Derek A. Michaud
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derek-michaud.bsky.social
Derek A. Michaud
@derek-michaud.bsky.social
1.1K followers 970 following 130 posts
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Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
theradr.bsky.social
hey guys i made a seasonal meme
Meme: Straight ahead: Pausing to consider the meaning of Cohen's lyrics Everyone, for some reason, takes the exit towards Singing "Hallelujah" again in religious contexts
November 22, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
indyfromspace.bsky.social
PSA: me not commenting on something does not mean I am "complicit." First of all, you need to log off and touch grass. Secondly we are total strangers so call your therapist. Thirdly there are 1,000 things happening every day and I am busy. Finally what exactly do you want me to do about it?
November 19, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
histphilosophy.bsky.social
Today‘s new episode: French skepticism around the time of Descartes, with a focus on Mothe le Vayer:

historyofphilosophy.net/french-skept...

#philsky #philosophy #podcast #skepticism
480. Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism | History of Philosophy without any gaps
historyofphilosophy.net
November 16, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
histphilosophy.bsky.social
Today on #HoPWaG we're joined by Gideon Manning to hear about medicine in Descartes and amongst the Cartesians! A fascinating discussion of method, dualism, the circulatory system, and much more.

www.historyofphilosophy.net/cartesian-me...

#philsky #descartes #philosophy #podcast
Photo of Gideon Manning
November 2, 2025 at 2:59 PM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
Worried about employability? Study Philosophy!

According to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Philosophy graduates have very low unemployment rates.

SOURCE: www.newyorkfed.org/research/col...
The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates
Data on employment outcomes for new graduates and young workers.
www.newyorkfed.org
October 26, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
museum.of.emilyk.art
Here is a corrected version of it. It should have any and all typos taken care of - but feel free to point out any! I want this to be squared away before I make any prints! Thanks, #JewSky for your enthusiasm!
A spelling-corrected version of my previous illustration: Hebrew calligraphy in dark green stretches in lines across the image. Negative space makes room for a simple representation of an inflatable frog costume with a blue bandana. That shape consists of the English translation of the Hebrew, in a lighter green, and in much smaller text. -- Famously, the Egyptian tyrant causes Egypt to be overrun with frogs because he refuses to free the Hebrew people, but there are additional details that make this a fun one to ponder. For one, the Hebrew says "the frog came up" - ONE frog - even though the rest of the time it says "frogs." So there are a few explanations rabbis have come up with to explain this. One is that a single frog multiplied to create swarms. A more creative explanation is that there was a singular giant frog who traveled and brought destruction. Jewish social media was sharing videos of the Portland Frog protester with the caption, "One Big Frog! One Big Frog!" Of course the frog protesters did multiply, and many were seen in crowds all over the world on "No Kings" Day. This calligraphic work takes the verses addressing the frog plague and combines them to form a simple rendering of the Portland Frog protester. The frog figure itself is made up of the English translations of the Hebrew around it. At the bottom left my signature is in the shape of a lily pad.
October 26, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
religionprof.bsky.social
Download Yonatan Adler's important new book while it is free for a limited time!

Between Yahwism and Judaism: Judean Cult and Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period (332–175 BCE)

www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Between Yahwism and Judaism
Cambridge Core - Ancient History - Between Yahwism and Judaism
www.cambridge.org
October 23, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
histphilosophy.bsky.social
Today's new episode: Cartesian Science!

From comets to blood transfusions, embryology, and the debate over the pineal gland: Descartes’ impact on science, especially medicine.

www.historyofphilosophy.net/cartesian-sc...

#hopwag #philsky #descartes #historyofscience #podcasts
Early modern diagram of the brain
October 19, 2025 at 6:44 AM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
Plato’s Maternal Cause: Dancing to the Cosmic Rhythm of Birth, Growth, and Death

When - October 16th

Time - 5:15-6:30 PM

Location - Virtue Room, the Maples, University of Maine
Plato’s Maternal Cause: Dancing to the Cosmic Rhythm of Birth, Growth, and Death When - October 16th Time - 5:15-6:30 PM Location - Virtue Room, the Maples Abstract: What if philosophy is not a retreat into abstraction but a discipline attuned to life’s deepest rhythms? Plato points to this vision across his dialogues: in the Symposium, philosophy is ceaseless labor and birth; in the Phaedrus, it is the cultivation of divine seed within the soul of oneself and others; in the Phaedo, it becomes training for death, a practice of charming fear so that beauty may be found even in grief. Taken together, these moments reveal philosophy as care for the full cycle of becoming –birth, growth, decay – culminating, as Socrates insists, in a remembrance of the soul’s immortality and it’s return to its true abode, a world of color and movement and unimageable light and beauty. At the center of this Platonic vision stands the Timaeus and its maternal cause, Khôra: the wandering, elusive ground that nurtures all becoming and secures the deathlessness of the cosmos. Neither form nor matter, she is a restless in-between where permanence and change meet. Her enigmatic movement unsettles certainty, resists the neatness of reason, and compels us to confront perplexity, the risk that everything familiar may be transformed, that our arguments about life as we normally construe it, must be overcome, deconstructed and overturned. Philosophy demands that we, like Plato’s philosopher kings and queen, become guardians and warriors for the soul, facing the unknown not to romanticize uncertainty but to create with it - to begin again. Ultimately, for Plato, the task is not to preserve static truths but to open spaces, like Khôra, where thought and life may stir us once more, move us to listen and dance with the cosmic rhythm of birth, growth, and death that protects and sustains all things. Bio: Danielle A. Layne is Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University, specializing in ancie…
October 16, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
thedailyshow.com
The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.
October 9, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
nytimes.com
Breaking News: Sarah Mullally will become the next archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to lead the Church of England.
Sarah Mullally Is Named as First Female Archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, will lead the Church of England. She has been a vocal supporter of the rights of women in the church.
nyti.ms
October 3, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
theguardian.com
Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury
No 10 announces decision although role will not legally be taken on until January, before an enthronement service Sarah Mullally has been named as the first female leader of the Church of England as Downing Street announced the 106th archbishop of Canterbury nearly a year on from Justin Welby’s resignation over the handling of a safeguarding scandal. This is the first time an archbishop of Canterbury has been chosen since the Church of England allowed women to become bishops in 2014. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 3, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
aaup.org
We’re going live at 7PM ET on YouTube & Instagram to discuss the Trump admin’s offer to give preferential treatment to colleges & universities that pledge an oath of loyalty to Trump’s ideological agenda.

