Sign in

Tamara J. Walker

@tamaraw.bsky.social
532 followers 389 following 179 posts

Historian * Author of BEYOND THE SHORES: A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS ABROAD (Crown, out now in paperback) and EXQUISITE SLAVES (Cambridge, 2017) * Co-founder of The Wandering Scholar (@wearetws.bsky.social).

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Drafting the Past @draftingthepast.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Updated with the designer credits that I could find. If you know the three missing cover designers, let us know please!
074
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Can you imagine living in the Olden Days*? *2021
3297
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Yesenia Barragan, she/they @yeseniabarragan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
It’s me! ☺️☺️☺️ Can’t wait for this!
031
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"In the meantime, many schools have turned to surveillance... Students’ browsing histories are pulled from the campus network and scanned for recent visits to ChatGPT or Claude." Well now I wonder how those of us who live by the rules of No Cop Shit will meet this moment. Because, not this please.
nymag.com
The College Students Finding New Ways to Cheat With AI
Colleges are testing new ways to catch AI use. It isn’t working.
010
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Carrie Gibson @carriegibson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This fortnight’s offering: George Sand's Winter in Majorca and Frédéric Chopin's Preludes might not be with us had they been able to drink mojitos by the pool. carriegibson.co.uk/2026/09/02/c...
carriegibson.co.uk
Carrie Gibson’s Offcuts: Island Strife – Carrie Gibson
Click above to listen! The writer George Sand was having a terrible time the winter of 1838 on the Spanish island of Mallorca. She had arrived in November, finding the island heat ‘comparable to that ...
011
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Can I just add that there's this insufferable vein of performative (that should bother the author) self-loathing that some academics feel the need to perform as a ritual? "Oh, the public hates us so much, and *it's our fault*!" And that behavior is *exceptionally annoying* to other people.
2122
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If you’re seeing professors (like me) posting extra hard this week it’s partly because the semester begins and some of us are in pure 100 proof denial
57210
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
"too narrow"
screenshot from the article linked in the reposted tweet, which reads

"The List of courses on the chopping block includes Modern Art of Mexico; Slavery and its Legacies; Race, Law, and US Society; History of Money and Corruption; Rhetoric of Cuteness; Banned Books and Novel Ideas; Global Environmental History; American Jewish History and History of College Football"
817073
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Anne E @anita5446.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Brava to 🎉 @csschmitt.bsky.social 🎉 and the other two great finalists! 🗃️
1234
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Bookshelfie ⭐️ @bookshelfie.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
#booksky
423237
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Theresa Kaminski @theresakaminski.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Rabbit, rabbit. And here are some good history books to look forward to this month, via @draftingthepast.bsky.social 🗃️ www.draftingthepast.com/books-were-l...
draftingthepast.com
New History Books We're Looking Forward to in September
Ten history books coming out this month that caught our eye
2146
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I’ve been thinking a lot about Claude’s watermarking method, and especially how it will apply to those “I just use it to check grammar” cases. Which is actually interesting data for anyone who thinks it’s there to help: AI is insatiable. It pretends to offer directions while stealing your laptop.
010
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 30/08/2026
"The Nerd Reich" is the #2 on the San Francisco Chronicle's list of Bay Area bestsellers for non-fiction. It's amusing to see my book climb the charts in publications that otherwise refuse to mention it! 👀 But that's okay, we are steamrolling the gatekeepers.
SF Chronicle book charts showing Nerd Reich at #1 on bestsellers
15648110
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Audra Wolfe @audrajwolfe.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Having served on the council of a different learned society, I can say that $170K is an unusually high amount for an organization of that size to be spending on lobbying. Even aside from the specifics.
14419
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Casey Schmitt @csschmitt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Consider joining me this year for a virtual OI Coffeehouse on the theme of "New Approaches to the Study of Peace, Violence, and War in Vast Early America!" Or, if I'm not your cup of tea, check out the other great options here: oieahc.wm.edu/events-overv... Due Sept. 11! 🗃️
oieahc.wm.edu
New OI Coffeehouse Tables!
Apply by September 11 for a seat at one of the new OI Coffeehouse tables!
0115
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This was truly a dream convening and a dream cohort filled with generous and brilliant writerly historians like @waterman.bsky.social -stay tuned for news about next year!
094
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
'recent research, including a study published by Stanford University in 2025, is finding that AI tools have an inherent bias against older working women.' well, this really wasn't what I wanted to read right now inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk
I'm 45 with decades of experience, but I've been turned down for 70 jobs
I thought I'd be in my highest-earning and most successful years, how wrong I was
0123
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Ricardo Autobahn @ricardoautobahn.co.uk · 26/08/2026
The best tribute to Dolly Parton is that she regularly and repeatedly refused to have anything to do with Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan

@piersmorgan

Follow

:

RIP Dolly Parton.

