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Alan Parkes

@aparkes.bsky.social

Asst. Professor of US History at Longwood University

32 Posts158 Follower269 Folgt
Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 3w ago

This AP investigation into David Brouillette, the ICE agent who shot Durán Guerrero in Maine is genuinely horrifying. Long history of extreme mental illness, chronic violence agst spouses and kids, PTSD and heightened violence from mil service. apnews.com/article/ice-...

AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to c...

apnews.com

Bruce Dorsey@profbrucedorsey.bsky.social · 3w ago

"“I heard a howl that came from your soul, that your whole life had just changed and it was never going to be the same.” -Mary Hayes, Biddeford, ME, resident Too painful, too often--must end! What We Know About the ICE Shooting in Maine www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/u...

Maine ICE Shooting: What We Know About the Death of Joan Sebastian Guerrero

A federal immigration agent shot and killed a man in a car on Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine. It was the second fatal encounter in a week involving an agent and a person in a vehicle.

nytimes.com

Whitney Curry Wimbish@whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 3w ago

I want to know why ICE is allowed to break the law and why there is zero accountability. Why. Why is Susan Collins allowed, for example, to just say she's urging an investigation or whatever when she voted to fund these death squads less than three months ago.

David J. Bier@davidjbier.bsky.social · 3w ago

WHOA DHS does not say that the agent feared for his life… just the vague concern for “public safety.” So he killed him just because he did not want him in America, not because of any specific threat to agents?

Big Ol’ Mush@chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3w ago

“The data indicates that 74.2% of North Carolina’s 143,998 private school students received an Opportunity Scholarship during the 2025-26 school year.” We’re living through the resegregation of US education. Read more at: www.newsobserver.com/news/local/e...

Most NC private school students now get a taxpayer-funded voucher to pay costs

North Carolina now provides vouchers to nearly 75% of private school students, up from a quarter of pupils two years ago.

newsobserver.com

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 4w ago

Reuters confirms. 11 more people captured by ICE have been sent to a maximum security prison in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a country where they have no ties and committed no crimes. reut.rs/4wpbIGU

Eleven more Trump deportees arrive in Eswatini from the United States, lawyer says

Eleven more migrants deported by the Trump administration under a ​policy of sending them to third ‌countries arrived in Eswatini from the United States on Wednesday, a U.S. lawyer following the case ...

reut.rs

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 4w ago

A few minutes ago, two ICE flights operated by Journey Aviation landed in Eswatini, likely another third-country removal of immigrants to a maximum security prison there. Nineteen people have already been sent there on previous ICE flights in the last nine months. Only two have been released.

An FR24 map showing N588AT landing in Eswatini
Josh Donovan@jmaydonovan.bsky.social · last mo.

I attended & asked what the AHA can/should do to help Mideast historians navigate growing threats to their academic freedom. Rather than address my question, the moderator ended the event early! The refusal of @historians.org to listen to, much less advocate for us is why we need new leadership.

Bild
American Historical Association@historians.org · last mo.

Today at 12:30 ET: Advocacy 101 Training Workshop Join our free online workshop introducing the fundamentals of federal advocacy, from communicating with policymakers to building relationships with congressional offices. Register now.

Briony Neilson@brionyneilson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This appeal by Palestinians to recipients of the Dan David Prize to reject the award to help dismantle Israel's system of apartheid was penned three years ago. The need to reject these prizes has never been more urgent. bdsmovement.net/news/palesti...

Palestinians Urge Dan David Prize Recipients To Help Dismantle Israeli Apartheid by Rejecting Complicit Award

The following letter was sent to the 2023 recipients of Israel's Dan David Prize Dear Dr. Saheed Aderinto, Dr. Ana Antic, Dr. Karma Ben...

bdsmovement.net

Zack Furness@punkademic.bsky.social · last mo.

One person was effectively sentenced to decades in prison for zines. “During the trial, prosecutors highlighted many of the zines that the book club read as evidence of the conspiracy and ideology that linked the demonstrators.”

Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison

Activists accused of being part of antifa get long prison terms in case seen as test of Trump’s crackdown on dissent

theguardian.com

Stacy Fahrenthold@sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Endlessly disappointed by historians willing to accept the Dan David Prize. This appeal outlines why no historian who respects their own work or supports our discipline should lend this prize their name.

Briony Neilson@brionyneilson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This appeal by Palestinians to recipients of the Dan David Prize to reject the award to help dismantle Israel's system of apartheid was penned three years ago. The need to reject these prizes has never been more urgent. bdsmovement.net/news/palesti...

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 2mo ago

It’s interesting how, at the very same time as university leaders are decrying Trump’s attacks on knowledge, they are relying on his NLRB to quash the academic labor movement. They need a right-wing NLRB. newrepublic.com/article/2111...

How Trump Is Wrecking the Agency That Protects Workers’ Labor Rights

In his first term, Trump’s NLRB issued bad decisions. In his second, it’s being dismantled.

newrepublic.com

Jaweed Kaleem@jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · 2mo ago

USC part-time, adjunct and full-time non-tenure-track faculty have vote to unionize -- forming one of the largest private campus faculty unions in the U.S. But USC is challenging the result, asking the National Labor Relations Board to review the vote. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Alan Parkes@aparkes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The AHA acknowledges that history is always political. It seems like the suggestion here is that the organization can exist outside that reality, but we all know that such suggestions are themselves political. To say that the AHA isn’t political is to say a lot about the politics of the AHA

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Many of us are struggling with various shades of outrage. What the AHA is and isn’t– for me– is the place to work on absolutely critical professional issues. I have many political commitments, but I work on those in orgs that are expressly political.

