Michèle Plott
@micheleplott.bsky.social
Historian of the emotions, visual & material culture, (sometimes) gender, lately monuments & memory in the urban landscape
Pinned
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110 by Robert Motherwell, 1971
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137843
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137843
motherwell hitting harder w/this today.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Last night unfiltered.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Last night unfiltered.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
In his book, Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears, Thomas Dixon described the British around the time of Shakespeare as being known for “sweatiness, drunkenness, meat-eating, anger, violence, simple-mindedness and melancholia”.
TIL that the stereotype of the strict British/English upper lip comes from empire building
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
The truth about British stoicism
Brits, according to many outsiders, are reserved, repressed, resilient, unemotional and self-controlled. But how did the “stiff upper lip” become so closely associated with Britain?
www.bbc.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 PM
In his book, Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears, Thomas Dixon described the British around the time of Shakespeare as being known for “sweatiness, drunkenness, meat-eating, anger, violence, simple-mindedness and melancholia”.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
How to be a good party host (or guest) | Zoe Williams
How to be a good party host (or guest) | Zoe Williams
From picking your guests (always add a random) and your outfit, to coping with drunks and nudity, this is what you need to know
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:36 AM
How to be a good party host (or guest) | Zoe Williams
Reposted by Michèle Plott
William Steig
A Turkey Before Thanksgiving, 1992
A Turkey Before Thanksgiving, 1992
November 24, 2025 at 9:25 PM
William Steig
A Turkey Before Thanksgiving, 1992
A Turkey Before Thanksgiving, 1992
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Steve Witkoff pictured here with his wife
November 26, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Steve Witkoff pictured here with his wife
Reposted by Michèle Plott
brb changing the spelling of razzmatazz to razmataz because reasons
November 26, 2025 at 10:25 PM
brb changing the spelling of razzmatazz to razmataz because reasons
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Really loved this article on close reading. The art of noticing, and of crafting an argument, is how we begin to inoculate ourselves from so many societal and intellectual ills, especially in a world where disinformation, toxic algorithms, and slop vie for our limited time and attention.
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Really loved this article on close reading. The art of noticing, and of crafting an argument, is how we begin to inoculate ourselves from so many societal and intellectual ills, especially in a world where disinformation, toxic algorithms, and slop vie for our limited time and attention.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Ah, @pennpress.bsky.social has just announced their holiday sale! 40% off means that the paperback of my book on philosophy's encounter with "the public intellectual," Thinking in Public, is about $20.
100% of the historical analysis for 60% of the price.
www.pennpress.org/978081222434...
100% of the historical analysis for 60% of the price.
www.pennpress.org/978081222434...
Thinking in Public – Penn Press
Long before we began to speak of "public intellectuals," the ideas of "the public" and "the intellectual" raised consternation among many European philosophe...
www.pennpress.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Ah, @pennpress.bsky.social has just announced their holiday sale! 40% off means that the paperback of my book on philosophy's encounter with "the public intellectual," Thinking in Public, is about $20.
100% of the historical analysis for 60% of the price.
www.pennpress.org/978081222434...
100% of the historical analysis for 60% of the price.
www.pennpress.org/978081222434...
Reposted by Michèle Plott
@WarwickHistory are recruiting for an Assistant Professor in Environmental History - with an open chronological and thematic focus.
Come join our excellent department with wonderful colleagues and students.
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...
#history #envhistory #earlymodern
Come join our excellent department with wonderful colleagues and students.
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...
#history #envhistory #earlymodern
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) - University of Warwick
Title: Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125). Application Deadline: . Position Type: Permanent
warwick-careers.tal.net
November 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM
@WarwickHistory are recruiting for an Assistant Professor in Environmental History - with an open chronological and thematic focus.
Come join our excellent department with wonderful colleagues and students.
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...
#history #envhistory #earlymodern
Come join our excellent department with wonderful colleagues and students.
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...
#history #envhistory #earlymodern
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Is OpenAI a turkey because this headline is a stonecold murder
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates on.ft.com/4ij0yh8
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates
A burning platform
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Is OpenAI a turkey because this headline is a stonecold murder
Reposted by Michèle Plott
oh now we are talking about writing salaries? My contribution: No one* has ever made money from it. Don't romanticize the past. There are zillions of examples of destitution in the archives of your faves!
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
oh now we are talking about writing salaries? My contribution: No one* has ever made money from it. Don't romanticize the past. There are zillions of examples of destitution in the archives of your faves!
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
*except a couple, here and there, randomly
Reposted by Michèle Plott
It is a fundamental crisis that faculty performance is in part evaluated by UP editors’ ability to find readers and those readers’ ability to follow through. One reader ghosts, the other’s mother dies, and poof! No contract for 3rd yr review.
that list of four potential peer reviewers you gave your acquisitions editor? one of them is retired, another is chairing their department and simply can't, the third is on leave and has an autoreply up for months, and the fourth replied within 20 seconds to say "no."
