Dr. Valerie
@drvalerieisin
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Classicist researching the points of contact between Ancient Greek and Bedouin poetry. Arabic For Philologists Summer Term loading.
Caution, makes frequent stops
Joined February 2018
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@Rachel_JSA
@crispycrise
This happened at my undergrad university too. Basically, there were systems in place to identify + push out “problem students.” Once they were identified, admin would do anything to make them go, including blatantly violating their own policies.
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So, these two are going viral again, I see.
Most of the reactions to them are a mixture of awe and disgust, but I submit that the real story here is how (just like in the case of A*nes C*llard) J*hn D*rnell's colleagues (it was and is a very, very small department) stood by
these two married Egyptology professors who appear like this on the dust jacket of their co-authored book are not whodunit characters but flesh and blood humans existing in the year 2024
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@robalisa_smile
@Rachel_JSA
@crispycrise
At my undergrad, many drug + alcohol violations were ignored, (esp. after parents made a donation) but any sign of a mental health issue/ difficulty adjusting would get you on the list.
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We designed
#Arabic
For Philologists for people who prefer grammar-focused language classes and who didn’t want to slog through the security-state funded horror that is the Al Kitaab curriculum.
Want a fast-track to reading poetry? We’re it!
#langtwt
#ClassicsTwitter
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Recently, there have been a number of posts in my feed wondering why ppl looked so much more elegant when out + about 50-100 yrs ago. Most of them ended up saying “People are just slobs now.”
No. The economy around clothing has been hollowed out + we’re all worse off for it. 1/
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ETA: I have been informed that Colleen is an adjuster Art History prof at a New England community college, One wonders how she balances those responsibilities with the jet-setting she showcases on IG.
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Apparently this needs to be said, so I’ll say it: Learning Modern Greek made me a better Classicist. It gave me active recall in Ancient Greek + allowed me to do all kinds of research in Performance Studies. It was the best time investment I made in grad school.
#ClassicsTwitter
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So over tenured Classicists’ impassioned tweets about decolonization, esp as I and so many of my precarious colleagues *are actually doing comparative work and have been for years* How about helping us instead of giving admins more reasons to defund it all?
#ClassicsTwitter
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5. Do violence to traditional clothing customs worldwide.
6. And mean that most of us are pulling + tugging at things that don’t really fit (much less help us look our best) most of the time.
This isn’t a “people are bad” thing, this is a “late capitalism is bad” thing. /Fin
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@robalisa_smile
@Rachel_JSA
@crispycrise
I am so sorry. That’s the opposite of what the academy should be.
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Last night, I dreamt that the djinn in my house took human form, sat me down, made some tea, and proceeded to give me life advice. Now I’m wondering if that really was a dream. Should I be worried
@aaolomi
?
#pandemicdiary
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My favorite college prof was the same. Always reading, thinking, and chatting with students, but he never published. He always said he didn’t need to because his students were his legacy.
#AcademicChatter
"My tutor in philosophy was one of the last of the old-style Oxford academics - a brilliant scholar who, I believe, never published anything, not even a book review.
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Step 1: Become fluent in Akkadian in seven weeks.
Step 2: Read Biblical commentaries (?)
Ok, Google.
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These shifts:
1. Put the laundry/upkeep burden on the (already overburdened) individual.
2. Make repairs impossible or costly.
3. Replace communal economies of skilled workers w/ mass exploitation.
4. Further centralize the means of production/capital. — /14
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The fabrics used were also made fr natural fibers + heavier than what is generally available now. Tailors + cobblers were neighborhood fixtures. Things were made so that they could be maintained, if not by their owners, then by skilled workers in their communities. 3/
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Ok, I didn’t realize this, but apparently if you compose a tweet in the browser, you can’t subsequently edit it in the app and vice versa. That would explain why I couldn’t find the edit button on my phone.
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Before the general adoption of washing machines, people sent their clothes to laundries. Clothes themselves were made by skilled workers (not on a sweatshop assembly line) and they included extra fabric for tailoring/repairs. 2/
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ETA II: *this past year, as John has had the ability to be an admin since 2023.
(I can’t find the edit function I pay for — joke’s on me, I guess!)
