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Joseph Rezek

@rezekjoe.bsky.social

14K followers 3.9K following 6.1K posts

English Prof and Director of American Studies at Boston University. Gay dad and husband. 2024-2025 NEH fellow for “The Racialization of Print,” forthcoming from OIEAHC & UNC Press. https://www.bu.edu/english/profile/joseph-rezek/

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · Jun 13

I just submitted my book for peer review. After 15 years of thinking, researching, and writing, and, as I keep saying, an NEH this year to finish up. I’m furious about the gutting of that institution, which makes so much knowledge possible. I hope this book eventually lives up to that honor.

Screen shot of my table of contents: The Racialization of Print
By Joseph Rezek, Boston University
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North
Carolina Press (under contract)
For peer review only, do not cite or circulate without permission.
Introduction: Print's Racialization over the longue durée
Chapter 1. The Europeanization of Print in the Early Anglophone Atlantic

Chapter 2. Nominal White Authorship at the end of the Seventeenth Century

Chapter 3. Race, Gender, and Genius in the Eighteenth Century

Chapter 4. Phillis Wheatley and Her Books

Chapter 5. Haiti's Media Revolution

Chapter 6. Native American Print Sovereignty, 1826-1837

Chapter 7. The Specimen Logic of Print in the Nineteenth Century

Bibliography

Word Count: 142,647

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okthen25.bsky.social @okthen25.bsky.social · 1h

This 👇🏼👇🏼

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2h

Can an historian of journalism please explain to me how the rule developed where a president says something, it has to be taken seriously as possibly true, even if it is obviously false. This rule must have a history (meaning, it can change! That is my point!)

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2h

Peaceful protest is as American as apple pie. The No Kings protests exemplify that tradition - for GOP leaders to come out and accuse them of hating America means the leadership must truly be terrified of the groundswell of righteous nonviolent anger they have unleashed.

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 2h

Yes, America, he is referring to the 100% peaceful No Kings rallies that have literally nothing to do with Hamas or antifa or hating America.

America has been gaslit by these lunatics every day for a decade, and at some point the other shoe will drop—though I have no idea what or when that will be.

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Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 4h

ICE left David, a 17-year-old boy, stranded on the side of Interstate 20 after pulling over his immigrant father, Hector, in Mississippi.

David began running in the scorching sun after the car and watched as it disappeared from sight—soon headed to a Louisiana ICE prison.

Here's their story.

ICE Stranded a 17-Year-Old on I-20 After Arresting His Father. The Mississippi Dad Now Faces Deportation.

A 17-year-old watched as ICE arrested his immigrant father, Hector, on I-20 in June. The family faces mounting legal fees and the risk of deportation.

www.mississippifreepress.org

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Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 9h

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Carole V. Bell @cvbell.bsky.social · 2h

[At last.] It’s no surprise MIT’s Sally Kornbluth is the first to flatly reject Trump’s deal
MIT rejects proposed federal ‘compact’ as other institutions weigh their options. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/10/m...

It’s no surprise MIT’s Sally Kornbluth is the first to flatly reject Trump’s deal - The Boston Globe

Kornbluth deserves all the credit for standing up for her institution’s core values, even at considerable risk.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2h

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 4h

Purchased! Can’t wait!!! @kawulf.bsky.social

Picture of my copy of Lineage, a new book by Karin Wulf

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 11h

This is the way

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

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Atle Mikkola Kjosen @klumpen.bsky.social · 8h

100% agree.

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 7h

I love it here

Screen shot of duke univ press liking my post about buying books

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

It might even be YOUR book I am buying

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Mel 🍉 @melly253.bsky.social · 8h

Buy books because digital print can be altered. Buying books is an act of resistance, especially banned books. I support indie bookstores and I also buy every banned book I see.

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Melanie Nicole 🇨🇦 @melanienicole76.bsky.social · 8h

Yup.

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Kelly Jelly 🪼 @kellybdevoe.bsky.social · 8h

And then never reading them, it’s my favorite

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

Books are soooooo gay 🥳🌈🥇

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Queer Hand Luke @lfschleusener.bsky.social · 8h

Eminently relatable gay content

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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ApocalypseElf @apocalypseelf.bsky.social · 8h

Amen

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I am buying another book RIGHT NOW

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I need to hold them in my hands! Lift! Turn! Close! Pick up!!!

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

More! I want more!!!

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 8h

I fucking love buying books.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 9h

Tfw you’ve been writing a book for so long that you need to cite recent scholarship indebted to your previously published work from said book. 👑

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 13h

Leadership is, indeed, possible.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 14h

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 15h

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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