And... of course I sent the wrong link to register for Prof. Montemayor's talk. This is the correct one: bit.ly/AI-attention Let me make it up to you with a cat photo...

Dr. Quintard Taylor, historian and founder of BlackPast.org, has died at 77. From "The Forging of a Black Community" to building a global archive, he made Black history accessible to all. Read Lola E. Peters' reflection here: soseaem.org/4mEIrTv #Seattle

As always, support your local station. They need it more than you know. And, if you can swing it, adopt a station in another state: adoptastation.org

My employer New York Public Radio just announced that it is offering @onthemedia.bsky.social, @radiolab.bsky.social, and other programs to at-risk public radio stations for free! More info: current.org/2025/09/wnyc...

CNN has identified at least 100 U.S. citizen children who have been separated from their parents after ICE deported them - including newborns. As a parent I cannot imagine the horror of being separated from my child, but that trauma is even more acute for the innocent children left behind.

Something I’ve been thinking about: History as a profession has long relied on affiliation. Your university or museum pays your salary, and in return, you give time to edit journals, peer review articles, write book reviews, consult on exhibits, and volunteer for institutional support. 1/

New job: Senior Social Media Strategist @ Smithonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. (Job closes once 150 applications are received, so apply NOW if interested.) FT, Washington, DC; $101,401-$131,826/yr Develop/execute comprehensive social media strategy across the Museum.

Using Charlie Kirk’s assassination as a pretext, the Trump administration is planning on “an organized strategy to go after left-leaning organizations” that had nothing to do with his murder. trib.al/gOITqi1

Of all the stupid things that this regime has done, this is right up near the top. Postdoctoral researchers come to the US on H-1B visas. This will further destroy the US science enterprise. Stupid stupid stupid.

The University of California receives $17 billion annually in federal funds. Its president is warning of a possible Trump push across the system, making current federal cuts at UCLA and elsewhere seem “minor in comparison to the threat that looms” www.latimes.com/california/s...

The true origins of the loneliness epidemic, discovered at last: everyone is dead.

Its H.R. 5300, "To guide the foreign policy of the United States, and for other purposes." This is a five-alarm fire.

Icymi, we've launched a CFP for a new series. If you have an interesting academic technique or process that you use in your work, particularly for humanities/arts/digital humanities, we would love to have you write about it for us

Our international system was gradually built upon the ashes of world war, by Republicans and Democrats, understanding that cooperation was the alternative to something real and horrific. The US Administration is now throwing it off a cliff, smirking, without a droplet of debate about consequences.

Join us for a one-day symposium on transpacific Indigenous studies with guest speakers Quynh Nhu Le, Bayley J. Marquez, Tiara Na’puti, and Erin Suzuki. Speakers will present their research across a range of Indigenous geographies in Native America, the Pacific Islands, and Asia.

Vergara's archive includes a photograph taken from this spot on September 11, 2001. It also documents the Tribute in Light memorial and the progress of One World Trade Center's construction. guides.loc.gov/vergara-coll...

Republicans passed a massive tax cut for America's 900 billionaires. Now, everyone else is paying for it. #Trumpflation

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph: link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...

If you haven't read this @joshdzieza.bsky.social piece, I strongly suggest you do. Too much good stuff to single out one quote, but the frame it offers: verification and deliberative decision-making as a bulwark against power, is a vital antidote to the vanities of the current media discourse

Satellites have been tracking the water held in glaciers, lakes and the world’s vast underground reserves — aquifers. A extensive analysis of that data reveals water is rapidly disappearing beneath much of humanity’s feet, and large swaths of the Earth are drying out. www.latimes.com/environment/...

“A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

Just an astonishing, powerful op-ed that drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost. We are so incredibly fortunate to live with the advances modern medicine and health science. Destroying and stymieing it is just unforgivable. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Gift link! WSJ: Black Americans Are Losing Jobs in a Warning for the Economy Unemployment among Black people reaches highest level since 2021; ‘I am in the fight of my life.’

Trump is trying to repeal a roadless rule that prevents loggers from denuding National Parks—something they just announced and which public only has a few weeks to speak against insideclimatenews.org/news/3008202...

Wow. I want every university counsel who is thinking about cowering before the Trump Administration’s threats, to read this and understand the caliber of attorney that has you shaking in your books. Yet another player in Trump’s army of incompetent thugs. www.propublica.org/article/leo-...

