Sign in

Heidi Backes

@heidibackes1.bsky.social
1.1K followers 830 following 481 posts

Prof of Spanish lit and cultural history / Gothic fiction / Fascism / Memory & Trauma Studies / Author of SPECTRAL SPAIN (U of Wales Press, 2024), FASCIST FEMALE GOTHIC (Jan. 2027, UWP)

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
In authoritarian states, “law” upholds lawlessness, and its first duty is to keep the leader safe from domestic or outside accountability processes. Judicial capture is the means, and the conversion of the law into what the leader and his enablers need it to be is the end.
6671235 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I wonder if there's ever been a political movement before that claimed that immigrants were all carriers of diseases and therefore needed to be removed from society? Eh, it was probably a really positive movement, not one associated with evil in any way
1803829865 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
In possibly the fastest shift in public opinion I've ever seen, local data center approval went from -5 to -65 in less than a year heatmap.news/daily/data-c...
a graph of data center support rapidly falling
18886522342 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 18/08/2026
The day has come! “The Nerd Reich” is now available at your favorite local bookstore. I’ll be on @msnowreports.bsky.social at approximately 10:30 am ET to talk about it. Tune in. And buy it! First week sales make a huge difference. If you keep reading, I keep fighting.
Promotional graphic for the nerd Reich book. Quote from Publishers Weekly: “ transfixing it’s an ominous look at an insular elite arrayed against American democracy.”
28598185 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Lots to hate here. Beyond the authoritarianism of it all I’m struck by the agonizing corniness—like the gov’t prof/head of the taskforce who’s v proud of himself for having the bright idea to pick 40 approved authors b/c of UT’s nickname of “the Forty Acres” www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
insidehighered.com
Under UT’s New Core Curriculum, Faculty Are Limited
The new core will include a list of approved authors that faculty must select from to build their syllabi for certain courses, including Great Questions of Human Life and Masterworks of Literature.
2304 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
predictably excellent from hollingshead, every word "Against the forces of antiintellectual fascists+AI tech lords, self-flagellating academics+immediacy fetishists alike, we need to champion the difficulties+pleasures of humanities scholarship with our whole chests." defector.com/humanists-ha...
defector.com
Humanists Have Done Nothing Wrong | Defector
For many years, I’ve held a pet theory that cultural consumers can be grouped into two broad categories: Primary Source People and Secondary Source People. The former are the book lovers, cinephiles, ...
824173 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
WaPo Exclusive: The Trump admin is now set to spend at least $900 million for construction projects on the White House grounds. 
The price tag is much larger than previously reported, according to a Post review of confidential contracts. Taxpayers would cover most of it.
washingtonpost.com
Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction
The price tag is much larger than what has been previously reported, according to a Post review of confidential contracts, and taxpayers would cover most of it.
2511514846 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has further extended its edge over Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, according to the results of a new national poll released on Thursday dpa-international.com/politics/urn...
dpa-international.com
Poll: Germany's far-right AfD widens lead over Merz's conservatives | dpa international
063 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
This is a key point that our head librarian pointed out to me. Flat or declining library budgets combined with rising ebook costs mean that increasingly the work of curating the collection is managed by outside vendors w no sense of specific institutional needs or attendance to concerns about AI.
532292 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Jeremy Dauber @jeremydauber.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Here's a question for the literary-minded among you for a project I'm working on: what is the worst novel written by a great author? I'm thinking of examples of where everyone - particularly at the time - went, "ooh, swing and a miss there." Juvenilia not included; reputation has to be established.
51338 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The results of the Missouri election yesterday. Everyone in the country should be paying attention to this--and MAGA should be very concerned. Republicans lost their two amendments with 80% and 83% of the population voting against them, in a state that overwhelmingly supported Trump.
A graph with election results:

Amendment 4: Modify amendment approval requirements (80.3% against)

Amendment 5: Eliminate income tax (83.3% against)
031 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
In the November elections, to be radical is to be pragmatic.
14745177 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
Trump has denied most disaster requests from Democratic-led states

A graph  showing Presidential approval rates for disaster requests from Democratic-led states and Republican-led states

