Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 8h

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 1d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 13h

Oh what wonderful news! Congratulations. ✨📚✨

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers @blklibrarygirl.bsky.social · 1d

Remember when I said something nice was coming today? Well: I was asked to write the introduction to the new edition of Toni Morrison’s BELOVED! I’m so honored and happy! Here’s the new cover—that’s my name down at the bottom!!!!

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Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 13h

🚨🚨 @utaustin.bsky.social is working to eliminate its Black studies, Latin studies, and gender studies depts -- utterly reneging on its mission and depriving students of the full educational opportunities they deserve. Please--scholars AND publishers--share & write to UT leaders. #SaveUT

UT Austin wants to eliminate its Black studies, Latino Studies, and gender studies departments. Tell them you won't stand for it.
UT President, Jim Davis, president@utexas.edu
UT Executive Vice President and Provost, William Inboden, provost@utexas.edu
College of Liberal Arts Interim Dean, David Sosa, david_sosa@austin.utexas.edu
#EducationalLiberty #SaveUT

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 16h

This is a new primer. It's 15 minutes and you will leave better informed.

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 1d

2. Libraries 101 - An audio and visual follow up to our popular zine: www.librariesforthepeople.org/resources#10...

Resources — For The People

www.librariesforthepeople.org

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

Drake lost that rap battle so badly that I wrote about it in my book about SPACE-TIME

A rap battle loss of literally cosmological proportions

Find out how by preordering a copy!!

The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: 9780593701683 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 1d

Can confirm.

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 1d

The work continues. The world continues. New issue of Utopian Studies is out! Special Issue on AFROTOPIA feat. my review of Ekow Eshun's otherworldly《In the Black Fantastic》 #SpecList #BlackSky

Table of contents from the journal Utopian Studies

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · Apr 9

alt-text: black and white photo of a beautiful Black man with a short haircut wearing a suit, crisp white shirt, and a tie.
He is smiling.

Neckties of Noir @neckties-of-noir.bsky.social · Apr 9

#BOTD #PaulRobeson #filmsky #musicsky #polyglot #songsky

BOTD, Paul Robeson
Singer, actor, scholar, polyglot,
athlete, activist

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

40 years ago, Philadelphia police & authorities waged war on a local community, including dropping a bomb that started a fire that destroyed an entire neighborhood. Remembering that tragedy reminds us of the eternal cost of "war from within."🗃️

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/10/cons...

Considering History: The MOVE Bombing and “the War from Within” | The Saturday Evening Post

The 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia lays bare the horrific and inevitable tragedies whenever we wage war from within.

www.saturdayeveningpost.com

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 4d

CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.

apnews.com/article/chic...

Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago

Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...

apnews.com

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 7d

Audiofuturism: Science Fiction Radio Drama & the Black Fantastic Imagination will be available for pre-order in December.

fordhampress.com/audiofuturis...

Audiofuturism - andré carrington

A revelatory history of Black radio productions from the 1950s to the presentAudiofuturism uncovers the vibrant, overlooked history of radio adaptations that placed Black speculative writing before ma...

fordhampress.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2d

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 2d

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 2d

Virginia State Senate Dems just brought down fire and fury regarding the “Compact,” notifying the President and Rector that UVA would lose ALL STATE APPROPRIATIONS if it signs and cedes the University to “federal political control.” Notably, their letter directly restates points made here by @siva.

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 2d

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 2d

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Robert Daniels @812filmreviews.com · 2d

If you want to see Regina Hall at her absolute best, watch HONK FOR JESUS, SAVE HER SOUL. Her range is immense in it as the wife of a disgraced mega church preacher.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Megan Abbott @meganabbott.bsky.social · 2d

"morbidness, longing, the picturesque" — that seems right for THE TURNOUT, on this excellent list.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/b...

Dark Academia: A Starter Pack

www.nytimes.com

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 3d

Teaching today:

Eve Ewing, "proof [dear Phillis]" (2019)
Honorée Jeffers, "How Phillis Wheatley Might Have Obtained The Approval of Eighteen Prominent White Men of Boston to Publish Her Book of Poetry" (2020)

Brooks, "Why Negro Women Leave Home" (1951) and "A Bronzeville Mother . . ." (1960)

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 4d

Records obtained by ProPublica indicate that food banks across the country were expecting more than 27 million pounds of chicken, 2 million gallons of milk, 10 million pounds of dried fruit and 60 million eggs that never arrived.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

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Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 4d

#litcrit pals, a really interesting question about the history of discipline from a graduate student here, a question that has me totally stumped:
"which journal in literary criticism was the first to implement modern peer review?" (I think he might mean blind review)
Thank you for your suggestions!

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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 4d

Stephanie's essay on D. A. Miller on Jane Austen is, alone, worth the price of admission! It's how I'm closing out my grad seminar on close reading this semester, paired with her Norton Library edited edition of Sense and Sensibility.

All to say: buy the book! It's shipping!

Stephanie Insley Hershinow @sinsleyh.bsky.social · 4d

Truly think this volume is great, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

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Stephanie Insley Hershinow @sinsleyh.bsky.social · 4d

Truly think this volume is great, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

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Courtney Thorsson @courtneythorsson.bsky.social · 4d

😻

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