My alma mater Brown U caved to the Trump admin's illegal funding threats last year, signing an agreement—without a legal challenge—that has students "terrified," faculty call "a blatant violation of academic freedom," alumni call "reprehensible," and civil rights groups call "profoundly disturbing."

For Screen International's "The Future of Cinema" issue, I spoke to programmers at BFI, the Music Box and the American Cinematheque to find out why audiences, especially the young, are flocking to screenings of movies shown on actual film.

A longtime rant became a brainstorm with a friend over lunch and is now A Thing: Papering over the audiovisual archives, joint symposium between @emhis.bsky.social and @fiatifta.bsky.social media studies section, held Nov 19-20 at @beeldengeluid.bsky.social emhis.org/2026/03/27/c...

#NoKings, but lots of badass public scholars in my 269th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Essential listening

What's good, @aseh.bsky.social, and #ASEH2026 attendees? We're thrilled to be in KC for the annual conference. Please stop by our table and check out our latest books in Environmental Studies and go to our website and find out how to save 40% on them: www.ucpress.edu/book-lists/a...

The latest @coldwarcinema.com podcast is fascinating listening to anyone interested in aspects of materiality and Cold War film history. @alicelovejoy.bsky.social provides upon layer of observations about everything from the extractive industries in the former Congo to evolution of fabric making.

In Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War, @alicelovejoy.bsky.social exposes the chemical connections between movie magic and the materials of war. Over on @coldwarcinema.com, we ‘re chatting with Alice about her book and the dark side of the dream factory:

Thank you to @jasonachristian.bsky.social and @ptklein.com @coldwarcinema.com for a wonderful conversation!

@peggyflanagan.bsky.social at the SD66 convention “I am running to avenge Minnesota”

Film and media historian @alicelovejoy.bsky.social on the parallels between the current ICE surge in Minneapolis, where she lives, and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Read through the end, deeply observed >>

Important historical analogue here

It was an honor to write for @thenation.com about Minnesota this winter and Czechoslovakia in 1968. This is a piece about invasions and occupations: how we talk about them, what they look and sound like, the ways time feels within them. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

I'm looking forward to discussing Tales of Militant Chemistry on Monday at the NYU Center for the Humanities, with dream interlocutors @orphanfilm.bsky.social & Cristina Vatulescu. New York friends, please join us! 3/2, 12 pm, 20 Cooper Sq. Registration below: www.eventbrite.com/e/tales-of-m...

By tracing Kodak's evolution from film pioneer to supplier of military materials, this conversation reveals how film production intersected with forced labor in Nazi Germany, nuclear fallout, and U.S. Cold War imperialism. W/ @alicelovejoy.bsky.social on @amprestigepod.bsky.social

Listen now: americanprestigepod.com/episodes/523...

Grateful for the chance to talk with @amprestigepod.bsky.social about Tales of Militant Chemistry!

It was such a pleasure to talk with @tattooedhistorian.bsky.social last fall!

Austrian professors in the Humanities + Social Sciences: Want to come to the @wirthinstitute.bsky.social + @ualberta.bsky.social a as a Visiting Professor? Apply! Here's more information: oead.at/en/news/arti... Application materials here: grants.at/en/ Please share!

Tales of Militant Chemistry is one of @sciencenews.bsky.social’s 10 favorite books of 2025! @ucpress.bsky.social

💛💛💛

It was an absolute delight to be on the Cultures of Energy podcast. I’m grateful to @dominicboyer.bsky.social and @cymene.bsky.social for reading the book so thoughtfully, and for talking silvichemicals, film flames and fumes, radiation lakes, transformation, and more…. @ucpress.bsky.social

In 1956 the US flew hundreds of spy balloons over the USSR. They carried specialized Kodak cameras and film to record everything they flew over. The USSR shot most of them down. In 1959, the USSR sent Luna 3 to photograph the dark side of the moon - and just used American film from the balloons.

Hell, who wasn't.

Did you know Kodak was a military contractor? grist.org/accountabili...