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Mind. Blown. 🤯
The more I study
#Arabic
, the more I’m convinced that I need to design an ‘Arabic for
#Classicists
’ language course!
What do you think? Hit ‘like’ if you…
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@MarkHolum
I’m glad to hear that J*hn D*rnell wasn’t the center of Egyptology at Yale — I have no connection to Yale myself. What set me off was reading that several Egyptology students were left without anyone who could oversee their research, effectively marooning them in grad school. It
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@PostHogLeftist
@mikeywaters3
Congratulations on completely missing the point. This post is about a very serious case of academic corruption and all of the people who turned a blind eye to it/made sure that the man who created all of this chaos by engaging in a sexual relationship with one of his undergrads
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ETA III: A commenter down thread has shared that Colleen left her adjunct position in 2023, seemingly over her clothing choices. Talk about being committed to the bit!
Another commenter noted that she got very close to being tenured (!) which I did not realize.
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My birthday may be today, but the best birthday present ever arrived a couple of months ago via the local recycling center.
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A dung beetle is beautiful in her mother’s eyes.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 26 p. 253, 1839.
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Of course, clothing customs were also different. Since what my grandparents (b. 1910) would have called your “good clothes” had to be sent out to be cleaned, ppl wore layers underneath them that could be washed more easily + “house clothes” at home. 4/
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You know, ever since I started studying Latin in seventh grade, the message has been: Classics is useless. No one will pay for this. I didn’t realize how deeply that had seeped into the fiber of my being until I thought about self-funding my research. 1/
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Apparently, the BBC doesn’t think its audience can understand Arabic, so it presented a bogus translation of this woman’s statement that fit the narrative.
Inoculate yourself against propaganda. Learn Arabic.
A released Palestinian prisoner says in Arabic that Israel held them in the cold w/o electricity, "sprayed us w/ pepper spray" & "left us to die."
She never mentioned Hamas or a word like it. Yet
@BBC
translated to: "No one helped us. Only Hamas cared...We love them very much."
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You know, I can think of several people off the top of my head who could write about The Golden Ass who haven’t otherwise spent their careers advocating for the murder of disabled people like me. And I’m not even remotely well-connected! Funny thing, that.
#wtf
#ClassicsTwitter
Today we are delighted to share an article by
@PeterSinger
, renowned philosopher and animal rights advocate, on Apuleius' second century novel, The Golden Ass. What could this novel have to do with animal rights activism? Find out here!
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@aaolomi
Brilliant thread! I would like to add the story of Mudi, daughter of Saad Ad Dahlawi, a poet who lived in the 19th century in Ar Rass in Central Arabia. She went against her parents’ wishes and married a Bedouin chief, but continued to live in the settled community. 1/
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Those under layers (e. g. undershirts + slips) produced a smooth silhouette too. (My grandmother, v. progressive socially + politically, never wore a corset but always wore a slip). 5/
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Your eye is crying and your heart is playing a game.
Said of someone who cries crocodile tears.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 204 p. 143, 1839
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Telling people that they need to be able to read several languages in order to do specialized research is not gatekeeping. Telling people they have to do this while offering them few (if any) language learning resources + barely being able to do it yourself is.
#ClassicsTwitter
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You know what really gets to me? The fact that so many of us who truly care (and know how to write, ugh) can’t find stable employment in academia. I have met lots of students who hate school. Honestly, I can’t blame them.
#BrokenAcademia
#LetsBuildSomethingBetter
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At the same time, clothing + fabric manufacture moved overseas + it because cheaper to buy a pre-made garment + tailor it than to make it at home. (My mom remembers this shift - her mother + grandmother taught her how to do basic tailoring + mending). 7/
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Yes! Our course, Arabic For Philologists, is designed for people who prefer a grammar-based approach to language learning + we highlight parallels between Arabic grammar and other classical + modern languages.
#langtwt
Click here for more info:
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After the general adoption of home washing machines, laundry responsibilities moved home. Clothes also because more machine-friendly.
And once poly + spandex came on the scene, tailoring was no longer necessary, strictly speaking. 6/
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When I taught Greek 102 as a grad student, my advisor told me that we couldn’t afford to fail anyone because we were such a small department and our enrollment numbers were already being scrutinized.
