@burnidge
Historian of religion and politics in the US specializing in Gilded Age and Progressive Era, reform movements, and religious debates about American democracy. Views are my own, not my employer’s. Likes and reposts are not endorsements.
It was only 20 years ago that specialists in the history of US foreign policy began to take religion seriously* in foreign relations.
Before that the consensus was religion was at best a “side issue.”
So if you’re now on board, don’t forget to cite who taught you what is “obvious” now
*YMMV
Just like the goal for the elite is to accumulate wealth without labor (various forms of extraction and exploitation), the goal here is to accumulate “knowledge” without thinking (also various forms of extraction and exploitation)
“AI is the future”
The future:
Seems like lots of people are discovering ideas about a “family” or “household” vote as a sign Christian nationalism.
As w/much of CN discourse, historians of women’s history did the work 30+ years ago
See Elna Green’s Southern Strategies (UNC 1997), uncpress.org/978080784641...
I’m also very much looking forward to visiting the @uvmvermont.bsky.social next week for a book talk on "Martyrs and Migrants" @nyupress.bsky.social.
Here are the details:
Date: Tuesday, March 3
Time: 3:30–5:00 PM
Location: Lafayette 210
If you are in the area, I’d love to see you there.
This student reporter gets it. Each closure of a “Studies” program is also an attack on gen ed—the possibility that students can take courses outside of a career minded major, that all knowledge is good & makes a well lived life (not just a profitable career)
No program is “safe” with that agenda
“it is heartbreaking to report on this news knowing how impactful these classes can be for students not only in the major, but also students who have taken classes as general education requirements or electives.”
Another win for viewpoint diversity
dailyiowan.com/2026/02/12/o...
NGL I think it will continue to be difficult to determine Claude’s selfhood until we determine linguistically and legally the selfhood of, say—idk just spitballing here—women. Or, relatedly but distinctly, if selfhood is determined by gender expression or self presentation
This “debate” about Claude’s selfhood just might be a reflection of how there actually isn’t consensus on “human”
…a topic often explored in HUMANITIES classes
Age verification? I called a number I memorized to learn what the weather forecast was for the day.
Wild. We all know Politics isn’t a party, isn’t fun, isn’t love, isn’t laughter, isn’t attractive people being attractive, isn’t compassion, isn’t self-respect, isn’t building community, isn’t thanking God, and definitely isn’t drawing a boundary around politics
The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis, before 1965, 📸 by @ScottStrazzante
All that is to say, the principle “all men are created equal” has an American legal tradition of understanding “men” in racial and gendered terms. And “equal” has its own history too, shaped by American Christian traditions of patriarchy. And for Wilson & Trump, at least, it’s white patriarchy.
Wilson’s time wasn’t concerned with “trans” per se, BUT this was one part of the woman’s suffrage debate at the time—did suffrage disrupt the “natural” order aof who is a “man” and who is a “woman”?
It was a legal, economic, and religious question.
Hyper focus on trans civil rights draws attention to this too, as states try to decide who has individual rights (not just personhood—see the Reconstruction Amendments)
The focus has been who is a “woman” but it is also who is a “man” and what is the responsibility of men (patriarchs) to police it
Their shared entrenchment in tax law is an example of this, where Wilson considered tax law as a reflection of Gods order. Men counting others as dependents
Their foreign policy bears this out w/a system of getting “good men” in government & the promotion of democracy as a means to make it happen
Bouie rightly compares Trump with Wilson but what we often overlook with both is that their racism (devotion to white superiority) is inseparable from their commitment to patriarchy.
Beyond “men as leaders” patriarchy here means men as sovereigns— the legitimate political authority over all others
Yes x 1000. I told my editors that all of the LLM drama came for romance (thanks to the Amazon marketplace) over a decade ago. Every iteration after that has been the same cycle over and over again. Can’t get serious people to treat it seriously, however, because it’s about women’s economic activity
It is. And I’m not sure the elimination of tenure is necessarily the kicker. It’s already weakened in a lot of places. It’s the new program metrics that will divide disciplines, further reducing any incentives for research faculty and teaching faculty to see themselves as sharing any goals.
Patricia Matthew and her contributors already explained how all faculty don’t have the same job (Written/Unwritten [2016]), but it’s about to be more transparent based where you work (not just your title and rank)
Thank you for contacting the void. How may we direct your scream?
you personally have the ability to secure elections for yourself and your neighbors.
There are at least 2 things here that humanities-based Religion scholars do well & can help students do too:
1. Analyze competing religious claims (Pope Leo vs Johnson’s Christianity)
2. Analyze Christian secularism(s)
Poll data doesn’t help the public figure out what to do here
The chronicle also has a deep dive on this IA community college vs private college debate
The focus is on competition for enrollment but also this push to CC pulls students into a differently regulated edu market, one w/less faculty control of the curriculum
www.chronicle.com/article/why-...
3/
There’s a Chronicle article about IA leg. plans to “shake up” higher ed (what comes after anti-DEI)
-removing student rep from Board
-authorizing CC to offer BAs
-require different accreditation
-tax endowment
-ban contracts w/Chinese citizens
www.chronicle.com/article/anot...
2/
It’s shaping up to be quite the day in Iowa education news. 3 stories worth your time even if you’re not in Iowa
There’s the Republican gubernatorial debate 👇which has all candidates seeking to target teacher training/higher education as a blueprint for attacking “leftist indoctrination”
1/
NEW: I was one of 3 reporters granted access to the convening of 600+ clergy in Minneapolis this week.
It was a striking show of solidarity with MN clergy resisting ICE, but heralded something else: the emergence of a vast, faith-based network trained to resist ICE. religionnews.com/2026/01/23/i...
This is great! A few weeks in, I’ve done a “write a history of our first day” prompt to set up a conversation about narrative style in history (and also canonical gospels)—and this would be a good way to plant seeds about historical writing earlier on. Thanks for sharing!