Doing a fridge worth of dishes—because !what joy! my fridge died and the room temp leftovers aren’t worth risking—but at least there’s a jolly view. The forbidden circus beckons.

“Not only is the ratio of AI’s resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.” www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

@petervale.bsky.social & I are looking for scholars interested in contributing to an upcoming workshop/special issue on aeromobility and 20th science & tech. How aircraft changed scientific practice, use in experiments, air travel as foundation for academic collaboration, etc. Please share!

A reminder that we're collecting for our 2025 contingent publication lists!

Scenes from the periphery of Race the Wave, a tsunami evacuation fun run in Santa Cruz. We started on the wharf, the one that partially collapsed last December, and raced to higher ground where an emergency preparedness resource fair greeted folks at the finish line. (I live in the inundation zone.)

"The 'feminist killjoy' stereotype is as timely—and misleading—now as it was then." A review of Sara Catterall's new biography of Amelia Bloomer by @hottycouture.bsky.social

My teenage neighbor acquired a free drum kit. Eager to see what effect this has on my writing! (My neighborhood is preternaturally noisy, on account of the amusement park at the end of the block. Why not add some snare and cymbal crashes to the symphony of rollercoasters? Genuinely happy for him!)

This week, on HEAT DEATH! @wnwagner.bsky.social traces the ghosts that lurk all around us -- plastic lawns, vanished cherry trees, and transformed creeks. It's a lovely, moody piece and I'm super proud to run it.

Maria Reva, @schreibersnaturarium.de, and @edyong209.bsky.social discuss the inspiration of snails, ecological grief, and why “nihilism is a luxury we truly cannot afford right now.”

Looking to persuade your students to develop humanistic writing skills before leaning on AI? Invite T-Pain (sans Auto-Tune) to your class. @lornab.bsky.social offers a riveting lesson plan about AI and the power of honing our voices. 🗃️#academicsky clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/09/02/t...

“We delight in publishing. Unfortunately, not your work.”

A new research postcard from a scholar on the trail of Fredi Washington.

ICYMI: I wrote a review of @paulmcgarr.bsky.social's excellent @universitypress.cambridge.org book Spying in South Asia for @contingent-mag.bsky.social Here's a 🧵 about how the review came together and what was left on the cutting room floor. contingentmagazine.org/2025/08/12/t...

Anyway, this semester I'm teaching two seminars - "Museums: Power & Politics" + "Unnatural History: Colonialism + Inequality in the Making of Nature"...let me know if you want a copy of either syllabus.

Everywhere we look we see signs of the institutions of higher ed collapsing, not only financially, but also in terms of living up to their own values. I'd love to be a part of brainstorming alternatives beyond these institutions. Where is that work happening and are they accepting new members?

It's a bad day for higher ed when the @contingent-mag.bsky.social editor group chat can't keep up with the potential stories we want to find space for 😞

The deadline for ASEH 2026 is a week away… Anyone interested in putting together a *very last minute* roundtable on TEACHING DE / EXTINCTION or something similar? (Happy to write the main proposal myself.) Get in touch if interested! 🦤 @asehearlycareer.bsky.social #envhist #histSTM #histsci #STS

My take on the new Jurassic in the LARB! Spoilers ahead. Credit to @sayanniething.bsky.social for a great edit. As for the title... thanks/apologies to Tennyson. I imagine he'd have written the loveliest verses about suspect food dye and other modern confections, e.g. genetically-engineered wolves.

There are quiet places in this world where 55-million-year-old wonder bombs lap gently along the shore, and they will make you examine your own impermanence. 🧪🦑 open.substack.com/pub/jasonbit...

Each year, we publish lists of books, journal articles, and chapters published by historians working off the tenure track. It's never too early to start collecting, so if you or someone you know has something with a 2025 publication date to submit, have at it!

My take on the new Jurassic in the LARB! Spoilers ahead. Credit to @sayanniething.bsky.social for a great edit. As for the title... thanks/apologies to Tennyson. I imagine he'd have written the loveliest verses about suspect food dye and other modern confections, e.g. genetically-engineered wolves.

In the spirit of syllabus season, here’s a link to an extinction studies course of the #envhist #envhum variety. From the dodo to dire wolves...Please borrow, adapt, share! drive.google.com/file/d/1SzKp... cc: @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social!

teachers! excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone. take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE against-a-i.com

"What isn't at the V&A?" — new from me in @artreview.bsky.social on enduring colonialism, art-washing working class heritage, and a museum without labels artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

In the spirit of syllabus season, here’s a link to an extinction studies course of the #envhist #envhum variety. From the dodo to dire wolves...Please borrow, adapt, share! drive.google.com/file/d/1SzKp... cc: @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social!

