Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 1d

Excited to be presenting at this conference at UCLA this weekend!

www.cmrs.ucla.edu/event/post-c...

Post-Classical Libraries Conference - UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies

Libraries occupied a central place in the organization and reproduction of pre-modern knowledge cultures. Texts had been assembled in archives of various kinds from the Bronze Age, but most were...

www.cmrs.ucla.edu

1 7 20

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Christy Cobb @christycobb.bsky.social · 10h

My recent volume, Ancient Slavery and Its New Testament Contexts, is currently on sale through Amazon for only $4. If you’re interested, here’s the link!

a.co/d/2CiYMh6

Amazon.com

a.co

3 7 18

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

And-BOO 👻 Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 1d

NAPS! Call for papers!

13 (!!) amazing looking thematic sessions to apply to, plus the general call for papers!

www.patristics.org/annual-meeti...

Call for Papers – NAPS – The North American Patristics Society

www.patristics.org

6 6

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 23h

Or, of course, works transmitted in Armenian!

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 23h

Ancient Mediterranean *texts*

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 23h

Not to mention the fact that, outside of a relatively narrow canon of “classical” and theological texts, an enormous number of ancient Mediterranean lack a full critical edition. (And this is even more true for works transmitted primarily in Syriac and Arabic.)

2 1

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 1d

Excited to be presenting at this conference at UCLA this weekend!

www.cmrs.ucla.edu/event/post-c...

Post-Classical Libraries Conference - UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies

Libraries occupied a central place in the organization and reproduction of pre-modern knowledge cultures. Texts had been assembled in archives of various kinds from the Bronze Age, but most were...

www.cmrs.ucla.edu

1 7 20

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Study of Religion as an Analytical Discipline Workshop @soraaad.bsky.social · 1d

"In 4 exploratory essays a seasoned historian @emuehlbe.bsky.social examines the mechanisms by which ancient people came to have knowledge—not of the world and its myriad processes but abt something more intimate...the individuals they encountered in close quarters, those they knew in everyday life"

Ellen Muehlberger @emuehlbe.bsky.social · 1d

Usually, to show an author love, the first rule is: buy the book. And, you can totally buy this book---but, it's also available OA, which means you can in a few weeks' time get it for free.
luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1...

So, the updated rule: to show an author love, get her book and read it!

Things Unseen | University of California Press

How do you know the nature of another person: who she is, or what she is capable of? In four exploratory essays, a seasoned historian examines the mechanisms by which ancient people came to have knowl...

luminosoa.org

7 7

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Ellen Muehlberger @emuehlbe.bsky.social · 1d

Usually, to show an author love, the first rule is: buy the book. And, you can totally buy this book---but, it's also available OA, which means you can in a few weeks' time get it for free.
luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1...

So, the updated rule: to show an author love, get her book and read it!

Things Unseen | University of California Press

How do you know the nature of another person: who she is, or what she is capable of? In four exploratory essays, a seasoned historian examines the mechanisms by which ancient people came to have knowl...

luminosoa.org

2 17 28

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Dr Lewis Webb @lewismarkwebb.bsky.social · 2d

I am deeply honoured that the American Journal of Philology awarded my article 'Spectatissima femina: Female visibility and religion in urban spaces in Republican Rome' the AJP Best Article Prize for 2024.

Citation: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

#AncientBlueSky #ClassicsBlueSky #BlueSkyClassics

5 9 44

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Rare Book School @rarebookschool.bsky.social · 14d

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) at RBS invites applicants to its 2025 cohort of Junior Fellows.

Applications are due 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟵 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿.

For details about this & other RBS scholarships & fellowships, visit tinyurl.com/Apply-SoFCB-2025

A vertically oriented rectangular graphic is split into an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper half shows a photo of a woman with pulled-back dark brown hair wearing a dark dress jacket and scarf. To her left, bold black text reads “I feel no hesitation saying that joining the SoFCB fully transformed my academic life and research.” Below the woman, smaller text in white reads, “Elizaveta Strakhov, Past President, Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB)”. The lower portion of the graphic has a mostly white background with a couple of horizontal bars in gray and black. Text in white, black, red, and yellow reads, “Apply now! The SoFCB Junior Fellows Program. Application Deadline: Wednesday, 19 November 2025. Learn more & apply at tinyurl.com/Apply-SoFCB-2025.”

