"For the past two decades, the Gulf has pumped credit and equity into the US tech ecosystem. But new AI arrangements signal that these countries are beginning to onshore critical elements of tech infrastructure." Colin Powers on the Gulf's bet on US AI. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/nvi...

This month, UCLA admin circulated two white papers that are so harrowing they’ve kept me awake at night. If you’re a UCLA person and haven’t seen these, you really must. In response, the Faculty Senate has scheduled a Town Hall on June 2. senate.ucla.edu/news/june-2-...

My conversation with Aamer Ibraheem at the School of Advanced Research @sarsf.bsky.social online book talks has dropped www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBGM.... This is one of my favorite conversations so far about dukeupress.edu/on-the-semic....

My piece on diagnosis, disability, lifespan, and music came out today in the Huffington Post! Thanks to everyone who helped me write it -- including Millie. @dukepress.bsky.social www.huffpost.com/entry/rare-g...

I interviewed the brilliant historian and editor in chief of the Journal of Palestine studies @srseikaly.bsky.social on learning about Palestine, the intersectionality of the Palestinian cause, and how to combat a system trying to make you stupid. www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

Gorgeous must-read piece by @srseikaly.bsky.social in Public Culture.

‘That slavery persisted in Muslim societies well into the 20th century is undeniable. More questions need to be asked about the extent of its connection with the Atlantic trade and the forms of racialisation that underpinned it.’ Youssef Ben Ismail: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Thrilled to be speaking at the wonderful School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe @sarsf.bsky.social , on Tuesday May 19th @11 mt. sarweb.org/date/on-the-..., in conversation with the brilliant Aamer Ibraheem, former SAR fellow and incoming Ass't Prof. of Anthropology at @ucdavis.bsky.social

"Race and Civilizational Difference in Syria and Palestine: Franz Boas, Physical Anthropology, and the American Expedition to Syria of 1899. Just published in Public Culture. If you can't access, please contact me for a copy. read.dukeupress.edu/public-cultu...

A must-listen in-depth roundtable on #Lebanon featuring Lara Deeb, Susann Kassem, and Habib Battah! www.merip.org/2026/04/the-...

Trump is dismantling the US Park Service. www.hatchmag.com/articles/tru.... h/t Brian Tyler Cohen on x. This follows up on the Feb 2025 establishment of a US Sovereign Wealth Fund to be capitalized with US Public Lands and Parks. Here we go. www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

My reply to the forum about "On the Semicivilized" @dukepress.bsky.social has dropped in @CSSHJournal. What, I ask, are the grounds for collective life with int'l order buried under the rubble in Gaza, Beirut, and Tehran? What are the horizons of political life and sovereignty today?

Really look forward to being in conversation with Prof. Deborah Thomas about On the Semicivilized, at the Middle East Center of U Penn on Tuesday March 31. If you are in Philly, please come by! mec.sas.upenn.edu/events/2026/...

"This article outlines the multiple and uneven ways in which delivery riders are “put to work” in the platform economy... conclude that bicycle couriers are the twenty-first century’s sandwichmen in both senses: delivering sandwiches to the wealthy and human billboards traversing urban space."

You absolutely don't ever have to hand it to Tucker Carlson.

Really useful.

Julia, many thanks for the kind words. I would just add that Aimee Genell’s much-anticipated monograph, Empire by Law, is coming out in July! cup.columbia.edu/book/empire-...

I'll add a few to this list, works of fiction. First one is by Emil Habibi, a relative of mine: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Se...

In Octavia Butler's 'Parable of the Sower,' set in a dystopian Los Angeles after there is no fuel left for cars or a functioning electricity grid, people are faced with a choice: live in homemade fortified gated communities, or sell themselves to corporate agro-farms.

⬇️ 🔻⬇️

As always the brilliant @leylaamzi.bsky.social, is too generous. Neither the concept of semicivilized nor illumination of how this archaic term is intertwined with dilemmas of attenuated sovereignty, structural indebtedness, and the making of international law is mine-

This must read book by the amazing @leylaamzi.bsky.social is now available in paperback. Can't wait to teach it

no matter what your priors are, Please shift them after Day19 For "Iran is winning" camp, US & Israel now waging war against energy infra & economic life, immiseration leads to regime change For "US & Israel are winning" camp,IR retaliations->more expensive & more bodybags bsky.app/profile/70sb...

"Establishing a public bank that regularly purchases municipal debt ... would not only significantly expand a city’s fiscal capacity to support its communities and environs, but also reclaim regional public finance from a parasitical and punishing bond market."

