Brian Hillman
@bhillman.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Towson University. Managing Editor of The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. I study Modern Jewish Thought, Kabbalah, Jewish Literature, Graphic Novels, and Sports History. (he/him)
I reviewed a book that is not about religion! As a recovered Yankees fan, this is rather ironic. muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
Project MUSE - <i>The Fenway Effect: A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox</i> by David Krell (review)
muse.jhu.edu
November 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
I reviewed a book that is not about religion! As a recovered Yankees fan, this is rather ironic. muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
I wrote about coping with students dropping my class. www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/2025/03/help...
Help, Students Are Dropping My Class!
With class offerings driven by enrollment, students dropping a class can engender panic especially if educators let the vicissitudes of student class choices cause them to castigate themselves and tum...
www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu
March 13, 2025 at 12:05 AM
I wrote about coping with students dropping my class. www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/2025/03/help...
I reviewed Steve Stern's new novel about Gershom Scholem, A Fool's Kabbalah www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/a-fools...
A Fool's Kabbalah
Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) was one of the greatest academics of the twentieth century.
www.jewishbookcouncil.org
March 11, 2025 at 1:59 AM
I reviewed Steve Stern's new novel about Gershom Scholem, A Fool's Kabbalah www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/a-fools...
My article on a 19th-century Mitnagdic defense of Kabbalah is out. Happy to send a PDF if anyone is interested or needs something to help them get to sleep. www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/l...
Lion Taming: R. Yitzhak Isaac Haver's Kabbalistic Defense of Jewish Tradition
This article explores R. Yitzhak Isaac Haver's defense of the authenticity of Kabbalah in Magen Vetzinah (1855), a refutation of Leon Modena's anti-kabbalistic polemic Ari Nohem, which was written in ...
www.mohrsiebeck.com
February 10, 2025 at 7:59 PM
My article on a 19th-century Mitnagdic defense of Kabbalah is out. Happy to send a PDF if anyone is interested or needs something to help them get to sleep. www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/l...
If anyone wants to see my 400-level Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Judaism syllabus I'm happy to share. My institution starts next Monday and I think everything is ready.
January 21, 2025 at 12:36 AM
If anyone wants to see my 400-level Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Judaism syllabus I'm happy to share. My institution starts next Monday and I think everything is ready.
It turns out that it isn't "Publish or Perish" but rather "Publish or Parish" so if I don't get tenure I will be forced to enter the priesthood.
January 19, 2025 at 1:53 AM
It turns out that it isn't "Publish or Perish" but rather "Publish or Parish" so if I don't get tenure I will be forced to enter the priesthood.
That feeling when you finally sneak under the maximum world count...
January 18, 2025 at 5:04 AM
That feeling when you finally sneak under the maximum world count...
Have there been any CFPs for conferences/edited volumes about BRAT? I'm 100 percent serious.
December 29, 2024 at 4:29 AM
Have there been any CFPs for conferences/edited volumes about BRAT? I'm 100 percent serious.
I have made a list of the top 100 or so (mostly non-academic) books coming out in 2025 that I want to read. I've ranked the list according to my excitement about reading them. If anyone wants the list to learn about forthcoming books and/or judge my taste in reading, I'm happy to share.
December 27, 2024 at 4:01 AM
I have made a list of the top 100 or so (mostly non-academic) books coming out in 2025 that I want to read. I've ranked the list according to my excitement about reading them. If anyone wants the list to learn about forthcoming books and/or judge my taste in reading, I'm happy to share.
The devilish bargain I've made with myself is that I'm allowed to listen to Drake even though he is an inveterate loser if I'm writing something that, if it gets published, will count as "research" for tenure.
December 26, 2024 at 1:45 AM
The devilish bargain I've made with myself is that I'm allowed to listen to Drake even though he is an inveterate loser if I'm writing something that, if it gets published, will count as "research" for tenure.
AI is bad for education. I might repost this daily to remind folks.
December 15, 2024 at 5:21 AM
AI is bad for education. I might repost this daily to remind folks.
I'm still working out the details but Kendrick's "tv off" can be read as critique of speculative metaphysics.
See:
"F- being rational"
"say you bigger than myself but it's not enough"
"few solid [people] left but it's not enough"
"MUSTAAAAAAAAARD" (showing the centrality of emotion in the world)
See:
"F- being rational"
"say you bigger than myself but it's not enough"
"few solid [people] left but it's not enough"
"MUSTAAAAAAAAARD" (showing the centrality of emotion in the world)
December 14, 2024 at 2:27 AM
I'm still working out the details but Kendrick's "tv off" can be read as critique of speculative metaphysics.