This was at a state university in Norway,
I would be interested to know what percentage of humanities faculty feel pressure to make their courses easier than they would like to vs. what percentage of science faculty feel pressure to make their courses easier than they would like. I imagine the numbers are very different
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I have a Proto Indo-European joke, but it’s not firmly attested.
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These fabrics are cheap. They look it, too. Low-quality poly-blends pill, fade, and sag almost instantly, even if you don’t put them in the dryer. And there’s no way to rehab a stretched-out, faded thing. You either just keep wearing it or get rid of it. 9/
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Now, the vast majority of clothing is manufactured in China, and you’re hard-pressed to find anything that isn’t made from a poly-blend or the ecologically-dubious rayon. 8/
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The same thing happened w/his favorite dress shoes. They wore out, so he took them to the cobbler. He couldn’t repair them bc they were basically just held together by some hot glue. 11/
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I don’t want to feel “included” or “empowered” at work. I want to be paid at a level that reflects my expertise. That’s it. That’s why I am looking for work. In order to be paid. You know, money.
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Our Total Beginners Arablc course will take you through the alphabet and have you composing your own sentences in 8 weeks. Classes meet for 1 hour a week on Zoom.
Interested?
Click here for more info:
#langtwt
#LanguageLearning
#Arabic
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@Murchut
Because I don’t want to give them the attention they so obviously crave. This way, if they search themselves (and they definitely seem like they would), my post is less likely to appear in their search results.
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Even if you have the money for higher-quality items + the time to look for them, sometimes they just aren’t there. While I worked in Saudi Arabia, I wore an abaya. I was v lucky to find a cotton/linen one locally, but I only found 100% cotton ones in Egypt (!!!). 12/
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It’s New Year’s Day on the internet, so I’m seeing a lot of “I resolve to read x number of books” type posts.
Reject the data-fication of everything. Literature is not mere information. Your brain is not a hard drive. Take time to digest what you read.
Happy New Year.
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Most of the other ladies had just grabbed a black polyester abaya off the shelf at LuLu or the mall and were miserable in the summer heat. Because of course they were.
But poly is cheap + abayas require lots of fabric, so that’s what you find, unless you really go hunting. 13/
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And there’s no quality control (without skilled workers, how could there be?).
Once, my mom got Mr. Dr, V. 4 pairs of trousers bc the ones he liked went on sale.
They were four different sizes. The tailor tried her best w/the tight ones, but there was no seam allowance. 10/
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I was recently rejected from a long-shot position I applied to in Norway. I didn’t make the interview round and was notified of that fact in about four weeks. There’s more than a little bureaucracy involved, sure, but that’s no excuse to leave people hanging.
#AcademicChatter
Just saw someone get a job that I applied for which is fine I’m happy for them. But the university hasn’t even told me that I didn’t get it yet which is yet another example of why I keep saying that the people who run these searches are a huge part of the problem.
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Unpopular opinion: All second-language teachers should be *required* to have attained B2/C1 level competence in a second language themselves. Monolingual natives as teachers suggest language learning is magic. It isn’t. Also, you can’t teach what you haven’t done.
#edutwitter
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@Helenreflects
I copy/paste things from a master document. I work with lots of sources in different languages and alphabets, so it’s much easier for me to do that than fiddle with software.
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In a disaster, you find out who your brother is.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 175 p. 135, 1839.
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Arabic For Philologists will be starting up again in March — keep an eye out for an email from us with more details.
Not on the email list? DM to sign up!
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My favorite professor in college was like this. By the time I was his student, Professor Futch had been on that campus for half a century. His subject was Modern European History, but he was a wealth of information on an astonishing number of subjects — art, opera, travel, media
There should be room in academia for professors who don't publish, but who know things. Not dead wood, who stopped learning in 1995. I mean: leaves for the summer, reads all summer rather than write, smokes a pipe on the quad and will talk to you about stuff.
