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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska

@mjrp.bsky.social
1.4K followers 503 following 570 posts

a historian currently writing a book about how we do history now and another book about how visitors, newcomers, and outsiders came to dominate Washington, DC mjrymszapawlowska.com

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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Providence, come see me talk (twice!) about my new research/polemic on how Americans are encountering and engaging history and how our professional fields should be responding! the AM talk will be my work re: online history influencers, the PM talk will be overview/big stakes
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Rebecca Brenner Graham @theotherrbg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
just visited Rhode Island Historical Society’s exhibit based on @mjrp.bsky.social ‘s book 📖🤎💚❤️💜 And Elizabeth Sulock let me borrow(!) her original Felicity’s Elegant Tea Party box(!!!!) which felt like taking an archival box from the historical society.
front of the exhibit titled History Comes Alive in Rhode Island Felicity and Rebecca dolls holding a burgundy box that says Felicity’s 1991 Elegant Tea
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I'll say that the amount of random administrators and centers on campus that suddenly have weekly newsletters emailing out to all of campus has been astounding
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
something that more people should know is that google is an excellent resource for learning how to pronounce people's names
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
worth reading not only for the excellent reporting but also because all of these people are going to wash up into D.C. cultural orgs and we should keep an eye out for them www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/u...
nytimes.com
How President Trump Broke the Kennedy Center (Gift Article)
Internal emails and documents demonstrate the political capture of the institution, including how officials once pursued a plan to unload much of the art collection.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
english.elpais.com/usa/2026-09-...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
wait what
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I am an exhibit! I'm super excited that the Rhode Island Historical Society re-interpreted one of their c.1970s period rooms at the Museum at the John Brown House using my book, History Comes Alive! If you're in Rhode Island (say, if you're at @ncph.bsky.social / @aaslh.org) you should stop by!
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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think Democrats should be out there promising prosecution for any contractor willing to do whatever comes next.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I know that I am old because when I try to imitate a gen z influencer it just sounds like the valley girl accent from the 80s
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Rebecca Brenner Graham @theotherrbg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🔥🔥🔥 @profmoskowitz.bsky.social @simonatmadison.bsky.social @katejewell.bsky.social @jmadelman.bsky.social @mjrp.bsky.social
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
looking for recommendations--has anyone written anything about the hashtag syllabus movement? or done any research into how people were actually using/engaging them? please help circulate if you see this...
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Seth Rockman @sethrockman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a big one: Brown University is searching for the next director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Please help us identify excellent candidates to lead this signature program into the future. Please write me with ideas; please share in your networks; please apply.
networks.h-net.org
Brown University - Professor and Director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice | H-Net
1. Academic Accomplishment. We seek a scholar with a strong scholarly record, including excellence in both research and teaching, appropriate for appointment at the level of full professor in a social science, humanities, or arts department at Brown.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Having a little fun with the @ncph.bsky.social @aaslh.org conference app…
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’ve been in Providence for like three weeks (I’m on fellowship here this year) but I’m so excited for this!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
among other things, it's clear that the authors have not thought seriously about public history since the 1990s If I were peer reviewing this I'd send it back. And yet this is supposed to be taken seriously as a report on the state of the field? '
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
funnily enough, I just wrote an article about this brooklynrail.org/2026/07/crit...
brooklynrail.org
The Devil in the White City | The Brooklyn Rail
For the semiquincentennial, the National Mall will be transformed into a midway filled with amusements and concessions; around it, a gleaming new “White City.” Historians have long connected the Gilde...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
used to be that a robber baron had to build a whole outdoor museum to push his ideas about history and now he can just say them on a podcast!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
extractive institution hosts extractive individual
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
just want to call attention to the most hilarious part of all of this
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I love the idea of a book prize for longevity--the slow burn award! So many "big" books flame out quickly and so many others just get more important or become sleeper hits years after publication--let's reward the latter!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
better: A disenfranchised D.C. has always been the canary in the coal mine: what happens here (no-knock warrant, sending riot cops to protests, etc.) eventually happens elsewhere. If the state didn't have a handy testing ground for repression, would be harder to institute these measures nationally.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
was enjoying the all-Dolly playlist at the coffeeshop for like half an hour before I found out why they were playing it 🥹. A life well-lived, truly
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
fascinating watching elite institutions pivot towards reading long books, analog writing, slow thinking etc. etc. like the crossfit gym of the mind! The 2035 gigachad will be a guy who has read gravitys rainbow
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Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
*wipes off bead of sweat as a polish person approves of the column*
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
