My Top 10 Books I read this year. These books stood out the most as not only beautifully written studies, but ones that challenged my understanding of the meaning of freedom. @kevinkenny.bsky.social @kcarterjackson.bsky.social @countesscanuck.bsky.social

Buffalo’s Michigan Street African-American Heritage Corridor: A Rising Cultural Destination for Travellers www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article...

“We don’t have to wait for somebody to tell our own story, we can tell our own story,” said Fiona Vernal @uconnhistory.bsky.social

I want to watch a six-part series on the Haitian Revolution 😕

Today's read: former UCHI fellow Fiona Vernal and UCHI graduate assistant Timothy Brown (@uconnhistory.bsky.social) premiered an exhibit titled: “Bloomfield Mosaic: Stories from our Jewish, African American, and West Indian Communities.” This exhibit features over 40 oral histories.

Huge shout out to our own Timothy Brown! Check it out:

I’m quoted in this wonderful piece in UConn Today about our recently premiered Bloomfield Mosaic exhibit. This oral history project set out to capture the stories of the Jewish, African American and West Indian population of the CT suburb. today.uconn.edu/2025/11/ucon...

This one hurts… www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

A fantastic interview with my dear friend and former UNLV cohort @loveshistory123.bsky.social about her research (and recent Journal of Arizona History article) into the incarceration of Japanese Americans on the Gila River Indian Community during World War II. www.kjzz.org/the-show/202...

Super excited that my first book review has been published! The review is of John Reeves’ Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant. A big thank you to H-Net and my review editor at H-War for this opportunity. networks.h-net.org/group/review...

A poignant piece by @marthasjones.bsky.social. With an important reminder of the long historical battle for birthright citizenship in the aftermath of yesterday’s ruling from SCOTUS. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Gave it a shot after much contemplation:

Couldn’t have said it better myself. A truly wonderful piece, building on the great scholarship of @profmsinha.bsky.social.

My interview for a blog series to discuss my Graduate Assistantship with @uconnhumanities.bsky.social and share advice about applying skills to different positions. I also talked about my work with EPOCH (w/ @uconnhistory.bsky.social) and @shearites.bsky.social. career.uconn.edu/blog/2025/06...

On the 250th Anniversary of the “Shot Heard Round the World” I feel it is fitting to post this fascinating recent piece by @eranzelnik.bsky.social about the continuing myths and afterlives of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. www.hnn.us/article/the-...

Very much looking forward to today’s Draper Workshop on American Empire featuring panelists Greg Grandin, Moon Ho-Jung, @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social, @laurenfturek.bsky.social and moderated by @profmsinha.bsky.social.

I had the distinct pleasure of hearing @eranzelnik.bsky.social talk about his fascinating new book during this week’s @uconnhistory.bsky.social Wednesday Workshop and receiving a signed copy (thx @profmsinha.bsky.social). Looking forward to reading it! And get yourself a copy too!

Trump Admin is targeting Patricia Navarro-Velez, a UNLV professor killed in a mass shooting n the UNLV campus in Las Vegas in 2023, for violating its racist and illegal DEI executive order. www.yahoo.com/news/unlv-pr...

So sad to see this! The historic Nishikida Laundry in Gardnerville, NV faces impending demolition. While working for a preservation organization in the state I did background research into the building. This news hurts me knowing the rich history of it. thenevadaindependent.com/article/gard...

A fantastic piece by @rkdcolby86.bsky.social reminding us that the slave trade was very much alive during the Civil War and showing the struggles of formerly enslaved mothers to reunite with their children and family after the downfall of slavery. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/afte...

A fantastic piece by @hngreen.bsky.social about her own effort at collecting Black visual culture not in traditional archives and what these images can tell us about Black Civil War memory. The piece makes me even more excited to pick up her new book! www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/02/phot...

#They can’t take away what they didn’t give. asalh.org/about-us/abo...

This administration is trying to bar schools that receive federal funds from referring to any k-12 child as nonbinary or by their name or accurate pronoun (if the name or pronoun differs from that given at birth)

Thank goodness: after an outpouring of public dissent, Lackland reversed its terrible decision and will thankfully be teaching recruits about the Tuskegee airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots again. A reminder that we must always push back: www.expressnews.com/news/article...