If you don't have institutional access to Animal History, I have a pdf for you! Email me: alison.g.laurence [at] gmail. And/or, check out this audio version. Thanks to my in-house audio engineer (and favorite composer) @ericparson.com for producing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAIF...

This one's for the taxidermy curious. We are legion, yeah? In "Coyotes, Cougars, Californians," I trace evolving display practices @nhm.org. It's a story about how one museum revises boundaries of belonging, featuring the late great P-22. @animalhistory.bsky.social #envhist doi.org/10.1525/ah.2...

"The period between 1945 and 1991 saw arms, space, and foreign aid races, but also an intelligence race." A new review from our editor @marcus1984.bsky.social

New blog post: Even the worst fiction can be a fun mental playground, so here's a deep dive into the dinosaur exhibit at the "Natural History Museum of North America" in Jurassic World: Rebirth. extinctmonsters.net/2025/08/09/a...

This one's for the taxidermy curious. We are legion, yeah? In "Coyotes, Cougars, Californians," I trace evolving display practices @nhm.org. It's a story about how one museum revises boundaries of belonging, featuring the late great P-22. @animalhistory.bsky.social #envhist doi.org/10.1525/ah.2...

A new #animalhist article by @monicavasile.bsky.social takes on the history of takhi reintroductions. It's a fascinating read and incredibly moving (pun, I suppose, intended). In the open-access #envhum journal, so it's free to read!

Researchers Determine Coelacanth Faked Own Extinction To Escape Massive Gambling Debt theonion.com/researc...

Academics who have questioned the validity of efforts to “de-extinct” animals like the woolly mammoth and the dire wolf have complained of an apparent campaign to discredit them.

New on Contingent! @cladist-magpie.bsky.social offers insight into the careful labor of curating natural history, especially urgent work amidst global pollinator population decline 🐝

Seriously this is so timely and will give you the chills.

New on Contingent! @cladist-magpie.bsky.social offers insight into the careful labor of curating natural history, especially urgent work amidst global pollinator population decline 🐝

only one thing can truly fix everything wrong with all of us: another massive and extravagant world’s fair in chicago

Sharing this again because too many in higher ed think the appropriate analgesic for this pain is AI.

New, on HEAT DEATH! On the anniversary of Jordan Peele's masterpiece NOPE, @kellymerka.bsky.social drops an incisive analysis of the film's central threat, and what its depiction in the movie says about our relationship with other creatures on and offscreen. This one's a banger.

Over on the #Extinct blog, I have an essay about Mark Dion's temporary @tarpits.org show, Excavations. (If you're in Los Angeles, go see it!) I write about the trouble with tar, discomfiting exhibits, and, of course, dire wolves. #paleo #pleistocene #deextinction www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

"all four bratty golden ticket winners combined" @katecarp.bsky.social, this is incredible!

Over on the #Extinct blog, I have an essay about Mark Dion's temporary @tarpits.org show, Excavations. (If you're in Los Angeles, go see it!) I write about the trouble with tar, discomfiting exhibits, and, of course, dire wolves. #paleo #pleistocene #deextinction www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

The pallbearers are calling out sick, the eulogy is confusing, and the music can only be “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers.

Here's a 🦇 signal for all you undisciplined contingent scholars who study the past but aren't (according to your graduate training...) a historian. Want to talk about it for/with @contingent-mag.bsky.social? Follow the link! #envhum #STS #HPS #animalhist

I started writing this essay about AI right after *that* Brevity post, but didn't get a chance to finish it until this week—when, surprise! there's been a whole new round of discourse about AI. bit.ly/4kxgCLQ

We interviewed @jathansadowski.com and we talked about why the tech industry wants us to believe that we’re not smart enough to understand what they’re making or why!! bayareacurrent.com/we-should-al...

Here's a 🦇 signal for all you undisciplined contingent scholars who study the past but aren't (according to your graduate training...) a historian. Want to talk about it for/with @contingent-mag.bsky.social? Follow the link! #envhum #STS #HPS #animalhist

Colossal Biosciences has a new project - and it seems to have press released it only to entertainment outlets rather than science media 🤔

Every so often, my Soul emails me to say its battery is getting low. So I take it for a spin, stock up on La Croix & other bulky things. This time, though, it's properly dead. Not that I have anywhere to be... my day-to-day life's pretty walkable. But come on, Kia, this is an inconvenient metaphor!

"The state uses standardized testing to make meaning of its citizens, in a way that the state, by its own devices, cannot."