Annette Yoshiko Reed
@annetteyreed.bsky.social
5K followers 2.1K following 840 posts
Stendahl Chair at Harvard Divinity School / studying demons, apocalypses, and ancient identities, between memory and forgetting
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annetteyreed.bsky.social
I'm at the point in my book on *Forgetting* that I am reflecting back on the years during which I've been working on it--from 2018 to now, an eventful era to say the least! 🧵 collecting some bibliography on memory/forgetting in the 2020s, to which I'd love further suggestions too!
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed
rboomhower.bsky.social
"Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard.”
William Zinsser, born on this day in 1922
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed
drewjakeprof.bsky.social
geo/chrono specialization open, but ad flags "expertise in the Roman Imperial or late antique periods" & notes "preference will be given to scholars whose work engages with the diversity and complexity of the Mediterranean world in such areas as ethnicity, gender, environment, or connectivity"
historyjobs.bsky.social
New History Job Posted Today: Assistant Professor of Ancient History | University of Maryland Department of History
Assistant Professor of Ancient History | University of Maryland Department of History
College Park, Maryland, The University of Maryland, College Park Department of History, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position from historians of the Ancient Mediterranean worlds within the broad geographical zone that extends into Asia, Africa, and Europe. Chronological specialization is open. However, expertise in the Roman Imperial or late antique periods in particular aligns with existing areas of teaching and research expertise in the department.  Preference will be given to scholars whose work engages with the diversity and complexity of the Mediterranean world in such areas as ethnicity, gender, environment, or connectivity. In addition to exceptional scholarly promise, the successful candidate will demonstrate excellence in teaching. Responsibilities include teaching a general survey of the ancient Mediterranean and the Near East, other lecture courses, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate seminars as they align with the candidate’s interests and departmental requirements, as well as engaging in curriculum development. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Education: A Ph.D. in History or a related field is required in hand by August 1, 2026 Experience: Teaching experience at the college or university level is required. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS We seek candidates whose research, teaching, and service have prepared them to contribute to all the pillars of the College of Arts and Humanities’ Strategic Plan: Transformative Thinking; Boundless Creativity; Expansive Empathy; and Meaningful Futures. Contributions toward those goals and values might include leadership in teaching, mentoring, research, or service toward building an equitable and inclusive scholarly environment and/or increasing access or participation of all individuals equitably and fairly. The University of Maryland, College Park, actively subscribes to a policy of equal employment opportunity, and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry or national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression. This search is contingent upon the availability of funds. Apply Here
dlvr.it
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alanrichardson.bsky.social
Indeed. The Penn admin might just wander over the the History Dept and ask what happened to the reputations of German universities after the rise of Nazism. (Berlin and Göttingen were perhaps the two greatest science universities in the world in 1930.)
philadelphiascienceaction.substack.com
"Each concession leaves institutions more entangled with the federal government and more vulnerable to future coercion. Resistance must be strong, early, and sustained, or the space for resistance will vanish."

Read our latest blog post by @dramandar.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/philadel...
Why Penn Must Reject Trump’s Higher Ed Compact
By Amanda Rabinowitz Ph.D.
open.substack.com
annetteyreed.bsky.social
“For entire history of US, federal govt has allowed colleges & univ to grow & flourish acc to their own determination of wht education means. The resulting system is, for all its flaws, the envy of the world…. This admin is trying to bring tht tradition to an end” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
A Deal That Would End Universities’ Independence
The free-speech provisions of the so-called compact are an exercise in contradiction.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed
homophonous.bsky.social
This whole thread. 🧵👇
annetteyreed.bsky.social
When we tell the history of research on ancient Judaism, it is conventional to just celebrate those *Christians* who spoke against anti-Judaism; this is how Moore is usually understood, but the habit reinscribes the denial of Jewish agency—inaccurately in this case +
I have read Moore’s “Christian Writers on Judaism” more times than I can count. One of my teachers, John G. Gager (himself a Harvard PhD), always assigned it in his classes. I’ve assigned it in many of my own classes. But I didn’t connect it to the context of the debate here at Harvard about limiting Jewish enrollments until I was working through the archives of his Jewish colleague, Harry Austryn Wolfson, and encountered a 1922 letter in which Wolfson adduces the article in this context.
annetteyreed.bsky.social
As HDS’s post on my piece inadvertently demonstrated why this work is so difficult in practice; most prefer easy path of self-congratulating a majority & imposing one perspective VS hard work of understanding across majority/minoritized perspectives. But this is arguably why the work is important +
To engage in such work, we may well need to set aside our yearning for peace at any price. Such work requires making space for tensions to stand without resolution, accepting that honest and inclusive conversations can’t always avoid conflict, and letting multiple stories from multiple perspectives stand as true without assimilating them into one narrative, polarizing them into “two sides,” or otherwise effacing multivocality in the name of harmony.

