After a decade of work, here is the unboxing of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction! Cloth ISBN 9780197804490. Use discount code AUFLY30 to get 30% off at global.oup.com/academic/pro...

My friend at work cooked Indonesian soul food in honor of her mother and gave this lunch box to me. I cannot find proper words to describe how delicious it was or how grateful I am. This world is getting worse everyday, but we cook, share, and care for one another.

Please help fill in the blank: First they came for the land acknowledgement statements of fact, censoring them so that they could not appear anywhere unless there was the most direct and obvious link ... then they came for the ________ www.wosu.org/politics-gov...

Please spread the word—The Scholars’ Workshop in Early African American Print at AAS Jan. 12-15, 2026. A writing workshop and intro to archives for junior scholars working on the dissertation or first book. Fully funded. Apply by Oct. 15 2025. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

In-person (free) tickets for tonight are sold out. (Reception starts at 5:30pm; ceremony at 6:30pm.) HOWEVER... you can join online by watching the livestream, starting at 6:30PM EST. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWG... #libraries #BlackWomenInLibraries #BlackWomen #BlackHistory #NYC

I assume, before Wong Kim Ark, (regarding his case Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship in 1898) there were many of him like Woh Sing here. "A Chinaman has shaken California to its center by taking our preliminary naturalization papers." from Springfield Weekly Republican (MA), 1.14.1976.

Does anyone know a community college that offers a digital humanities course? #dh #communitycollege

This is John Philip Simpson's "The Captive Slave" (1827), housed in the Art Institute of Chicago. The model is Ira Aldridge, the American-born actor who was famous for his performance in the Atlantic world. If we look into his face close, we can see why he was known as the best actor in his time.

Since this all started, I’ve seen people, just regular people, be so, so brave: showing up on street corners to face down men with guns in order to protect their neighbors. I will never ever forgive the powerful people who have watched all this happen and told us we’re saying the wrong words.

This is an excellent love letter to students and learning on the perils of AI in education. I’m getting inspiration from it for my conversation with my students and linking it on my syllabus. emergingethics.substack.com/p/why-were-n...

Will be there!

I saw a young man writing a poem on napkins today at a coffee house.

During the pandemic, I voraciously read his poetry and listened to his interviews because his writing made me feel less alone. And his new novel did not disappoint me.

Here's a write-up of my keynote from #DH2025, since academic publishing is slow and this was written for right now. roopikarisam.com/talks-cat/dh...

“She wrote from her experience in a woman’s body and a dark skin, though never solely ‘as’ or ‘for.’ Sharply critical of chauvinism of all kinds, she was too aware of democracy’s failures to let herself embrace false integrations.” Adrienne Rich on June Jordan, born on this day in 1936:

Today I saw a raccoon couple enjoying a walk in the day light!

I was there from 9 to 3 today, and saw the bird keep doing this all day. The other side is a mirror, and the bird is seriously in love with himself.

Proofs are proofed. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction is on track for 1 Oct release from Oxford UP. The book wouldn’t exist w/o support from the NEH & so many librarians & scholars committed to the fact that Black history is American history. We still have so much to learn.

“[I]t may have been the fourth of July; it does not matter.... The next day my child … said: ‘I know why we can’t ride in the cars; because we are colored!’ … yet … trodden under foot as our people are, I would not change souls with the richest and proudest stockholder….”--Frances E. W. Harper 1867

In July 1776 James Forten heard the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence. He served in the American Revolution & fought for its ideals long after the war. A descendant of the enslaved, he founded schools, funded manumission, & helped establish a multiracial abolitionist society.

When I read non-academic essayists + critics I sometimes 🤔: did they do any *research* on this topic, or do they think theirs are all original ideas? This post from Brandon, whose work I admire greatly, confirms that contextualizing one's ideas + acknwldgng interlocutors isn't a universal practice

When I visited IU's Wells Lib, I was amazed by its African Lit and art collections, wishing I could spend days and days in looking into them. They may remove these books and collections as well when there is no student/scholar in these fields. A flagship uni must defend "non-practical" studies.

My co-editor @jenguiliano.bsky.social & I are excited to share the June 2025 issue of #ReviewsInDH, which features projects that engage with legal sources to challenge conventional understanding of Black history. reviewsindh.pubpub.org/v6-n6

Graduation photo from Hastings, Nebraska which “hosted a small but thriving African American community in the late 19th C. This photograph celebrates a significant educational achievement in this young woman’s life in an era when only 10% of all teenagers in the country graduated from high school.”

