A contact form reads: Subject: Checking Authenticity Body of message Hi there Beth. I have been contacted by someone who is using the email, [email blacked out], and using you name and one of your novels 'Feast of the Starving Stone: The Chef’s Five' to engage with me as a fellow author - if it is you then great, if it is not, as i suspect, then this is a fake approach. I just wanted to be sure. thanks. [signed name blacked out] You're a real person, right? No, I'm a bot. Please don't include existential questions in a contact form. Yes.

I just found out that an AI scammer is impersonating me in their spam campaign. I am LIVID.

Please, please share this post. Warn people. I’m horrified that someone might be ripped off in my name.

No one is safe from being impersonated like this.

Ahmed Shafick - 25 - Egypt - Mohammedan - Doctor Lewis Brumberg - 23 - Cape Town - Hebrew - Student Monis Shapiro - 24 - Cape Town - Hebrew - Student

Best part of the 1926 Irish census (apart from everyone having 11 kids) has to be the boarders. Look at these lads

Why are Harvard’s slavery researchers quitting or being fired? The school’s $100m project to examine its slave ownership in Antigua is mired in controversy as academics allege obstruction

Let me summarize simply: they know they will have to pay too many descendents of the enslaved, so let's kill the project.

My photo shows a Hellenistic era hemispherical mosaic glass bowl viewed from above. The glass has a floral pattern made up of tiny, many-petalled blue, white, and yellowy-green flowers against a dark purple background (looks black in my photo). The bowl has an alternating diagonal-striped black and white glass rim. The bowl has been reconstructed from fragments and the plain light blue areas are where missing glass fragments have been replaced during reconstruction. It measures 13.2 cm in diameter and 7.5 cm in height. It was made in the eastern Mediterranean about 200-100 BC.

This Hellenistic mosaic glass bowl looks so modern, yet it was made over 2,000 years ago!

Ancient glassmakers created the tiny flower pattern using a technique now known as ‘millefiori’ (thousand flowers). A timeless design still made by glassmakers today!

British Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology

“At least nine immigrants have died of presumed suicides since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025. Since then, at least 49 people have died overall in ICE custody, according to a Miami Herald analysis of press releases, death reports, autopsies, and government documents.”

Why are Harvard’s slavery researchers quitting or being fired? The school’s $100m project to examine its slave ownership in Antigua is mired with controversy as academics allege obstruction

Really important piece in the Guardian, on Harvard’s slow-walking and stone-walling of its historical complicity with the slave trade, featuring testimony from amazing scholars @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social and @carladmartin.bsky.social 🗃️

Two students arrested by OUPD during protest against OU administration Editor's Note: This article was updated shortly after publication to include an official statement from the Ohio Student Association and comments from OU chapter leadership. It was also updated Thursd...

www.athensmessenger.com/news/two-stu... This was a non-violent anti-ICE demonstration - and a ridiculous overstep by #ohiouniversity administration. The Board of Trustees needs to listen to student concerns.

The article contains a full list - humanities definitely affected across Ohio public universities. History major eliminated at #shawneestate

The gray box for Witch Hunt: 1649 stands next to a column of maroon text. The text reads, Call for reviewers! Below it are bullet points which read, free review copy, any medium, and open to many areas of expertise. Below this text is a smaller line which reads contact cmichpress@cmich.edu for more information.

Calling all gamers, historians, and fans of anything witch history-related! We are seeking content creators who would be interested in reviewing the revised version of Martha McGill's game, Witch Hunt: 1649. For more information, email cmichpress@cmich.edu.

#witchhunt1649game #callforreviewers

Ohio's public universities are eliminating nearly 90 degree programs as a result of Senate Bill 1 • Ohio Capital Journal Nearly 90 degree programs have been identified to be cut at Ohio’s public universities since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law a year ago.

Nearly 90 degree programs have been identified to be cut at Ohio’s public universities since Senate Bill 1 was signed into law a year ago ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/16/o...

Ohio police chief claiming to be with ICE visits Cincinnati Public School campuses An officer claiming to be with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited multiple Cincinnati Public Schools on Wednesday, asking about students.

CINCINNATI —
Two officers claiming to be with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited multiple Cincinnati public schools on Wednesday, asking about students.
by Karin Johnson
www.wlwt.com/article/ice-...

Some data on how people are actually reading more and book sales are up, much as I suspected.

The Trump Admin’s Embrace of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation The targets, rhetoric, and legal justifications of ideological exclusion and deportation may change over time, but the motivation—suppressing dissent—remains the same.

