Sign in

Valerie Deacon

@valeriedeacon.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.2K following 289 posts

Historian of Modern France, the extreme-right, and the French Resistance. Working in curriculum development (teaching and learning spaces) and student success at TMU. Parent of a very sassy young child.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 21h
I'd like to encourage every single historian of Nazi Germany to submit an application to this job.
141128203
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I'm working through some thoughts I have after tonight's talk, but one thing that resonated immensely is the framework of "hereness" the authors borrow to talk about how rooting deeply and defensively into community (to fight for and defend the here) is a way to fight fascism.
000
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
As I was talking about this moments ago, I was interrupted by a breaking news story about the US sale of 2 billion dollars worth of arms to Israel, including heavy bombs. But, yes, Macklemore's words are clearly the threat 🤔
050
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I will be absolutely crushed if we ever learn anything bad about this guy, because he's making one good decision after another!
020
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026
As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.
theverge.com
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.
367201359895
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
katherine mckittrick @demonicgrounds.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Is anyone else thinking about how Canadian unis are recruiting loads of US scholars while aggressively sustaining hiring freezes and actively defunding fields like humanities, black studies, gender studies and insisting that international graduate students somehow drain the sector’s economy? I am.
712224
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Josh Eyler @josheyler.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
In today's @insidehighered.com, @emmawhitford.bsky.social does a great job of centering the importance of the MIT report on AI and highlighting the message about alternative grading. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...
insidehighered.com
MIT AI Report Calls for Alternative Grading, Social Learning
Artificial intelligence is upending the MIT education, a committee has found. Students, instructors and administrators will need to revisit nearly every part of that experience to respond to it.
072
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Note the eye-watering fees they've been paying for this service - at a time when the profession has been financially gutted by cuts at universities, cuts to funding, etc.
0113
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Is this why my day has been so bad? The whole universe is grieving: people.com/dolly-parton...
people.com
Dolly Parton, Country Music Legend, Dies at 80, Just 4 Days After Saying, ‘I Still Have so Many Things I Want to Achieve’
Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. The country music legend was known for songs including “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.” She also starred in movies like ‘Steel Magnolias’ and ‘T...
040
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
First Toronto Tempo game! It was marvelous, but now I'm all up to date on the anti-trans rhetoric coming from some US players. Was proud that my city showed up in the right way - lots of "protect the dolls" and "trans rights are human rights" tshirts in the crowd.
020
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Finally got a chance to visit the Air Force Museum in Trenton and spent an inordinate amount of time enjoying this restored Halifax 😍
010
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just dreamy!
000
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Gus Orviston @orviston.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I think this is probably the most consequential unforced error that we've ever seen by any administration in American history.
25710156
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
This Fauci hearing is the biggest explosion of right wing brainworms I've ever seen. Years of debunked and absurd antivax and "gain of function" conspiracy theories expressed as incoherent screaming at an 85 year old man. It's absolutely demented and embarrassing to watch.
26735178
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
Harvard College Lays Off Writing Center Director, Consolidates Center | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard College Writing Center will no longer operate as a standalone unit after its director was laid off and its functions were consolidated as part of a restructuring in the Faculty of Arts and...
27380149
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Karine Varley @karinevarley.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
CFP: Protect civilians from air warfare. Civil defence in France and Europe during the Second World War/ Protéger les civils de la guerre aérienne. Les défenses passives en France et en Europe pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale Deadline 31 July 2026 calenda.org/1383614
calenda.org
Protéger les civils de la guerre aérienne. Les défenses passives en...
Depuis les années 1920, les frontières entre le front et l’arrière s’estompent jusqu’à ce que les civils deviennent les premières victimes de la guerre aérienne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. ...
101
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
🤨🤨🤨
020
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Love this goal in honour of Kone.
020
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Excited to share the Call for Papers for a special issue of French Historical Studies on "European-Indigenous Relations in the French Americas" (which I am co-editing w/Scott Berthelette) Feel free to reach out via DM/email if you have any questions CFP here: read.dukeupress.edu/french-histo...
read.dukeupress.edu
Submission Guidelines | French Historical Studies | Duke University Press
Submission Guidelines | French Historical Studies | Duke University Press Submission Guidelines  CALL FOR PAPERS Special issue of French Historical Studies on European-Indigenous ...
34837
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Oh, hello 2010, the precise moment I started to look for faculty roles. How I remember thee...
000
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
"grade inflation" is only a problem if you think that grades were ever an objective measure of learning. And if you think that, I'd encourage you to look into the history of educational ranking.
040
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 21/05/2026
This. Can we please just make all college grades pass/fail?
817517
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
On the one-year anniversary of EMPIRE OF AI, I am so, so excited to announce The AI Resist List, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world 😍 airesistlist.org
The gorgeous AI Resist List homepage
4525291122
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 14/05/2026
From Safe Parkside: look what happened on Parkside Drive after Premier Doug Ford banned speed cameras.
Line chart showing vehicles exceeding 60 km/h on Parkside Drive from January to April, comparing enforcement periods with and without speed cameras. The data shows a dramatic increase in speeding violations after the camera ban in November 2025
14669222
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I am the chair of parent council at my child's school and I can't tell you how many people are so taken with Haidt's (wrong and foolish) ideas that they simply do not care when you point out that actual researchers (who care about evidence) have debunked them. He's the cause of a social panic.
100
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Joshua Earle, Ph.D. @cyborgapologist.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Since Haidt's in the news (again) being a whiny twit about someone not wanting to hear his revolutionary(tm) ideas, let me show you this, very real (I found the video) slide about what, exactly, his ideas are (since he's awfully coy about it nowadays):
Jonathan Haid at a lectern with a slide that reads: Both Sides Deny "Inconvenient Truths". Left: IQ deniers, Heritability Deniers, Sex Difference Deniers, Evolution Deniers, Stereotype Accuracy Deniers. Right: Young-earthers, Evolution Deniers, War Crimes Deniers, Climate Change Deniers.
5167
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Toronto mayors could take a page from this playbook.
110
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Mahaut H. @mahauth.eurosky.social · 11/05/2026
Bizarrement, les femmes qui lisent cette nouvelle ne sont pas du tout étonnées.
610329
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Melonie @quioui.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
If someone seriously cites Jonathan Haidt to support an argument in their article or column, I'm closing that tab. (This is true and it just happened)
273
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
“Par erreur”
231
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Ben Wurgaft @benwurgaft.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
for your Friday reading pleasure: @rpanchasi.bsky.social on Dark Academia, a genre that never seems to get the darkness of its subject quite right: www.publicbooks.org/the-uncomfor...
publicbooks.org
The Uncomfortable Lightness of Dark Academia - Public Books
“Asked where she got the idea for the mystery novel, the author said she was inspired by a colleague in her real academic life who does ‘noble’ work but is ‘such an asshole.’”
0133
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Oh, this makes me so happy.
010
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
French Colonial Historical Society @frenchcolonial.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Tomorrow! Demain!
032
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
This is indefensible. Canadians must boycott the World Cup.
Canada, FIFA World Cup host country, rejected visa to President, Gen. Sec and Head of Legal at Palestine FA to attend FIFA Congress on 30 April. We're hearing also Lebanese, Iranian, Syrian FAs were denied visas. Congress is only event where FAs can feed into football governance
613453
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Abby @arobertswrites.com · 15/04/2026
Trying to explain St Augustine to the pope, the former head of the Augustinian order, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Augustine, on his way back from celebrating mass at the Basilica of St Augustine in Annaba, Algeria, overlooking the site where Augustine lived is peak Adult Catholic Convert.
12064841988
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Such a great piece about LLMs and the way they can change language (and thinking): AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think | Ada Palmer and Bruce Schneier | The Guardian share.google/xfh6NNA2XxQ6...
share.google
AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think | Bruce Schneier
Large language models aren’t trained on real-life conversations. As we encounter their language, it could affect our own
000
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Rebecca Scales @rebeccapscales.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
011
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Christopher McKnight Nichols @cmcknichols.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Not good developments here, stay tuned.
1148
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
These are orders given "under a black flag," and US military personnel should refuse to carry them out.
291133331
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/04/2026
NASA #Artemis II flyby coverage schedule; all times in Eastern. You can follow along live on NASA+ (plus.nasa.gov) or on the NASA YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@NASA). It should be amazing to watch!
Screenshot:
Key lunar flyby times, milestones
All times Eastern, subject to change based on real-time operations