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Story time! There was a person I knew in college, whom I will call P (for person, no connection to actual name). P and I both majored in Classics. P had come from a school that taught Latin + a bit of Greek and was both clever + driven. Of course P stood out to our profs. 1/
it really sucks how from the beginning a few famous people in a discipline / industry can just sorta decide that a particular ingenue or golden boy is gonna be a star and despite their work not being very good like clockwork just make it so
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This is so extraordinarily unhelpful. As a disabled student/human, I *want* people to recognize that I am, in fact, disabled and there are things that I cannot physically do. That way, we can sort out accommodations and I can avoid needlessly difficult/exhausting/absurd
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In Memoriam
@stephanuscoombs
1943-2022.
This obituary was written by The Katarina School's co-founder, Lotta Misgeld, and published in Dagens Nyheter on January 11th 2023. Mr. Dr. V. + I translated it into English.
Thanks to
@OlaWikander
for sharing the original text with me.
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Today’s poem - featuring the first jinn simile I’ve come across
@aaolomi
are there jinn that turn themselves into camels? 🐪
#ArabicPoetry
#nabati
#شعر
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@aaolomi
But Hell hath no fury like a woman poet scorned:
"Now that you have laid me low I will throw you flat, as the antelope is brought down by the hunter's shot. I will not enter my husband's home again, unless the sun will set where it rises. (cont) 5/
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It was enough for some of my undergraduate professors.
#AcademicTwitter
#AcademicChatter
i dunno i feel like a phd degree should be enough to get you a stable job at a university
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@wylfcen
The Norwegian word for time is ‘tide’ and the Norwegian word for tide is ‘tidevann’ (time water).
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A line of poetry that made its way into Freytag’s collection of proverbs for
#valentinesday2024
:
The words of the night are erased by daylight.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 283 p. 396, 1839.
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A fantastic thread - I am particularly fascinated by the story of Zarqa al Yamama - a Cassandra-like figure with blue eyes that were taken as trophies when her warnings went unheeded.
Throughout Islamic history we have records of legendary oracles, seers, and soothsayers predicting what is to come.
Their stories reveal a complicated and interesting history.
A thread -
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Anyone interested in an Arabic for Classicists class?
Yes, but I can’t pay
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Yes - I am able to pay
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Tell me more
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Join me at 1:30 p.m. EST tomorrow to hear a few Yemeni proverbs - I found some real gems!
#ArabicPoetry
#proverbs
#Yemen
#goinglive
#AcademicChatter
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Exactly - and that’s not including research time.
#AcademicChatter
@History_Will
I never understood the '1-2 hours writing thing'. it's not a shoping list, it is an intellectual reflection (at least for me). 1 to 2 hours is the beginning of my writing process.
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Free Introductory Zoom Seminar — 6 Feb 2 PM EST/ 7 PM GMT — click the link below to register:
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Arrogance leads to hatred.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 313 p. 402, 1839.
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@fehlbanna
Tell me you don't know how academia works without telling me you don't know how academia works.
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The specifics:
A new Indo-European language has been discovered in the Hittite capital Hattusa
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@aaolomi
She responded with: "So what if my verses about you are the talk of town, my honour is clean and without reproach."
Her husband instantly regretted caving to peer pressure and tried to win her back. 4/
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Tie up your camel and trust in God
This week’s slice of
#WednesdayWisdom
- a Hadith narrated by al-Timidhi as related by Freytag in his Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 91 p. 112, 1839.
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This was the oldest active church in
#Gaza
. It had been sheltering the displaced. It contained the tomb of its patron saint.
Who wants to wipe whom off of the map again?
☦ CONFIRMED: Bombing of St. Porphyrios Orthodox Christian Church in Gaza City:
"We have just received confirmation from multiple sources in Gaza that Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church has been bombed today. Archbishop Alexios appears to have been located and is alive, but we
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@aaolomi
As you can imagine, she got a bit, err, lonely. She sent him the following poem: "I have readied for you a cushion of ostrich feathers, and my soft belly, my hero, is yours to tread." 2/
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Everything that’s given to us eventually fills us with contempt.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 158 p. 366, 1839.
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Language teaching opinion: Every ESL teacher should be required to demonstrate B1 level competence in another language (and not one they grew up with, either). Why? Because the best teachers actually remember what it was like to be a student.
