My department is hiring! Assistant Teaching Professor in European history. Check it out here: isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJob...

Absolutely top-tier AMA answers are getting handed out like candy in here, come ask more questions so @historybrian.bsky.social never gets to leave.

Check me out on Reddit ya'll!

I've posted before about how my department's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta decorates the office doors of faculty who have published books. I was so pumped to come in and find my door decorated today! This is a wonderful tradition and I hope it never goes away:)

I had a really great experience with Michael Stauch being interviewed for the New Books Network podcast. It dropped today. open.spotify.com/episode/5uxD...

This history helps explain why policing and punishment have operated the way they have in the Southwest and why those patterns persist. Grateful for this review of @historybrian.bsky.social's "excellent" new book, BROWN AND BLUE

I penned a blog post about Brown and Blue for John Fea's "Author's Corner" site. Check it: thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/01/15/t...

Finally got my author's copies of Brown and Blue! Super proud of this accomplishment.

We light the first Hanukkah candle this evening, but we could all use some light right now, so here’s my 254th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from last week. Add more below, share widely, & solidarity, all.🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Got to spend some time in Albuquerque, a truly amazing city, at the annual meeting of the Western History Association, and I got to see...

This story came right out of my book Borders of Violence and Justice, a work I am still immensely proud of. The follow-up story comes out in about a month, wink wink uncpress.org/978146969070...

On June 12, 1901 Gregorio Cortéz killed 2 Texas law officers in self-defense and led Texas Rangers on a nearly 10 day chase through south central Texas. Cortez was regarded as a "bandit” by the law but became a hero to many Mexican Americans. /1

@historybrian.bsky.social sequel to Borders of Violence & Justice, BROWN AND BLUE not only foreshadows today's policing of the border but also shows us how the southwest's Mexican/Mexican American community responded to & resisted this policing. uncpress.org/book/9781469...

#OTD on May 3, 1909 Ranger Levi Davis killed Severo Lopez in Rio Grande City. Lopez and several friends had been enjoying a festive dinner when Davis and 2 other Rangers ended the festivities with gunfire. /1

Me and my boy @besthistories.bsky.social at the Capitol Jewish Museum in DC.

Heading with my man @historybrian.bsky.social to DC with our great students in HIST 4690x: History of Racial Violence! @iowastatehistory.bsky.social

#OTD in 1881 the Texas Rangers crossed the border into Mexico to illegally apprehend Onofrio Baca on a charge of murder. They delivered Baca to authorities in New Mexico. He was lynched shortly thereafter. /1

#OTD in 1963, Texas Gov. John Connally dispatched Ranger Captain Alfred Young "A. Y." Allee to Crystal City. Connally did so to "keep the peace" during the local election cycle for city and county offices. Instead Allee would go on to brutalize several Mexican Americans. /1

So cool when a book drops on Amazon.

#OTD in 1875 the Nuecestown Raid occurred. In the 1870s and 1880s across the Southwest, a number of raids by Mexican outlaws into the US, as well as Anglo raids into Mexico, took place. The raid on Nuecestown provoked lynching and large-scale massacres of Mexican people. /1

Man just saw George Foreman died. What a life.

#OTD on March 17, 1919 the Texas Legislature significantly restructured the Texas Rangers by passing House Bill No. 5, originally authored by Rep. J. T. Canales. This was one of the most important outcomes of Canales’ activism. /1

Great and timely work by @historybrian.bsky.social on this thread.

UNC Press has done it yet again! I'm very proud of this cover. The book should be out in November:)

#beebit "Move Jessica, I gotta poop!" In winter, when the weather warms to around 45, bees leave their hives to poop. We call these "cleansing flights." Bees hold off defecating for months when it's too cold to fly. Extra #beebit, their feces are a yellowish semi-liquid that smells like honey:)

Facts! Where would I be without UNC Press and the other academic presses I've had the pleasure of working with.

I dropped my AHA membership years ago after I racked up over $3K in debt to attend a conference for an interview for a job ofc I did not get. Not only did I not feel bad about it, now I feel kinda good about it.

Looking forward to this one!

Man just heard José Cha Cha Jiménez died. What a life, what a legacy. Rest in power sir.

thread on a key scholar of the borderlands and Latinx life

I wrote quite a few of these posts for that other site, glad to see them on Bluesky now.

I was reading this and was like "archives, yes, but where are the archivists?" And then about 3/4s of the way down I found them and was like "yes, preach!" Most of my best resources come from small local archives that will likely never get digitized. They and their archivists are priceless to me.

Holiday #beebit, did you know all honey will crystalize? It will! A lot of people think it's because of moisture content (partly true) or time, but the main cause has to do with the nectar source and the concentration of glucose/fructose. One positive if your honey crystalizes, you know it's real!

This is how you get the best tamales.

Got my first "dear professor I have a 92.95 in your class is there any extra work I can do to get the .05 to get an A?" My answer, "no, because a 92.95 is a 93, which is an A." Not sure why faculty don't automatically round up, but they don't.

Academic colleagues, ever done the math to see how much money you generate for your institution? I have! This year I will make my uni ~$300K (I cost far less). Raw numbers, but food for thought. My numbers as an adjunct were even more skewed (I made one uni over 2mil one year). Know your value!

It's official, my next book, Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-Today (the second part of my two-part policing study), has received final approval from the UNC Press Board of Governors and is scheduled for publication in Fall 2025!

Truth! 🖖🏻 #StarTrek

Since we're all now familiar with olfactory analysis and ethics and such, my town periodically smells like cow ass.

Just a friendly reminder that the institution will never love you back.

I learned that my UH grad school colleague and friend, José Angel Hernández, died. He had unbeknownst to me been battling cancer. José was a great guy, smart, and very helpful to me (he helped me translate Spanish I didn't understand). He was also a gifted teacher/writer. I'll really miss him. QEPD.

Enlightening thread on past community policing experience, by the great @historybrian.bsky.social. One of a series of @refusing2forget.bsky.social posts on the many legacies of the Texas Rangers.

Cowards have long used the bully pulpit and frivolous lawsuits to get their way or punish perceived opponents. The situation with JP Bryan and the TX State Hist Org is a case in point, one that @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social clearly notes has profound implications for academia, 1A rights, and more.

Friendly reminder of where the right gets this stuff.

Me at the end of cooking thanksgiving dinner..

A Thanksgiving #beebit. Honey bees are responsible for pollenating approx 80% of our foodstuffs. That means the turkey, dressing, beans, potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, cranberries, rolls, pies, and pretty much anything else organic in your home. So be thankful for bees and other pollinators!

Years ago I wrote about Trump's idea of putting a 20% tariff on all goods from Japan back in the 1980s. He hasn't had a new idea in 40 years www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by...

You can really only appreciate the phenomenon that is the orange cat by having one. I was actually ignorant of all things orange cat but now I know.

I think a lot about leaving academia. I've had two close friends do it (and my uni is a lot less fun because of that) and they're happier, get lots of respect at work, both have gotten multiple promotions, and one is now tapping at the door of $350K.

Been cleaning all weekend to prepare for my folks coming to town so they won't know how gross we are and I am reminded a close friend calls this "crafting the lie" and I think that's so accurate.