Adam Shear
@adamshear.bsky.social
early modern Jewish history and history of the book at University of Pittsburgh (speaks for himself of course); chair of https://www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/; co-director of https://footprints.ctl.columbia.edu/
Do English readers ignore instructions or do French readers ignore English signs? Mysteries of Paris. (in the locker area of the BnF Mitterrand.)
November 25, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Do English readers ignore instructions or do French readers ignore English signs? Mysteries of Paris. (in the locker area of the BnF Mitterrand.)
not that many people born before WW1 who could have had a facebook page.
November 21, 2025 at 11:31 AM
not that many people born before WW1 who could have had a facebook page.
I run across Seymour de Ricci (1881-1942) every so often & dip my toes into the rabbithole--one day I will fall in: bibliographer, Orientalist, a Montefiore, first wife a Dreyfus. Last biographical treatment = 8 pages in 1942? Daughter died in 2008. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies.
November 21, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I run across Seymour de Ricci (1881-1942) every so often & dip my toes into the rabbithole--one day I will fall in: bibliographer, Orientalist, a Montefiore, first wife a Dreyfus. Last biographical treatment = 8 pages in 1942? Daughter died in 2008. #bookhistory #Jewishstudies.
Upcoming lectures in eligion and Healthcare Lecture Series at Pitt-- #JewishStudies #ReligiousStudies. bioethics.pitt.edu/health-human...
Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online
“In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster
Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online
“In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster
Future Lectures | Institute for Bioethics | University of Pittsburgh
November 11, 2025 8:00 – 9:00 am Online
bioethics.pitt.edu
November 4, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Upcoming lectures in eligion and Healthcare Lecture Series at Pitt-- #JewishStudies #ReligiousStudies. bioethics.pitt.edu/health-human...
Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online
“In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster
Next: Nov 11, 8 – 9 am EST, Online
“In all your ways, know Him" (Proverbs 3:6) Meets "And you shall live by them" (Leviticus 18:5), Rabbanit Miriam Fenster
Senior art historians who work on "pre-modernity" as defined in your geographic area, take a look at this: cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio.... Folks in related #earlymodern and other pre-modern areas share this widely.
William S. Dietrich II Professor of Premodern Arts and/or Architecture
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
cfopitt.taleo.net
November 2, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Senior art historians who work on "pre-modernity" as defined in your geographic area, take a look at this: cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio.... Folks in related #earlymodern and other pre-modern areas share this widely.
Does your university sponsor a mock ancient olympics as part of the study of classics and religious studies? www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/news/religio...
#religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld
#religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld
Religious Studies Students Compete in Catheopolis Games | Department of Religious Studies
www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu
October 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Does your university sponsor a mock ancient olympics as part of the study of classics and religious studies? www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/news/religio...
#religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld
#religiousstudies #classics #ancientworld
I thought I knew a lot about Reuchlin but it's great to discover avenues I hadn't even considered--looking forward to reading this new book. #earlymodern #Jewishstudies #ChristianHebraism reforc.com/news/music-r...
Music, Rhetoric and Christian Hebraism in Early Modern Europe - REFORC
This book presents the first in-depth exploration of the relationship between music, rhetoric and Christian Hebraism, by re-appraising the significance of the “first German humanist” Johannes Reuchlin...
reforc.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I thought I knew a lot about Reuchlin but it's great to discover avenues I hadn't even considered--looking forward to reading this new book. #earlymodern #Jewishstudies #ChristianHebraism reforc.com/news/music-r...
Settlement between Ohio attorney general and HUC on the rare book collection. www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-R...
Yost Strikes Deal With Hebrew Union College to Protect Rare-Book Collection in Cincinnati - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov
October 3, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Settlement between Ohio attorney general and HUC on the rare book collection. www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-R...
My colleague Adam Lowenstein is such a great explainer of why horror films (and lit) are worth serious academic study. He even got me to watch a horror film once. www.as.pitt.edu/horror-studi...