Elise A. Mitchell@bydreamphd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m astounded (in the worst way) and embarrassed to be a member of AHA today, as the organization misconstrues the meaning of “democratic” for ends that I fear can only be described as xenophobic and racist.

Alan Parkes@aparkes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

By “activists,” John means historians who want to represent the democratically-determined will of the AHA membership

John Fea@johnfea1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Activists want to gain control of the American Historical Association I received this message today from the Executive Committee of the American Historical Association: The election for next year’s AHA Council open on June 1, and this year, your ballot will look a little different. In addition to…

Karen Graubart@kbgraubart.bsky.social · 2mo ago

That email from the AHA Executive Council asking members to vote for their pre-vetted slate of candidates in the name of saving the discipline from scholars opposed to genocide in Gaza is not doing the work they think it is.

Alan Parkes@aparkes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The petition candidates are uncompromising opponents of genocide. That AHA leadership takes issue with that says a lot. This should be an easy choice for anybody who takes history seriously

Paul Renfro@renfro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The AHA (@historians.org) sent this condescending, chicken-shit email to its members today. While the organization has done next to nothing to advocate for scholars navigating a dismal academic job market, it has fought assiduously to silence pro-Palestinian voices within its ranks. For shame. 🗃️

“A Message from the Executive Committee of the AHA Council The election for next year's AHA Council open on June 1, and this year, your ballot will look a little different. In addition to two candidates for each slot selected by the member-elected Nominating Committee, the ballot will also list several "by petition" candidates, all of whom have been nominated by Historians for Peace and Democracy (HPAD), in collaboration with Historians4Palestine and the Palestinian Historians Group. Believing that this is a particularly important election for the Association's future, and wishing to explain the origins of this "by petition" slate, the AHA's Executive Committee is taking the unusual step of offering further context and alerting members to the implications of the "by petition" campaign. As you are surely aware, we are living through a time of unprecedented attempts to rewrite history and threaten historians ability to access, study, and understand our past. In the past two years in particular, the AHA has been courageously engaging in monumental efforts to advocate for our discipline. Despite strong headwinds, we have had some recent wins, such as a successful outcome in our NEH lawsuit. Yet the AHA, like other organizations and institutions, has faced internal disagreement as to the kinds of actions we should take. To date, the Council and staff have focused the AHA's work on issues within our core mission: promoting historical studies and supporting and defending the rights of historians to research and teach honest, expert history. For this we have faced severe criticism from HPAD, a 501(c)(4) (political) group that advocates for a much more aggressive stance on specific, political matters. The antagonistic relationship of HPAD's leadership towards the current AHA Council began in January 2025. HPAD had campaigned vigorously for a resolution on Gaza, which was passed at the Association's business meeting. …”
Paul Renfro@renfro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The AHA (@historians.org) sent this condescending, chicken-shit email to its members today. While the organization has done next to nothing to advocate for scholars navigating a dismal academic job market, it has fought assiduously to silence pro-Palestinian voices within its ranks. For shame. 🗃️

“A Message from the Executive Committee of the AHA Council The election for next year's AHA Council open on June 1, and this year, your ballot will look a little different. In addition to two candidates for each slot selected by the member-elected Nominating Committee, the ballot will also list several "by petition" candidates, all of whom have been nominated by Historians for Peace and Democracy (HPAD), in collaboration with Historians4Palestine and the Palestinian Historians Group. Believing that this is a particularly important election for the Association's future, and wishing to explain the origins of this "by petition" slate, the AHA's Executive Committee is taking the unusual step of offering further context and alerting members to the implications of the "by petition" campaign. As you are surely aware, we are living through a time of unprecedented attempts to rewrite history and threaten historians ability to access, study, and understand our past. In the past two years in particular, the AHA has been courageously engaging in monumental efforts to advocate for our discipline. Despite strong headwinds, we have had some recent wins, such as a successful outcome in our NEH lawsuit. Yet the AHA, like other organizations and institutions, has faced internal disagreement as to the kinds of actions we should take. To date, the Council and staff have focused the AHA's work on issues within our core mission: promoting historical studies and supporting and defending the rights of historians to research and teach honest, expert history. For this we have faced severe criticism from HPAD, a 501(c)(4) (political) group that advocates for a much more aggressive stance on specific, political matters. The antagonistic relationship of HPAD's leadership towards the current AHA Council began in January 2025. HPAD had campaigned vigorously for a resolution on Gaza, which was passed at the Association's business meeting. …”“Now these groups have used the "by petition" clause in the AHA bylaws to generate a full slate of candidates, the majority of whom sit on HPAD's own steering committee or advisory board, to oppose the candidates put forward by the member-elected Nominating Committee. The petitions for their nomination were signed by about 200 members (less than two percent of our over 10,000 members). It should also be noted that among our 133 affiliated societies, HPAD is the only 501(c)(4) (political) organization, and the only one with an explicitly political mission. Its status means that it operates under the US tax code just as the National Rifle Association or Planned Parenthood, or any other 501(c)(4), and is not permitted to have formal members. HPAD, unlike the AHA, is not a membership organization and is therefore not obligated to any members and does not elect its own leadership. The AHA, by contrast (and contrary to HPAD's claims), has a governance structure very much like the other 501(c)(3) disciplinary associations, with a professional staff and a member-elected Council charged with decision-making. But the AHA is unique among the disciplinary associations in that it is the only one incorporated by a law, or charter, passed by the US Congress. That law charges us with a specific mission: "the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical manuscripts and for kindred purposes in the interest of American history and of history in America." (Other examples of congressionally chartered organizations include the American Red Cross and the US Olympic Committee.) Our foundational mission is to join together historians, whatever our personal and political views, in the common professional purpose of furthering the study and teaching of history. And we are able to join together historians from all regions, fields, and institution types because we adhere to this mission. Executive Committee of the AHA Council”