I think it’s possible to do even more to make the style AND substance of the democratic party reflect the culture and proclivities of educated professionals, its last loyal stalwarts. Eventually we can make party so small it fits into one conference room

Donald Trump wants regime change in Venezuela. The last time the US invaded a Latin American country was in Panama, in 1989, killing hundreds and displacing thousands. Even afterwards, Panama was destabilized. In today’s NYT, I argue an invasion of Venezuela would be far worse.

Donald Trump wants regime change in Venezuela. The last time the US invaded a Latin American country was in Panama, in 1989, killing hundreds and displacing thousands. Even afterwards, Panama was destabilized. In today’s NYT, I argue an invasion of Venezuela would be far worse.

Culture might seem a less consequential right than free assembly+ its infringement makes less spectacular news than repressive violence. But the repeal of the right to culture is grave. honored to be with @isanchezprado.bsky.social in @hyperallergic.com today! hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

Good morning! My comrade @annakornbluh.bsky.social and I published today in Hyperallrgic ean op-ed about the gutting of our right to culture and the ways to defend and fight back. Link below!

this is, in fact, what's happening

Last week, Public Books published a roundtable that we put together on higher ed under Trump. Six contributors, six essays, six ideas for what those of us in higher education can do now to make the world a little better, a little saner, and a little safer. Read the series here (my intro below):

"the solution is still the one that can succeed: to build a new cultural order, a new civilization. To do so, academics must embrace an unusual new role: as knowledge workers, they must seize the means of knowledge production." www.publicbooks.org/academics-mu...

Great call to arms by @cnewf.bsky.social, following the tactic of Jed Esty's "Future of Decline" by looking to Stuart Hall & the New Left, & urging us to forego "private agency within our universities" in favor of "collective agency by running them."

Maybe a silly question but when did "project" become the normative term for describing a (baggy?) sociohistorical process initiated and advanced by distinct actors with distinct goals (ie national project, racial project, settler colonial project, and so on)?

New at PB: As part of a series exploring higher ed under Trump, curated by @dennismhogan.bsky.social, @annaeclark.bsky.social discusses the way the Common Core failed us—and opened doors for Trump’s direct attack on academic freedom and funding sources.

Must-read!!

I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...

New at PB: As part of a series exploring higher ed under Trump, curated by @dennismhogan.bsky.social, @ccollins330.bsky.social considers how institutions of higher education have failed Black and Hispanic men—and how they might do better.

Our Higher Education series today features this essay from Jarrel T. Johnson. More and more students are turning to HBCUs for higher education--this is a fantastic development. But, Johnson argues, those institutions can and should do more to support queer and trans students:

Today we published Stephanie Reist's important argument highlighting the inequality baked into some direct college admissions programs, which funnel students into resource-starved community colleges and regional publics while gatekeeping admissions to prestigious four-year institutions.

Our “Higher Ed Under Trump” roundtable continues with this key contribution from Christian Collins at @clasp.org. Yes, the overall college-age population is shrinking, but enrollment needn’t necessarily crater if colleges can recruit and support Black and Hispanic men.

New at PB: As part of a series exploring higher ed under Trump, curated by Dennis M. Hogan (@dennismhogan.bsky.social), Jasper Cattell explores a path forward for labor unions across the country: union collaboration and change in state law.

New at PB: As part of a series exploring higher ed under Trump, curated by Dennis M. Hogan (@dennismhogan.bsky.social), Christopher Newfield tells us how waiting out Trump will inevitably fail. Instead, we must build a new cultural order.

As Higher Education editor at @publicbooks.bsky.social, I asked experts—thinkers, scholars, teachers, organizers—for short essays outlining one positive change we can work towards in higher ed, no matter who occupies the White House. Our roundtable series begins publishing today. My intro here:

New at PB: Higher Ed section editor @dennismhogan.bsky.social introduces a series on the challenges faced in higher ed under Trump 2.0—and concrete, achievable, and actionable ways to fix them.

Earlier this year I interviewed Derek Guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social on @thedigradio.bsky.social. We covered the rise of the bourgeoisie, crimes of the British empire (fashion & otherwise), & the social meaning of clothes. The transcript is now at @jacobinmag.bsky.social: jacobin.com/2025/09/mens...

