I'm much more worried about Trump creating a failed state and facilitating civil violence than establishing a consolidated authoritarian regime.
Does that make me an optimist or a pessimist?
Putting this at the top of the reading list for our revamped public history module.
On Being a Historian in Dystopian Times, by @isisnaucratis.bsky.social
My final piece for The Markaz Review, covering the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, thinking about the new chapter of art fairs as cultural infrastructure, the conversation about the role of the Gulf states in the world of contemporary art and some of the (good) art on view.
Nothing says strength like a superpower bullying tiny countries.
The longer one listened to him, the more obvious it becomes that his inability to speak was closely connected with an inability to think, namely, to think from the standpoint of somebody else. No communication was possible with him …1
Arendt on Eichmann, c.1964
We now have a full-blown European-American crisis, and for no reason that the president is able to articulate
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
In spite of the Safe Space Policy being clearly stated at the beginning of the meeting, Prof. XXXXX targeted me by name, calling for my resignation from my position as Editor of the society's journal. Furthermore, his misuse of my title, referring to me as "Miss Kamash", felt deliberately demeaning. This intimidating behaviour explicitly contravenes the EAA Safe Space Policy. Although he was muted, for which I was grateful, I experienced a panic attack following his comments and did not feel safe to speak for the remainder of the meeting. This was further compounded by not only Prof. XXXXX being allowed to remain in the online meeting, but also being invited to take the floor again after the break. This gives me strong concerns about the effectiveness of the Safe Space Policy. On a broader point about the effectiveness of the Safe Space Policy, I also note that members whose position aligned with that of Concerned EAA were repeatedly and persistently accused of anti-Semitism throughout the meeting. This is a serious accusation that should not be levelled without due care and evidentiary support. Its use as a blanket accusation seems to have been designed with the explicit aim of silencing and intimidating members aligned with Concerned EAA, which again contravenes the Safe Space Policy and should have been dealt with more robustly during the meeting.
Following yesterday's EAA Special Meeting, I have submitted a complaint to the EAA Appeal and Anti-Harassment Committee. I post it here, with names redacted, for any members who were not present. Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out with messages of solidarity and support 🙏💓🙏
The quintessential white liberal moment: To use the obviously wrong American violation of sovereignty to mansplain Venezuelans and South Americans that narco-tyrant Maduro is some kind of liberation icon. Revolting.
Bari Weiss: I'm a free thinker. I named my publication the Free Press. My ideas are too dangerous for you squishy liberals
Bari Weiss' CBS News: It's another beautiful day in Donald Trump's flawless paradise
This year, for my mental health, I'm going to practice just letting people be wrong on the internet.
finally, we're living through precedented times
'Paralimni-Deryneia unveils ancient treasures to boost cultural tourism' (Cyprus)
#archaeologynews 🏺
in-cyprus.philenews.com/local/parali...
The 'Unearthed' exhibition at the Museum of Sydney is one of the best I have seen this year & one of the best about archaeology as process.
Archaeology in Australia has not been brilliant at capturing our own story but the accompanying excavation documentary is a great view
mhnsw.au/unearthed-ex...
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
Semiotic paradox alert!
Ambiguous Architectures in Abu Dhabi themarkaz.org/featured-art... My latest for the @markaz-review.bsky.social on Kuwaiti artist Ala Younis' mid-career retrospective at NYUAD Gallery, focusing on her work on weather systems & cyclical architecture in the UAE.
Big efforts in KSA to take over UAE in many fields, or at least take a part of the the cake, such as tourism, heritage, development, & learning from their mistakes (high prices, poor sustainability, neglect of pre-oil urbanism, etc). Being in DBX right now, the topic is daily conversation nowadays.
Analytically, tensions between Saudia Arabia and the UAE are probably the thing that interests me most right now. I feel like I am barely scratching the surface of understanding something really important.
The forensic archaeologist on the hunt for trafficked antiquities edition.cnn.com/2025/12/13/s... (on Christos Tsirogiannis)
They're enabling creepy lonely men to create submissive "AI companions" that can be modeled on whatever real-life woman they're obsessed with and made to do whatever they want and, Jesus Christ, I need to wash my hands just typing that.
Alas, forever it's been since I've been on these apps, trying to catch up (now) on the disaster that is everything.
"Syria is still in ruins. In every city and village I have visited this last 10 days, people were living in skeletal buildings gutted by war. But for all the new Syria's problems, it feels much lighter without the crushing, cruel weight of the Assads."
#syria
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Participants believe the practice of torching the devil helps banish bad spirits from their homes and neighborhoods. The custom began in the 16th century, but has spread out from various towns since the 1990s to become popular nationwide."
www.reuters.com/article/worl...
For the third year in a row, a coalition of Miami artists and activists met on the busy Saturday of Art Basel to protest the event’s ties to the genocide in Gaza.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans (@dilmunite.bsky.social) reviews “Hope Without Hope” by Matt Broomfield — a deep dive into Rojava’s revolution, failure, and hope.
📘 Published by @akpress.org
🔗 bit.ly/hope-without-...
#Rojava #Revolution #Hope #TMRWeekly #TheMarkazReview
"In a context where the threat of violence is constantly actualized and the historical archive is an extension of the present, these works ask us to reconsider how we document, remember & understand the past.” @dilmunite.bsky.social on an exhibit on Lebanon's civil war for DAWN's Democracy in Exile.
"The war in Lebanon is often spoken of as if it ended or was a closed chapter, but as the exhibition suggests, it never truly did," Ayman Nahle, curator of Beirut exhibition '50 Years of Deja-Vu', tells Arie Amaya-Akkermans.
@dilmunite.bsky.social's exhibition review, for DAWN's Democracy in Exile:
