Dr. Karen Carr
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quatrus.bsky.social
Dr. Karen Carr
@quatrus.bsky.social
3.2K followers 820 following 6K posts
anarchafeminist archaeologist PhD Michigan, Prof. Emer. Portland State (((she/elle))) Land back. Articles and (award-winning!) books at http://linktr.ee/karen.eva.carr. Coming soon: a history of gender and money, and a new take on ancient slavery.
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quatrus.bsky.social
idk if it's just for me, but it looks like Amazon's offering a 19% discount on my book Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming, so this might be the time to give someone a copy?

*If it's still too much, you can get cheaper copies on Amazon used, still delivering before xmas!
screenshot of Amazon listing showing the book discounted by 19%, so it would cost $30.92. Also shows "only 10 left in stock".
December 6, 2025 at 1:56 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Pritzker shows how Illinois could respond to Indiana and Texas redistricting.
"What's that Indiana? You want to gerrymander Texas style? K" and a map of Illinois with "17 Democratic-leaning Congressional district boundaries for Illinois" drawn by including a slice of Chicago in each district (and drawing the districts in rainbow colors, nice touch!)
December 3, 2025 at 7:01 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Writing recommendation letters? Some tips to avoid unconscious bias.
Poster: 'Avoiding gender bias in reference writingGot a great student? Planning to write a super letter of reference? Don’t fall into these common traps based on unconscious gender bias.' For the complete text see https://www.csw.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/avoiding_gender_bias_in_letter_of_reference_writing.pdf
December 3, 2025 at 4:16 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
The Mayflower passengers who arrived in Plymouth November 11, 1620

vs.

The Mayflower passengers who survived to Thanksgiving 1621, less than one year later.
top half: silhouettes of many families in black. bottom half, those who made it to Thanksgiving 1621, with many members of nearly all families grayed out, more than half the total people gone.
December 2, 2025 at 4:23 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Never forget.
thousands of squares of the AIDS quilt laid out in rows on the National Mall, with the Washington Monument visible.
December 1, 2025 at 10:25 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
(I believe the switch from gas stoves to electric stoves also cut the suicide rate, but two things can be true.)
1950s photo of a man smiling up at a woman bringing him coffee. Text: "The suicide rate among married women in 1950 was 22.1 per 100,000. Today it is 6.9 per 100,000. After the passage of no-fault divorce in the 1970s and 1980s, suicide rates dropped 20%, there was a 10% decline in women murdered by their partners, and rates of other kinds of domestic violence against women dropped 30%."
November 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Louisa May Alcott, in Eight Cousins, calls it a 'freedom suit'. I think there were a lot of terms.
214 Eight Cousins "for once in my life I have adopted a new fashion before Clara. My freedom suit is ordered, and you may see me playing tag with Rose and the boys before long,"answered Mrs. Jessie, nodding back at him."
November 29, 2025 at 7:37 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
things aren't as new as all that
Title: He Couldn't Be Sure Image: a woman in bloomers walking a bike and looking at a well-dressed man with a top hat and monocle. Text: 'Johnny (gazing at lady in rationals): "Aw, since cycling came into fashion, one cawn't be sure, don-cher-know, that a person is a man—aw—just because that—aw—person wears trowsers." She (looking straight at him): "No! that's true."
November 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Thanksgiving
White man and woman at thanksgiving table Younger man at thanksgiving table Plate loaded with thanksgiving food Pies on thanksgiving table
November 28, 2025 at 1:55 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
omg I thought for a second that was *my* picture of *my* pies:
Sweet potato pie and lattice-top apple pie on a black stovetop with a red teakettle and a Melitta coffee pot.
November 27, 2025 at 9:22 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Pies! (It’s just egg white on the sweet potato pie)
November 27, 2025 at 5:35 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Still picking fresh tomatoes off the curtain rods in my kitchen. Only a few left now.
November 27, 2025 at 5:08 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
For your edification, Heliodorus's description of a giraffe. Heliodorus says he's a Syrian, and he writes about 370 AD. He has no name for this creature, given (he says) as a gift from the people of Axum to the king of Ethiopia, but he has a great description:
"a beast of wonderful and rare nature as big as a camel. The colour of his skin was spotted as a leopard and though his hind quarters drooped lion-like, yet his shoulders, forefeet and breast rose high, far beyond the proportion of his other limbs. His neck was slender, and although the rest of his body was great, his throat was long and thin like a swan. His head was after a camel’s fashion and in size about twice as big as a Libyan ostrich, wherein he rolled his eyes terribly as though they were coloured beneath with red. In his gait he went like no beast either of the earth or water, but moved his legs on either side both at once, so that he moved his right legs and left legs not in order nor one after the other, but all his half body with either of them."
November 26, 2025 at 5:41 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
The Decolonial Atlas: "One of the many ironies of the anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe today is that it fails to acknowledge Europe’s own history of emigration. ... Europeans are the world’s largest diaspora, with an estimated population of over 480 million people."
world map showing places Europeans have migrated to in blue, with large numbers in the Americas, Australia, South Africa, and throughout northern Asia.
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
The tombstone of Prima Florentia, who died on the 25th of November, long ago, when her husband threw her into the Tiber river. Her parents set up this stone for her. She was sixteen and half years old.