It is not a goal quite as lofty as peace, let alone “Religion and Just Peace.” But it is perhaps a place to begin.
annetteyreed.bsky.social
When I speak of hope, it pertains to this friendship across difference—precisely the opposite, thus, of the suggestion just to laud the *Christian* Harvard prof in isolation from his Jewish colleague and friend +
Yet I must confess that I felt some hope when working in the Harvard University Archives and finding those little notes. I found some hope in this smaller story, this local story, which resounds with the reminder that empires may proclaim peace and glorify war and erase difference, but sometimes between individuals, it can be possible to take up the harder, slower, and far more humbling work of talking and listening across difference.
annetteyreed.bsky.social
The point of my piece, and how it ends, though, is with the part of the story that’s NOT told—Wolfson’s parallel work on the Church Fathers and their friendship as one glimpses in his archives +
Wolfson lauds Moore’s 1927 Judaism for precisely this, including in a talk at Harvard Divinity School where he credits Moore’s efforts with inspiring him to write—as a Jew—a book on philosophy that takes the Church Fathers seriously.48 Within Wolfson’s ample archives at Harvard, one can also glimpse the little story behind this bigger one. His files include tiny pieces of papers, scraps and stray receipts, onto which are written notes between the two.49 Tiny but nevertheless kept. Notes that speak to their friendship.
annetteyreed.bsky.social
Moore is rightly lauded, not least for his commitment to taking post-Christian Judaism seriously at a time other Christian scholars of Judaism didn’t +
Moore was one of Wolfson’s teachers and played a part in Wolfson’s hiring at Harvard. His efforts thus contributed to the establishment of the very first chair dedicated specifically to Jewish Studies in the United States.46 In addition, Moore—as a Christian—famously wrote a history of Judaism that takes Jewish perspectives and Rabbinic sources seriously.47
annetteyreed.bsky.social
When we tell the history of research on ancient Judaism, it is conventional to just celebrate those *Christians* who spoke against anti-Judaism; this is how Moore is usually understood, but the habit reinscribes the denial of Jewish agency—inaccurately in this case +
I have read Moore’s “Christian Writers on Judaism” more times than I can count. One of my teachers, John G. Gager (himself a Harvard PhD), always assigned it in his classes. I’ve assigned it in many of my own classes. But I didn’t connect it to the context of the debate here at Harvard about limiting Jewish enrollments until I was working through the archives of his Jewish colleague, Harry Austryn Wolfson, and encountered a 1922 letter in which Wolfson adduces the article in this context.
annetteyreed.bsky.social
My discussion of Moore is not lauding him for his understanding—it’s about his friendship with Harry Austryn Wolfson, and the hope that I found seeing how this friendship rooted real conversations across difference +
“Moore was a brilliant scholar. It is tempting to credit his rigor and erudition with enabling him to see beyond centuries of erasures, but also to see and name the erasures. What I suspect, however, is that his insights may also pertain to something far more quotidian, but arguably much more powerful—namely: friendship.”
annetteyreed.bsky.social
Hmm… I wrote a piece about the epistemic erasure of Jews & my institution posted about it in a manner that doesn’t mention Jews—should I be happy they proved my point or upset…? 🤔
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed
harvarddivinity.bsky.social
For the Center for the Study of World Religions, Prof. Francis X. Clooney, S.J. reflects on his work with the immersive early Tamil devotional poetry.
Until One Is Immersed: A Journey through Early Tamil Devotional Poetry | Center for the Study of World Religions
cswr.hds.harvard.edu
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed
johngmarks.com
Delivering a webinar about the @aaslh.org ”Reframing History” project to the @alliancetxhistory.bsky.social this evening, helping their members use research-backed tools for communicating about inclusive history in a challenging time.
Reposted by Annette Yoshiko Reed