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Brian Ulrich

@brianjulrich.bsky.social

1.9K followers 650 following 760 posts

Professor of History @ShippensburgU, focused on Middle East since the rise of Islam, author of The Medieval Persian Gulf (https://www.arc-humanities.org/9781802700046/the-medieval-persian-gulf/), views are my own

www.arc-humanities.org

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · Oct 13

My book The Medieval Persian Gulf is meant as an accessible introduction to the region's history of multiculturalism and global connections, and among other places can be ordered directly from the publisher (with affordable international shipping!)

The Medieval Persian Gulf - Arc Humanities Press

The Persian Gulf today is home to multiple cosmopolitan urban hubs of globalization. This did not start with the discovery of oil. This book tells of the Gul...

www.arc-humanities.org

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S.J. Pearce @homophonous.bsky.social · 1h

Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains over his treatment of indigenous peoples. The literal king and queen of Spain who sponsored his voyage thought he went far too far.

George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 5h

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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Christian Callisen @ctcallisen.bsky.social · 1d

Medieval and Early Modern MENA Starter Pack (@brianjulrich.bsky.social)

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Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 12d

I have organised an amazing roster of *virtual* presentations for the Centre for Gulf Studies at Exeter. Check out these incredible superstars, and register for the events (Tuesdays 17-18.30 London time) here: www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...

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APSCUF @apscuf.org · 3d

"If you don’t support us, how can we grow?” —Professor Karl Lorenz, Shippensburg University

The anthropology program at SU draws to a close as Professor Karl Lorenz prepares for retirement

The Shippensburg University Sociology and Anthropology Department will undergo a major change following the spring 2026 semester as the only professor of anthropology, Karl Lorenz, will be retiring…

www.theslateonline.com

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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 3d

more gutter antisemitism from Mary Rambaran-Olm (read down in the thread where she suggests that she supports murdering Jews)

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 4d

This is a person who is still taken seriously and published in left-wing spaces.

To be clear: No, most Israeli Jews are not descended from Polish Jews. And even for the minority who are, it would obviously not be safe for them all to go there now, given the Polish government.

Tweet from Axel Folio, PhD: "To Poland where they are from"

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Daniel S. Goldberg @profgoldberg.bsky.social · 4d

Wow.

h/t @samanthabrennan.bsky.social

This looks really incredible.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This article examines the paradox of the humanities: they are simultaneously denigrated while non-humanities disciplines utilize (and champion) the very skills that are considered uniquely cultivated by a humanities education. My examination reveals that with the fissure between the humanities and other disciplines, knowledge about what the humanities do—and thus contribute to education in other fields—continues to diminish, furthering the cycle of marginalizing the humanities while also benefitting from them without attribution. I consider a time when a humanities education explicitly played a crucial role in the development of leaders, especially in business, because of the role the humanities played in the cultivation of analytical skills and the development of good judgement. I use this examination to consider what this lost connection means not only for the development of leaders but also for realizing the significant role that the humanities play across the professions and in our universities. The pedagogical role of the humanities in its development of analytical ability and judgment is crucial to public life from the flourishing of the business world to the lives we lead living with each other as fellow citizens.

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Ellen Muehlberger @emuehlbe.bsky.social · 5d

My review of Paula Fredriksen's Ancient Christianities is up at BMCR:

Ancient Christianities: the first five hundred years – Bryn Mawr Classical Review share.google/agnGwlBZmvkJ...

Ancient Christianities: the first five hundred years – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

share.google

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APSCUF @apscuf.org · 7d

“Because of ChatGPT, people assume that AI is just a chatbot, but AI is much broader." —Professor Sam Thangiah, Slippery Rock University

Thangiah explains impact of AI and how SRU is preparing students – SRU News

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way the world works — and Slippery Rock University is ensuring its graduates…

news.sru.edu

Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 7d

Yes!!!