2 13 19

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 4d

Congratulations!

1

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Lauren Randall @laurenrndll.bsky.social · 12d

CFP: “Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West” at Durham University in July 2026. We are interested in a wide range of papers exploring ways in which scriptural texts (produced roughly c. 500-1000) were presented and used.

Durham Uni, 2–5 July 2026
From c. 500-1000, Christian scriptures were produced and used in a diverse range of forms and contexts. A manuscript may include a single biblical text (the psalter, a gospel), a collection of texts (the Hexateuch, the gospels), or, rarely, a complete “New Testament” or “Bible” in the modern sense. The distinctiveness of a manuscript is shown by content and textual affiliation, its palaeographical and codicological characteristics, and its paratextual features – from illustrations of biblical narratives, author portraits, and illuminated lettering to canon tables, capitula, prefatory materials, and glosses. Once in circulation, a manuscript’s contexts of use may also vary. Different uses correspond to different users with distinct and perhaps conflicting priorities/goals. Production and use(s) may occur at the same site or at far distant times and places.

This conference aims to explore topics related to both the physical presentation and the use of scriptural manuscripts produced in the Early Medieval period (c. 500–1000 CE). We welcome paper proposals from scholars working in all areas of this field, including PhD students. Whatever the specific topic, priority may be given to papers that also relate it to the wider focus of the conference on both “form” (or “production”) and “use”. We hope to be able to cover presenters’ full conference costs with the exception of travel.
Titles and Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to Lauren Randall (lauren.m.randall@durham.ac.uk), copied to Francis Watson (francis.watson@durham.ac.uk), by Monday 17 November. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words. Papers should be 25 minutes, allowing 20 minute discussion. There will be keynote papers/presentations. Please contact us if you have any questions!

This event forms part of our sub-project “Text, Format, and Reader”, focused on Codex Amiatinus and funded by the Glasgow-based “Paratexts Seeking Understanding” project (Templeton Religion Trust)

1 11 14

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 6d

The latest Pasts Imperfect is out! This week, art historian Lachelle Oglesby discusses obelisks, Roman colonialism, & the AAR summer school. Then, a video game on repatriation, the Nubian ivory trade, a new Roman wood workshop, new ancient world journals by @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social & much more.

Pasts Imperfect (10.9.25)

This week, art historian and AAR Classical Summer School attendee Lachelle Oglesby discusses obelisks, Roman colonialism, and lived experiences in ancient Rome. Then, a new video game allows you to "r...

pasts-imperfect.ghost.io

3 29 71

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

James Harland @jmharland.bsky.social · 7d

Reposting because this ought to get more views.

James Harland @jmharland.bsky.social · 11d

At the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies we are offering 10 fellowships for scholars at any stage in their careers to stay with us for up to 6 months (PhD candidates and senior academics) or 12 months (postdocs) to complete a research project:

www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/images/pdf-f...

www.dependency.uni-bonn.de

16 25

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 9d

In the new issue of the Journal of Early Christian Studies (JECS), ancient med scholar Katherine Beydler & I have a new review of _Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean 500 BCE–600 CE: A Sourcebook_ by Kristi Upson-Saia, Heidi Marx, & Jared Secord muse.jhu.edu/search?actio...

[204.144.212.78] Project MUSE (2025-10-06 13:09 GMT) The University of lowa
BOOK REVIEWS 493
"metaphor squared," defined as "merging or grafting one upon another" several dulled classical metaphors to restore their luster (131). Ennodius, Merobaudes, and Arator provide the evidence. Helen Kaufmann employs "constructed unity" to counter charges that long-form poetry lacked the "organic unity" idealized by Romantic criticism. She focuses on the allegedly disruptive "descriptive digression, which she repositions as examples of variatio that impart unity (115). Andreas Abel analyzes the "Neoplatonists" (246) Macrobius and Symmachus, illustrating the "macrostructural level" unity (253) yielded by Neoplatonic metaphysics and numerology in works that appear "fragmentary and episodic" (245). Joshua Hartman and Jacob Levernier apply computational analysis to the texts contained in Musisque deoque to show that the count of enumerative lines distributed over time corroborates Robert's "hypothesis" that "single-word enumerations"
are
"more common in late antique poetry" (84).
The book's fourth chapter, Frances Foster's essay addressing how the jeweled style was learned, provides a suitable coda. She suggests that Servius's Vergilian commentary imparts a sense of how students learned poetry and reminds us that Ausonius and the professores he commemorated transmitted the rudiments of poetic composition in this mode to their elite students, which in Ausonius's case included the influential senator turned monastic impresario and Christian poet Paulinus of Nola. The long-term impact of this instruction, practiced in schools throughout the late imperial west, canonized the poetics of the jeweled style, ensuring its persistence for generations to come. In short, this volume confirms the security of the pathways Roberts plotted and points to new ones leading in the same direction: a deeper appreciation of late antique poetry. For scholars of early and late ancient Christianity such an …

494 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
torical summaries for students to read. They can even serve as aids to the course design process. However, all anthologies and sourcebooks are prone to criticisms regarding what to include or exclude, what should be emphasized or elided, who should be allowed space, and why. Regardless of these debates, sourcebooks in translation can help reveal the ancient world to new groups of students that may not otherwise be able to read texts in the original Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, or many other ancient languages. As such, the publication of Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE-600 CE): A Sourcebook (hereafter MHHAM) provides many compelling tools for instructors focused on the history of medicine and science in the ancient Mediterranean, particularly in its ability to speak to those entering into the fields of public health, the history of medicine, and the study of Science, Technology, and Society (STS).
The authors of this review used the sourcebook in two variant ways for two different courses. One used it as one of two textbooks assigned in a course focused on ancient medicine, a "Historical Perspectives" general education course taught as a large lecture class through a Classics Department at a state research university.
The other reviewer used portions in a survey course focused on Roman History within a History Department at the same institution. We found that the wide variety of primary sources in accessible translation presented the biggest benefit in both courses. The source material used to study ancient medicine is a major challenge at the undergraduate level, especially in a general education curriculum.
Medical texts, while increasingly available thanks to the work of projects like the Cambridge Galen Translations, are often not available in modern language translation. Even texts that are translated are not reliably available for free online; many Hippocratic texts are only available i…

BOOK REVIEWS 495
The MHHAM is useful to both novices and experts of the world of ancient medicine. The variety of excerpted sources makes it a good choice for any instructor whose research background might not be in Greco-Roman medicine.
In addition to the medical writings typically used in ancient medicine courses like case histories, therapeutic texts, and recipe books, MHHAM includes epistles (Fronto and Seneca), philosophy (Plato), ancient science (Theophrastus), historical writings (Thucydides and Procopius), and agronomy (Cato). It can be easy to maintain a narrow focus that leaves students without a robust understanding of the context in which medicine was practiced. The MHHAM provides opportunities for learning about the ancient world more broadly from a variety of perspectives, including patients and thinkers who theorized about the universe, the body, or medical materials. For those who have strong preferences about texts which are not included in this volume, it's simple to supplement with certain time periods, authors, or categories. To help better represent the diversity of thought in the Hippocratic corpus, we added the text of the Anonymous Londinensis papyrus from first-century c.e. Egypt, On the Heart, and Breaths. From Galen's corpus, we added The Best Doctor is also a Philosopher, which provides a kind of professional standard for doctors and allows students to contextualize the lack of credentialing processes in imperial Rome. For those wishing to add even more Galen, P.N. Singer's 2025 Galen anthology makes such modifications easier than
ever.
The organization of the MHHAM is topical rather than chronological, an approach that has both strengths and weaknesses. Two brief introductory chapters cover the rationale for the textbook, the current evidence base, and a brief chronological overview from early Greek natural philosophers to late antiquity.
The rest of the text is organized thematically (e.g., "Diagnosis," "Case Histories,
"Ethics and Prof…

