Brent Cebul

Dream Lab is a kind of Digital Humanities Summer Camp designed with grad students and early career humanities professionals in mind. In summer 2026, we are excited to offer six classes. Learn more about the classes below and click the links for registration information and instructor bios. Check out the FAQ for information about registration fees and daily schedules.

🚨 DREAM LAB AT PENN, MAY 26-29 MOTHERFUCKERS 🚨

This "Into the Stacks" feature was very fun to contribute to, in large part because it gave me a chance to highlight all of the wonderful work that @shafrhistorians.bsky.social have been doing in the past few decades to integrate religion more holistically into the study of U.S. foreign relations. 🗃️

Five days left to apply for the finance summer school vol. 3 👇

still pondering this piece. if you are interested in why rents (particularly in NYC) are so high, can't recommend it enough

2026: the year of three day school weeks

Penn announced we were open before we heard, which led me to believe / hope Penn knew the schools would be open. 😵

Francois Furstenberg on the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute — and much else, a great piece for @publicbooks.bsky.social

www.publicbooks.org/the-misuses-...

How and why police actually support the federal invasions—I have been working on this article for ~6 months, trying to make sense of Trump’s nationwide surge of DHS officers, how it has evolved, what brought us here, and what will remain after it ends.

Late last century I had the honor of earning a Ph.D from the finest American Studies department in the world at @utaustin.bsky.social.

This week the president of UT bowed to white supremacy and ended the department. I’m sick and angry. This is a dumb way to run a university.

How the groups behind ‘Penn Forward’ are shaping the University’s future The six working groups have submitted their recommendations to the plan’s steering committee ahead of a public release in “early 2026.” 

So inspired by all the management consultant speak glossing the otherwise confidential recommendations to overhaul the university. Sorry, "advance" the university. This is gonna be great. So many battlefronts.

www.thedp.com/article/2026...

I said this yesterday and I'll say it again. The Trump regime is running a squalid, disease-ridden and deadly concentration camp at Fort Bliss called Camp East Montana. Is it any wonder they don't want drones observing what happens there?

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consisten...

Now wait just a minute?!

hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

Well hello there @dygottlieb.bsky.social! So excited to jump into this! Congratulations!

Older daughter to younger after tickling her: “I just took my happiness out on you”

The closure of the Bryn Mawr birth center is an inconceivable loss | Opinion After 47 years and over 16,000 deliveries, the birth center will close its doors. The reason is simple and stark: It can no longer afford the rising cost of insurance.

This is such a shame

New in paper or new editions: great books by @timothyjlombardo.bsky.social and @brentcebul.bsky.social

www.pennpress.org/978081222483...

www.pennpress.org/978151282381...

My article on the occupational sterilizations at a chemical factory in West Virginia has escaped the containment of the paywall.

The next deadline for the Silicon Valley Archives's travel fellowship program is March 1, 2026. Apply! networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

In 1994 I took an anthropology class called "Cultures of Terror." It was about power and violence in authoritarian regimes.

I think about that class daily.

Here are some of the lessons that have kept me grounded because they help sense of the US right now.

these are public executions. 6 men against 1 they do not fear for their lives or even their safety. continuing to shoot him after he is lying immobile bleeding on the ground really drives home that this is just pure anger and hatred.

So grateful for the opportunity to welcome and work with @victorpickard.bsky.social, one of the foremost scholars and advocates for media democracy in the US. Victor's work on public media is especially urgent as oligarchs and media conglomerates amass ever more communication power at our expense.

Totally - hasn't hit a real swing state yet

I was deep in comps prep and responded to the snow with the glee of an undergrad set free . . . until I realized I just had to keep reading books.

I’ll never forget the huge snow there in 2010 — the whole place shut down for a week. Roasted a number of chickens.

Journalists, Editors, Podcasters interested in national security, technology, surveillance, foreign policy, intelligence, law enforcement, activism:

With the (audio)book's release, @brianhochman.bsky.social and I are happy to talk with you or facilitate a copy if you want to write about our volume.

I saw that The Graduate hotel is hosting ICE in Minneapolis. I won't be staying at that chain until they stop. @graduatehotels.bsky.social Please contact your local Graduate hotel if you agree.

Leaders of Historians’ Group Veto Resolutions Critical of Israel

@historians.org leadership’s refusal to let its own membership vote on a resolution on academic freedom is an anti-democratic act of moral and political cowardice. The organization can’t credibly oppose Trump’s assaults on academic freedom while repressing the freedom of its own members.

The Church Committee's investigation into the crimes of the intelligence community is about as good a model as we have for the kind of investigation into the crimes of ICE and other agencies. This is really a must-read for understanding our own moment.

People don't realize how much corporations are collaborating with—and making possible—ICE's deportation machine