1 p.m.
NASA+ coverage of lunar flyby begins
1:56 p.m.
Crew passes distance from Earth record set by Apollo 13 in 1970
2:45 p.m.
Lunar flyby begins
7:02 p.m.
Orion closest approach to the Moon (4,070 miles)
7:07 p.m.
Orion reaches maximum distance from Earth (252,760 miles)
8:35 p.m.
Orion enters solar eclipse
271077449
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Pope Leo XIV carried the cross across all fourteen stations for over an hour. The prayers named children who had been “taken away and imprisoned during protests, deported by policies devoid of compassion, shipwrecked on desperate journeys of hope, killed in war zones, and wiped out in death camps.”
12180521992
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Let's also note that the denial of right-wing radicalism does not mean the absence of right-wing radicalism! Much like the denial of genocide usually tells us that genocide has, in fact, happened.
000
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Ivo Daalder @ivodaalder.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Sorry Mr. President, but that’s not how NATO works. Let me help you out. 1/ 🧵
10334124
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Literally setting the global economy on fire
053
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Women's hidden mental load includes: - Magic-making: creating special life moments - Dream-building: signing up kids for ideal hobbies or ensuring one's partner can pay golf or work long hours - Individual upkeep: Presenting fit image to others @leahruppanner.bsky.social www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
Feeling drained? Eight types of hidden work cause women to feel overwhelmed
Women are still taking on most of the cognitive burden of running a household. Understanding why is the key to reducing burnout.
1279
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
FrenchHistTO @frenchhistto.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Announcing our final seminar of this year -- please join us in person on March 27th, 4-6 pm, for Dr. Katie Edwards' talk "Reforming the Republican Empire." More info and registration link here: munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/reform... 🗃️ #frenchhistory #indochine #colonialism
French History Seminar/Seminaire d'histoire de France. "Reforming the Republican Empire.” Speaker: Prof. Katie Edwards, Tulane University. When: 27 March. 2026, 4-6pm EDT, location: 108 N, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON M5S 3K7. In centre of poster, a headshot of a white woman with straight light brown hair and a smile. Bottom of poster lists financial sponsors at YorkU and UofT.
045
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Adam Smith @adamndsmith.com · 09/03/2026
If I had a nickel for every time Franz Ferdinand was involved in the precursor events of a world war, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice
65116692773
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
My partner would say the same. And he'd add that historians have an exceptional capacity to analyze large amounts of information quickly (and usually accurately).
010
Valerie Deacon @valeriedeacon.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Cool, cool, cool. Adding this to the ongoing genocide, the deliberate targeting of civilians in Iran, the environmental and health consequences of bombing oil refineries, the potential for serious retaliation, and the biggest energy crisis since the '70s. Cool. Gonna sleep well tonight.
010
Reposted by Valerie Deacon
Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
it's sparkling conflict you fool, it's only called a war if it originates in the Department of Wa- hold on, my producer is gesticulating violently and handing me a note
228129