Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · 1d

Love: A RaceB4Race Symposium is now open for registration!

What does it mean to love in a time of turmoil, and what can the premodern world teach us about this? How do we negotiate loving a being, a nation, a profession that fails to love us back?

na.eventscloud.com/raceb4race-l...

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · 6d

Yale professor Tarren Andrews understands the importance of language. She teaches her students that law is a linguistic technology shaped by culture. Find more of her thoughts and pedagogy including videos and reading lists on Throughlines.
www.throughlines.org/scholars/tar...

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · 29d

Abdulhamit Arvas creates classrooms spaces where discomfort sparks growth, where students wrestle with hard questions, and where they learn to read beyond their own assumptions and beliefs. You can read his teaching materials on Throughlines now. www.throughlines.org/scholars/abd...

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Department of English at Arizona State University @asuenglish.bsky.social · Sep 8

The latest issue of Daedalus, journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was guest-edited by ASU English professor Ayanna Thompson & includes contributions from ASU President Michael Crow + other writers, artists & scholars.

Learn more: ow.ly/63XX50WRASB #ASUHumanities @acmrs.bsky.social

Latest Daedalus journal features ASU scholars, asks readers to think about our past and future | ASU News

“How will we think about the past in the future?” asks the latest issue of Daedalus.

ow.ly

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Sep 4

"You should remember that students have led or been in solidarity with the most important struggles for a sustainable, equitable world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students have connected their ability to study power’s intentions to these global struggles." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

An Open Letter to Our Students: Universities Do Not Deserve You

At the start of the school year, two professors provide some hard truths about the state of academia and what you should fight for.

www.thenation.com

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Sep 4

This tragicomedy about life, love and transformation has been reimagined as a two-hour-long musical inspired by the gospel traditions of the American Black church, and presented by the Public Works program of the Public Theater.

(Dramaturged by THE Ayanna Thompson)

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/t...

A New ‘Pericles’ Pairs Shakespeare With Black Gospel

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Department of English at Arizona State University @asuenglish.bsky.social · Aug 29

⌛ Fiction Friday: "Behaving like human beings are the center of everything doesn’t make it true."

From "Let’s Get Lost in the Cycle of Time Together" by ASU English professor @madelinesayet.bsky.social‬.

Read the play in Daedalus: ow.ly/AplZ50WMhFy #ASUHumanities CC: @acmrs.bsky.social

Screenshot of the Daedalus webpage, where it shows the title of Madeline Sayet's play, Let's Get Lost in the Cycle of Time Together.

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 22

"It’s a romp, a tonic, an escape from the clamorous world into a fantasy." Check out the review of Shakespeare in the Park's Twelfth Night, dramaturged by Ayanna Thompson 👀
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/t...

‘Twelfth Night’ Review: Lupita Nyong’o in Illyria

www.nytimes.com

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 21

Have you got your copy yet? Can't wait for this launch event for The Sweet Taste of Empire by the incomparable @profkfh.bsky.social

ProfKFH @profkfh.bsky.social · Aug 20

🚨🚨So excited that the Barnard Center for Research on Women is hosting the virtual launch for *Sweet Taste of Empire,* published by ‪@pennpress.bsky.social‬. We have an incredible lineup!!!!!! #RaceB4Race #ShakeRace

10.30.2025 | 6:30pm EST| register here!
bcrw.barnard.edu/event/the-sw...

The Sweet Taste of Empire: Sugar, Mastery, and Pleasure in the Anglo Caribbean | Barnard Center for Research on Women

Kim Hall in conversation with Patricia A. Matthew, Debapriya Sarkar, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, and Jennifer Morgan; moderated by Tapiwa Gambura

bcrw.barnard.edu

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · Aug 1

This is fantastic news! One of the early postmedieval utopian texts that helped develop a French strand of utopian literature & that paved the way for the ambiguous & satirical approaches of Cyrano de Bergerac, Denis Veiras & Gabriel de Foigny. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 1

Happy pub day to The Island of Hermaphrodites, translated by Kathleen P. long.

Long offers new audiences a satirical romp through a world of absurdist power—one that feels politically salient today.

Access the full text for free online
asu.pressbooks.pub/the-island-o...

The Island of Hermaphrodites – Simple Book Publishing

A scandal in its time and a revelation today, this fearless satire blends courtly decadence with political rebellion in an imagined world of unchecked power.

asu.pressbooks.pub

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Cord J. Whitaker @profcwhit.bsky.social · Aug 5

This was one of my favorite projects to be a part of in recent memory. Get your syllabus ready for the fall. Check out Throughlines today.

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Jul 31

Tomorrow is August 🤯 is your syllabus ready??
Throughlines carries several exemplar syllabi to help inspire you for the semester ahead. We are also proud to announce new pedagogical resources from Patrica Akhimie and Geraldine Heng are now available. Start here: www.throughlines.org

Throughlines — Race in the premodern classroom

Created by field-leading scholars, Throughlines’ pedagogical approaches offer accessible and critical ways to incorporate discussions of race in the premodern studies classroom.

www.throughlines.org

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · Aug 5

I really needed this today.

