Laura Helton
@lehelton.bsky.social
Historian. Archivist. Teacher of public humanities. Author of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History (Columbia University Press, 2024).
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/scattered-and-fugi
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/scattered-and-fugi
Pinned
Laura Helton
@lehelton.bsky.social
· Apr 16
ONE YEAR SINCE PUBLICATION of SCATTERED AND FUGITIVE THINGS! Thank you to all the readers, students, scholars, librarians, booksellers & activists who have engaged with the book -- and who carry on the work of collecting, teaching & preserving Black history today.
cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter...
cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter...
Reposted by Laura Helton
Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program
Books Not Bars 2025 Holiday Campaign
BOOKS NOT BARS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Haymarket Books is committed to making our books available for free to people who are incarcerated.
In an effort to support those inside who are dealing with the imm...
haymarketbooks.app.neoncrm.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program
Reposted by Laura Helton
My big news: coming May 19 from @scribnerbooks.bsky.social the book I always knew I would have to write. More info and pre-order links here:
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keeper...
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keeper...
November 24, 2025 at 4:51 PM
My big news: coming May 19 from @scribnerbooks.bsky.social the book I always knew I would have to write. More info and pre-order links here:
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keeper...
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keeper...
Reposted by Laura Helton
On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 AM
On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social
Reposted by Laura Helton
I used to handle interlibrary loans for a public library. ILL is a magnificent expression of the idea that readers deserve books, and books deserve readers. It’s libraries everywhere pooling their resources for the benefit of everyone.
Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.
This is great news. 📚
Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.
This is great news. 📚
Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries IMLS
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
librarytechnology.org/pr/31973
Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries
Press Release: Court permanently blocks Trump's executive order to dismantle federal agency for America's libraries. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island struck down the Trump Adm...
librarytechnology.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I used to handle interlibrary loans for a public library. ILL is a magnificent expression of the idea that readers deserve books, and books deserve readers. It’s libraries everywhere pooling their resources for the benefit of everyone.
Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.
This is great news. 📚
Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.
This is great news. 📚
Reposted by Laura Helton
Well, it's official. Second printing of "The House Archives Built and Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities" is sold out. Next printing in Jan! Will post will sales or live, or sign up here:
www.wehere.space/we-here-pres...
www.wehere.space/we-here-pres...
November 19, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Well, it's official. Second printing of "The House Archives Built and Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities" is sold out. Next printing in Jan! Will post will sales or live, or sign up here:
www.wehere.space/we-here-pres...
www.wehere.space/we-here-pres...
Reposted by Laura Helton
Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.
Reposted by Laura Helton
Hey, remember this? The job posting for a digital archivist to do this work is now up!
Position: CLIR Project Digital Archivist
Location: Toronto (90% on-site)
Salary: $60,000 + health benefits
Deadline to apply: 2 December 2025
More info:
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🌈🗃️
Position: CLIR Project Digital Archivist
Location: Toronto (90% on-site)
Salary: $60,000 + health benefits
Deadline to apply: 2 December 2025
More info:
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🌈🗃️
November 11, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Hey, remember this? The job posting for a digital archivist to do this work is now up!
Position: CLIR Project Digital Archivist
Location: Toronto (90% on-site)
Salary: $60,000 + health benefits
Deadline to apply: 2 December 2025
More info:
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🌈🗃️
Position: CLIR Project Digital Archivist
Location: Toronto (90% on-site)
Salary: $60,000 + health benefits
Deadline to apply: 2 December 2025
More info:
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🌈🗃️
Reposted by Laura Helton
New online: Nikhil Pal Singh on Zohran Mamdani. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
Zohran's Promise - Dissent Magazine
The Mamdani campaign extended the arena of political participation to ordinary and unseen people of every place and pursuit. The challenge going forward will be sustaining faith in the idea that the c...
www.dissentmagazine.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
New online: Nikhil Pal Singh on Zohran Mamdani. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
Reposted by Laura Helton
People still matter.
