Amanda Lanzillo

Killing people should not be something we do quicker than the speed of thought

Let me be clear: I’m glad Kristi Noem was fired. But we still have to abolish ICE.

Brilliant exhibit on Mexican traqueros who helped build the railways of Chicago & the Midwest, currently on at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Particularly stunned by the stories of people who were deported via the very tracks they built 😡.

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi | The dry and the wet burn together ‘The dry and the wet burn together’ is a Persian expression invoked when a fire spreads without discrimination. Once...

“If Trump’s intention was to remove Khamenei from the political landscape, he may instead have fixed him in it, recast in the eyes of his devotees as a figure of sacrifice rather than failure.”

I didn't go to journalism school, but this is... incorrect.

Call me a raving radical but I literally do not care whether your imperialist massacre of children is “constitutional” or not.

Number of students killed in Israeli attack on school in southern Iran rises to 24 We have reported earlier that an Israeli strike hit an elementary girl’s school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran, killing five people. Now, Iran’s Fars news agency is reporting that the number of students killed rose to 24.

No words.

Murderers.

Pretty incredible. This candidate went to the West Bank to see the violence of the occupation herself.

And Israeli settlers — apparently flanked by a soldier — immediately showed it to her by throwing eggs at her as she walked with an ex-soldier, a priest, and Jewish activists:

“Everyone thinks universities have to do what donors want because they pay the bills. But that gets it backward… Giant donations… often increase the university’s bills, generating new operating expenses for projects that may have only tenuous links to the university’s core mission...”

Intricately carved light brown stone tombs under a dome

Intricately carved light brown stone tombs, both in foreground and background. Bright blue sky.

A white woman in a green kurta with dark hair stands in front of a complex of intricately carved brown stone tombs.

I am apparently too old for travel now, currently absolutely dying from jet lag on my sofa in Chicago. Still, here’s a few cool pics from the Chaukhandi tombs on the edge of Karachi!

Grateful to the Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences journal and Melissa Baldwin and Dominik Huenniger for including my reflections on the methods & practices that I used to write my first monograph as part of their new special issue, "Historical Practice," on the many ways to be a historian.

And, as archives and libraries move towards digitization, physical access often becomes more restricted (cough *Indian National Archives* cough). We relinquish the ability to evaluate what is important for ourselves; those who choose items for digitization hold the power to choose what we see.

Online collections are great and vital in an age of visa/travel restrictions and limited humanities funding. But relying on them means excluding so much history, so many pasts & so many worlds contained in spaces like these (from Islamia College, Peshawar this week).

Does humanities research matter anymore? (opinion) The rapid collapse in available research funding is one crisis in the humanities we aren’t talking enough about, Asheesh Kapur Siddique writes.

It's possible to do a non-reactionary critique of the current landscape of humanities research funding: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

A large brown building with multiple domes. Students in white Kurtas and black jackets walk on the road in front of it.

A white mosque with three domes, surrounded by greenery and plants. A single man walks in front of it.

Islamia College, Peshawar, and its mosque 😍

Wish I could have fit a Lahore visit in this trip!

A white woman in a black kurta and purple scarf stand in the middle of a lane next to an old building with detailed carving. Men and women walk in the foreground and background.

Qissa Khwani bazaar, Peshawar. Some days academia is hard, but most days I still can’t believe I get to go cool places and learn cool things as my job.

Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...

Concentration camps:

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees

Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries.

One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home.

Abolish the billionaire class:

Israel is still bombing Gaza.

They have received all their prisoners of war, but they keep bombing.

A massive unfinished ceiling mural with a blue background, gold calligraphy, and intricate design depicting the universe.

Absolutely stunned by Sadequain’s final (unfinished) mural, on the ceiling of the Frere Hall library in Karachi. My poor photography skills can’t do the scale or detail justice.

Sindh archives, written in English and Sindhi, with blue tiling around, and a Pakistan flag in the foreground.

Sindh state archives

Key quote from the judge's order releasing Liam Ramos & his father: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned."

I’m honestly really confused by this perspective, there’s tons of momentum, hundreds of people organized in our neighborhoods, learning from our rapid response groups how to most effectively fight back. I’m going to continue to try to protect my neighbors as best I can. I hope you do too.

Recordings help the loved ones of the people abducted know what happened & help networks of lawyers & activists to spring into action and get people out. ICE often breaks the law in their abductions, and judges will & do release people. They're for legal documentation, not social media consumption.

A poster reading: THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY The Faculty of Arts and Sciences presents Public Conversations fieldnotes INAUGURAL TALK Out of Empire: Social Historical Approaches to India-Afghanistan Hijrat of 1920 This talk examines the hijrat of 1920, when tens of thousands left British India for Afghanistan. Challenging portrayals of the migration as a doomed, elite-driven Pan-Islamist movement, it draws on migrant memoirs to center the perspectives of the muhajirin themselves. Focusing on migrants journeys, the talk shows how experiences of hijrat varied by gender, class, age, and ethno-linguistic background, and how social backgrounds shaped efforts to build new communities beyond British rule. A talk by Amanda Lanzillo, Assistant Professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago 17 Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 4:00PM D-Lab, 10th Floor, UC Building, Aga Khan University SWIPE TO LEARN MORE

And then on 4 February at Aga Khan University I’ll speak on and workshop part of my new book project, Out of Empire, a social history of the India-Afghanistan hijrat of 1920. Both talks are open to the public but registration required.

A poster reading: PUBLIC LECTURE Pious Labor: Islam, Artisanship, and Technology in Colonial India SPEAKER Amanda Lanzillo Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Amanda Lanzillo examines Islam, labor, and technology in colonial South Asia. She traces migrations between British India and Afghanistan to reveal how religious ethics, mobility, and craft reshaped social worlds beyond empire. REGISTER Tuesday. February 03, 2026 05:30 PM 07:00 PM For More Details: 021 38104700 Ext: 2671, 3003 +92 21 111 422 422 www.iba.edu.pk G&T Auditorium, Main Campus, IBA

Will be in Karachi next week and will give a couple of talks on both previous and on-going work! First up will be a book talk on my first book, Pious Labor, at IBA on 3 February.

Bucking a Global Trend, Spain Offers Undocumented Migrants a Legal Way to Stay

It really is that easy.

May this tiny fleck of Nazi scum who terrorized our streets never return and never know peace. And may we not let him be used as a scapegoat for a system that is rotten to its core. Abolish ICE. Abolish DHS.