Nathan K. Hensley
@nathankhensley.bsky.social
Action without Hope (2025) • Forms of Empire (2016) • Fresno, Silver Spring • https://www.nathankhensley.net/ • he/him/his • Everything here in personal capacity only
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo242060390.html
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo242060390.html
i learned about the combo of nondevelopmental narrative and structural crisis from my incredibly brilliant colleague & friend from grad school, sarah lincoln
“Petro-Magic Realism”: Ben Okri’s Inflationary Modernism
Abstract. This article argues for a reading of Nigerian magical realism, epitomized in Ben Okri's 1988 collection Stars of the New Curfew, in terms of the
academic.oup.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:20 PM
i learned about the combo of nondevelopmental narrative and structural crisis from my incredibly brilliant colleague & friend from grad school, sarah lincoln
there are some very good arguments out there that track across widely varied contexts how magical thinking & non-developmental plot forms —lotteries, miracles, rich cousins emerging from out of nowhere to solve the problem— emerge in conditions of structural stalling or futurelessness. crypto is one
November 25, 2025 at 3:18 PM
there are some very good arguments out there that track across widely varied contexts how magical thinking & non-developmental plot forms —lotteries, miracles, rich cousins emerging from out of nowhere to solve the problem— emerge in conditions of structural stalling or futurelessness. crypto is one
it's a scholarly book about victorian literature, so not likely to be of immediate interest! but it does try to give an account of this mood-complex or social feeling, and figure out one version of its history: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Action without Hope
A study of how writers from the early phases of our prolonged climate emergency used aesthetic strategies to redefine the category of action. What does it feel like to live helplessly in a world that ...
press.uchicago.edu
November 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
it's a scholarly book about victorian literature, so not likely to be of immediate interest! but it does try to give an account of this mood-complex or social feeling, and figure out one version of its history: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
i feel like i wrote my whole book just because i was so sick of the fact that my brilliant, curious, very vulnerable students were being systematically bullshitted on this exact topic by the adults who were supposed to be teaching them
November 25, 2025 at 2:54 PM
i feel like i wrote my whole book just because i was so sick of the fact that my brilliant, curious, very vulnerable students were being systematically bullshitted on this exact topic by the adults who were supposed to be teaching them
"For too long, young people have been told to tighten their belts, hustle harder, .... We’ve been told that if we just worked a little more or spent a little less, we could make it work—as if our economy is a test of character & resilience instead of a system that’s fundamentally broken." ✅
November 25, 2025 at 2:48 PM
"For too long, young people have been told to tighten their belts, hustle harder, .... We’ve been told that if we just worked a little more or spent a little less, we could make it work—as if our economy is a test of character & resilience instead of a system that’s fundamentally broken." ✅
important to realize just how seriously feelings of powerlessness in the face of vast structures & a learned understanding of the futility of individual effort are generational givens that anybody my age or older (work hard! succeed! things work out!) has no way to fully grasp—but we need to try
Young people feel like we've lost agency over our lives. We can't *really* pick where to live, or whether to change jobs, or how many kids to have -- the cost of living makes us feel trapped.
Younger candidates can powerfully speak to that emotional truth. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/young-c...
Younger candidates can powerfully speak to that emotional truth. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/young-c...
Young Candidates Can Speak to the Affordability Crisis Because They’re Living It
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
important to realize just how seriously feelings of powerlessness in the face of vast structures & a learned understanding of the futility of individual effort are generational givens that anybody my age or older (work hard! succeed! things work out!) has no way to fully grasp—but we need to try
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
$8.75M Investment Supports ‘Research Resilience’… | Maryland Today
UMD, MPower Funds Combine to Help Preserve Institutional Capabilities, Lab Operations and More
today.umd.edu
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 PM
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
the code is PENN-HOLIDAY25 -- get yours now!
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 8:34 PM
the code is PENN-HOLIDAY25 -- get yours now!
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
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 Nathan K. Hensley
📽️ The recording from our widely popular #RSVPDigiEvent "How to Get Published in an Academic Journal" is now live. We had a record-breaking 101 registrants for this panel! Since we did not quite hit that number in attendance, we know many will be interested to watch/re-watch: youtu.be/sP5Y1iicKJ0
How to Get Published in Academic Journal
YouTube video by Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
📽️ The recording from our widely popular #RSVPDigiEvent "How to Get Published in an Academic Journal" is now live. We had a record-breaking 101 registrants for this panel! Since we did not quite hit that number in attendance, we know many will be interested to watch/re-watch: youtu.be/sP5Y1iicKJ0
😂 can't beat that price for actual knowledge!
