Bruno M. Shirley
@brunomshirley.com
Historian of Buddhism, political thought, and gender in medieval Sri Lanka. Kiwi in Heidelberg. Big fan of nice maps.
He/Er/ඔහු/அவர்
He/Er/ඔහු/அவர்
I shall henceforth always refer to GenAI as "the gibbering mouth froth of rabid autocomplete."
(also this book and interview are both generally excellent)
(also this book and interview are both generally excellent)
I have a new interview about RAKESFALL up at Reactor! In which I am quite verbose reactormag.com/author-inter...
A Conversation With Vajra Chandrasekera, Author of Rakesfall - Reactor
"I think writers, like all artists, have a responsibility to act as human cultural workers in an actual society"
reactormag.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
I shall henceforth always refer to GenAI as "the gibbering mouth froth of rabid autocomplete."
(also this book and interview are both generally excellent)
(also this book and interview are both generally excellent)
The line "Señorita, feel the conga, let me see you move LIKE you come from Colombia" has never made much sense to me since Shakira actually DOES come from Colombia. Please enjoy these alternatives, with which I have been torturing my Colombian partner all day.
November 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
The line "Señorita, feel the conga, let me see you move LIKE you come from Colombia" has never made much sense to me since Shakira actually DOES come from Colombia. Please enjoy these alternatives, with which I have been torturing my Colombian partner all day.
This is a great read, well worth a subscription to the Examiner. A substantial preview of the article is available above the paywall too www.examiner.media/conclave-in-...
Conclave in Kandy: election for the ‘highest lay office in the Buddhist world’
The Kandyans will elect the next Diyawadana Nilame this evening. He will oversee the tooth relic and the Maligawa’s worldly affairs. Seven candidates are contesting, including a university lecturer, a...
www.examiner.media
November 7, 2025 at 8:34 AM
This is a great read, well worth a subscription to the Examiner. A substantial preview of the article is available above the paywall too www.examiner.media/conclave-in-...
This could be my opportunity to stake out my own niche of academic Brunoism
IMPORTANT update
there are NO gifs of Bruno Latour. it just suggests various clips of Bruno Mars which honestly is not the right vibe
there are NO gifs of Bruno Latour. it just suggests various clips of Bruno Mars which honestly is not the right vibe
as an over enthusiastic user of gifs i regret to inform any of you who didn’t already know this unsurprising but depressing fact: the gif libraries on these platforms are all flooded with generated videos now
November 4, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This could be my opportunity to stake out my own niche of academic Brunoism
#WebinAAR | On Friday 7 Nov, at 12pm ET / 6pm CET, I’ll be speaking in an AAR webinar on Buddhist feminist historiography, in conversation with Steph Balkwill and other excellent folks. Q and A follows; register now and join the discussion: my.aarweb.org/event-inform...
November 4, 2025 at 11:36 AM
#WebinAAR | On Friday 7 Nov, at 12pm ET / 6pm CET, I’ll be speaking in an AAR webinar on Buddhist feminist historiography, in conversation with Steph Balkwill and other excellent folks. Q and A follows; register now and join the discussion: my.aarweb.org/event-inform...
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
This is, with the benefit of Atlantic distance, hilarious. It is also deeply, deeply disturbing.
Open the page. Scroll down to the timeline. Go through the timeline.
It’s… shocking
It’s… shocking
The White House Building
Every president since John Adams has occupied the White House, and the history of this building extends far beyond the construction of its walls. From the Ground Floor Corridor rooms, transformed from...
www.whitehouse.gov
October 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
This is, with the benefit of Atlantic distance, hilarious. It is also deeply, deeply disturbing.
Good copyedits need a good kittyeditor
September 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Good copyedits need a good kittyeditor
I have lived in Germany for two years now and still whenever I hear small children chatting away in public my first thought is "wow their German is so good, they must study very hard"
August 8, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I have lived in Germany for two years now and still whenever I hear small children chatting away in public my first thought is "wow their German is so good, they must study very hard"
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
New #cfp from the Journal of Transcultural Studies for a special issue on “Transcultural Histories of Monarchy” - abstracts to be sent to [email protected] by 1st Sept!
The essays will explore the ways in which monarchies incorporate “the foreign” into the familiar.
The essays will explore the ways in which monarchies incorporate “the foreign” into the familiar.
August 1, 2025 at 12:20 PM
New #cfp from the Journal of Transcultural Studies for a special issue on “Transcultural Histories of Monarchy” - abstracts to be sent to [email protected] by 1st Sept!
The essays will explore the ways in which monarchies incorporate “the foreign” into the familiar.
The essays will explore the ways in which monarchies incorporate “the foreign” into the familiar.
