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Isabel Köster

@iotasubscript.bsky.social

2.1K followers 740 following 2.9K posts

PhD; associate professor of Roman history and literature; particularly enthusiastic about Roman religion and insults; author of Stealing from the Gods: Temple Robbery in the Roman Imagination (Michigan, 1/2026); never speak for my employer

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

And-BOO 👻 Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 15h

www.ucpress.edu/books/things...

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 22h

Those 5 universities (number 5 gave me a permanent job) are real CV stuff, though, to make the "positions held" section go on for a while. It would be nice to banish that to "forget that happened." I gave up on a Shadow CV once I realized it would have to start with pages of job rejections.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 23h

When you're cursing the Online Jacoby (why is that interface? Just why?) and Brill decides to send you a "satisfaction survey."

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

* shakes geriatric millennial fist * we used to call it the Braveheart effect in my youth.

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

Carlos Noreña @carlosfnorena.bsky.social · 4d

📢 New SCS Blog Post

Amy Norgard and Joshua Nudell -- in the first part of a two-part series -- explore the deep roots of our thinking about the nature of human relationships with artifical companions, stretching from Hollywood to Ovid and back again.

Great reflections on classical reception here!

SCS Blog: Part 1 of 2: Pygmalion in the Age of AI Companions | Society for Classical Studies

www.classicalstudies.org

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

I assume I’ll need a new notebook by then, so it’ll get to grace the cover.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

Nope, those “sit all day to get a footnote out of it” days are still not my favorite even if it’s a pretty footnote.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

I'm pretty sure I spent today with trashy stuff, though the library doesn't have beanbags and doesn't allow food.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

Not just perky... innovative. Ugh.

Reposted by Isabel Köster

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 7d

Interesting new, open access article in Greece & Rome blends epigraphy, poetry on stone (Greek epigrams), and tracing ethnicity:

“Dying Greek in Rome: Greek Funerary Epigrams from Imperial Rome” www.cambridge.org/core/journal... I love this: ‘κάλλος δ’ αὖ μετὰ μοῖραν Ἀμαζόνος ἔσχεν ἄπιστον’

Figure 1. Migration to Rome in the Greek epigrams from Rome (n = 46).

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 3d

Oh look, it's academic busy season and Goodreads decides to treat us to a list of 141 dark academia titles...

Class in Session: 141 Dark Academia Books for Fall Reading

Back-to-school season is always a weird time for everyone. Young people dread it for obvious reasons, and grown-ups tend to get intense flashbacks. B...

www.goodreads.com

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 3d

CAMWS put Mobile on the itinerary for 2026, so better start collecting... (this seems like too much of a hike from the city proper, but looks amazing)

Landguy @landguyminor.bsky.social · 4d

Bellingrath gardens in Mobile AL.
#scape #gardenscape #bloomscrolling #gardens

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 3d

No, I do not want a “reimagined Goodnotes” to “elevate [my] notes” with “exciting AI features” so it’s the most “intelligent place” for my notes. Reimagined app has crashed 2x in the past hour, btw.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

There's a "New Latin Primer" that was popular at U.S. universities for a few years, and I let out an audible "huh?!" the first time I heard "New Latin Primmer."

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

"Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI" sounds like something left behind by one of the ponies of the apocalypse.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

Oh that thing is awful. And it just keeps going.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

That is also most excellent!

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 4d

Today I learned that the French equivalent of German’s eierlegende Wollmilchsau (lit. egg-laying wool-milk-sow,” your special unicorn all-in-one solution) is the mouton à cinq pattes (the 5-legged sheep). I love languages.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Oh, and, happy 2-year anniversary to the best email I've ever gotten from a bookseller as part of a rather complex effort to get a copy of Francesca Stavrakopoulou's "God: An Anatomy"

Screen grab reading:
This refund is for the following item(s):
Item: God
Quantity: 1
ASIN: 1509867376
Reason for refund: Item not received

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Reposted by Isabel Köster

University of Michigan Press @uofmpress.bsky.social · 5d

"Today, Americans have a very clear idea about what it means to be a mother." Krishni Burns, author of the upcoming book "Bringing Their Mother Home" wrote a blog post on the archetype of Mother Goddesses at press.umich.edu/Blog/2025/10...

Cover of Bringing Their Mother Home on a light background with the text "Mother Goddesses: A Post by Krishni Burns, author of Bringing Their Mother Home"

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Have you ever known that to matter to a German?

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Fresh Caesar Loeb just dropped (ok, a month ago, but…). And I bet the Latin text is also better than the Oxford text of great antiquity!

Gallic War — Harvard University Press

The conquest that begot the Roman Empire.Caesar (C. Iulius, 102–44 BC), statesman and soldier, defied the dictator Sulla; served in the Mithridatic wars and in Spain; entered Roman politics as a “demo...

www.hup.harvard.edu

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Happy birthday, but are you sure the pre-5:30 meal isn’t conventionally called “lunch”?

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

Something else for the 2025 bingo...

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 5d

I can feel the terror in this comment :-) And on the subject of terror-- I gather a European car rental will be inevitable for this. Great... (I hate driving in the U.S. enough as it stands)