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
It is a fundamental crisis that faculty performance is in part evaluated by UP editors’ ability to find readers and those readers’ ability to follow through. One reader ghosts, the other’s mother dies, and poof! No contract for 3rd yr review.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
New York City helped my mother become the artist she is today. The next generation deserves a City Hall that lifts up tomorrow's artists as well.
November 26, 2025 at 1:49 AM
New York City helped my mother become the artist she is today. The next generation deserves a City Hall that lifts up tomorrow's artists as well.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Do you ever have that dream in which you are incredibly late for work/class and the world seems to be going very slowly as the panic and anxiety rises within you because you know that the consequences for your lateness rise exponentially with each passing minute?
Also... You're a cat. 😝
Also... You're a cat. 😝
November 26, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Do you ever have that dream in which you are incredibly late for work/class and the world seems to be going very slowly as the panic and anxiety rises within you because you know that the consequences for your lateness rise exponentially with each passing minute?
Also... You're a cat. 😝
Also... You're a cat. 😝
Reposted by Michèle Plott
LA River, Glendale Narrows, egrets, horses, sunlight, clear day...
The serenity I need before the holiday. 😎
The serenity I need before the holiday. 😎
November 25, 2025 at 5:34 PM
LA River, Glendale Narrows, egrets, horses, sunlight, clear day...
The serenity I need before the holiday. 😎
The serenity I need before the holiday. 😎
Reposted by Michèle Plott
At least one insurrectionist goes to jail
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
Bolsonaro to Start Serving 27-Year Sentence Over Coup Plot
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:45 PM
At least one insurrectionist goes to jail
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
Reposted by Michèle Plott
If we knew what we were going to find by doing cutting-edge research, it wouldn't be cutting-edge research.
If you want "research" outcomes to be a sure thing, you stop doing actual research & start stealing other people's results & commercialising them. But that will annoy them.
If you want "research" outcomes to be a sure thing, you stop doing actual research & start stealing other people's results & commercialising them. But that will annoy them.
The other problem with this is that research is a type of spread bet/lottery. You do lots of it and hope some of it pans out. If we had a perfect way of selecting which small bits of science and scholarship we "need", we'd have solved the funding problem. But we don't know this.
'Science minister Patrick Vallance has rejected concerns that focusing on “doing fewer things better” in research will lead to funding being concentrated in larger research-intensive universities from the Russell Group.' 1/3
November 26, 2025 at 10:34 AM
If we knew what we were going to find by doing cutting-edge research, it wouldn't be cutting-edge research.
If you want "research" outcomes to be a sure thing, you stop doing actual research & start stealing other people's results & commercialising them. But that will annoy them.
If you want "research" outcomes to be a sure thing, you stop doing actual research & start stealing other people's results & commercialising them. But that will annoy them.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Important insight from Dagmar Herzog on the New Fascist Body venerated by today's right.
publicseminar.org/2025/11/new-...
publicseminar.org/2025/11/new-...
Fascism's Body Politics - Public Seminar
Dagmar Herzog explains how ableism's historical legacy informs the fascisms of Donald Trump and Germany's AfD.
publicseminar.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Important insight from Dagmar Herzog on the New Fascist Body venerated by today's right.
publicseminar.org/2025/11/new-...
publicseminar.org/2025/11/new-...
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Good morning! ☕ 🎄 🌈 🎭
November 25, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Good morning! ☕ 🎄 🌈 🎭
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Reposted by Michèle Plott
In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
For a yr, I've been working on a series for The New Atlantis about the vast systems that underlie our lives. Our ancestors built them up over decades to fend off hunger, thirst, darkness and disease. But too few of us know about them—and they're all at risk. The conclusion is now available online:
Why We Are Better Off Than a Century Ago
Our ancestors built grand public systems to conquer hunger, thirst, darkness, and squalor. That progress can be lost if we forget it.
www.thenewatlantis.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 PM
In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
I hate how hard I’m laughing at this first paragraph
People are calling my lede here "appalling," "nightmare fuel," "actively evil," and "a desecration of the human spirit"
The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined
Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time
www.theringer.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I hate how hard I’m laughing at this first paragraph
Reposted by Michèle Plott
this one, yes
How can you just leave me standing
Alone in a world that's so cold?
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
Alone in a world that's so cold?
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
November 26, 2025 at 12:28 AM
this one, yes
this one, yes
How can you just leave me standing
Alone in a world that's so cold?
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
Alone in a world that's so cold?
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
November 26, 2025 at 12:28 AM
this one, yes