Mikki Brock
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mikkibrock.bsky.social
Mikki Brock
@mikkibrock.bsky.social
historian of religion, the supernatural, & gender in early modern Scotland | professor at W&L | views mine | she/her.
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Exciting Halloween news for scholars of things that go bump in the night:

Our new interdisciplinary series is here from @manchesterup.bsky.social! The series seeks proposals that examine the supernatural (broadly conceived) in innovative ways. Please get in touch if you have ideas or questions!
Announcing a brand new series launching this #Halloween 👻

Manchester Studies in the Supernatural explores how the #supernatural shapes human experience across time and place.

Bridging disciplines and challenging boundaries, it welcomes bold new research on the #occult and the #unseen
Reposted by Mikki Brock
This article heavily implies that ICE is being used in a custody dispute to help Karoline Leavitt's brother get his son and have the mother locked up in ICE detention
"A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts."

www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
November 26, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
you know what? good advice.
Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?

Mamdani: I've spoken about --

Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
November 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Happy 10th birthday to @ageofrevolutions.bsky.social. Kudos to everyone who has worked on it and here's to the next decade!
November 21, 2025 at 3:55 PM
I feel this in my bones.
Bless @sophiegilbert.bsky.social @theatlantic.com: "The past decade has been a gloomy lesson in how limited a proportion of men actually see women as equal human beings...The fish rots from the head. The pig is in the Oval Office." www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
The Pig Is in the White House
This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
www.theatlantic.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
It was such an honor to be shortlisted for Scotland’s Research Book of the Year. I was sorry to miss the ceremony, but I was cheering everyone on from my side of the pond. Huge congratulations to all of the winners—so well-deserved.

(I too am just delighted by the illustration on the program!)
Thanks to The Saltire Book Awards for a fantastic night!

It was a real pleasure to hear such high and well deserved praise for Mikki Brock's 'Plagues of the Heart' (we loved this beautiful illustration in the awards programme).

#saltirebookawards
November 21, 2025 at 11:29 AM
“POTENTIALLY DIVISIVE.” Gtfoh.
Exclusive: The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols.

The military service drafted a new policy that classifies them as “potentially divisive.”
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.

If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
This will surely surprise most Americans today, but historians have recently discovered that before Donald Trump, it was actually incredibly rare for a president to demand the public execution of this political opponents and press critics.
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Cosy season is well upon us

Curl up w/ a warm drink & NEW post on CUP's blog:

The #Autumnal Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England

This seasonal celebration of our new book features apples & pears, cider & ale, meat & markets, & the #Christmas milling craze
cambridgeblog.org/2025/11/the-...
November 20, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
November 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Would love to see someone from the moderate, Majority Dem faction really address and wrestle with the political effects of what Labour has been up to.
Latest YouGov government approval ratings, 15-17 November 2025

Approve: 11% (-2 from 8-10 Nov)
Disapprove: 69% (-1)
Net: -58 (-1)

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
November 18, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Just in case you'd rather listen to the American Revolution then scramble to find the login for your PBS app, may I offer you something that will leave your Worlds Turned Upside Down?

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p...

Website: www.r2studios.org
Worlds Turned Upside Down
History Podcast · Monthly Series · Worlds Turned Upside Down tells the story of the American Revolution as a transatlantic crisis and imperial civil war through the lives of people who experienced it....
podcasts.apple.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:14 PM
However we respond to this sort of news, it’s essential to keep in mind that there are *fantastic* scholars working at these institutions. What is happening to universities in Texas and elsewhere is heartbreaking.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 14, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far.

So much work remains to be done.
November 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.
November 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Let my gravestone read "PUNCTUATION GOES INSIDE THE QUOTATION MARKS."
November 10, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I choose being in the woods with a bear over reading/listening to this.
November 6, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Cool. What would you call the other wing then? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...
November 6, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
This year, the John Ben Snow Prize is awarded to Melissa Reynolds for her book Reading Practice: The Pursuit of Natural Knowledge from Manuscript to Print. Congrats @melkatrey.bsky.social !! 👏 @uchicagopress.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
Looks like the Dems will pick up 12 seats in the VA House of Delegates, which will go from 51-49 to 63-37 D-R. That's an honestly shocking result.
November 5, 2025 at 1:45 AM
I’ve seen enough: this is the best and most hopeful night of 2025, by far. The bar—which is admittedly on the floor—has been mercifully cleared.
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
whatever you think of Spanberger, the fact that her opponent ran a campaign based almost entirely on transphobia and is on track to eat shit in the biggest blowout the state has seen since 2009 is unambiguously a huge win
Earle-Sears ran what felt like 12 billion ads about how much she hated trans kids and I didn’t hear a single pundit say she should stick to real issues that affect real people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governor’s race.
November 5, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Mikki Brock
even if you knew that a spanberger win was a given, it is really wild to see this kind of electoral dunk in virginia. the last thing like it was bob mcdonnell's win in 2009 over creigh deeds
November 5, 2025 at 1:07 AM