Mustafa Kaya
@mikaya.bsky.social
Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
Two opposing perspectives on the current debate on the future of academia: www.chronicle.com/article/ther...
and
www.chronicle.com/article/paus...
and
www.chronicle.com/article/paus...
Opinion | There Has Never Been a Better Time to Start a Ph.D.
The work force is a mess. But deep skills will always be in demand.
www.chronicle.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Two opposing perspectives on the current debate on the future of academia: www.chronicle.com/article/ther...
and
www.chronicle.com/article/paus...
and
www.chronicle.com/article/paus...
Preparing a presentation on Ottoman Turkish today, I decided to Google "features of Ottoman Turkish" and this is what Google's AI summary gives me.
October 14, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Preparing a presentation on Ottoman Turkish today, I decided to Google "features of Ottoman Turkish" and this is what Google's AI summary gives me.
Reposted by Mustafa Kaya
The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
October 10, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
Imagine this: Netanyahu nominated Trump for the Nobel. Does he think of himself as a peacemaker too? What a world we’re living in!
Netanyahu Releases Letter Nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize
www.nytimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Imagine this: Netanyahu nominated Trump for the Nobel. Does he think of himself as a peacemaker too? What a world we’re living in!
“As Cartwright points out, the Ellisons are close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “a major reason” for their interest in Weiss’ platform is its pro-Israeli bent.”
apple.news/Aqo0nVT1oRZK...
apple.news/Aqo0nVT1oRZK...
Forget “DEI”—Bari Weiss Is Proof That Merit Doesn’t Matter — Slate
She’s made a career railing against “wokeness.” Now she’s in charge of a storied newsroom.
apple.news
October 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
“As Cartwright points out, the Ellisons are close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “a major reason” for their interest in Weiss’ platform is its pro-Israeli bent.”
apple.news/Aqo0nVT1oRZK...
apple.news/Aqo0nVT1oRZK...
Three years and half a trillion dollars later we still have a dumb AI yet some in academia believe it’s a “research” tool. Imagine the millions of ways the money could have been used to actually serve humanity. AI is nothing meaningful but a stage in the adventures of capitalism.
And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.
www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...
And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.
#AIisnotresearch
www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...
And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.
#AIisnotresearch
October 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Three years and half a trillion dollars later we still have a dumb AI yet some in academia believe it’s a “research” tool. Imagine the millions of ways the money could have been used to actually serve humanity. AI is nothing meaningful but a stage in the adventures of capitalism.
Reposted by Mustafa Kaya
Mourning those murdered by Hamas isn't incompatible with mourning those murdered by the Israeli state.
Demanding that the hostages return isn't incompatible with naming & demanding an end to genocide.
Naming the power imbalance & impact thereof doesn't desecrate those murdered two years ago today.
Demanding that the hostages return isn't incompatible with naming & demanding an end to genocide.
Naming the power imbalance & impact thereof doesn't desecrate those murdered two years ago today.
October 7, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Mourning those murdered by Hamas isn't incompatible with mourning those murdered by the Israeli state.
Demanding that the hostages return isn't incompatible with naming & demanding an end to genocide.
Naming the power imbalance & impact thereof doesn't desecrate those murdered two years ago today.
Demanding that the hostages return isn't incompatible with naming & demanding an end to genocide.
Naming the power imbalance & impact thereof doesn't desecrate those murdered two years ago today.
Reposted by Mustafa Kaya
Join the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program and Damir Imamović, University of Sarajevo Music Academy, for "Bosnian Love Songs Between Two Empires: Musical Tradition and Change from Ottoman to Habsburg Eras," on OCT. 8, from 12:30- 2:00PM at Kresge Hall, Room 1515 and via Zoom!
October 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Join the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program and Damir Imamović, University of Sarajevo Music Academy, for "Bosnian Love Songs Between Two Empires: Musical Tradition and Change from Ottoman to Habsburg Eras," on OCT. 8, from 12:30- 2:00PM at Kresge Hall, Room 1515 and via Zoom!
The ruthlessness and bluntness of some in the Trump administration reminds me of the taskmasters of the Umayyads. Here is the Umayyad governor and "sedition"-crusher and--also the eloquent--Hajjaj b. Yusuf vs Kristi Noem's ICE in Chicago. Parallels are, what's the word, uncanny.
October 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The ruthlessness and bluntness of some in the Trump administration reminds me of the taskmasters of the Umayyads. Here is the Umayyad governor and "sedition"-crusher and--also the eloquent--Hajjaj b. Yusuf vs Kristi Noem's ICE in Chicago. Parallels are, what's the word, uncanny.
Reposted by Mustafa Kaya
This is the Abusalim Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in my hometown, Deir el-Balah. A beautiful landmark; serene, quiet, peaceful. It was built by my grandfather’s brother and stood tall for years. Today, the genocidal and deranged Israeli regime bombed it with a suicide drone.
