iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Academic life PSA: In case your doctor doesn’t believe you could have the flu this early, ask for the respiratory panel anyway. Partying over here with Influenza A six days into the new school year 🎉🤒

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The Crossroads Project @xroadproj.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

We are excited to announce the new projects added to SPIRIT HOUSE, @xroadproj.bsky.social's gallery of work by Crossroads Project Fellows exploring Black religious histories, communities and cultures. The site, designed by @mpgphd.bsky.social, now hosts 48 projects. A thread of what's new:

crossroads-spirithouse.org

home. | SPIRIT HOUSE

SPIRIT HOUSE invests in and celebrates the richness and abundance of Black religions as they manifest through scholarly research, artistic expression, and community building.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

"To understand Dolly, you have to read her as a writer. Writing her own story was the most radical, precise way to define herself in a world that kept trying to fit her into a box." -- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Greatest Story Dolly Parton Ever Wrote Was Herself

She didn’t see herself as a saint; she identified as something we needed even more: a writer.

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Mark Alan Mattes + Hot Brown Press @markalanmattes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I've been quiet here about my continuing work for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library-Louisville, but if anybody is interested in supporting, about a month ago I agreed to do another run of the posters from last spring: www.etsy.com/listing/4528... Rest in power.

etsy.com

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Letterpress Show Poster - Etsy

This Letterpress Prints item by HotBrownPress has 9 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Louisville, KY. Listed on Aug 25, 2026

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

There is one grant on this list of 81 projects that specifically focuses on the history of women and girls and that is just my tiny sigh for the day.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"I'm in a very mixed parish, lots of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Ecuadorians, Mexicans," explained Houlihan. "They all have sodalities and spiritual groups, and I knew their literature was not covering Mary Magdalene. I wanted to have an ethnically rich portrayal." www.ncronline.org/culture/mary...

ncronline.org

Mary Magdalene exhibit at Catholic girls school helps students 'see themselves'

New York City is known for its exceptional art shows. Yet an exhibit depicting the Resurrection from Mary Magdalene's point of view is on display not at any of the city's great galleries, but in a Cat...

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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"The Temple of Time" (1846) by Emma Willard.⠀ From our essay by Susan Schulten exploring the pioneering work of Emma Willard (1787–1870), a leading feminist educator whose innovative maps of time laid the groundwork for the charts and graphics of today: publicdomainreview.org/essay/e...

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

A thread with an ask: comments due today 🗃️

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 05/07/2026

where is the nun who saged MSG

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The Crossroads Project @xroadproj.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

The Crossroads Project invites proposals for American Crossroads Fellows Grants (up to $15,000) to create interpretive material about African American religious history and provide opportunities for community engagement. Deadline: September 1, 2026 crossroads.princeton.edu/grant-progra...

Grants for Artists, Teachers, Scholars, Activists, Community Leaders

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The Crossroads Project @xroadproj.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

We are grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation, @princetonccsr.bsky.social, and @princeton.edu for support of @xroadproj.bsky.social. We are also excited to have Vaughn A. Booker, @aejohnsonphd.bsky.social and @monicalmercado.bsky.social join the Crossroads Project's Advisory Board.

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

look I realize I’m a New Yorker but separately on a deep spiritual level I also understand futzing around for the first three quarters and realizing all of a sudden you have to show up for the fourth

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 12/06/2026

From Washington Heights to the Lower East Side, Nuyoricans have defined this city for generations. Here's to celebrating their contributions, their history and the future of our city.

youtu.be

There is no New York without Nuyoricans

YouTube video by NYC Mayor's Office

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Emily Wood @ebwood.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

David Hockney, Daffodils in Vase, 1969, Smith College Museum of Art

Black and white print of a long, slender vase with two small handles by the mouth holding a narrow bunch of daffodils, just left of center in the composition. The vase and flowers cast a narrower but slightly shorter shadow to the right. Most of the sheet is left white, save a thin diagonal line sloping down from left to right to indicate a corner where the floor or countertop meets the wall. Signed in the lower right corner.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Just got back from this absolutely breathtaking exhibition. If you’re near Boston go go go to PEM before the show closes Sunday, June 7 🗃️ #museums

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

The way you know Bluesky is not a representative sample is several people are livetweeting their reading of an encyclical

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Prof. Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

In the interest of being a good professor, if you want to read the pertinent sections of Magnifica Humanitas on slavery, the "apology" and the implications for AI, skip to sections 172-181 of the Encyclical.

vatican.va

Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)

ENCYCLICAL LETTER MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [ Multimedia ] ___________________________

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Maybe the perfect book to arrive at the office during Colgate graduation weekend? Congratulations, @dygottlieb.bsky.social!