The Horror Studies Center at Pitt | Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences | University of Pittsburgh
About the Center The world’s first academic center dedicated to horror studies. The Horror Studies Center (HSC) positions the University of Pittsburgh as a global leader in interdisciplinary research,...
www.as.pitt.edu
October 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
My colleague Adam Lowenstein is such a great explainer of why horror films (and lit) are worth serious academic study. He even got me to watch a horror film once. www.as.pitt.edu/horror-studi...
With the decline of the humanities in American academia and the hard-sell to students to study anything that happened before 1800, I find it both annoying and gratifying that my university and the art museum next door feature 3 lectures on classical and early modern topics at the same time today!
September 25, 2025 at 8:46 PM
With the decline of the humanities in American academia and the hard-sell to students to study anything that happened before 1800, I find it both annoying and gratifying that my university and the art museum next door feature 3 lectures on classical and early modern topics at the same time today!
Lovely interview with my colleague @jeremiah-mercurio.bsky.social on Linguistics in Columbia Libraries; I see a shoutout to the #LCAAJ (an incredibly rich Yiddish linguistics project that began in the 1950s...)! blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/linguistics/...
Spotlight: Meet Librarian Jeremiah Mercurio – CLAUSE
blogs.cuit.columbia.edu
September 25, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I went to a lecture 10 days ago that I though Jill Joshowitz would be at. Her spouse said she had a scheduling conflict and he couldn't say what it was but it was a big deal. And now I know: www.timesofisrael.com/48-surreal-h...
48 surreal hours in Damascus — an Israeli reporter’s travelogue from an enemy capital
I had no idea what to expect from a visit to Syria, accompanying a US Jewish group to holy sites and meetings with Sharaa government officials. I found a nation poised between healing and fresh chaos,...
www.timesofisrael.com
September 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I went to a lecture 10 days ago that I though Jill Joshowitz would be at. Her spouse said she had a scheduling conflict and he couldn't say what it was but it was a big deal. And now I know: www.timesofisrael.com/48-surreal-h...
Info about current and past job searches in academic Jewish studies here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)
Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)
FEATURED JOB: College of Charleston - Director of the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program (and Associate Professor or Professor) College of Charleston
Closing Date 11/01/2025
jobs.cofc.edu/postings/17123
Closing Date 11/01/2025
jobs.cofc.edu/postings/17123
Director of Jewish Studies Program (and Associate Professor or Professor)
The College of Charleston seeks a dynamic scholar, instructor, and leader at the associate or full professor rank to become Director of the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, a premier program of ...
jobs.cofc.edu
September 21, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Info about current and past job searches in academic Jewish studies here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)
Info about other jobs and results of past searches, please share. (Note: I only post the name of the person hired once they have begun the position or with their permission ahead of that.)
Reposted by Adam Shear
“Syracuse University paused admission to 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences without faculty input” dailyorange.com/2025/09/coll...
College of Arts & Sciences pauses admission to 20 majors amid portfolio review
Syracuse University paused admission into 20 majors in the College of Arts & Sciences without faculty input amid its portfolio review.
dailyorange.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:01 AM
“Syracuse University paused admission to 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences without faculty input” dailyorange.com/2025/09/coll...
Thursday September 25, 5-6:30 pm, Cathedral of Learning, 6th floor, Humanities Center
September 18, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Thursday September 25, 5-6:30 pm, Cathedral of Learning, 6th floor, Humanities Center
Interesting reading on academic freedom cases in Pittsburgh: I was not aware of the Turner case at all. www.publicsource.org/historic-pit...
6 flashpoints in the history of academic freedom in Pittsburgh
From Pitt to CMU to CCAC, Pittsburgh universities have faced clashes over speech, politics and academic freedom for nearly a century.
www.publicsource.org
September 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Interesting reading on academic freedom cases in Pittsburgh: I was not aware of the Turner case at all. www.publicsource.org/historic-pit...
It is not that hard for people who schedule events to take a calendar a year ahead, look up major Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu holidays on the Internet search engine of choice, and block them out. Cultural literacy should be part of the job.
NASA scheduled a major workshop for early career researchers during the most important week of the Jewish calendar, during two of the most important days of that week and expects me to accept that this was “difficult scheduling conflicts”
That’s what casual antisemitism sounds like
That’s what casual antisemitism sounds like
September 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
It is not that hard for people who schedule events to take a calendar a year ahead, look up major Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu holidays on the Internet search engine of choice, and block them out. Cultural literacy should be part of the job.
