Steven Nelson

"If it involves writing a new, 15-minute paper I' m not interested." - me on any request to participate on a conference panel.

Who's going to tell her?

Marco Fuentes, Cornell Class of 1985, has published a scathing open letter to University President Michael Kotikoff regarding his handling of the Cornell 7 in the Cornell Sun. More donors should follow Fuentes's example. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

If you're going to cast online aspersions on someone's intellectual ability, you might want to proofread your screed for grammatical errors and typos before posting. #protip

Last weekend at the Armory Fair... www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts...

Exactly.

This is Lonnie Bunch's retirement, not his resignation. As upset as some people are with his news, having worked in the Federal Government, sometimes we can be more effective from the outside than from within. I can't wait to see what he does once he's untethered. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/a...

Gloria Steinem was one of my sheroes, a model of feminist practice and a inspiration for so many of us. Because of her, I subscribed to Ms. Magazine for years. Both deeply influenced my own thinking and writing. Rest in Power. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/u...

This is how our government has been corrupted: 1) Donors give huge sums to elect politicians to office 2) Elected officials rewrite rules in the donors' favor 3) Donors make huge profit 4) Repeat We must get big money out of politics. It is the root of our dysfunction.

If I were still in academia, I would move to a Canadian institution in a heartbeat. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...

A great development at UCLA newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucl...

Judge strikes down Texas ban on drag shows, tells people offended by them ‘just don’t go’

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Be a Dolly, not a Donald.

Corporate Democrats are on the defensive because their campaign cash isn’t working the way it used to. Now, finally, the Democratic Party has an opportunity to once again become the party of working Americans, as it used to be, rather than the party of the wealthy elite.

Call me crazy, but perhaps being related to a Senator who died doesn’t qualify you to be a Senator.

Important research and soft censorship by the State of Arkansas.

“ 'It is clear that the National Gallery interpreted "Color Lines’"as a problem to be solved rather than as an important academic conference,' Nelson wrote in his essay, which was published in October, a quarterly academic journal on art history."

“Going forward, it will be easier for the National Gallery to marginalize or suppress ideas, artwork, and exhibitions that challenge the status quo. Museum staff will learn self-censorship.”

I'm a scholar and a media executive producer/host, not former staff. This comports with my professional experiences of the Trump-era National Gallery of Art.

"Nelson concludes that such preemptive self-restriction, rather than protecting institutions, normalizes self-censorship and transforms #museums into complicit agents of authoritarian control, undermining their stated commitments to diversity, academic freedom, and the free exchange of ideas."

Very glad to see this out there. Steven is an incredible leader and scholar (and, to be clear, dear friend).

I just finished reading Nicholas Enrich’s book about the dismantling of USAID, Into the Wood Chipper, in which he writes about recognizing where one has moral limits, about complicity. This another story about recognizing complicity. 👇🏾👇🏻👇🏽👇🏼👇🏿

Same doorway, Provincetown, MA, 1984/2026.

An important reminder to a nation full of pious busybodies:

Perhaps moderate/establishent Democrats should start reading the room. Voters are not swayed but their empty policy positions and are waking up to the fact that they had a part in clearing the way for authoritarianism’s ascendancy. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/u...

Kim Sajet, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum and former director of the National Portrait Gallery, interviewed in the NYT on the Trump Administration attack on the Smithsonian, particularly on Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian Museum of American History. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/a...

Hoping that Yale doesn’t capitulate to the Trump administration. americanprospect.bluelena.io/index.php?ac...

Wonder Twin Powers ACTIVATE!!!!

Good grief, this hits home.

This is what authoritarianism looks like. Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/a...

"The Upperman family’s move underscores a reality institutions may increasingly face: if donors believe the original purpose of their gifts can no longer be honored, they can take both their money–and their legacy–somewhere else." www.theroot.com/why-a-promin...

So who's going to tell artist Sergio Furnari that Michaelangelo's David and Pietà as well as DaVinci's Mona Lisa were commissioned? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Statement from Annie Farmer on meeting with Todd Blanche: "After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General. "I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors."

#booksky

No lies detected.

Ripley, OH was a center of Underground Railroad activity and the home to John Parker and John Rankin, who it is said helped thousands escape bondage in the South. Parker’s house in on the Ohio River, which separates Ohio from Kentucky and before the Civil War, separated freedom from slavery.

This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.

I hope the Yale Law School short circuits any deal with the Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/u...

First time academic book authors. Do your reviewers a favor and include a TOC with page numbers. #academicpublishing

I appreciate the @theguardian.com’s willingness to call this group what it is. Neo-fascist group Patriot Front parades Confederate flag in Washington DC on Fourth of July www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...