Dr. J. Franklin Williamson
@williamsonjf.bsky.social
High school history teacher. Historian of German public mourning and holidays. Special interest in histories of memory, military, religion. Passionate for history education. He/him. Views expressed my own.
So back in 2015, Rs lost their minds over Confederate statues coming down because such a move, they said, “erases history.” 1/x
October 22, 2025 at 10:43 PM
So back in 2015, Rs lost their minds over Confederate statues coming down because such a move, they said, “erases history.” 1/x
Hot take but not wrong: AI is “…for first-world elites who have given up on thinking themselves.”
I keep thinking about how so-called AI is literally just time-displaced human intelligence. Bottled human decision-making, by converting human acts of perception and description into data via effective slave labor, that can be replayed for first-world elites who have given up on thinking themselves.
October 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Hot take but not wrong: AI is “…for first-world elites who have given up on thinking themselves.”
On a much-needed lighter note, I was helping my 8th grader with a GA History activity that included primary sources, and she complained about the language of 18th-century authors, because they “talk like old people,” with all their “thee” and “thou” business.
September 15, 2025 at 1:02 AM
On a much-needed lighter note, I was helping my 8th grader with a GA History activity that included primary sources, and she complained about the language of 18th-century authors, because they “talk like old people,” with all their “thee” and “thou” business.
Not a New Yorker and not a political strategist but I think the phrase, “Mamdani momentum” (and all similar formulations) should really just be rechristened, “Mam-enton.”
July 16, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Not a New Yorker and not a political strategist but I think the phrase, “Mamdani momentum” (and all similar formulations) should really just be rechristened, “Mam-enton.”
For me: smiling for a picture and having to wait days/weeks/months for mom and dad to get the film dropped off to be developed, then pick it up, then glued into a photo album where I could see what I looked like and remember that place and that day.
Not quite childhood but in college, friends and I studying abroad different places in Europe made plans to meet each other USING POSTCARDS, I believe even some sent "General Delivery" (poste restante) to cities we expected the other to be visiting
What’s a real thing from your childhood that kids these days would find completely foreign?
Like, how we used to be able to walk right up to the gate to meet our family coming off a flight.
Or how we had to pick a spot to meet at the theater BEFORE we went.
Like, how we used to be able to walk right up to the gate to meet our family coming off a flight.
Or how we had to pick a spot to meet at the theater BEFORE we went.
July 14, 2025 at 3:22 AM
For me: smiling for a picture and having to wait days/weeks/months for mom and dad to get the film dropped off to be developed, then pick it up, then glued into a photo album where I could see what I looked like and remember that place and that day.
Got an e-mail from admin at the community college for which I teach as an adjunct. It was inviting faculty to a webinar about how to use AI to “reclaim your free time” by letting AI do all your grading. There are several reasons to object to this idea but here are a few that quickly come to mind 1/x
July 11, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Got an e-mail from admin at the community college for which I teach as an adjunct. It was inviting faculty to a webinar about how to use AI to “reclaim your free time” by letting AI do all your grading. There are several reasons to object to this idea but here are a few that quickly come to mind 1/x
Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger really should be in your playlist today.
July 4, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger really should be in your playlist today.
Reposted by Dr. J. Franklin Williamson
Hey friends! I will be teaching US History this fall (in addition to my regular World History prep). What's one book you read recently, that changed the way you think about and teach your American survey? Articles are welcome, too!
June 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Hey friends! I will be teaching US History this fall (in addition to my regular World History prep). What's one book you read recently, that changed the way you think about and teach your American survey? Articles are welcome, too!
Reposted by Dr. J. Franklin Williamson
My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇
www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...
Details found here👇
www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...
Queen’s Special U.S. Doctoral Recruitment Initiative | School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral AffairsDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown...
Queen’s University is a globally engaged, research-intensive institution dedicated to attracting and supporting exceptional PhD students who will significantly advance our research mission.
www.queensu.ca
June 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇
www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...
Details found here👇
www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...
Reposted by Dr. J. Franklin Williamson
JOB - Historian & Curator - Heritage Werk - Atlanta GA
"strong research skills & proven record of working with primary & secondary sources, esp. 20th-century American history"
#altac #AcademicChatter #phdchat #adjunct #postdoc #highered #academia
altacjobs.com/j/historian-...
"strong research skills & proven record of working with primary & secondary sources, esp. 20th-century American history"
#altac #AcademicChatter #phdchat #adjunct #postdoc #highered #academia
altacjobs.com/j/historian-...
altacjobs.com
May 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM
JOB - Historian & Curator - Heritage Werk - Atlanta GA
"strong research skills & proven record of working with primary & secondary sources, esp. 20th-century American history"
#altac #AcademicChatter #phdchat #adjunct #postdoc #highered #academia
altacjobs.com/j/historian-...
