iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Cindy Ermus

Emile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I am not given to hyperbole when it comes to university industrial relations, but this feels like an existential event. The heart of the university is being torn out, with long-lasting consequences. These strikes are a last-ditch attempt to stop that. Will anyone listen?

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Happy birthday, Dr. Thibodeaux! Hope it's a good one

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American Historical Association @historians.org · 18/09/2026

Action Alert: The Department of Education has proposed changes to higher education accreditation that could weaken scholarly standards, treat ideological diversity as a measure of educational quality, and undervalue faculty expertise. Submit a public comment by Sept. 21. 🗃️

historians.org

Action Alert: Tell the Department of Education: Protect Academic Accreditation

The Department of Education has proposed an overhaul of the accreditation system for higher education in the Federal Register: Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization: The Secretary’s Recognition...

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Christine Adams @profchrisadams.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My first piece with Made by History at its new location--the culture wars are not a new thing. Thanks to @kathrynbrownell.bsky.social and @carlygoodman.bsky.social for editing and encouragement! share.inquirer.com/6z46Xa

share.inquirer.com

‘Culture wars’ can matter deeply

During the French Revolution, women's progress became a potent culture war issue, leading to new constraints.

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Jessica R Valdez @jrvaldez.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We're hiring in the long eighteenth century at LSU. Please spread the word and let me know if you have any questions. It's a wonderful department to work in! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0210...

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

Assistant Professor - 18th-Century British Literature

All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Pupdate (my first in 12 years!!): Meet Oreo! Welcomed this lil guy to our family just over a week ago. Not too sure about breed (a mix of various things apparently), but boy is he sweet

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

You've made my day, Thomas! THANK YOU so much!!

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Duygu Yıldırım @duyguyildirim.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I am writing about sweetness (and sugar), and does anyone have any good recommendations beyond Mintz’s “Sweetness and Power”? I am particularly interested in sweetness as a taste. Thanks!

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I'll add that as a 1st-gen Cuban-American, I was never far from anti-immigrant sentiment growing up (& not just among Cuban-Amers). There was this notion that the *new*comers were lesser, inferior, and did not deserve the same privileges as those who came in an earlier wave or era.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Must-read piece. Really resonates. All so true and so sad and tragic. No one worse than those who kick the ladder behind them, and this captures the "paradox" (which is in fact part of a long history) very well in short form. Eladio, it would be great to have this in Spanish somewhere.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Years before 2022, Lynn Hunt wrote a terrific piece about the essentiality of writing for the process of thinking. By relinquishing our writing to a machine, we are simultaneously relinquishing our ability to think. That can only be bad news for democracy.How do we help our students understand this?

nytimes.com

Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I. (Gift Article)

It’s bad for your brain and worse for democracy.

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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

So, this 1721 painting? This is the kind of stuff I mean. The Great Plague of Marseilles in 1720 (read @cindyermus.bsky.social 's book!) spread north, Le Puy quarantined, and the bishop had everyone pray to the Virgin to spare the town. And the plague didn't arrive, there was a healing miracle, so.

Painting of townsfolk around the statue of Notre Dame de Puy en Velay

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Very much enjoyed reading this interview. Been thinking a lot about this in recent years.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 17/07/2026

Probably more helpful to think of them not so much as “Canadian wildfires” but rather “climate change wildfires currently consuming Canada”

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

...of course blind justice, personified as a woman... Just a sampling, but I hope you enjoy as much as I enjoy coming across these!

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

...symbolizing liberty, equality, and fraternity; the eye of Providence, for divine reason, justice, protection over the newly egalitarian nation, with the rays of enlightenment; the fasces, also of Roman antiquity, meaning strength of unity...

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

...the Phrygian (liberty) cap, or bonnet rouge, worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome, symbolizing emancipation; the serpent eating its own tail, or ouroboros, at that time meaning renewal, rebirth, eternity, etc.; the woman with the cap, or Marianne, national personification of the French Republic..

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I should have posted this 3 days ago (14 juillet), but better late than never. Here’s a thread of some of the vignettes or letterhead I’ve come across in the archives this summer. Lots of symbolism here. Some examples, the laurel wreath, an ancient symbol, symbolizing, in part, Republican virtue...