Pure corruption & a violation of core principles of US higher education & democracy.
Breaking Down Trump's New Higher Ed Loyalty Oath Compacts and Why We Must Resist
YouTube video by TheAAUP
youtube.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
The 49th meeting of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle will be held at the University of Maine, Orono, from September 25-27, 2025. Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a 20th Century French existential philosopher whose pluralistic studies developed critical and dynamic new ideas about personhood, health and medicine, art, ecology, ethics, multiculturalism, politics and more. The conference is open to all, and will involve a few dozen international scholars visiting campus to give research presentations related to topics of broad academic interest. This year’s theme is “Health and Healing: Personal, Social and Environmental” and features keynote speakers Havi Carel (University of Bristol) and Drew Leder (Loyola Marymount University), as well as artistic performances. Along with the attached poster and links to the conference program, you can contact conference hosts Susan Bredlau, Don Beith and Kirsten Jacobson (MPC2025Conference@gmail.com) for more information, directions or questions about this event. https://www.merleauponty.org/ This event is generously funded by the Department of Philosophy, the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, the University of Maine Foundation, the Alton ‘38 and Adelaide Hamm Campus Activity Fund, & the Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series.
September 16, 2025 at 2:18 AM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
International Merleau-Ponty Circle
University of Maine
September 25-27th
#philsky #philosophy
www.merleauponty.org/conference/
Health and Healing: Personal, Social, Environmental – The International Merleau-Ponty Circle
www.merleauponty.org
September 14, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
dailynous.com
There’s a lot of advice floating around online for graduate students, but it may be hard to find, and hard for newbies to judge whether it’s any good. Here's one philosophy prof's curated list of helpful resources.
A Collection of Advice for Graduate Students - Daily Nous
There's a lot of advice floating around online for graduate students, but it can be hard to find, and hard for newbies to judge whether it's any good. To help out her students at Virginia Tech, philos...
dailynous.com
September 11, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
joelhs.bsky.social
“'Charlie Kirk Square': Israeli Mayor to Name Traffic Circle in Honor of 'Israel's Great Friend' PM Netanyahu and the Israeli Foreign Ministry officially eulogized Kirk as 'a steadfast friend' who 'stood proudly for the Judeo-Christian values,' as Israeli ministers moved, without proof, to label the murder 'collusion between the global Left and radical Islam'” “Charlie Kirk blames ‘Jewish dollars’ for funding ‘cultural Marxist ideas’”
September 11, 2025 at 7:29 PM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
Do any academic folks out there have any thoughts about departments/programs competing with each other for students within a university?
September 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
joelhs.bsky.social
I wrote about the Columbia University settlement with the federal government, and how it makes my job teaching college Jewish Studies harder. forward.com/opinion/7663...
The White House is declaring war on campus DEI — except for Jews
Singling out Jews on campus as the only specially protected minority group that receive DEI programs will not go well for us.
forward.com
September 4, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
vox-magica.bsky.social
petition not to call 6-hour meetings “retreats.” after an hour, it’s a hostage situation.
August 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
instascience.bsky.social
Smart! Raven loves winning Tic Tac Toe.
August 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
histphilosophy.bsky.social
New episode for you today, on Descartes on the passions!

www.historyofphilosophy.net/descartes-pa...

#podcast #descartes #philsky #emotions
Title page of Descartes On the Passions of the Soul
July 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM
derek-michaud.bsky.social
YES!
carlosfnorena.bsky.social Carlos Noreña @carlosfnorena.bsky.social · Jul 15
I'm entering my 25th year in the job, having taught for 4 years at Yale and 20 at Berkeley.

The clearest trendline in my experience (fwiw) is the *dramatically* diminished willingness or capacity of undergrads to read. I used to assign 150 pp./week. Closer to 40 now—and even that is aspirational.
July 15, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Derek A. Michaud
forward.com
Facing budget cuts and dwindling enrollment, Brandeis said it would place its Yiddish program “on hiatus” after next year — a move that would effectively eliminate the role of Ellen Kellman, the university’s sole Yiddish professor for nearly three decades.
'If Yiddish isn't safe at Brandeis, where is it safe?'
Brandeis, historically a bastion of Jewish education, planned to put its Yiddish program "on hiatus" — until the Yiddish community spoke out.
forward.com
July 14, 2025 at 1:50 PM