Paul Renfro
@renfro.bsky.social
Historian at Florida State University. Wrote STRANGER DANGER (@oxunipress.bsky.social) and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RYAN WHITE (@uncpress.bsky.social). Writing a book about the Atlanta child murders for @liveright.bsky.social / @wwnorton.com. He/him. 🏳️🌈
My appointment isn’t official until next week, but my new title is already listed on my faculty page, so might as well share that.
This is the tragic yet logical result of a decades-long project—undertaken by rightwing politicians and “business-minded” administrators alike—to distort the meaning of higher education, to deny the intrinsic value of the pursuit of knowledge, to deprive us all of richer, more purposeful lives.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
It’s finally time to retire the Timbuk2 messenger bag I bought during grad school at a now-defunct shop on Clinton Street in Iowa City. Here’s its replacement: a Timbuk2 classic messenger bag in “nautical,” “cranberry,” and “honey.” The color combination is called “Bookish.”
Reminds me of @patrickwyman.bsky.social’s “American Gentry,” a sort of skeleton key for understanding reactionary politics in the twenty-first-century US. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
American Gentry
The jet-setting cosmopolitans of popular imagination exist, but they are far outnumbered by a less exalted and less discussed elite group, one that sits at the pinnacle of America’s local hierarchies.
theatlantic.com
Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 4d agoSomeone on here (@jamellebouie.net?) noted a while back that dealership assholes like Moreno are a bedrock of MAGA politics and the Democrats would be wise to do whatever they can to drive these moronic middlemen out of business.
Huey’s impromptu photo shoot during our road trip this morning.
Greetings from our friends’ very Florida house in Jacksonville.
A guy I often encounter during my early morning runs told me today that the best songs to listen to while running are: Ronnie James Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark” (1983) and Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” (1971). I disagree. Please discuss.
Vintage Renfro trading card (found while moving offices yesterday).
As Trump’s “1776 Project” and assault on the Smithsonian make clear, Republicans want to distort history of all kinds. (I write this as a professional historian in the state of Florida.)
Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 6d agoRepublicans want to rewrite the history of COVID just like they want to rewrite the history of January 6th and the ongoing reality of climate change. They refuse to accept that they or their ideas could be the villain of the story. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
"One of the great failings of many ostensible sanctuary states is that for the most part, despite excellent legal protections, they are simply too expensive for impoverished trans people to move to." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...
The American Transgender Refugee Crisis
If this were occurring abroad, to an ethnic minority, we would call it ethnic cleansing.
liberalcurrents.com
This essay I’m writing has everything: Jack Halberstam, vice squads, the Combahee River Collective, Barry Goldwater, respectability politics, Roman Catholicism, Texas’s tenth congressional district, New Deal liberalism, the proverbial closet, etc.
Please spare a good thought or two for my firstborn son Huey. He’s dealing with a very irritated right eye, so we’re getting that checked out at the vet this evening.
Some phrases I used during my appointment with my shrink this afternoon: “killer drones,” “existential dread,” “a good scar,” “a deacon that nobody likes,” “oil tycoon,” “soup kitchen,” “educating the nation’s youth,” and so on and so forth.
Such a travesty. Iván Chaar López does excellent, innovative work that braids together surveillance studies, carceral studies, STS, and border studies. He has far exceeded the standards for tenure and promotion in any humanities department in the country. Shame on this once-great public institution.
Texas Conference of the AAUP@texasaaup.bsky.social · 2w agoUT Austin doubles down on denial of tenure to leading borderlands tech scholar: “In an emailed statement to Inside Higher Ed, a UT spokesperson said, ‘Tenure is privilege, not a right.’” www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...
I wish folks would stop using the term “revisionist history” if they don’t really understand what it means.