July 31, 2025 at 4:01 AM
This is the Abusalim Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in my hometown, Deir el-Balah. A beautiful landmark; serene, quiet, peaceful. It was built by my grandfather’s brother and stood tall for years. Today, the genocidal and deranged Israeli regime bombed it with a suicide drone.
Congrats to all who voted thugs and thieves in! Tbe same can be said for Turkish citizens who have been keeping another thug in power for more than two decades now. (I’m wondering if Rumeysa was an Erdogan voter to be honest.) Erdogan led a campaign of kidnapping dissidents from overseas +
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Student, Is Detained by ICE
The university was told that the student’s visa had been terminated, its president said in a late-night email to students and faculty members.
www.nytimes.com
March 27, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Congrats to all who voted thugs and thieves in! Tbe same can be said for Turkish citizens who have been keeping another thug in power for more than two decades now. (I’m wondering if Rumeysa was an Erdogan voter to be honest.) Erdogan led a campaign of kidnapping dissidents from overseas +
Government efficiency!
ICE Returns All Migrants From Guantánamo to Stateside Facilities
A court filing described strip searches and the use of restraint chairs on some of the 290 migrants the Trump administration has cycled through the base.
www.nytimes.com
March 13, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Government efficiency!
Erdoğan the peacemaker or Erdoğan the merchant of death?
A Turkish arms firm helped fuel Sudan’s brutal civil war, records show
A trove of documents and communications provided to The Post reveals how a Turkish company covertly funneled weapons to the Sudanese army.
www.washingtonpost.com
March 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Erdoğan the peacemaker or Erdoğan the merchant of death?
My tell-tale word of ChatGPT writing of the day: "interplay" E.g. "The interplay of religion, politics, and military is ..."
March 5, 2025 at 8:42 PM
My tell-tale word of ChatGPT writing of the day: "interplay" E.g. "The interplay of religion, politics, and military is ..."
Pretty happy not to be an American at this moment. Not a particularly proud time for Americans to be honest.
February 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Pretty happy not to be an American at this moment. Not a particularly proud time for Americans to be honest.
ChatGPT is useful. I asked if it thought Donald Trump was a LLM. Here is the answer.
February 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
ChatGPT is useful. I asked if it thought Donald Trump was a LLM. Here is the answer.
The second Trump “era” has so far been a blessing to historians (of the Ottoman Empire for ex.) looking for ways to teach students how history is relevant to us. From authoritarianism to sultanic law and from loyalty to meritocracy, the new admin keeps delivering cases upon cases for parallelisms.
February 25, 2025 at 3:20 AM
The second Trump “era” has so far been a blessing to historians (of the Ottoman Empire for ex.) looking for ways to teach students how history is relevant to us. From authoritarianism to sultanic law and from loyalty to meritocracy, the new admin keeps delivering cases upon cases for parallelisms.
Talking about cyclical history, anthropomorphism, and romanticizing the past as some of the problems studying history. Trump's inauguration is history in the making. From the invoking of a "golden age" to the "manifest destiny" of the US, there is much to discuss. I have some questions: +
January 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Talking about cyclical history, anthropomorphism, and romanticizing the past as some of the problems studying history. Trump's inauguration is history in the making. From the invoking of a "golden age" to the "manifest destiny" of the US, there is much to discuss. I have some questions: +
MS Word when kerning is not enabled (default behavior):
January 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
MS Word when kerning is not enabled (default behavior):
A Bangladeshi immigrant in NYC with no health insurance, selling bananas $.35 a piece, and a Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire buying his banana for $6.2 million. What do we call it?
The Sidewalk Fruit Vendor Who Sold a $6.2 Million Banana for 25 Cents
A 74-year-old immigrant who works outside Sotheby’s shares a basement in the Bronx and works 12-hour shifts. He was stunned to hear what his banana went for at auction.
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2024 at 2:04 PM
A Bangladeshi immigrant in NYC with no health insurance, selling bananas $.35 a piece, and a Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire buying his banana for $6.2 million. What do we call it?
As of 2024, the conundrum for the American public is whether someone who sexually abused teenage girls can become the chief of the justice system—under a president who (sexually) abused women, elected to the post by the majority of said public. That person is already a congressman and that is fine.
November 19, 2024 at 1:43 PM
As of 2024, the conundrum for the American public is whether someone who sexually abused teenage girls can become the chief of the justice system—under a president who (sexually) abused women, elected to the post by the majority of said public. That person is already a congressman and that is fine.
Could have been his mother instead.
Uzbek President Appoints His Daughter To Position In His Office
www.rferl.org
August 26, 2023 at 11:03 PM
Could have been his mother instead.