Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 11h

I imagine most of y'all have encountered Without Sanctuary before, but in case not:

withoutsanctuary.org

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 11h

We were talking about the lynching plotline in Marrow of Tradition in Am Lit II today, & I got to share @eji.org's map, the Without Sanctuary exhibit, Ida B. Wells, & the work of @kidadaewilliams.com as part of the conversation. This work we do is damn important.🗃️

lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore

Explore The Map | Lynching In America

Over 4,000 racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950.

lynchinginamerica.eji.org

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 11h

I didn't, but I believe it. Which, as I try to continue to be the congenital optimist (not an easy gig in 2025), makes me feel strongly that we need those of us trying to use these spaces in the most public scholarly ways to keep trying to do that!

Reposted by Ben Railton

Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h

"Hunchback is one of the most sophisticated films in the Disney filmography for how it makes such huge themes accessible to children including genocide, justice, manipulation, sin, morality vs. legality, racism, allegorical fascism, and obscene abuses of power."

Dr. Vaughn Joy @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social · 3d

This week for the first in my Spooky Season Monster Mash series, I watched a movie with the scariest monster I can think of: Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame in which the monster wraps himself in unjust laws and bible quotes to commit genocide and assault.
blackwhiteandread.com/monster-mash...

Poster for the animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). From the top of the bell tower, we see between the bells down into Paris blazing in orange. Quasimodo sits on the ledge reaching out for a dove.

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 16h

So for the next post in my American Crime Fiction blog series, on how Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee mysteries capture the lure of the Southwest & much more (as we're seeing these days with the great adaptation Dark Winds)!

blackwhiteandread.com/october-7-20...

October 7, 2025: American Crime Fiction: Tony Hillerman – Black and White and Read All Over

[This coming weekend marks the 100th birthday of the great crime novelist Elmore Leonard. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of phenomenal crime and mystery writers, leading up a weekend post o...

blackwhiteandread.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 16h

One of the foundational moments in my young AmericanStudier life was a family trip to Southwestern U.S. National Parks, & one reason it was so powerful was that while we traveled that beautiful landscape I was reading a mystery novel by one of its preeminent chroniclers, the great Tony Hillerman.

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 21h

Happy Joe Hill Day & Amiri Baraka Day!

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/october-no...

October Nominees

October 1: Daniel Boorstin , the towering historian and Librarian of Congress whose pioneering and influential scholarly works include T...

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Ben Railton

Jennifer van Alstyne @jenvanalstyne.bsky.social · 1d

Substack, newsletter, blog, website?

Are you exploring options for what you want to share?

You may find this conversation with @americanstudier.bsky.social and @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social about sharing your public scholarship online helpful for you #AcademicSky

theacademicdesigner.com/2025/public-...

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

What all football fans of good conscience are rooting for tonight.

a cartoon leopard is laying in a pile of bananas

ALT: a cartoon leopard is laying in a pile of bananas

media.tenor.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

For now at least, I'm staying here, to try to help support & build & model the best version of community. But the more sites like ours we can help create & share in our ecosystems, the better. Hope you'll do that with ours, & share all of yours (sites, work, all of it) in all ways too, please.

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

we hope it can be a platform for y'all's work as well. You can start by sending your news of all kinds our way for the Announcements page, please!

blackwhiteandread.com/announcements/

Announcements – Black and White and Read All Over

This space is reserved for you! If you have a talk coming up, a book on its way, a podcast trailer to drop, or an accomplishment to celebrate, we want to help you share it! Please contact us to share ...

blackwhiteandread.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

Black & White & Read All Over, the site @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social & I have created! It'll feature a lot of our own work, from my #ScholarSunday threads to both of our blogs. But ...

blackwhiteandread.com

Black and White and Read All Over

blackwhiteandread.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

There's never gonna be a social media platform in 2025 that ain't problematic as hell. Doesn't mean there aren't lines where we don't need to leave, of course (as I did w/Twitter, & now am doing w/Substack). But it also means we should support those creating our own alternative platforms, like ...