Utterly egregious that the Tuskegee Airmen and the history of other African American service members are being erased in the training of recruits. All of this in the name of “anti-DEI.” www.expressnews.com/news/article...

Birthright citizenship is on the lips and minds of many, given yesterday’s “executive order.” Recommend Martha Jones’s book to those seeking to inform themselves about the context of this concept.

A really interesting and provocative op-ed by @kathleenduval.bsky.social about land acknowledgments. They feel, as Duval argues, like “rote obligations” instead they should be a step to “more practical efforts and work with modern Native nations as true partners.” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/o...

Just before the year ends, we have lost a giant: President Jimmy Carter. Rest in Peace. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/u...

Each year I put together a list of the top 10 books I read that year, so here is my 2024 list: These books have stuck with me because they made me think in different ways. @marthahodes.bsky.social, @profmsinha.bsky.social, @kidadaewilliams.bsky.social, @marcusrediker.bsky.social

Our list of best #Slaveryarchive books of 2024 is out, as we wait for the list of the most expected 2025 #slaveryarchive books, we wish you a Happy #slaveryarchive 2025 reading new year, as more than ever we need to read books on the history of slavery www.slaveryarchive.com/best-books-2...

An interesting piece about enduring “lost cause” myths about Christmas as a period where enslavers were kinder to the enslaved. time.com/7202555/chri...

A fantastic piece by @araujohistorian.bsky.social detailing how the holiday season was both a time of celebration and resistance for enslaved people in the Black Atlantic. theconversation.com/for-enslaved...

An interesting piece at this moment of conversations about Presidential pardoning powers looking back at Lincoln’s use of the pardon in two cases: www.realclearhistory.com/articles/202...

@markcheathem.bsky.social offers up an opportunity for historians and Americans to rethink our image or lack thereof of Andrew Jackson as an enslaver in light of the discovery of a possible cemetery containing the remains of enslaved people at The Hermitage. jacksonianamerica.com/2024/12/12/p...

An interesting piece on the role of individuals, in this piece Rev. John Rankin, in the Antislavery Movement. time.com/7177123/rank...

This will surely be an incredible collection of essays featuring 3 @uconnhistory.bsky.social faculty members including @melanienewport.bsky.social

A really great piece from @rachelswarns.bsky.social on the new data about the role of White Women as enslavers and slave traders that builds upon the important historiographical correction of historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/22/u...

Having a better estimate of the death toll of the U.S. Civil War is wonderful to have! Yet, as historian Caroline Janney asserts, we shouldn’t get too bogged down in the numbers because the impact of the death toll tells us much more than numbers. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/h...

An important reminder from @kawulf.bsky.social that we must be cautious when “heroizing” founding fathers especially George Washington, a man whose wealth was built on the backs of his enslaved people. time.com/7173647/geor...

A really great piece and necessary reminder of the continuity of struggle against White Supremacy through Black voters’ efforts to cast their ballots during Reconstruction. time.com/7176913/firs...

Cis gays: we must stand with our trans brothers and sisters. The disgust you see directed at them is unconscionable, and was directed at us not more than a generation ago. We abandon them, we abandon our humanity.

Carol Moseley Braun was the first Black woman elected to the Senate in 1993. Jesse Helms once followed her into the Senate elevator singing "Dixie." He told fellow Senator Orrin Hatch, "I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries." Thinking about that today. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Hello BlueSky historians! Would anyone be interested in or know of anyone interested in forming a panel submission on Abolition/Antislavery in the Early American Republic for the SHEAR 2025 conference in Providence, RI? #SHEAR2025 Please comment below.

Preserve Nevada, a wonderful preservation group in Nevada whom I worked with for a brief moment, has released its annual “Most Endangered” list for sites around the state. Learn more below: www.unlv.edu/news/article...

Prof. Hana Maruyama will be giving a talk tomorrow at the UConn Humanities Institute! Hope to see you all there, details below:

Going to give this space a shot. One of my many hats is Social Media Coordinator of SHEAR, so I want to test the viability of this space before making any recommendations. Plus, I could use the metal health break from the other hellscape (which I’m still very much on).