man Food, Inc. has not aged well...curious what the student reception is going to be in class tomorrow

everything is bad but teaching close reading remains so good

such a clear articulation of the stakes-- www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

It is sleeting and I’m in the middle of part five—if this keeps up we have optimal septology-finishing conditions

URGENT ACTION: the UNC System is planning to force instructors to publish their syllabi, claiming these are public records and not our intellectual property. We have a small window of time to redirect this decision. Please sign actionnetwork.org/petitions/pr...

also: my living lexicon entry for Environmental Humanities is out! I had to cut the part about the Vaucanson's Digesting Duck but still a sneak preview of ongoing metabolism project: read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta...

This was such a good week of 2024--and led to, among other things, a lovely continuing group chat. Apply! Apply!

enjoying this so much but I don’t think it’ll thrive on my contemporary lit syllabus…

I reviewed Daniel Saldaña París' dance plague novel for the new World Literature Today worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/novembe...

The 11th annual Post45 Graduate Symposium will be hosted by Duke University's Department of English, February 20-21, 2026! Check out the CFP (post45.org/graduate/202...) and please share with anyone who might be interested. Abstracts are due November 14.

Pawpaw field day was lit

Do I know any geographers? How does "Human Geography Without Scale" fare twenty years on?

Best spy shows are the ones mostly about paperwork

One of my favorite slides from #asle25 so far (from Hsuan Hsu’s excellent talk on olfactory world making)

I reviewed Irene Solà's latest and it is strange and wonderful and has lots of farting: www.full-stop.net/2025/07/04/r...

“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, the present report shows why the genocide carried out by Israel continues: because it is lucrative for many.”

These “one year later” jumps in Andor are really not working for me

apologies for crowdsourcing but: does anyone have recs for contemporary novels (besides Luster) that feature IBS or adjacent digestive stuff?

I want to talk about the google earth ending of this with somebody

columbia, brown, georgetown, cornell and now tufts — they’re taking our students, our colleagues, our kin https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/international-student-tufts-university-reportedly-taken-into-federal-custody/2VK55QMAOZFIDBR2A6XNKC5XOU/?outputType=amp

This is a banger

We call for the immediate release of former Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Kahlil, a legal permanent resident of the US. His abduction is an assault not only on basic immigration law but on our 1st Amendment protections of freedom of speech & assembly. www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...

Small good thing (Sally)

👀 this looks so good!

The billionaire class is waging a war on workers, putting our nation’s healthcare, research, education, + jobs at risk. Higher ed workers, students, +allies are mobilizing Join us! Feb 13 8pm ET National Strategy Call us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Some real aesthetic synergy in my January reads

I participated in the first book institute last summer and it was incredible—applications for this year due February 19! cals.la.psu.edu/programs-ser...

This movie is mostly making me want to wear a short skirt and a looong jacket

Hannkuah’s over but the French agriculture novels continue (I can’t decide if I like this or not)

Reading Creation Lake + revising Birnam Wood chapter = surveillance georgic Hanukkah

BREAKING: The AAUP condemns today’s faculty arrests at NYU. “This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson. ⬇️ www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...

really enjoyed this review: www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/becc...

Only halfway through this and already psyched to teach it next semester