Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
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dissentum.bsky.social
Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
@dissentum.bsky.social
Global + postcolonial + comp lit, theory; occasional translator. Assoc. prof. Not on xitter. Views/prons: his. Books: Resisting Dialogue: Modern Fiction and the Future of Dissent/Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination (ed.) both @uminnpress.bsky.social
Pinned
Table of contents for the (very!) forthcoming Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination, coming out in June with @uminnpress.bsky.social!
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
The entire purpose of building research on a citational structure is that the inevitable flaws are traceable and stable enough in their location that the overall field structure can take those mistakes/debates into account as part of the field discourse.
November 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
I had a great conversation with a librarian last year where she said the instability and general inability to reliably trace bots as a reference source are sort of a perfect storm. Students "research" w the tool, but repeating the search doesn't yield a stable output.
November 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Normalize what a challenging endeavor it is to write *one* book
my own feeling is that getting an academic book published is like getting your script on screen - just once is a major achievement!
March 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
How did I miss this!?!?! @noctambulate.bsky.social was audacious enough to support me, a young scholar writing in a foreign language, by editing/publishing my first book. A truly remarkable human being with a trajectory worthy of very few! He's done more than most to keep the humanities alive.
University of Minnesota Press Director Retires
Doug Armato, who has helmed the 100-year-old press for 27 years, is retiring at the end of December. His tenure saw the expansion of the press’s list and the development of strong Indigenous studies, ...
www.publishersweekly.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
A collection of environmental films made by Indigenous filmmakers that I've screened in Ecocinema over the years (shared today for obvious reasons):

1. It Starts with a Whisper (Shelley & Gronau Niro, 1993) vucavu.com/en/cfmdc/199...
It Starts With a Whisper
A celebration of the strength, wisdom, beauty and humour of Native women; of Native culture and people, surviving and thriving.
vucavu.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
How did I miss this!?!?! @noctambulate.bsky.social was audacious enough to support me, a young scholar writing in a foreign language, by editing/publishing my first book. A truly remarkable human being with a trajectory worthy of very few! He's done more than most to keep the humanities alive.
University of Minnesota Press Director Retires
Doug Armato, who has helmed the 100-year-old press for 27 years, is retiring at the end of December. His tenure saw the expansion of the press’s list and the development of strong Indigenous studies, ...
www.publishersweekly.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Just in time for the final Stranger Things...revisit your favourite 80s media with 'Suburban Fantastic Cinema' cup.columbia.edu/book/suburba...
Suburban Fantastic Cinema | Columbia University Press
Suburban Fantastic Cinema is a study of American movies in which preteen and teenage boys living in the suburbs are called upon to combat a disruptive force ... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
November 27, 2025 at 10:17 AM
A great essay by the great @shreedaisy.bsky.social
My memoir-essay on growing up with Norman Rockwell Thanksgivings is up in Vogue this morning. Here’s a small extract: www.vogue.com/article/norm...
November 27, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Academic authors: self-promote! 💫

This is not a particularly popular account but:

🚨 If you have published a book in the last 5 years (since the hype wears off after a while), especially in the humanities, feel free to reply here and repost! 👇
November 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Post about your book! And if you're feeling extra generous, you can even post about your friends' books! 👇
Academic authors: self-promote! 💫

This is not a particularly popular account but:

🚨 If you have published a book in the last 5 years (since the hype wears off after a while), especially in the humanities, feel free to reply here and repost! 👇
November 5, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Sometimes I hit the "delete" button on an email and I play a "peeeeeww!" in my head that's how bad the email is.
November 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Did you write a book/article *not* primarily about close reading but in which you discuss it for the purpose of your argument? Post a pic of the passage here👇!

Seeking to collect instances of theories, framings, working definitions, etc. of close reading as they apply to your specific argument.
November 18, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
When COP30 is declared another failure because it continues to serve the same interests and provides no recourse against global environmental destruction, it may be a good idea to rethink the concept of climate talks and how, at its core, dialogue continues to be weaponized #COP30 #dialogue #climate
The Failure of Climate Dialogue: Why Global South Voices Must Be Climate Talk Leaders | Public Humanities | Cambridge Core
The Failure of Climate Dialogue: Why Global South Voices Must Be Climate Talk Leaders - Volume 1
www.cambridge.org
November 19, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Important read
My article on toxic ecologies post-9/11 now available open access in the latest issue of Environmental Humanities @dukepress.bsky.social Dust as both sacred and toxic. Inspired by Elena del Rivero's art, situated between exposure and containment
#STS #envhum #envhist #histstm
Gathering Dust | Environmental Humanities | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 25, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Some reading due! 👇
November 25, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Shortest way from A to B ever recorded. Blink and you missed it.
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
if your press asks for names, give 6 to 8--NOT the biggest, most senior stars in your field. None of them will do it. part of the problem is that the ppl best poised are "mid-career"--i.e. have a book, tenure. TWIST: the mid-career folx, IF THEY EXIST, are so fucking overloaded I can't even tell you
November 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Dialogue as social glue is celebrated because it helps us agree with each other. While a nice idea, the strength of dialogue is in fact in enabling us to disagree with each other. When dialogue is corrupted by the powerful to force specific responses out of the weak, it is no longer a dialogue...
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Finally, dialogue should be, emphatically and without reservations, not restricted to a way to "come together" and "find common ground" (which we do often need) but also the medium in which we can simply say "no."

The end.
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Chatbots are, by definition, anti-dialogical. Without a creative, dissenting human voice on the other end of the interaction who speaks in good faith, you're either hearing your own echo, or a pre-packaged response, even when it's produced in real-time.
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Adorno should have called "negative dialectics" a secret third thing
November 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
That's hardly a dialogue anymore. Pre-established frameworks, restriction of certain voices, tone policing, power moves to control timing and space, etc. are common strategies.
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
...but what I call an "illusory dialogue." Insisting dialogue is good because it lets us agree and understand one another runs the risk of playing into the hands of those who want to twist dialogue into a covert form of coercion. Two current examples where these mechanics are at work: ...
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Dialogue is a cornerstone of social life, and a democratic society cannot guarantee a good life for all if dialogue is corrupted. I wrote Resisting Dialogue: Modern Fiction and the Future of Dissent because I saw literature offers both a warning and a corrective.

A short 🧵with two current examples:
Resisting Dialogue
A bold new critique of dialogue as a method of eliminating dissent Is dialogue always the productive political and communicative tool it is widely conceived ...
www.upress.umn.edu
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Juan Meneses | Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination
Now until January 6: 45% off sale on all WSUP titles, including preorders of Dispatches from the Avant-Garage with code RHOLIDAY. Only like $23 for all that research and over 100 (!!) full-color images, truly a steal wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814350249/
Dispatches from the Avant-Garage
The innovative countercultural movement from one of the most notable twentieth-century presses. In this long-awaited book, Rebecca Kos...
wsupress.wayne.edu
November 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM