Had a great launch for the @scquarterly.bsky.social country music issue with Rissi Palmer and Frankie Staton. Good reminder that not all in the world is terrible.

UT to consolidate gender and ethnic studies programs into one new department Affected departments include those that focus on African and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican American Studies, Women and Gender Studies and American Studies.

This is a travesty. African and African Diaspora Studies at UT Austin has been one of the best programs in the country. And for historical context, this is explicitly about reversing the gains of student movements in the 60s and 70s.

www.statesman.com/news/educati...

Country Music’s Mythology Country music is as mythologized as the region with which it’s most closely associated, and it remains one of the South’s biggest cultural signifiers.

Check out the issue here: www.southerncultures.org/issues/count...

My country music issue of @scquarterly.bsky.social is out! I'm proud of how it's come together. Thank you to the wide range of contributors, including musicians and scholars and artists, and of course the dream team editorial crew at SC who make creative freedom a reality.

For instance, Kris Kristofferson was not a “good” singer, but no one denies he is one of the greats. Riley Green recently said something along the lines of “I’m not the best at singing…I don’t sing, I just talk with my exact voice and It sounds like singing.”

You don’t have to be a good singer to be a good country artist, could name many examples. Agree she sounded not great, she should have lip-synched as others did last night.

UPDATE: The Indiana legislature announced that, across the state's public universities, it will immediately eliminate 75 programs, suspend/teach-out 101, and force 232 to consolidate or be eliminated. Not surprisingly, these closures disproportionately affect arts, humanities, and social science.

Seeing it for the second time in a few!

The ‘Sinners’ Movie Syllabus - AAIHS The 'Sinners' Movie Syllabus is a curated educational resource inspired by the 2025 film 'Sinners,' directed by Ryan Coogler. This syllabus delves into the multifaceted historical, cultural, and socia...

Blown away by Sinners and still processing. This is an excellent movie syllabus but would def add Roediger etc. for the Irish component.

www.aaihs.org/the-sinners-...

Great to hear and so well deserved! Hope to see you at ICMC 🤠

Trump’s DEI Crackdown Is a Smokescreen for Something Much More Sinister It’s an attack on labor. But he can frame it as something else.

"At the same time, his administration has elevated candidates with scant qualifications to positions of power across the federal bureaucracy...That this is all being done in the name of “merit-based opportunity,” as Trump’s executive order put it, is patently absurd."

slate.com/news-and-pol...

Amanda Marie Martinez with the opening graphic for her paper.

And @amamartinez.bsky.social wraps up the panel with ““My Own Kind of Hat”: Headwear and Country Music’s Evolving Class Politics” #PopCon2025

Black Studies and the Fight Against Fascism Davarian Baldwin Johanna Fernandez Sarah Haley Robin D.G. Kelley Barbara Ransby Robyn Spencer-Antoine Tuesday, March 4 at 6:00 pm ET

Black Studies and the Fight Against Fascism

Join us for a timely conversation with @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social, @jfernandez1202.bsky.social, Sarah Haley, Robin D.G. Kelley, Barbara Ransby, & Robyn Spencer-Antoine

Tuesday, March 4 at 6:00 pm ET

RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...

As does yours! Lots of good stuff on the first day. And then yes we can just sit back and enjoy!

The schedule looks amazing!

Thanks, Alyx!

This fall I’ll begin a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the Dept of American Studies at UNC, where my postdoc’s been since last year. Can’t imagine a better academic home. It’s been a long road of luck, community, & hard work to get here & I couldn’t be more grateful.

Trump follows a long line of conservatives who’ve co-opted country music, identifying its listeners as his voters. Like most of his predecessors, there’s little evidence he had an organic interest in the music. Many country stars have already been happy to play into his interest, as seen w the inaug

Yay!!

Amythyst Kiah Found Her Powerful Voice. Now She Has a Sound to Match It. (Published 2021) The 34-year-old singer and songwriter fuses folk, blues, rock and once-hidden emotion on her new album, “Wary + Strange.”

I’ll also use this chance to bump this excellent profile on Amythyst Kiah from @jewlyhight.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/a...

Right?? It will be a great few days!

Next week in Chapel Hill we’ll celebrate the Southern Folklife Collection w exciting events, a couple of which I’ll be a part of.

On 2/20, David Garcia & I will be in conversation w Amythyst Kiah

On 2/22, Jewly Hight, Jocelyn Neal, & I will have a panel on commercial country music

Join us!

bsky.app/profile/clar...

Corporate Coup in Global Context

Join @naomiaklein.bsky.social, @chenjerai.bsky.social, @astra.bsky.social, & @keeanga.bsky.social for an emergency town hall on the accelerating corporate dominance of our societies

Mon., Feb. 17 at 5:00 pm ET

RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...

Gen Z conquers the Grammys Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar won the night's biggest awards, but the real takeaway from the Grammys is that a wave of younger stars has arrived on the pop scene, fully prepared to own the spotlight.

I went into the Grammys expecting the focus to be on Bey/Tay and was happy to see Bey and Kendrick get their deserved awards. But the night's story was Gen Z. Millennials are official elders now www.npr.org/2025/02/03/n...

Dear National Media,

If tariffs don’t end up materializing, please don’t say he struck a deal. He didn’t. He intentionally picked a fight with friends & tanked the stock market so he’d be able to claim he was great.

This is classic narcissistic personality BS & the remedy is calling it out.

Last day to submit. Looking at what we've gotten so far and I'm so stoked. You're not ready for how good this is gonna be!

Anyway, the Grammys were a brief nice escape from reality.

Great Cowboy Carter won big & she’s one of few Black artists to win a Country Grammy. But also worth noting every Black artist who’s won is a non-Nashville/non-primarily country artist. We need class analysis in our celebrations; the struggles for emerging Black country artists in Nashville remain

Thank you!