Mónica A. Jiménez

@monijimenez.bsky.social

Writer, baker, and prof. Caribbean history, race, law & empire. Puerto Rico, poetry & pilates. Reluctant soccer mom and lover of plants. Author of Making Never-Never Land @UNC Press.

We fought hard to keep our majors, even in the face of our departments closing, b/c we know what it took to create them in the first place. Decades of work by elders to ensure this knowledge would have a place at the "best" public university in TX. www.kut.org/education/20...

UT Austin plans to cut Mexican American, African, women's and gender studies majors

The decision comes after university officials consolidated seven ethnic studies departments into two earlier this year. Faculty within the College of Liberal Arts were told most majors could be consol...

kut.org

I'm teaching Race, Law and US Society, which is on this list and has been deemed "too narrow." Some readings: US Constitution, Federalist Papers, Notes on the State of Virginia, Cherokee Nation Cases, Scott v. Stanford, Brown v Board... so US legal history... too narrow? Or just too about race?

AAUP chapter @UT Austin@utaustinaaup.bsky.social · last mo.

Chaos and authoritarianism at UT Austin. Faculty have just days to show how their courses meet vague requirements of breadth and foundationalism. Proposals will be reviewed by an unspecified entity. No guarantee at all that those who review the proposals have expertise in the field.

As a faculty member of UT's distinguished African and African Diaspora Studies Department, I am angry at the disingenuous way UT is characterzing us and our scholarship. But as an alum of UT (MA, JD, PhD) I am sad to see my alma mater debase itself to curry favor with the ignorance of the right.

Texas Observer@texasobserver.org · 8mo ago

Scholarship that challenges white supremacy, colonialism, or state violence is labeled as divisive. Programs rooted in Indigenous, Latinx, and Black knowledge are consolidated, put under review, or dismantled. The result is not balance—it is containment.

Before you rush off to buy your tix to PR, please educate yourself a bit. You can read my book (Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of PR) & my homie's @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social (PR: A National History) & many others, just do your homework. consequence.net/2026/02/bad-...

Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show Leads to 245% Spike in Travel Interest to Puerto Rico

Bad Bunny's halftime show has caused a major increase in flight searches to Puerto Rico and other Latin countries.

consequence.net

Mangroves are life-giving. They are abundance. For some time I have been trying to write poems into mangroves, into my respect and love of them. There are several organizations in PR that have been working hard at restoring them, this article covers one, another is COPI in Loiza copipr.com.

COPI – Corporación Piñones Se Integra (COPI)

copipr.com

Teen Vogue@teenvogue.com · last yr.

Centuries of colonialism cost Puerto Rico's native mangroves. This group has planted over 22,000 since 2023. Read the full story:

Today's reminder that resistance is the only way through authoritarianism. Spotted today in Rome: las mariposas, the Mirabal Sisters, whose fight against Trujillo's dictatorship in DR cost them so much, but whose memory we still hold up to the light. ¡Que vivan!

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"And the brush of grass against the lowering / Roof of the evening. The eye can eat the vanishing light" From "Late February," a new original poem by Roger Reeves for National Poetry Month. ➡️ buff.ly/LIgOgG4

The quote and information written in charcoal against a light blue background. At the top is the Rumpus's full logo in black with "National Poetry Month" written beside it with a gray paint splotch underneath.

Went axe throwing last night to celebrate the fact that I've been tenured and also to work out some of the rage I feel at the haters who tried to stop me from getting it. That's a story for another day... but for now: I got tenure, yall!

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So I’ve had my 1st Black History Month event cancellation because of “DEI concerns,” citing a fear of frivolous suits. Funny thing is, I don’t do DEI, I’m a historian of the Black American experience. A reminder that DEI is just a dog whistle about suppressing history, if you need a reminder.