iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Critical Noise has a developing "keywords" for critical history project called Critical Nodes - entries on Unconscious, Truth, Gender, Revolution, and Context up already, with a few more in the works. If you are interested in writing something reach out! link and more below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

was so irritated reading this i annotated it - what a waste of time!

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

it is so tedious but also, hilariously to me, a document that, based on their ridiculous definition of postmodernism, a postmodern document

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Great new essay on Gender now up at Critical Noise!

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Our whole forum on the Vandy-WashU Report is now available, with essays from Chris Newfield (@cnewf.bsky.social), Zachary Levenson (@grundrza.bsky.social), Noelle McAfee (John Modern (@johnmodern.bsky.social), Julia Schleck, Rod Ferguson, and Kerry Mitchell link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Today at Critical Noise the final essay in our forum on the Vandy-WashU Report - this one, from Chris Newfield ( @cnewf.bsky.social ) is both a critique of the report and a history of humanities, disciplinary knowledge, and critique that has animated what we do for decades link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

don't really see how anyone can remain in the AHA at this point - if my membership hadn't lapsed almost 10 years ago, i would have quit anyway but definitely after seeing this. what a reprehensible org... link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Paul Goodman on the university in Growing Up Absurd (1960)

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Just saw Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma - a nearly total realization of the problem of sex and gender, the impossible effort in sexuality to cross a void or gap and suture difference, and what it means to live in the place of the death drive, or beyond the pleasure principle...fantastic

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

another new essay in our forum at Critical Noise on the Vanderbilt-WashI report, Kerry Mitchell puts the whole report on trial and finds it guilty of all of which it accuses its targets. link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

today at Critical Noise we have Roderick A. Ferguson on the "Tragedy at Vaderbilt" that is the Vanderbilt-WashU Report on the Humanities link below

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Kyla Wazana Tompkins @kwazana.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Rod Ferguson on the dangers of the Vanderbilt report and its collaborators.

criticalnoise.org

Tragedy at Vanderbilt – History of the Present

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

today at Critical Noise we have Roderick A. Ferguson on the "Tragedy at Vaderbilt" that is the Vanderbilt-WashU Report on the Humanities link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Another terrific essay in our forum on the Vanderbilt-WashU report on the Humanities. This one, from Julia Schleck, will be followed by two more, one from Roderick Ferguson and another from Chris Newfield check out Julia's essay, and the others from Zachary Levenson, John Modern, and Noelle McAfee

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Great opening to Julia Schleck's essay at Critical Noise, that is relevant both to hte Vanderbilt-WashU report and today's latest anti-woke story from The Atlantic

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

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Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Finally read @grundrza.bsky.social’s smart piece and he’s not wrong that UPs not publishing some things is a “terrible example” of “alleged suppression” because it’s not. Neither free speech nor academic freedom entitles one to be published. Also the report outright misreps what happened w/ OUP.

There is only one specific sort of example provided of institutional suppression, and that is Oxford University Press’s hesitancy in publishing transphobic manuscripts. In fact, this gets at the very core of the report: the only real case they cite, beyond a vague gesture to 90s-style postmodernism, is dissatisfaction with the alleged suppression of transphobic research. On that point, there is a lot to say, but I would start by pointing out that university presses are a terrible example. They are private sector entities that often award contracts on the basis of perceived sales and reception. See, for example, the number of academic presses that have recently put out poorly substantiated anti-woke screeds. These were not published because they constitute groundbreaking scholarship; they were published because people would—and did—buy them.

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The first essays in our forum on the Vanderbilt-WashU Report (which has now been used to support Linda McMahon's preposterous, pernicious "Call to Action") are up now at Critical Noise, with more to come this week link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Re-posting this: The first 3 (of 6) critical essays on the Vanderbilt-WashU report on the humanities are up at Critical Noise link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Today at Critical Noise, the third essay in our forum on the Vanderbilt-WashU Report (which has now been cited in Linda McMahon's "Call to Action"). This one, from Noelle McAfee, takes on the specious uses of relativism and politics in the report link below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Today at Critical Noise @johnmodern.bsky.social is up with a devastating, expansive, wild critique of the Vanderbilt-WashU report on the humanities…and it comes with a playlist! Links below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Looking for more on the Vandy-Wash U report? Over at Critical Noise we are kicking off a forum on it with essays over the next few weeks from Roderick Ferguson, Zachary Levenson, Noelle McAfee, John Modern, Christopher Newfield, and Julia Schleck. First up is @grundrza.bsky.social Links below

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I’ve spent the last 5-6 years consuming all forms of familial stories - sitcoms, films, novels, Memoirs, parenting guides, etc etc etc - Blue Heron is remarkable….(and worth thinking with RD Laing, imo)

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Check out this new essay on the unconscious by Elizabeth A. Wilson (@elizwilsonemory.bsky.social) up now at Critical Noise: The Online Forum of History of the Present criticalnoise.org/the-unconsci...

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

"Political uses of the unconscious foreclose the possibility of being surprised by the otherness they seek to defang; they often refuse to engage an otherness within. No longer another scene, no longer even very strange, the unconscious has been made subservient." criticalnoise.org/the-unconsci...

criticalnoise.org

The Unconscious – History of the Present

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

There are lots of reasons to criticize this kind of history that seems organized around liberal-Democratic politics - this article is pretty bad tho - and how many of these articles do we need (the others were better, too) newrepublic.com/article/2117...

newrepublic.com

How Historians Took Over Liberal Punditry

The hottest resistance talking aheads during Trump 2.0 are academics. What happened?

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In Salt Lake City at the end of a road trip from San Antonio. SLC is not a great city I had a better time in Wink, TX.

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

History of the Present is also excited to announce the launch of "Critical Noise," a new online forum from the editorial collective. New content is already available: buff.ly/SeLkL3F Follow @criticalnoise2.bsky.social

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The Weekly Read is “Held in Enmity: Incapacitation, Destruction, Iran” by Milad Odabaei. The article appears in In/Capacitations of Tradition, an issue of History of the Present (16:1). Read it for free through 7/31: buff.ly/plkhRVC Buy this issue using code SPRING26 for 40% off: buff.ly/Cp3RPI4

History of the Present cover with abstract red and orange geometric pattern and critical history issue text

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Geo/Epistemes: Dissent - the first dossier in Archives of Dissent, a new feature of Critical Noise: The Online Forum of History of the Present, is now available. Please share, follow, subscribe, etc etc

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Our fourth essay in the forum on Zahid Cahudhary, this one from Eva Cherniavsky, is now up at Critical Noise. Subscribe for updates! criticalnoise.org/paranoia-rig... @dukepress.bsky.social @fordhampress.bsky.social

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

here is out third essay on Zahid Chaudhary's Paranoid Publics - this one from Ben Baer. Check it out and subscribe while you are there for updates from Critical Noise....https://criticalnoise.org/out-of-your-mind/ @dukepress.bsky.social @fordhampress.bsky.social

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Today is our second essay at Critical Noise on Zahid Chaudhary's Paranoid Publics - "The Libidinal Economy of Truth" by me. @dukepress.bsky.social @fordhampress.bsky.social criticalnoise.org/the-libidina...

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Critical Noise, a new site from History of the Present, launching with a forum on Zahid Chaudhary’s Paranoid Public’s @dukepress.bsky.social @fordhampress.bsky.social

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

New History of the Present compaion website is up with a book forum on Zahid Chaudhary's Paranoid Publics: The Psychopolitics of Truth. Over the course of this week there will be essays from Robyn Wiegman, Ben Baer, Eva Cherniavsky, Christina Leon, and me. criticalnoise.org/symposium/

criticalnoise.org

Symposium – History of the Present

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

If you are in the Lancaster area and want to watch one of the great films of the 1970s and hear me talk about desire, family, and crisis….

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Anyone interested in a panel on psychoanalysis and history? something that approaches psychoanalysis as method/theory and not only object of inquiry (the more common approach of the many recent and very good intellectual histories of psychoanalysis)

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Margaret Mead was really ahead of the curve on polyamory

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

For at least that past several decades the real fantasy of most administrators and, to be honest, some of our faculty colleagues, is a university without faculty or students. In that context, AI is not degradation but rather long-delayed wish fulfillment...

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Been wondering "what's with all the incest?" - boy mom tik tok, incest porn, White Lotus, Jonathan Haidt, 1970s pro incest sexology - and how the libidinal economy of incest might be the remainder of the collapsed political economy of the family? Well, I've got some thoughts... (Link below)

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

now online in the ROMANCE issue of Parapraxis, Brian Connolly: "the incest imaginary of the C21 suggests an erotic plentitude at the heart of our alienating+alienated homes. barely holding onto family property, you can still get what you really want." www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/inc...

parapraxismagazine.com

Incest, in This Economy? — Parapraxis

The 21st-Century Family Romance BRIAN CONNOLLY

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Brian Connolly @brianconnolly.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Try this again…. www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/inc...

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