iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Glad to know this isn’t just me! The default coffee seems to be iced these days—summer or winter. If I’m drinking coffee I don’t want the extra water from the melting ice!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

In terms of faculty doing less work, perhaps it depends on the instructor. I have found online teaching, just did one US History survey course online last semester, incredibly time consuming—if you‘re working to do it well! I was also teaching an in person course at the same time so could compare.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

No photo of old telephone booths just memories of using them and having to make collect calls because I didn’t have enough change. Does anyone even remember collect calls?

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

It was also one of my fave reads in grad school in the 1990s when I was studying for my comps. The section on state constitutions really changed my understanding of the revolutionary era. Since it was published in 1969 I‘m curious about how today’s students found reading it.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Wow! That’s an impressive Unessay project by your student! I love using these kinds of assignments in my History course. Students really engage with historical materials and get super creative with how they present their arguments\interpretations.

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Reposted by Liz Smith-Pryor

Honesty for Ohio Education @honesty4ohioed.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Kent State professors cautious in the classroom following SB1 The law’s vague language and nature, they say, have led to many professors changing their teaching for fear of retribution. signalakron.org/kent-state-o...

signalakron.org

Kent State professors cautious in the classroom following SB1

Public university professors are struggling to adjust to Ohio’s Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

For a number of years I moved to assignment submissions on Canvas. Now thinking of following your move and requiring hard copies. Do you get pushback from students? Some colleges have free printing for student-mine doesn’t. So it’s a new cost for them.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that.The only good thing for me is that my online class had their exams due last night. I don’t want to imagine what my emails would look like if the exam was due tonight. But you’re right the 1 message we have received from admin is not helpful at all and incredibly vague.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Kent State’s Canvas has been hit too. Makes for a great final exam week!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Yeah and when they finally sent something out it was useless “Canvas is currently unavailable . . .” We noticed! I had emailed the KSU Help Desk more than an hour before the announcement with a screenshot of the hacker’s message on Canvas. Makes for a fun finals week🙁

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Let’s hear it for having to use Canvas! Teaching an online course this semester and it’s the only way to do it. Nothing like seeing this when I logged on especially since it’s finals week. Fall 26 only teaching in person will avoid Canvas and back to unhackable paper!

Shiny hunters announcing hacked Instructure’s Canvas LLM for a second time.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Despite obstacles, some KSU students do find time to protest about international, national, and local issues such as SB1. For example, the KSU chapter of the Ohio Student Association recently sponsored protests, teach ins, and workshops on key issues. ohiostudentassociation.org/kent-state-u...

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Higher costs impact KSU students in 2 ways: 1. They often work outside jobs because the state subsidy is so low, college costs a lot more than it did in 1970. 2. Trying to keep up with a heavy course load and work a 25-hour a week job leaves little time for much else. Many of my students are tired!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Thoughtful article by Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social about college campuses, protest, and Kent State in the 1970s. I'm a KSU History professor. Bunch is right about what's going on in Ohio today and since 1970. Public universities cost a lot more to attend than in 1970. share.inquirer.com/bnFQwf

share.inquirer.com

Kent State and the silence of American campuses | Will Bunch Newsletter

Plus, a grim World Press Freedom Day for America

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Yup, our state legislature doesn’t believe Ohioans deserve nice things.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I ordered 1 yesterday with the bookshop.org free shipping sale. Looking forward to reading/learning from it once this much too long semester is finally over!

bookshop.org

Bookshop.org: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

A better way to buy books online. Every purchase financially supports local independent bookstores.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

As some who grew up in Staten Island (and fled) I’m not surprised to see a white woman from S.I. acting like this.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

There’s a searing scene in the documentary Kent State The Day the War Came Home when a women who survived the Kent State shootings was told by her father that the guards should have killed more. Having lived/taught in Kent for decades I’ve talked to enough people to learn not an unusual response.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Thanks! Yes this case wasn’t a hidden secret. The Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen references it in her novel, Passing. I did see the NYT writer intends to write a play. There are multiple scholarly works on it as well as fiction based on it too!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Thanks for reposting! It’s a book that meant a lot personally and professionally. Personally because like Alice R, my parents were an interracial couple who married in NY decades later.I hoped to use history to understand American ideas about race, marriage, and mixed race children.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

I’m a history professor and former attorney who spent a lot of time researching and writing this book. First as a dissertation and then as a book. It’s the first book on the Rhinelander trial to use the trial transcript as a major sourc!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

If you want to learn more about this trial and what it tells us about Americans and race 100 years ago at a time similar to our own, check out Elizabeth Smith-Pryor, Property Rites: The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness. www.amazon.com/Property-Rit...

amazon.com

Property Rites: The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness

Property Rites: The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness [Smith-Pryor, Elizabeth M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Property Rites: The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

In opposition to the law I argued the legislature was deliberately calling for people to troll faculty. BTW one key piece of these syllabi requirements is who is making money. The usual-ed tech bros! Simple Syllabus is a company many universities are contracting with to make syllabi public.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Here in Ohio a new state law requires faculty at public universities to create syllabi searchable by the public. Our syllabi must include our credentials (!) and contact info. They must also include a course calendar id’ing materials/topics for specific dates. When I submitted testimony . . .