A few more words on this. First, the tremendous vision and work of MacArthur Fellow Gabrielle Foreman, her colleague Jim Casey, and the host of folks working with them @ccp-org.bsky.social has made possible the wide use of the invaluable Colored Conventions materials. 1/ coloredconventions.org

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Toni Morrison is one of the greatest writers to ever live. What many don’t know, is that she was also the first Black woman to become a senior editor at Random House. I wrote about a new book that discusses how she edited by day, wrote by night, and ushered in a new generation of Black writers.

I’m so excited that my book is now out in the world. It pulls together my scholarly training in African American literature with my turn to digital humanities. I’ve also published the complete data dataset of 100 years of AFAM and am lit anthologies that is the backbone of the book.

@jewonwoo.bsky.social & I are co-editing a special issue of Reviews in DH on teaching #digitalhumanities in community colleges! Favorite DH projects related to this topic that we should feature? Please send them our way! #DH #ReviewsinDH

Been doing a lot of reading on teaching lately. Wrote up a thing on three audiobooks that I'm bringing back to my work in the @scholarslab.bsky.social. Texts by @jamesmlang.bsky.social @cjdenial.bsky.social and Bettina Love. walshbr.com/blog/three-b...

Did your NEH proposal or project funding get killed off? Please share it at this week's @ach.bsky.social virtual conference! Testify to the impact! Share what you had started! Share what you hoped & dreamed! Open to all 👇 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Help us spread the word?

Jacob Lawrence’s 1947 painting, Children at Play, is displayed at the Wells Library, Indiana University.

It's a @digblk.bsky.social x @scholarslab.bsky.social joint! Did the illegal closure of the NEH impact your work? Come share at the ACH conference next week. Then let's think together about what comes next.

I’m co-organizing this proposed panel, “The Latinx-Asian Commons,” for @c19americanists.bsky.social 2026 conference with @ayendy.bsky.social! Please consider submitting, and please share widely! Due 8/1

The first Black woman lawyer and daughter of Charles Ray, Charlotte Ray advertised her office in Frederick Douglass’s New National Era in March, 1873.

I wrote an essay about Mary A. Shadd Cary and Mary E. Bibb (Henry Bibb's wife), speculating their collaborative relationship if not friendship, which is different from the previous studies about them. I found both of them lived in D.C. after the Civil War. So exciting nerdy moment.

This ad hurts my eyes. From The Christian Recorder, Feb. 1, 1868.

“it is estimated that the registry of voters in South Carolina will show 45,000 white and 60,000 colored voters.” From The Elevator (San Francisco Black newspaper, June 21, 1867)

Some child found Rev. Offley’s notebook to be a good place to doodle.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an avid activist and writer, was a powerful advocate for equality and a trailblazer at the Colored Conventions. From being the only woman delegate in 1858, to her last speech in 1873. Her speeches urged education, equality, and perseverance! Learn more about Harper here

Friends, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan is hiring a new Head of Reader Services. Please circulate the posting to anyone you know who might be interested. careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

A 2024 journal article by @quinnanya.me @claudiaeberger.bsky.social & me traces the origins of the #DHmakes hashtag+community (& fits a 🍞 pun into the title!): accesson.kr/kjdh/v.1/1/7...

If you have questions about trans healthcare etc., or want to support not just cis folks in ways major newspapers fail to empower you to: @erininthemorning.com is a free, carefully researched, award-winning, trusted source sharings news + helping analyze/explain news, court cases, laws:

I wrote a short essay about my reflection on the pandemic after 5 years. www.litcleveland.org/anthology-wo...

Some sad confirmation from @bcgl.bsky.social while I was at UW last week—the National Digital Newspaper Program—which builds Chronicling America—has been shut down Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss

I was lucky to meet her a few years ago. She rebranded the library as a place for everyone and initiated many community-based programs. Her legacy will not be removed by the petty man.

If your grant was terminated & you are an MLA member (or in a related discipline), please fill out our My NEH Grant Story form. Your story can help inform the actions we are taking to protect the NEH. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"This is not a Democratic Government if a numerous, law-abiding, industrious, and useful class of citizens, born and bred on the soil, are to be treated as aliens and enemies, as an inferior degraded class, (1/2)

Don't miss the April issue of #ReviewsInDH: Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Preservation, edited by Madeleine Kraft. reviewsindh.pubpub.org/v6-n4

For the Monday morning crowd: a 🧵on how to appeal your NEH grant termination. Please share with NEH grantees. I also summarized in a shareable google doc, available here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...