Why, oh why, is anyone seeking advice from John Yoo, he of the Yoo-Bybee Torture Memos?!

As a faculty member of UT's distinguished African and African Diaspora Studies Department, I am angry at the disingenuous way UT is characterzing us and our scholarship. But as an alum of UT (MA, JD, PhD) I am sad to see my alma mater debase itself to curry favor with the ignorance of the right.

Before you rush off to buy your tix to PR, please educate yourself a bit. You can read my book (Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of PR) & my homie's @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social (PR: A National History) & many others, just do your homework. consequence.net/2026/02/bad-...

Necessary reading from my brilliant college roomie and former prosecutor of dirty cops, Sam Trepel. Cities and states must hold ICE accountable for violence. The feds won’t | Kristy Parker and Samantha Trepel www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"An Elegy for My Neighbor, Renee Nicole Good" - by Danez Smith "Neighbor, you should have made it home to your child, to the bright warmth of his laughter, but our country is at war with its people, and your goodness makes you an enemy, a citizen insurgent." www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

Been doing oral exams for the past few years and the students and I both love them. Its a heavy lift up front but the payoff is worth it. 10/10 totally recommend.

New leaf! Big Monse!

Get this beautiful book and let it move you as it is moving me. And if you're in one of these cities, go check out the brilliant @drashleydfarmer.bsky.social in person.

AUSTIN, CHICAGO, NEW ORLEANS, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, DC, ATLANTA, LOS ANGELES and OAKLAND: The Queen Mother Audley Moore tour is coming! RSVP to a book event near you today: www.ashleydfarmer.com/events

In this dismal landscape, moments of joy and ecstasy can be found. Especially if you have the right DJ... www.austinchronicle.com/music/2025-0...

I am going analog this semester. For my sanity.

This one hurts... 🥺😥 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/a...

Mangroves are life-giving. They are abundance. For some time I have been trying to write poems into mangroves, into my respect and love of them. There are several organizations in PR that have been working hard at restoring them, this article covers one, another is COPI in Loiza copipr.com.

I am so very grateful for this honor from the Caribbean Studies Association. It is so very meaningful to me that the book resonated with my peers in Caribbean Studies.

A beautiful and careful review of Roger Reeves' "Dark Days: Fugitive Essays" in Against the Current. This is the book we should all be reading and rereading in these terrible times. againstthecurrent.org/atc236/power...

Today's reminder that resistance is the only way through authoritarianism. Spotted today in Rome: las mariposas, the Mirabal Sisters, whose fight against Trujillo's dictatorship in DR cost them so much, but whose memory we still hold up to the light. ¡Que vivan!

Now more than ever, these books are must reads. If you're at the OAH this weekend go check out @latinxhistories.bsky.social at the @uncpress.bsky.social table!

"And the brush of grass against the lowering / Roof of the evening. The eye can eat the vanishing light" From "Late February," a new original poem by Roger Reeves for National Poetry Month. ➡️ buff.ly/LIgOgG4

Went axe throwing last night to celebrate the fact that I've been tenured and also to work out some of the rage I feel at the haters who tried to stop me from getting it. That's a story for another day... but for now: I got tenure, yall!

"Jiménez makes a good contribution to the seemingly never-ending discussion of what exactly is Puerto Rico’s political relation to the US . . ." Enjoy this review of MAKING NEVER-NEVER LAND by @monijimenez.bsky.social on the The Society for US Intellectual History blog 🙌 s-usih.org/2025/02/naid...

Poetry is always a little spot of light in dark days. I'm joyful to have today's Poem-a-Day. poets.org/poem/theft-0

Gave a book talk today at UT Law where I was a law student many years ago. My respondent, Sandy Levinson, was one of my MA/JD thesis advisors. Full circle moment for me!

I'm from the southern coast of PR and grew up hearing about these little guys but was never lucky enough to encounter one. Very happy to see they are getting an assist. www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/01...

Couldn't be prouder of the homie @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social on this collab and on managing to keep it under wraps for as long as he did! History is for the people and what a great way to bring it to them! ❤️❤️ www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

#AHA2025 has been a blast. I'm grateful to wonderful colleagues for their support of my work. And I finally got the obligatory picture of myself holding my book at the @uncpress.bsky.social book table. (And it was already sold!) Thank you to all who have purchased and read it!!

So I’ve had my 1st Black History Month event cancellation because of “DEI concerns,” citing a fear of frivolous suits. Funny thing is, I don’t do DEI, I’m a historian of the Black American experience. A reminder that DEI is just a dog whistle about suppressing history, if you need a reminder.

The latest from my intellectual partner in crime and in life, Roger Reeves.

Just finished Percival Everett's James, and if you haven't read it, you certainly should.

Against Settler-Colonialism: A Reading List

If you're in Austin for the Texas Book Festival, I'll be reading at 9pm as part of the Librotraficantes reading for Lit Crawl. I'm also in the CSPAN tent today at 12:15 and presenting tomorrow at 11:30. Come by!!

To make it easier to find new and existing members of Bluesky, we're compiling a list of UNC Press authors for easy findability 🦋 Comment to let us know you're here ↙️📚https://go.bsky.app/RKSF82c

Olé!