Nora Slonimsky

Terrific "Taking Stock and Setting Agendas" meeting this past weekend @theitps.bsky.social centered on early American studies and digital history. Thanks to @noraslonimsky.bsky.social, @ben-wright.bsky.social, & Mark Boonshoft for the chance to present "Hard of Hearing: Podcasting Early America."

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

Exclusive: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities – including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez – to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found.

Exclusive: Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities — including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez — to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found reut.rs/3JWb00R

I went to my first game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, thanks to @noraslonimsky.bsky.social. We had a great time, although I had a better time because the Red Sox beat the Yanks 12-1.

The pageturner

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations"

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

This is so so so wonderful, friend! Many congratulations 🎉🎊🎈 (and I’m going to be in Richmond for a few days some time in the fall so a perfect excuse to hang out!)

Sarah Gronningsater discusses her multiple award-winning new book, The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024).

lawandhistoryreview.org/article/sara...

The JCB is seeking a senior leader for its ambitious digital programs. Our Associate Director for Digital Asset Management will guide the continuing development of our innovative platform, Americana, and oversee the digitization of library collections. 1/3

Thank you for participating! @kawulf.bsky.social and I are so grateful!

And thank you as well to the wonderful audience, and @jmadelman.bsky.social @benjaminepark.bsky.social and others for sharing here!

Thank you to @unlawfulentries.bsky.social @joycechaplin.bsky.social @jimambuske.bsky.social @zacharyconn.bsky.social @samsnyder8.bsky.social @profmsinha.bsky.social and the other wonderful speakers for your amazing contributions!

Entrance to a building with light wood floors, a black poster display and a bright orange banner that says welcome

A blond haired smiling woman in a checkered blazer stands behind a dark wood podium next to a tv screen

A group of ten people smiling at the camera stand in front of a wooden panels with a multicolored animal mural with characters from Alice in Wonderland

Many highlights of @shearites.bsky.social #SHEAR2025 but elated by the tremendous (3 minute!) talks at “10 Things to Know about the American Revolution” spotlight at the Providence Public Library! So grateful to have worked on this with the inimitable @kawulf.bsky.social & @jcblibrary.bsky.social

Really fun lunch event coinciding with SHEAR’s conference. Ten brilliant scholars of the American Revolution were given a near-impossible task: make a bold point about the Revolution in *three* minutes and only using *one* PowerPoint slide. The result was a vibrant & provocative conversation!

Thank you so much for being there!

A donation of as little as $5 a month to PBS gives you access to the PBS Passport app and there is SO much good content to stream there. Best $5 I spend.

Another disgrace.

I made a #DH2025 feed that looks for posts that include the hashtag and posts from/about @dh2025lisbon.bsky.social. You can press the 📌 for easy access.

This event is going to be so cool! And the idea, cooked up with @noraslonimsky.bsky.social, is to do this format again in 2026. We're excited about it! And super grateful to this awesome line-up of scholars.

Among the dozens of undergraduate degree programs at IU Bloomington that are being eliminated or suspended with plans either to eliminate or merge them were Art History, American Studies, Atmospheric Science, Cognitive Science, Comparative Literature, Dance, Earth Science, French, Geography, East Asian Studies, Gender Studies, German Studies, Italian, Music/Ballet, Religious Studies, Spanish, and Statistics.

I’d missed this last week but Indiana passed a new law that is leading to the forced elimination of hundreds of majors across their state universities. Apropos of recent events, the eliminated majors include atmospheric science. Sabotage is a word that comes to mind.

www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

We must not leave this out of the account of what they have done. What Musk and Trump and Vought did. What Johnson and his band of sycophants allowed them to do. What tens of millions of fellow Americans endorse.

Meta Wins Blockbuster AI Copyright Case—but There’s a Catch A federal judge ruled that Meta did not violate the law when it trained its AI models on 13 authors' books.

MORE huge AI copyright news: A big decision in Kadrey v. Meta, one of the most closely-watched legal battles. The judge sided with Meta, but *very* begrudgingly. www.wired.com/story/meta-s...

Next week!

You can still register on eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ishtip-16t...

Downloadable PDF on our website: ishtip.org/final-progra...

For those outside NYC, Brad Lander isn’t just a mayor candidate, he’s also the NYC Comptroller—the chief financial officer and auditor of the biggest city in the country.

I shared on a personal account that it feels odd to be talking about work in a 'business as usual' way with the layers of what's going on. But since part of the problem is the attempt to stop such 'business' (scholarship, research, creativity) from happening, it might be that much more important.⬇️

Again, thoroughing attack on the Infrostucture. Why the obsessive focus on the National Archives? The National Archives had the temerity to ask for Pres. Trump’s presidential records, the ones he was keeping unsecured, in a bathroom. Since 1978, Presidential records are owned by U.S. Government.

"[These cuts] would disproportionately harm rural areas and smaller communities, where public media really is a lifeline," according to our Tim Richardson. Tell Congress to oppose proposed cuts to public media. Send a letter today. pen.org/saveindepend...

The FCC Must Reject Efforts to Lock Up Public Airwaves President Trump’s attack on public broadcasting has attracted plenty of deserved attention, but there’s a far more technical, far more insidious policy change in the offing—one that will take away Ame...

The FCC is contemplating killing free TV broadcast, encrypting broadcasts so they can charge for communications over the airwaves

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...