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Teaching the same this spring. I’m especially looking forward to the era of the Revolution given the 250th. Plus, promoting a close reading of the Declaration of Independence by students does seem timely and important!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Gold Rush apples—a relatively modern variety. Tart but complex flavor and definitely not mushy! Nice and crisp and not one note. My favorite late fall apple and they are good keepers too!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Great news about this resource from the amazing Library of Congress! Great to use in the undergraduate history classroom. During the pandemic my intro history students searched Chronicling America to see what local newspapers said-or not-about the 1918 pandemic. They enjoyed finding the old stories.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

But Senator Husted promised in his July 3 email that the bill would help working Ohioans and their families and it was “prioritizing working Americans.” Somehow I’m not surprised he was bs’ing. He can delete his social media post but my inbox lives on. Can’t wait to vote against him in 2026

Email from Ohio Senator John Husted with title Increasing Tax Cuts for Working Ohioans and Making Americans Safer and More Prosperous. The rest of the message discusses Husted signing recent bill.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Nice flower and bow! She’s celebrating your birthday I can tell. Good dog!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Nice! I bought the 503a also a Rocketeer at an estate sale last year for about $100. Got it cleaned and it runs great. I love the quality of stitching I get with it, the fact there’s no tech and with the manual I can even do some basic repair. It’s also super cool to look at 🚀 very early 1960s!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

We have one too! Their space takes up a portion of an entire floor of the university library. Why have books when you can have esports? I hate to think about how much money went towards creating the space, the fancy computers and some serious gaming chairs.And it’s almost impossible to order books🙁

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Agreed! I would go a step further to say not just that the protection of property “shapes” these things but that the drive to protect property as the main goal behind our political system is deeply embedded in our constitutional/legal structures. Making justice/equality real requires changing them.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Teaching first half US History intro survey this semester and covering 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and efforts like this to rescue people who freed themselves. Asking students to imagine being alive then and considering what can you/could you/should you do? Tubman knew the answer.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Dang, too true. So many boxes of tissues. . .

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Me too! Grew up there and left by early 90s. Try to never, ever go back.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

🗃️ Forgot the pic of bumper sticker!

Bumper sticker blue background text in white says no kings text in red says no monarch. Also image of small circle with US flag in center dripping red paint.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Glad I had my history class read the Declaration closely last month especially grievances against the king. Still too relevant 1 month later! NO KING, NO MONARCH! 🗃️

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Can’t blame them at all! My daughter has 1 more year at an Ohio uni and won’t consider staying for graduate school. I live in Ohio and am considering retiring elsewhere once she graduates. The state legislature is too gerrymandered and will hang on to power as long as they can and ruin the state.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

It’s for pieces like this from Will Bunch that I subscribe to the Inquirer although Phillie is at least a 5 hour drive away. He reminds us of the moral issues at stake right now. You won’t find anything like it in the other “national” newspapers which I no longer subscribe to.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Should be a national holiday! I celebrate the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War and remind anyone who wants to put those statues back up ( you know the ones I mean) that they are monuments to losers and traitors.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Awesome! I was in Ravenna and then in Kent. Pretty good size crowds! We dodged the rain thank goodness!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Today’s double sided poster for Hands Off protests. Attended 2 today! One in our county seat and the other in my small Ohio city. Good turnout for both! People are angry about the cuts to the federal government, DOGE, and the Trump tariffs.

Poster with large text Hands Off. underneath terms like Medicaid, social security. Bottom line of text is Elon back to S. Africa.

Poster with text stating, No Kings, No Monarch, No Police State

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

As always they are projecting and turning everything into its opposite. Probably trying to forget that it was the Federalist Society starting up in law schools way back in the early 80s. Talk about a long con and corruption!

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Exactly! Most of the reporting on EOs treats them as if they are laws. I’m beginning to think many of us including big name political reporters for big name media outlets need a refresher course on the Constitution and Articles 1-3.

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Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Two sided sign for today’s Tesla Takedown in the Cleveland area in Ohio. Looked like a good turnout. Very positive responses from passing traffic! #TeslaTakedown

Poster with blue background and white text stating all caps No king No monarch. In the middle is an image of the American flag.

Poster with blue background text in white states No Musk No Trump No Tesla

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Reposted by Liz Smith-Pryor

Liz Smith-Pryor @lizsp.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

As a history professor at an Ohio public uni all I can say is that this is awful. Not surprised Rep legislature and governor just union busted faculty unions plus going to make it more difficult to teach history accurately. As the immortal Ohioan Christie Hynde once sang, “hey, ho, way to go Ohio!”

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