Menswear expert Derek Guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) talks to Jacobin about where Western men’s clothing traditions came from, how they have evolved, and how they're being continually reinterpreted.

Citing concerns about DEI, the Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?” By @jodiscohen.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

I’ve got an essay in the fantastic new volume University Keywords, edited by @andyhines.bsky.social! And today is publication day!!!

The point of this book is to have an immediate place to turn to the brilliant insight and analysis of scholars and organizers who have been thinking critically about the US university for decades . Please get a copy, order it for your library, share it with students, and read with comrades.

There’s a great deal that’s right in this essay. However I would find the messenger a lot more credible if Erik Loomis hadn’t spent the last decade viciously attacking the same leftists and socialists desperately trying to build a fighting labor movement. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Did you publish your first book in Victorian studies in 2024? If so, submit it for consideration for the Rudikoff Prize. More information here: nvsa.org/rudikoff-pri...

I’m very excited to share that my monograph, The Transit Zones, on literature, culture, and the geopolitics of interoceanic transit in nineteenth-century Central America, is now under contract at @oxfordunipress.bsky.social !

It says a lot about where we're going that the BBC is now running stories in which they ask lifeboat crews whether they will apologise for using their boats to save lives

Meet Cindy, your Rider of the Week! 🚌 Cindy loves relaxing on her bus commute to Amica Insurance where she works in sales and client services. Did you know that Amica offers commuter benefits through RIPTA's Wave to Work program? Learn more at RIPTA.com/WaveToWork

I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.

A secret, never-mentioned fact is that the people who voted for Zohran are also taxpayers. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A meme of US Vice President JD Vance depicted as a baby was held up in the Dáil today by Labour leader Ivana Bacik. jrnl.ie/6743403t

I saw another interview w Lavinglia and what emerged clearly is how drunk software engineers are on efficiency & optimization that they imagine them to be transferable concepts that can easily be ported into labor, service, and knowledge sectors in which they have no experience.

Ask and you shall receive. To the extent that SI has any hipster/gentrifier neighborhoods that resemble the commie corridor of Queens/BK, they’re here. No surprise Zohran won

As @dennismhogan.bsky.social said at the other place, “Everyone in academia is functionally contingent now. It’s just that not everyone realizes it.” Terrible terrible news.

these guys love playing soldier dress-up, simple as talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-i...

The cowboy has made his pop-culture return, and Professional Bull Riders is ready to cash in on the rodeo renaissance.

1905: The Italian writer and businessman Giuseppe (José) Pennino becomes the first person deported from the Republic of Cuba for political reasons. Pennino was accused of “agitación política” and “ideas anarquistas.” Cuban police placed him on a boat to Cartagena….

SEIU California President David Huerta has apparently been charged with a federal crime--conspiracy to impede an officer. This is a felony that carries a sentence of six years in federal prison.

Watch the slow motion: it appears to me that the officers discuss the photographer and reporter before the one on the end fires on them (it looks to me like he's aiming at the camera, not the reporter, but you decide)

“College sports is funny like that—the more money they make, the more they seem to cost.” @thebaffler.com (@dennismhogan.bsky.social) examines “College Sports: A History” by John R. Thelin and Eric A. Moyen: thebaffler.com/salvos/a-new...

We (mostly @grundrza.bsky.social and @likableeveryman.bsky.social ) were way too excited when this episode of @thedigradio.bsky.social with @dieworkwear.bsky.social and @dennismhogan.bsky.social was announced. Now it's here!

This is the most important thing you’ll read all week. Trump has to broadcast this display of power because he DOES NOT HAVE IT. Kudos to the authors for walking us all through some very, very dark history, both recent & not.

Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump are both circulating videos aestheticizing deportations and extreme punishment. To understand what such videos do, @matthiasellis.com & I investigate how disappearance, long a political tactic in Latin America, has been updated for the social media age.

Trump, like Salvadoran strongman Nayib Bukele, is using slick marketing tactics to create a sense that immigration enforcement is omnipresent and impossible to challenge. Analysis by @dennismhogan.bsky.social and @matthiasellis.com: jewishcurrents.org/marketing-au...