It is 20 years since Hurricane Katrina and I am thinking about New Orleans today. Here are a couple of Panic of 1837 shinplasters issued by Municipality No. One that featured views of city and street scenes. The first shows the St. Louis Cathedral and the second has a view of the St. Louis Hotel. 🗃️

Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.

The OAH is documenting the experiences of federal workers affected by Trump’s purge. Let anyone interested in sharing their story know about it 🗃️ www.fecohp.org

NEW: Tenure-track position in History at UC Berkeley in the GLOBAL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY. We are casting a wide net here: *all* periods, places, and fields are under consideration. I'm on the search committee, so do let me know if you have questions.

"Tao is one of the most prominent mathematicians and academics to publicly oppose the administration’s actions, calling them an “existential threat” to his field, and academic science, more broadly. He said public advocacy is a priority over his research, for now." www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

🚨Border Patrol arrested two firefighters who were actively fighting a wildfire at the time. When the other members of the crew asked for a chance to say goodbye, a Border Patrol agent told the crew member “you need to get the f*ck out of here. I’m going to make you leave.”

Journalists’ discourse around cities and crime right now is giving real inflation-in-2024 vibes. ‘Sure, crime’s going down, but it FEELS like it’s going up and that’s the real problem.’ Narrator: that was not, in fact, the problem they should be focused on.

Cost of Trump's D.C. Occupation: $1.1M per day. Cost to operate public housing for D.C.'s entire homeless population: $169,226 per day. It's not about what this country can or can’t afford. It’s about priorities.

Mamdani's fun idea for a scavenger hunt throughout NYC, using the subway or public transit, has succeeded beyond measure. They've run out of cards! And look how many young people are here. Follow the #ZcavengerHunt hashtag for more live updates as the hunt progresses. Everyone's happy & having fun.

John Shin, a well known and respected violinist from South Korea, who received Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Utah for violin performance, was detained by ICE. John Shin has been a violinist and teaches students in Utah. He is being detained in Colorado.

61 years ago today Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer one of the most courageous activists of the Civil Rights Movement posed the question that echoes today with every migrant round-up by masked officers, as federal troops converge on D.C.,as institutions are threatened: “IS THIS AMERICA?” youtu.be/DFC1nc3IXBM

🚨🚨🚨NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS HAS CANCELED ALL FY26 LITERARY FELLOWSHIPS PLEASE HOLLER AT ME IF YOU ARE A WRITER WHO GOT THE EMAIL TODAY🚨🚨🚨

The paragraphs screenshot below are from my contrbution to a Columbia Journalism Review forum on rethinking journalism ethics. @columjournreview.bsky.social "We asked newsroom leaders and ethicists what they’re keeping or changing in an era of Trump, 'fake news,' AI, and industry decline."

Higher education is a full-dollar export. Weird for a president consumed by the trade gap to go after it, hmmmm?

Black women are being used as test subjects for the limits of abuse of power. I want people to not ignore this since this always happens and then when the abuse arrives at people's doorstep, they're surprised. CALL IT OUT NOW.

Major philanthropic organizations including Knight, MacArthur, and Ford announced they're committing nearly $37 million in emergency funding to keep public media stations afloat after Donald Trump's rescissions package stripped away federal funding. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

the trump administration is selling its war on higher education as a strike against the elites who have disadvantaged ordinary americans. in actuality, the administration is destroying advanced education for *everyone* in pursuit of its effort to deskill the american public

Looking forward to hearing the conservative advocates of "free markets" denounce this naked cronyism. How many will? I'm guessing approximately...zero. www.axios.com/2025/08/15/w...

Leavitt says that Trump will imprison homeless people who refuse to go to shelters

Turns out the 1940s NYC Tax Department photographs (by WPA photogs) include outtakes, and they are so wonderful! 1940s.nyc/outtakes

I’m heartened to see this.

BREAKING: One of the most important and prominent reporters on the ground in Gaza has been Anas Al Sharif. He - and several other Al Jazeera journalists - have just been assassinated by Israelis forces whilst in their press tent in central Gaza. Speechless.

the trump administration is counting on enough people not caring about Ayman soliman’s fate so they can deport him as soon as they can get away with. That is true for an exceedingly large number of people and families, but to make this very simple: It’s not an exaggeration to say his and others’…