All I want in life is to move to a creepy small town where my knowledge of gothic literature and the occult helps expose the town's dark underbelly through a series of folklore, unsolved crimes, curses, and conspiracies.

Join our Gothic Reading Group on Aug. 17, 2026, for Narrative of the Life of Arthur Gordon Pym. Registration Link: gmu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

an ideologically driven effort to destroy an independent institution and replace its serious and broad-minded approach to american history with MAGA slop

Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum

President Trump said the signage at the National Museum of American History would correct what a disputed White House report described as “extreme political activism.”

nytimes.com

Really interesting work from my colleague Jesse Casana, using satellite imagery to assess damage to Syrian archaeological sites from the civil war home.dartmouth.edu/news/2026/07...

Study Shows Extent of Damage to Historic Sites in Syria | Dartmouth

home.dartmouth.edu

Do yourself a favor and google Jimothy 🦝

Just finished drafting my 2nd dissertation body chapter and wanted to share a brief excerpt of the project I've recently retitled: Ommissions, Authorizations, and Relations: The Gothic and Re-Reading Space and Place in the Digital Humanities.

Our Gothic Reading Group will meet to discuss Daniel Mason's North Woods on Monday, July 27, at 4:00 p.m. (EDT). Register Here: gmu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I gotta say the Adventures in Odyssey radio show did not prepare me for Christopher Nolan's movie at all.

The Taco Bell finger pointing is a psyop to redirect attention from the real culprit, the deregulation and lack of oversight in our food supply

REMINDER: Call for proposals: The SSAG will sponsor a paper session at the American Literature Association’s symposium on the American novel, which will take place in Santa Fe November 5th – 7th of this year. Accordingly, we are issuing a general call for proposals.

We will meet to discuss Daniel Mason's North Woods on Monday, July 27, at 4:00 p.m. (EDT). Register here: gmu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

On Wednesday, I begin a research trip whose seed began in the 1st year of my PhD program. Its frankly a little insane, but I am very excited for what is to come over the coming weeks. This week in Boulder was more an archival visit before the real work begins.

In Boulder for the week doing some work at the Media Archeology Lab and I gotta say my first impression of the place was pretty good CU Boulder has a beautiful campus.

#CFP Porous Worlds: Histories, Environments, and Material Relations at the Surface-Subsurface Interface (Bergen, October 28-29, 2026), due September 1. Workshop explores relationship between surface and subsurface w/ keynote by @gabriellehecht.bsky.social #envhist #envhum #extractivism #histstm

Just got some news that my chapter "‘It’s (Not) Just Land’: Agency, Landscape, and New Materialism in Folk Horror Podcasts" will be coming out in the American Folk Horrors edited collection through University of Wales Press in March 2027!

Journalists have a duty to tell the public that the president and his aides are seriously considering suspending habeas corpus *when it is happening* rather than saving it for a book rollout over a year later

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

BREAKING: New from Haberman and Swan: Secret memos show that the Trump White House debated last year, to a greater degree than previously known, whether to limit a constitutional right — suspending habeas corpus rights for undocumented immigrants to accelerate mass deportation efforts.

Join us on June 22 at 4:30 PM EDT for our Gothic Reading Group to discuss Daniel Kraus' Whalefall. Register Here: gmu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Currently deep in the midst of my annual urge to move out to Seattle

The Vanderbilt report and Trump’s attack on the NIH and NSF are part of the same right-wing effort to attack the authority of all peer-reviewed knowledge so that they can police what researchers write, say, publish, and think to ensure it complies with corporate-friendly aims.

In fact, a key charge of the Vandy report is that non-humanistic disciplines risk being ‘infected’ by allegedly relativist humanistic methods and ideas, which is a covert attack on queer, anti-racist, and decolonial methods in scientific inquiry. So yes, the Vandy report is an attack on science.

Working on writing up an early draft of my Shenandoah Chapter and spent most of today writing up on Gothic photography. Honestly its fun, most of the (limited) secondary I am working with on the topic are tied to the terror-era of gothic criticism so I have some space to write my own thoughts.

Anyone going to see Spielberg’s Disclosure Day? 😏

Call for Papers: Spielberg’s Alien Imaginary and American Spirituality

Call for Papers From Close Encounters to Disclosure: Spielberg’s Alien Imaginary and American Spirituality Proposed Edited Volume for the Pop Culture and Theology Series Since the release of …

popularcultureandtheology.com

Requesting American Gothic Studies submissions! AGS is the first scholarly journal dedicated to the American Gothic and publishes rigorously vetted scholarship on the topic. This encompasses literature, film, television, comics, and new media, as well as cultural artifacts and practices.

I recently published an article on an esoteric historical subject. It took me years. AI could not have researched and written it, and even if it could, relying on AI to do these things would have deprived me of the knowledge and joy I gained doing something I love to do and is worthwhile.

As an old weird queer, I support the New Queer Weird. And the old queer weird. And the queer weird. Weird and queer, queer and weird, all good.

Los Angeles Review of Books@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“We’re interested in aesthetic weirdness that exceeds the bounds of what typically gets described as ‘weird.’” The editors of the anthology "New Queer Weird" respond to a recent LARB essay: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/letter-editor-new-qweird-megan-milks-amber-dawn/

It needs to be stated over and over - this isn't just a matter of errors: The point is that LLM AI is literally incapable of reviewing or validating research data. It absolutely cannot do that job, at all, ever. But it is very good at generating something that looks like a convincing review.

CFP: Theory and Practice in Horror Transmedia Fandom and Creation (IGI Scientific Publishing) (Ed.) Jason DeHart, University of Tennessee Knoxville, United States Proposals Submission Deadline: July 17, 2026 Full Chapters Due: October 30, 2026 Submission Date: October 30, 2026

Some photographs from my fieldwork in the Shenandoah Valley this month.

LA Review of Books is looking for someone to review Alma Katsu's forthcoming incarnate. Contact Jeffrey Weinstock for more information. #BookReview #SSAG