Source: POLITICO's E&E News analysis of FEMA records
16154682514 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 04/08/2026
All Pretentious Literature Boys are all of course the spiritual spawn of the original, archetypal Ur-Pretentious Literature Boy. No better example exists of an Annoying Guy who Singlehandedly Created an Entire New Genre of Annoying Guys
1414919 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Javier Prado Coronel @javiertprado.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
💀 En 1831 el escritor Agustín Pérez Zaragoza comenzó a publicar la serie “Galería fúnebre de espectros y sombras ensangrentadas”: una colección de historias góticas llenas de crimen, terror y casquería. El verdadero "Penny dreadful" español 🧵👇
48622 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Jordan S. Carroll 🌹 @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
If you give me $2.4 million I will deliver a book with entirely human stylistic flaws.
291 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Shiro Sirius @shirosiri.us · 29/07/2026
I don’t want to be too sensationalist about this but also I’m the least violent person in the world and I think if someone said this to my face I’d hit them
"A physical book is a delivery mechanism for information," it continues.
"Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an Al model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose. What remains is paper, ink, and binding material. The book is not destroyed. Its value has migrated.
The paper returns to the material cycle; the knowledge enters the intellectual one."
10731381323 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
A dozen Republican states led by Missouri asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order attacking mail voting go into effect before the midterm elections in November. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
GOP states join DOJ in asking Supreme Court to let Trump block some mail ballots
The states essentially contend that it’s too soon to block a very likely illegal order because we don’t yet, less than 100 days before the midterms, have any idea how the administration might attempt ...
121809417 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
tell me more about conservatives and small government. trump administration now demanding that hospitals hand over "personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms..." www.cnn.com/2026/07/27/h...
cnn.com
Trump administration demands hospitals share emergency room records | CNN
A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personall...
21423241112 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Andrew Whitehead @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The last time the US produced income & wealth inequality at these levels was during the Gilded Age/Roaring 20s. Historians & social scientists identify two commonalities between a century ago & now: the overlapping influences of Christian nationalism & capitalism. kettering.org/economic-ine...
kettering.org
Economic Inequality: How Christian Nationalism Weakens Democracy
KF Research Fellow Andrew L. Whitehead traces the connection between Christian nationalism and growing economic inequality in the US. The implications are more than economic—they can lead to democrati...
412462 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Yes, absolutely! It will be out with UWP in January, and the U of Chicago Press is the North American distributor, with copies shortly thereafter. And thanks so much for all you do. Your voice is incredibly important for all of us.
150 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
HCR's letter from yesterday dovetails perfectly with my forthcoming book, "Fascist Female Gothic." The use of the rhetoric of fear and monstrosity is fundamental to the project of fascism, and we must be able and willing to recognize it for what it is. History's lessons provide powerful truths.
1135 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Dr William Allchorn @willallchorn.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
globalextremism.org/post/western...
globalextremism.org
State Department Plans $5 Million Push for ‘Western Civilizational Heritage’ in Europe
The Trump administration is launching a nearly $5 million State Department program to fund organizations across Europe that promote anti-immigrant narratives, Christian nationalist rhetoric, and the d...
025 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Andrew Whitehead @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The evidence is clear—Christian nationalism cannot abide a pluralistic democratic society. And this post from a fellow expert on CN helps position this topic and other findings in relation to recent claims that ”CN is just a label used to denigrate.”
14213 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thanks so much, Debbie!
000 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Christine Ferguson @cferguson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
This looks really fascinating!
122 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thanks so much, Christine!
110 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
This looks SO good
181 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thanks so much! 😊
000 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
UWP's Autumn/Winter catalogue was just released today, and it features some great new titles! Check it out here: share.google/H7OEEj0veqgP... FASCIST FEMALE GOTHIC is on page 8. 2/2
This volume examines the psychology of 
fascism and its intrinsic relationship with 
the Gothic through the close study of 
propagandistic narratives by Spanish fascist 
women during the 1930s and 1940s. With close readings of women’s magazines, novels and prison diaries, Gothic fear and monstrosity are for the first time showcased as fundamental tropes within the fascist political strategy of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. As both objects and agents of the fascist regime, the women in charge of the Spanish Women’s 
Section collaborated with the Catholic Church on a series of magazine columns and educational campaigns, evoking a nightmare 