Ayanna Thompson sent me a link to this jaw-dropping thing they built with a Mellon grant at @acmrs.bsky.social

You can get lost in it.

A spectacular reminder that digital resources don't have to be about surveillance, coercion, & disciplining the labor force.

Throughlines — Race in the premodern classroom

Created by field-leading scholars, Throughlines’ pedagogical approaches offer accessible and critical ways to incorporate discussions of race in the premodern studies classroom.

www.throughlines.org

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 18

"...—whether, in his words, the study of ancient worlds can be used 'for world-building.'"

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 18

“'Classicism and Other Phobias,' contends with loss in its own way, by asking if classics might be used to combat forces, like racism, that give rise to profound losses... ” @newyorker.com @platanoclassics.bsky.social www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...

Dan-el Padilla Peralta on Learning How to Combat Loss

The Princeton classicist shares works that informed his thinking on identity and world-building, and his book “Classicism and Other Phobias.”

www.newyorker.com

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Reposted by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Department of English at Arizona State University @asuenglish.bsky.social · Aug 15

🐴 Fiction Friday: "That’s the key: the patterns. Without them, it’s just people in horse costumes."

From "Horseplay" by ASU English alum @leahenewsom.bsky.social‬. Read the story in Daedalus, journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: ow.ly/2LMN50WFv9k #ASUHumanities CC: @acmrs.bsky.social

Cover of the latest issue of Daedalus journal, themed How Will We Think about the Past in the Future?

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 15

Arden Shakespeare fourth series is coming! Read Titus 🥩 🥧 co-edited by Ayanna Thompson in May '26.

The Arden Shakespeare @ardenpublisher.bsky.social · Aug 14

"A fourth? Start, eyes!"

The next generation of Shakespeare's plays, poems & sonnets is coming.

Get your first look at The Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series 👇

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 14

Shout out to Throughlines scholar, collaborator, and friend of ACMRS ‪@platanoclassics on his new book, Classicism and Other Phobias! Running to check out his book recommendations now 👀.

www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...

Dan-el Padilla Peralta on Learning How to Combat Loss

The Princeton classicist shares works that informed his thinking on identity and world-building, and his book “Classicism and Other Phobias.”

www.newyorker.com

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 12

Who's the grumpy uncle in your head 👴🏻? Patrica Akhimie joins Throughlines to talk about the importance of editing in Shakespeare.

www.throughlines.org/suite-conten...

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 11

"The central question for this Dædalus issue asks artists and scholars to speculate about what aspects of our present historical moment will enrapture, haunt, and/or plague thinkers in the future."

Dædalus Summer 2025 edited by Ayanna Thompson
www.amacad.org/daedalus/how...

How Will We Think about the Past in the Future?

“How will we think about the past in the future?” asks the new issue of Dædalus. Scholars and artists answer with poetry, drama, short fiction, scientific and humanistic thought, and visual art. Toget...

www.amacad.org

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 7

How did a seventeenth-century South American trading post become the blueprint for the prison system in the present-day United States?

Read "The Color of Commerce: Racial Identity and Corporate Logic in Behn’s Oroonoko"
by Brandon Taylor on The Sundial

medium.com/the-sundial-...

The Color of Commerce: Racial Identity and Corporate Logic in Behn’s Oroonoko

by Brandon Taylor

medium.com

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Aug 1

Happy pub day to The Island of Hermaphrodites, translated by Kathleen P. long.

Long offers new audiences a satirical romp through a world of absurdist power—one that feels politically salient today.

Access the full text for free online
asu.pressbooks.pub/the-island-o...

The Island of Hermaphrodites – Simple Book Publishing

A scandal in its time and a revelation today, this fearless satire blends courtly decadence with political rebellion in an imagined world of unchecked power.

asu.pressbooks.pub

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Jul 31

Tomorrow is August 🤯 is your syllabus ready??
Throughlines carries several exemplar syllabi to help inspire you for the semester ahead. We are also proud to announce new pedagogical resources from Patrica Akhimie and Geraldine Heng are now available. Start here: www.throughlines.org

Throughlines — Race in the premodern classroom

Created by field-leading scholars, Throughlines’ pedagogical approaches offer accessible and critical ways to incorporate discussions of race in the premodern studies classroom.

www.throughlines.org

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Jul 29

"I work hard at not creating a narrative of totalizing war and despair." Geraldine Heng on teaching global premodern literature.
Be on the look out for more pedagogical resources from Heng coming soon from Throughlines.

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Jul 20

Did you hear? Ayanna Thompson was elected as a fellow to the British Academy! Please join us in congratulating her on this accomplishment. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/agm-wel...

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Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies @acmrs.bsky.social · Jul 8

👀 Is that our executive director Ayanna Thompson hanging out with the absolutely STACKED cast of The Public Theater's 12th Night??

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