Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Heidi Backes

@heidibackes1.bsky.social

1.1K followers 780 following 440 posts

Prof of Spanish lit and cultural history / Gothic fiction / Fascism / Memory & Trauma Studies / Monograph SPECTRAL SPAIN out now with U of Wales Press (2024) / Currently working on Fascist Female Gothic

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · Jun 4

I'm excited to share that I have signed a contract with @uniwalespress.bsky.social for my next book, "Fascist Female Gothic: National Catholicism and the Politics of Fear in Spanish Fascist Women's Writing, 1937-1945," which will be published in their Gothic Literary Studies series.

1 1 17

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 1d

Amen.

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 1d

As a 3rd generation academic, my family has been teaching continuously since the 1950s and only the last 20 years involved Learning Management Systems. They’re by no means necessary to the project of learning, and if they demand surrendering autonomy to corporations then they should be discontinued.

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

The biggest renovation of the White House -- the so-called Truman Reconstruction of 1949-1952 -- came about only because the building was in such a state of disrepair that inspectors decided it was unsafe for occupancy.

Not because the president just decided he needed a big fancy ballroom.

230 1.6K 7.2K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 1d

Not sure why this image is so shocking, given everything he’s done but: it’s shocking!

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom

The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.

www.washingtonpost.com

580 860 4.4K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 5d

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV is set to effectively disband Opus Dei in the coming weeks.

This would be the most sweeping internal reform of his pontificate — and a dramatic continuation of Pope Francis’s legacy.

NEW: Pope Leo Set To Break Up Opus Dei

If Pope Leo does indeed approves a plan that effectively dissolves Opus Dei’s structure, it would be the most significant internal action of his short pontificate to date.

open.substack.com

410 2.1K 8.2K

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 8d

Today Copper turns one year old! Time is flying by...

A red merle Australian Shepherd with one hazel eye and one bright blue eye smiles at the camera. The background is a wooden wall with boards painted in shades of turquoise, with splotches of pink and white.

Reposted by Heidi Backes

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10d

Imagine that

1K 9.3K 22K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11d

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

190 2.7K 8.2K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 10d

Hertfordshire County Council rules for library use, 1930

RULES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY
BAN ON LIARS AND DIRTY FACES
Strict rules, which have been approved by the Hertfordshire County Council, are to be imposed by the Hyde Institute Library, Barnet Vale.

LIBRARY USERS iN FUTURE MUST NOT:
Enter the library if their faces are offensively dirty.
Fall asleep on the tables.
Eat their lunches whilst reading papers, books, &c
Smoke in the building.
Leave their business cards behind.
Make themselves a nuisance.
Kick or damage the furniture.
Bring dogs within the portals.
Tell lies to the librarian.
Enter when they are in an inebriated con- dition.
If they have small-pox.

19 48 170

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Katharina Nocun @kattascha.bsky.social · 11d

„Papst Leo zitierte in diesem Kontext die Philosophin Hannah Arendt(…): „Der ideale Untertan totalitärer Herrschaft ist nicht der überzeugte Nazi oder engagierte Kommunist, sondern Menschen, für die der Unterschied zwischen Fakten und Fiktion, zwischen wahr und falsch, nicht länger existiert.“

Papst und Pressefreiheit: Vatikan warnt vor KI und Faschismus

Leo XIV. sorgt sich um die Information. Er warnt mit Hannah Arendt vor einer totalitären Gesellschaft, die Fakt und Fiktion nicht unterscheiden kann.

taz.de

24 240 750

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 11d

“This is a movement…This is an achievement of a whole society…I am just one person.”

The beautiful humility of Venezuelan pro-democracy leader, Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

280 1.7K 5.7K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 11d

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”👇

68 600 2K

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 13d

Finally, a map that agrees with me (a native Wisconsinite) that southern Missouri (where I now live) is the south.

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 14d

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 14d

I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

28 330 920

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14d

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

720 7.6K 14K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14d

repealing the right to culture

NEH Union - AFGE L3403 @nehafge3403.bsky.social · 14d

The cuts at the National Endowment for the Humanities go far deeper than any of these agencies - almost 70% of 179 people were terminated, despite no change to the agency's budget.