landscape rooted in the perceived evils of 
twentieth-century feminism, and using Gothic 
motifs to persuade other women to join the 
fascist cause. By its study of these motifs, 
Fascist Female Gothic demonstrates the 
political power of the Gothic, and sounds 
warning against a return to the rhetoric of fear in the turbulent sociopolitical present.
072 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I'm so excited to share the cover of my forthcoming book, "Fascist Female Gothic," which will be published in January with @uniwalespress.bsky.social. Read more about it below... 1/2
Cover of "Fascist Female Gothic," featuring red lettering and a black and white photograph of two lines of German women doing the Fascist salute on either side of the photo, as a double line of women walk through the center. The woman on the center left is Pilar Primo de Rivera.
23710 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
University of Wales Press @uniwalespress.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
📚️ New Catalogue! 📚️ We are so excited to share our Autumn Winter 2026 catalogue! Follow the link below to browse our fascinating upcoming titles 📚️ www.uwp.co.uk/app/uploads/... Including titles by @rachelcordasco.bsky.social, @knick666.bsky.social, @bodhisattvac.bsky.social ... (1/2)
198 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
NPR @npr.org · 19/07/2026
Just in: Spain's run to the title was a defensive masterclass, with wins over four of the world's top ten teams. They are the first World Cup champion to win the title while only conceding a single goal.
n.pr
Spain is the 2026 World Cup champion, defeating Argentina for its 2nd title
Spain's run to the title was a defensive masterclass, with wins over four of the world's top ten teams. They are the first World Cup champion to win the title while only conceding a single goal.
1673895 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
ESPAÑAAAAAAA!!!
000 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Tom Carter @thcarter123.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
You had me at National Catholicism. Looking forward to this book.
172 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Thanks so much! It is coming out in January! 😊
000 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
This seems like a good time to also recommend "Opus" by @garethgore.bsky.social, which has a lot of insight into Leonard Leo and his involvement with American politics and Opus Dei.
084 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
CFP 📢📢📢 *New Approaches to Teaching the Gothic*, co-edited by myself & @factorygothic.bsky.social Critical practice; pedaogical reflections; case studies; particularly in a relation to these times/spaces of crisis. VERY broad cfp. Qus welcome 👇👇👇 call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/07/...
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu
cfp | call for papers
02521 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Titania @titaniasrealm.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life." - Hermann Hesse 🎨 Julia Tar
Illustration of a large oak tree with a face on its trunk. A person is sitting on the ground, facing the tree, and there is a reflection of a white stag in the water.
513479577 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
“Prebunking” has been found to be very effective in neutralizing disinformation
442716849 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
In Spain, turning the shower dial by 1 millimeter is the difference between freezing into a solid ice block or burning all the skin off your body.
060 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Getting the boys together for this Austria-Spain matchup
Several images of the Hapsburgs, looking good
401967339 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
NPR @npr.org · 02/07/2026
The Society of St. Pius X was excommunicated by Pope Leo for ordaining bishops without his permission. Its issues with the church run far deeper.
n.pr
What to know about the Society of St. Pius X, the schismatic group excommunicated by the Pope
The Society of St. Pius X was excommunicated by Pope Leo for ordaining bishops without his permission. Its issues with the church run far deeper.
2426637 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This is VERY MUCH worth reading. It’s even worse than many of us knew. All corruption. All the time.
The only real activity appears to come from large businesses using the fair as a vehicle to gain favor with the President.
320767 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 02/07/2026
🚨NEWS: Congressional probe alleges massive fraud in Trump-aligned Freedom 250, alleging Trump allies misled donors, hijacked America’s 250th, and sold access for millions
meidasnews.com
Democrats Allege Trump Allies 'Misled Donors' to Bankroll Freedom 250
New Democratic report alleges Trump allies misled donors, hijacked America's 250th, and sold access for millions.
49553662259 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
We have Slaughter and Cook. By a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS overturns Humphrey's Executor and lets Trump fire heads of independent agencies. But by a 5–4 vote, it refuses to let him fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p... www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
431331497 0
Reposted by Heidi Backes
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
"Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows." ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH 69% VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 68% www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...
The Most Versatile Majors Chart, TOPPED BY ENGLISH and VISUAL&PERFORMING ARTS
35721287 0
Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Today I got to visit a site I've wanted to see in person for years: the Castro de Santa Trega in Galicia. What an incredible place.
1st-century BCE ruins of circular settlements made of stone nestled together on top of a high cliff overlooking the Atlantic coast.
020 0