Never met her, never interviewed her (despite decades of unrequited requests) but thought she was utterly fabulous in every way.
181204613054
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Bookshelfie ⭐️ @bookshelfie.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
823144
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr. Jim Downs @jimdowns.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Happy Publication Day, @archiverat.bsky.social And a wonderfully thorough review in the LA Review of Books! So happy for you! Many bacon-filled breakfast conversations at conferences over the past decade have imagined & anticipated this day.Thrilled to see it here lareviewofbooks.org/article/movi...
lareviewofbooks.org
We Can Answer for Ourselves | Los Angeles Review of Books
Susan Eva O’Donovan argues that the political building blocks of freedom were inherent in the project of slavery itself.
021
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Two women at my workout class this morning described the instructor as "yelling at" the class, but she was just talking loud enough for us to hear her over the music? I guess that's yelling if you're woman of color in leading a class of mostly white women on the upper east side, though.
100
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Renata Keller @renatakeller.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Very excited for this!!
1145
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
READ: If you read (& perhaps clutched your pearls over) that Tyler Austin Harper piece in The Atlantic about DEI and Bates College, then I hope you’ll have the integrity to read this rejoinder by Andrew Baker, a Black male professor who preceded Harper at Bates. open.substack.com/pub/thedrift...
open.substack.com
Racism and labor at Bates: the other side of the story
Andrew Baker responds to Tyler Austin Harper
5512187
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Of all the academic freedom challenges available to choose from in the year of our lord 2026, imagine being the 100s of people who say, right, let’s go with debunked 19th c. race science as retold by a philosopher.
39731
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Thank you to the Bluesky community who have carefully read & engaged with this piece. I’d also urge you to listen to the Professor Simon Baron-Cohen interview that I embedded. I can only include last 3 mins here but he gives precise chronology..including how he was cleared of plagiarism
29971421
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"Flailing regimes dehumanize minorities to distract from their failures. When the economy collapses or a war goes badly, they find a tiny group of people, make them the enemy within, and rally the country against them. ... This will not stop with trans people. It never has."
04013
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026) @tnflorvil.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Greetings, Psst, most academics aren't making much money from their book publications. They can't use their royalties. This means we are not popping our collars and purchasing prosecco or NA prosecco. The few scholars who are making bank are not publishing with university/academic presses.
38915
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I am SO very excited about this one, having heard Chloe talk about its process and purpose. Simultaneously important stories to tell, and caring ethics to navigate. Congratulations @chloeireton.bsky.social , can’t wait to throw champagne over this! 🍾
1102
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
"...history has the potential to change a people’s future by changing its self-understanding." History is exceptionally powerful, which is why its expert work is degraded, distorted, accepted only as tourism. Always the authoritarian political instrument of choice. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump's Smithsonian Attacks Are Attacks on America’s Future (Gift Article)
This is how we decide who we are and who we want to be.
43811
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
This essay gets at something that I struggled with in later seasons of The Bear: food as "experience" feels exhausting in a lot of ways, and disingenuous, and ultimately like a colossal upsell. The initial seasons were focused so much more on the food itself and for me the show lost itself.
weareravenous.com
I Am Completely Exhausted by Restaurant 'Experiences'
Restaurants keep trying to lure diners with tableside spectacles, and it's starting to get ridiculous.
483
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 03/08/2026
Apparently DEI was the only thing standing between us and death lettuce
484118902
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Jaya Saxena @jayasaxena.com · 02/08/2026
I wrote about Ravenous preparing to commission freelance (yayy!!!) and realizing that means having to plan for AI scams (boooooo) www.weareravenous.com/ai-freelance...
weareravenous.com
AI Is Fucking Over Freelancers
Watching what AI is doing to the process of commissioning freelance work is making us depressed and angry.
425057
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 02/08/2026
The unremembered history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks www.khq.com/national/the... #recreationalsegregation #blackplay
khq.com
The forgotten history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks
Municipal swimming pools flourished in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.
186
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 02/08/2026
A new historical highway marker will honor Wilmington native George Lawrence Mabson, recognized as North Carolina’s first African American lawyer. www.wwaytv3.com/historical-m...
wwaytv3.com
Historical marker to honor North Carolina’s first African American lawyer in Wilmington - WWAYTV3
A new historical highway marker will honor Wilmington native George Lawrence Mabson, recognized as North Carolina’s first African American lawyer.