Stephanie Balkwill's The Women Who Ruled China is an incredible book, with methodological takeaways for historians of gender and power in every context. Read my review for @royalstudies.bsky.social here: rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/10....
The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century. By Stephanie Balkwill. University of California Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-0520401815. 272 pp | Royal Studies Jo...
rsj.winchester.ac.uk
July 5, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Stephanie Balkwill's The Women Who Ruled China is an incredible book, with methodological takeaways for historians of gender and power in every context. Read my review for @royalstudies.bsky.social here: rsj.winchester.ac.uk/articles/10....
I've just had an article come out on a poem from medieval Sri Lanka, and what it might tell us about attitudes towards renunciation, religious paths, and the proximate goals of Buddhist practice: pwj.shin-ibs.edu/2025/7164
Buddhist Poetics in Medieval Sri Lanka: The Muvadev-dā-vata Reconsidered
This article offers a close reading of the twelfth-century Muvadev-dā-vata, one of the earliest Sinhala-language poetic works to model itself on the Sanskrit kāvya. While earlier studies of the Muv…
pwj.shin-ibs.edu
June 2, 2025 at 9:20 AM
I've just had an article come out on a poem from medieval Sri Lanka, and what it might tell us about attitudes towards renunciation, religious paths, and the proximate goals of Buddhist practice: pwj.shin-ibs.edu/2025/7164
Just days before Vesak, Sotheby's plan to auction off sacred relics of the Buddha—stolen in the colonial destruction of a stūpa, no less—to the highest bidder.
religionnews.com/2025/04/22/a...
religionnews.com/2025/04/22/a...
Auctioning the Buddha's relics is perpetuating colonial violence
(RNS) — For the Buddhists who deposited these relics — as for Buddhists today — the gems, bone and ash all belong to the Buddha and shouldn’t just be sold to the highest bidder.
religionnews.com
May 2, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Just days before Vesak, Sotheby's plan to auction off sacred relics of the Buddha—stolen in the colonial destruction of a stūpa, no less—to the highest bidder.
religionnews.com/2025/04/22/a...
religionnews.com/2025/04/22/a...
A new issue of the Journal of Transcultural Studies is now available open-access! It features articles by @jaydprosser.bsky.social (Leeds), Alexander Vesey (Tokyo), Ori Sela (Tel Aviv) and Dhruv Raina (New Delhi/Pune).
Great reads all; check them out here:
heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/tra...
Great reads all; check them out here:
heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/tra...
Vol. 15 No. 1-2 (2024)
| The Journal of Transcultural Studies
heiup.uni-heidelberg.de
March 7, 2025 at 2:23 PM
A new issue of the Journal of Transcultural Studies is now available open-access! It features articles by @jaydprosser.bsky.social (Leeds), Alexander Vesey (Tokyo), Ori Sela (Tel Aviv) and Dhruv Raina (New Delhi/Pune).
Great reads all; check them out here:
heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/tra...
Great reads all; check them out here:
heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/tra...
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
This is interesting. "Leading AI Models are now very good historians". It's a total clickbait title as I will expand on below. But several of the challenges put to the models, particularly palaeographical transcription and translation, it seems to perform well. Wills @ Exeter is using it for this.1
The leading AI models are now very good historians
Three case studies with GPT-4o, o1, and Claude Sonnet 3.5, and what they mean
resobscura.substack.com
January 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM
This is interesting. "Leading AI Models are now very good historians". It's a total clickbait title as I will expand on below. But several of the challenges put to the models, particularly palaeographical transcription and translation, it seems to perform well. Wills @ Exeter is using it for this.1
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
If you need a distraction today-- check out my new piece for Aeon!
I say there's no universal definition of fiction b/c how "fiction" is understood depends on a culture's metaphysics. Philosophy of fiction has been taking Greek metaphysics for granted. I say we branch out.
aeon.co/essays/befor...
I say there's no universal definition of fiction b/c how "fiction" is understood depends on a culture's metaphysics. Philosophy of fiction has been taking Greek metaphysics for granted. I say we branch out.
aeon.co/essays/befor...
January 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
If you need a distraction today-- check out my new piece for Aeon!
I say there's no universal definition of fiction b/c how "fiction" is understood depends on a culture's metaphysics. Philosophy of fiction has been taking Greek metaphysics for granted. I say we branch out.
aeon.co/essays/befor...
I say there's no universal definition of fiction b/c how "fiction" is understood depends on a culture's metaphysics. Philosophy of fiction has been taking Greek metaphysics for granted. I say we branch out.
aeon.co/essays/befor...
