Alison Laurence

Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...

A reminder that we're collecting books, chapters, and journal articles by non-TT historians for publication in our year-end lists. Anything with a 2025 pub date is eligible and you can submit for your friends/colleagues! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...

A Postcard from the Festival of Monsters At UC Santa Cruz, we take monsters seriously.

“Monsters always speak of power — sometimes they speak for it, other times they speak against it.”

A postcard from @dinostalgia.bsky.social

The Paleontologist's Scrapbook Cartoons and poems from the dawn of prehistory

New, on Heat Death! While going through some Texan paleontology archives, I stumbled across a scrapbook. The result is a kind of time capsule of early 20th century paleontology pop culture in poems and (mostly) cartoons.
🧪🦖

For the official record, that poster is a superimposed image... I did not (would not!) try the wrath of a redwood so.

What the Fascist Tech Bros Get Wrong About Prometheus Those crypto boys are at it again, this time proposing a giant, 450-foot-tall statue on of San Francisco Bay’s Alcatraz Island, according to local outlet KRON4. The statue would be of Prometheus, w…

What the fascist tech bros get wrong about Prometheus. (And yes, they do want to build a 450-foot statue on Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay).

Mule Power Unpacking empires and diaspora in Mexico and the United States.

“what happens if we also reconnect with the mule? What can mules teach us about the black history of land and violence in the United States?”

A terrific piece of #envhist on mules, labor, and how “empire doesn’t always win” from @roguechieftan.bsky.social

www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

Just a day and some change to get your monstrous pitches in to @contingent-mag.bsky.social! The submission window closes Monday, October 20th.

contingentmagazine.org/cfp-a-time-o...

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...

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.

"The Anonymous Animal: (Not) Naming and (Not) Knowing in the Anthropocene" by Whitney Barlow Robles, in our Special Issue: 'Animals and the History of Natural History'
online.ucpress.edu/ah/issue/1/3

We're interested in fictional and speculative spaces, too! And we're defining our terms, both "dinosaur" and "park,” most generously. All long-extinct animals are welcome.

A green and white concrete T. rex (rather derpy) seems to smile for the camera. In the distance, an American flag flies over a Brontosaurus, with the same green and white paint job.

A concrete Stegosaurus is showing its age. The green paint is peeling to reveal layers of gray and yellow beneath.

A concrete Triceratops green but also greyed by time and the elements of South Dakota.

A green and white Anatotitan (Edmontosaurus) looks out over Rapid City. It's September and some of the green trees have already turned a vibrant autumnal yellow.

Here's an example of what we're after: the WPA Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, seen as a way to cash in on tourists that the stony faces of former U.S. presidents—then being carved into the sacred Six Grandfathers on Oceti Sakowin lands—would draw to the Black Hills. livingnewdeal.org/sites/dinosa...

A promotional image for an edited collection called "Lands of the Lost: A Field Guide to Dinosaur Parks Physical, Fictional, and for the Future." The collection editors Dr. Victor Monnin & Dr. Alison Laurence are putting out a call for contributions. Abstracts are due January 10, 2026 to dinoparkfieldguide@gmail.com. Find the full call at: https://tinyurl.com/dinoparks The background image is of the outdated-but-adored Iguanodon models at Crystal Palace Park.

A call for 🦕🦖🦣 contributors! With Victor Monnin, I'm editing a collection about extinct animal parks—it's a field guide, of sorts, that turns a critical eye on places real, imagined, and yet to be. Find the full CFP for LANDS OF THE LOST here: tinyurl.com/dinoparks #PaleoSky #HistSci #EnvHist #STS

An astonishing story involving a great deal of impressive detective work to find the last known great auks. The story of their dispersal, literally in terms of organs and skins, and extinction is bleak.

You Can Study That? What could be more satisfying than immersing yourself in the history of something you love?

A brand new mailbag—yes, you CAN study that, but how?

That legitimately sent a shiver down my spine. Is this praxis?

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...

Our new CFP is up and it is monstrous.

You know, I think I was channeling someone... or something... else when I typed up that line.

A skeletal monster with a skeleton bird on its tongue is the poster image for the 2025 Festival of Monsters, Oct. 15-18 in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Only 2 weeks before the Festival of Monsters! Keynote 10/15 by David Livingstone Smith, conference 10/16-17, and a day of events including a panel with @almakatsu.bsky.social Nat Cassidy, and @gretchenmcneil.bsky.social at @bookshopsantacruz.bsky.social on 10/18. Details monsterstudies.ucsc.edu

Normally our December issue is six mini-essays, but with the support of the Kitchings Family Foundation, we're going to be able to support six shorts--twice the word count, twice the pay!--as well as an amazing feature-length review we've already got lined up.

A painting depicts two cars zooming in opposite directions on a roller coaster. In the first human riders are visibly afraid. In the second skeletons are reaching out. The meme overlay reads: "Skeletons who want to be friends with me." And over a frightened blonde woman, "Me, surprised, but excited to be friends with skeletons."

And here's the "Monsters" CFP in meme form...
Credit for the original painting: comic book artist Johnny Craig

Allowing my typo to remain (though it PAINS me to do so) because it cuts right to the heart of it, doesn't it? Fiends are friends too.

elmo from sesame street is surrounded by cookies falling around him Alt: A fluffy blue muppet called Cookie Monster dances ecstatically under a cataract of chocolate chip confections. He's trying (but failing?) to catch the cookies in his mouth.

It's monster time!

The monster is a friend, or so we @contingent-mag.bsky.social suggest in our CFP... a fiend to historians especially, though not exclusively.

Pitch us an essay about your historical monster, whatever form that monster takes, by October 20!

a man with a pumpkin on his head is standing in a cemetery ALT: a man with a pumpkin on his head is standing in a cemetery

December issue CFP arrives today!

a black and white photo of a monster with barbed wire around its neck ALT: a black and white photo of a monster with barbed wire around its neck

This year, we'll be publishing a ✨deluxe✨ December issue with 6 shorts and a feature-length review, made possible in part by a grant from the Kitchings Family Foundation!

The CFP arrives on Wednesday October 1. Don't miss it.

a black and white photo of a man with a stethoscope around his neck screaming . ALT: a black and white photo of a man with a stethoscope around his neck screaming .

The mad editors @contingent-mag.bsky.social have been conjuring a new CFP for our December issue. It will debut soon. Keep your eyes open and get ready to pitch. As always, the GIF is a hint.

a dark cave with a glowing light coming out of it Alt: Mothra emerges from her cocoon in Godzilla KOTM

A new CFP emerges this week! Our seventh December issue is going to be bigger and better than ever, so make sure to keep an eye out for the call. As always, the GIF is a hint.

New fridge arrives this afternoon! Until then, I get to live in hope that my landlord has splurged on a model with an ice maker. (There will be no ice maker, but one *must* dream.)

View out my kitchen window: a half dozen skinny palm trees and other greenery. The red and blue striped fumigation tent across the street looks like such fun. Why are they so inviting?

Doing a fridge worth of dishes—because !what joy! my fridge died and the room temp leftovers aren’t worth risking—but at least there’s a jolly view. The forbidden circus beckons.

Large Language Muddle | The Editors The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

“Not only is the ratio of AI’s resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.”

www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...