Man, one of the most depressing aspects of modern scholarship is finding a great article and then looking up the scholar to see what else they’ve done and just catching a glimpse of an abbreviated career hopping between visiting positions and publishing great pieces before disappearing from academia

University of Texas regents OK limits on controversial subjects Opponents warned the policy’s vagueness could push professors to self-censor and leave students less prepared for the workplace.

Forget the Alamo!
www.texastribune.org/2026/02/19/t...

UNC Admin Can Now, Officially, Secretly Record Faculty The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.”

UNC Administrators Can Now Secretly Record Faculty

The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

The Science of Racial Slavery in the British Empire An academic panel featuring Dr. Brittany Merritt Nash, Dr. Elise A. Mitchell, and Dr. Kyle Prochnow Thursday, February 26, 2026 5:30-6:30pm The Bear’s Den Ursinus College Learn how European colonialism and racial slavery shaped understandings of disease, medicine, and science across African, Caribbean, and European populations in the British Empire. Generously funded by a Histories and Legacies of Slavery Grant administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Co-sponsored by African American and Africana Studies, History, and the Melrose Hub for Global Leadership at Ursinus College.

The Science of Racial Slavery in the British Empire

An academic panel featuring Dr. Brittany Merritt Nash, Dr. Elise A. Mitchell, and Dr. Kyle Prochnow

Thursday, February 26, 2026
5:30-6:30pm
The Bear’s Den
Ursinus College

Bad Bunny Delivers a History Lesson and an Important Reminder for America's 250th If you are like me, last night’s halftime show performed by Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is still ringing in your head.

Bad Bunny Delivers a History Lesson and an Important Reminder for America's 250th 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

“La Negrita”: A History of African Girlhood in the Spanish Caribbean Slave Trade - Dr. Elise A. Mitchell - 2nd March — CEMS KCL Blog On 2nd March at 17:00 (GMT)/12:00 (EST) we will discuss a pre-circulated paper titled “La Negrita”: A History of African Girlhood in the Spanish Caribbean Slave Trade” by Dr. Elise Mitchell (Swarthmor...

On 2nd March at 17:00 (GMT)/12:00 (EST) we will discuss a pre-circulated paper titled “La Negrita”: A History of African Girlhood in the Spanish Caribbean Slave Trade” by Dr. Elise Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell will introduce the paper for discussion.

kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

‘He’s not the same’: Father of Liam Conejo Ramos says 5-year-old continues to suffer Some people thought they say the 5-year-old during the Super Bowl halftime show. But Liam is still in hiding with his family, after he and his father were detained and then released from a Texas deten...

Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family.

“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.

It was transforming the biggest NFL stage in the world into a sugar cane plantation that did it for me.

Like, the multiple layers of turning an American icon into a plantation and highlighting the history of exploitation of Black and Brown bodies by the NFL and American colonialism simultaneously?

HOLY FUCK YOU GUYS

Friends, I hope you’ll share this widely. The @jcblibrary.bsky.social is hiring 2 3-yr research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas. Info is here and I’m happy to take questions offline: brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-...

We're excited to welcome Ana Lucia Araujo, Toby Green, and Brooke Newman as the new editorial team for our Race in the Atlantic World series! Check out the blog for more on the editors and the series.
https://loom.ly/j2osHxM

Have you ever heard someone go off, and their words are so perfectly chosen, so well said in that moment, that you’re in awe? You think, “There’s nothing to add here,” and you applaud in your head.

That’s exactly this. Pure perfection. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Book cover of Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law by Jessica Lake

In Special Damage, Jessica Lake offers a comparative legal history of gendered hate speech, verbal abuse, and sexual harassment across 19th-century America, Australia, and England. #ReadUP

https://www.sup.org/books/law/special-damage

The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery Published in Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies (Vol. 46, No. 4, 2025)

Nice review of THE DRIVER'S STORY in the latest issue of Slavery & Abolition, which calls the book "a fascinating and excellent study that will be of great benefit to scholars of slavery within the Caribbean and beyond."
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mahmood Mamdani on how Uganda's history shaped his belonging — and his son's moment NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Professor Mahmood Mamdani about his new book, "Slow Poison." The book is a firsthand report on the tragic unraveling of Uganda's struggle for independence.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Professor Mahmood Mamdani about his new book, "Slow Poison." The book is a firsthand report on the tragic unraveling of Uganda's struggle for independence. n.pr/4oQgMjr

Spirits of Empire The Declaration of Independence depicted Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages, and from its founding the United States aimed to expand westward by seizin...