See:
"F- being rational"
"say you bigger than myself but it's not enough"
"few solid [people] left but it's not enough"
"MUSTAAAAAAAAARD" (showing the centrality of emotion in the world)
See:
"F- being rational"
"say you bigger than myself but it's not enough"
"few solid [people] left but it's not enough"
"MUSTAAAAAAAAARD" (showing the centrality of emotion in the world)
AI is bad for the academic humanities. I will die on this hill.
December 7, 2024 at 2:15 AM
AI is bad for the academic humanities. I will die on this hill.
Intrusive thought: I, an unmarried 35-year-old assistant professor of religious studies, am less uncool than Drake. I'm not saying that entails that I am cooler than Drake, but I think I am less cringy, creepy, problematic, and uncool. It's a sad day for Champagne Papi.
December 5, 2024 at 5:00 PM
Intrusive thought: I, an unmarried 35-year-old assistant professor of religious studies, am less uncool than Drake. I'm not saying that entails that I am cooler than Drake, but I think I am less cringy, creepy, problematic, and uncool. It's a sad day for Champagne Papi.
I have decided that it's worth the effort to move to a more interesting city for the next academic year even if the effort it takes to find a place and move detracts from my writing time.
November 30, 2024 at 4:21 AM
I have decided that it's worth the effort to move to a more interesting city for the next academic year even if the effort it takes to find a place and move detracts from my writing time.
If for some reason I say I'm not going to AAR next year someone please remind me of the intense FOMO I'm feeling right now.
November 23, 2024 at 1:27 AM
If for some reason I say I'm not going to AAR next year someone please remind me of the intense FOMO I'm feeling right now.
As this website seems to be a thing for real now I should share this recent article I wrote on comics and Jewish nostalgia: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - Protecting the Deli: Jewish Nostalgia and Social Justice in E. Lockhart's <i>Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero</i>
muse.jhu.edu
November 19, 2024 at 3:22 AM
As this website seems to be a thing for real now I should share this recent article I wrote on comics and Jewish nostalgia: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
I review another book:
www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-lig...
www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-lig...
March 21, 2024 at 11:56 PM
I review another book:
www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-lig...
www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-lig...
Slavery isn't appropriate fodder for a flippant thought experiment.
February 22, 2024 at 1:16 AM
Slavery isn't appropriate fodder for a flippant thought experiment.
As we enter "campus visit" season, I want to note that Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" perfectly encapsulates the feeling of having a campus visit, feeling like it went well, realizing it's been 5 weeks since the visit, you haven't heard from them, and you probably didn't get the job but can't confirm
January 22, 2024 at 2:12 AM
As we enter "campus visit" season, I want to note that Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" perfectly encapsulates the feeling of having a campus visit, feeling like it went well, realizing it's been 5 weeks since the visit, you haven't heard from them, and you probably didn't get the job but can't confirm
most of the Pop-Tart as Eucharist jokes are funny. good job
December 31, 2023 at 3:00 AM
most of the Pop-Tart as Eucharist jokes are funny. good job
I haven't written enough this semester (moving and starting a new job at a new institution is hard) but I was thinking about my favorite paragraph I've written, the first part of this appreciative but ambivalent review (see the end for ambivalence).
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
November 9, 2023 at 3:41 AM
I haven't written enough this semester (moving and starting a new job at a new institution is hard) but I was thinking about my favorite paragraph I've written, the first part of this appreciative but ambivalent review (see the end for ambivalence).
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
For years, I have had a deal with myself that if/when I publish [redacted] number of peer-reviewed articles, I will read Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. I feel abominable that I haven't hit the number yet and my copy remains unread. I recognize the irony in this.
October 28, 2023 at 2:24 AM
For years, I have had a deal with myself that if/when I publish [redacted] number of peer-reviewed articles, I will read Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. I feel abominable that I haven't hit the number yet and my copy remains unread. I recognize the irony in this.
I was very close to listing "the recent works of Charli XCX" in the acknowledgments section of my dissertation and I deeply regret that I did not. That would have been good for posterity.
October 21, 2023 at 4:57 AM
I was very close to listing "the recent works of Charli XCX" in the acknowledgments section of my dissertation and I deeply regret that I did not. That would have been good for posterity.
I want to write the following article:
"I Pass the Blunt to Anne Frank": Holocaust Reference in Mainstream Hip-Hop, 2000-2023
"I Pass the Blunt to Anne Frank": Holocaust Reference in Mainstream Hip-Hop, 2000-2023
October 13, 2023 at 11:02 PM
I want to write the following article:
"I Pass the Blunt to Anne Frank": Holocaust Reference in Mainstream Hip-Hop, 2000-2023
"I Pass the Blunt to Anne Frank": Holocaust Reference in Mainstream Hip-Hop, 2000-2023