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

Starting with today's post on my personal favorite mystery writer, the great Ross MacDonald, & why he exemplifies one of the most American literary genres at its thoughtful & thrilling best!

blackwhiteandread.com/october-6-20...

October 6, 2025: American Crime Fiction: Ross MacDonald – Black and White and Read All Over

[This coming weekend marks the 100th birthday of the great crime novelist Elmore Leonard. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of phenomenal crime and mystery writers, leading up a weekend post o...

blackwhiteandread.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

So this week on the blog, I'll AmericanStudy a handful of iconic crime & mystery writers, past & present. Leading up to a special weekend post for Elmore Leonard's centennial! 🗃️

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

This coming weekend will mark the centennial of the birth of one of the great American crime & mystery writers, Elmore Leonard. Since I grew up in a house with a wall full of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, & many more, you best believe I'm an aficionado.

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

For a lot more, see Keisha Blain's excellent book from @beaconpress.bsky.social:

www.beacon.org/Until-I-Am-F...

Beacon Press: Until I Am Free

www.beacon.org

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 1d

Happy Fannie Lou Hamer Day! Resistance is just about the most American thing we can do.

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/october-no...

October Nominees

October 1: Daniel Boorstin , the towering historian and Librarian of Congress whose pioneering and influential scholarly works include T...

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Ben Railton

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 2d

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

contingentmagazine.org

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Once more before Sunday ends, here’s today’s thread. Please share as widely as possible, thanks! @hcrichardson.bsky.social 🗃️

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Here it is, my 244th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more in comments below, share as widely as possible, & thanks, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

#ScholarSunday Thread 244 (10/5/25) – Black and White and Read All Over

Here it is, my 244th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more in comments below, share as widely as possib...

blackwhiteandread.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

When I was in high school, I had a part-time job on an educational website where young students would write to folks like Thoreau or Lincoln with questions & I would respond in character as those folks. I will do this for Florida State et al for less money than, & infinitely better than, the bots.

Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle.com · 4d

Florida State University's civics institute says it will use some of its federal grant to train AI models of important figures in American history for students to be able to talk to.

Campus Civics Centers Are Getting Millions From Trump. Here’s What They’ll Use It For.

Dozens of universities will receive money to boost civics education in commemoration of the United States’ 250th birthday.

www.chronicle.com

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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Seconded. & like all aspiring fascist regimes, it has in these first years especially targeted folks with identities different from that of Tom Nichols (& of me). Which means folks like Tom Nichols (& me) are especially needed to help highlight the aspiring fascism.

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 2d

We are living under an aspiring fascist regime that has not yet fully consolidated. This is not difficult to understand unless you get paid to muddy the waters.

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 3d

If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.

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Reposted by Ben Railton

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Here it is, my 244th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more in comments below, share as widely as possible, & thanks, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

#ScholarSunday Thread 244 (10/5/25) – Black and White and Read All Over

Here it is, my 244th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more in comments below, share as widely as possib...

blackwhiteandread.com

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Reposted by Ben Railton

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 2d

Biscuits can’t believe some of y’all haven’t shared all the great public scholarship in today’s #ScholarSunday thread yet. 🗃️

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Reposted by Ben Railton

Dr. Vaughn Joy @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social · 2d

This week, I was prompted to review The Hunchback of Notre Dame from a genre perspective and I realized it's probably the film I would most recommend for everyone right now, young and old alike.

Frollo is a genocidal potential rapist who gleefully orders law enforcement to murder innocent civilians

And you might be like, “V, what the fuck? You just said that this is a phenomenal film for kids? Are you some kind of sick fuck like Disney filmmakers in the 1990s?” And, yea, kinda. How many moments in reading just that little synopsis did you go “well that sounds familiar”? A rapist leader threatening to round up and imprison innocent people because they’re different, because they live lives untethered to his own “norms”, because they dare to enjoy being human, because they provide for themselves and their families by creating art and music, because they promote self-expression, kindness, generosity, and justice? Sounds like something to warn against and to teach kids young that that’s the worst, most evil motherfucker Disney could think of.

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