Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/

Grades are in. Time for a beer. Using the break to finish my book manuscript. Happy holidays, you filthy animals.

Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers. "These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."

This is a focus group of Gen Z Republicans in the United States of America. Now. They get their news only from social media/podcasts, and they express warm sympathy for Adolf Hitler and for (Nazi) Nick Fuentes. Fascism will destroy their future. www.city-journal.org/article/manh...

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

"universities are being infiltrated by a commercial industry that exploits students+faculty as data mines frenzy w/o consulting their faculty, collecting empirical data on whether gen AI is pedagogically useful, or pausing to inquire about the long-term impact" www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

I could grade or work on my book manuscript, but I built a dining table instead.

I could grade or work on my book manuscript, but I built a dining table instead.

Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things

It's funny how someone as smart as @tressiemcphd.bsky.social can admit that their hunch about something might be wrong or incomplete, while countless morons in power trust their guts even when mountains of evidence suggest they're likely wrong. Be more like Dr. Cottom and less like the others.

This is what I want to ask every Dean and administrator and edtech person and AI fetishist in academia: What does ‘teaching AI’ even mean? Why should I convert my disability history/disability studies/history of medicine courses into ‘AI trainings?’

I'd highly recommend you take a break from the news and work and just listen to this pedal steel instrumental version of Wish You Were Here from the new 50th anniversary release. You'll feel better, I promise. youtu.be/bRdM6B2Uoto?...

That rejection letter from Penn’s PhD program stings a lot less these days.

This is what it's like to watch students who don't do the reading try to engage with me and their peers during seminars. Except this guy holds a position of real power. This is not how a serious country should be operating.

My grad school advisor told me that it would be great if we were someday remembered for our research. But we're more likely to be remembered by our students and our colleagues for our humanity. Be a good teacher, a good departmental citizen, and a good steward of the discipline and profession.

This makes facially neutral policies--like poll taxes and literacy tests--that we know were adopted for discriminatory purposes legal. Organizations can now simply claim there was no discriminatory intent regardless of outcome. It's unconstrained institutionalized racism.

I agree with this normatively, but as @johnadearborn.bsky.social notes in his brilliant book Power Shifts, Congress, through a series of institutional reforms in the 20th C. helped create and institutionalize the idea of presidential representation--it's not just presidents reaching for this power.

Today's the day! Deadline for proposal submissions for the 2026 NEPSA conference are due today. Hope to see some of you in Burlington next spring!

Today's the day! Deadline for proposal submissions for the 2026 NEPSA conference are due today. Hope to see some of you in Burlington next spring!

Why exactly does this exist in the first place? And what can "customers' bowl pictures" be used to train AI for...?

‘Tis the season.

The deadline for proposal submissions for the 2026 New England Political Science Association Conference in Burlington, VT (April 23-25) is this Friday! It's a great, small conference, and I hope to see some of you there! www.newenglandpsa.org/nepsa2026?ut...

It's fun to take things out of context, but the Texas Tech flow chart is in a memo that specifies 3 categories of materials that have to go through the chart. The categories are huge, and the memo also says *all* course materials must be "necessary," but let's use our close reading skills, please.

I had a student come up to me after class and ask, ”Are you a hugger? Is it okay if I give you a hug?” And I’m not sure if he thought I needed a hug (I didn’t, but maybe I gave off a vibe that I did?), or if he needed a hug and thought I was a good option for one. Either way, it was kind of sweet.

The best office mate.

The David Byrne concert I saw earlier this year was a top live music experience of my life. A great start to the month of the December.

What is the point of higher education if students can just write anything they want without any empirical backing and then whine to admin (and the toxic stew of social media) in order to get actual subject matter experts threatened or fired? What an absolute joke. Faculty better get organized...

So many of my family’s dessert recipes come from my grandmother’s Ladies Guild Church Cookbook, and like 90% of those desserts have some form of instant pudding in them.

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

So the order for the US military to launch these deadly Caribbean boat strikes was straightforwardly illegal under US and international law, immoral under long established standards, and on top of that, terrible strategy. Not maybe. Not got to check with a lawyer. Unambiguous. Blatant. Deliberate.

Ornament highlights

This rather plump squirrel seems quite content munching on our compost pile.

Amen. My job as an educator is not to prepare my students for the labor market. My job is to teach them to think critically about US politics and history (my fields of study) and to help them understand their duties and obligations as citizens of the US and the world.

The deadline to submit proposals for next year's New England Political Science Association conference in Burlington, VT is next week! I'm chairing the Politics & History section and would love to showcase your work! This is always one of my favorite conferences. www.newenglandpsa.org/nepsa2026?ut...

The deadline to submit proposals for next year's New England Political Science Association conference in Burlington, VT is next week! I'm chairing the Politics & History section and would love to showcase your work! This is always one of my favorite conferences. www.newenglandpsa.org/nepsa2026?ut...

Nine out of 35 students showed up for my morning class. Really makes it all feel worthwhile! We actually had a great discussion about gender and leadership, so I'm only be a little snarky.

I feel very fortunate that my relatively apolitical parents have been avoided this. My dad, a convicted felon, called voting for Trump in 2016 the thing he’s most ashamed of in his entire life.

"Compromising on basic democratic norms like equity, justice, rights for all, and rule of law emboldens those who reject these ideals to demand more and more." Great piece by @nathanielcgreen.bsky.social on the dangers of compromising with anti-democratic actors time.com/7326230/poli...

Almost just had a heart attack thinking I had lost a bunch of archival materials I scanned at the Reagan Library over a year ago. Thanks a lot, multiple Adobe Scan login credentials.

As a lifelong New Englander, I absolutely love this time of year. I will take 15 degree days and a 4:15 sunset over 90+ degrees and humid 100 times out of 100. Light a fire in the fireplace, crack open a nice oatmeal stout, and doze off reading at 7:00PM. Doesn't get much better than that.

In order for American democracy to survive, a post-Trump GOP needs leaders who will take concerted action to marginalize this faction on the right. There is extensive research in the literature on comparative democratization on the need for center-right parties to police their boundaries.

I think my greatest public service is sharing university press book sale info whenever I get it.

Now seems like a good time to take a break from social media.

My awesome colleague @robglover.bsky.social and his ENACT colleagues just published a how-to guide on teaching civic engagement and advocacy. I can't think of a better person to provide insights on this than Rob. @scholars.org @mainessn.bsky.social press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Ok but GUYS MY BOOK IS ACTUALLY OUT TODAY YOU CAN GO AND GET A COPY AND READ IT AND EVERYTHING www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vanes...

The UMaine economics department is hiring an assistant professor with expertise in applied economics. fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... #academicjobs #econjobs

It’s hard to think of anything in modern American politics and culture with as much staying power as the myth that there are millions of people out there totally fleecing the government by “taking advantage” of our stingy welfare state.

I've got the unenviable task of taking over as editor of Clio, the APSA Politics and History newsletter after @shamiragelbman.bsky.social made good on her threat to step down 😉 The call for submissions for the Winter 25-26 issue is live. Please be in touch if you're interested in writing something!

I’ve been looking for a political biography of Pelosi for our Congressional Leaders series at Kansas. If you’re interested in writing one, send me an email or DM.

"Golden got it. Our electoral rules are obsolete. He understood why representatives who don’t fit easily into either party are so rare: the electoral system works against them." leedrutman.substack.com/p/politics-k...