Mamdani went to a small college similar to the one where I work and majored in Africana Studies. From now on my answer to the microaggressive question of “what can one (even) do with a Black Studies degree from a liberal arts college?” is “You can run New York.”

Socialism starts with me curled up under a blanket on my couch feeling joy for half a second

Today is the official publication day for POETRY IN GENERAL: How a Literary From Became Public. ✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨ Use CUP20 for a discount from the press cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...

A reminder that we're collecting books, chapters, and journal articles by non-TT historians for publication in our year-end lists. Anything with a 2025 pub date is eligible and you can submit for your friends/colleagues! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...

Think you're an expert on all things #gaslighting? Check out what my co-editor has to say about the lost ending of *Gaslight*, which I suspect you've never heard about before! @noragilbert.bsky.social

I couldn’t listen to the survivors of Epstein’s abuse without thinking about my own rape - questions unanswered by his enablers, reports unreleased by Stanford. But I’m glad I did listen, and I’m grateful for their astounding courage, eloquence, and generosity. Solidarity and #MeToo

I can’t believe my life is being affected by the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Happy Pub Day, @donikakelly.bsky.social! This book, like its author, is gorgeous. Go treat yourself to a copy.

Look what has a website now! If you teach at a university, please tell your library to order a copy. I promise you'll enjoy teaching this book!

It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.

Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.

One double bind of anti-rape feminism: women’s experiences of sexual violence are no guarantee of their feminist solidarity, and women’s loyalty to men or tolerance for their violence against other women is no guarantee of their personal safety.

My 8-year-old calls cell phones "skinny rectangles of doom." I mean. He's not wrong.

Cover design is in! Nobody has a better "fuck you" face than Ingrid Bergman. #coverdesign #bookcover #gaslighting @sunypress.bsky.social @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @noragilbert.bsky.social

This Shakespeare-to-Millais-to-Swift gem is the unexpected literary allusion I needed today! Yes, there's a bathtub story behind Millais's 1852 painting AND Swift's album cover. Can't WAIT to hear "The Fate of Ophelia." (Images by Wikimedia Commons) #thelifeofashowgirl #taylorswift #lizziesiddal

If you like this fabulous essay, check out Grace's chapter in the forthcoming collection on Victorian Gaslighting (out March 2026, available for preorder Sept 2025), coedited by @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, @noragilbert.bsky.social, and me!

"One reason this violence is so unacknowledged is that it is in the most literal sense not news – there are tides of hatred and violence against other groups that ebb and flow, but violence against women is global and enduring, a constant rather than an event."

As Epstein is back up in the news, reminder: -1 in 9 girls* & -1 in 20 boys* under the age of 18 experience SA -Female ppl* aged 16-19 are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of SA or attempted SA Some of those survivors read your skeets. *& presumably nonbinary & gnc ppl

Summer highlight: partying w Jacques Pépin, who has a new book coming out in Sept. As we perused his memoir, he joked that it'd make me fall asleep. We chatted about Victorian Gaslighting and my memoir. He issued judgments on food and wine gently, never imperiously. This man is a national treasure.

This is #BookHistory too. Of a heartbreaking kind. Tho' I imagine they haven't succeeded in accessing ICE detention facilities, this seems a good time to remind people to support the Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org), which does amazing work compensating for the cruelties Öztürk describes

My textbook is finally available! 'Writing on Fire: A Fierce Yet Friendly Guide to Writing Humanities Essays in College.' There are chapters on close reading, thesis statements, all the good stuff. If you teach writing via a humanities subject, check it out! broadviewpress.com/product/writ...

I wrote about Adriana Smith, the Georgia woman whose corpse was used to incubate a fetus, and the moral horror of seeing a human body treated as a instrument for the agendas of people more powerful than the woman who inhabited it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Jamie Hood is coming to Philly Aug 26th! #traumaplot

Yep. These villains even appear *proud* of their unskilled, unoriginal evildoing.