November 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
😂 can't beat that price for actual knowledge!
Just ordered! At $20.97 this works out to LESS THAN $1 AN ESSAY for, e.g. @asheeshksi.bsky.social on "Board of Trustees"; @cnewf.bsky.social on "Degree"; @dennismhogan.bsky.social on "Endowment": & (one I read in draft) @andyhines.bsky.social, @kaibosworth.bsky.social et al on "Sustainability" 💥
everyone is talking about getting copies of University Keywords (or other JHU Press books) for all their friends, students, and comrades for the holidays, especially when it is 40% off with the code HHOL25.
November 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Just ordered! At $20.97 this works out to LESS THAN $1 AN ESSAY for, e.g. @asheeshksi.bsky.social on "Board of Trustees"; @cnewf.bsky.social on "Degree"; @dennismhogan.bsky.social on "Endowment": & (one I read in draft) @andyhines.bsky.social, @kaibosworth.bsky.social et al on "Sustainability" 💥
The itinerary of this new wave of fascist deportations (Louisiana -> Barbados -> Equatorial Guinea) is the transatlantic slave trade in reverse, FYI
A small Journey plane landed in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. This is the first flight since Equatorial Guinea agreed to accept third-country nationals and it’s unclear if such nationals are on board. The plane departed Alexandria, LA yesterday and stopped in Barbados.
November 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
The itinerary of this new wave of fascist deportations (Louisiana -> Barbados -> Equatorial Guinea) is the transatlantic slave trade in reverse, FYI
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
“Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself.”
—“An Apology for Idlers”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1877)
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69825
—“An Apology for Idlers”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1877)
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69825
November 24, 2025 at 11:25 AM
“Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself.”
—“An Apology for Idlers”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1877)
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69825
—“An Apology for Idlers”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1877)
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69825
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 3:38 PM
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
brutal, wrong — I’m so sorry this happened!
November 22, 2025 at 1:19 AM
brutal, wrong — I’m so sorry this happened!
To the author’s credit, she’s gone back and changed the word. It is important to acknowledge when one gets it wrong and try to fix it. Respect.
November 21, 2025 at 10:21 PM
To the author’s credit, she’s gone back and changed the word. It is important to acknowledge when one gets it wrong and try to fix it. Respect.
That is a good change; thank you for making it. NH
November 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
That is a good change; thank you for making it. NH
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
It's so rare to see the old world dying and the new world struggling to be born in the same room together
Trump on Mamdani: "I think he's gonna surprise some conservative people, actually. And some very liberal people he won't surprise because they already like him."
November 21, 2025 at 9:01 PM
It's so rare to see the old world dying and the new world struggling to be born in the same room together
yes very relatable
November 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
yes very relatable
lol setting “reasoning_effort” to “none” to really see what this baby can do
November 21, 2025 at 9:09 PM
lol setting “reasoning_effort” to “none” to really see what this baby can do
the NYT referring to "scientific orthodoxy" instead of "science" or "proven facts" or "the truth" is what helps you see that this newspaper is now, & has been for some time, a critical part of the fascist apparatus in this country
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 21, 2025 at 7:03 PM
the NYT referring to "scientific orthodoxy" instead of "science" or "proven facts" or "the truth" is what helps you see that this newspaper is now, & has been for some time, a critical part of the fascist apparatus in this country
🌿🙏💙
I’m 2/3 of the way through the ecocriticism I’ve been most excited for this year. As with Ensor’s book, it’s hard to overstate the admiration I have for @nathankhensley.bsky.social’s *Action Without Hope*: a brilliant breath of darkly fresh air. On to @royscranton.bsky.social latest!
November 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM
🌿🙏💙
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
A fire broke out at a pavilion inside the COP30 global climate summit in Belém, Brazil, on Thursday. It is the latest in a series of mishaps for the annual conference this year. nyti.ms/43Iej2X
November 21, 2025 at 2:20 AM
A fire broke out at a pavilion inside the COP30 global climate summit in Belém, Brazil, on Thursday. It is the latest in a series of mishaps for the annual conference this year. nyti.ms/43Iej2X