James Ryan
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jdryan08.bsky.social
James Ryan
@jdryan08.bsky.social
3.9K followers 1.7K following 2.1K posts
Executive Director, Middle East Research and Information Project (www.merip.org | @merip.bsky.social). Adjuncting at Rowan University. Historian interested in Turkey, Prodigal Son of Philadelphia. Usual caveats.
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jdryan08.bsky.social
Hey-o what’s up ribsters.
A prime rib covered in salt that’s been soaked in a red-wine reduction. Ready to go in the oven. The salt baked prime rib now done, carved, on a silver platter.
November 25, 2025 at 2:03 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
“But he knew nothing about it.”
The look of a guy who definitely knew something about having one of his opponents dismembered by bonesaw inside his country’s embassy.
November 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
I mean… COME ON!
Roberts states: “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says.” If that’s true, why defend those who mainstream him? Why characterize legitimate outrage at platforming a Holocaust denier as a “venomous coalition” serving “someone else’s agenda”?
October 31, 2025 at 12:01 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
The writing is gorgeous, and the cartoons are so, so cutting.
A hand drawn cartoon in the style of the New Yorker showing five people in a business meeting next to a big window out on the city. There is a chart with a downward sloping graph. The caption reads “Have we considered localizing the intifada?”
October 1, 2025 at 2:10 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
I had to read this paragraph a dozen times, it is that jaw-droppingly naive. Really have to ask @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social if he would have written this about the Westboro Baptist Church…
You can dislike much of what Kirk believed and the following statement is still true: Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him.
September 11, 2025 at 11:08 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
A/B testing PA Senate constituent services.

I wrote @fetterman.senate.gov and McCormick a letter demanding they oppose cuts to the State Dept. Educational and Cultural Affairs bureau. Fetterman’s response talks about USAID cuts, McCormick’s actually provides details on ECA funding.
Thank you for reaching out to my office about foreign aid and assistance. I appreciate hearing from you. Our country is a beacon of democracy for the world, and it is in every Pennsylvanian’s interest that the United States continues to step up when freedom and democracy are under attack. If we don’t step up when we are needed most, terrorists and rogue dictators like Putin will continue to violate international norms and place civilians in harm’s way. The stakes truly couldn’t be higher. The Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to programs like those under USAID, which saved countless lives, spread freedom and American values, and protected Americans from foreign threats. There is no question that these moves have had, and will have, deadly consequences for millions around the world while damaging America’s standing. I have voted against – and will continue to vote against – any reckless cuts to foreign assistance programs. The hard truth is Senate Republicans hold a 53-seat majority, and they have made reckless slashing of investments across the government their top priority. Unfortunately, they’re going to have the votes they need to force through the cuts they want. Though I will continue to speak out and vote against these bills, the math is not on my side. I will continue to engage with Senate Republicans to remind them what's at stake, and I encourage you to do to the same. Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts. Please do not hesitate to reach out in the future about other issues of importance to you. If I can be of assistance, or if you’d like to learn more about my work on behalf of Pennsylvanians and our commonwealth, I encourage you to visit my website, https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/. Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the proposed cuts to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) in the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget request. Your feedback is essential as we work together to shape policies that benefit Pennsylvania and our country. The Trump Administration’s FY 2026 budget request proposes reducing funding for ECA programs at the State Department from $741 million in FY2025 to $50 million. On July 23, the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations approved its FY2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, allocating $700.9 million for ECA. The Senate Committee on Appropriations has yet to release its proposed FY2026 funding bill for the State Department. I share the Administration's commitment to fiscal responsibility and ensuring that every taxpayer dollar spent overseas delivers measurable returns for American interests. However, I believe well-managed educational and cultural exchange programs can be smart investments that advance our national security and provide valuable educational opportunities for young Americans. Many Pennsylvanians participate in scholarship programs such as the Fulbright and Gilman, and our Commonwealth’s colleges and universities host numerous international Fulbright scholars and students each year. These programs strengthen American competitiveness and security. Exchange participants often become key business partners, allies, and advocates for U.S. interests in their home countries, building networks that benefit our economy and national security for decades. Pennsylvania businesses have directly benefited from these relationships, opening new markets and creating jobs in our Commonwealth. I appreciate the Administration’s focus on ensuring accountability in foreign assistance programs. The strong bipartisan support in Congress for maintaining educational and cultural exchanges reflects a shared recognition that these programs deliver measura…
August 29, 2025 at 4:55 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
And yet you have this kind of hasbara still going on…

www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Which numbers are inflated? The numbers coming from the Gaza Health Ministry. You have the raw figure, I think, of sixty thousand today. And you know that’s inflated? I am not necessarily contesting the number, although they get those from a lot of different sources. I am contesting the fact that they do not count combatants as anything other than innocent civilians, and that the Gaza Health Ministry has said that seventy-two per cent of all deaths were women and children. They walked that back by April of 2024.