#IWillDieOnThisHill
what language or linguistics opinion is going to land you in this situation?
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That’s right! We’re settling the schedule for Fall Term now — we will offer grammar-focused Arabic classes for everyone from complete beginners to intermediate learners.
DM me for more details!
#Arabic
#langtwt
#linguistics
#LanguageLearning
#ClassicsTwitter
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Now we see you —
and you are nothing.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2
no. 189 p. 306, 1839.
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For all of my fellow cat lovers out there.
#theinternetismadeofcats
Throughout the centuries cats have earned a revered and beloved position is Islamic societies. From Prophet Muhammad’s reputed love of them to their connection to the jinn.
A thread-
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@isletheologian
Exactly! I definitely think that dynamic changed over time. To my mind, she becomes more of a partner when she starts accepting/using the advantages he gave her (so, after having been awarded a masters) and a full-fledged partner once she signed on the dotted line to accept the
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Imagine being a professor of *checks notes* sociology — the study of human social relationships — and then tweeting this. I’m choosing to laugh + believe this really is a parody account.
#oof
#selfown
#owngoal
Imagine teaching college courses on Greek or Roman mythologies. We know that those stories are most likely false. Yet we waste time teaching it to students. Why?
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The eye of desire does not see clearly.
#WednesdayWisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 276 p. 165, 1839.
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You know how to do research, analyze systems, and all the rest of it. Oh, and people do care. They really are interested in what you have learned (my Arabic lives have taught me that). Don’t doubt yourself like I did. 13/
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@aaolomi
"Or when the dead are heard to call out to the living, or snake poison is swallowed as spittle. Here I am, waiting for another chief of repute, a nice man who spends freely from his largesse."
She married two more times, but all of her marriages would end in divorce. 6/
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I am not here to bash anybody, although the years of snide comments about my choice to study Classics make it very tempting. I am just here to say that if you, fellow humanities person, want to make something to support yourself/your research, you already have the tools. 12/
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So, you’ve seen me post about our beginning Russian course. You’ve been thinking about adding another language to your collection, but you’re still on the fence.
Well, look at all the different
#Russian
words for cat! 😻
DM me to pre-register!
#CatsOfTwitter
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Live, so that you can see things you haven’t seen.
#wednesdaywisdom
Freytag, Arabum proverbia, vol. 2 no. 101 p. 115, 1839.
(Both verbs are in the jussive in Arabic, so I’m trying to bring that across. And, yes, this can be either inspiring or ominous…)
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Thanks to everyone who attended the Arabic for Philologists seminar today - we are very glad to have met you all and looking forward to setting up our first course! 🙏
If you wanted to be there but couldn’t make it, DM me and I will send along the PPT + notes.
#langtwt
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The persistent notion that teachers/academics should be in it purely ‘for the children’ or ‘for the discipline’ keeps us poor, exploited, and marginalized. Resist it any way you can.
@digi_hammurabi
is doing amazing work - follow along if you don’t already. /fin
#AcademicTwitter
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Jinn as poets, muses to poets, and teachers of poetry — a topic I need to research once my Arabic is up to the task. (Are there jinn language teachers with ten heads who can turn up and make me do my homework every day plz? Thx.)
#DontMissThisOne
Throughout the centuries the jinn were said to inspire poets to verse and madness. As an elemental and invisible race, the jinn were master poets themselves and in turn taught their craft to others becoming mentors and muses to human poets.
A thread-
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As someone who spent a fair amount of time in Greece from 2011-15 + (finally) studied Modern Greek properly then - yes. The obvious racism against Greeks in the press (and within my network in Classics) was shocking. And Merkel’s visiting on
#OxiDay
bc of course she is.
Since October 28th (
#OxiDay
) is coming up, I'm revisiting Nazi travel literature on Greece.
It's basically the expected deranged racist tripe, which, disturbingly enough, seems to have set the template for German anti-Greek polemics during the 2010-2020 economic crisis.
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1. Never, ever use Google Translate for work.
2. Get to know your colleagues in Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics. I think
@OhioState
offers classes in all of these languages (maybe that’s what prompted this abomination?), so it didn’t have to be this way.
#oof
#why
The disjointed Arabic characters strike again
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