"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

When I'm feeling particularly hopeless about the future of professoring as a profession, I try to remind myself: That's what they want. They want us to not want to be professors anymore.

The anti-Semitic mass shooting in Australia will cause a national conversation and policy change. We know this because the 1996 Port Arthur massacre led to significant restrictions on guns. The shooting at Brown will do nothing. We know this because it occurred on the anniversary of Sandy Hook.

Having read through those ratification debates when preparing our amicus brief in the immunity case, the unanimity over the question of presidential accountability was striking. No one. Not one. Not in newspapers or manuscript discussions, argued for immunity. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. Teach a man the best AI prompts to get a fish, and he'll always depend on an algorithm someone else has written to decide whether the statistically most probable response is to give him a fish.

As a historian of the 18th c and an American, I've always known 2026 would be a critical moment. This doc is worth watching, and thinking through. Begins and ends w Indigenous contexts, conveys the horrors of a civil war wrought w racism + the ideals of liberty and equality we keep reaching for. 1/

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History

The Institute of Historical Research's 2026 June summer school in Bloomsbury is on Sickness and Health, from London's medieval history to the present. Suitable for the History-curious over the age of 16.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776). In America, the law is king.

For the final days of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, scholar Carla Della Gatta looks at the growth of Latinx-inspired Shakespeare productions in the US beginning with "West Side Story" on Broadway in 1957. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

***UCLA Mapping Deportations Project*** Mapping Deportations, an educational resource uses maps, data, and a timeline to unmask the relationship between race and immigration enforcement throughout U.S. history. mappingdeportations.com

Don't miss the astonishing cut-paper works of Johanna Koerten at the National Museum of Women in the Arts exhibition, "Women Artists From Antwerp to Amsterdam: 1600-1750." They are miraculous, fragile and rare, with only about 15 surviving. Three are on view. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

A new NYT as-told-to series, "Lost Science," documents the work of researchers who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. Share your story with us! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

If anyone needs a freelance researcher in London (or across the UK), I'm your person! I've reasonable rates, lots of archive experience & great recommendations from academics globally. I'm only teaching 1 module this term, as the job market is what it is. Therefore, I'm open to all work. DM me!

When I’m accused of “technopessimism“ I counter that I’m not “pessimistic about technology“; I am opposed to the economic, political, and social project of upward wealth transfer that “AI” is being leveraged to bring about. If that phrasing is useful to others, then go ahead and use it.

I will start teaching my students how to use AI when my colleagues in computer science start to teach Homer, Dante, Langston Hughes, Borges, Foucault, Audre Lord, Spivak, and Donna Haraway in their classes

If you're looking for state races where your donation can do some real work, I humbly suggest this one. Sarah Trone Garriott is a real one, and that district is absolutely winnable

In my one fox business appearance, Kennedy tried to “gotcha” me by saying cars kill people and we don’t ban them … I responded as you might expect (license, liability, etc) and she changed the subject.

If the CDC is no longer the reliable source of health guidance it once was, where can Americans turn to for trustworthy information? Yasmin Tayag reports:

The @aaup.org just shared guidance for academic workers on how to protect themselves online www.aaup.org/news/advisor...

The American Association of University Professors condemns the targeted elimination of humanities departments and programs at the University of Oregon #WarOnEducation #edusky #signalboost #UniversityofOregon www.aaup.org/news/aaup-pr...

Many thanks to our friends @hyperallergic.com for spreading the word about @ransomcenter.bsky.social's 2026-27 #fellowships! Learn more by visiting the Center's website: www.hrc.utexas.edu/fellowships/ #Humanities #Photography #Literature #ArtHistory #RareBooks #Theatre #FilmHistory 🗃️📜📚

Thank you @maggielevenstein.bsky.social and @johnkubale.bsky.social for this great summary and action call in @theconversation.com on #DisappearingData

Lex wrote this great article I included in my zine about genAI, and they've linked more articles in their thread - read them!

'It is less that AI is the cause of degradation in reading and thinking, and more that the creation of a culture that views knowledge primarily in an instrumental manner has made it easier to misuse AI.'

@historians.org, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @modernlanguage.bsky.social celebrate Judge McMahon’s decision for @authorsguild.bsky.social, putting a stay on the cancellations of awarded NEH grants. We remain steadfast in our efforts to stop the unlawful dismantling of the NEH. 🗃️

“My 2020 article on the NPS website was edited to remove the words transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, and butch,” writes @wendylrouse.bsky.social in #AHAPerspectives. 🗃️

Donald Trump's bill makes your life more expensive this year, next year, the year after that, and the year after that.

History should make you uncomfortable. Watch seven historians describe how exploring America’s past honestly in the classroom benefits the nation’s students, and how the #FreedomToLearn also strengthens our shared democracy. 🗃️

In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.

I want to be really clear about this: humanities courses are money makers for universities. Humanities faculty and departments are cheaper than their STEM, law, and biz school counterparts. They are LYING when they claim they are closing humanities departments because they aren’t profitable.

“legitimate business need” is a nearly meaningless phrase in the context of most researchers’ access to historical archives, so I guess this bit of illiteracy is intended as a clever way of saying “corporate customers and nationalist narratives only”

🗃️ I read the article and agree with @kawulf.bsky.social. I would add a few points in support: This article is premised on a basic misunderstanding of the historical research process. It’s important to note that, as far as I can tell, the author of the article is not a professional historian, i.e.

Bonus: when there is an emergency, or local government maladministration, or shoddy practices at a local establishment, you have people already known to the community to gather and share information. Local newspapers serve their communities.

There is a long history of concerns about birth rates and fertility. I got to talk about 18th century precedents on this episode of Freakonomics Radio: freakonomics.com/podcast/why-...

TRUMP PARDONS JEAN VALJEAN BEFORE THE INTERMISSION; RUINS SHOW

Tomorrow! Open to the public!

UNC Library isn’t on Bluesky I guess so I’m sharing that they’re currently recruiting for the Hanes Curator of Rare Books: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/301... This is an amazing opportunity! Happy to talk to anyone about my experiences when I held this role!

Job Opportunity! Rowan University, History Department 3/4 time Assistant Professor, Gender and Early Modern history www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis...

undefeated

You have three days, starting today, to leave a public comment with the FDA about, say, why COVID-19 boosters should remain available to everyone and also free. "Individual consumer" is the category you most likely want (unless you are one of the other categories; if so, choose that).

For those who missed it: The English Short Titles Catalogue (ESTC) has finally been relaunched with the help of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) following the cyber-attack on the @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Find it here: datb.cerl.org/estc/

As a scholar, as a teacher, and now as a museum educator, Chronicling America has been invaluable. Beyond that, though, it's OURS. We paid for it. It's a public good.