“I have a PhD in atmospheric physics. I spent a decade measuring greenhouse gases from satellites. The thing that made me good at it was reading poetry. It trained me to notice what was not being said in a dataset. Every critical decision I made as a scientist was interpretation, not computation.”

The paperback of 'Deserted Wives & Economic Divorce' is out, and I am delighted to celebrate with an online book event. I'll be in conversation with the fabulous @afroide.bsky.social about the book and how it was written, in an event hosted by @thenacbs.bsky.social. 📅 April 30 ⏰ 12 noon ET / 5pm BST

📢Online book event! Join us next week to hear more about Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th Century England and Wales. @drjenniferaston.bsky.social in conversation with @afroide.bsky.social 📅April 30 ⏰12pm noon ET Free and open to the public Info and RSVP: www.nacbs.org/event-detail...

Dream positions: 3 (!!) PhD placements at the Prize Papers with emphasis on finding students with the following language skills: French, Spanish, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages. (Of course, I emphasize the Dutch language!) www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/professional...

If everyone got a receipt for their taxes breaking it down like this, I think our country would look totally different

Tesla paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2025, despite making $5.7 billion. This Tax Day, remember that you have paid more in taxes than a multi-billion dollar company—all thanks to corporate tax breaks from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

I wrote and posted this to Instagram a couple of days ago and it became my most-read poem ever. I’m honored I get to feel big feelings alongside you all. I’m posting it here too and want to use this space more consistently. Hello friends ❤️

so, fellow historians, this is a 12-alarm fire if "learn about history" is the top use of AI (related to the Humanities). this should be an all-hands-on-deck conversation with @historians.org and every history department to work K-16 to get us away from history as just "names and dates"

In the spirit of yesterday‘s discussions, here is a reminder that my new book about why Shakespeare was Shakespeare is out in the world!

Over eight million Americans took to the streets today, which makes No Kings 3 the biggest single day of protest in the history of our country. #NoKings

The Philly #NoKings march has no end.

#nokings #baltimore

Powerful stuff from our students: "AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it.... With our own university leading the charge, AI is now corrupting those few sacred spaces and leaving us with nowhere to engage in true scholarship."

You ever think you could use a few strategies for balancing writing/publishing when you have a demanding teaching schedule? Come for the strategies, stay for the community. MLA is committed to helping you thrive professionally, no matter where you are in your career.

New research from School of Humanities @uofgartshums.bsky.social shows 90% of Humanities alumni now work in mid–senior roles across 24 sectors, with 91.7% reporting high career fulfilment. Read More: gla.ac/3Nr1Ewf

This story is generating lots of reaction. Which is good! I think it's an important story. But also a nuanced one. And so a few points I think it's worth making, in a Saturday evening 🧵: #EconSky

Someone just posted about how they don't care if their students use AI as long as the text conveys the ideas the students meant to convey. The thing is, you don't know exactly what you think until you write it. And if some prefab thing pops up, you're liable to decide that was what you thought.

The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org have filed a motion for summary judgment in our lawsuit to restore the NEH. Discovery documents reveal that DOGE rather than the acting chair led grant terminations and targeted grants using ChatGPT. More at mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit

We are hiring postdoc researchers to join our #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck, with Sue Wiseman, @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social, @richardjansell.bsky.social and I. 0.5FTE, 13 months, focus on women's or provincial non-elite writing #EarlyModern 🗃️ cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

NEW EPISODE - The #Moscow Playbook: How #Sovietunion & #Russia Used, #Abused, and Transformed #Sports in the Hunt for #Power Listen here 🎧 coldwarconversations.com/episode443 #olympics #doping #sportsscience #Coldwar

What can you do with a history degree?

Join us live at the IHR and online. Free registration. tinyurl.com/229on2w7 @lauragowing.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social @clairelanghamer.bsky.social @carmenmangion.bsky.social @dralanagharris.bsky.social @womenshistoryrev.bsky.social @womenshistnet.bsky.social @harkaway1.bsky.social

I call this ‘weird trick’ intentional patriarchy.

We cannot escape the fact that George Washington enslaved people, and he knew he could not escape that fact either. Signs may come down (for now), but good history is out there, starting with: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Friends, I hope you’ll share this widely. The @jcblibrary.bsky.social is hiring 2 3-yr research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas. Info is here and I’m happy to take questions offline: brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-...

Here's the moment slowed down. Watch the men in front of the car.

A big reason we can’t just let the events and insurrection of January 6, 2021 go? Because it wasn’t an isolated event; it was part of an anti-democracy onslaught that is still happening. Please read this excellent contextualization from @hcrichardson.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

it is fairly amazing how clear it was, at the time, what was happening. so much chaff has been thrown into the air since then, of course, that most coverage takes a "whomst amongst us can say what happened that day?" approach (stole this image from @joshsternberg.com's post)

CARTOON OF THE DAY 🇺🇸

"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!