in the Journal of Ancient Judaism!

Check it out if you're interested in transregional relationships between Jews between North Africa & West Asia. DM if you don't have institutional access!

brill.com/view/journal...

This new wave of fascism is preoccupied with how empowering Black, Ethnic and gender studies has been for marginalized communities. Universities, which never welcomed us to begin with, and allowed us in only after students fought or law demanded it, are glad to concede. They never wanted us. 1/2

Some Pieces of a Fourth-Century Monastic Archive of Coptic and Greek Ostraca and Wooden Tablets from Dayr Muṣṭafā Kāšif The article presents the edition and translation of the publishable ostraca found during the 2022 excavation season at Dayr Muṣṭafā Kāšif. Written in Greek or Coptic, these documents are among the ear...

Just published!

First bits of a new 4th c. monastic archive from the Kharga Oasis, including 3 Coptic texts from like 360-382 CE.

That's very early, for Coptic texts.

#Egyptology #Linguistics
www.academia.edu/129739912/So...

Now published at dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/is...

Breaking: NSF is suspending roughly 300 grants with UCLA, following a DOJ finding on Tuesday that the university violated Title VI by "creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students."

You’ll be shocked to learn that paying off the extortionist didn’t make him go away

All right. One like = one guy I’ve learned about while reading Geniza letters related to Indian Ocean trade. Let’s see if I run out of guys!

I’ve found a way to sneak Labubus into class (to talk about consumerism as escapism), and ended up stumbling into the Christian conspiracy theory that Labubu is actually the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu

Did a slow read of Adorno’s “Free Time” to prep for class today, and every paragraph is pure gold.

So much hate for glamping, tanning, and the monetization of hobbies

xenopraxis.net/readings/ado...

The “deal” that Brown made with the Trump admin is much more extreme than is being reported. It includes government oversight of course evaluations and no barrier to government interference in faculty hiring.

Read it for yourself here:

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

Everyone involved in this should be deeply embarrassed

And register for next week's online panel with four more Shohet recipients showcasing research on Roman Judea, Morgantina (Sicily), and tomb paintings in Blaundos (Turkey)!

8/5 at 12:30 pm EDT

zoom.us/meeting/regi...

#onlineevents
#archaeology

YESSSSSSSSS

So excited that my book has a cover. Michigan's design people have outdone themselves in their styling of Mr. Murder Mittens (a massive Roman temple key from Switzerland). Full details here (the e-version will be open access come the publication date): press.umich.edu/Books/S/Stea...