Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 16h

you would definitely not be associated with the humanities in any way

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 1d

laughable and absurd

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Reposted by Brian Connolly

Pat Inverted Vibe Curve Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 2d

Sick with worry over the ongoing detention of Alex Colston, journalist at @dropsitenews.com. I have known Alex for nearly a decade as a student, teacher, colleague, editor, publisher, and dear, dear friend. He and his comrades must be let free, now. Please read this, share, it and demand action.

Drop Site Urges the Immediate Release of Global Sumud Flotilla Participants, Including Drop Site Journalist Alex Colston

All of us at Drop Site News are deeply disturbed by the reports of inhumane and abusive treatment of nonviolent activists and journalists detained by the Israeli military while on board the Global Sum...

www.dropsitenews.com

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 3d

Is there a “self-respecting university” when you approach it via pres/trustees? No

John Schwartz @jswatz.bsky.social · 5d

“No self-respecting university could ever accept something like this,” said Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and former Columbia University president. “Trying to protect conservative ideas against being ‘belittled’ — that’s about as violative of the First Amendment interests as you can get.”

Colleges weigh whether to sign onto Trump plan or forgo federal benefits

A new proposal from the Trump administration would give colleges funding advantages if they adopt conservative priorities.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 4d

This is great - we should be trying to build new critical theory programs despite/in spite of the current situation

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · Jun 4

had to go through some old boxes in the garage today, one thing led to another, I unearthed a set of syllabi from my master's programme in Critical Theory at the U of Sussex in 1989

@ncecire.bsky.social this was the year Alan Sinfield & Jonathan Dollimore launched the sexual dissidence MA, I think?

A photo of a typewritten page of a course description and reading list for Sexuality, Transgression, and Sub-Cultures, offered by Jonathan Dollimore at the University of Sussex in 1989

A photo of a typewritten page of a course description and reading list for Literature and Its Context 1982-87 (Part 1), offered by Geoffrey Hemstedt at the University of Sussex in 1989

A photo of a typewritten page of a course description and reading list for The Image in Consumer Society, offered by Rachel Bowlby at the University of Sussex in 1989

A photo of a typewritten page of a course description and reading list for Formalism/Structuralism, offered by Geoff Bennington, Rachel Bowlby, and David Morse at the University of Sussex in 1989

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 4d

over the past few years I have been compiling the uses of "history of the present" for an article i don't and probably wil not have time to write. This one, from Timothy Garton Ash, made me laugh for a number of reasons - egotistical, inaccurate, self-deprecating but also self-centering

Journalist Timothy Garton Ash mistakenly and egotistically ascribes the origins of the phrase "history of the present" to diplomat George Kennan's review of one of Ash's books.

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 5d

Lots of university presidents and trustees won’t fight the latest trump nonsense not because they are cowards but because they agree with him

Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 6d

unfortunately we already know what they are going to do

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 6d

University presidents it’s time for a united front. I mean, it’s past time. What are you going to do.

From the NYT: “The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation's top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump's political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds.”

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 9d

just spent an inordinate amount of time writing about incest in the 21st century and somehow missed that the OpenAI guy has been accused of incestuous abuse of his sister? Testament to both my questionable research methods and the endless amount of incest in US culture

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 12d

By this logic you could get rid of almost all upper administration who serve neither undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, or staff and are much less valuable than a univeristy press

Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 12d

"Bucknell has decided to close its highly respected, decades-old UP in June 2026. The stated reason? The press serves scholars, not Bucknell undergrads. Bucknell undergrads—& some grad students as well—disagree." FANTASTIC piece on BUP's student internship program. networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

Bucknell UP Closure Would Also Mark End of Vital Student Internship Program | H-Net

A post from Feeding the

networks.h-net.org

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 16d

just completely absurd - no one more opposed to a functioning university than upper level admin

vijay iyer @vijayiyer.bsky.social · 16d

Everyone in academia should read this piece about our dear, brilliant colleague @durba.bsky.social

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

A Surprise Tenure Denial in Harvard’s Gender Studies Program Leaves Some Faculty Shaken | News | The Harvard Crimson

Durba Mitra’s colleagues thought she was a near-perfect tenure candidate. When her bid was shot down in June, they were left questioning the process.

www.thecrimson.com

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 16d

hard to remember there was a time when we could just enjoy things but anyway i watch this video a lot and like it (I also watch videos of pandas a lot)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=44lL...

THE EX - "That's not a virus" - Festival Hors Pistes 2015

YouTube video by What Comes Around Goes Around

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Brian Connolly

Martin Empson @resolutereader.bsky.social · 17d

My latest review looks at a collection of essays on Thomas Mützer and the German Peasants' War from a special edition of History of the Present journal resolutereader.blogspot.com/2025/09/lore...
@brianconnolly.bsky.social

Cover of History of the Present journal. The special edition on "Thomas Müntzer and the German Peasants' War at 500 years" edited by Loren Goldman and Massimiliano Tomba. The cover is a plan red colour, fading to orange in the corner. The text also includes the details Volume 15, Number 1, April 2025.

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 19d

Finally have made it to the point where I no longer have to watch incest porn as a professional obligation

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 27d

ugh - the perpetual mystification of the concrete and obvious is among the many bad features of mainstream liberal thought

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 27d

it's actually not very confusing at all

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 27d

ezra klein is an idiot, which is not really news

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 28d

university presidents should be the lowest paid employees at a university

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 28d

A beautiful, moving essay on resistance from Joan Scott

www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-g...

A General Air of Anxiety - Boston Review

The Red Scare targeted my father. He taught me the meaning of resistance.

www.bostonreview.net

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 31

The NY Times commitment to stupidity should not be underestimated as a causal factor these days

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · Aug 31

My favorite sentence in the New York Times explainer on Mamdani and socialism.

The closest Mr. Mamdani gets to socialism is his belief in treating people more equitably.

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 30

trying to finish something and going to put this random request out there: does anyone have library access to the following:
Yehudi Cohen, "The Disappearance of the Incest Taboo" Human Nature vol 1 no 1 (1978)? this is not the same Human Nature from Springer

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 30

Hard to imagine something I would be less interested in than a biopic (worst genre) about Bruce Springsteen (extremely annoying)

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 26

i've been wanting to do something similar with Freud - do you offer this as a history course?

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 26

the current higher ed collapse is tied to the absurd pursuit of rankings, a problem for almost all institutions in one way or another. Every dumb idea - AI, crypto investments, a new over-leveraged building/stadium, etc - is justified in terms of an ultimately incomprehensible competitive advantage

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · Aug 25

The “this time trump crossed a line” formulation and its persistent use since 2016 is both completely bonkers (this time?) and a good example of repetition compulsion….

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