OMG!!!!

looking like my time in academia finally coming to an end, with no job lined up beyond May. If you're interested in my early attempt to think through a new project on energy, riots, and masses, check out new issue of @victorianreview.bsky.social. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The first book in the Race in Nineteenth Century Literatures and Cultures series (Oxford University Press) is out in June! Porscha Fermanis’ Settler Fiction from the Southern Hemisphere, 1820-1890 Get your library to order copies! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

🚨: My new monograph ARRESTING ECOLOGIES: GLOBAL LITERATURE ACROSS AIR, LAND, and SEA, 1926-2014 is available for preorder from OXFORD UP, with 30 percent discount.

Eight days left till applications are due for this guaranteed MLA seminar "Close Reading, Professional Practice, and Public Writing." Write something for a general readership about why close reading matters & join this seminar to read other smart people's takes & get feedback on yours!

Andrea Kaston Tange@aktange.bsky.social · 5mo ago

My dog may confuse close-reading a paper with close-eating it, but I bet you don't. Please consider applying to this guaranteed MLA27 session, and help us spread the word! (Official, 35-word CFP on MLA page linked below; more detailed CFP in alt-text with side-eye dog.)

4 days left to get your free download of Disability & the Gothic.

Essaka Joshua@essaka.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Disability and the Gothic has now been published and is available online FOR FREE for the next 2 weeks. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

The “report” the WSJ & Chronicle of Higher Education took seriously enough to engage had as much merit as a Reddit rant, but their treating it seriously made a response necessary. ASA President Alex Lubin did members and the entire profession proud! I’m grateful. www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...

Letter | Misunderstanding American Studies

A recent report and the news coverage around it failed to reflect the field’s aims, writes Alex Lubin.

chronicle.com

Twin Cities' horrors continue though media has moved on. Families are still in hiding (schools w/virtual options till April), ICE still abducting people w/disregard for law, ongoing need for rent relief. Here's one hyper-local effort from my trusted colleague. Please RT even if you can't donate.

This is in a neighborhood near me that I frequent for the restaurants and coffee shops and go running through in spring and summer. It's bustling with shops & history. F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived there. They're doing their best to destroy everything peaceful & community-filled in the Twin Cities.

Andrew Karre@andrewkarre.bsky.social · 6mo ago

This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.

"“We worked with the U.S. for 20 years. We fought terrorism. We supported democracy. What was the benefit?”" theconversation.com/afghan-migra...

Afghan migrants stranded in Pakistan after the US suspends refugee resettlement

After a failed US intervention exposed Afghan civilians to Taliban threats, Washington is retreating from its humanitarian obligations.

theconversation.com

The situation in MN remains horrific. In-depth reporting here reveals a pattern of ICE detaining people who are here legally, ignoring court orders, shipping them out of state, refusing them counsel, and even deporting them. Make sure your Senators know the horrors more ICE funding will perpetuate.

‘ICE conveyor belt’ illegally detaining, moving Minnesota children to Texas faster than courts can respond

ICE is pulling Minnesota immigrant families with legal status out of their driveways, homes and school commutes and sending them to Texas within hours — in at least two cases against a judge’s order. ...

mprnews.org

There have been multiple sightings of ICE in the last couple of days in Washtenaw County, especially in Ypsi. Save these numbers. WICIR Linktree: linktr.ee/wicir

Edina is a suburb so wealthy that when its local paper publishes profiles of graduating high school seniors, photo captions tell you "who" they're wearing & how much the clothes cost. The video in the quoted post is worth watching in full. Imagine the whole fury of the PTA directed in righteousness.

Daniel Suitor@danielsuitor.com · 6mo ago

They got Edina Moms excoriating the Administration and signing off with a a land acknowledgement. They are so fucked lol

I have a friend on the scene, and their video (taken just moments ago) shows agents tear-gassing those who have shown up with nothing but phones and whistles. You can hear the popping noises of some kind of shots in the background and see the clouds of gas/smoke billowing.

I should have been more clear: if you want updates (we do not know yet if this man survived), this page will give you them. It also includes the video, but you do NOT have to play it. It is traumatic.

