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Karin Wulf

@kawulf.bsky.social

13K followers 2.6K following 11K posts

Historian of #VastEarlyAmerica, gender, family & politics | Director & Librarian @ JCBLibrary | History Prof @ Brown U #LineageTheBook OUP July, 2025 | On some other platforms and also @ karinwulf.com | Opinions here just mine. .. more

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Karin A. Wulf is an American historian and the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island. She was the executive director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia from 2013 through 2021. She is also one of the founders of Women Also Know History, a searchable website database of women historians. Additionally, Wulf worked to spearhead a neurodiversity working group at William & Mary in 2011. She is currently writing a book about genealogy and political culture in Early America titled, Lineage: Genealogy and the Politics of Connection in British America, 1680-1820. Her work examines the history of women, gender, and the family in Early America. .. more

Political science 42%

Sociology 16%

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · Dec 28

It’s been a long time coming… so thrilled to share the cover (and Oxford UP website last in 🧵) for my book, _Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America_, pub date 7.2.25 (but will ship, so they say very enticingly, mid-June. 1/ #VastEarlyAmerica 🗃️

Book cover with various kinds of evidence of family history arrayed around the author and title, the latter is _Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America_. The kinds of materials include printed texts, manuscripts, a red book (shhhhh that figures largely in the Introduction!), a watercolor family record, Fraktur, gravestone, and a sampler. One repeated text says "born free, born free (etc)"

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 1h

Arthur Sze, the twenty-fifth US Poet Laureate, has written a poem about the Library of Congress. Oh my heart. 📚

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

“Library of Congress”

“Here’s a book / on neutrinos captured in Antarctica, / here’s another on solar flares.”

www.newyorker.com

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 1h

Totally believe that! As an industry or sector. I'm objecting both to people thinking either that you can extrapolate to the whole from the parts and/ or have expectations about the (very big more-than-just-messy in my less expert view!) whole doing x or y collectively.

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 5h

I would love for more people to know and really process that "colleges and universities" are not a thing-- it is a complex, diverse, differentiated industry in which institutions have vastly different audiences, funding, even missions.

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 9h

Me: Come ON just two more emails. It'll take 10-15 minutes.

Brain: Absolutely not. But I'll happily give you an hour of transcribing these 18th century letters.

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 9h

Nobody has wanted to acknowledge this but since 2018 tuition in real US$ has been falling. Plus, available aid has been increasing.

Trump is ending that streak.

Cuts in research and foreign students are gouging budgets, putting the burden on US students.

hechingerreport.org/after-years-...

The good news? College tuition has been going down. The bad news? It’s about to rise again

College students nationwide are facing increases in tuition this fall of as much as 10 percent, along with new fees and rising costs for dorms and dining plans, after a stretch when tuition had been f...

hechingerreport.org

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 9h

When people tell you that founders as enslavers was something we should see "in the context of their time." Great piece fr @katytelling.bsky.social abt a wealthy 18hc Virginian (and there were others) who thought Washington and co. risked their honor and more. ageofrevolutions.com/2025/10/13/a...

A Great Reputation Among Men: Race and Contested Masculinities in the Early American Republic

By Kathleen Telling In 1785, Robert Pleasants, a wealthy tobacco planter, abolitionist, and prominent member of Henrico County’s Quaker community, penned a letter to Virginia’s most famous son, Geo…

ageofrevolutions.com

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 2d

Forcing enslaved women to wet nurse was quite common in the ancient world and “lending” one’s enslaved woman to another (for pay back to the dominus) is one of the things we know they were often made to do. See Prof, @taramulder.bsky.social for much more.
peoplingthepast.com/2022/06/07/p...

Podcast Season 3, Episode 2 – Call the (Roman) Midwife: Ancient Delivery and Childbirth with Tara Mulder

For our next episode of the Peopling the Past podcast, we are joined by Tara Mulder, an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, who talks to us about what a Roman birth may have …

peoplingthepast.com

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Maggie Blackhawk @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social · 5d

"The Declaration of Independence opened the world to democratic possibility, sparking a wave of revolutions, yet it also marked the narrowing of political possibilities within the nascent United States."

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Efrén O. Pérez, Margot C. Finn , and 3 more Anna O. Law, Efrén O. Pérez, Margot C. Finn, James Goodwin, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Karin Wulf

Maggie Blackhawk @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social · 5d

New essay in the Atlantic today: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution by Ned Blackhawk (with many lessons on how we ended up where we are as a nation, and a gift link) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution

The Founders were inspired—and threatened—by the independence and self-governance of nations like the Iroquois Confederacy.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Molly Hardy @mollyhardy.bsky.social · 5d

Come for this pitcher commemorating the first Federal Census and stay for my plea for rethinking data. Thanks to @jmheberling.bsky.social for the inspiration and to @kawulf.bsky.social for the encouragement.

Guest Post - Rethinking Disciplinary Data Regimes - The Scholarly Kitchen

Between a political policy environment focused on defunding and deleting data collections – an environment in which little can be trusted – and an onslaught of new AI tools that feed indiscriminately ...

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 5d

Love this new post fr @mollyhardy.bsky.social for @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social about the need for x-discipline data curation and preservation! Plus, love the 1790 census jug as the exemplar of thinking across domains. 🤓 scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/10/08/g...

