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etienne toussaint

@etiennetoussaint.bsky.social
8.3K followers 446 following 756 posts

proud husband + dad of 3 boys | Law Professor writing at the intersection of academia, justice, and the pursuit of purpose www.thetenuretrack.com | freedompapers.substack.com

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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
+ @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social @aheartofgould.bsky.social @solzyatthemovies.com @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social & many more! Add more below, please share the whole thread widely if you're able, & enjoy, all! blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com
#ScholarSunday Thread 293 (9/13/26) – Black and White and Read All Over
Here it is, my 293rd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, &...
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If you’re into law, literature, and liberation, check out “Freedom Papers,” my Substack where I explore the Black radical tradition, Afrofuturism, and the struggle to imagine justice beyond the limits of legal doctrine. freedompapers.substack.com
freedompapers.substack.com
Freedom Papers | Etienne Toussaint | Substack
Notes on Grief, Dignity, and the Inner Work of Liberation. Click to read Freedom Papers, by Etienne Toussaint, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Trying something different this academic year. I’m working through The Artist’s Way and pairing it with Black writers on creativity, resistance, and making authentic work. If you want to join me, come on. www.thetenuretrack.com/p/the-call
thetenuretrack.com
The Call
On the Production of Original Work
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I’m a legal scholar. My shelves are full of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Derrick Bell. I write at the intersection of law, literature, and Afrofuturism, which means my reading life is usually dense, deliberate, and heavy. And then I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl.
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Christine Corcos @lpcprof.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Toussaint on Du Bois, Afrofuturism, and Constitutional Renewal / @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social lawlit.blogspot.com/2026/07/tous...
lawlit.blogspot.com
Toussaint on Du Bois, Afrofuturism, and Constitutional Renewal
Etienne C. Toussaint, University of South Carolina School of Law, has published After the Comet: Du Bois, Afrofuturism, and Constitutional R...
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Legal education trains people to argue within the rules. It doesn’t really train people to imagine different rules. That gap keeps coming up for me in teaching. I say that as someone who is part of the system that does the training.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
My essay "After The Comet Du Bois Afrofuturism and Constitutional Renewal" is out in the New York University Law Review. The essay begins with a question. Why do moments of real possibility in American constitutional life so often emerge in crisis, and then recede when things return to normal?
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Food deserts are not natural phenomena. They are the result of decisions—e.g., zoning decisions, supermarket siting decisions made by corporations balancing profits against neighborhood demographics. The word "desert" implies landscape. Something inevitable, simply there.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
We teach law students to read statutes, cases, and regulations. We do not teach them to read Toni Morrison. I think that is a mistake. Morrison does something legal texts cannot. She shows what the law does to a human being, at the level of the body, the self, the family across generations.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Spirit of Oligarchy in American Agriculture
Black farm ownership has declined by more than 90% since the 1920s, making it one of the starkest yet least examined examples of racial injustice in American hi
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The first time I understood how much law shaped ordinary life, I was not in a classroom. I was standing in a neighborhood with few grocery stores and payday lenders overcharging interest. Where the soil was contaminated by industrial waste that no regulatory body had addressed.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I teach law. But I am fascinated by literature. Why? A novel by Toni Morrison teaches more about the lived experience of American law than most casebooks I've read. Legal texts describe rules. Literature describes what it feels like to live inside those rules. Or to be crushed by them.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Zora Neale Hurston wrote: "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." I've spent most of my adult life in the question years. Questions about whether the work matters. About whether I'm becoming the person I want my children to see. About what justice actually requires of me.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
When I started writing essays, I told myself it was an experiment. I wanted to see what happened if I wrote without the armor. No formal citations. No third-person distancing. What happened surprised me. The writing got harder. And truer. At the same time.
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Sheila Foster @sheilarose.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
New dispatch is up on Substack. This is a time of reckoning. It is the only way I can make sense of the moment we are living through. To counter this we have to show up in our communities and take back the power that has slipped away from us for too long. open.substack.com/pub/groundtr...
open.substack.com
What Was Promised
I think a lot about my mother these days.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I've noticed something about academic writing in several fields concerned with justice. The writing is often emotionally empty. Detailed pages about systems of suffering, all written in an objective register that keeps the author at arm's length from any of it. I understand why.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
We spend enormous energy analyzing systems of oppression. And we should. The systems are real. The harm is documented and ongoing. But here's something I've been sitting with . . .
