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Jonathon Catlin

@joncatlin.bsky.social
1.4K followers 748 following 319 posts

Intellectual history, German & Jewish studies, climate catastrophe | Visiting Assistant Professor of History @urochester.bsky.social | PhD from Princeton | Edit @jhideas.bsky.social | Rochester • NYC • Berlin 🏳️‍🌈 rochester.academia.edu/JonathonCatl…

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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In today's reading for my department's introduction to historical methods course 🙂‍↕️
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today at NYU’s Remarque Institute, Susan Neiman presented her new @wwnorton.com book on “evil” in the Trump era, a guide to the present inspired by Arendt’s thesis of the banality of evil. “In [our] culture,” she argues, “the greatest evil is not sadism but the idea that morality is for losers.”
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Anastasia Berg for @chronicle.com: "I can say with confidence that there is no use of AI that can 'deepen' students’ learning of Plato, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Marx, and Du Bois over and above an unmediated engagement with the original works." www.chronicle.com/article/harv...
chronicle.com
Opinion | The Ivy League’s Surrender to AI Is Insane
When college leaders drink the corporate Kool-Aid, the liberal arts die.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Boy, would I have loved to see Leni Riefenstahl sit down for a little chat with Walter Benjamin…
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Today is the day! A journey that Astra and I started as an essay in The Guardian is now officially out in the world. End Times Fascism – And the Fight for the Living World is in bookstores now. If you are inclined, please buy one from an indie bookseller or borrow it from your local library.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Since it can be hard to believe that political and corporate elites would actively give up on our shared future on this singular planet, we made a short film so folks can hear from the end timers and judge for themselves. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: the future according to end times fascism
In a new video, Klein and Taylor outline a ominous evolution taking shape on the far right – and how to stay loyal to this planet and each other
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Interesting discussion among Canadian historians about the Italian fascist regime’s rise and fall, and its relevance today: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
podcasts.apple.com
What Mussolini's rise and fall reveals about modern authoritarianism
Podcast Episode · Ideas · September 7 · 54m
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
RESULT: David Morales, a socialist challenger, has ousted the mayor of Providence David Smiley. Add Providence to NYC, DC, and Ann Arbor as socialist wins in mayoral elections.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I lolled! cunooz.com/2026/09/09/e...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
(NBC News) — It is now the least rewarding time to be a worker in the U.S. economy since the government started keeping track. @nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The reaction of conservatives every time their austerity reliably produces fascist reaction:
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Excited to see Susan Neiman present her new book on Trump and Evil at NYU’s Remarque Institute in a few weeks. Historians have tired of debating “fascism,” but I wonder if this book might activate a similar debate about “evil” among philosophers. Registration link: us.list-manage.com/CQEKCSTMFq8
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
AfD fell short of a majority in Saxony-Anhalt, the other parties will likely move to block, but not a reassuring development. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Far-right AfD win in Germany is ‘grave moment’ for Europe, politicians warn
Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"[T]he time when Israel had a blank check to kill in the name of the Holocaust is over. One genocide cannot be used to legitimize another." – @omerbartov.bsky.social in @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
bostonreview.net
The Stranglehold of Memory
A conversation with Omer Bartov on the fate of Zionism, the “non-debate” about the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and impunity for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
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Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam (ZZF) @zzfpotsdam.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🕯️ Das ZZF trauert um seinen früheren Direktor Konrad H. Jarausch (1941-2026), der am gestrigen 1. September verstarb. Mit ihm verliert das Institut eine große Gründerpersönlichkeit. Zum Nachruf: buff.ly/0zXEyiP Foto: Stefanie Eisenhuth
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
“U.S. colleges and universities can expect to see as many as 112,000 fewer international students enrolled in the upcoming year…. [T]hat loss translates into a possible $3.4 billion in lost revenue and 40,000 fewer jobs across the nation.” www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
forbes.com
Projected Loss Of International Students Could Bring A $3.4 Billion Hit
U.S. colleges can expect to see up to 112,000 fewer international students for next year, resulting in a possible $3.4 billion in lost revenue and 40,000 fewer jobs.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"[T]he AHA leadership... has found itself paying members’ dues to a lobbyist for suppliers of the same occupation and genocide its members are trying to oppose, while simultaneously being advised by that lobbyist on how to suppress that opposition."
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
One way you know Dolly Parton lived life the right way: I don’t think anyone’s going to get fired for accurately quoting Dolly Parton today.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
“Extreme heat has killed more than 25,000 people across Europe this year…. Germany recorded the highest toll, with an estimated 11,900 excess deaths linked to heat since April.” But god forbid they got AC! www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
Heat deaths top 25,000 in Europe as scorching weather persists
Western Europe has been seared by four heat waves this summer, shattering temperature records and denting economic output.