Andrea Kaston Tange@aktange.bsky.social · 6mo ago

You do not have to watch the video. This paywall-free link takes you to the ongoing coverage of a man in Minneapolis who was just shot several times in the chest & taken away by ambulance. I count seven agents beating him while he lies on the ground. Then one shoots him. It looks like an execution.

St Paul, MN: Helicopters have been patrolling overhead on and off all day. They are back, and hovering. This does not make us feel good or safe, but terrorized.

About to submit my revised ms, Marginal Sovereignty: The Literatures of Empire and the Making of Victorian Afghanistan, to @cornellupress.bsky.social. It's been an emotional, discordant journey, but I am supremely grateful for current colleagues and friends and the new ones I met along the way.

www.salon.com/2025/12/13/a...

Afghanistan's tragedy: From Reagan's "nation of heroes" to Trump's "hellhole on Earth" - Salon.com

In the '80s, Afghans were "freedom fighters." Today, they're despised terrorists. Both stories were made in America

salon.com

This is so sad; so many lives ruined. And for what?

James Goodwin@jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · last yr.

An independent civil service is so important for so many reasons. One overlooked one is that it offers economic opportunities to people who would not otherwise get them from the private sector. bethesdamagazine.com/2025/07/29/d...

Amy Sherald says the Smithsonian suggested removing a painting of a transgender woman as the Statue of Liberty from her upcoming show at the National Portrait Gallery “to avoid provoking President Trump.” Sherald: “I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship”

Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship

nytimes.com

@aktange.bsky.social field trip!

Cathy Waters@catherinefaver.bsky.social · last yr.

‘Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’, the world's longest-running, continuously published botanical periodical, bringing gardening to the masses, on display at ‘Unearthed: The Power of Gardening’ events.bl.uk/exhibitions/... until 10 August @rs4vp.org

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Lawmakers call for release of Afghan man seized by Ice at green card appointment – US politics live

Man who worked for US military in Afghanistan seized by immigration agents and taken out of state after arriving for green card appointment, say attorneys

theguardian.com

Rümeysa Öztürk wrote about ICE detention and the women who helped her survive. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/r...

“Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison

Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up about her 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility—and the generous and compassionate women she met.

vanityfair.com

A powerful piece by Patricia Okker, former President of the New College of Florida, on how reading American women writers can shape our current moment. This is what the humanities can do, and this is why they are so afraid of us. Free access from Legacy: muse.jhu.edu/article/959226

MIT just pubbed a study on ChatGPT users. “Brain scans revealed neural connection collapse... a 47% reduction in brain connectivity. When researchers forced ChatGPT users to write w/o AI, they performed worse than people who never used AI at all. It's not just dependency. It's cognitive atrophy.”

Tobias Wilson-Bates@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · last yr.

This article is going to turn me into the Joker. Literary style is not a puzzle you solve to get a little information treat 😩😩😩

Sounds awesome!

Diana Bellonby@dbellonby.bsky.social · last yr.

Wanna know the history of #gaslighting? My co-edited book of essays, *Victorian Gaslighting*, will make you an expert! This juicy guide, co-created with @noragilbert.bsky.social and @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, is officially in pre-production at @sunypress.bsky.social and slated for pub in 2026!

Hey all, if you don't want a massive data center in your backyard, the folks at Stop the Data are holding a rally at the June 17th Ypsilanti Town Board meeting at 5:30pm! The rally will be at the Tilden R. Stumbo Civic Center Board Room!

The U.S. owes Afghans and Afghan Americans a huge debt. Instead of repaying this debt and undoing the harm it has caused over four decades, Muslim ban 2.0 has been yet another deep betrayal and abandonment.

Trump’s New “Muslim Ban” Wipes Out Hope for 250,000 Afghans Seeking Refuge in US

The US owes Afghans a huge debt, but instead of starting to repair decades of harm, Trump is banning them from the US.

buff.ly

"A former Afghan National Army soldier in the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. was arrested last month by federal immigration agents at his Houston-area home, according to his attorney, who said the man and most of his family are being threatened with deportation."

Former Afghan soldier arrested at Houston-area home by ICE, stripped of asylum protections, attorney says | Houston Public Media

The soldier is one of at least 20,000 Afghans seeking asylum nationwide, having fled Afghanistan after aiding the U.S. military during the two-decades-long war there.

houstonpublicmedia.org