Good morning.
Good morning.
November 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
People still matter.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Reposted by Laura Helton
New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library
New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library
archivesgig.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:26 PM
New York, NY: Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center at New York Public Library
Reposted by Laura Helton
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Maybe the thing that gives me a pulse-pounding throbbing headache is when I think of how techbros sold ChatGPT to universities as ‘revolutionizing’ higher education and our institutions just forked over money without even asking for actual evidence
Reposted by Laura Helton
When I visited @lehelton.bsky.social's seminar. Every student had a copy of the book, and most of them were heeeaaaavvily annotated. Now some of it was just them being a good cohort, but one of the first questions was about the materiality. I just don't think a PDF would have had that reaction
I will add that I’ve applied for money from my uni to buy a dozen copies of a book and do a voluntary reading group with students this coming spring—first come, first served with a free copy but anyone who wants to buy their own copy can participate too. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m excited.
October 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM
When I visited @lehelton.bsky.social's seminar. Every student had a copy of the book, and most of them were heeeaaaavvily annotated. Now some of it was just them being a good cohort, but one of the first questions was about the materiality. I just don't think a PDF would have had that reaction
Readers! Writers! Archivists! Keepers of things! You’ll want to read this book! THE HOUSE ARCHIVES BUILT by @dorothyjberry.bsky.social. 1st printing sold out fast, but you can put your name on this list @wehere.bsky.social to find out as soon as the 2nd run is ready: www.wehere.space/newsletter
October 25, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Readers! Writers! Archivists! Keepers of things! You’ll want to read this book! THE HOUSE ARCHIVES BUILT by @dorothyjberry.bsky.social. 1st printing sold out fast, but you can put your name on this list @wehere.bsky.social to find out as soon as the 2nd run is ready: www.wehere.space/newsletter
I’m sorry to have to miss the @moderniststudies.bsky.social convening this year, but I’m incredibly honored to be in such good company on this shortlist for the 2025 MSA First Book Prize!
Congrats to the three authors on the shortlist for the 2025 MSA First Book prize:
Laura E. Helton, Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History
Congrats @lehelton.bsky.social and @columbiaup.bsky.social
Laura E. Helton, Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History
Congrats @lehelton.bsky.social and @columbiaup.bsky.social
Scattered and Fugitive Things | Columbia University Press
Winner, 2025 Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, Organization of American HistoriansWinner, 2024 Arline Custer Memorial Book Award, Mid-Atlantic Regional... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
October 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I’m sorry to have to miss the @moderniststudies.bsky.social convening this year, but I’m incredibly honored to be in such good company on this shortlist for the 2025 MSA First Book Prize!
Reposted by Laura Helton
GET YOUR CALENDAR OUT 🗓️ and write these two dates down…
10/16, 2p ET USA: Dorothy Berry’s (@dorothyjberry.bsky.social) The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities available for purchase. The first 50 copies sold will be signed 🫢 www.weherepress.org
10/16, 2p ET USA: Dorothy Berry’s (@dorothyjberry.bsky.social) The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities available for purchase. The first 50 copies sold will be signed 🫢 www.weherepress.org
October 6, 2025 at 7:41 PM
GET YOUR CALENDAR OUT 🗓️ and write these two dates down…
10/16, 2p ET USA: Dorothy Berry’s (@dorothyjberry.bsky.social) The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities available for purchase. The first 50 copies sold will be signed 🫢 www.weherepress.org
10/16, 2p ET USA: Dorothy Berry’s (@dorothyjberry.bsky.social) The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities available for purchase. The first 50 copies sold will be signed 🫢 www.weherepress.org
My reading list just got much longer . . .
2025 Lambda Literary Awards and Special Awards Winners
2025 Lambda Literary Awards and Special Awards Winners
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the winners for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”), celebrating “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender b…
locusmag.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:49 PM
My reading list just got much longer . . .
