That was awesome. Thanks to all who stick it out to the end: we closed out the conference!

DR. SANTA J. ONO UNANIMOUSLY RECOMMENDED AS SOLE FINALIST FOR UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA’S 14TH PRESIDENT The University of Florida Presidential Search Committee has unanimously and enthusiastically recommended Santa J. Ono, Ph.D., to be considered by its Board of Trustees as the sole finalist to become t...

news.ufl.edu/2025/05/anno...
Who announces to the world that they’re a finalist for a job?! Seems rushed. As if somehow he wanted to get ahead of some other announcement. But maybe he actually believes his own comms team when it has him say that he’s going to “the nation’s most important state.”

Google is alerting “me” that “I” am giving a talk today. Phew.

The new administration's policies are designed to overwhelm by sheer quantity, but also to compound. E.g. “Extreme vetting" from Trump 1.0, but on reduced staffing. The slowdowns will be exponential, the kneecapping intentional, the underlying world view callous and self-defeating.

That translates to a net loss of $100m for my university (U Mich) if this stands.

The American Friends of Marbach are organizing a GSA panel on free speech and the federal sponsorship of culture in Germany. Germanists: please help circulate widely and consider submitting and abstract!

PhD students and postdocs: here's a great funding opportunity to do research at the German Literary Archives. Apply by Feb 15 – and please share widely!

afdlam.org/fellowships/

Thomas Meaney, A Year in German Culture — Sidecar Gaza and censorship.

I was there for half of the year, and these few, searing entries aren't even the half of it.

No longer a question of “may fire” - it’s’ confirmed.

Second!

What Are ‘Recess Appointments’ and How Might Trump Try to Leverage Them? The Constitution allows the president to circumvent the Senate and put appointees in place while the chamber is in recess, a loophole created back when Capitol commutes involved long treks by horse.

In Germany in 1930, it was called “Präsidialkabinette,” and it was the beginning of the end.

Embracing Anonymity | Johannes von Moltke In the crowded field of German novels published in 1928 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the end of World War I, it might have been easy to miss

Excited for this to be out now