Guest Post - Rethinking Disciplinary Data Regimes - The Scholarly Kitchen

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 6d

I learned so much on the old twitter.

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 6d

I've long been obsessed with government documents. What do they communicate and to whom, how and when and by whom were they printed and circulated? The @jcblibrary.bsky.social has a terrific collection of the many printed journals of Congress, fr 1774. Started a weekly series on IG to discuss. 🤓

Title page of Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress held at Philadelphia May 10, 1775. Philadelphia May 10, 1775. Tattered, with an image of three fellas wearing swords in a circle.

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 7d

Love to hear @sethrockman.bsky.social talking about this critical history w @lizcovart.bsky.social

Ben Franklin's World @bfworld.bsky.social · 7d

How do the everyday things we use connect us to unseen systems of labor and inequality?

Seth Rockman helps us explore that question through the material history of slavery.

🎧 Listen now: benfranklinsworld.com/422

#History #MaterialCulture #USHistory #Skystorians

Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy

Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.

benfranklinsworld.com

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Ben Franklin's World @bfworld.bsky.social · 7d

Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy

Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.

benfranklinsworld.com

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Reposted by Karin Wulf

Drafting the Past @draftingthepast.bsky.social · 7d

Episodes two weeks in a row?! That should tell you how much great stuff there is. I was so happy to get to talk to @andrewhartman.bsky.social about KARL MARX IN AMERICA (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) and how he keeps going in the writing "grind." Listen here: draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...

Podcast episode graphic featuring a smiling man in a blazer and glasses in front of a bookshelf. The text on the right reads "Drafting the Past episode 69: Andrew Hartman."

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Reposted by Philip N. Cohen, Lesley Bartlett, Aviel Roshwald

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 8d

"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...

www.acls.org

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 8d

Beyond Ruin is both my budget and my aged scholars band name.

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 8d

CAITLIN! There is a reason my auction alert has very tight parameters. 😄

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National Council on Public History @ncph.bsky.social · 8d

If you’re considering presenting at the joint AASLH-NCPH conference next September, but you could use feedback, an idea, or more presenters, submit an optional early topic proposal by October 15! https://ncph.org/conference/2026-annual-meeting/topic-proposal-form/

2026 Joint Conference. September 16-19, Providence, RI. The Work of Revolution. American Association for State and Local History. National Council on Public History.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Karin Wulf

Massachusetts Historical Society @mhs1791.bsky.social · 8d

Join us on Oct. 9 for our upcoming seminar on environmental history, "Cultivating Legitimacy: Soldiers, Civilians, and Environment in the Revolutionary Hudson Valley." Author Blake McGready with comments by @mkn.bsky.social. Register here: www.masshist.org/eve....

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 8d

😄 Goooood morning.

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 9d

Yep I bought the one you recommended! 😁

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 9d

Airport thoughts. Traveling as a tea drinker when you can’t make your own, like at the airport, is always disappointing.

Life is too short to read nonfiction books by folks w no discernible experience or expertise to write abt this stuff when it’s too far out of my field to assess good fr nonsense.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Dorothy Bishop, Steve Peers , and 11 more Anna O. Law, Dorothy Bishop, Steve Peers, Elizabeth Stokoe, Martin Paul Eve, Robert Wolfe, Michael H. Whitworth, Samantha Brennan, Maria Abreu, Fiona Moore, Laleh Khalili, Urška Demšar, Nancy M. Wingfield, Karin Wulf

Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 9d

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 10d

And counting!!

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 10d

That is so much better than 17 emails answered... 😩

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Karin Wulf

Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · 11d

What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...

The New York Historical’s Bonnie and Richard Reiss Graduate Institute for Constitutional History is accepting applications for its fall 2025 seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty.
seminar | fall 2025

Native Peoples, American Colonialism, and the US Constitution

Fridays, November 7 and 21, December 5 and 12, 2025 | 11 am–2 pm ET
Instructors: Maggie Blackhawk, Ned Blackhawk

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this seminar invites a critical examination of a central paradox in American constitutional history: how can a nation celebrate a founding document and constitutional tradition built, in part, on the dispossession of Indigenous homelands? Indian affairs and westward expansion were foundational to the creation and evolution of the US Constitution, yet Native history remains marginalized within the fields of constitutional history and mainstream constitutional scholarship. This seminar explores emerging historical and legal literature that re-centers Native peoples and American colonialism in the narrative of US constitutional development.

Presented in person at The New York Historical and via Zoom

Apply by October 10, 2025

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Joshua S. Weitz, Julie Novkov , and 3 more Anna O. Law, Joshua S. Weitz, Julie Novkov, Sean P. Corcoran, Aviel Roshwald, Karin Wulf

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 11d

Here's the assignment folks. Write op-eds for your local papers and campus newspapers too. Just. Say. No. This is a classic authoritarian move and risks the future of higher education and science and innovation in the US. Speak out today. No time to lose. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Ana Lucia Araújo, Karin Wulf

#Slaveryarchive Digital Initiative @slaveryarchive.bsky.social · 11d

Keeping our commitment to recognize the outstanding book on the history of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, we are delighted to announce The Driver’s Story by historian @randybrowne.bsky.social as the Winner of the #Slaveryarchive Book Prize 2024 www.slaveryarchive.com/slaveryarchi...

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