This is terrible news--shocking given the generosity of the Schnitzer gift. In addition to being terrible on the merits, it seems terrible from a long-term perspective of cultivating relationships with donors. Take the money and run?
Some details on the massive assault on the humanities (and tenure) unfolding at the University of Oregon here: newsletter.uauoregon.org/after-accept...
August 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
This is terrible news--shocking given the generosity of the Schnitzer gift. In addition to being terrible on the merits, it seems terrible from a long-term perspective of cultivating relationships with donors. Take the money and run?
Reposted by Adam Shear
Our August issue, 29.4, is now available online! This issue opens with an open-access article by Yonatan Glazer-Eytan and Giuseppe Marcocci, "Material Culture and Early Modern Archivality: A Dialogue." brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
August 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Our August issue, 29.4, is now available online! This issue opens with an open-access article by Yonatan Glazer-Eytan and Giuseppe Marcocci, "Material Culture and Early Modern Archivality: A Dialogue." brill.com/view/journal...
An interesting read. A comment says that a conference on Wolfson is in the works. I hope attention is paid to his library. When I used to spend time in the Widener JS seminar room c. 2000, saw a lot of his books on the upper shelves, seemingly un-cataloged. Marginalia and ephemera to be discovered!
This alarming time for American academia has made me a bit obsessed w/scholarly archives, not only b/c comfort of reading records of a sort no longer being kept now but also as window onto what's getting lost. Here's a short post on Harry Austryn Wolfson & HDS
open.substack.com/pub/humanhis...
open.substack.com/pub/humanhis...
From the Archives of Prof. Harry Austryn Wolfson: Three Chapel Talks
“I see here many students of the theological school.
open.substack.com
August 14, 2025 at 7:10 PM
An interesting read. A comment says that a conference on Wolfson is in the works. I hope attention is paid to his library. When I used to spend time in the Widener JS seminar room c. 2000, saw a lot of his books on the upper shelves, seemingly un-cataloged. Marginalia and ephemera to be discovered!
There is an article on "The Dispatch" by a Yale faculty member that makes specious arguments, stereotypes academic disciplines, misreads the present political moment, and doesn't understand at all how university budgets work. Is this typical for this website (which I have never encountered before)?
August 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM
There is an article on "The Dispatch" by a Yale faculty member that makes specious arguments, stereotypes academic disciplines, misreads the present political moment, and doesn't understand at all how university budgets work. Is this typical for this website (which I have never encountered before)?
Reposted by Adam Shear
Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.
August 13, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.
#JewishStudies jobs--dept websites are always behind. If you have information on who got these jobs please send me an email. I will only post confirmed and public info. If you were on or involved in the search and it was cancelled, you can also let me know. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Jewish Studies Jobs
docs.google.com
August 13, 2025 at 6:38 PM
#JewishStudies jobs--dept websites are always behind. If you have information on who got these jobs please send me an email. I will only post confirmed and public info. If you were on or involved in the search and it was cancelled, you can also let me know. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Sometimes we get cynical about the places we work. But my institution does a lot of important work and people should recognize that. Go to this one first-- probably the most important ophthalmology research in the world and then cycle through the other examples: www.pitt.edu/research-mat...
Research Matters: Restoring Sight
New, meaningful discoveries in restoring sight are Possible at Pitt.
www.pitt.edu
August 13, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Sometimes we get cynical about the places we work. But my institution does a lot of important work and people should recognize that. Go to this one first-- probably the most important ophthalmology research in the world and then cycle through the other examples: www.pitt.edu/research-mat...
If I remember, Henry Rosovsky, legendary Harvard dean, said that parking was always the #1 contentious issue among faculty. Now listening to a university town hall webinar and OMG the vice-chancellor for operations and finance feels obligated to answer several questions that came in about parking.
August 13, 2025 at 4:20 PM
If I remember, Henry Rosovsky, legendary Harvard dean, said that parking was always the #1 contentious issue among faculty. Now listening to a university town hall webinar and OMG the vice-chancellor for operations and finance feels obligated to answer several questions that came in about parking.