My parents were both fervent Blueskyists, so I guess you could call me a blue-diaper baby.
Historian at Florida State University. Wrote STRANGER DANGER (@oxunipress.bsky.social) and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RYAN WHITE (@uncpress.bsky.social). Writing THOSE FEARFUL DAYS and THE PASSION OF MATTHEW SHEPARD for @liveright.bsky.social / @wwnorton.com.
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My parents were both fervent Blueskyists, so I guess you could call me a blue-diaper baby.
Today’s cycling fit:
Fifty would be even safer, though, no? 😭
I always thought twenty seconds was a sufficient amount of time to wash your hands, but I recently encountered a bottle of hand soap (Mrs. Meyer’s) that encouraged the user to wash their hands vigorously for thirty seconds. Which is it? This borderline hypochondriac must know.
Yuppies has a cover! And a release date! Out May 12 with @harvardpress.bsky.social.
Senator Bernie Sanders ( @sanders.senate.gov) pens New York Times op-ed calling for RFK Jr. to resign: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is endangering the health of the American people now and into the future. He must resign." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...
Sadly, they cannot read. 😭
That’s a Florida dog right there.
Chatting with a spammer, part II.
Congratulations, @madameclair08.bsky.social! Can’t wait to read this.
Manning Marable writing in the Atlanta Voice in July 1981: "Reaganism represents at the level of politics and popular culture an attempt to organize a rightwing ‘White United Front’ on all important public policy issues of the day." 🗃️
Not sure, but I don’t think it was a skink.
A tricolor! Hey, Penny Loafer!
You have Cavs? They’re the best.
If you want to know what a dog who just ate a whole lizard looks like, here you go:
Thank you! Totally forgot to add alt text.
Wanters of food
New at six:
We have the same billboard here in Tallahassee, where pro-Palestinian protests have been practically nonexistent.
"Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married"?!
For sure! Really looking forward to reading your book.
Am I currently speaking with Fall Kevin or Summer Kevin?
Amazing list!
I’d love to see your syllabus if you’re willing to share!
Can’t wait to read your book, Bench. Congrats again!
Oh, I’ve done it far too many times. But I can’t quit, Kevin!
Please do! And feel free to borrow whatever’s useful.
A book a week generally! I plan to assign some articles and chapters as well. And we’ll probably read the two books on HIV/AIDS during the same week.
Many thanks, Sean! I really appreciate it.
This was a really excellent book about the cultural politics of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s/1990s, of who mattered in public policy and opinion, and why. Wide-ranging, well-researched, and very readable.
I’m not teaching my US since 1965 grad course until next fall, but I just couldn’t help myself. Here are the books I’m thinking of assigning. Let me know what y’all think! 🗃️
I’m at the doctor’s office.
Check it out! @uncpress.bsky.social is having a phenomenal flash sale over the next two days. Now’s your chance to snag a bunch of great UNC titles—including THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RYAN WHITE—at a 50-percent discount. Just use promo code 01NEWSITE50. uncpress.org/978146968085... 🗃️
Thanks so much, Oscar! So glad you enjoyed it.
Next, you'll want to check out @renfro.bsky.social fantastic The Life and Death of Ryan White. Beautifully written, it challenges our understandings of the AIDS epidemic, innocence, whiteness, and stigma: uncpress.org/978146968085...
I totally agree that the pollution happened, but I’m wary of monocausal explanations. The memoir component felt somewhat tacked on to me. But as I said, I’m way into the book nevertheless.
Exactly. She’s definitely inspiring me as I’m writing about the Atlanta youth murders.
Totally agree. It took me a while to get into it because of the staccato-like prose, but I’m a fan now. I don’t really buy the thesis, though!
What’d you think of Murderland? I’m almost done.
Melanie, have you read Murderland yet? It’s focused primarily on the Pacific Northwest.
The photograph appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2019: enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...
The photograph appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2019? enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...
Anyway, Radio Free Thomas has always been an asshole, and it’s a shame that so many liberals ever took him seriously.
Amazing. If the Ryan White book’s on the syllabus, I’d be more than happy to Zoom in if that would be useful.
Haha, sorry! Which class?
No worries! So glad you liked it.
😊😊😊
Thanks so much! Which one?
Thanks so much!
The vote was unanimous at the department level (the good kind of unanimity!). Off to the chair for review now. 🗃️
And perhaps it goes without saying, but jails and prisons shouldn’t exist.
“Harm” should replace “crime” as the frame used to define transgressive behavior.
For many families in Tallahassee childcare is the single largest expense. And for the majority of our city— childcare facilities are scarce. We can change that.
