Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matthew P. Brown

@mpbrown.bsky.social

210 followers 180 following 140 posts

english & the center for the book, uiowa / ed, ui press / author, *the pilgrim & the bee* (penn, 2007) and *the novel & the blank* (jhup, 2025) / opinions about drink are, in a certain sense, from my employer https://english.uiowa.edu/people/matthew-brown

english.uiowa.edu

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 11d

*the novel and the _____* available now from mighty @hopkinspress.bsky.social use discount code HTNAB25 #bookhistory #skystorians #18c #vastearlyamerica #c18 #c19

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Apr 7

guys come for the book trades yawning, stay for the sex-gender system critique, THE NOVEL AND THE BLANK forthcoming august 2025 from big ups publisher @hopkinspress.bsky.social

page proof prose from *the novel and the blank: a literary history of the book trades in eighteenth-century british america*

1 5 3

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 2h

Love this new post fr @mollyhardy.bsky.social for @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social about the need for x-discipline data curation and preservation! Plus, love the 1790 census jug as the exemplar of thinking across domains. 🤓 scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/10/08/g...

Guest Post - Rethinking Disciplinary Data Regimes - The Scholarly Kitchen

Between a political policy environment focused on defunding and deleting data collections – an environment in which little can be trusted – and an onslaught of new AI tools that feed indiscriminately ...

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

3 5

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 11d

*the novel and the _____* available now from mighty @hopkinspress.bsky.social use discount code HTNAB25 #bookhistory #skystorians #18c #vastearlyamerica #c18 #c19

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Apr 7

guys come for the book trades yawning, stay for the sex-gender system critique, THE NOVEL AND THE BLANK forthcoming august 2025 from big ups publisher @hopkinspress.bsky.social

1 5 3

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Jordan S. Carroll @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 11d

imagine emailing a senior research fellow at the Moneybags Institute of Wealth Creation to let him know that there's $500 and a lunch catered by Sodexo waiting for him if he's willing to fly coach cross-country to give a talk

James Medlock @jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 12d

More than anything, they want to be patted on the head and told they're a good boy by the liberal elites

6 34 250

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 15d

*the novel and the blank* available now, use discount code HTNAB25 at @hopkinspress.bsky.social #skystorians #bookhistory #vastearlyamerica #18c

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Apr 26

what if we have benjamin franklin all wrong? stay tuned for *the novel and the _____*, coming this fall from @hopkinspress.bsky.social

screenshot from the page proofs of THE NOVEL AND THE BLANK, featuring a header on Benjamin Franklin's less known world view

2 5

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 17d

i miss the beloved, viral ew&f guy on this day

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 19d

boycott Sinclair advertisers Menard's, Lebeda Mattress Factory, Wendy's, Liberty Mutual and let them know

The text of a message to Lebeda Mattress Factory:
Due to Lebeda's support of the Sinclair-owned television station KGAN in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I will be boycotting Lebeda and will be telling my community of friends, family, and co-workers to do the same. Lebeda is paying for advertising with a Sinclair station. As such, Lebeda is supporting a company that is trampling on free speech rights. Sinclair is using its power to disallow comments that reflect anything but approval for Donald Trump and his administration's behavior. This is how an authoritarian regime works, not how a democracy works. Aligning yourself with the values of democracy will help your business prosper.

2 5

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 21d

i wanna watch three days of the condor but i only have two hours

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 23d

fausto carmona sitting in for me at 2 pm CT on the every other hour, he keeps it simple, every other covers. it seems to work on the web when you open the "STREAM NOW" in safari...
krui.fm/events/the-e...

The Every Other Hour - KRUI Radio

THE EVERY OTHER HOUR. A diptych: alternation, juxtaposition, the generative contrast between two artists, an artist and her orbit, remotely consonant song titles, noise-making within a shared idiom, d...

krui.fm

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 23d

Share your favorite covers as a timeline cleanse?

youtu.be/kNhHIjr6Idg?...

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 24d

bsky.app/profile/osit...