There were no savings here - only idealogical destruction. #NEH

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 15d

How much smaller the federal workforce is now vs. a year ago
Ed Dept 42%
OPM 33%
HUD 31%
Treasury 29%
Defense (civilian jobs) 22%
Small Biz Admin 21%
Energy 20%
Interior 15%
HHS 14%
SSA 11%
EPA 10%
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

7 14

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 15d

Someone looking at all this with a cold eye might say that Miller and Hegseth are seeking control over the power ministries before a Vance ally invokes the 25th Amendment.

140 850 2.7K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16d

Trump: "Please remember I wrote Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. And I said, 'You gotta watch Osama bin Laden!' ... I gotta take a little credit."

1.4K 1K 3.7K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Amanda Watson @amndw2.bsky.social · 16d

I couldn't resist. #pleasingterror

A bingo card for the ghost stories of M.R. James. Boxes read:
"Spiders
Terrible hotel stay
Narrator makes fun of golf
Latin passages
Eerie disembodied voices
Confirmed bachelor main character
Vengeful spirit
Evil magician
Working-class character as comic relief
Bleak East Anglian coast
Visit to an archive
Narrator in guidebook mode
FREE SPACE
Unholy doings in a church
Frogs or toads
Queen Anne style house
Cursed artifact
Don't buy that rare book!
Something hairy and horrible
Someone gets too curious
Tentacles
Story told via old manuscript
Research trip gone horribly wrong
Beds are scary
Tactile horror

17 140 330

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Remedios Varo Bot @remedios-varo-bot.bsky.social · 16d

The Fern Cat / El Gato Helecho (1957)
https://www.remediosvaro.art/paintings/el-gato-helecho

Feel free help improve this bot by suggesting better alt text in the comments, thanks.

#SurrealistArt #Surrealism #Surrealismo #RemediosVaro

The Fern Cat / El Gato Helecho (1957) by Remedios Varo (1908 - 1963)

1 3

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 18d

"... no people of color remain on the council. All women members, including four appointed by Trump during his first administration, were also terminated."

William Orchard @billeo.bsky.social · 18d

They removed Ramon Saldivar from the National Council in the Humanities! hyperallergic.com/1046341/trum...

Trump Fires Majority of Federal Humanities Council

Only four members of the council remain, all men and all appointed by the president during his first term, sources told Hyperallergic.

hyperallergic.com

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Eladio Bobadilla @eladiobobadilla.com · 18d

21 450 1.8K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Pól Micheál O'Slatraigh @pmoslatraigh.bsky.social · 18d

2 35 88

Heidi Backes @heidibackes1.bsky.social · 18d

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 19d

NEW—US Department of Education sent out standard Out of Office language to employees on Wednesday in light of shutdown. Later yesterday, workers tell me they found someone had updated their auto-responses without consent to a new one blaming Democrats.

Version of original on left, updated on right:

Thank you for your email. There is a temporary shutdown of the U.S. government due to a lapse in appropriations. I will respond to your message as soon as possible after the temporary shutdown ends. Please visit ED.gov for the latest information on the
Department's operational status.
Thank you.

Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.

190 2.7K 5.9K

Reposted by Heidi Backes

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20d

People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.

Emily Farris @emayfarris.bsky.social · 20d

This new column by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social makes me think about when I recently had to talk to the police for yet another safety plan, I tried to “lighten” the mood by saying that we all knew this wasn’t my first rodeo. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

For at least the past 15 years, my colleagues in academia have grappled with angry letters to university officials for doing their jobs. They have weathered campaigns for their firing. They have contended with an internet army obsessed with doxxing them, their parents, their kids. I’ve been contacted by the F.B.I. more than once in my career. Not because I hold any important state secrets or know a biker gang but because one of my colleagues has lived with so much sustained harassment from right-wing “activists” that it has become a matter of federal concern. Watch lists (one of which was constructed by Kirk’s organization) do not distinguish between public intellectuals at wealthy enclaves and hoi polloi who teach popular classes at cash-strapped schools. In either case, an army of trained provocateurs stands ready to destroy their lives to prove their bona fides as conservative activists.

4 320 1K