Full pawstration.

It happened. I bought my first pair of Eileen Fisher pants (on sale). I'm officially old.

Luxembourg City is sorta like if Zurich and Quebec City had a baby.

This is Benji. He’s the official mascot of the U of A Rome Center. 1000xs better than a hog.

Heading to Taormina and Rome for work (planning for an "Islamic Mediterranean" study abroad course in Sicily and meetings at our UA Rome Center). Then the hubs is meeting me in Rome for end of Giro d'Italia next Sunday. After that, we head to Belgium for a vacay. 🇮🇹🇧🇪🇱🇺🇫🇷 Whooooo!

Our panel "Creative Citizenship and Belonging In the People’s Republic of China: Contesting the Idea of “Chineseness” In the 1940s and 1950s," was accepted to the program for the American Historical Association in NOLA 01/27! Whooo! @emilymatson.bsky.social

Zhou Bo, a retired army colonel and a senior fellow at Tsinghua University, said: “On Iran, China definitely wants to help but I read what Rubio said: he actually seems to shift the burden to the Chinese side. In China, we have a saying: it is like, ‘Why should I clean your shit?’” Like: 给别人擦屁股??

It's official: I've signed a book contract with UNC Press for the publication of my biography of Bai Chongxi. It will also be Open Access. Should be out in Spring 2028. Now I just have to finish writing the thing by October! 🕺💃🥳

I hooded my first PhD student. His dad came from Xi’an for the ceremony. 🥰☺️🎓🎓🎓

I have an MOU for my work distribution between the Department of History and the International and Global Studies Program. They use them because they are not legally binding, and really don't mean anything.

It's Summer 2005 on repeat. We're going to see Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie this summer...

I just cobbled together funding to support the OA publication of my book about Bai Chongxi. I asked one of the Distinguished Profs in my department who has a ~ridiculous~ research budget to chip in, and he threw $5K my way. Always ask, people. Always ask.

Whenever I'm in the depths of writing, I spend most of the day thinking that everything I'm writing is total shit. Then, when I reread it the next day, I'm generally like "Hmmm..this isn't all terrible." What's that about?

My friend Esther just published this book about her grandfather Hu Zongnan. She just sent me a copy because there are all these awesome photos she’s colorized of Bai and Hu together. 🤓🥰 coffee table book for super nerds!

Hanging with the poochies in Bella Vista for a few days while the house gets painted.

A weekly conversation I have with my husband:

Ma Xingrui, a former high-flying technocrat and Xinjiang party secretary, is officially under investigation for corruption charges. That makes him the third member of the Politburo to fall amid Xi's latest purge.

“Oh my god… It’s glorious… they should’ve sent a poet…” - Deng Xiaoping

Happy 11th Birthday Dino!!!

You need side eye? I got side eye.

The only problem with this description is that the corgi self-appointed himself boss cause he is a bossy AF corgi and he’s never had anyone tell him what to do in his life:

Chen Lifu ran a chicken farm during his sojourn in America from the early 1950s until 1968, when he returned to Taiwan. Allegedly the chicken farm burned down and many chickens perished in the blaze.

Remember the good ol' days when you didn't need to download an app to run a new appliance?

Annie likes Sundays.

Visiting the motherland. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Historian here seen in the bad place “Admiral Yamamoto, seen here realizing he’d totally forgot to tell Trump he was going to attack Pearl Harbor.”

I've been teaching college for almost twelve years now. Out of the 30-or-so handwritten thank you notes I've received, not one has been from a man.

Bye Vancouver. It’s been a hoot! 🦉 #AAS2026

Two grad students referred to me as a senior scholar yesterday. Kill me now.

Finally! Some good news!! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/n...

Wait?! What??! This is THE VET!!?! 💉👨‍⚕️🩺

In collaboration with the Department of Economics, we are hosting Indonesian economist Muhamad Chatib Basri, former Minister of Finance for Indonesia and current visiting scholar at Harvard Center for International Development: news.uark.edu/articles/808...

I voted in the open primary in Arkansas. Only my second time voting as a a new American citizen.

RIP Mong Dynasty. fayettevilleflyer.com/2026/02/25/l...

Actually, yes. The IRS still hasn't processed my taxes from last year and they owe me $3500.

My very smart friend Jonas Nahm wrote a very good op-ed: “China Automates While America Hesitates” (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...

But will Einstein write my lectures and do all my grading? That would really free up my time.

LOVE it when students demand a meeting with me and then ghost 👻 me.

Big thanks to Kelly Hammond and @ruslanyn.bsky.social for hosting me for a talk on Party’s Interests at University of Arkansas!

The best part about working from home is that you can eat nachos in your pajamas for lunch and you don’t have to make small talk with your colleagues.

Have an Econ and International Studies student working on an undergrad thesis titled: "Infrastructures of Control: the PRC Party-state and the Diffusion of Surveillance Technology to the Global South." He's an incredible data miner and cruncher. Happy to share once he defends. 🤓

Reading an anecdotal story about Chiang Kai-shek clearing a high-level military meeting with a loud and stinky fart. Sounds too familiar to giggle.

I'm on campus. there is no one else on campus. it's a frozen ghost campus.

A really favorable review of the edited volume that I contributed to last year called "The Greater Second World War: Global Perspectives." networks.h-net.org/group/review...

Wrote close to 7000 words this week about Bai Chongxi's Northern Expedition. Time for a break.

Grinch toes.

Maybe now Andy Reid will be available to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks to victory.

A little light reading for the break….