Dr. Vaughn Joy

This Halloweek, I watched Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), a film about a woman's totally fair and logical suspicions of her piece of shit husband whose horrid, selfish, inconsiderate behavior she has to accept because at least he's not the worst of her fears. So it's also an Election Day review.

In almost exactly 48 hours from now, you can check out @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social's next awesome interdisciplinary roundtable, this time featuring a trio of excellent scholars discussing their work on Horror, Fear, & Reality. The really scary thing would be missing this great conversation! 🗃️

Thursday is a paid holiday. Because Flavor Flav said so.

The only reason I can think of for this news not being absolutely everywhere is that large media orgs don’t want to be seen as putting their thumbs on the scales a week before election day. And that’s cowardly as shit.

I know there's a lot going on but I feel it should probably be more of an above-the-fold story that members of Congress released a thoroughly documented report directly accusing the president of the United States of being a serial rapist.

This week’s main story is about how more and more white nationalists, antisemites, and Nazi sympathizers seem to be integrating into the Republican Party, how some of them are currently running for office, and how old you can be for JD Vance to consider you “a very young boy.”

Imagine getting Reviewer 2'd by a fucking machine.

This Thursday at 7pm, join us for a Halloween-week interdisciplinary roundtable on Horror, Fear, & Reality! Featuring @robinfield.bsky.social & other fantastic scholars. Register for free to support Vaughn's series & join this community! 🗃️ events.teams.microsoft.com/event/d24bec...

This week I watched the absolutely delightful/insane cult classic The Monster Squad (1987). This movie has everything: an impossible to decipher set up, a wolfman who just wants to be a real boy, a cool kid who makes bullies eat floor chocolate, and a camp Dracula who calls a 5yo girl a bitch.

American Airlines Flight Attendant: We hope you've enjoyed the American experience. Girl. I have not.

Our first time co-hosting an academic event!

Live from the American Studies Association conference in Chicago, it’s my 299th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

He’s literally describing himself.

Former presidents are just roasting the hell out of the White House redo today and it’s going to drive Trump absolutely insane

This MF don’t miss!!!

Calling lovers of online book culture! We might have the role for you.

I used to think Boston was the most European American city but I'm realizing Chicago is. What a gorgeous city. Someone told me recently that Chicago is like the perfect mix of New York and Boston, but I'd argue it's more Paris and New York with a dash of Vienna and Pittsburgh.

My aunt is so damn cool. She left a corporate job about 10 yrs ago because she wanted to help people grow their own food. She started a business from scratch and now wins federal grants to build gardens in schools and communities, and grows culturally diverse foods to match student demographics and

The most fundamental belief of the Strict-Father worldview is that kids are property.

I have not seen one in the wild, but I did check out the site trumptrickortreat.com There are some good stats / talking points to use.

The symbolism here is hilarious & enraging. Hegseth, the “Secretary of War” who launched a war against Iran that resulted in the greatest American strategic defeat in history, was so desperate to drape himself in the glory of one of this nation’s genuine heroes that he literally broke the world.

Most everything 21C technology can fuck right the fuck off. But I’m watching football at 30,000 feet & texting with @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social about it.

The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...

A student scanned the Vote QR code to check her voter registration today 🥲

Shane Black at his unhinged 80s best, & that's just the tip of the monstrous iceberg! Check out Vaughn's equally delightful post for much more. 🗃️

This week I watched the absolutely delightful/insane cult classic The Monster Squad (1987). This movie has everything: an impossible to decipher set up, a wolfman who just wants to be a real boy, a cool kid who makes bullies eat floor chocolate, and a camp Dracula who calls a 5yo girl a bitch.

So to start my weeklong series on Practicing Public Scholarship, an introductory post making the case for why we should be doing so--to break out of arbitrary silos, to get "peer review" of a different & important kind, & to ask & engage with the big questions! blackwhiteandread.com/october-19-2...

This coming weekend, @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social and I will lead a workshop entitled “Improvisation & Innovation: New Possibilities for Public Scholarship” at the American Studies Association conference in Chicago. I'm excited to have a chance to share our website, but also & especially... +

Karl Marx "The bourgeoisie of the world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar!" What a quote for the times.

Now is the time to care about everyone, not “once we win” The time to care about everyone is always always always now

The Nevadan reports that local organizations helped create a cabalgata (cavalcade) voter drive where roughly 1,000 Latinos marched onwards to the polls The political figures that attended the cabalgata were Aaron Ford (D), Steven Horsford (D), Sandra Jauregui (D), and Fabian Donate (D).

World War 2 was not fought to protect us from brown people. Nor from Muslims. Or communists. It was a war against fascism. Against the far right.

Barack Obama just delivered a blistering rebuke of Trump's actions against Ilhan Omar. This is worth reading in full.