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
The Gray Sage @walterdgreason.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
An important day in Philadelphia last Friday. #legaltheory AFROFUTURISM AND THE LAW @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social @staceyarobinson.bsky.social @reynaldoanderson.bsky.social
Temple University.Temple law.Reynaldo Anderson.Naseed Gifted, Stacey Robinson, and Sheree Renee Thomas.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Food justice! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Today is my birthday. I'm sharing an essay I wrote a few weeks ago for anyone in a hard season who needs to hear that what feels like falling apart might actually be something being rearranged. freedompapers.substack.com/p/you-are-no... More like this every week at freedompapers.substack.com
freedompapers.substack.com
You Are Not Falling Apart
On Octavia Butler, Change, and the Work of Becoming
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
youtu.be/x3qP0sMXTas
youtu.be
Race Matters Episode 90: Professor Etienne Toussaint on Afrofuturism, Agriculture, Law and Grace
YouTube video by PortMedia
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Baldwin wrote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." I return to this line constantly. Not because it's comforting, but because it's precise. There's a particular kind of avoidance that looks like rigor. Academic prose does this well.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
The documents enslaved people carried to prove their freedom were called “freedom papers.” Papers. To prove you were human. We tell ourselves that era is behind us. But Black men are still stopped at higher rates. Immigrants still fear the knock at the door.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I’m grateful to have my first poems published with Scalawag. These pieces were inspired in part by the movie "Sinners" and sit with questions of memory, movement, and longing. Would be honored if you gave them a read: scalawagmagazine.org/2026/04/we-s...
scalawagmagazine.org
We Sinners, Born Again in the Breaking – Scalawag
"Last time I seen the sun, it was midnight in the juke joint, horns crying through blue smoke, bodies glowing like stained glass, footsteps melting into heart pine."
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Law school taught me how to disappear from my own writing. You learn to speak in the third person. To cite instead of feel. To argue instead of confess. The discipline rewards distance. The further you stay from the thing you’re describing, the more credible you appear.
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
@etiennetoussaint.bsky.social, I think you'd really appreciate the many items @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social has recently added to our website's Resources tab, including this guide for first-gen academics: blackwhiteandread.com/first-gen-ac...
blackwhiteandread.com
First Gen Academics – Black and White and Read All Over
As a first-gen academic, I (Vaughn) had a really difficult time assimilating to college and grad school especially. Here are some resources I wish I had. How To: Find Calls for Papers and Publications (as well as organizations to join) Find Job Listings Find Places to Pitch your work Add…
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Anne Mocko @themockowl.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
This is such an extraordinary essay. It’s so intellectually interesting — so clearly written — so sharp in its framing of justice questions. And it’s also so big-hearted, not least in the way it shines with your love and respect for your wife. Thank you for writing and sharing it!
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
What can a monster-hunting comic tell us about American law, racial terror, and justice? A lot. My wife @ebonyt_phd’s passion for “Bitter Root” sent me down this rabbit hole. I came out with a new essay on how art reveals what legal scholarship can't. www.currentaffairs.org/news/bitter-...
currentaffairs.org
“Bitter Root” Grapples with the Horror of American Racism
Bringing discussions of racial violence and tactics of resistance to life, the comic book is a vivid example of the power of Afrofuturism.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
My new article, The Spirit of Oligarchy in American Agriculture, is out in the Columbia Law Review. Black farm ownership has declined by 90% since the 1920s. Not isolated discrimination—a durable agricultural oligarchy. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Spirit of Oligarchy in American Agriculture
Black farm ownership has declined by more than 90% since the 1920s, making it one of the starkest yet least examined examples of racial injustice in American hi
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
youtu.be/x3qP0sMXTas
youtu.be
Race Matters Episode 90: Professor Etienne Toussaint on Afrofuturism, Agriculture, Law and Grace
YouTube video by PortMedia
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Graduate school rewards curiosity. Academic careers reward specialization. Most scholars spend years stuck somewhere between the two. Productive, but without a clear direction. There's a name for this. Read the full article to find out. www.thetenuretrack.com/p/sharpening...
thetenuretrack.com
Sharpening Your Research Niche
Finding Your Golden Thread While Preserving Intellectual Breadth (Part 1)
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Dr. Felicia Kornbluh @vtfeminist.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
As usual - @americanstudier.bsky.social summarizes the week in scholarly efforts to inform the present. A good person to follow and read! Also the folks he reads @kevinmkruse.bsky.social @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social @brianros1.bsky.social @carlygoodman.bsky.social
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Reposted by etienne toussaint
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
+ @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social @theresakaminski.bsky.social @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social @brightwalldarkroom.com @publicbooks.bsky.social @romancescholar.bsky.social @jasonhiggins.bsky.social @outlawvern.bsky.social @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social & many more! +
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Most law review articles don’t fail because the ideas are bad. They fail because the structure isn’t clear early enough. I learned that the hard way. I turned the outlining process I now use into a short workbook called Law Review Launchpad. thetenuretrack.gumroad.com/l/aikclp
thetenuretrack.gumroad.com
Law Review Launchpad
Transform Your Legal Scholarship from Idea to Detailed Outline in 6 StepsAre you stuck in draft after draft, only to realize months later your article structure doesn’t hold up?You’re not alone.Most s...
