In Monstrous Intimacies, @hystericalblkns.bsky.social mobilizes psychoanalysis as a method to analyze slavery’s psychic, cultural, and material hold on the present. Join us in Toronto from June 22nd to 24th to discuss this and other insights from her monumental text.

Get it!

You want to watch Joe talk common sense about COMMON SENSE! Trust me.

Here is the link. This will basically be a talk from my essay coming out in EAL in the fall

Whenever I see any kind of cutesy clip of Bush, I think of this first.

BREAKING: Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment for the Humanities Funding In Historic Case This afternoon's ruling declared that the mass termination of more than 1,400 grants by the NEH was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.” https://bit.ly/4wmbFg8

In the lawsuit by the MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, & @historians.org, the court has ruled that termination by the NEH of grants to support scholars, research institutions, and humanities organizations was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.” www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...

Today I learned that if you take your plant to the plant store for help, the plant people will coo over it like it’s a baby…or a dog. Also I learned I’m TOTALLY up for this!

Says the man who loves to talk about Cousin Pookie…

Forget Dad Books. MORE MOM BOOKS. Here are 4 excellent, insightful books about mothers and mothering in early America and beyond. Likely available second hand, too, for modeling reuse and recycle.

It’s May the 4th. Here is your permission to listen to that theme as many times as you need to today…

The Sound and the Irritation

Hey @cadaverformosus.bsky.social!

Today!!! Join us for Koritha Mitchell!!!

We are happy to discuss projects for the series. Contact us: [email protected] I’m guessing it goes without saying that we are eager to work with scholars of color.

Just taking a moment to be thankful that my dad at 84 (just last week) is going strong. Just back from a 17-day cruise. Still hilarious. He’s sending me back to Brooklyn with slices of GOOD ham—once-a-year ham.

So, I'm fancy now? I've been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.💅🏽 🤯 In the company of incredible scholars and activists who have been lights for me made my way through the wilds of academia. Having all the feels 🤯 🎉 😳 🎉 💃🏽

Today is Narwhal Appreciation Day so if you haven't already please sign my petition to have their name changed to "tunacorns"

I don’t talk about what happens in my classroom on social media too often but a compliment I just invented is “You’re on it like a bonnet.” And that’s both the blackest and regenciest thing that has come out of my mouth this year.

🩵🩵🩵

Me: a middle-aged scholar entrusted with Austen editions. Mansfield Park: The Lay of the Last Minstrel Me: “Lay” heh, heh, heh “Lay” 😈

Super happy to announce that the first book in our series, Race in Nineteenth-Century Literatures and Cultures, will be coming out this June. Check out Porscha Fermanis's _Settler Fiction from the Southern Hemisphere, 1820-1890_ and please ask your libraries to order?

The first book in the Race in Nineteenth Century Literatures and Cultures series (Oxford University Press) is out in June! Porscha Fermanis’ Settler Fiction from the Southern Hemisphere, 1820-1890 Get your library to order copies! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

I cannot overstate how much I HATE dealing with Adobe acrobat. Truly. I HATE it!

Such a helpful book for how I think about Sheila Bridges in my book.

Born into slavery, Adolf Ludvig Couschi Badin became part of Swedish royal court and left legacy of books and letters

I would like to see them out of the ship, please.

Got interviewed for NY Magazine, here's the anecdote that made the cut www.curbed.com/article/dogs...

Very proud of this series, which I started 4 yrs ago when I became Dir of Am Studies at BU. We bring in senior scholars to respond to works-in-progress by BU junior faculty, and then the guest gives a public lecture. The year is capped by a Keynote from a senior BU faculty member. Today: Lisa Lowe!

so lovely to bump into signs of spring these last days 🩵

Boston University’s student paper, The Daily Free Press, reports about the multiplication of pride flags on campus following the administration’s attempted crackdown on free speech.

Ev’ry collie shall be exalted.

More of this, please!

The Solicitor General says that the birthright citizenship clause is limited to the children of newly freed slaves. He's wrong. Historians @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social wrote a whole brief about this:

I can promise you there are things I *haven’t yet said* about COMMON SENSE that I will be saying tomorrow at this free webinar, hosted by @jcblibrary.bsky.social at 4pm EDT. Thank you to @kawulf.bsky.social for all this great series, “The Revolution is News,” which runs through September.

Join us TOMORROW, March 31, 2026 at 4 p.m. ONLINE only for a conversation with Boston University professor Joe Rezek on Common Sense and more! This is the launch of our new series The Revolution Is News. Details at jcblibrary.org!

Next week "at" the JCB, we have two virtual events! First, Boston University Professor Joe Rezek will discuss Common Sense and more with JCB Director Karin Wulf on 3/31 at 4 p.m. And JCB Reads continues with a discussion of Katharine Gerber's book Archival Interruptions. More at jcblibrary.org!

"The third No Kings protests were an unmistakable display of political force..." "Two-thirds of participants live in suburban, small town or rural areas, a 40% increase over last time in protesters from outside big cities..." www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

I have always been interested in Bridgerton’s Black characters. Here I am thinking about some of the men.

always read tricia matthew

“Alongside noting each season’s nod to diversity, there has been a steady critique of what the series glosses over, particularly the oppressive, often violent hierarchies, masked by fashion and sentiment.” Patricia Matthew considers the fourth season of Bridgerton.

Possibly now THE definitive essay on Bridgerton and diversity New from the incomparable @triciamatthew.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️⬇️

I still have things to say about Bridgerton… lithub.com/is-bridgerto...

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

THE BARBARA JOHNSON COLLECTIVE has a cover, a website, and is available for preorder! (Use code NUP2026 for a discount.) See the full contents at the link below — lucky to be part of this extraordinary project and excited to see it in print this fall! ✨🔥 nupress.northwestern.edu/979889948066...

When I was little, I played librarian. I made my own card catalog and put cards (and pockets) in the back of my books. I was 6. Maybe I owned 10 books. Anyway, new bookcase is here, everything is shelved. Onward…

I wonder if people understand that for many of us the pride flag is not just an expression of queer identity it is a REJECTION OF THE CLOSET SPECIFICALLY. That is- its display is explicitly meant to COUNTER the conditions of queer invisibly, which has been at the heart of our marginalization. 1/