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Dr. Paula R. Curtis

@paularcurtis.bsky.social

6.3K followers 800 following 16K posts

Medievalist. Historian. Japan. Project Juggler. DH. Extremely Tired. Good & Bad cats. 🐾 Rock art. 🎨 Operations Leader @jppinfo.bsky.social, UCLA http://prcurtis.com/ Support open-access projects: http://patreon.com/prcurtis, http://ko-fi.com/prcurtis

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · Nov 21

Hello new folks! If you've just followed, I'm a historian of medieval Japan working on metal caster networks & documentary forgery. I manage @jppinfo.bsky.social, which facilitates greater equity and inclusion in the Japanese humanities. I also do East Asia + digital humanities and post cat chaos. 🐾

Four images side by side. The first is a photo of a cream tabby named Fox who is making a one-brain-cell face with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. The second is a medieval Japanese handwritten document with black calligraphy on dark gray recycled paper. The third is a tortie cat named Rigatoni, gazing sadly at the viewer from her Trash Jail (a black mesh trash can turned upside down on top of her because she is a naughty demon child). The fourth is an early modern painting of several Japanese metal casters in various states of sweaty dress pouring hot metal into a mold.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 12h

beanball

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

ironically tenure is both salvation and the ninth circle

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

having a fiery pit of doom would be a good year!

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

(I swear this is me doing work for my class)

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

listen though have you even thought about management's feelings? here they are, grinding you down themselves, bones and meat and all! it doesn't even spark joy anymore.

A scene of hell from the Kasuga gongen genki e showing demons of various colors grinding up human meat and bone parts in a large mortar, in front of which they are using a huge press to smother and juice them. Strangely none of the demons seem to be having a nice time!

Closeup of a read demon looking particularly sad to be crushing some blood skulls in his human soup.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

sometimes you're having a bad day at work and sometimes they walk you with a stabby stick to get on a tightrope with a stone strapped to your back ready to plunge into the fiery depths of hell (corporate demands getting crazy amirite)

A scene of hell from Kasuga gongen genki e depicting naked people being marched by a demon with a pointy stick to climb and walk a tightrope over a lake of flames while having a large stone tied to their backs. Seems bad!

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

It's the Kasuga gongen ki-e 春日権現験記絵. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasuga_...

Kasuga Gongen Genki E - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

this slide gets funnier every time I open up an old file and find it @scriptingjapan.bsky.social

A slide from my teaching slide decks with a picture of Wes Robertson, a white dude in glasses and a black sweater distinguishing himself from most other academic white dudes by being both ginger and beard-having, next to a screencap from his twitter account replying to me with the comment "My only motivation for being in academia is for someone to one day put my face on a slide." Let no one claim I don't make dreams come true.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 1d

rising above the mediocre haters like

A scene from the Kasuga gongen scrolls of a woman (deity) rising above a room full of people gazing up at her in amazement. To the left are four monks and to the right are six women and children, hands clasped together as they look up.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 2d

bad photo good dogs

Two small dogs standing in a brightly colored sidewalk chalk design that says GOOD DOG in big pink, yellow, and black letters. The left dog is mostly hairless and looks kind of like a pony, the right dog is a pug.

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 2d

Contemplative, smol, GOOD.

A fluffy white little dog standing in a brightly colored sidewalk chalk design that says GOOD DOG in big pink, yellow, and black letters.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 2d

Seriously though used well social media is a wonderful tool that has, despite the bad actors out there, been an incredible way to meet new colleagues and share information about what historians and other academics do with the public.

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 2d

Granted, it *was* a third (fourth? fifth?)-rate publication with a right wing press. But truly every quotation of my colleagues and me that was meant to make us look bad just proved our points even harder.

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 2d

I was quoted in publication as telling someone who was eagerly platforming historical denialists under the flaccid excuse of academic freedom to "fuck all the way off."

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 3d

They’re all getting featured on the neighborhood art Instagram as their owners tag us! It’s the best. 😍

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 3d

This DOG is GOOD.

A brown dog with a white stripe up her nose sitting in a multicolored chalk art feature that says GOOD DOG in yellow, pink, and black. Barry is a good dog!!

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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 3d

I'm a transplant but building community wherever we are is for sure what we all need right now!

Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 3d

I thought about making a BAD DOG one on the other side but realized that was just my cat owner instincts and I could only do "GOODER DOG" if I put anything there.