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
For early-career scholars and aspiring academics, I write “The Tenure Track,” a Substack where I share real talk about navigating academia, based on my experience. From job market tips to boundary-setting, this is a space for growth, honesty, and thriving on your own terms. thetenuretrack.com
thetenuretrack.com
The Tenure Track | Etienne Toussaint | Substack
Get free weekly tips, strategies, and insights on succeeding in academia and beyond! Click to read The Tenure Track, by Etienne Toussaint, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Most law review articles don’t fail because the ideas are bad. They fail because the structure isn’t clear. I learned that the hard way. I turned my outlining process into a short workbook called Law Review Launchpad. Sharing in case it helps someone. thetenuretrack.gumroad.com/l/aikclp
thetenuretrack.gumroad.com
Law Review Launchpad
Transform Your Legal Scholarship from Idea to Detailed Outline in 6 StepsAre you stuck in draft after draft, only to realize months later your article structure doesn’t hold up?You’re not alone.Most s...
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Today I’m reminded of one of my favorite essays, rooted in a keynote I gave at an MLK celebration at Villanova Law last year. I reflected on Dr. King’s vision of racial justice and multiracial democracy through my grandmother’s urban gardening in the South Bronx. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Abolition, Dignity, and Amazing Grace
This Essay explores the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pursuit of racial justice and multiracial democracy in America through the lens of the
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Today!
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A highlight of this years AALS conference was giving Patricia Williams an Impact Legacy Award. Her work is an inspiration.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
What if clarity is not something we find, but something we slowly create? I have noticed how often we wait for a perfect moment of certainty before we allow ourselves to move. But should we? 🧵⤵️
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Want More People to Share Your Research? Make It Stick. Ever wonder why some research spreads while others get ignored? The secret: People share work that connects to their lives. Here’s how to make your research feel urgent, relevant, and impossible to ignore. 🧵⤵️
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
This #GivingTuesday, I’m supporting G Is For Gullah, Inc.—the 501(c)(3) my wife founded to preserve Gullah Geechee culture through scholarships, community education, and cultural programming. Donate: www.paypal.com/donate/?host... #GullahGeechee #GivingTuesday #SupportBlackNonprofits
paypal.com
Donate to G Is For Gullah
Help support G Is For Gullah by donating or sharing with your friends.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Want Your Research to Matter? Make It Visible. Groundbreaking work means nothing if no one sees it. Most research stays locked in journals, but visibility builds impact. Here’s how to make your work accessible and influential. 🧵⤵️
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Since the dawn of time, stories have captured our histories, ideas, and beliefs. In academia, we often focus on theory. But the power of stories lies in their ability to heal, uplift, and renew by reflecting personal struggles, growth, and dreams. 🧵⤵️
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Here is how I reignited my creativity in academia after years of going through the motions. Ever feel like your academic life has become a routine of service, teaching, and publishing? I know I did. This is what I learned and how I fixed it. 🧵⤵️
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Poetry open.substack.com/pub/freedomp...
open.substack.com
Last Time I Seen the Sun
A Poetic Journey Through Ryan Coogler's Sinners (Part 5)
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Yesterday, I ran 26.2 miles around New York City with my brother by my side. As a native New Yorker from the South Bronx, this one meant a lot. I’m proud of myself for facing my fears, staying the course, raising money for charity, and tackling this goal at 40.
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
PEOPLE WHO: • get lost in Black literature • think in systems and metaphors • use poetry to heal wounds • cherish quiet moments alone • find joy in sharing knowledge • believe Black history is American history • walk with faith as your compass My page is for you! 🌍📚🙏🏽
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Part Four in my five-week dialogue with @robert_the_contemplative in response to Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. A meditation on leaving and returning, on memory and the quiet sanctuaries we carry in our hearts. Read the full poem on my Substack: freedompapers.substack.com/p/for-the-on...
freedompapers.substack.com
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etienne toussaint @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
A few months ago, I saw a headline on LinkedIn: “Professor Wins Teaching Award.” Curious, I clicked to learn more. Their bio was 3 years out of date. Their headshot looked like it was from 2005. Their LinkedIn mentioned projects from years ago. Brilliant scholar. Invisible online. 🧵⤵️
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