Dr. Erica Johnson

First death reported from meat allergy caused by tick bite After months of investigation, researchers confirmed that a New Jersey man died of a tickborne allergy called alpha-gal syndrome after eating a hamburger.

A 47-year-old man is the first person known to have died from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

On a quiz, a student wrote Voltaire as "Volitaire." Was Voltaire volatile? Please discuss.

1/n Belatedly (for which I blame all the things this semester), I am celebrating Karin Wulf's wonderful, important, and gorgeous new book. So long in the making and so excellent. Order it and read it now if you haven't yet! 😍

The way we board planes is so inefficient.

Families on SNAP worry about not just feeding themselves but also their pets With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.

With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.

Autumn 2025 GLOBALIZING EARLY MODERN RECIPES INTRODUCTION By Lavinia Gambini, Lucy Havard, and Amanda E. Herbert, Editors The early modern globalization of food and medicine was also a globalization of recipes. A...

The Autumn 2025 issue of The Recipes Project is live! This issue, GLOBALIZING EARLY MODERN RECIPES, was co-edited by Lavinia Gambini, Lucy Havard, & Amanda Herbert.

recipes.hypotheses.org

Who is going to the SHA in St. Pete?

I don’t think I have ever been this burnt out and demoralized and part of this is because institutions are not taking our concerns about the pedagogical harms of widespread and uncritical adoption of LLMs in higher education seriously.
It’s exhausting to do this without any support.

I am so pleased with me from before my trip, because she worked ahead so that I wouldn't have to scramble with jetlag.

America: A History of Ideas Idea 1 - Taxes, Tyranny, and Treason: Who Gets to Define Liberty Anyway?

Nice, short piece by historian Dr Alex Sessa on the American Revolution and the question of liberty substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Claiming Reparations, Claiming the City - Clarence Lang, 2025 Historians of the African American urban experience have revived scholarly efforts to document Black communities’ “right to the city.” These explorations have f...

Article Abstract: Claiming Reparations, Claiming the City
by Clarence Lang journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Shifting Focus: Photography of Enslaved People in Tennessee Tennessee State Museum Curator of Social History, Tranae Chatman, explores the early photography of enslaved people.

Shifting Focus: Photography of Enslaved People in Tennessee
tnmuseum.org/Stories/post... The oldest images in the Museum’s collection were created between 1850 and 1900. These few images offer only a glimpse into the complex lives of the Tennesseans who lived during this period.

I highly recommend American Airlines' Premium Economy for long haul flights. Flew 14 hours from Doha to Philly, and it made that journey pleasant.

Starting our long journey back to South Carolina today. Rwanda has been wonderful, and I have met so many wonderful people.

Because I am still working out on this trip. I will always work out.

Converting kilos to pounds in the gym is comical. #histgym

Gettysburg suffers damage as advocates ask public to be vigilant during shutdown | CNN Politics The site of one of the most iconic battlefields in American history suffered recent damage, prompting a law enforcement investigation.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/p...

After 2 days of waiting, I finally received my luggage lats night. It has been an adventure shopping for clothing for a conference, but I have had some really nice interactions with local vendors.

Powerful image about democracy in the USA

As professors and administrators, we really are no better than our students when it comes to our technology dependency. During most panels, half the room is on a device doing something not conference related.

In a panel on AI, and the technology isn't working.

It is striking how much faculty from elsewhere in the world are so well-informed about higher education in the USA. I do not believe that most American professors are equally versed in higher education outside the USA.

We are getting a hearty dose of how the world sees the USA and higher education at this conference.

Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda

While Florence (South Carolina, USA) has an elevation of about 140 feet, Kigali (Rwanda) is around 5,140 feet. We are definitely feeling it when out walking about the hilly city.

Kigali is beautiful!

My luggage still has not made it to Rwanda, so I have had to do some shopping (something I actually dread).

Wish we could safari. Mostly just work.

Definitely!

I am heading to Rwanda for the International Association of Universities conference. So lucky to have this opportunity!