Emily K.D. Smith

If there’s one thing people were going to do at Samhain, it was feast. And drink ale. Lots of it. My favourite example comes from the Mesca Ulad or the Intoxication of the Ulaid (The Ulstermen). This tale was part of the Ulster Cycle, a series of stories...

The speed with which my library access was removed after graduating baffles the mind.

My part of NSF has been destroyed effectively. I don’t trust future congresses to understand and restore it given they misunderstand knowledge creation and reduce science to technology. And that’s across the ideological spectrum.

I was holding off on announcing this until things were formalized, but my PhD dissertation has formally been accepted following a successful review by my committee. After a lot of blood, sweat, and tears - it's PhDone. 🔥

Leaving Munich after a complicated week. Great conference (ICNS), and I met a lot of amazing people, but difficult at times. Looking forward to the next in four years.

"Rendering the familiar unfamiliar." Great stuff from @johnschofyork.bsky.social in the latest @currentarchaeology.bsky.social "Contemporary archaeology gives us the tools to interrogate the material traces of our own lives...reminding us that the present is already becoming the past"

This is why, when I had the opportunity to develop an upper div undergraduate class, I focused on deliberately developing speed reading skills in my students. I learned the hard way on my own; I wanted better for them.

People working full-time jobs forced to live out of their cars. Private equity buying up rentals and even mobile home parks. School districts offering "safe overnight parking" so homeless kids can have a safe place to sleep. We are a deeply sick society.

🧪Deadline tomorrow midnight Eastern to post Comments on proposed NSF revisions. They smuggle in OMB revisions, which were so controversial that Congress specifically excluded them from the current continuing resolution. If you've ever been funded by NSF, please comment. Info and my comment 👇👇👇👇👇

I wrote about the impending end of U.S. federal funding for archaeology and anthropology in April. August numbers (reported in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...) show that no new grants have been awarded this year. www.johnhawks.net/p/us-federal...

This is an absolute travesty. Northwestern has, probably, the 2nd best library collection for African History/Studies in the USA (behind Yale and ahead of MSU, UCLA, etc). A self-inflicted wound that is absolutely, 100% unnecessary given the massive wealth of Northwestern--north of $15 billion.

"An apolitical archaeology is a dangerous academic myth" -Christopher Tilley

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

The asshole administration is planning to remove the mining buffer around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. This is being done without tribal or expert input and the public comment time is incredibly, and cowardly short. Please comment to help try and save Chaco. www.koat.com/article/chac...

🧵It's been a tough few days for #Archaeology and #HistoricPreservation in the US. ACHP released proposed regs changes to S106 on FRIDAY EVENING. They have betrayed all committments to an established timeline or collaboration with preservation partners. The proposed changes subordinate NHPA to NEPA;

Please blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development

If you've been looking at the state of the world and wondering what the heck you can do, this is your sign! Sophie and her community of LGBTQ refugees in South Sudan are in need of regular donors to help cover daily needs and buffer for emergencies. Find Sophie here: @laziah.bsky.social

New: The National Science Foundation is preparing to claw back some $500 million in funds from some of its core science programs in physics, math, computer science, and engineering in order to fund a project from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Can I add here that this includes all academics sitting in seminars constantly looking at their laptops and phones...

Meanwhile, post a link to a paywalled article on Bluesky, or suggest that journalism is worth paying for, and you'll face a deluge of churlishness. People, if you want science journalism to keep existing, at some point you have to stand up for it. Cheer it. Share it. And if you can, pay for it.

Scientific American is 180 years old. The most eminent science magazine for the general public. And today, sold off as scrap to stop the staff from unionizing. Many top editors I've worked with for a decade on several articles have been fired. What a disgrace @sciam.bsky.social

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

Anthropological research on subsistence is offered in the dangerous and authoritarian “report” on the humanities as a key example of supposed ideological weakening of scholarship. This critique begins to show how the key example cited actually proves the opposite. Let’s go into it in some depth 1/

Absolutely, although I will say that there are two categories of grad student in my opinion: those who are already using Zotero and those that should be using Zotero

🚨 Sophie still needs your help! 🚨 We are over halfway met on her hospital bill of $1200, but we are still short - please consider giving what you can to help!! ♥️♥️ Thank you to everyone who has already donated, you're ah-mazing 💫

I've been trying to incorporate more of these ideas in my own presentations. Learning to read an audience and draw them in are important skills that we aren't often taught, but it's so critical for public outreach.

I can't personally vouch for Sophie, but I can personally vouch for Kat - we've been colleagues and friends now for awhile and she's a genuinely amazing human being. If you have anything you can spare to help her help Sophie out, that would be much appreciated!

🚨!! URGENT APPEAL !! 🚨 Sophie has been hospitalized with serious injuries and needs to raise $1200 to be treated!! She is overwhelmed by the amount and is scared of what will happen to her if she cannot raise it. Share widely and give if you can! I talk with Sophie often and can vouch for her. 💫🙏

This month, UCLA admin circulated two white papers that are so harrowing they’ve kept me awake at night. If you’re a UCLA person and haven’t seen these, you really must. In response, the Faculty Senate has scheduled a Town Hall on June 2. senate.ucla.edu/news/june-2-...

White House proposes new rules giving political appointees final approval of research grants These proposed Office of Management and Budget regulations would render the federal research grant review process opaque www.scientificamerican.com/article/whit...

John Schofield of York University on the value of archaeology - it’s not just about the past. theconversation.com/six-reasons-...

This is critical to #science ! Funding NASA does not mean funding NASA science!!! It shifts restored funds away from science missions and towards #artemis

Indiana Jones then: It belongs in a museum!! 🏺 Indiana Jones now: Land Back is both a moral imperative and the only path to survival That's growth 💅

it sucks that theres still some creatives out there who only seem to take issue with gAI when its in their field, but will happily use it to replace other creative workers. Its remarkably easy to have a bit of solidarity and never use this shit. Up till 2023 it was the default state