Open Islamicate Texts Initiative @openiti.bsky.social · 7d

"[T]he initiative will provide free, global access to a constantly expanding body of classical and modern Persian texts. The project will also partner with institutions to help safeguard thousands of at-risk manuscripts and rare books from collections in India, Pakistan and beyond."

Roshan Institute to Establish Persian Digital Library | Maryland Today

Supported by $1.8M Private Gift, Project Will Be First of Its Kind

today.umd.edu

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Christoph Haack @christoph-haack.bsky.social · 7d

Another (quite exciting looking!) book from Tübingen!!

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 7d

Every day is a good day to protest the ongoing Gaza genocide, and I don't think every protest needs to mention Hamas's massacre.

However, holding a special mass protest on the 7th Oct anniversary without acknowledgment of Hamas's massacres on that day, is a very different thing.

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 8d

It is a great book, and actually talks about comedy as an arena for social critique

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 8d

I actually used a chapter of this about #SaudiArabia's emerging comedy scene in a class last year:

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 8d

Best piece I’ve read on Saudi’s comedy festival by a mile.

Unlike standard critics of “-washing” (sports-washing, pink-washing, green-washing & now comedy-washing), Leber grapples w/ domestic drivers of regime behaviour—and w/ how many everyday Saudis feel.

carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 10d

The famed limestone ostracon listing workers and their reasons for missing work is from the reign of Ramses II, circa 1250 BCE. Making beer (for the Gods) and taking care of one’s mother and fetching stone for a scribe are indeed valid excuses for missing work. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 10d

The latter, Midwest

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Arabic Poetry @arabicpoetry.bsky.social · 10d

Arabic has 348 words for "lion". Here is the cover of Ibn Khālawayh's (d. 980, Baghdad) book on the subject.

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Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول @faredalmahlool.bsky.social · 11d

It seems that the situation in Morocco has spiraled out of control.

Reports indicate that there are several civilian casualties and injuries in the streets due to severe violence by the police forces.

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 11d

"For the fourth consecutive night, young people protested Tuesday under the banner of the online collective 'GenZ 212', a loosely organised movement mobilising mainly through gaming platform Discord." #Morocco

Gen Z Morocco protests turn violent as gov’t pledges talks

The protests in Morocco are part of a global wave, stretching from Nepal to Madagascar, where Gen Z is protesting against corruption and social injustice.

www.newarab.com

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CNN @cnn.com · 11d

Morocco had some of its largest anti-government protests in years as police clashed with youth-led demonstrators.

Read more: https://cnn.it/4nZrDHJ

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Dr. Stephennie Mulder @stephenniem.bsky.social · 12d

No President Trump, people in the Middle East haven’t been fighting for thousands of years: actually, pragmatic coexistence was the historical norm

I wrote about this the last time this tiresome false claim was trotted out by a Trump administration official
time.com/5764119/midd...

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Brian Ulrich @brianjulrich.bsky.social · 12d

Awesome and necessary

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 12d

COVER REVEAL AND PREORDER: The Public Scholar - A Practical Handbook.

"Perry focuses on the practical details of how to approach public scholarship. How do you pitch a piece to an editor? When should you follow or ignore the rules of the genre? And what happens once your piece is out in the world?"

The Public Scholar

A Practical Handbook

www.press.jhu.edu

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 14d

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video

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Samuel Helfont @samuelhelfont.bsky.social · 14d

Coming from @stanfordpress.bsky.social in the summer of 2026! @lisablaydes.bsky.social and I edited a book "Ba'thist Iraq through Archives" with a star studded list of contributors!

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Sarah J. Martin @eatingpolitics.bsky.social · 24d

Yes!
I just spoke to a librarian and they are spending time trying to find fake citations - they are being given pages of fake references to find via inter-library loan
Again, digital asbestos - quick to produce, but so much cost and labour to clean-up.

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 24d

Yet another demonstration that AI is not a labor-saving device; it merely displaces the cleanup and mitigation (in realms where care, caution, accuracy, etc., actually matter) onto other people

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