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 24d

stand with this brick @modestholdings.com his courage can be everyone’s

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 25d

An Iowa official defied the governor’s orders to fly flags at half-staff for Charlie Kirk, writing he wouldn't honor a man who "did so much harm"

Official Defies GOP Governor's Order To Fly Flags At Half Staff For Charlie Kirk

He said he did not want to honor a man "who did so much to harm not only the marginalized, but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic."

www.huffpost.com

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Joseph O'Neill @josephoneill.bsky.social · 24d

The truly, truly strange thing about Kirk is that I have not seen his supporters quote one statement by him that illustrates his supposed nobility of character.

1 4 17

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 25d

it’s like Baby’s First Habermas without any further reflection

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 25d

These people have smarted themselves into the dumbest fucking arguments.

Determining whether someone is "doing politics the right way" depends almost entirely on the content of their speech! If someone lies constantly and endorses authoritarians that's not practicing good politics.

What Ezra means by "the right way," and what I meant expressing a similar line this morning, is that Kirk was operating within a liberal framework that was modeled on persuasion and included real, robust support for free speech. Obviously it's not an endorsement of the content.

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 27d

MTSU — the assistant dean of students was fired last night one hour after Senator Marsha Blackburn called on them to do so after her posts about Charlie Kirk.

100 140 460

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 25d

good blueple read reboot

Justin Taylor @justintaylor.bsky.social · 26d

Did anyone publish a novel last year about how the internet itself is an accelerator for mental illness & stochastic terror that works not just across ideological lines but as an active solvent of said lines, maybe presented in a slightly oblique way like idk a fake celebrity memoir? asking 4 friend

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 26d

everything's awful but just a note to say my new book is a valentine to the amazing place that is the library company of philadelphia, here's their swag from a few years back on my noggin, the novel & the blank is out and you can get it using the discount code HTNAB25 at JHUP site all praise the lcp

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · 27d

⬇️⬇️⬇️

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27d

i say this about once every six months but that final A Tribe Called Quest record is truly extraordinary. could make a legitimate case that it is their best record, which by default makes it one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

🌵 Elise Stickles 🍁 @elisestickles.bsky.social · 28d

I ventured over to twitter to see what Conor Friedersdorf has to say about this. In the last day he’s had time to post about Burger King and a 1907 car race, but has remained mysteriously silent on his favorite topic, suppression of academic freedom of speech.

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 28d

Update on the Texas A&M professor / cell phone video situation: the professor has been fired by the A&M president
president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...

This afternoon, following full consideration of the facts related to this situation, I directed the Provost to terminate the professor involved, effective immediately. Please understand that these decisions were mine alone and were not
made lightly. While I cannot provide all the details at this time, I will share the following facts.

4 5 24

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Sep 6

gotta rethink their adhesion optics

bottle of gorilla glue with is label detached

1 5

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Sep 5

ty!

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Sep 5

this? slaps.

Erik Inglis @allthebeset.bsky.social · Sep 5

anyone else got a brass and accordion playlist?
if so, this should be on it
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsuq...

Cheap Cocaine

YouTube video by Willi Carlisle - Topic

www.youtube.com

1 1

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · Aug 31

why can't the democrat messaging on trans people be "no, we are not going to force children to undergo genital inspections in order to play sports"

12 870 3.7K

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · Aug 31

why do transphobes have a fucking monopoly on "having some concerns about fairness", can i have a concern about the fairness of normalizing kids getting their genitals inspected by strange adults for reasons entirely unrelated to health or hygiene as a prerequisite for peewee soccer?

1 160 1K

Matthew P. Brown @mpbrown.bsky.social · Aug 29

what is "small data" and what do archive rats do with it? *the novel and the _____* is out now! #bookhistory #18c #c18 #vastearlyamerica

1 2

Reposted by Matthew P. Brown

Hopkins Press @hopkinspress.bsky.social · Aug 28

Through an innovative blend of historical rigor and cultural insight, "The Novel and the Blank" by @mpbrown.bsky.social uncovers the vibrant, overlooked world of the eighteenth-century British American print shop and reveals the complexities of colonial life.

www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

The book "The Novel and the Blank: A Literary History of the Book Trades in Eighteenth-Century British America" by Matthew P. Brown on top of a bookshelf.

2 5