It’s June, & with it comes my 279th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all!
Last week was the second straight Easter Egg hunt without a winner, so I’m going to pause that layer for now. If those hunts are something you’d like to see continue, leave a comment below & I’ll make sure to restart them going forward!
Articles:
Starting with a few excellent pieces as Pride 2026 gets underway, including Andrea Carolina Velez-Parra for Nursing Clio on a surgeon’s case in the history of intersex medicine in Colombia.
Nico Mara-McKay wrote for Ephemeral Record on the limits & opportunities of Canada’s 1969 partial decriminalization of homosexuality.
& The Advocate shared an excerpt from Nina Sankovitch’s Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America’s Most Radical Revolutionary.
Turning to other excellent articles from the week, I really enjoyed the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder’s Noah Riccardi’s interview with Walter D. Greason (SAGE GRAY) & Artika Tyner on the last fifty years of Black progress & what the next decade demands.
A pair of great articles for Hyperallergic to share this week, including Sháńdíín Brown on a new exhibition on the groundbreaking Black & indigenous artist Edmonia Lewis, & Nereya Otieno on the Black photographers who exposed her own conditioning about Black beauty.
Likewise a pair of wonderful pieces for LitHub to share, including Sarah Wang on what it means to write a novel her immigrant mother can never read, & my Fitchburg State colleague Steve Edwards on his new essay connection & reading neurodiversity in literature & in life.
Over at NiCHE Canada, Karen Sorenson wrote for Mountain Voices: The Mountain Legacy Project & a Century of Change in Western Canada on her work as the mayor of Banff.
For his Pittsburgh City Paper column, David S. Rotenstein traced how the city’s palaces of porn have become cultural assets.
While for the final post in the Urban History Association Metropole’s Cities at Play series, Desiree Beare wrote about lowriders & the performance of Chicano urban play in Albuquerque. & also check out their call for pitches for an upcoming theme month on Selling the City.
I always appreciate Michael Leroy Oberg’s thorough compilations of recent & forthcoming work in indigenous studies, & here’s the latest.
& for folks who are working on adding their own work to such conversations, check out Ann Daly for the Journal of the Early Republic Panorama with tips on writing a dissertation chapter.
Four open-access academic publications to share this week, including Hiba Alkhalaf, J.A. Baird, Anne Chen, Melissa S. Cradic, Isber Sabrine, & Valeria Vitale for Advances in Archaeological Practice on creating more inclusive archives.
Also open-access is H. Holden Thorp for Science on how the latest Trump administration plans are another red alert for the American scientific community.
& a pair of open-access articles on the Constitution to share, including Pratheepan Gulasekaram for The Yale Law Journal on the Constitution & the border, & Anthony Michael Kreis for SSRN on discovering the historical Anglo-American Constitution.
Also a pair of columns from Saturday Evening Post colleague to share this week, including Ryan Reft on Gautham Rao’s new book & how slave patrols oppressed multiple American communities.
While for her Missing in History column, Nancy Rubin Stuart wrote about the complex story of Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective.
Current Events:
Turning to current events articles, vital Pride humanifesto from Sandy Allen for their What’s Helping Today newsletter on how we all can benefit from transgenderism.
A few excellent pieces this week on AI & new technologies, including Douglas Sackman for the AHA’s Perspectives on how automobile history can provide a roadmap for where we’re headed.
The brilliant Ted Chiang wrote for The Atlantic (that’s a gift link) on why the idea that AI is conscious is an absurd & damning one.
While Mike Masnick for Liberalism.org is a must-read on enshittification, despotification, & the perils of the open internet.
Bracing & beautiful essay from Max Liboiron in Places journal on what plastic fragments found in an animal’s digestive tract can tell us about the waters it has traversed.
While Andrew Burke wrote for NiCHE Canada & Active History’s Great Acceleration series on what the Canada Land Survey System can tell us about these unfolding histories.
For his Can We Still Govern? newsletter, Don Moynihan wrote about the latest assault on science & the creep of politicization.
For another example of that creep, Marisa Kabas wrote for her The Handbasket newsletter on the contrasting media stories of herself & Bari Weiss, & what journalists owe this world.
Over at Balls & Strikes, Madiba K. Dennie traced how the Supreme Court is helping Trump tighten his grip on federal immigration courts by pretending he’s a normal president.
