Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
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serviliusahala.bsky.social
Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
@serviliusahala.bsky.social
1K followers 440 following 1.3K posts
Mediterranean archaeologist | Binghamton NY U.S.A.
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serviliusahala.bsky.social
The entire AI-verse can just fuck right off and go away.
December 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
erictopol.bsky.social
The most dangerous
December 2, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
pleiades-gazetteer.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy
Changelog: uring the month of November 2025, the #pleiadesgazetteer editorial college published 53 new and 1,259 updated place resources, reflecting the work of Jeffrey Becker, Catherine Bouras, Anne Chen, Ilaria Cristofaro, Dan Diffendale, Stuart Dunn, Tom Elliott, Maxime Guénette, Greta Hawes […]
Original post on hcommons.social
hcommons.social
December 2, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
biblioracle.bsky.social
If this is the direction higher ed institutions want to head we should just pack it in. I thought education was for humans. This is not the way.
December 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
pleiades-gazetteer.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy
Last Week in the #pleiadesgazetteer (24 November - 1 December 2025) the editorial college published 10 new and 171 updated place resources, reflecting the work of Jeffrey Becker, Tom Elliott, Maxime Guénette and Enes Yılandiloğlu.

A list of all new and […]

[Original post on hcommons.social]
A terrain map with orange markers for updates and pink circles for new place resources. The map stretches from the Strait of Gibraltar in the west to eastern China and from northern Eurasia to the Horn of Africa in the south.
December 2, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
mcopelov.bsky.social
👇🎯🧵

Once again in re: the very deep adverse selection problem we have in higher education leadership right now. The skills for meeting our current authoritarian moment are <precisely the opposite> of the ones that secure advancement to the commanding heights of university administration.
nickfleisher.bsky.social Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2d
Notably, a lot of the current wave of "AI-infused" curriculum overhauls are being pushed by provosts looking to make the jump to president and trying hard to win the attention of the (callow, ignorant) trustees who make those hires
edburmila.bsky.social Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 2d
“One person is an autocratic president of the university for decades” certainly wasn’t a flawless system but it’s clear that “admins hop from job to job scaling the career ladder by filling their CV with ‘accomplishments’ that are expensive burdens to the schools they leave behind” is even worse.
December 1, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
iotasubscript.bsky.social
More bad news a liberal arts college... "[A]fter a review of 'student enrollment data and student interest'... Cornell College will halt its [majors in] more than 10 areas, including classical studies, French and Francophone studies, German studies, religion..."
Cornell College to cut programs after review of enrollment, student interest • Iowa Capital Dispatch
Cornell College will halt "major courses of study" in different languages, music studies and more in the next academic year.
iowacapitaldispatch.com
November 30, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
nakhthor.bsky.social
mcopelov.bsky.social Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 4d
Look around. The case for more, not less, liberal arts education - actual, real education in reading, writing, thinking, arguing, analyzing, & synthesizing by doing the actual hard work for which there is no substitute - is stronger than it’s ever been at any point in human history.
November 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
evanbernick.bsky.social
https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/166rvc/january_17_1985_its_worth_a_shot/
November 30, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
mcopelov.bsky.social
Signs you might be a far right authoritarian party (#3267):
johnpfaff.bsky.social John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 4d
Wait, is this the Professor Watchlist, but for media … and instead of being posted on an independent group’s website it’s on the official website of the people who control armed men with badges and a distinct disregard for the Constitution?
November 30, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
cartoonkahuna.bsky.social
Trump's shutdown of USAID, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition and disease, overshadows his plans for a gilded ballroom that could seat as many as 1,350 people at glitzy state dinners. #Trump #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice #TrumpisaNationalDisgrace
November 30, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
I really appreciate that @pbsnews.org ended the interview with this graphic.