Reposted by Laura Helton
ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig
October 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig
Reposted by Laura Helton
"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...
ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”
ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...
www.acls.org
October 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...
Reposted by Laura Helton
This is real.
I doubt Charles would haven given a flip about Trump’s stolen sword. “The request for a gift for King Charles came from a State Department liaison who used the email address “giftgirl2025” & told the museum that they were looking for “like a sword or something.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/a...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/a...
After Declining to Give Trump a Sword for King Charles, a Museum Leader Is Out
www.nytimes.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:04 AM
This is real.
Reposted by Laura Helton
Reposted by Laura Helton
Important thread on what came out in the AAUP vs. Rubio case.
WE WON: "This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall w/in..this district court squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in US..have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.”"
October 1, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Important thread on what came out in the AAUP vs. Rubio case.
Reposted by Laura Helton
Bibliographical Mysteries! "Share your successes and failures, cold cases, breakthroughs, speculative practices, novel uses of technology, collaborative momentum, and other stories."
CFP *by 10.7* for a special session of @bibsocamer.bsky.social annual meeting. bibsocamer.org/news/cfp-bsa26
CFP *by 10.7* for a special session of @bibsocamer.bsky.social annual meeting. bibsocamer.org/news/cfp-bsa26
The Bibliographical Society of America
The website of the Bibliographical Society of America, a 501(c)(3) non-profit membership organization and learned Society devoted to the study of the material text.
bibsocamer.org
September 29, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Bibliographical Mysteries! "Share your successes and failures, cold cases, breakthroughs, speculative practices, novel uses of technology, collaborative momentum, and other stories."
CFP *by 10.7* for a special session of @bibsocamer.bsky.social annual meeting. bibsocamer.org/news/cfp-bsa26
CFP *by 10.7* for a special session of @bibsocamer.bsky.social annual meeting. bibsocamer.org/news/cfp-bsa26
Reposted by Laura Helton
Happy 195th birthday to the Colored Conventions movement!
The first convention debated whether this country would ever be a place for Black people to enjoy their full civil rights and citizenship. As those fights continue today, it is powerful reading omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/70
The first convention debated whether this country would ever be a place for Black people to enjoy their full civil rights and citizenship. As those fights continue today, it is powerful reading omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/70
Constitution of the American Society of Free Persons of Colour, for improving their condition in the United States; for purchasing lands; and for the establishment of a settlement in upper Canada, als...
omeka.coloredconventions.org
September 24, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Happy 195th birthday to the Colored Conventions movement!
The first convention debated whether this country would ever be a place for Black people to enjoy their full civil rights and citizenship. As those fights continue today, it is powerful reading omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/70
The first convention debated whether this country would ever be a place for Black people to enjoy their full civil rights and citizenship. As those fights continue today, it is powerful reading omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/70
Reposted by Laura Helton
Next month a new collection of Pat Parker’s crucial work—edited by yours truly—will be published. Essential Poems by Pat Parker features some of her most beloved writing. Available wherever you buy books. Still feeling so chuffed after receiving my copies!!!
September 24, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Next month a new collection of Pat Parker’s crucial work—edited by yours truly—will be published. Essential Poems by Pat Parker features some of her most beloved writing. Available wherever you buy books. Still feeling so chuffed after receiving my copies!!!
Reposted by Laura Helton
'Instead, the trans past can be a tool for imagining how we might build liveable trans lives in community, outside of and without reference to the state and other institutions— and perhaps even in the face of, and in active resistance to, state violence and repression.'
The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK and US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these time, beyond proving 'we have always been here'?
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop....
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop....
September 23, 2025 at 11:46 AM
'Instead, the trans past can be a tool for imagining how we might build liveable trans lives in community, outside of and without reference to the state and other institutions— and perhaps even in the face of, and in active resistance to, state violence and repression.'