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Michael Sfard @michaelsfard.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Thrilled to update that my new book, "Occupation from Within: How Israel's Oppression of Palestinians Turned Inwards" will be published next month (@degruyterbrill.bsky.social, Taub Center for Israel Studies NYU) and is available for pre-order. Link below. * Cover photo by Oren Ziv .
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
"Bourgeois society is ruled by equivalence. It makes dissimilar things comparable by reducing them to abstract quantities."
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Journal of the History of Ideas @jhideas.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
For Summer 2026 Reading Recommendations, we asked members of the JHI community to suggest texts related to intellectual history, broadly conceived. Responses spanned ecology and animality, the material life of texts, Asian feminisms, and the concepts of work, excess, and accountability.
web.sas.upenn.edu
What We’re Reading: Summer 2026
By the JHI Community
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
"That things 'just go on like this' *is* the catastrophe." — Walter Benjamin www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...
cbsnews.com
Chicago air quality worst in the world as Canada wildfire smoke chokes skies; beaches closed, events canceled
Chicago air quality is now hazardous as Canadian wildfire smoke has settled in an acrid haze over the area Thursday morning.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 17/07/2026
‘The majority is no longer young. Older generations can and do outvote younger ones. Having elderly representatives no longer looks like a check on anything. It is more like another finger on an unbalanced scale.’ David Runciman on gerontocracy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
David Runciman · The Cult of Longevity
We don’t have a politics of what works so much as a politics of what older citizens won’t notice. All human beings...
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Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Meghan O’Gieblyn: "An argument rarely comes to me fully formed." It "emerges through the writing itself, as I try to respond to some inchoate inner tension that’s caused, for example, by a challenging passage of philosophy, or an assumption...repeated, unthinkingly, in public discourse" (NYRB) /1
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/07/2026
in rochester just to explore a bit with the family and took some time on my own to reflect on the life of one of the city’s most famous citizens, frederick douglass youtu.be/zTa_qiiZGiQ?...
youtu.be
The Fight Never Ends
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Jackson.
Such universalist appeals were a conscious choice. Yes,
Black Americans had suffered a singular wrong. And yes,
they had “‘fought and bled’” for the Union, paying a steep
price for their freedom.28 But the delegates did not rest on
these laurels. Rather, they drew upon the moral and political force of the universal principles that were already core
to the Nation’s identity.
That bears repeating: Freed Blacks did not advocate for
a unique set of rules that catered only to their situation.
Nor did they seek to advance their own position relative to,
or at the expense and exclusion of, other marginalized
groups.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Incisive reflection by Gary Wilder on the significance of the encampment movement: “The student movement disrupted the mechanism that impels us to accommodate to the webs of uncanny barbarism that encircle us.” @versobooks.bsky.social www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/t...
versobooks.com
The University We Wish to See: Or, Learning from the Encampments
The materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances … forgets that circumstances are changed by men and that it is essential to educate the educator --Karl Marx  I We have now marked the...
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Germany's far-right AfD, endorsed by Elon Musk, is going after the Bauhaus school for "deracination... dislocation" and for "avoiding any sign of national rootedness."
""Bauhaus stands for deracination. Bauhaus stands for dislocation of architecture," Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, the AfD's cultural spokesperson, told Reuters. "Bauhaus is the architecture of globalisation – of 'Anywhere's', so to speak."""It takes aim at soulless modern architecture, theatres it says do not put on German plays, and state ​subsidies for what it calls "anti-German art and culture". It singles out Bauhaus in particular for "avoiding any sign of national rootedness".
In place of glass and concrete, it says it would take a lead from U.S. ​President Donald Trump's 2020 order promoting classical and traditional architecture for government buildings."
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 24/06/2026
NEWS: In a stunning upset, Mamdani-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier will defeat five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the NY-13 congressional primary. With victories by Lander, Valdez, and now Avila Chevalier, Mamdani went 3-for-3 with his endorsements in New York City's Democratic primaries.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Glad to share my review of Andreas Malm's provocative short book on Palestine and climate catastrophe, which explores connections between two seemingly unrelated "nakbas" (Arabic for catastrophe) on both historical-material and political-metaphorical levels. PDF below. @versobooks.bsky.social
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
"The Nazis who survived the war were all executed at Nuremberg" is Cold War-era historical revisionism that the US needs to tell itself, to avoid confronting how many high-ranking ex-Nazis were simply rehabilitated and allowed back into West German and US politics in the name of anti-Communism.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 12/06/2026
‘If Marcel Duchamp rejected painting, it also rejected him: he was a poor painter, as the first gallery, dotted with splotchy landscapes and unlovely nudes in the manner of Monet and Degas, makes clear.’ Hal Foster on the Duchamp retrospective at MoMA. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Hal Foster · At MoMA: A Dose of Duchamp
In​ 1973, when a Marcel Duchamp retrospective was last staged in the United States, the critic Lucy Lippard declared...