Historian friends, here's a new years resolution for you: no more Google Maps screenshots in your powerpoints! Thanks to Technology™ it's easy and free to make maps from scratch that look professional (or at least professional enough), even with my level of extremely limited technical skills.
January 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Historian friends, here's a new years resolution for you: no more Google Maps screenshots in your powerpoints! Thanks to Technology™ it's easy and free to make maps from scratch that look professional (or at least professional enough), even with my level of extremely limited technical skills.
This is a great piece, and I love the idea of academic articles having a General Abstract for non-specialists. But let's be real: the biggest barrier to academic accessibility is paywalls.
www.fairobserver.com/culture/all-...
www.fairobserver.com/culture/all-...
All the Light We Cannot See: Urgency for Understandable Academic Writing
Academic writing should be clear and accessible to both scholars and the general public. To achieve this, academics must simplify their work through clear summaries and public outreach.
www.fairobserver.com
December 30, 2024 at 7:55 AM
This is a great piece, and I love the idea of academic articles having a General Abstract for non-specialists. But let's be real: the biggest barrier to academic accessibility is paywalls.
www.fairobserver.com/culture/all-...
www.fairobserver.com/culture/all-...
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
Feminism, to be worthy of the name, has to be something more than mere attention to women’s experience of gender. It matters what that attention produces, what it has to say about women’s lives. “Women are always, essentially this subservient and cannot be otherwise” is not a feminist statement.
December 26, 2024 at 2:39 PM
Feminism, to be worthy of the name, has to be something more than mere attention to women’s experience of gender. It matters what that attention produces, what it has to say about women’s lives. “Women are always, essentially this subservient and cannot be otherwise” is not a feminist statement.
I first thought that the quote was some kind of cursed new lyrics for Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and oh no it turns out it's far more cursed than that
Elsevier products: ScienceDirect, Scopus, Mendeley, SciVal, SSRN, Pure, Interfolio. . .and that's not all.
"They know what you are working on, they know what you are submitting, they know the results of your peer reviews. They control every part of the process and register every action you take."
"They know what you are working on, they know what you are submitting, they know the results of your peer reviews. They control every part of the process and register every action you take."
Elsevier’s stranglehold on academia: How publishers get rich off our data
Academic publishers’ most valuable asset used to be their journals. Now, it’s the data they collect from researchers and then sell. That is extremely concerning, a growing group of Groningen researche...
ukrant.nl
December 13, 2024 at 8:49 AM
I first thought that the quote was some kind of cursed new lyrics for Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and oh no it turns out it's far more cursed than that
Great news for students of Sinhala outside of SL: Cornell has just made six of its textbooks totally open-access, including Gair and Karunatilaka's *Literary Sinhala*. This will make Sinhala-language materials far more accessible to scholars of Buddhism and SA
einaudi.cornell.edu/programs/sou...
einaudi.cornell.edu/programs/sou...
Sinhala Language
SAP is the world's leading publisher of Sinhala language textbooks, with books for colloquial and literary, beginning and intermediate language learners.Copies of our Sinhala Textbooks published in th...
einaudi.cornell.edu
December 11, 2024 at 2:12 PM
Great news for students of Sinhala outside of SL: Cornell has just made six of its textbooks totally open-access, including Gair and Karunatilaka's *Literary Sinhala*. This will make Sinhala-language materials far more accessible to scholars of Buddhism and SA
einaudi.cornell.edu/programs/sou...
einaudi.cornell.edu/programs/sou...
"Of Nerniacular Latin to an Evoolitun on Nance Langusages," or, reading between the lines of a pro-AI press release...
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
Comparative lit class will be first in Humanities Division to use UCLA-developed AI system
The textbook for Zrinka Stahuljak’s winter 2025 course is generated by the Kudu platform.
newsroom.ucla.edu
December 10, 2024 at 12:53 PM
"Of Nerniacular Latin to an Evoolitun on Nance Langusages," or, reading between the lines of a pro-AI press release...
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
This may not be a Death Knell for humanities in New Zealand, but it's at least a Very-Sickly Tinkle.
It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.
December 4, 2024 at 7:08 AM
This may not be a Death Knell for humanities in New Zealand, but it's at least a Very-Sickly Tinkle.
Reposted by Bruno M. Shirley
It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.
December 4, 2024 at 1:09 AM
It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.
Historical pet data is forever the most relatable data
1. How seriously did late imperial China's rulers treat their pets and/or job of archiving their everyday lives? Here're 2 registers from the No. 1 Historical Archives of the Qing royal family's cats and dogs (with names & years of birth/death). Two cats died after 9 years & one dog after 15 years.
December 3, 2024 at 4:17 AM
Historical pet data is forever the most relatable data