496 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Each chapter's introductory synthesis was generally useful for students, especially in elucidating the relationships between the thinkers quoted in the chapter. Pre-med students within our courses engaged with the introduction to the physicians in Chapter Eleven and enjoyed learning about variant types of medical training alongside the Latin and Greek epigraphic evidence for medical professionals that followed. It was revelatory to see young women connecting with Naevia Clara, a freedwoman and physician (306), after previously believing that only Roman men could serve as physicians. At times, the chapter introductions can be reductive in synthesizing the material thereafter. For example, in the section "Women's Illnesses," the authors write,
"Because women were colder,
medical writers reasoned, they lacked the innate heat to digest their food as completely as men..." (133). However, in the first primary text offered in the same chapter, Diseases of Women I, the ancient author describes how women's suffusion with blood makes their bodies warmer than those of men. One of the most difficult things to impart sufficiently to undergraduates studying ancient medical practices is the great diversity and cultural variation of ideas regarding health and the body. Even within the Hippocratic Corpus, instructors must take care to clarify the nuance of the views that fit under the broad "Hippocratic" umbrella. Because students use the introductory synthesis to contextualize the ancient sources in each chapter, that nuance is especially important to include from the start.
The MHHAM effectively presents the material evidence (often with photos of the objects, inscriptions, or medical tools) for ancient medicine alongside textual evidence. The translations are accessible, geographically diverse, and extremely valuable for students without any prior training in ancient languages. It also underscores emerging tactics for recovering the life and…

1 4 23

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

And-BOO 👻 Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 10d

hey, my review of Paula Fredriksen's ANCIENT CHRISTIANITIES is out in the new Journal of Early Christian Studies!

(spoiler: it's good)

muse.jhu.edu/article/970939

Project MUSE - <i>Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years</i> by Paula Fredriksen (review)

muse.jhu.edu

2 5 25

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Frédérique Rey @frdrqrey.bsky.social · 22d

6 years POSTOC in Biblical Studies - Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in (m/w/d) at Humboldt University Berlin

More details here:
haushalt-und-personal.hu-berlin.de/de/personal/...

Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in (m/w/d) auf dem Gebiet der Biblischen Theologie max. befristet für 6 Jahre gem. WissZeitVG - E 13 TV-L

haushalt-und-personal.hu-berlin.de

12 14

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 10d

I have a Stanley camp mug that I love. It feels like a regular coffee mug without the lid, but it covers and lets me transport my caffeine from home without spilling everywhere.

1 2

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 11d

Congratulations!

1

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Alexi Chantziantoniou @alexichantz.bsky.social · May 5

𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮 has a cover and a website!

Conceived as a companion to PwJ (Fortress, 2015), this is the first go-to introductory resource on PwP (Fortress, 2025). The publication date is set for 4 Nov 2025, just in time for SBL.

www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...

Paul within Paganism: Restoring the Mediterranean Context to the Apostle

Leading and rising scholars introduce a burgeoning new approach to the study of Paul, which situates the Jewish apostle to gentiles within the wider world of ancient Mediterranean religion.

www.fortresspress.com

6 10 29

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · Sep 15

The Association of Ancient Historians meeting will be in Iowa City from April 16-18, 2026. For those new to the AAH, we have preset panel themes; you pick 1 to apply to. The theme overall is Ancient Exchanges in a Global Antiquity. See CFP: abstracts are due by December 1. aah.conference.uiowa.edu

AAH Annual Conference 2026 | The University of Iowa

The 2026 AAH Annual Meeting will take place in person at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA from April 16-18, 2026. We invite abstracts for papers of 15-20 minutes in length. Please submit anonym...

aah.conference.uiowa.edu

4 22 49

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 13d

Berkeley.

1 1

Jeremiah Coogan @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social · 13d

Congratulations!

1 1

Reposted by Jeremiah Coogan

Jennifer Barry @jennisifire.bsky.social · 13d

Also, if you are a #NAPS member, I have linked to a live stream. It was supposed to posted on the website, but for some reason it is not there... hm. It is 5PM EST so please send a DM if you'd like a link

Jennifer Barry @jennisifire.bsky.social · 13d

Today is the day! The Elizabeth A. Clark Lecture will be given by @vox-magica.bsky.social Hope to see some bluesky folks there

3 6