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Renée Graham 🏳️‍🌈 @rygraham.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Props to CNN’s chyron writer:
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Highly recommend the new exhibition at Spore Berlin on colonial exploitation, genocide, environmental degradation, and ongoing extraction in the former German colony in Namibia—a collab between Forensic Architecture and indigenous artists, scholars, and activists www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Got to see the brilliant @triofrancos.bsky.social present her book *Extraction* in Berlin for the launch of the German edition from @suhrkamp.de
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The star of the Deutsches Historisches Museum’s exhibition on "Nature in German History": die Kartoffel / der Erdapfel
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Excellent event in Berlin tonight launching the conference volume “Hijacking Memory,” ft. Emily Dische-Becker, Susan Neiman, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, & Gilbert Achcar, who all condemned the abuse of Holocaust memory for authoritarian ends from Germany, to the U.S., to Israel
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Hanno Hauenstein @hahauenstein.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
‘They are disturbing the dead’: reconstructing the site of the forgotten first genocide of the 20th century – my latest @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
‘They are disturbing the dead’: reconstructing the site of the forgotten first genocide of the 20th century
At least 3,000 Herero and Nama people died in a German concentration camp at Shark Island, Namibia. A new forensic exhibition in Berlin is using digital technology to unearth how colonisers scarred a ...
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
"German Arrogance": State fails to secure a rotating seat on the UN Security Council, marking "a foreign policy catastrophe." Among the reasons: "Merz repeatedly managed to weaken Germany's commitment to international law in order to justify military interventions..." www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...
zeit.de
UN-Sicherheitsrat: Deutsche Arroganz
Deutschland verfehlt den Sitz im Sicherheitsrat. Eine Niederlage, die nicht nur an einer späten Kandidatur lag. Politische Positionen und Selbstverständnis stimmen nicht.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Today @ktbberlin.bsky.social: "Crisis and Transformation" ft. Dipesh Chakrabarty et al. Rahel Jaeggi: “We are no longer in an age of crisis but an age of catastrophe.” The aim is to convert (1st order) catastrophes into (2nd order) crises amenable to collective problem-solving & learning processes.
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
The Columbia University settlement with the Trump administration included a $21 million fund for compensating Jewish faculty and staff for an allegedly hostile work environment. Now Jewish faculty who claim they were harassed for being pro-Palestine are applying. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund
Faculty who support Palestinian rights are applying for compensation, claiming they faced harassment as Jews for their positions
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
“My Jewishness demands that I honor my ancestors and the only way I know to do that is to oppose war, violence and injustice and fight for ‘never again for anyone’,” Marianne Hirsch, a scholar of antisemitism and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, wrote” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund
Faculty who support Palestinian rights are applying for compensation, claiming they faced harassment as Jews for their positions
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 03/06/2026
Breaking News: The House voted to end the war in Iran, as four Republicans sided with Democrats in a striking rebuke to President Trump. nyti.ms/4ucxdsY
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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
BREAKING: The House just passed a war powers resolution to rein in Trump’s ability to wage war on Iran. After numerous attempts, the legislation passed for the first time, with four Republicans joining every Democrat in support.
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
The American mind cannot comprehend
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Great to catch Johannes von Moltke speak in Berlin today on America’s rightward drift, including the 1619 vs 1776 Projects; anti-intellectual campaigns against universities; and the online propaganda outlet PragerU as a right-wing populist alternative to the overpriced university
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Smart interview with Vivek Chibber criticizing "inevitablist" theories of capitalist breakdown, including the latest version of this argument centered on "catastrophist" accounts of climate change that he finds paralyzing rather than mobilizing. jacobin.com/2026/05/capi...
jacobin.com
Capitalism Won’t Collapse on Its Own
Capitalism’s recurring crises have long fueled predictions of its inevitable demise. Vivek Chibber explains why breakdown isn’t guaranteed — and why political agency, not historical laws, will determi...
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
At UChicago, human rights are now a “political statement” uhighmidway.com/32453/showca...
uhighmidway.com
To preserve neutrality, university says pride flag can’t be flown - U-High Midway
A tradition of raising a pride flag on the flagpole in Blaine Courtyard for Pride Month in June will not continue this year, as University of Chicago administrators determined that the flag qualifies ...
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Jonathon Catlin @joncatlin.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Berlin till June 11 🥨 Sag Hallöschen! June 4-5 Critical Theory in Berlin conference “Crisis and Trnasformation”; June 8 Hijacking Memory launch at Roter Salon; June 9-10 conference “Assessing the State of Holocaust Studies”; and stay tuned for a smaller event in the works on German Holocaust memory
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