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

If you saw me loitering by the UNC booth at OAH last weekend, I was reading the introduction to MINOR MOVES and it is the real deal! ✨

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

OAH is rarely the place for #amrel but we were there and had a good time with a great audience 🪡

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Dawn Durante @dawnd.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Thanks to everyone who has already stopped by the @uncpress.bsky.social booth at #OAH26. We’re looking forward to seeing more people and having more conversations today!

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

It’s summer in Philly and I stopped at Head House Books before I even checked in to my hotel.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

tfw you're revising your OAH paper and fall into a minor rabbit hole about girl's clothing made out of fabric called nuns' veiling.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

how am I supposed to finish writing anything today when I'm crying about space 🌘

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Popping up to recommend my friend and #amrel scholar Melissa Borja’s great new limited series, One Million Neighbors: the story of U.S. faith communities‘ work in 1970s refugee resettlement in the Twin Cities and beyond 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

podcasts.apple.com

One Million Neighbors w/ Dr. Melissa Borja

History Podcast · One Million Neighbors is a limited podcast series about how American faith communities mobilized to do the impossible: resettling more than a million Southeast Asian refugees, in the...

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Favorite story in the obituary of Paula Doress-Worters (R.I.P.) — OBO’s #nuntastic connections 🙏https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/books/paula-doress-worters-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VVA._NYJ.0ocMYEdRbvLD&smid=url-share h/t @marie259.bsky.social

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

In case you weren't already convinced, Durba Mitra's beautiful introduction to The Future That Was is available to read on the Princeton UP website. What is the future we yearn for?

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

So thrilled to see this--Barbara Smith's collections include the records of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, handwritten drafts of the Combahee River Collective Statement, and Smith’s own electric JCPenney typewriter. (Maybe some Albany, NY records too?) www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ide...

radcliffe.harvard.edu

Schlesinger Library Acquires the Papers of Groundbreaking Black Feminist Barbara Smith | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Barbara Smith is a Black feminist trailblazer, author, and literary pioneer whose literary and political activism connects with key 20th-century cultural and political movements.

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 15/03/2026

just got off the phone with Oscar. he said sorry for snubbing ann lee despite the same creative team getting an insane amount of awards heat for a much worse movie a couple years ago. it’s okay i said. he said sorry for being a misogynist. i said it’s okay oscar. it’s okay

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American Catholic Historical Association @achahistory.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

We are excited to share the CFP for next year's annual meeting in New Orleans, from January 7 through January 10! We are accepting proposals on any topic relevant to Catholic studies. To submit a proposal or visit our collaboration Google Sheet, visit achahistory.org/neworleans20....

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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

In case you missed the moment. Art is powerful

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 09/02/2026

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Rümeysa Öztürk, in her own words. "Our scream is individual and collective, and it is a response to the loss of autonomy, to the violation of consent, to being treated as an object by unfamiliar hands." www.thecut.com/article/rume...

thecut.com

Hearing My Own Scream

For months, Rümeysa Öztürk has been haunted by the cries of ICE detention — those of scared children, grieving mothers, barking guards — and her own.

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Dan "Scary" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Each city has developed different tactics to fight ICE but we are also learning from each other. They will lose in Minneapolis and they will try to take another city, but they will be starting from behind because we will have learned from our northern siblings and gotten stronger in the meantime.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

On January 22, 2016 my laptop died as I was thinking about outlining my Colgate job talk and everything shut down for snowmageddon. On January 23 I just walked around Philly to gawk at the snow because who cared, I was never going to get a job anyway. Time flies. Stay warm & check in on your people.

A city street buried in 20 inches of snow. Cars have not been dug out yet.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

I am revisiting some of my annotations in books for a curriculum guide and community political education initiative we will be launching with the documentary (please don’t ask! I’m so overwhelmed) and I’m thinking of how today’s children will one day testify about ICE.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

If you want to experience some light in the darkness, ask your seminar to map their journeys to taking History honors & see all the ways that students find meaning in the work we do together @colgate.edu. (Pretty sure I stole this exercise from @jackiantonovich.bsky.social a long long time ago!) 🗃️

Around a classroom seminar table covered in papers, notebooks, a laptop, and water bottles, six students write and draw on large yellow post-it notes affixed to walls and windows.

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Monica L. Mercado @monicalmercado.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Grateful to be joined by both Pope Leo and the Second City Sisters (of the perpetual indulgence) this weekend at ACHA 2026. #AHA26

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American Catholic Historical Association @achahistory.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Remember to add our annual off-site panel, Blurred Lines: Catholic Flirtations, when registering for the ACHA 2026 Annual Meeting at Gallery Cabaret in Chicago! To register and add the event, go to achahistory.org/chicago2026/.

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American Catholic Historical Association @achahistory.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Registration for the ACHA Annual Meeting is open! Please note that all presenters must register for both the AHA and ACHA meetings. To register, go to achahistory.org/chicago2026/

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