🤞
Seems like a “political” statement!
Many thanks, Frank! I really appreciate it.
Moral panics come & go. But where some go is deeper into the permanent cultural infrastructure, always there latently, ready to re-emerge actively full-blown whenever conditions change:
Considering how the anti-crime panic of the past several years has enabled Trump’s takeover of DC, I’ve been thinking about this piece I wrote for @newrepublic.com in 2021 about John Walsh, America’s Most Wanted, and our distorted understanding of “crime.” 🗃️ newrepublic.com/article/1632...
Looking at the job boards, it appears that the University of Toronto is hiring like gangbusters—especially at the associate and/or full levels. Are they making a play for US-based academics who want to flee the country? They hired Snyder and Stanley, after all.
During the 1970s, an arson wave ravaged poor communities across the US. Some lost 80% of their housing. Residents were blamed. In reality, landlords—paid by insurers and enabled by the state—drove this arson-for-profit epidemic. I reviewed @benchansfield.bsky.social's revelatory BORN IN FLAMES:
v. Wade to making wealthy folks even wealthier to making life miserable for LGBTQ+ folks—achievements, it should be noted, that Jeb! may very well support. (He vehemently opposed abortion as FL governor and opposed marriage equality during his tragic presidential run.)
Jeb! obviously wants to distinguish himself from today’s conservative leaders—namely Trump and his ilk—by suggesting that his generation of conservative politicians “[got] stuff done” and today’s rightwingers don’t. But Trump, DeSantis, and others have accomplished a great deal—from overturning Roe
During his eulogy, Jeb! declared: “We now live in a world where owning the other side through social media and going on cable news is the way you measure your sense of accomplishment. … I got to work with John Thrasher in an era where getting stuff done mattered a lot more than virtue signaling.”
I’m not a fan!
I actually did!
Saw Jeb! today at the celebration of life for Florida State’s fifteenth president, John Thrasher.
I left 10+ years ago, but I worked in enrolment mgt at UO for three years. The uni's budget was totally dependent on higher intl and non-res tuition thanks to years of state gov disinvestment. They also spent money on stupid stuff of course, but blue states started this way before Trump was pres
So this is what sabbatical is like! 🗃️
I wrote one of these books. 🗃️
and has been the case in NY as well
Not an original thought, but the vicious attacks on higher ed underway in deep blue states like Oregon and Connecticut demonstrate that the anti-intellectualism coursing through American life cannot be localized within one political party or political tradition. 🗃️
Gumbo
Someone should write a book about this.
What's happening in Indiana should be a warning for all of higher ed. IU sanctioned a Professor--who was previously arrested and sanctioned during a campus protest--for allegedly violating the state's "intellectual diversity" law, based on an anonymous complaint. www.indystar.com/story/news/e...
I don’t know if I CAN write two books at once!
I’ve never understood “I’m currently writing two books” people. But now that I’m supposedly writing two books, I really don’t understand “I’m currently writing two books” people. How do we do it? I don’t know! 🗃️
Just started taking Wellbutrin two and a half weeks ago, and thus far it’s doing the trick. Please clap.
This is a fantastic piece, and it's especially nice to see some of the arguments and scholars from Mastery and Drift included in the analysis. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/m...
Gumbo closeup | Huey closeup
grateful for colleagues doing the goddess's work against-a-i.com?fbclid=IwY2x...
WashU doesn’t really seem like a “southern” institution to me!
The only alliterative name that should be attached to these facilities is “concentration camp.”
I'm an alum of the University of Chicago, and I wrote Dean Deborah Nelson a letter today.
The external letters are in, and my file is off for departmental review. Let's goooooooooooooooo! 🗃️
Seems “political” to me!
More evidence that Trump is permanently stuck in 1989.
So proud of this, btw.
Challenge: Post your last photo taken in DC to show what a hellhole it is. (I’ve got four of ‘em—all from October 2024.) 🗃️
“Tons of IDF generals and senior Mossad officials agree with your analysis” is not the compliment that guy thinks it is.
I also love how dogs will beg for whatever you’re eating, and when you try to give them a piece, they’ll sniff it assiduously, inspecting the item to ensure that it meets their exacting standards.
Despite what the “distraction” proponents might believe, political maneuvers like Trump’s military action on DC serve to indicate which lives are valued by the administration and which ones are inconvenient, disposable, and/or subject to discipline and brutalization.
This credulous framing is so embarrassing. Classic NYT.
Dude’s stuck in 1989.
💯
A soulless, dweeb-ass McKinsey drone. I hate this fucking guy.
Freshly copped from the local nursery