What a gorgeous set of essays responding to a prompt by Andrew Shryock about concept work from On the Semicivilized. dukeupress.edu/on-the-semic.... I learned so much and am so inspired by these scholars and the worlds they shared in the worst of times. Beyond honored.

"Compared to the last maximum disruption during the 1956 Suez Crisis (as a percentage of total liquids demand), this represents the largest oil supply loss in history, by a factor of TWO" Suez then. Hormuz now. The End of European Empire then The End of What now? www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Beneath all the reporting so far on the run-up to war is a simple truth: The President of the United States, a man who holds more power than any human being in history, is a complete rube, easier to manipulate than your average seven year old.

US and Netanyahu's calculation that killing Iran's leadership and crippling aerial bombardment would bring Iran to its knees are a profound misreading. India's former ambassador to Iran has much clearer assessment

As I scroll through triumphal pro-war tweets, thinking about this image a lot today:

It's publication week! My new book takes a deep dive into how US policy on Iran has been made since the 1980's. It's a story of why US-Iran hostility has endured for now nearly half a century. Please check it out!

Netanyahu wants Iran to have (1) Zero enrichment(2) 0 missiles (3) 0 proxies "Reformists argue concessions can be made on enrichment (including shipping out 60% enriched uranium) if the US is prepared to lift at least some sanctions. But even they are unwilling to negotiate over the missile program"

So what would a Reverse Turing Test look like? Students are asked to read the following for Week 1 on Embeddedness and New Economic Sociology. Polanyi, The Economy as Instituted Process Granovetter, Economic Action and Social Structure Krippner, The Elusive Market

As someone who runs a lefty publication that activists read, let me tell you — X, BlueSky, and all social media are vanishingly inconsequential to our work. None of them drive traffic — most days ChatGPT generates more hits — and we all live and die by SEO and the loyalty of our newsletter subs.

NEW: "Reconstruction and Ruin" the Winter 2025 Issue of Middle East Report is now live! This issue captures the challenges facing ordinary people in the Middle East as the warfare politics of dispossession and division continue amidst efforts to rebuild urban landscapes.

I just stumbled across this and thought some of you might like to see it. A letter from E.B. White to a man who'd written he'd lost all hope:

If you happen to be in London on Thursday, please consider attending this conversation about On the Semicivilized -- or any of the other great talks coming up in this series "Histories of Capitalism and Race" at SOAS.

Trump: “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying.” Reminder: 550 million people worldwide speak Spanish, 45 million of them in the USA. Poor monolingual president. He doesn’t get it and can barely even speak English. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

for those who missed the Bad Bunny halftime show, a long clip on reddit www.reddit.com/r/nfl/commen...

Catch authors @naylandblake.bsky.social, @wolffdr.bsky.social, @jeelyachar.bsky.social, @beansvelocci.bsky.social, and @maxliboiron.bsky.social at in-person and virtual events in February! buff.ly/SJZ076W

Imperial Boomerang open.substack.com/pub/chrished...

"Guess who is the largest direct investor in the US?" -- @philippasigl.bsky.social

"Cash is anonymous. It’s the first choice for unhoused and undocumented communities,... for people who are legally subject to income reporting to maintain their education or benefits status, for elderly people... Cash is less vulnerable to taxation or garnishment than bank accounts...."

Our attempt to make sense of Trump II, sans sane-washing. Big thanks to @andrewelrod.bsky.social and Maya Adereth whose editing made the piece much, much better.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe says “International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.” Yes, well. Did Gaza show which one we choose? www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

Honored to be speaking February 12th in London as part of the Histories of Capitalism and Race series of the SOAS Walter Rodney Collective Spring 2026 series. www.soas-walter-rodney-collective.com/events. www.dukeupress.edu/on-the-semic....

Been making my way through @hofrench.bsky.social biography of Kwame Nkrumah and it’s every bit as good as advertised. So good at connecting African American experience to African liberation, without ignoring the problems and contradictions. Loved it. wwnorton.com/books/978132...

The Trump administration is asking countries that want a permanent spot on his new Board of Peace to contribute at least $1 billion. Trump’s reported duties would include: approving the board's agenda, deciding which countries to invite, and controlling the money

"The incredible work that’s been done to crystallize a broad opposition to Israeli & U.S. genocide against Palestinians in Gaza needs to move forward. Our space at @historians.org, extraordinary capacity building, & the conversations that bring us together—we’re not going to rescind that space.”

me in @publicbooks.bsky.social thinking through what a philology beyond liberalism might look like via one book which really shows us a path forward and one which very much so does not // the age of babel is dead, long live the age of the pentecost!