Jamie Banks (they)
@jacobusbanks.bsky.social
CUNY classics PhD S, polyglot poet, translator, ex-mathematician.
(Neo)-Latin scientific poetry, hist of sci, spoken Latin, EM multilingualism, pedagogy, storytelling
Mad/neurodivergent. 🖖IDIC 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
https://jamiekennethbanks.wordpress.com/
(Neo)-Latin scientific poetry, hist of sci, spoken Latin, EM multilingualism, pedagogy, storytelling
Mad/neurodivergent. 🖖IDIC 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
https://jamiekennethbanks.wordpress.com/
I am automatically suspicious of any white person on a board or in a suit who gets excited that I’m a Latin teacher & I just wanna have interests I can shareee no side of fash
One of the things you learn as an ancient historian is that when you sit next to a white guy on a plane and they ask you what you do, you are going to to need to tell them that you are an accountant.
November 9, 2025 at 11:53 PM
I am automatically suspicious of any white person on a board or in a suit who gets excited that I’m a Latin teacher & I just wanna have interests I can shareee no side of fash
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
Celebrating my return to regular Friday livestreams, I’ve reduced the price on a few of my latest paintings. As always, Free US shipping
christopher-doll.com/product/hidd...
christopher-doll.com/product/hidd...
Hidden Worlds II
24″ x 48″ canvas, painted with oils and varnished. Painting is ready to hang as is or can be framed
christopher-doll.com
September 13, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Celebrating my return to regular Friday livestreams, I’ve reduced the price on a few of my latest paintings. As always, Free US shipping
christopher-doll.com/product/hidd...
christopher-doll.com/product/hidd...
Student being so rude: “I’m a freshman, class of 2029”
I’ve survived a lot in my life butttt I might not survive that attack.
I’ve survived a lot in my life butttt I might not survive that attack.
September 13, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Student being so rude: “I’m a freshman, class of 2029”
I’ve survived a lot in my life butttt I might not survive that attack.
I’ve survived a lot in my life butttt I might not survive that attack.
New piece on precocious children seeing beauty through STEM up on my blog. Math whizzes are humans too and elementary school teachers need to see that in them. #2e #gifted #teaching #neurodivergent
The Humanness of Whizardry
That Pi Day a 2nd grader beat out 12th graders in the school-wide recitation contest and left the auditorium with a mouth full of pie. I’d known of the child–a whiz with numbers, his Lo…
jamiekennethbanks.wordpress.com
August 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
New piece on precocious children seeing beauty through STEM up on my blog. Math whizzes are humans too and elementary school teachers need to see that in them. #2e #gifted #teaching #neurodivergent
Realizing I like writing that doesn’t have an explicit point. I suspect this is one reason I’m drawn to translation & commentary over thesis-driven aca writing.
in that vein: been drafting stuff for my blog’s revival lately! Here’s an old (2020!) piece in that “story, not message” trad #polyglot
in that vein: been drafting stuff for my blog’s revival lately! Here’s an old (2020!) piece in that “story, not message” trad #polyglot
Polyglottery: from my life’s soundtrack to its main act
A Middlebury chapel, where I started living & creating in German at the Deutsche Schule I am not your typical atypical polyglot. I thrived in traditional language classes in school—so I t…
jamiekennethbanks.wordpress.com
August 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Realizing I like writing that doesn’t have an explicit point. I suspect this is one reason I’m drawn to translation & commentary over thesis-driven aca writing.
in that vein: been drafting stuff for my blog’s revival lately! Here’s an old (2020!) piece in that “story, not message” trad #polyglot
in that vein: been drafting stuff for my blog’s revival lately! Here’s an old (2020!) piece in that “story, not message” trad #polyglot
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
FWIW, I’ve got an archive of self-created, self-hosted, open-source, non-extractive, non-surveillant class websites going back 22 years! wordsinspace.net/classes/
“…faculty members will be able to click an icon that connects them with various AI features…, like a grading tool, a discussion-post summarizer… Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, is also in partnership w/ OpenAI… so instructors can use generative-AI technology as part of their assignments.”
Instructors Will Now See AI Throughout a Widely Used Course Software
New features integrated into Canvas include a grading assistant, a discussion-post summarizer, and even a way to pair assignments with generative AI tools.
www.chronicle.com
July 23, 2025 at 9:18 PM
FWIW, I’ve got an archive of self-created, self-hosted, open-source, non-extractive, non-surveillant class websites going back 22 years! wordsinspace.net/classes/
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
A must-read about the cuts to the NEH and their impact on the study of the ancient world. open.substack.com/pub/pastsimp...
Pasts Imperfect (4.17.25)
Saving, Celebrating, and Defending the work and the workers behind the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the NEH Office of Digital Humanities (ODH)
open.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
A must-read about the cuts to the NEH and their impact on the study of the ancient world. open.substack.com/pub/pastsimp...
Be your students’ coach and cheerleader, not a cop.
Applies at ALL levels and settings.
Applies at ALL levels and settings.
May 19, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Be your students’ coach and cheerleader, not a cop.
