BREAKING: Gloria Steinem, feminist trailblazer and award-winning journalist, dies at 92.

Gloria Steinem, fierce feminist trailblazer, dies

A pioneering activist and journalist, Steinem was one of the women’s liberation movement’s most outspoken advocates.

nbcnews.to

Please check out this wonderful review of Defending the Music reviewed by John Adams in the @nytimes.com Book Review. Congratulations to editors Susan Feder, Jacob Jahiel, and Marc Mandel!

From the Kindertransport to The Boston Globe: Remembering a Master Music Critic (Gift Article)

“The eloquence and depth of his prose remain for me the gold standard,” John Adams writes of Michael Steinberg, who excelled at his craft in the 1960s and ’70s.

nytimes.com

Every word of this:

Brian Connolly@brianconnolly.bsky.social · 4w ago

criticalnoise.org/the-struggle...

Please submit your abstract for the Oxford Intersection on Environmental Change and Human Experience! The deadline is 01 September 2026 and we want to hear from you! Details at the link below; and you can read the first batch of published articles here: academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

Oxford Academic@academic.oup.com · last mo.

Final call approaching: Environmental Change and Human Experience. Contribute to an interdisciplinary forum on climate, history, and ecological change. Abstracts due 01 September 2026. 👉 Submit your abstract before the deadline: oxford.ly/4w6i8KG

"The decision by Trump to dissolve USAID — once the world’s largest humanitarian donor — gutted maternal and neonatal care, decimated nutrition programs for millions of pregnant women and children, and left scores of birthing centers devoid of equipment and medicine..." apnews.com/article/usai...

USAID fallout: In Nepal, when the aid workers stopped coming, the women and babies started dying

The Associated Press has found that the decision by the United States to slash its foreign aid funding last year has increased pregnancy complications and deaths in Nepal.

apnews.com

I got tired of waiting for the journalists at @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social to cover this (it IS summer), but this is to say that ALL the staff members in Women & Gender Studies here were laid off last week, on the top of the cutting of 5 lecturer positions in the program last year.+

This was a delight.

Dr Andrew McInnes@drbeard79.bsky.social · last mo.

This is a WILD essay by the brilliant Felicity James on writing and reading essays in the age of AI

I’ve gone on at length about this, and am working with the many, many others behind the scenes, but if you are alumnae (yes I fempluralized) or simply an admirer of the program, and you care about the future of the program, you might send your notes to the provost’s office. The general idea is that

John Aerni-Flessner@lesothojohn.bsky.social · last mo.

This is an absolute travesty. Northwestern has, probably, the 2nd best library collection for African History/Studies in the USA (behind Yale and ahead of MSU, UCLA, etc). A self-inflicted wound that is absolutely, 100% unnecessary given the massive wealth of Northwestern--north of $15 billion.

Currently in the middle of a pine forest in Maine listening to a brass band playing Pink Pony Club while two Irish step dancers practice on the porch of a neighboring cabin. I love you, #mainefiddlecamp

Check out the launch of @academic.oup.com Oxford Intersections: Environmental Change and Human Experience Here are the Food articles. If you are interested in writing for the Food series reach out! Many other cool topics as well academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

Oxford Intersections: Environmental Change and Human Experience

Abstract. Environmental change is a fundamental concern across the humanities and social sciences. This Intersection explores the changing interrelationshi

academic.oup.com

Are you writing about food with an environmental aspect? #EnvHist #FoodHist #FoodStudies Check out our call for papers! Oxford Intersections is a fast, respected, high-impact publishing format - perfect for new research in environmental history. academic.oup.com/oxford-inter...

The Oxford Intersection on Environmental Change and Human Experience is seeking submissions across its different sections. I am editing 'Water' and would love to see more articles on -Rivers/freshwater More-than-human perspectives Militaries & water Trade & transport academic.oup.com/oxford-inter...

Want to write a peer-reviewed, Oxford Intersections article on the #EnvHist of disasters? Check out our call for papers! Oxford Intersections offers a quick, respected, high-impact publishing format - perfect for new research in environmental history. academic.oup.com/oxford-inter...