My new book is now available for pre-order from UNC Press @uncpress.bsky.social! Use code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout to save 30%. uncpress.org/978146969362...

At least 2 killed and several more hurt in shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island Police say multiple people have been shot in the area of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

@apnews.com:
At least 2 killed and several more hurt in shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island

I was in Myanmar in 2015, just as identity cards were taken from Rohingya to keep them from voting. It was part of a decades-long process of redefining citizenship that ate away at their rights more every year. When governments start doing this, they can move the goalposts anytime they want to.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Patrick Wolfe’s Settler Colonial Theory, 20 Years On This special issue of Settler Colonial Studies aims to collaboratively examine the residual impacts of Patrick Wolfe’s influential essay, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native." • What did this essay do to shift or situate the conversation of postcolonial studies towards settler colonialism? • What chord did it strike that made it so widely taken up? And how have the essay’s key concepts travelled globally? • How do the essay’s arguments hold up when considered in settler colonial contexts not addressed in Wolfe’s essay. Our aim is to curate a special issue by inviting a mix of scholars from across the globe, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, established and newer voices, to comment on the essay in 2026 as a way to examine the current state of the field. We seek research article contributions of 5,000 words that will undergo double-blind peer-review and also encourage reflective essays and creative responses to “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” We will hold an online symposium in June 2026, where a working version of accepted essays will be shared with scholars from across the globe. Our target deadlines are as follows: • 350 word abstracts by March 15, 2026; • Conference version of the paper for the online symposium in June 2026; • Submitted draft for peer review, October 2026; • Revised and final draft for publication, Jan 2027; • Publication: May 2027. Please send abstracts of 350 words with a 1 page CV to: Rebecca Weaver-Hightower, rebeccawh@vt.edu or raweav1@yahoo.com. Please make sure the subject line indicates the special issue. Abstracts will be acknowledged with an email. If you do not receive a response within 2 weeks, please email Rebecca (in case your original email was unintentionally filtered out by her email program).

Attention scholars: to mark the 20th anniversary of Patrick Wolfe's "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the
Native," SETTLER COLONIAL STUDIES is soliciting reflections/ critiques for a special issue on Wolfe and his influence.

Details below. Please circulate widely!

Cover of The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space by Don Thomas Deere. The central image is a sculpture composed of irregular, interlocking dark wooden panels, some inscribed with words such as “FORTIA,” “ABSTRACTO,” and “CONCRETO.” The book title is superimposed in white serif type across the lower panels of the sculpture.

Save 30% on #NewBook "The Invention of Order," in which Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of spatial organization in the Americas and the Caribbean and its lasting impact on modern structures of knowledge, power, race, and gender. #LatinAmStudies #PostcolonialTheory buff.ly/G60iAfG

The Clements Center for Southwest Studies invites fellowship applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.

For more info and to apply:
www.smu.edu/dedman/resea...

If you're interested of have questions, feel free to contact me directly.

National Park Service Ends Fee-Free Days on MLK Day and Juneteenth and Places Trump on America the Beautiful Passes It’s been a while since we checked in with our friends at the National Park Service.

National Park Service Ends Fee-Free Days on MLK Day and Juneteenth and Places Trump on America the Beautiful Passes #NationalParks open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

It’s a Miracle That Mexico Exists at All

It’s a Miracle That Mexico Exists at All www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/b... 🗃️

Now is a good time to read @marthasjones.bsky.social incredible scholarship on this subject: www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

Christina Sharpe: "The Shapes of Grief" An essay by Christina Sharpe on witnessing the unbearable.

Happy birthday! (Going through my mom's emails this morning and we had an exchange — on September 21, 2024 — about your Yale Review essay. I shared it with her & she wrote back that she loved it & would reread it more slowly on the weekend.)

Good mail day. Emilie Connolly’s new book that I am excited to read. 🗃️

I have no idea how one is supposed to teach American History at Texas Tech under this system. But perhaps that is the goal.

My larger fear is that TX has been the proving ground for the conservative takeover of academia. So what happens at Texas Tech will not stay at Texas Tech.

Reckoning With Yale’s Ties to Slavery An institutional history of the “peculiar institution.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education: “'Yale and Slavery' is not just a book about Yale: It is [...] a deeply researched panorama of America’s psychic and literal investment in the enslavement of Native American and African people.”