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Reposted by Cindy Ermus

Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Today is the 250th anniversary of Boston’s mass inoculation against smallpox on July 3, 1776. The city was effectively closed to commerce from July through September 1776. The mass immunization effort was cheered as evidence of true independence. Here's how I described it in my book:

While John Adams and fifty-five men in Philadelphia debated a resolution on independence and the final wording of the Declaration of Independence, the people of Boston declared their own independence from smallpox. The measures taken in both cities provided hope that America would not only be a republic free of a king but also a country free from disease. On July 3, 1776, a day after independence was declared in Philadelphia, the Massachusetts General Court voted to allow inoculation. Despite the dangers of infection, the people of Boston and the surrounding areas cheered the news. Ezekiel Price, a court official and insurance broker, declared “Liberty is given for to inoculate for the small-pox; many begin upon it this afternoon.” Hannah Winthrop described the scene: “Boston has given up its Fears of an invasion & is busily employd in Communicating the Infection. Straw Beds & Cribs are daily Carted into the Town.” She wrote that “Men Women & children eagerly crowding to inoculate is I think as modish as running away from the Troops of a barbarous George was the last year.” Dr. James Warren wrote to John Adams that the “rage for inoculation” had “whirled me into its vortex.…” Warren and his wife Mercy Otis joined Abigail Adams and her four children who had been invited to be inoculated at Abigail’s uncle’s house in Boston along with Abigail’s sisters Elizabeth Cranch and Mary Shaw and their families. Even though Boston was teeming with the sick, the prospect that the city could conquer smallpox made it "a scene delightful indeed." Cotton Tufts was satisfied that he could now "take my leave of Earth, satisfied that the Day of American Redemption was at Hand."

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Facepalm so hard I about knocked myself out.

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Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Historian of slavery here the Pope is single handedly showing us the best of America in these very troubling times and needed on the 250th of the republic, to see the virtues that made the U.S. admired all over the world, the ability to admit a mistake. apnews.com/article/pope...

apnews.com

Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Vatican's role in legitimizing slavery

Pope Leo XIV has made a historic apology for the role the Holy See played in legitimizing slavery. Leo’s own family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Submit button does not work.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Has anyone else had trouble submitting this form? (I've tried multiple browsers) If so, I fear they will receive far fewer responses that they otherwise might have. @historians.org @aahmhistmed.bsky.social

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

The History of Medicine Division at the NLM is in danger. Please click below by May 26 to take action.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I can't wait to read this. Congrats!

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Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

So happy to see my new book "How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic" published today with @hopkinspress.bsky.social! #histmed #histsci #plague #rats #pandemic www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/... The book is also available Open Access via Project MUSE: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/oa_mon...

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

@who.int has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” over cases of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which no vaccine exists. No need to panic at this point, of course, but good to be aware.

nytimes.com

W.H.O. Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Much more measured thinking here than the over-confident "this is fine," or "this will not become a pandemic." As the author says, if all goes well, amazing. But if it gets out of control, Kenn*dy will be in charge of the US response.

nytimes.com

Opinion | We Should Take Hantavirus More Seriously

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Reposted by Cindy Ermus

Julia Gaffield, PhD @juliagaffield.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

"A Haitian Revolution Reading List" from the New York Public Library (includes fiction and non-fiction) www.nypl.org/blog/2026/05...

nypl.org

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

“Being able to talk to people & interact with people in a very human way is more valuable than ever.” Every humanities organization & dept needs to capitalize on this moment. Scream from the mountain tops, "If you want the invaluable skills that AI can't replicate, major in history!" @historians.org

apnews.com

College students are changing course in search of 'AI-proof' majors. But no one knows what they are

The rise of artificial intelligence is prompting college students to second-guess their career paths.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Ah, like Pierrefitte. Good to know, thank you

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Have any of you worked in the Paris municipal archives (on blvd Sérurier)? Considering a recon trip there. Any info or tips welcome!

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witchy raerae 👍🧙🏻‍♀️ ❌👑 @rachaelnevins.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

“Use AI to brainstorm but not to write.” “Use AI to help you outline but not to write.” These are commonly proposed as “ethical” ways for undergrad students to use AI, but I’m sorry, brainstorming & outlining are just as integral to writing as the actual construction of sentences.

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Second this. I just use my iPhone. It has built in image stabilization, and now also auto OCR, so I haven't really needed anything else.

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Reposted by Cindy Ermus

Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The acting head of the CDC has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

nytimes.com

C.D.C. Cancels Publication of Study Showing Benefits of Covid Vaccines

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

This whole issue looks fantastic! Very pleased to have this piece officially out in the world 🗃️

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I loved this book. A must read for anyone with an interest in diseases, sex, or early modern history! www.cambridge.org/core/books/d...

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

So excited to see the cover for this fascinating, touching book on the hist of schoolhouses in the south, beautifully co-authored by my brilliant colleague & spouse, @abegibson.bsky.social, & his pops Benny Gibson. The Vanishing Schools of Franklin County: A History of Public Education in Rural VA

upress.virginia.edu

The Vanishing Schools of Franklin County

An in-depth history that assesses the price of progress and the legacy of lost rural American communitiesNestled among the foothills

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Oh, wonderful! Thank you so much!

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Yes, not excited about the commute. I have to look again, but I think it's 2 transfers from Marais?

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Thank you! How long of a walk from the metro would you say?

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Ah, good to know on all counts! Thank you, Paul. I'll look for events at Paris-8

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