Applies at ALL levels and settings.
Applies at ALL levels and settings.
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
A huge problem with the way we discuss politics is that polite society abhors words like “racist” as impolite slurs rather than viewing them as analytical terms - which is why we are constantly asked to please not call those pursuing a political project of re-segregation racists or segregationists.
When I wrote that these folks were segregationists, the response from some quarters was that I was exaggerating or missing the bigger picture.
But they are literally segregationists and increasingly open about that fact.
But they are literally segregationists and increasingly open about that fact.
Some Republicans Push to Put School Desegregation Officially in the Past
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2025 at 2:49 PM
A huge problem with the way we discuss politics is that polite society abhors words like “racist” as impolite slurs rather than viewing them as analytical terms - which is why we are constantly asked to please not call those pursuing a political project of re-segregation racists or segregationists.
Helping someone do an original Greek prose comp for a class like “oh there’s a cute cheeky (idiomatic) way to do this”…meanwhile I can’t think of a standard way to say it, so good thing they vibe sass 🤣
April 29, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Helping someone do an original Greek prose comp for a class like “oh there’s a cute cheeky (idiomatic) way to do this”…meanwhile I can’t think of a standard way to say it, so good thing they vibe sass 🤣
Hoo boy this timeline (see quoted article too)
I just attended a conference in the US. We had one speaker detained and two others turned away at the border.
There are great conferences and science in the US, but with the way things are right now, it’s too risky to attend.
April 15, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Hoo boy this timeline (see quoted article too)
For how annoying Seneca is in the ethical phil & many of the letters, I’m both disarmed and irritated that I love his tragedies & the Natural Investigations so much.
April 2, 2025 at 12:16 PM
For how annoying Seneca is in the ethical phil & many of the letters, I’m both disarmed and irritated that I love his tragedies & the Natural Investigations so much.
I have SO MANY poetry collections to read but, like my (dark-chocolate-specific) desert stomach, I’ll always take more when need moves….
April is National Poetry Month. In celebration of poetry’s vital necessity, we put together a list of poetry books that contain stories of resistance, sorrow, solidarity and hope in our struggles to change the world.
“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.”
“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.” —Audre Lorde
April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, we put together a list of poetry books that tell stories of resistance...
www.haymarketbooks.org
April 2, 2025 at 2:56 AM
I have SO MANY poetry collections to read but, like my (dark-chocolate-specific) desert stomach, I’ll always take more when need moves….
Excited to show folks the wacky range of Neo-Latin themes & genres! A little NASA, a little cannibalism (Swift-style)…
There are TWO days left to sign up for Spring Courses with us! Amazing courses in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Old English! Experience Latin at speed with Roberto Salazar, Read Beowulf with Graham Scheper, Read Neo-Latin with @jacobusbanks.bsky.social, and SO MUCH MORE!!!
habesnelac.com/courses
habesnelac.com/courses
LAC Courses — Latinitas Animi Causa
LAC offers a range of courses in which we teach people how to speak Latin and ancient Greek, help them improve their speaking ability, and simply teach ancient texts in the target language! We also fr...
habesnelac.com
April 2, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Excited to show folks the wacky range of Neo-Latin themes & genres! A little NASA, a little cannibalism (Swift-style)…
Wooof yeah. As a post I saw ages ago put it, “the inconsistency is the [ADHD] disability.” and it’s consistency that builds trust.
I think the worst part of #ADHD is the way it costs us our relationship to ourselves; our ability to trust ourselves to follow through and to see ourselves not only as competent, but as beings worthy of forgiveness and love even when imperfect.
March 20, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Wooof yeah. As a post I saw ages ago put it, “the inconsistency is the [ADHD] disability.” and it’s consistency that builds trust.
sources are richer than talking points. Ovid has the most accurate to me desc of being non-binary as I revisit myth of Hermaphroditus & his (sic) lover merging into one!
“a double form, it can’t be said woman or boy, but seems both neither and both” (Ovid Met 4.378-9 - yep just TWO lines!)
“a double form, it can’t be said woman or boy, but seems both neither and both” (Ovid Met 4.378-9 - yep just TWO lines!)
March 8, 2025 at 10:33 PM
sources are richer than talking points. Ovid has the most accurate to me desc of being non-binary as I revisit myth of Hermaphroditus & his (sic) lover merging into one!
“a double form, it can’t be said woman or boy, but seems both neither and both” (Ovid Met 4.378-9 - yep just TWO lines!)
“a double form, it can’t be said woman or boy, but seems both neither and both” (Ovid Met 4.378-9 - yep just TWO lines!)
🎯💀🇺🇸
Sesame Street really tells the story of America:
- Created for PBS to educate young (especially Black!) children
- Becomes a beloved institution cherished by the entire country
- Gets privatized and kicked to premium cable due to budget cuts
- Unionization leads to mass layoffs
What a country!
- Created for PBS to educate young (especially Black!) children
- Becomes a beloved institution cherished by the entire country
- Gets privatized and kicked to premium cable due to budget cuts
- Unionization leads to mass layoffs
What a country!