Re the Q of “brands” & reading cultural production institutionally: there was a fascinating write-up in PW abt an Apr panel of indie publishers arguing that small/indie presses have MORE “brand” ID/recognition than big corp publishers and I’d agree—re UPs too www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

"We’re in a frightening moment: cultural dismissals of #MeToo are of course inseverable from coordinated assaults on contraception and abortion, on anti-AIDS activism, on transition-related health care, and on the rights of sex workers and other laborers." -Jamie Hood

Opened my laptop and found a surprise from my daughter.

How you feel about Meghan Markle + how you feel about Zohran Mamdani tells me all I need to know about you.

Cannot believe the Democratic Party STILL has not figured out that the reason Trump keeps winning and Republicans keep sticking with him is that he is GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANT. How about Dems offering to give their base what they want? Especially since what we want is actually good for everyone?

Trump is such a gaslighter, and some people just love being gaslit by him. People will study this for centuries

Can’t wait to read this book!

all the worst people are sad tonight and i just think thats neat

There’s just so much: the victory of a new political talent, the loss of an old tyrant, the possibilities of alliance & positive strategizing, the hope for a more just future, the cracking of the last generation’s stranglehold on power. Also the joy and force of Tish James! Listen to her voice!

There are so many reasons to be afraid, I can't keep track of them all.

I’m still not over the fact that there was an extremely popular award-winning movie over a decade ago about the perils of falling in love with a chatbot and a company decided to make the chatbot in the image of the movie’s chatbot and now quite a few people have decided to date it

And in more book news, my book on affect theory and sensation fiction is now out in paperback: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-narrati...

I am literally publishing a book on Victorian gaslighting edited by the fab @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @dbellonby.bsky.social and @noragilbert.bsky.social and I will NOT be gaslit by the New Yorker into believing reading is or ought to be on its way out because of AI

Juneteenth went uncelebrated by the White House. That alone says everything you need to know about this regime.

Sounds awesome!

Not only that but as of next wk it will officially be in production & slated for publication in March 2026, which Diana and her fantastic co-creators don't even know yet, because she is wonderfully ON IT when it comes to spreading the word. Fab for c19ers & film, gender, & cultural studies scholars!

Wanna know the history of #gaslighting? My co-edited book of essays, *Victorian Gaslighting*, will make you an expert! This juicy guide, co-created with @noragilbert.bsky.social and @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, is officially in pre-production at @sunypress.bsky.social and slated for pub in 2026!

The fact that so many people think celebrating the end of slavery in the US is “DEI” is actually clarifying of what they mean when they use DEI. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/06/...

A reminder to us all from @sarahkendzior.bsky.social

Happy Juneteenth! By which I mean may Black Americans feel JOY while us white ones educate each other, spend our money at Black-owned businesses, and work for real justice as MLK Jr. understood it: "No one is free until everyone is free."

This is shocking. Pure totalitarianism from DHS, and also blatantly unconstitutional. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Booklovers: @torreypeters.bsky.social is back in the US for the end of her #StagDance tour. I saw her in Iowa City and she blew my mind. I missed her sold-out Philly talk b/c I didn't get tix fast enough. She’ll be in Colorado on 6/20 and 6/22. Go get your tix now! You'll thank me later!

What are some good orgs for trans youth that could use some donations on this awful day? Reply below.

I can't think of anyone currently running for office more dangerous than Andrew Cuomo. Not just for NYC but for the nation, because unfortunately NYC disproportionately affects the rest of the states. Bad politicians elsewhere don't have the same structural power. NYC: Do not vote for this man.

Feeling grateful that @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social is back on FB, but perennially enraged at Zuck and his ilk. Everybody go read Solnit's newsletter, "Meditations in an Emergency," if you aren't already a subscriber.

"At its heart the Trump Administration is violently divisive, isolationist, and segregationist, and solidarity is our first duty and most profound rejection of that agenda." for this insight, Solnit has been suspended from fb www.meditationsinanemergency.com/some-notes-o...