While for the Bulwark, Adrian Carrasquillo argued that New Jersey’s Delaney Hall has become a powerful symbol of Trump’s deportation wars.
& for The Redoubt, Charles R. Davis highlighted the global fascist gathering in Portugal (including former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino) that frustratingly flew under the media radar.
While Thomas Lecaque and Annika Brockschmidt wrote about Bovino’s presence at that global gathering for The Bulwark.
Two important pieces for Liberal Currents to share this week, including Guillaume A.W. Attia on today’s neo-imperialists & the return of the “white man’s burden,” & Steve Kennedy on lessons from the last two decades of international struggle against illiberal forces.
Gonna end this section with a great piece on a subject near & dear to my heart, Alexander Manshel for Post45 on what we can all learn from the institution(s) of high school English.
Podcasts:
Starting with a Pride month special, the latest episode of Andrew Rimby’s Ivory Tower Boiler Room featuring Hugh Ryan on how the queer 90s transformed modern-day culture.
Speaking of prescient 90s cultural works, for the latest episode of his History on Film podcast Ross Lennon was joined by Paul Klein to talk the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
The new episode of Emily J. Edwards’ Silver Screen Sleuths features Nekesa Afia on Dial M for Murder & clothing as a storytelling element.
While for a very special episode of Rewatchables, Bill Simmons & Sean Fennessey were joined by Steven Spielberg to discuss 2001: A Space Odyssey.
For the latest episode of her Unsung History podcast, Kelly Therese Pollock interviewed Kathleen B. Casey about her new book on the cultural history of the purse in America.
For a road show episode of their Mainely History podcast, Ian Saxine & Tiffany Link visited Massachusetts Historical Society Chief Historian Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai to discuss the nation’s first historical society.
While for the latest episode of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Eugene Procknow, Gabriel Nevllle, & Thomas Sobol talked everyday military life in the American Revolution.
A couple of conversations this week with Gautham Rao about his new book White Power: Policing American Slavery, including for episode 102 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past.
While Alycia Asai interviewed Gautham for her Civics & Coffee podcast. & for the latest Saturday episode of that podcast, Alycia discussed the rise & fall of the Knights of Labor.
For the latest episode of their War of the Rebellion podcast, Neils Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Eran A. Zelnik about his book American Laughter, American Fury: Humor & the Making of a White Man’s Democracy, 1750-1850.
For his America: The Story of the USA podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by Gary Gallagher to discuss how the Civil War ended.
For a bonus episode of his Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast, Rich Napolitano traced the curious case of the 1913 crash of the Glenesslin.
While for her The Academic Life podcast, Christina Gessler interviewed Mollie Barnes about her new book Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation & Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838-1902.
Over at the Norton Library Podcast, translator Michael R. Katz joined to kick off a series on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
For a two-part episode of The History of Literature podcast, Adam Plunkett talked about his new book on Robert Frost, & then Ursula Buchan shared her choice for the last book she’ll ever read.
For the latest episode of her Say It With History podcast, Holley Snaith was joined by Phil Mathew to discuss the fall of the Roman Republic & the rise of empire.
While for the New Books Network, Dave O’Brien interviewed Laura Tisdall about her We Have Come to Be Destroyed: Growing Up in Cold War Britain.
Turning to current events conversations, for his Whiplash podcast Maxwell Kuzma highlighted key takeaway from Pope Leo’s first Encyclical.
For Liberal Currents’ Neon Liberalism podcast, Samantha Hancox-Li was joined by Secretary of Defense Rock to talk about the democratization of air power.
While for Liberal Currents’ Half the Answer podcast, Caitlin M. Green & Trent Nelson interviewed Thomas Zimmer about the ongoing second American Reconstruction.
Amelia Frank-Vitale joined Austin Kocher’s podcast to discuss her new book Leave If You Can: Migration & Violence in Bordered Worlds.
For the 300th episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast (I was on episode 10 back in 2015!), SSN’s new board chair Mark Schmitt joined to discuss whether America’s political parties can be fixed.
Over at the Center for Ballot Freedom’s This Old Democracy podcast, Micah Sifry interviewed Heather McGhee on challenging the “zero-sum mindset” about politics.
While for their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider argued that Trump’s bad week is democracy’s opening.
& three important interviews for Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations series this week: with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker; with Senator Andy Kim; & with a live conversation with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.
Finally, I’m really excited to share the final, postgame press conference episode of Diamond in the Rough: Baseball, Bigotry, & the Battle for America, Season Two. For the whole of this season, one of my favorite things I’ve done in my career to date, check out this awesome new page that my wife Vaughn made for it on our Black & White & Read All Over website!
Books:
Lots of important scholarly books out this week, including a pair from UNC Press: Sharron Wilkins Conrad’s The Trinity: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, & Civil Right in African American Memory; & Jonathan S. Coley & Golshan Golriz’s edited collection LGBTQ Religious Activism: Rethinking Identity, Faith, & Social Change.
Out this week from Princeton University Press is Arturo Chang’s A New World of Revolutions: Popular Imaginations & Movements across the Americas.
While out from Columbia University Press is Aarthi Vadde’s We the Platform: How the Internet Changed Twenty-First-Century Literature.
Also newly published by Oxford University Press is Chloe Chapin’s Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution & the Fashioning of Modern Men.
Likewise published this week is Lauren Working’s A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Tudor & Stuart England from Simon & Schuster.
Out now from Springer is Shirley Bell’s Music & Emotion on the Caroline Stage.
Finally, out from Edinburgh University Press is Sue Matheson & Cynthia J. Miller’s edited collection Explorers on Screen: Adventure! Danger! Romance!
A half-dozen books coming out in the next two weeks to highlight as well: out next Thursday (June 11) from UCL Press is Adam Crymble, Sarah Fox, Rachel Rich, & Lisa Smith’s The King’s Dinner: Family, Nation, & Identity on the British Table, 1760-1820.
Out the following Monday (June 15) from UNC Press is the Cumberland (North Carolina) County Public Library’s The Voices of Resolve: The Patriots of Liberty Point.
& four books out June 16 to highlight: from Penn Press, Sari Altschuler’s Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship; from Harper Collins, Sarah J. Jackson’s A Second Sight: How the Wonder & Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Towards Freedom; & two from UNC Press, including Pamela A. Popielarz’s Order of Business: The Golden Age of Fraternity & Its Legacy of Inequality, & Anna Krome-Lukens’ Strong State, Weak Links: Eugenics & the Southern Politics of Welfare.
Finally, forthcoming in October & now available for pre-order from Yale University Press is Miriam Posner’s Seeing Like a Supply Chain: The Hidden Life of Logistics.
The Pittsburgh Review of Books shared a Pride month excerpt from Lindsey Danis’ (Out) On the Road: The Radical Joy of Queer Travel, out now from Ig Publishing.
For Inside Higher Ed, Susan D’Agostino interviewed David M. Perry about his new book The Public Scholar: A Practical Handbook.
Over at LitHub, Paul Elie & Julia Cooke talked about their respective new books on group portraiture & the secret histories of art.
While for Public Books, David M. Higgins interviewed Ann Leckie about her new novel Radiant Star. & for the latest Public Books book review, Dani Joslyn wrote about Rebecca L. Davis’ Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex & Sexuality in America.
For the latest USIH book review, Gabriel Bloomfield wrote about Beans Velocci’s Sex Isn’t Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary.
& for the Oxford Literary Review’s online supplement, Jonathan Basile reviewed Leif Weatherby’s Language Machines: Cultural AI & the End of Remainder Humanism.
Finally, for lots more reading recommendations, check out librarian Karla J. Strand in Ms. magazine with June 2026 reads from LGBTQ & women writers.
Made By History:
I just learned that the vital Made By History blog has resumed publication at its new home with the Philadelphia Inquirer (which is paywalled, but a subscription is quite inexpensive & it’s well worth supporting this excellent local paper; I do have some gift links each month, so let me know if you want one of these columns in particular!).
Here are three recent columns I missed: Oscar Winberg on Stephen Colbert & Norman Lear; Molly Yeo on what we can learn from the March of Dimes’ campaign for a polio vaccine; & Menika B. Dirkson on Philly’s 1960s war on glue-sniffing & today’s anti-vaping efforts.
Three new Made By History pieces from this week to share: Aaron Coy Moulton & Michelle Paranzino on how Trump’s attacks on Caribbean nations echo the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala; Rachel Shelden on the deep American legal roots of “packing” the Supreme Court; & Eric Gonzaba on what we can learn from the LGBTQ contributions to the 1976 Bicentennial.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Thomas Zimmer for his Democracy Americana (that link is free for all readers) on the end of the voting rights era & America’s escalating crises.
On a similar note, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote for her newsletter on the Supreme Court’s project to undo voting rights.
While contributor Parenthetical wrote for First Draft on corporate personhood & the 1886 Supreme Court ruling that wasn’t one.
For her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh argued that we can’t dismiss an antisemitic Texas candidate as a one-off.
For his Reliable Narrator newsletter, Paul Thomas highlighted how misunderstanding reading proficiency can lead to emphases on efficiency & punishment in reading policy.
For her daily newsletter, Marianne Dhenin highlighted a historic Black school at the heart of innovative development plans in a North Carolina town.
While for America’s Voice’s Creating a New Narrative on Immigration series, Jorge-Mario Cabrera highlighted Angelenos impressive resistance to Trump’s militarization.
Turning to more historical subjects, a trio of posts for the excellent In Pursuit project this week, including Drew Gilpin Faust on James Buchanan & compromise that betrays fundamental values, President Barack Obama on Abraham Lincoln, & Lois Romano on Mary Todd Lincoln’s imperfect & inspiring public service.
Over at his Civil War Memory newsletter, Kevin M. Levin shared some thoughtful perspectives on Obama’s piece on Lincoln.
For his The Birth of a Capital newsletter, Neil Flanagan wrote about the 100th anniversary of Reno defending itself in the U.S. Senate.
For Jonn Elledge’s Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything, Rhiannon Garth Jones offered an excerpt from her book All Roads Lead to Rome: Why We Think of the Roman Empire Daily.
While for their weekly newsletter, the editors of Verbum Libere shared details of food & daily life in the Roman Empire.
On a similar note, George Dillard concluded his Looking Through the Past series on stimulants that made the modern world with a post on all the gear that people invested in to consume their stimulants. & George also shared a post this week on the rise & disappearance of streetcar suburbs.
Likewise a pair of pieces for Pamela D. Toler’s History in the Margins blog this week, including this one on an Anne Frank exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Science & Industry, & this one on the influential early 20C illustrator James Montgomery Flagg.
Speaking of museum exhibitions, bracing & important Public Books essay from Meredith Martin & Hannah Williams on how France’s art museum remain silent on Haiti.
While for his Exploring Art History newsletter, Howard Burton (Ideas Roadshow) wrote about the vital role of artistic empathy in investigating “the real world.”
Two newsletters from Etienne Toussaint to share this week, including for Freedom Papers on learning from John Lewis about the lifetime commitment to good trouble, & for The Tenure Track on the achievement trap when academic success becomes emotional survival.
Gonna conclude with a handful of cultural studies pieces as ever, including Naomi Xu Elegant for Totei on the strange allure of the single-sentence novel.
Here’s Giulio Luciano Giusti for Modern Languages Open on gothic dualism & symbolic space in Dario Argento’s The Phantom of the Opera.
For Crooked Marquee’s Classic Corner, Sean Burns wrote about Robert Zemeckis’ fascinating flop Used Cars.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s ongoing issue on 1976, Greg Cwik wrote about Alice, Sweet Alice.
For Daily Dead, Sarah Stubbs shared a compelling essay on the gastro history of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise (thanks to Matt Zoller Seitz for sharing it!).
While for a Pride month special for her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy shared a symbolism approach to the delightful In & Out.
& as part of a weeklong blog series for Marilyn Monroe’s Centennial, I shared this post on three distinct stages in her brief but compelling filmography.
Finally, I have to end with two beautiful in memoriam posts. For his amazing More, America project, Max Perry Mueller linked his next subject, Isaac Mayer Wise, to a moving tribute to Max’s late wife Anna.
& over at her blog, Jo Van Every offered a powerful tribute to the vital public scholar Raul Pacheco-Vega. Dr. Pacheco-Vega was the first person to use #ScholarSunday, so I, like everyone who enjoys & benefits from these threads, owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his work & voice. Rest in power.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!
Leave a Reply