Steven Nelson

From Melania to Kid Rock’s halftime show: why is Maga art so dreadful? As the right stokes culture wars, their alternatives to ‘woke’ Hollywood prove to be shoddily made and uninspired

The $64,000 question.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

ACLS Joins PEN America in Letter to Texas A&M Board of Regents The American Council of Learned Societies joins PEN America in sending a letter in defense of academic freedom to the Texas A&M Board of Regents

ACLS and several of our member societies signed on to a @penamerica.bsky.social letter to the Texas A&M Board of Regents defending academic freedom and urging them to rescind censorship policies: bit.ly/4bJ12fo

PSA

I only ever had TAs as back up dancers/models once.

wins the internet

That way there is time enough for my question.

Well…it’s more of a comment.

He also conducted a wedding, so yeah

See also: Your portion of the meeting agenda that said you only needed 10 minutes for.

Also applies to proposal defenses.

Why would you ask for permission?

Yup.

I’m beginning every panel I chair for the rest of my career with this frontal attack…

Least you can do is have a walk-up song

a man in a white shirt and white pants is holding a ball ALT: a man in a white shirt and white pants is holding a ball

You don't have one?

And now for the most academic (and accurate) take on the Bad Bunny halftime show...

This is academic violence

a man in a white suit stands in a crowd of people ALT: a man in a white suit stands in a crowd of people

That's fair.

I will not fault him for having down his homework.

Same!

a man in a white shirt is dancing in front of a crowd ALT: a man in a white shirt is dancing in front of a crowd

BAM!!

If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Bad Bunny did his homework.
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

Is it too early to confess that I was never a fan of Chomsky or his work?

"we fired all of our Black and Brown journalists and media critics and for some reason are writing bad articles about the Bad Bunny halftime show"

Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”

This is why we need to be telling our stories.

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible - About the Documentary | American Masters | PBS Discover the extraordinary life of poet, philosopher and music visionary Sun Ra, who self-produced more than 200 albums.

"PBS will spotlight Sun Ra and his Philly musical collective on 'American Masters'---The episode on the experimental jazz musician, who led his namesake Arkestra, will premiere Friday, Feb. 20" www.pbs.org/wnet/america...

Unlocking Justice How we can challenge social injustice—with data and humanity

It's Feb., so #AcademicSky nerds may soon need to think about fall 2026 course offerings. If you will teach anything related to race and/or the criminal legal system and/or data, there is something in my book for you and I hope you might consider using it. Very happy to answer questions. Also,

Another day another press release for an AI grifter posing as news. Thanks to my friend (redacted here) for texting me this new one.

oil painting La mujer barbuda/Magdalena Ventura con su marido; a bearded woman nursing her baby while standing up. Queer in/visibility in pink, plus a QR code to the conference website

Call for Papers, please circulate!

Ethics of queer in/visibility
Heidelberg, September 30 - October 2, 2026
queer-in-visibility.de

Keynote speakers:
J Calder
(Linguistics, University of Colorado Boulder)
Anna Hájková @ankahajkova.bsky.social
(History, University of Warwick)

a woman wearing a black turtleneck and gold hoop earrings is sitting in front of a red table talk logo ALT: a woman wearing a black turtleneck and gold hoop earrings is sitting in front of a red table talk logo

No lies detected.