An Australian-American museum geek in Baltimore. Program Head, Museum Studies @ GWU. Sincereposting about museums, ethics, tech and culture. She/her.
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Watching how Mayor Jacobs and Gov. Pritzker are having to explain why they oppose Trump’s military occupation is infuriating. Those of us who live in Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities cited by Trump are not a backdrop for a strongman’s show of power. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...
I mean, these are all great ideas.
Oh no!!
Meanwhile, our pediatrician told us they could no longer order the COVID vaccine at all and if we found somewhere with a supply that our kids could get, we should do it.
"None of us can imagine what it is like to be subjected to the unremitting physical, psychological, and social violence of chattel slavery. But museums such as the NMAAHC bring us closer ... by sharing 1st person accounts of those who lived through that terrible violence."
It feels kinda weird to share a piece that I’m also quoted in, but this from Beth English is great: “What we’re really seeing in those exhibits is a museum system growing in honesty and complexity, as historians explore new sources and approaches that expand and enrich our understanding of history”
Have you had students with disabilities that needed to be able to record the class for note-taking? If so, were they able to do that without calling attention to themselves?
"The Smithsonian will always be shaped by scholarship and guided by our core values. While our collections may evolve to reflect new discoveries and insights, the intellectual honesty and the integrity of our research and collections will not change.” Great quote from Lonnie Bunch, SI Secretary.
With the representation of Black history under attack, I keep thinking about the extraordinary Great Blacks in Wax museum here in Baltimore, which tells “the rich and often-overlooked contributions of people of African descent with uncompromising truth.” It is absolutely worth visiting.
“Our susceptibility to unwittingly adopting LLM vocabulary will likely only increase as the circle of AI text, human text we don’t know is AI, and actual human speech spins faster and faster.”
“Museums do not create division by presenting facts; they build understanding. They create space for dialogue, healing, and recognition.” An excellent defense of Black history in museums by Vedet Coleman-Robinson in @hyperallergic.com today. hyperallergic.com/1035834/firs...
This is very good! Can’t wait to read it.
I’ve increasingly come to value work that incorporates the human aspects of research, sharing the choices you made and how/why the work came together––the subjective aspects of the research. However, like all parts of a research paper, it should help move the overall story forward.
Yeah, my kiddo had days of cluster feeding for 8-10 hours straight. It’s rough! It will pass!! But be gentle on yourself in the meantime.
We use these, too!
I was coming here to give a shout out to air fryer tofu, too. So good. Also, broccoli!
Job posting: The Smithsonian's Archives of American Art is hiring a head of digital operations and strategy. Closing date: 09-03-25; Salary $142,488 to - $185,234/yr (GS14); On-site, Washington, DC
is there a list of data center resistance movements already? and/or would this list be helpful to compile, esp to share resources (like language, flyer materials) that folks in different cities have used to fight the opening of new data centers (or try to close existing data centers)?
Bueller.
Speaking of this, I wonder if I need to update the screen readers I’ve been recommending (based on what students liked using in previous years). Does anyone have good preferred screen readers that work well for online news articles and/or PDFs?
I still get the “too much reading” comment but it’s often paired with the “but all the articles were really interesting”, which I’ll take as about as good as I can get. I do include information on some recommended screen readers for students who prefer to listen to readings. That sometimes helps.
Unbreaking is doing great work at documenting what is happening now. Really thoughtful, meaningful work.
You can't teach U.S. history without "divisive" narratives. Slavery wasn't "unifying." The Japanese incarceration wasn't "unifying." The anti-immigrant Operation Wetback (real name) wasn't "unifying." It's history's job to tell the truth, not cover up past racism to pave the way for future racism.
This article identifies how people who seemingly would oppose authoritarianism are supporting it, acknowledges that throughout history various communities have fought back using a variety of tactics, and provides ideas of what we can and should do now. Very useful.
Much excitement to return to the classroom across the road from the White House in a couple of weeks!
No, never.
I am in this Skeet.
There’s lots of useful stuff here.
I have been undertaking the smallest of home projects—cleaning out my laundry, repainting it with leftover paint, and moving some cupboards around. I finished this week and it is so much more useable (and *less* ugly). A small and satisfying project.
In The Land of Milk and Honey, there is a smog that covers most of the globe. www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1...
“Scrolling social media means slogging through a morass of claims and accusations rhetoric that may or may not be reliable and may or may not be true, with occasional appearances (if you so choose) by archaic institutions that actually worry about things like probability and accuracy.”
I have shared this piece with so many of my students.
Thank you so, so much!
Does anyone have a gift link to this that they could share with me?
Yup!! This summer we still managed to squeak into a free summer STEM program, too, but it sounds like that’s likely to get cut, too.
My kiddo was in a great after-school program for 1st graders focussed on introducing the scientific method and they used the Zoey and Sassafras books. Unfortunately, said program is now cancelled thanks to the recent cuts to education budgets.
It’s gorgeous. I immediately want to put wallpaper everywhere in my house.
Same! I guess it’s antiquated to still believe this, but I think that my partner has a right to privacy of movement. I don’t think it is desirable or appropriate that I see everywhere they go.
We know that many history organizations and individuals are facing uncertainty in their budgets. That's why we are extending the early bird registration deadline for this year's Annual Conference. Don't delay—the new deadline is August 1. Learn more and register at tinyurl.com/AASLH2025.
The stat I want is how many of the musicians got their start on Neighbours. #Hottest100
Me too! I only made it to number 46 last night before it was too late in the night. Teared up on a walk this morning listening to the next 20 songs and thinking of home.