053
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
And as Publishing Confidential's Kathleen Schmidt points out, so many of these cases involve feeding content to Pangram, which only serves that company's valuation, and that company often gets things wrong. Who ultimately pays?
000
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
So many interesting things about this story (which I first read about on the Publishing Confidential Substack, h/t to @leahredmondchang.bsky.social): but the main one is that so many authors (+ some more than others) are going to be presumed guilty until proven innocent when it comes to AI writing.
theguardian.com
$2m crime novel deal collapses amid questions over AI use
Agents withdraw Jerry Falade’s hotly anticipated debut after saying they can no longer authenticate ‘how the manuscript evolved’
000
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Drew McKevitt @drewmckevitt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Neil Gorsuch has a seat on the supreme court only because Mitch McConnell abandoned all pretense to civility 10 years ago
36818
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Matthew Thomas Miller (He/Him) @mtmiller.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Love everything about this! Are you an @aaup.org advocacy chapter or at-large member? Then you are part of @local6741.bsky.social. Want to know the incredible stuff we did at the @aft.org convention last week? Check out this recap 🧵
01611
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Government-promoted anti-intellectualism is a common feature of fascist states, with “intellectualism” coded as feminine and/or Jewish/leftist.
301883554
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 19/07/2026
Instead of another article on AI consciousness, you should read this very good book. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646644...
penguinrandomhouse.com
A World Appears by Michael Pollan: 9781984881991 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The Instant New York Times Bestseller "Pollan’s real genius—the word is not too strong—remains intact. That is his uncanny ability to scent the direction in which the culture is headed....
041
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Elise A. Mitchell @bydreamphd.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
“The change happened overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, hours after the city hosted MLB All-Star game events near the site, allowing the government to switch out the displays and shut down the television screens while avoiding public scrutiny during the takedown.” www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
inquirer.com
Slavery exhibits at the President’s House have been swapped for the Trump administration’s version
The change at the President's House happened overnight, allowing the government to switch out the displays and shut down the television screens while avoiding public scrutiny during the takedown.
043
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr. Jim Downs @jimdowns.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
The NYT piece on Greenidge skips the elephant in the room: her real argument wasn't about the Grimke sisters as founding feminist heroines — it was against that hagiography, told instead through their Black nephews. That's the intervention the article never engages. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/b...
nytimes.com
33817
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026) @tnflorvil.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
🤣🤣
0104
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
#juneteenth Family history is political history is American history. Also one of the best books ever.
Picture of Annette Gordon-Reed’s book On Juneteenth on a notebook with pens
05517
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Pamela Toler (she/her) @pdtoler.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Smart simple actions, recommended by one of my favorite newsletter writers 20 Small Acts of Media Literacy We Can Practice Every Day open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...
open.substack.com
20 Small Acts of Media Literacy We Can Practice Every Day
From checking the date to tracing the source: building a sharper eye for information.
031
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
This reminds me of a really great passage from Barnes' interview in the NYT this week:
042
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Rebecca Brenner Graham @theotherrbg.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I have two events in DC this week! 🌸 (1/2) @liveright.bsky.social @peoplesbooktakoma.com peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/darkol...
peoplesbooktakoma.com
Rhae Lynn Barnes for Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment
A groundbreaking history, decades in the making, that chronicles how blackface dominated American society culturally, financially, and racially for nearly two centuries. Never before has the distur…
1107
Tamara J. Walker @tamaraw.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
As someone who's been taunted by people making monkey noises in Argentina, I find this to be a deeply satisfying turn of events. But also fascinating for multiple reasons including the framing of Brazil as the only one of the two countries that "suffered from the issue of slavery."
nytimes.com
When Racism Is a Crime: Brazil Puts a Tourist on Trial for Word and Gesture
071
Reposted by Tamara J. Walker
Hispanic American Historical Review @hahr21.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
On the BBC @historyextra.bsky.social podcast, historian of Mexico Paul Gillingham discusses the life and work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. open.spotify.com/episode/37Vj...
open.spotify.com
Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week
011