“The history of this material comes through poison gas, and it comes through the atomic bomb, and it comes through all of these materials that are really part of the history of the 20th and now 21st century.” #envhist

I’m thrilled to see Tales of Militant Chemistry discussed in @grist.org; thank you to @hurwitz.bsky.social for talking with me about Kodak-branded streetwear, the circular economy, and the chemical currents that make film’s military histories environmental histories. @ucpress.bsky.social

CFP for upcoming special issue of @amianet.bsky.social's THE MOVING IMAGE journal! Topic: "Videotape in the Archive,” guest editors: @danerdman.bsky.social, Adam Charles Hart, Helena Shaskevich. Proposal deadline: March 31, 2026. amianet.org/resources/mo...

It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!

We are also currently hiring a curatorial fellow to work with the papers of Rosalind Franklin and others in the History of Molecular Biology Collection! This is a 2-year staff position in the archive with a salary of $55k/year and full benefits: www.sciencehistory.org/research/fel...

Kodak was deeply involved in the Manhattan Project wat

“The Tennessee Eastman (as in: Kodak) Corp came to operate the Y-12 uranium separation plant, not because the company knew anything about separating uranium, but because it was very good at mass chemical production… It was uranium separated at Y-12 that was used in the bomb dropped in Hiroshima.”

TODAY: @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social in conversation with Alice Lovejoy, on Kodak's strange and largely unknown foray into the war machine. "This is one of the bigger ironies in the book, a question about safety—whose safety matters?" flaminghydra.com/gadget-works...

Tales of Militant Chemistry, a fascinating new book, jets from the forests of East Tennessee, where Kodak-linked chemists worked on the atomic bomb, to the film capitals of Europe and back to the environmental hazards they left. New author Q&A with @alicelovejoy.bsky.social at Flaming Hydra:

So many thanks to @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social for taking the time to talk with me about Tales of Militant Chemistry @flaminghydra.com. @ucpress.bsky.social

Mamdani!!!

Chicago friends: this Friday, October 24th (4:00 pm), I'll be at Seminary Co-op bookstore, where I'm looking forward to talking with the brilliant Anne Eakin Moss about Tales of Militant Chemistry. Please join us!

Tomorrow!

“Love Letter in Cuneiform is a novel that challenges and exceeds the norms of a multigenerational family saga at every opportunity. […] its unique energy is sustained in translation with Zucker’s careful, and at times creative, attention to the subtleties and playfulness of Zmeškal’s language.”

🚨🚨 @utaustin.bsky.social is working to eliminate its Black studies, Latin studies, and gender studies depts -- utterly reneging on its mission and depriving students of the full educational opportunities they deserve. Please--scholars AND publishers--share & write to UT leaders. #SaveUT

Thank you to annademming.bsky.social for this incredibly thoughtful review of Tales of Militant Chemistry!

Just listened to @alicelovejoy.bsky.social on this podcast and her new book sounds brilliant (and very close to my interests) podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...

RIP the great filmmaker and teacher Jill Godmilow, one of the all-time originals. vimeo.com/jillgodmilow

Friends in Providence! Next Thursday, 9/18, I’ll be in town to talk about Tales of Militant Chemistry at the Brown Bookstore, where I’m honored to be in conversation with filmmaker Leslie Thornton. Please join us if you can!

Under 30 minutes until I am live with @alicelovejoy.bsky.social on my YouTube channel. Please join us in the live chat!

film and media studies friends, we are hiring! we are an inclusive + supportive program, one hour from philly and nyc. position starts end of january; review starts october 17. please spread the word and reach out w/ questions. provost.lafayette.edu/2026-27-film...

Twin Cities friends! Please join me for the Mpls launch of Tales of Militant Chemistry on 9/14 at 3:00 pm, at the wonderful @boneshakerbooks.bsky.social. I'll be in conversation with photographer Paul Shambroom. Details & registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/minneapoli... @ucpress.bsky.social

It was an honor to discuss Tales of Militant Chemistry with Sasha Lilley on ‪@kpfa.org‬’s extraordinary Against the Grain. Listen to our conversation here: kpfa.org/episode/agai... @ucpress.bsky.social

Such a huge loss. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/b...

BTW. Identities and motives of shooters don't matter. They serve two purposes. 1. To distract from action on gun violence. 2. To spread the shooter's messages, increase notoriety, and encourage copycat shooters. Do not fall into the identity conversation trap. This is about guns, nothing else.