my work gets a shoutout on the @nytimes.com Cannonball podcast! www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/p...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
must confess that I do this a lot because I usually read several books and think with all of them in order to get to my own ideas and I also want my readers to understand that. Humanities analysis isn't 1:1 all the time, sometimes a footnote can be about both showing and inviting work!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
it's interesting, but not surprising, that the signature genre of 250th-themed text ended up being the listicle.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This is exactly the flag I would have expected them to come up with!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
the reason that anyone can go around calling themselves a "historian" has to do with the fact that our collective idea of what it means to "do history" has not changed over a hundred years, even as access to archives and platforms is no longer regulated by the guild www.rawstory.com/trump-david-...
rawstory.com
‘Fake historian’ exposed as mastermind behind Trump’s Smithsonian obsession: report
President Donald Trump's moves to discredit the Smithsonian Museum of American History are being driven by a notorious Christian nationalist "fake historian," according to a new report. According to J...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
excuse me, @nytimes.com are we no longer just saying "chair"??
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I would love to read some smart commentary on this...aesthetic. patriot slop? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/a...
nytimes.com
After Claiming ‘Bias’ at Smithsonian, Trump Officials Stage Patriotic Exhibition
Trump officials have promised to “make visual arts great,” with a museum exhibition that includes artwork by several people with personal connections to the planners.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Driving thru Vermont tomorrow and accidentally booked a night at the official hotel of Christian Girl Fall
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I am genuinely crushed that I will not be able to enjoy taco bell during my upcoming road trip
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
guarantee you that most of this list was made by a chatbot trained on a lot of decommissioned norton anthologies from the 90s some anthropic intern bought at a board of ed auction in petaluma california
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
when you fire all of your culture writers and let AI take over your cultural coverage you make embarrassing mistakes like this
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I'm thinking, today, of all of the hardworking, brilliant people at NMAH. The nuanced, inclusive history that is under attack here--the result of scholarship, outreach, and curation at the highest levels--would not exist without these historians.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
that AI companies are hiring analytic philosophers for moral cover is like the least surprising thing in the world www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/b...
nytimes.com
The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I find a way to get Mickey Mouse history onto almost every syllabus I teach. One of the best!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
this is an excellent rule of thumb!
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
will also say that some of our most vital and best history comes from scholars w/o permanent institutional affiliations who rely on publication and publicity to self-fund research, get better contracts, or other opportunities. they deserve to be paid for their work, not just "acknowledged"
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Last month, I drafted a short piece about Freedom250's AI-rendered plans for D.C. (fairslop?) the colonial history of international expositions, and how commemoration should work. It's out now in #TheBrooklynRail brooklynrail.org/2026/07/crit...
brooklynrail.org
The Devil in the White City | The Brooklyn Rail
For the semiquincentennial, the National Mall will be transformed into a midway filled with amusements and concessions; around it, a gleaming new “White City.” Historians have long connected the Gilde...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
through my research on the exponential growth of popular history "content" in the last several years its become clear that the key reason is that content creators of all kinds see it as "free IP" and also don't differentiate whether it comes from wikipedia, history channel, a historian, whatever 1/5
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Today's excellent read is my AU colleague #NatalieHopkinson's conversation with @edgeofsports.bsky.social about his new book on Howard Zinn in the @wcp.bsky.social washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7881...
washingtoncitypaper.com
A Conversation With Dave Zirin
Natalie Hopkinson speaks with political sports writer Dave Zirin about protests, history, and his new book on Howard Zinn.
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
For fun today (research, I swear) I walked over to Politics and Prose intending to photograph every single “untold story” or “secret history” and had to stop because my phone got too hot
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Last month, I drafted a short piece about Freedom250's AI-rendered plans for D.C. (fairslop?) the colonial history of international expositions, and how commemoration should work. It's out now in #TheBrooklynRail brooklynrail.org/2026/07/crit...
brooklynrail.org
The Devil in the White City | The Brooklyn Rail
For the semiquincentennial, the National Mall will be transformed into a midway filled with amusements and concessions; around it, a gleaming new “White City.” Historians have long connected the Gilde...
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I'm honored to have served as series editor for this project. It's easy to feel discouraged about the state of things right now but reading how these public historians are working every day for more inclusive, nuanced, and accessible engagements with history makes me hopeful! Open access
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
re: attribution, historians also do this to each other all the time! we also regularly consent to "untold history" framings for our research, write articles for major outlets (ahem, one in particular) that synthesize our colleagues' work without credit and don't cite secondary sources past the intro
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M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska @mjrp.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
this is infuriating, and happens to historians way too often--our professional orgs and leading historians should be advocating for better understanding of what constitutes the work of history via citational practices. everything has a historian!
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