"strong research skills & proven record of working with primary & secondary sources, esp. 20th-century American history"
#altac #AcademicChatter #phdchat #adjunct #postdoc #highered #academia
altacjobs.com/j/historian-...
THE KIDS ARE HUNGRY AGAIN: A Memoir of Summer Break
EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED
make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
May 17, 2025 at 11:31 PM
THE KIDS ARE HUNGRY AGAIN: A Memoir of Summer Break
Servant leadership is washing others’ footnotes.
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
May 8, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Servant leadership is washing others’ footnotes.
May the Fourth be with you!
May 4, 2025 at 1:55 PM
May the Fourth be with you!
If you see this, post your getaway vehicle
May 3, 2025 at 11:10 PM
If you see this, post your getaway vehicle
If any editors out there want 1500 words on memorial holidays for dead WWI and WWII soldiers, and you furthermore want the view from German history across the 20th century, that’s kinda my thing so hit me up
May 3, 2025 at 12:14 AM
If any editors out there want 1500 words on memorial holidays for dead WWI and WWII soldiers, and you furthermore want the view from German history across the 20th century, that’s kinda my thing so hit me up
In case you need a laugh, my 7-year-old is walking around the house singing, “Everything is Aweful!” But to the tune of the “Everything is Awesome” song from the Lego movie. So yeah, we’re finding ways to cope with the crazy. @decemberists.bsky.social
April 30, 2025 at 11:07 AM
In case you need a laugh, my 7-year-old is walking around the house singing, “Everything is Aweful!” But to the tune of the “Everything is Awesome” song from the Lego movie. So yeah, we’re finding ways to cope with the crazy. @decemberists.bsky.social
My kid says she’s learning about Tiananmen Square and how the Chinese government limits what people in China can learn about those protests in 1989. Then I say that there are political leaders in our country who similarly want to limit what students here can learn about their own country’s history.
April 23, 2025 at 4:25 AM
My kid says she’s learning about Tiananmen Square and how the Chinese government limits what people in China can learn about those protests in 1989. Then I say that there are political leaders in our country who similarly want to limit what students here can learn about their own country’s history.
Ok, shot in the dark but here goes: I have some students who are needing to interview one or two neurologists for a healthcare professions class (not my class). Anyone neurologists out there who would not mind doing a brief Zoom call with some undergrads this week?
April 14, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Ok, shot in the dark but here goes: I have some students who are needing to interview one or two neurologists for a healthcare professions class (not my class). Anyone neurologists out there who would not mind doing a brief Zoom call with some undergrads this week?
Ok so besides the carbon release into the atmosphere, how is the act of removing books/articles/research/ from websites and libraries different from burning them at the Bebelplatz? (Hint: it’s not.)
April 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Ok so besides the carbon release into the atmosphere, how is the act of removing books/articles/research/ from websites and libraries different from burning them at the Bebelplatz? (Hint: it’s not.)
Reposted by Dr. J. Franklin Williamson
The Society for Military History is now archiving historical materials related to military history that are disappearing from federal or state websites. We are open to submissions, anonymously or otherwise. Please see www.smh-hq.org/archivedreso... and note there the submission links.
Archived Resources | The Society for Military History
www.smh-hq.org
April 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The Society for Military History is now archiving historical materials related to military history that are disappearing from federal or state websites. We are open to submissions, anonymously or otherwise. Please see www.smh-hq.org/archivedreso... and note there the submission links.
Good morning Economics teachers! Welcome to Hell! We who teach American Government, American History, and World History saved you a seat!
April 3, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Good morning Economics teachers! Welcome to Hell! We who teach American Government, American History, and World History saved you a seat!
I mean we should not be surprised that the same AI that hallucinates non-existent sources and spits out poorly-reworded versions of the assignment prompt (with little evidence of actual student learning) would similarly spit out trade policy with little evidence of this regime being competent
April 3, 2025 at 3:39 AM
I mean we should not be surprised that the same AI that hallucinates non-existent sources and spits out poorly-reworded versions of the assignment prompt (with little evidence of actual student learning) would similarly spit out trade policy with little evidence of this regime being competent
Did you know that Moscow-aligned communist regimes in Eastern Europe referred to the arrival of the Red Army in 1945 as the moment of “liberation?” Which, yeah - clearly getting the Nazis out of power and ending the genocide was an undeniably beneficial thing to do.
April 2, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Did you know that Moscow-aligned communist regimes in Eastern Europe referred to the arrival of the Red Army in 1945 as the moment of “liberation?” Which, yeah - clearly getting the Nazis out of power and ending the genocide was an undeniably beneficial thing to do.
Ok this is niche, I know. And far greater problems haunt us right now, BUT let me tell you how my daily life as a high school social studies teacher was changed by this current administration and its chaos…1/x
April 1, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Ok this is niche, I know. And far greater problems haunt us right now, BUT let me tell you how my daily life as a high school social studies teacher was changed by this current administration and its chaos…1/x