August 21, 2025 at 9:42 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
August 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Gonna share the letter I wrote to the admin of my alma mater about the threat to Middle East Studies.
(Full text over four images) Dear President Alivisatos, Provost Baker, and Dean Nelson, I am writing to you as an alumnus of the College who earned a Bachelors in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (since renamed Middle Eastern Studies) in 2008, out of concern for the reporting in the Chicago Maroon and information shared by other alumni and friends and colleagues in the department that in the coming year the Middle Eastern Studies Department and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies may face drastic reductions and loss of independence. I would like to make it unequivocally clear that I believe any decision to eliminate either or both of the department and center would represent a betrayal of the values instilled in me in the years I spent at Chicago, and which I have carried with me throughout my career to this point. Furthermore, as someone who has spent the time since 2008 deeply connected to the broader field of Middle East Studies, in both academic and applied settings, I can say that such a decision would represent a tremendous loss for the field, for the country, and the wider world -- there are simply very few places in the world where the study of the Middle East's languages, history, and culture can be studied as deeply at all levels as they can be at UChicago, and its bachelors, masters and doctoral programs offered through the department and center have been leaders in their field for decades. I find the mere implication, and I think any scholar in the field would agree, that these programs are "failing" or "weak" to be utterly farcical, to the point that one doubts such suggestions are being made in good faith. Though it appears that the most vulnerable elements of these programs at the moment are the graduate programs -- the MA program run by CMES and the Middle Eastern Studies doctoral program -- I would like to underline on the basis of my own experience how crucial the vibrancy of these programs was to my time as a NELC major. The ability to learn alongside graduate students in both introductory and advanced classes as an undergraduate allowed me to see first hand how serious scholars and scholarship are developed. I did not quite appreciate it at the time, but I know realize that the incredible depth of course offerings I was able take advantage of as an undergraduate -- including seminars on such wide-ranging topics as Fatimid Egypt, the Ottoman Press, or Turkey in the Cold War, and offerings in Arabic and Turkish at the Advanced level -- was an opportunity available at very few institutions, and one that would simply not exist but for the commitment the University had made to graduate training in this field. That level of rigor, and that level of commitment to area studies is something that I still believe is peerless in the United States. If it were to disappear, it would be a tremendous loss. It was this background that prepared me to win a Critical Language Scholarship for Turkey in 2008, to successfully lead major, federally-funded programs at other leading Middle East Studies Centers at Penn and NYU, to earn a doctorate in History, and now to lead the Middle East Research and Information Project, a non-profit organization and publication that has represented the cutting edge in public scholarship on the region for over fifty years. As someone who arrived in Hyde Park in 2004 with no background in the Middle East whatsoever, what I have been able to do in my career would be impossible to imagine without the commitment UChicago has made to Middle East Studies, and is the product of the intellectual curiosity that such an institution fosters, a curiosity upon which the institution has built its reputation. I chose to come to the University of Chicago not knowing what I wanted to study or what I wanted to become but knowing that I could study or become practically anything I could imagine. I succeeded in that, but the prospect of that opportunity not being available to future generations of students, to my own children, is equal parts depressing and infuriating to consider. I am well aware of the exogenous shock posed to the higher education industry by the Trump administration. The targeting of federal funding on a bad faith basis is an affront to human decency, due process, and common sense. However, it is hitting the industry at a time when its funding models and management were already at a vulnerable point. It seems clear enough from the reporting that the Trump administration's assault is only exacerbating a funding crisis brought about by years of mismanagement at UChicago. I understand that the choices the administration may be left with are difficult ones, but I would strongly urge you all not to give in to the broader assault on Humanities education -- not only because it is not the performance of the Humanities departments that got us to this place, but because if you do, the assault will not stop there. I know too well from the history of Middle East Studies in this country that the thin end of the wedge that brought this country to this sad state of affairs was in fact the assault on Middle East Studies as a discipline from bad faith actors across state and society stretching back more than 30 years. Making sacrifices in these areas will only embolden the bad faith actors in the government, whereas a courageous defense of the value of the Humanities would, I hope, attract resources from corners of society invested in combatting the administration's assault. I urge you on the strongest possible terms not to choose the path of reduction and consolidation that has been reported. It would have dramatic, and long lasting effects on UChicago's reputation, and would be a terrible loss for society at large. Have courage. Be creative. Live up to your ideals. Otherwise, what is the point of UChicago existing at all? Sincerely, James Ryan, AB 2008 Executive Director, Middle East Research and Information Project Adjunct Professor of History and International Studies, Rowan University
August 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Surprisingly better results than the US variant (though the damn thing still can’t count.)