March 6, 2025 at 4:38 AM
🎯💀🇺🇸
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
CFP: Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of #EarlyModern Natural Philosophy
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 26-27 June
Deadline for submission: 3 March
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/womens...
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 26-27 June
Deadline for submission: 3 March
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/womens...
February 12, 2025 at 10:42 AM
CFP: Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of #EarlyModern Natural Philosophy
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 26-27 June
Deadline for submission: 3 March
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/womens...
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 26-27 June
Deadline for submission: 3 March
all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/womens...
Have been focusing on shitposting & queer venting on social media since election, but here now as profesh me too going fwd, excited to learn the ly of land & reconnect w Latinists, translators & teachers!
February 13, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Have been focusing on shitposting & queer venting on social media since election, but here now as profesh me too going fwd, excited to learn the ly of land & reconnect w Latinists, translators & teachers!
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
Friends, let's visit the largest, most famous disability access ramp on Earth...
with a twist! About how our feelings about a bit of history can reverse completely based, not just on the historian’s POV, but what questions we ask 1/?
(Countdown to "Inventing the Renaissance" https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
with a twist! About how our feelings about a bit of history can reverse completely based, not just on the historian’s POV, but what questions we ask 1/?
(Countdown to "Inventing the Renaissance" https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
Inventing the Renaissance - Ada Palmer
In Inventing the Renaissance, acclaimed historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating.
www.adapalmer.com
January 28, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Friends, let's visit the largest, most famous disability access ramp on Earth...
with a twist! About how our feelings about a bit of history can reverse completely based, not just on the historian’s POV, but what questions we ask 1/?
(Countdown to "Inventing the Renaissance" https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
with a twist! About how our feelings about a bit of history can reverse completely based, not just on the historian’s POV, but what questions we ask 1/?
(Countdown to "Inventing the Renaissance" https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
I just learned of and am SO excited for @adapalmer.bsky.social ’s book Inventing the Renaissance out next month!
Psyched bc my research interests in Early Modern & commitment to Latin as a chosen-family lang that belongs to no-one—
& also her novels are great & she is generous!
Psyched bc my research interests in Early Modern & commitment to Latin as a chosen-family lang that belongs to no-one—
& also her novels are great & she is generous!
Inventing the Renaissance
An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age. From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawni...
press.uchicago.edu
February 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
I just learned of and am SO excited for @adapalmer.bsky.social ’s book Inventing the Renaissance out next month!
Psyched bc my research interests in Early Modern & commitment to Latin as a chosen-family lang that belongs to no-one—
& also her novels are great & she is generous!
Psyched bc my research interests in Early Modern & commitment to Latin as a chosen-family lang that belongs to no-one—
& also her novels are great & she is generous!
Great pleasures of life: Making a student’s life easier by quick granting a request that’s no work for me & big diff for them!
November 27, 2024 at 7:58 PM
Great pleasures of life: Making a student’s life easier by quick granting a request that’s no work for me & big diff for them!
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
I don't have my students do the full revision, but I do an abbreviated version of this exercise and the students basically reach the same conclusion.
🤔 Plot twist: I GAVE seniors an AI draft to revise
Had to change 50-90%
Add course evidence
Explain their changes
https://buff.ly/3OeySM5
Result: Better essays, zero cheating, and students discovering AI's limits 🚀
#EduSky #AIinEducation #TeacherStrategy #AcademicIntegrity
Had to change 50-90%
Add course evidence
Explain their changes
https://buff.ly/3OeySM5
Result: Better essays, zero cheating, and students discovering AI's limits 🚀
#EduSky #AIinEducation #TeacherStrategy #AcademicIntegrity
Revising From an AI Created Essay Draft: An end run around potential unethical behavior
An educational blog about edtech and literacy by a high school English teacher who is an author and a Google For Education Certified Innovator.
buff.ly
November 23, 2024 at 4:50 PM
I don't have my students do the full revision, but I do an abbreviated version of this exercise and the students basically reach the same conclusion.
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
Social Emotional Check-in as we start orbits in AP Physics 1 tomorrow: Which 3 body orbit are you?
Source: www.youtube.com/shorts/6EvaV...
🎢🍎
Source: www.youtube.com/shorts/6EvaV...
🎢🍎
November 20, 2024 at 1:33 AM
Social Emotional Check-in as we start orbits in AP Physics 1 tomorrow: Which 3 body orbit are you?
Source: www.youtube.com/shorts/6EvaV...
🎢🍎
Source: www.youtube.com/shorts/6EvaV...
🎢🍎
Reposted by Jamie Banks (they)
This is a massive problem at a lot of universities/colleges. Libraries are seen by admin as soft targets and faculty aren’t paying enough attention.
I can tell you that at CUNY library budgets are being cut, librarians are leaving, and students can't come for research classes because library budgets are being cut and librarians are leaving.
November 21, 2024 at 3:10 AM
This is a massive problem at a lot of universities/colleges. Libraries are seen by admin as soft targets and faculty aren’t paying enough attention.