(Necropoli dell'Isola Sacra -Fiumicino, Italy).
A rectangular white marble tombstone on a black background, carved rather unevenly.
November 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
on a long time scale, things are getting better.
8 graphs showing that over the last 200 years extreme poverty, child mortality and colonization are way down, while world population is more evenly spread over the continents and vaccination, education, literacy, and democracy are way up.
November 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Sat through a meeting to get my ICE whistle, find out when and where to show up.
November 21, 2025 at 5:23 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Don't own any. There.
How to Not Get Kidnapped for Your Bitcoin
November 17, 2025 at 4:05 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
@nytimes.com calls it for Mamdani. Huzzah!
election results for NYC mayor show 50.4% Mamdani with 75 % of votes counted.
November 5, 2025 at 2:38 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Mamdani up with 51.5% at 36% of the vote counted.
November 5, 2025 at 2:11 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
The woman said she took photos of suspected unmarked ICE vehicles after being alerted by a Facebook group that federal agents might be in the area.

www.kgw.com/article/news...
PORTLAND, Oregon — A Gresham woman said she was detained by federal immigration agents this week after taking photos of what she believed were unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles. The 23-year-old, who said she is a U.S. citizen, requested to remain anonymous but wants people to know what happened on Monday to protect others who may have the same experience with ICE agents. "They were laughing like it was a joke," she said, referring to staff members inside Portland's ICE building. "They did not care. There was no heart in them. It was cold." The woman said the agents followed her and surrounded her car after spotting her taking photos of their vehicles at the Gresham Chick-Fil-A. She said she refused to get out once, but agents were able to detain her at the next traffic signal. "They blocked me, they hit my driver window at that time," she said, "opened my door, took me out, put me against the car and put handcuffs on me. They weren't answering any of my questions." She said she was scared, "Maybe they were impersonating? Or, getting kidnapped and not seeing my family again?" She said an agent told her it was illegal to take their photos and took her to Portland's ICE building. "They chained my legs up," she said, "and they put me in a cell for seven hours. They wanted to ask me questions and record it, and I refused to answer any questions." She said when she asked to contact a lawyer, she was told the landline phones were down. She said she was fingerprinted and had her cheek swabbed, and agents acknowledged her record came back clean. "They opened my cell, and they told me I'm lucky for now," she said, "and that I will be released for now, but they'd keep my phone for evidence, and they're going to try to get a warrant to go through my phone." She said, "It's very inhumane, and I don't think it's right ... it's just not right." According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website, people have the right to photo…
November 4, 2025 at 12:50 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
They're not immigrants. This was their land before Europeans moved in.
map of north america in 1810, showing the territory of New Spain at its height, with most of what is now the US - Florida, the midwest, the west - all Spanish.
November 1, 2025 at 4:51 PM
quatrus.bsky.social
Pumpkin says F**K ICE
November 1, 2025 at 1:50 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Emergency zoom latin teacher needed to replace someone who has fallen ill. Anyone? 🏺
Classical Assn of the Middle West and South rtnesSopodg075525mmill3g6thc660tg7fcg7151 1 gg6gaa h l54 2 41m7m51 · Colleagues, Due to a medical emergency for one of our colleagues, I am writing to ask if you know of anyone who might be able to take on a Latin 101 (MoWe 10:00AM - 11:15AM and Fr 10:00AM - 10:50AM) and Latin 201 (MoWe 8:30AM - 9:45AM) class on Zoom for the time that he is away. We would be able to offer a stipend of $1500 for two weeks of class coverage, ideally starting Friday, 10/24, but later if need be. If the duration should be longer than two weeks, we could of course adjust this stipend. Our colleague shares the following about his courses: We are using the Oxford Latin Course, second edition. In Latin 101, we are on Chapter 10 of Book I. We are a bit behind in Latin 201. [...]I had to start at the beginning of Oxford Latin Course Book III in that class. We are now on Chapter 41 in that book. Please let me know if you know of anyone who could take this on. We are, as I'm sure is evident, anxious to get someone in place as quickly as possible to minimize disruption for our students. Thank you so much for considering, Erin Erin C. Tarver, Ph.D. ​Chair, Humanities Division Professor of Philosophy Oxford College of Emory University 770-784-8369 e.c.tarver@emory.edu Image Book time to meet with me
October 31, 2025 at 4:44 AM
quatrus.bsky.social
Cheese blintzes and applesauce in half an hour, starting from apples, milk, flour, eggs, and butter. With yogurt on the side.
Photo of blintzes, applesauce, yogurt, salt on an Indian tablecloth.
October 30, 2025 at 4:14 AM