It captures, in the simplest and starkest terms, the brutal arithmetic driving this country's homelessness catastrophe.
Graphic that reads: "The average hourly wage necessary to afford a one-bedroom apartment in the United States is $28.17. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25." -- National Low Income Housing Coalition
November 30, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
justinwolfers.bsky.social
Demolishing the East Wing of the White House before finalizing plans for what will be built above its ruins is a near-perfect metaphor for Trump's approach to economic policy. The only difference is the wrecking crew doesn’t claim the rubble is evidence of unprecedented growth.
November 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.
mattheweadie.bsky.social Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 5d
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
mariopro.bsky.social
November 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
rutgerbregman.com
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
whstancil.bsky.social
Everyone in politics, everyone in media knows what’s happening here: the White House is controlled by a repellant white supremacist who waits with bated breath for any opportunity to run nonwhite people out of America. They know who it is, what he’s doing. But they won’t SAY it.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
petergleick.bsky.social
He's clearly deranged, and it's a scandal that that's not on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
November 28, 2025 at 5:18 AM
serviliusahala.bsky.social
Folks, the president is not special. Not exceptional. Not a king. Not a semi-divine entity. Just a citizen. Stop pretending that this senile harpy man-baby deserves any better treatment than what he gives out. Impeach. Convict. Remove. Imprison.
November 28, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
mluckovich.bsky.social
November 26, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
gadyepstein.bsky.social
“We’ve tried to not have to do it, but we've got direct orders,” the masked ICE agents told them www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/i...
"I asked for their names. They didn't give me their full names," Hestmark recalled of the agents. "They didn't show me their badge numbers. They didn't remove their masks. They simply said, 'We have a warrant for his arrest, and they handed me a QR code, and they put my husband in handcuffs. And they took him and said I couldn't follow." "She was just stunned," Paul said. "She kept asking what was wrong, what did we do? We'd done everything right." "We kept asking them if there was something we could do, if there was any way we could keep her from being separated from the family," he continued. We’re just trying to figure out what's happening, and they're just telling us, I'm sorry. We’ve tried to not have to do it, but we've got direct orders."| • "I had to take my baby, our baby, from his crying mother's arms," Paul said. "We were completely shocked, and I feel like we were tricked," Hestmark said. "We went through every possible legal and appropriate channel. We followed the advice of our lawyer. We were told that our case was straight forward." "He just wanted to be part of this country and for us to start our future together. And he wanted to do it… "Tom isn't in the system. I can't find him," Hestmark said. "I can't call him. I can't put money into his account. The lawyer doesn't know how to proceed because he hasn't been charged with anything." Both said their spouses were able to call them Thursday night, and they believed they were still being held in the basement of the federal building as of Friday afternoon. "She said that she was scared. She was anxious, missed her baby. She just wants to come home," Paul said. "She said the agents themselves were in the detention down in the basement of the federal building, saying, What are we doing here? These aren't the sort of people were supposed to be arresting.” "They hadn't given him anything to eat or any information," Hestmark said. "They gave him a mat and a foil blanket to sleep on." As she was detailing his arrest Friday afternoon, Bilger called Hestmark again from detention. She said he told her they had moved him to the Otay Mesa Detention Center and back but he hadn't slept and still hadn't been processed. "My wife's alone and terrified," Paul said. "My baby doesn't have his mom to hold him. I can't work right…
November 25, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
pleiades-gazetteer.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy
Last Week in the #pleiadesgazetteer (17-24 November 2025), the editorial college published 14 new and 286 updated place resources, reflecting the work of Jeffrey Becker, Anne Chen, Tom Elliott, Maxime Guénette, Brady Kiesling, Gabriel Mckee and Enes […]

[Original post on hcommons.social]
A terrain map with orange markers for updates and pink circles for new place resources. The map stretches from Ireland and the Strait of Gibraltar in the west to northern China in the east and the middle Nile and Strait of Hormuz in the south.
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
clancyny.bsky.social
On Nov. 22, Vahid Abedini, an Iranian Studies professor at University of Oklahoma, was boarding a flight to attend the Middle East Studies Assn mtg in Washington, D.C. when he was detained by ICE.

OU Prof Joshua Landis says "he has been wrongfully detained because he has a valid H-1B visa."
November 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
serviliusahala.bsky.social
www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...
'Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's love of Ancient Rome hides a secret fascination with imperialism'
OP-ED. While major tech leaders claim to see Ancient Rome as a moral and political model, it is likely because the civilization celebrated great individuals and praised boldness, historian Stéphane Ra...
www.lemonde.fr
November 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey A. Becker Ph.D. RPA
rbtownsend.bsky.social
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 3:38 PM