My third vote to make it in. Such an amazing song. #Hottest100
It’s approaching midnight in Baltimore and I have kiddos who’ll get up early, but I can’t pull myself away.
Gotta be.
Yes. The sweaty mess of it all, the memories.
This whole countdown has evoked many small rooms, tents, stages and RSL halls. I think that’s what is making it so fun. Homebake and Livid really were an era weren’t they!
68. Chemical Heart - Grinspoon Feeling this one. This was such a massive tour. Their Bar on the Hill show at Newcastle Uni was such a loud, sweaty mess. Love the Grinners. #Hottest100
Gotta be higher
A good song for the expats tuning in. The Waifs, London Still #Hottest100
Yes, it’s so great!
Wow, I remember being front row in a very small, sweaty room at Homebake watching Killing Heidi the year this came out. #Hottest100
Kinda surprised to hear Black Fingernails, Red Wine from Eskimo Joe on the countdown. I never thought it has this much staying power. #Hottest100
It is so good.
My second one to make it in!!
Saaaame
And the first one I voted for hits. 84 — Streets of Your Town by The Go-Betweens #Hottest100
Listening to Gotye and wishing messandnoise.com was still around. #Hottest100
It’s so good.
I teared up when it came on. I am having so many feelings listening to home from here.
Far out, Electric Blue. #Hottest100
Probably just the age of everyone on Bluesky, so you’re good mate 😜
Far out, was not expecting *emotions* when Evie started playing, but wow, here we are. #Hottest100
Some great songs there.
Just like a ChickenCherryCola!!
So excited to be tuning in to the #Hottest100 all the way from Baltimore. You can take the girl out of Australia, but you can’t take a love of Aussie music out of the girl. This is all my jam.
“...Ms. Sherald said: “Portraiture has always been my way of asserting presence — of creating visibility where there has too often been erasure.” She continued. “When that visibility is compromised, even subtly, it alters not only the artwork, but the message it carries. I cannot consent to that.”"
Academics, I imagine other people are having a hard time thinking through your syllabi this year, too, with the rapidly shifting federal terrain. How are you approaching it? #AcademicChat
Oh, this looks great. It might be a good fit for my Ethics syllabus.
“How can you have progressive politics without any sense of progress?”
Thsnks for sharing. This will be useful for my ethics class in the fall.
That is helpful. Thank you!!
Do you mind me asking what age kiddos the movie seems appropriate for?
Wishing there was an equivalent for the humanities…
Too real.
I think so, yes. Both are acts of care-taking.
It’s not a small thing though. Libraries get grant money through IMLS to support so many important programs that especially impact the marginalized groups targeted by the other elements of this murder budget. It’s harm upon harm upon harm.
Yes, I agree. It’s the ongoing decimation of systems of care and support, knowledge, and work in the service of the public. It’s deeply upsetting.
It’s such a small thing in the scheme of things, but this feels like a real kick in the pants.
Are there any folks in science journalism space in NY, or the US in general who would be interested in doing a story on the Paleontological Research Institution? They are one of the 10 largest fossil museums in the US and desperately need ~1-2million dollars by December to pay off their mortgage 🧪
This is very good news.
Does anyone want to be cited in a bad paper?!
Who do I know/ who should I know who is interested in open-air and living museums in any national context? I'm looking for practitioners, academics, and collaborators for a new project!
@shannonmattern.bsky.social congratulations on making this decision to so thoroughly seek to return to yourself and what makes you vibrant and brilliant. The Creative Research gig sounds fabulous––and just the opportunity for synthetic searching and creating. It will be lovely to folllow along.
Another provocative read... "Once a constitutional crisis becomes an endemic condition, the term no longer usefully describes our collapsing system. Instead, we live in an era of constitutional failure when the relevant institutions cannot fulfill their responsibilities."
The aim is to privatize weather information and force the public to pay for weather data. "U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts." michaelrlowry.substack.com/p/critical-h...
“The city, as a whole, is bracing,” Ms. Wilson said, adding: “As goes Hopkins, so goes Baltimore.” The amount of churn happening in the lives of people I know in Baltimore since January has been flooring. So many changed jobs. People moving. Such uncertainty without a clear end.
Amazing
Wow. Which block is that?
It’s an especially interesting piece to read next to this one, which asks us to think about institutional failure at an international level, through the lens of international law.
“It’s not as if I (or anyone) really think that what we have built and lived with over the last decades was a perfect system… But grief has a way of calling attention to assumptions and choices as much as it encourages an often hazy nostalgia.” A beautiful, provocative essay.
Thoughtful peer review is great.
"In majoritarian societies everywhere, heritage of minority communities are impacted by monocultural tsunamis. We call upon scholars and activists to engage intensely with the divergent sources of cultural loss so that solutions can be applied, individually or in unison."
“I think back on the stuff I used to read in the 2010s and how I couldn’t get enough of it. But it was gloriously finite… It was never an all-you-can-eat-buffet that left you nauseous; it was an excellent, satisfying meal.” Nostalgia for a better internet…
One imagines that anything related to diversity will be rejected…
I’ve long been concerned that we didn’t build the Internet for the veracity of information… the implications of that are becoming more concerning all the time.
*waves*
I often find your posts—even the basic ones reminding us to put the phone down or drink water—are effective in encouraging me to just that. I suspect something longer—whether a post, an essay, or a book—would be similarly helpful.
Has anyone tried to compile an index of US-based community archives?
I donated to The Trevor Project today. You might want to, too.
Ha, I’m working on mine, too.