@taylorprescott.bsky.social
Christian. Historian. Political Enthusiast. Hip-Hop Head. Coffee Fiend. I study abolition, sovereignty, and Black politics in eighteenth and nineteenth century Sierra Leone
I stand with the courageous men and women of Iran. We must oppose authoritarianism everywhere.
January 14, 2026 at 3:30 PM
I stand with the courageous men and women of Iran. We must oppose authoritarianism everywhere.
Reposted
I didn’t think today could get worse.
TMZ reporting Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead with wounds consistent with a knife
Rob Reiner, Wife Michele Found Dead in Their L.A. Home with Knife Wounds
Rob Reiner -- the legendary director -- and his wife Michele Singer Reiner have died ... TMZ has confirmed.
www.tmz.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:09 AM
I didn’t think today could get worse.
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OMG! Rob Reiner and his wife have been found dead and it’s being investigated as a homicide.
What an absolute loss.
No words. Only sorrow. 😞 💔
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
What an absolute loss.
No words. Only sorrow. 😞 💔
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Rob Reiner and wife Michele found dead, officials say
Los Angeles police are investigating the deaths as homicides. The acclaimed director of “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally…” was 78.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 15, 2025 at 5:56 AM
OMG! Rob Reiner and his wife have been found dead and it’s being investigated as a homicide.
What an absolute loss.
No words. Only sorrow. 😞 💔
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
What an absolute loss.
No words. Only sorrow. 😞 💔
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Reposted
The Library Company of Philadelphia will become part of Temple Libraries
now.temple.edu/news/2025-12...
now.temple.edu/news/2025-12...
Temple University Board of Trustees vote to approve merger with Library Company of Philadelphia
Upon completion of the merger, the Library Company will become part of Temple Libraries, helping to further enrich one of the top university research libraries in North America.
now.temple.edu
December 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The Library Company of Philadelphia will become part of Temple Libraries
now.temple.edu/news/2025-12...
now.temple.edu/news/2025-12...
Reposted
Two people were found dead on Sunday inside a Los Angeles home that belongs to the actor and director Rob Reiner, the authorities said.
Two Bodies Found at Home Owned by Director Rob Reiner
The Los Angeles Police Department said it is investigating the deaths as “an apparent homicide.”
nyti.ms
December 15, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Two people were found dead on Sunday inside a Los Angeles home that belongs to the actor and director Rob Reiner, the authorities said.
Reposted
so far tonight msnbc has interviewed two students from brown university that are also survivors of separate high school shootings.
insanity.
insanity.
December 14, 2025 at 1:28 AM
so far tonight msnbc has interviewed two students from brown university that are also survivors of separate high school shootings.
insanity.
insanity.
Reposted
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky is in political trouble at home. Yet this very vulnerability makes him even less likely to yield to the Trump administration.
For a Weakened Zelensky, Yielding to Trump Is Riskier Than Defiance
With most Ukrainians rejecting a surrender, he would court a crisis with his own military if he accepted major concessions to Russia.
on.wsj.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky is in political trouble at home. Yet this very vulnerability makes him even less likely to yield to the Trump administration.
Reposted
"Peace in our time"
November 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
"Peace in our time"
Tatiana Schlossberg’s piece in the New Yorker was powerful and heartbreaking.
November 24, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Tatiana Schlossberg’s piece in the New Yorker was powerful and heartbreaking.
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The headline is malpractice, but the column, by John McWhorter, manages to be the most unsophisticated, two-dimensional treatment of this subject I've come across. And the fact that there is a lot of reading to choose from contradicts his entire thesis.
Opinion | One Horror of Slavery That Until Recently Could Not Be Told
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The headline is malpractice, but the column, by John McWhorter, manages to be the most unsophisticated, two-dimensional treatment of this subject I've come across. And the fact that there is a lot of reading to choose from contradicts his entire thesis.
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Because if that's someone's goal, they aren't going to listen. But I have never taught the history of slavery in a class (usually Atlantic slavery /ends/ a class, given my time period) without the broader story. And then we talk about what changed and why it took a horrible thing and made it worse.
November 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Because if that's someone's goal, they aren't going to listen. But I have never taught the history of slavery in a class (usually Atlantic slavery /ends/ a class, given my time period) without the broader story. And then we talk about what changed and why it took a horrible thing and made it worse.
