One thing opposition parties need to do is confront what they have become, not just what their opponents are. This week's newsletter is on my twenty years of frustration with the CHP and what it tells us about the Democrats @ekoshy.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/the-opposi...

CfP - Maps in/as Media! Together with Pablo Abend @pabend.bsky.social, I am currently editing a Special Issue for GI_Forum Journal entitled “Maps in/as Media – On the Mediated Production of Geographical Knowledge”. More here: www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5572_0...

Ekrem İmamoğlu’s CHP won Turkey’s biggest electoral upset in two decades in 2024. Six months later he was in jail. @ekoshy.bsky.social and I unpack how opposition parties win in authoritarian contexts and what happens when they do with Aytuğ Şaşmaz itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-9-...

The compounding tragedy of this is that university administrators will see this as a reason to lean in even more into commercialized research rather than basic research

Frustrated with the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms? Turkey's been there. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk with Aytuğ Şaşmaz about why opposition parties keep feeling like they can't win, and sometimes they really can't itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-9-...

Ekrem İmamoğlu’s CHP won Turkey’s biggest electoral upset in two decades in 2024. Six months later he was in jail. @ekoshy.bsky.social and I unpack how opposition parties win in authoritarian contexts and what happens when they do with Aytuğ Şaşmaz itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-9-...

Bellingcat is publishing Planet satellite imagery for the entirety of the south of Lebanon. It shows that much of the demolition and destruction has taken place in recent weeks. Explore our interactive map here: bellingcat.github.io/lebanon-may-...

Listen to the whole episode but also Aytuğ’s point about why "party" has become a bad word --and what that does to who runs for office -- is worth contending with on its own.

Frustrated with the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms? Turkey's been there. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk with Aytuğ Şaşmaz about why opposition parties keep feeling like they can't win, and sometimes they really can't itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-9-...

The Urban Studies Foundation is offering fully funded international fellowshipsfor early-to-mid-career urban scholars from the Global South to support 3-9 month visiting sabbaticals and publishable research. Apply by July 6. #urbanism #urbanplanning #GlobalSouth #UrbanStudies

When repression meets local resistance, who wins? @baykurt.bsky.social and I dove deep with @liselhintz.bsky.social on how mayors like Mamdani and İmamoğlu build counter-narratives that threaten regimes from the ground up. itallhappenedbefore.substack.com

One of the best conversations I've had on Turkey-US parallels With @baykurt.bsky.social + @ekoshy.bsky.social we cover: *how gov rhetoric criminalizes dissent *how ethno-racial prejudice facilitates repression *why it matters that protesters keep showing up even when political change isn't visible

From Minnesota protests last winter to the Antifa terrorism verdicts in March, the Trump admin keeps framing anti-ICE activists as domestic terrorists. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social & I dive deeper into this strategy with @liselhintz.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-8-...

From Minnesota protests last winter to the Antifa terrorism verdicts in March, the Trump admin keeps framing anti-ICE activists as domestic terrorists. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social & I dive deeper into this strategy with @liselhintz.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-8-...

Not a German reader myself, but always love a good portmanteau. Staatsräsonfunk is a really fitting one for the complicity of Germany’s media in the Gaza genocide.

the anti-intellectualism is coming from inside the house folks, and always has been —a fully bipartisan war on universities taking place for decades, a consensus position against learning, and we're living inside the results

“What you call in global north paranoia, we in the global south call history and trauma….” @mertcanbayar.bsky.social shared such a deep and thoughtful analysis of conspiracies and their political resonance with me @baykurt.bsky.social this week! Episode: itallhappenedbefore.substack.com

I cannot think of a better community than CBI scholars, students, and friends to celebrate the release day of Smart as a City. And it's online so wherever you're in the world, you can join me! @ucpress.bsky.social Details here: cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/s...

If you haven't yet, pls register NOW (link below) for U. of Mass., Amherst Prof. Burcu Baykurt's Tues, May 5th 1 pm C/2pm E. CBI-hosted book launch talk on her brilliant "Smart as a City" U. of California Press, 2026. #AIStudies #Histtech Register: share.google/1HvooWOxKQpj...

Join us on Tuesday at 1 pm (CST)/2 pm (EST), if you're available, to launch my book! Register at umn.zoom.us/meeting/regi... @ucpress.bsky.social @sbs-umass.bsky.social

Join us on Tuesday at 1 pm (CST)/2 pm (EST), if you're available, to launch my book! Register at umn.zoom.us/meeting/regi... @ucpress.bsky.social @sbs-umass.bsky.social

"Still — even if the statues cost $200,000 each, for a total of $50 million — there is not enough money appropriated by Congress to pay for them." Funded with taxpayer dollars from the National Endowment for the Humanities, after cancelling most grants and laying off most staff. #NEH

NEXT WEEK, don’t miss Artificial Reason: A Conversation on AI, Rationality, & Violence with @kevinbaker.bsky.social @sophiagoodfriend.bsky.social @beenwrekt.bsky.social, moderated by contributing editor Lily Hu. Learn more and register here: secure.givelively.org/event/boston...