@juliarosekraut.bsky.social and @tylermcbrien.com explain the history and evolution of ideological exclusion and deportation as a tool of political repression in the United States. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

Professional authority and institutional integrity: men’s suits for sexual misconduct defamation in nineteenth-century America Abstract. Since the #MeToo movement, prominent men accused of sexual misconduct have frequently brought defamation claims against their accusers and media

Jessica Lake also has a new article on men's sexual defamations suits, tying it to the rise of professions in the nineteenth century: academic.oup.com/ajlh/advance... #legalhistory

The book cover for Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation. It shows two men sat on a bench in the 1930s.

"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" is published TODAY by @cornellupress.bsky.social! I tell the story of how queer men didn't just exist in Belfast but could be accepted by friends, family & colleagues... at least until a moral panic about homosexuality in the 1950s. 🧵

Alleged white supremacist pleads guilty in fire at social justice center that trained civil rights icons The Highlander Research and Education Center hosted figures like Rosa Parks, John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. Regan Prater set it ablaze in 2019, according to prosecutors.

Alleged white supremacist pleads guilty in fire at social justice center that trained civil rights icons www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

They Survived Sex Trafficking — Then ICE Detained Them The Trump administration vowed to protect trafficking victims. Instead, it is targeting them — and putting them at even graver risk.

Not only has Trump decimated anti-trafficking services, but as his administration indiscriminately detains immigrants to comply with his mass-deportations agenda, trafficking survivors have been caught in the dragnet — even when they have legal status.

My latest:

www.thecut.com/article/sex-...

Authoritarianism 101 - AHA Authoritarianism 101 A Global History About Authoritarianism 101: A Global History is a set of 30 primary source-driven teaching modules designed to offer teachers and students a broad perspective on ...

Holy heck if you haven't taken a look at this just launched project and resources from the @historians.org _American Historical Review_, it's incredible. Of course I went to the 1665 Mass Bay petition about royal authoritarianism. Excellent!
www.historians.org/news-publica...

On Pedantry: A Cultural History of the Know-it-All
Arnoud S. Q. Visser
newbooksnetwork.com/on-pedantry #pedantry #everythinghasahistory

A deep dive into women in early republic New Jersey, where they voted and brought forth slander lawsuits. PLUS in early 1800s North Carolina, indigenous women were also successful in using slander law #cherokeehistory

Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law
Jessica Lake
newbooksnetwork.com/special-damage #legalhistory #womenshistory

The Rise of Americanism in Italy, 1888-1919
Luca Cottini
newbooksnetwork.com/the-rise-of-...

Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore's Police State
Michael Casiano
newbooksnetwork.com/let-us-alone #policinghistory

some more podcast eps

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It. 40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

This is incredible: Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here’s How to Use It. I knew some of these but not all, e.g. verbatim mode “returns results for exactly what you typed, stripped of personalization and synonym-swapping.” [cardcatalogforlife.substack.com]

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers bashed open the front door of Thao’s St. Paul home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions.” apnews.com/article/minn...

I think pretty much the same. However, I'm on a regional campus, so I usually only have main campus students when I'm teaching online. I think most focus on the (anecdotal) quality of students has been on their tendency to submit crappy AI assignments.

Collective Bargaining Win in Maryland Makes History Starting July 1, 2026, thousands of non-tenure-track faculty across Maryland’s four-year public universities will have the right to bargain collectively for the first time in history.

Big news out of Maryland!

Beginning July 1st, thousands of non-tenure-track faculty in Maryland will have collective bargaining rights.

www.aaup.org/news/collect...

Huge thanks to @aaup.org, @aft.org, & @aftmaryland.bsky.social for helping us pass this historic legislation!

Ramaswamy wants to consolidate Ohio’s universities. Ohio’s founders would be appalled. • Ohio Capital Journal Vivek Ramaswamy says Ohio has too many universities. Ohio’s public universities weren’t built to compete with each other or with private institutions. They were built to serve different regions, popul...

"Ohio’s public universities weren’t built to compete with each other or with private institutions. They were built to serve different regions, populations, and economic needs. That’s not redundancy — that’s democracy." ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/09/r...

Ohio University made this transition! The admin was wary that the might lose it not long after gaining it. Our undergrad enrollments are up, but it's more tied to general recruitment and financial aid strategies. Of course, as faculty we are also still paid less than our state R1 peer institutions!