Hey y'all, thanks for your support. I was officially elected to the MLA Delegate Assembly as the member representing Academic Freedom. I'm excited to begin work, and I invite everyone to reach out to help me help you. www.mla.org/About-Us/Gov...

I think I can share this link, right? Vote for me for MLA Academic Freedom Delegate. nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Hey everybody, if you're an MLA friend, please consider casting your vote for me in the current election. I'm up for the Academic Freedom professional issues seat on the delegate assembly. I want to get up there and keep our right to write safe.

If you're interested in comics censorship, you could check out this fascinating DH project on comic book burnings: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7dee...

It's 2025 Patrick S. Lawrence discusses the resurgence in comic and book censorship. muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/artic... @projectmuse.bsky.social #politics #ComicStudies #comics #censorship #history #activism #solidarity #UniversityPress #2025 #freedom #ComicBooks #BannedBooks #CensorshipSucks

Here's a convenient link to register for the Zoom for my talk tomorrow. Come learn about comics censorship of today and yesteryear: sc-edu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I'm doing a talk about Out of the Gutters next week. It's on Zoom if you want to hear me and the inimitable Jorge Santos talk about comics censorship! drive.google.com/file/d/1hirU...

Comics Studies Conferences in a Time of Crisis Andrew J. Kunka considers the fallout of the presidential administration’s recent actions. muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/artic... @projectmuse.bsky.social #politics #AmericanPolitics #ComicStudies #comics #DEI #activism #comic #students #education #presidents

Look at this cool collection of comics with @benpassmore.bsky.social Ebony Flowers, and others. With an intro by @qianawhitted.bsky.social www.shenandoahliterary.org/74-1-2/#comi...

I'm in here! Feels awesome.

Censorship history, like a lot of things these days, is looking like a recurring loop. I wrote about it for Inks: muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/artic...

An ominous bit about the EO on flag burning, which invokes fighting words doctrine to say some kinds of speech are so offensive they should be illegal: the original fighting words case upheld the conviction of Chaplinsky for calling someone a fascist: www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1...

The EO on flag burning is a constitutional mess—invoking fighting words isn’t going to get them around Texas v. Johnson. What strikes me, though, is that I discussed this precise possibility with students in my free speech class last spring; here’s what they said: (1/5)

Kind of torn saying this, but "I Remember You" covered by the Ataris might be better than "Live Wire" covered by Boy Sets Fire. These are the hair-metal-covered-by-punk/hardcore-bands hot takes that keep me up at night.

Banned Books Week is October 5-11. With some organization this could be a watershed year for activism. Here are some ideas for events you can hold in your district, at your library, at the bookstore. Get started now to make the week powerful docs.google.com/document/d/e...

It was very cool to see that @jordanscarroll.bsky.social won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work this year. Such a big accomplishment--and if you're looking to read more of his work, he has an insightful take on Charles Burns's Black Hole in Out of the Gutters from @utexaspress.bsky.social

This commonly emerges from the lines drawn around certain kinds of protest in the interest of property, facilities, order, and landscapes. In some enforcement environments, it seems like no big deal, but it leaves enough wiggle room for punitive, chilling, and arbitrary suppression of speech.

The faculty of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina, Columbia campus, invites applications for two 9-month, full-time, tenure-track positions at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin August 16, 2026. www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk...

Reading Catharine Beecher's "An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reference to the Duty of American Females" and ... she is complaining about cancel culture?

So Providence was cool, and #SHEAR2025 was hugely generative. I have gained a ton of perspective on how historians do their work and a lot of respect for the knowledge they produce. So cool to be a part of all this. I'm impressed.

rn I'm reading the excellent writing by the scholars I get to work with at the #shear2025 2BWW. I'm getting a ton of insight about the early republic and new ways to think about my methodology, archive, and argumentation. As a noob in this area, I'm stoked for this chance to deepen my work.

UT Press is offering a pretty steep discount on Out of the Gutters rn, so it's a cool time to pick up the collection I edited with Jorge Santos. It's urgent and timely and all the things because censorship, sigh, is going on all around us.

Proud of the AAUP at USC Columbia for speaking out in defense of academic freedom and faculty voices in governance. 🧵 www.postandcourier.com/education-la...

Biff Bam Pop called Out of the Gutters "the right book for right now." I'm glad they think so (and it's a great write-up of the book), but writing about censorship and having the book feel relevant in the present is not always fun. biffbampop.com/2025/06/22/h...

This week's reading has been the Dred Scott decision. Taney's specious originalism has the same "our hands are tied" vibe that's pretty common in political rhetoric that excuses white supremacy. But the originalism + judicial activism combo in the ruling is pretty telling, too.

Today is release day for OotG! Here is the book half in the dirt. Thanks to all the people who made the book possible, especially my co-editor Jorge Santos and @utexaspress.bsky.social utpress.utexas.edu/9781477331804/

Prepping for the 2nd book workshop at #SHEAR2025 and noticing that when people use moralist rhetoric for exclusive ends, it's aggressively forward-focused. They angrily dismiss the idea of reparative justice for past wrongs, even when those wrongs are acknowledged, which is not always the case.

As my last project comes into the world, I'm midway through a new one on moralist political rhetoric, and, um, the current political environment offers a lot to talk about. A fight between the pope and the vice president about Christian obligations to immigrants is good proof the work is urgent.

Nice to have a hard copy of this!

Excited to get a physical copy of this book I have a chapter in.

This fall, I'm running for an MLA Delegate seat representing academic freedom. These issues are close to my heart + research, so I hope you'll consider clicking next to my name in Dec. And if you want to connect over these issues in the meantime, let's do it.

Out of the Gutters is out of the box. That is, it came in a box and I took it out. But the book is here! It was amazing to work with Jorge Santos and all our exceptional contributors, as well as the incomparable @utexaspress.bsky.social utpress.utexas.edu/9781477331804/