Reposted
So yeah, sometimes when people bring up pre-modern traditions of slavery, including in Africa, and the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade, its clear where they are going politically and its more useful to shut that shit down.
November 14, 2025 at 2:29 PM
So yeah, sometimes when people bring up pre-modern traditions of slavery, including in Africa, and the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade, its clear where they are going politically and its more useful to shut that shit down.
Reposted
McWhorter here is suggesting "no one wants to talk about" something he then cites one of the most famous historians in the world talking about.
November 14, 2025 at 2:27 PM
McWhorter here is suggesting "no one wants to talk about" something he then cites one of the most famous historians in the world talking about.
Reposted
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
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my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Reposted
Summers has always been a shithead and even with this will probably still appear like clockwork on tv news braying on about inflation (wrong 99% of the time, then the one time he was right over Covid was praised as some sort of mystical clairvoyant - by the way everybody got that one right)
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Summers has always been a shithead and even with this will probably still appear like clockwork on tv news braying on about inflation (wrong 99% of the time, then the one time he was right over Covid was praised as some sort of mystical clairvoyant - by the way everybody got that one right)
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Today I'm leading a research lunch discussion for my department -- I'll talk a bit about a collection I'm editing with my friend Jim Vining (though hopefully my colleagues will do more talking than I do).
Religious left: still a thing!
Religious left: still a thing!
November 12, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Today I'm leading a research lunch discussion for my department -- I'll talk a bit about a collection I'm editing with my friend Jim Vining (though hopefully my colleagues will do more talking than I do).
Religious left: still a thing!
Religious left: still a thing!
Mamdani is wise to pick Lina Khan.
November 6, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Mamdani is wise to pick Lina Khan.
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It’s a problem when the people who endeavor to run the university hate the university.
October 29, 2025 at 1:24 AM
It’s a problem when the people who endeavor to run the university hate the university.
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There is only one real and sustainable solution to all of this, and that is an organized faculty. I mean that in labor sense: faculty across the UC must unionize. It has been demonstrated that Faculty Association members, not administrators, have had the courage to due the Feds, and our own bosses.
November 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
There is only one real and sustainable solution to all of this, and that is an organized faculty. I mean that in labor sense: faculty across the UC must unionize. It has been demonstrated that Faculty Association members, not administrators, have had the courage to due the Feds, and our own bosses.
Reposted
Homogenizing the ranks through reduced avenues of scholarship, as well as reducing the ranks numerically, is a perfect way to accomplish this shared goal of the feds and the administrative apparatus at UC.
November 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Homogenizing the ranks through reduced avenues of scholarship, as well as reducing the ranks numerically, is a perfect way to accomplish this shared goal of the feds and the administrative apparatus at UC.
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To my mind, not only is this a direct attack by a UC central admin content to capitulate and emulate the federal position that arrived via extortion letter, it is part of a much larger plan, congruent with UC central admin, of weakening and eliminating faculty governance and power.
November 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
To my mind, not only is this a direct attack by a UC central admin content to capitulate and emulate the federal position that arrived via extortion letter, it is part of a much larger plan, congruent with UC central admin, of weakening and eliminating faculty governance and power.
Reposted
UC Provost Katherine Newman has announced plans to defund this program, a preemptive capitulation with the feds that has not been ordered and should not occur. Newman has done this with zero consultation with campus-level leadership and none with any faculty — mentors or former fellows included.
November 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
UC Provost Katherine Newman has announced plans to defund this program, a preemptive capitulation with the feds that has not been ordered and should not occur. Newman has done this with zero consultation with campus-level leadership and none with any faculty — mentors or former fellows included.
Reposted
The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, PPFP, has been a jewel in the crown for faculty development and recruitment at the University of California for years and the results have been an expanded faculty with almost 100% tenure rates — unprecedented success.
November 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, PPFP, has been a jewel in the crown for faculty development and recruitment at the University of California for years and the results have been an expanded faculty with almost 100% tenure rates — unprecedented success.
Reposted
It's an insidious rhetorical sleight of hand to use "critics say" framing to critique the subject but never to mention who the critics are or what their agenda is. Peters does it three times in this article alone:
October 29, 2025 at 1:15 AM
It's an insidious rhetorical sleight of hand to use "critics say" framing to critique the subject but never to mention who the critics are or what their agenda is. Peters does it three times in this article alone: