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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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

its a perfect encapsulation, tho, of the way nationalism works - to find yourself outside that "shared bond" either at the time or in memory is to find yourself outside of whatever is considered as hegemonic membership in the nation. gonna save this for teaching

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

We are open to writing on the terms listed there, but also encourage people to propose other ideas (that was just a list to get started). 2000-3000 words (or longer) criticalnoise.org/critical-nod...

criticalnoise.org

Critical Nodes – History of the Present

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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 · 02/09/2026

When I was finishing my dissertation many years ago I was on a fellowship that coincidentally had numerous behavioral economists. To this day I’ve never been more confused by an entire field’s existence and he was by far the most strident and condescending of them

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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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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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 · 11/08/2026

it's crazy - perpetual golden age fantasies!

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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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

That would be a true service to me (at least)!

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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 · 25/07/2026

The sitcom seems unavoidable here - Family Ties

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Reposted by Brian Connolly

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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