This is so sad; so many lives ruined. And for what?

Amy Sherald says the Smithsonian suggested removing a painting of a transgender woman as the Statue of Liberty from her upcoming show at the National Portrait Gallery “to avoid provoking President Trump.” Sherald: “I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship”

@aktange.bsky.social field trip!

Rümeysa Öztürk wrote about ICE detention and the women who helped her survive. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/r...

A powerful piece by Patricia Okker, former President of the New College of Florida, on how reading American women writers can shape our current moment. This is what the humanities can do, and this is why they are so afraid of us. Free access from Legacy: muse.jhu.edu/article/959226

MIT just pubbed a study on ChatGPT users. “Brain scans revealed neural connection collapse... a 47% reduction in brain connectivity. When researchers forced ChatGPT users to write w/o AI, they performed worse than people who never used AI at all. It's not just dependency. It's cognitive atrophy.”

Sounds awesome!

Hey all, if you don't want a massive data center in your backyard, the folks at Stop the Data are holding a rally at the June 17th Ypsilanti Town Board meeting at 5:30pm! The rally will be at the Tilden R. Stumbo Civic Center Board Room!

The U.S. owes Afghans and Afghan Americans a huge debt. Instead of repaying this debt and undoing the harm it has caused over four decades, Muslim ban 2.0 has been yet another deep betrayal and abandonment.

"A former Afghan National Army soldier in the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. was arrested last month by federal immigration agents at his Houston-area home, according to his attorney, who said the man and most of his family are being threatened with deportation."

🚨 Support Los Angeles immigrant communities 🚨 Please consider donating to one or all of the following orgs: Immigrant Defenders Law Center: give.immdef.org/donate LA Jail Support / Bail Fund: account.venmo.com/u/jailsuppor... Unión del Barrio: uniondelbarrio.org/main/support...

What was it again that John Locke said about putting labor into the land?

If you're working in any Victorian Studies field & would like some group support/motivation to get summer writing done, consider applying to these (VIRTUAL) seminars. You need not live in the midwestern US to apply. Seminar groups are based on topic intersections & time zones for ease of meeting.

Excited to share the call for Victorian Poetry’s 2025 Early Career Prize! Please circulate widely. Happy to answer any questions (see the attached CFP for more details)!

My most sincere thanks to everyone who has stepped up to contribute to our legal action with AHA and ACLS to restore the NEH. More than 300 people have chipped in. Here's the link to join the fight: www.mla.org/About-Us/Sup... The fund we are using for the legal fees is Paving the Way.

For Mother’s Day I talked to moms who are being put through hell because of the new administration’s policies. “I am aware of Project 2025 and their goals of getting women out of the workforce, and this really feels like part of it.” Read here:

Feel like trotting out one of my favorite quotes in my book The Dream Life of Citizens. It's from Sydney Webb's 1889 essay "Historic." In it, he counters Herbert Spencer's 1884 diatribe against liberals granting the state more power to mitigate people's suffering and to provide public services:

Very excited that two of our contributors to the special issue of VLC on Victorian Infrastructure that @timwatson.bsky.social and I co-edited have brand new brilliant books coming out. (1/?)

This is beyond horrifying.

PAGE NOT FOUND As of this morning, trans people are removed from federal health websites. Information on trans people and HIV, trans people in Ryan White programs, trans people and cancer- all mentions removed. (cont)

About 1,600 Afghans who are vetted and cleared to resettle in the U.S. — including unaccompanied minors reuniting with family members and Afghans at risk of retribution from the Taliban for assisting the U.S. during the 20-year war — had their entry to the U.S. blocked.

Disgusting. My family & I have worked in Afghan resettlement for the past 4 years. These are amazing people from whom we have learned so much. Biden didn’t do nearly enough for them, esp after the withdrawal debacle. But at least he allowed in a steady trickle (thru a grueling vetting process).

Higher Education Must Champion Democracy, Not Surrender to Fascism truthout.org/articles/hig...

The deadline for the Annual USC Comparative Lit conference focusing on Fin-de-Siècle Modernisms is January 3. Please circulate the CFP and consider submitting: sc.edu/study/colleg...

If you will be at MLA, come by the Archives and Possibility panel on Friday at 8:30 to hear scholars working in Black studies, Caribbean studies, Native and Indigenous studies, and Victorian studies consider archival methodologies that position the archive as a site of re-creation or possibility.

Really appreciate Christopher Newfield for continuing to sound the drum on this. Not news for anyone who actually works in the humanities but critically important for folks in CS/ML/AI to know as they increasingly draw from the humanities for their ideas

Going to #MLA2025? Dig plants? Don't miss our Victorian Plants Roundtable, co-organized with @aktange.bsky.social, also featuring Sarah Bilston, Amy M. King, and Lindsay Wells. Subtitle: Imperial Networks and Affordances of Care. 1/9, 5:15 pm. Hope to see you there!

This piece really packs a punch.

Thrilled that this out! And so grateful to our wonderful contributors!

Pleased Cambridge UP is recovering from a cyberattack on its infrastructure—looking forward to special issue of Victorian Literature & Culture @zda.bsky.social & I edited on ... infrastructure. As a preview of the issue, this is Faith Smith's great essay on water & waste in the anglophone Caribbean!

Just registered!: www.mainewriters.org/calendar/geo...

Please circulate widely! Still accepting apps.

INTIMATE GEOPOLITICS: October 7! Online Maine Lit Fest panel about the rocketing + ricocheting of US imperial policies, bombs, + drones across continents, oceans, generations, diasporas, language. With Jen Soriano, Sahar Muradi, Hala Alyan. More info + register link: mainewriters.org/calendar/geo...

Can’t wait for this!

Just updated the Nature Writing Starter Pack - now with 75 writers - hope it's helpful. Please repost to help others find it. Also, do join in with the Nature Writing Feed by tagging posts with #naturewriting go.bsky.app/NXoPc6D

VICTORIAN RACE, EMPIRE, DISABILITY. Bassam Sidiki and I co-organized this roundtable and I am so excited to be in this conversation. Join us! #EVENT2024

We couldn't be more excited about this position: please share!!!