This is the perfect Sunday read :)

I had the tremendous pleasure of co-advising Burcu’s diss, which provided the foundation for this ✨ book. Bldg on yrs of ethnographic research, Burcu offers an important + timely cautionary tale abt technosolutionism’s inevitable disappointments + destruction, and the power of community knowledge

"Deep state" is originally a Turkish concept. So is the experience of living with one for decades. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talk to @mertcanbayar.bsky.social about conspiracy theories and what Turkey's history tells us about Trump's America itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

Looking fwd to talking to Suzy Hansen abt her new book tomorrow at NYU. RSVP as.nyu.edu/research-cen...

"What the global North calls paranoia, the global South calls history." @mertcanbayar.bsky.social on why conspiracy theories hit differently when your country has been carved up & couped, and how the "deep state" travels from Turkey to the US itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

"What the global North calls paranoia, the global South calls history." @mertcanbayar.bsky.social on why conspiracy theories hit differently when your country has been carved up & couped, and how the "deep state" travels from Turkey to the US itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

Great convo on my favorite topic: deep state and conspiracy theories ♥️

This was a delightful conversation with two amazing people and scholars! It all happened before podcast tells the stories of democracies slowly fading into authoritarian capture and this episode is about conspiracy theories leading the way in TR and in the US in a surprisingly similar way!

"Deep state" is originally a Turkish concept. So is the experience of living with one for decades. This week @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talk to @mertcanbayar.bsky.social about conspiracy theories and what Turkey's history tells us about Trump's America itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

I moderated this roundtable with Lara Deeb, Darryl Li, Andrew Ross, and Meera Shah. It's part of the new issue of Middle East Report on Campus Politics -- Palestine and the New University. www.merip.org/2026/04/the-...

TODAY! If you're in Western Mass, join us -- it will be a great conversation with Sareeta, Timothy, and Jonathan! @umassamherst.bsky.social @sbs-umass.bsky.social

Adam Gopnik reaches for Hitler's Germania to explain Trump's arch. There's a closer precedent: Erdoğan built a 1100-room palace twelve years ago, and it's still standing. In this week's newsletter, we talk about what makes the arch so American. itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/before-the...

Adam Gopnik reaches for Hitler's Germania to explain Trump's arch. There's a closer precedent: Erdoğan built a 1100-room palace twelve years ago, and it's still standing. In this week's newsletter, we talk about what makes the arch so American. itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/before-the...

From Erdogan's 1,100-room palace on a public forest to Trump's proposed "Triumphal Arch,” @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk about architecture against democracy (borrowing from the title of a great volume edited by Reinhold Martin and Claire Zimmerman) itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-6-...

Last year the NEH canceled my $75k fellowship. This year it’s channeling $15m into what I call the “Trump-al Arch" That’s 200 fellowships! In this week’s newsletter, I talk about how "American" these gilded monuments actually are itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/before-the... @ekoshy.bsky.social

Last year the NEH canceled my $75k fellowship. This year it’s channeling $15m into what I call the “Trump-al Arch" That’s 200 fellowships! In this week’s newsletter, I talk about how "American" these gilded monuments actually are itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/before-the... @ekoshy.bsky.social

I did a big article about all of this. It’s kind of baffling to me why people aren’t more concerned that blue state dems are attacking the First Amendment rights of people advocating against genocide and ethnic cleansing. prismreports.org/2026/03/11/n...

The issue is, despite being toothless & redundant now, it is proof of concept that bias-motivated legislation can get passed in NYC, and it opens the door for later weaponization of said legislation by future fascist-aligned admins.

Both of these bills (& the state-level versions still in progress) were crafted to suppress, specifically, pro-Palestine/anti-genocide protest against illegal land sale events. It is an alarming & disturbing abuse of power in a blue city/state no one really seems to care about or see an issue with.

One week to go! Please consider submitting an abstract if your research touches on how governments are reshaped by data infrastructures, tech vendors, and/or automated decision systems.

I will also re-up Culture Pass. Too few people know about this program. I tell all of my friends with small people about it. Almost none of them are aware of it. www.culturepass.nyc

From Erdogan's 1,100-room palace on a public forest to Trump's proposed "Triumphal Arch,” @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk about architecture against democracy (borrowing from the title of a great volume edited by Reinhold Martin and Claire Zimmerman) itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-6-...

Smart as a City drops May 5th and on April 27th I’m hosting a launch event at UMass with some of my favorite thinkers in critical tech studies & ethnography. If you're anywhere in Western Mass or on the East Coast, I'd love to see you there! RSVP here: forms.gle/vthGWYE5Pp1A...

PS - if you're interested in donating to a mutual aid fund to help out Hampshire workers losing their jobs, the link is here: www.helphampshireworkers.com

If you want to hear more about the "damat" (son-in-law) economy that shapes foreign policy in authoritarian contexts, listen to the recent episode of our podcast with @ekoshy.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-5-...

Sarah Sharma has a super interesting, counterintuitive take on feminist technodeterminism. Fabulously enticing interview! Plus an amazing book and cover . . . @dukepress.bsky.social dukeupress.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/q...

"The insider trading suspicions looming over Trump's presidency" www.bbc.com/news/article...