Flatbush porch audio, July, 6:45 pm: -red Dodge pickup blasting Enya (Sail Away) -slow moving cyclist playing Miles Davis (Bitches Brew) -Toyota van playing Bhangra -horns blasting as 4!cars enter the intersection without observing the stop signs

The cicadas have woken up in Brooklyn. It’s the earliest I remember hearing them here.

It is nearly midnight.

Trump and Republicans radically raised health insurance premium costs -- doubling them on average -- and so 5 million Americans who used to have health insurance now can't afford it. More than half the people who have this kind of health insurance live in GOP districts: www.npr.org/2026/06/26/n...

5 million have dropped ACA insurance after Trump and the GOP let prices skyrocket

Enrollment in Affordable Care Act insurance fell much more sharply in the first months of 2026 than it has in years past. Trump officials blame fraud. Health policy experts blame costs.

npr.org

Was woken up this morning by someone whistling “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” outside my window. Hoping this isn’t an omen for the day.

"Mr. Pelley also wrote that senior managers at CBS News had pressured him to insert bias into stories for “60 Minutes” this past season, though he did not provide details about specific segments." Pretty important part of the story re his firing. Maybe *the* most important part. CBS = new Fox.

CBS News Fires Scott Pelley of ‘60 Minutes’

nytimes.com

Why are public libraries worth protecting? So that knowledge itself does not become privatized. That's the *real* danger of pushing everyone to go to sites like Google or to A.I. chatbots for answers.

Internet Archive@archive.org · 4mo ago

🧵What happens when libraries can't preserve the knowledge they collect? 📚⚠️ @Brewster.Kahle.org warns that the systems connecting libraries, readers, and cultural memory are becoming dangerously fragile. Read Preserving the Library System in VANISHING CULTURE ⤵️ archive.org/details/vani...

I know there is a lot going on, and not all of this is new, but numerous aspects of this OMB proposal are highly alarming and would, if enacted, effectively force American scientists receiving federal funding (which is...most of them in some capacity or another) to stop engaging with the public.

elizabethginexi.bsky.social@elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

This a hell of a move to make when professors are rapidly moving back to paper everything …

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 4mo ago

The official reason seems to be that use of printed materials is declining - which even if true doesn’t necessarily mean that one should close libraries and fire staff. MIT has amazing humanities programs; shouldn’t an institution this rich be able to support them? libraries.mit.edu/about/vision...

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

!

Erin K. Maher@erinkmaher.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Star Wars Day self-promo: @franklehman.bsky.social's magnum opus comes out this summer, and I had the honor/delight/challenge of doing the index. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

There’s so much going on right now that the ever-growing attempt to erase trans people is slipping by some folks.

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation Monday into Smith College, an all-women’s institution in Massachusetts, for admitting transgender women. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

I see they’re axing their undergrad degrees in music theory and musicology as well. OSU has an outstanding music theory program and (no inside knowledge) I would bet you that the faculty maintain this small major on top of their regular teaching load at a cost of zero additional resources

Nicolaus De Missuria@deromaaliisque.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I hate what we’re becoming. Ohio State, where I went to grad school, is getting rid of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. @aarontpratt.bsky.social @lollardfish.bsky.social @profgabriele.com compliance.osu.edu/focus-areas/...

“To the extent that we reduce or restrict the humanities to strictly conscious and intentional rational or cognitive modes, or, frankly, social and historical modes,we will not see all that the humanities already are. [1/2]

3 editors, including my colleague Dan Taber, discuss University presses (and I am hoping for a "collaborative, combative, considered" @academic.oup.com T-shirt) www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

3 University Press Editors, 6 Publishing Questions

Susan D’Agostino talks with editors at Oxford, Princeton and UNC Press about book acquisition meetings, unconventional book launches and words in book proposals that make their hearts sink.

insidehighered.com

When the alt text is even better than the photos (this whole account is stellar in this regard; h/t @robertahannah.bsky.social )

Owls in Towels@owls-in-towels.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A Little Owl was rescued after falling down a chimney. South Essex Wildlife Hospital reported he was "dirty and dehydrated but soon on his way back home". Want to donate to SEWH? southessexwildlife.org/donate Source: fb.com/555952912555... #owlsintowels 💛🦉

Palantir CEO promises that his technology will reduce educated women's economic and political power newrepublic.com/post/207693/...

Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power

They’re saying the quiet part out loud now.

newrepublic.com