A photo grid with 8 AI generated images. Title is “Last Ten Prime Ministers of Turkey” It lists them in correct order, though lists Mesut Yilmaz’s term as “30 June 1997 - 11 January 1919.”
August 9, 2025 at 1:12 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Hey, Josh Shapiro, people don’t magically stop being human once they pass adolescence. Fund SEPTA.
Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday called for the United States to “dramatically increase” aid to Gaza as he joins a national conversation about the deepening humanitarian crisis there as the death toll of Palestinians waiting for food and other aid grows. “I think it is fair to say that I’m both praying for the return of the hostages and praying to make sure that these kids get fed in Gaza,” Shapiro said. “The fact that kids are starving in Gaza is not OK.”
August 6, 2025 at 4:45 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Historian friends, today is the last day to vote in the AHA elections. If you, like me, am deeply disappointed in the action of the AHA Council to reject the vote against scholasticide in Gaza, vote for the HPAD alternative slate!
July 15, 2025 at 1:13 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
I wrote my Senator @fetterman.senate.gov about the war powers act and the strikes on Iran. I didn’t expect him to agree with me but the reply his office sent was completely off topic. Not even trying here.
June 27, 2025 at 9:24 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Leon Botstein is a hero among university presidents and what he’s done at Bard is nothing short of amazing, but he is being coy with Gessen here. The reason Bard can do all this cool stuff is because Botstein is good friends with George Soros and Open Society funds a lot of what Gessen mentions here
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Modeling dissent on late-communist underground educational practices is a prescription for resistance once institutions have been fully captured and burnt to the ground. That hasn’t happened yet here and there are still ways to save the university here.
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Big law firms are interested in making a profit. That is a huge difference…
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Given Gessen’s proposed radical solutions later on, which essentially involve professors going underground, you’d think the numerous associational and union lawsuits would bear mentioning in this paragraph.
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
It’s been said, but Congress has threatened an endowment tax. Trump can’t do that on his own, and what has been proposed is limited to highly endowed schools.
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Intellectuals have done this. Universities haven’t. You’d think Gessen would have a thought for CEU or EU-St. Petersburg here.
April 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Me in the national security group chat.
Former Turkish president and prime minister Turgut Özal, in a blue knit sweater, holding two rotary phones to his ears.
March 25, 2025 at 1:19 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Actually, as a historian of radical movements in the 20th century, I think should be (and mostly are) aware of the profound damage caused by people and movements who think “IQ” matters at all to the shaping of history.
February 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
😉
Edward Said, looking over the back of a chair, smiling. He’s wearing a striped shirt and a dark grey jacket.
January 21, 2025 at 4:10 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Again, HPAD’s resolution was not regarding the justification of the war in Gaza, or the role of history in it. Had it been so, I’m sure the vote would have been narrower. No one debates the fact of the obliteration of Gaza’s higher education institutions.
Grossman said that statement had been tailored to focus on the historical arguments that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made to justify the invasion. “That historical narrative was considered false by just about every professional historian of that part of the world in the United States,” he said. “Our critique was based on his abuse of history as the justification for the invasion,” Grossman said. “There is no similar consensus among historians in the United States regarding the historical issues on the table here.”
January 18, 2025 at 12:03 AM
jdryan08.bsky.social
Oh really?
Grossman told Inside Higher Ed Friday that “the Ukraine statement was purely historical. It was well within our scope.” He said, “No serious professional historian in the United States considers Putin’s historical explanation to be anything close to accurate history, so the war itself was based on an abuse of history, and that’s what our statement addressed.”
January 17, 2025 at 8:36 PM
jdryan08.bsky.social
How I prefer to consume TikTok memes now.
Page D3 of today’s Philly Inquirer. Picture of Pepé the King Prawn, a muppet, and his creator, Bill Baretta in glasses smiling. Headline “Pepé the King Prawn’s creator on growing up in the Philly suburbs and the viral TikTok meme.”
January 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM