Melissa K Byrnes
@profmkbyrnes.bsky.social
Historian @SouthwesternU. France, empire, migration, race, rights, activism. Author of Making Space (UNP). Mama. She/her.
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
We need to teach books BECAUSE students are so distracted. Sustained silent reading is the skill we're meant to be teaching!
when people say "but students are so distracted, what is there to do but teach excerpts," i always think, "teach books"
November 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM
We need to teach books BECAUSE students are so distracted. Sustained silent reading is the skill we're meant to be teaching!
This is such an amazing lineup!
Join us next Tuesday: "Gurs, Les Milles, Rivesaltes: New Perspectives on French Concentration Camps (1939-2007)", with Emily Marker and Terry Peterson (FIU), NYU, 53 Washington Square North, 6:30pm. More info: as.nyu.edu/departments/...
November 7, 2025 at 12:21 AM
This is such an amazing lineup!
Things here in TX are looking dire.
Faculty at Texas university fear entire liberal arts departments will be slashed
University of Texas at Austin faculty fear changes from new taskforce that could restructure humanities programs
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Things here in TX are looking dire.
This! Teaching students to write (and thus to think) is all about inspiration and confidence building.
I encourage them instead of police them. I make a case for writing as an art they should try to master.
October 20, 2025 at 12:41 AM
This! Teaching students to write (and thus to think) is all about inspiration and confidence building.
Excited for this one!
October 5, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Excited for this one!
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
I'm a human rights lawyer. I've worked on countless immigration, asylum, & refugee cases.
As the fascist in chief sends ICE and the military to target immigrants in Chicago, here are tangible steps you can take to protect your immigrant neighbors.
(No paywall)
www.qasimrashid.com/p/how-to-pro...
As the fascist in chief sends ICE and the military to target immigrants in Chicago, here are tangible steps you can take to protect your immigrant neighbors.
(No paywall)
www.qasimrashid.com/p/how-to-pro...
How To Protect Your Immigrant Neighbors From ICE Raids
Answering common FAQs on countering ICE raids, and providing 7 meaningful ways to better protect our immigrant and undocumented neighbors
www.qasimrashid.com
September 6, 2025 at 9:16 PM
I'm a human rights lawyer. I've worked on countless immigration, asylum, & refugee cases.
As the fascist in chief sends ICE and the military to target immigrants in Chicago, here are tangible steps you can take to protect your immigrant neighbors.
(No paywall)
www.qasimrashid.com/p/how-to-pro...
As the fascist in chief sends ICE and the military to target immigrants in Chicago, here are tangible steps you can take to protect your immigrant neighbors.
(No paywall)
www.qasimrashid.com/p/how-to-pro...
For anyone who wants to support an amazing, little, independent, women-owned bookstore that is a beacon of light deep in the heart of TX, please consider giving to their campaign here: givebutter.com/LarkandOwl (or supporting them through Libro or bookshop.org).
Community Support for Lark & Owl Booksellers
indie bookstore, women owned, local bookstore, Georgetown
givebutter.com
August 30, 2025 at 2:02 AM
For anyone who wants to support an amazing, little, independent, women-owned bookstore that is a beacon of light deep in the heart of TX, please consider giving to their campaign here: givebutter.com/LarkandOwl (or supporting them through Libro or bookshop.org).
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
August 22, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Look even *if* AI could do the job of a historian, I still wouldn’t trust it.
My research is on how elites used the past as a political tool and tried to control historic narratives.
I wouldn’t trust tech companies and their connections to right wing governments to not rewrite the past.
My research is on how elites used the past as a political tool and tried to control historic narratives.
I wouldn’t trust tech companies and their connections to right wing governments to not rewrite the past.
August 5, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Look even *if* AI could do the job of a historian, I still wouldn’t trust it.
My research is on how elites used the past as a political tool and tried to control historic narratives.
I wouldn’t trust tech companies and their connections to right wing governments to not rewrite the past.
My research is on how elites used the past as a political tool and tried to control historic narratives.
I wouldn’t trust tech companies and their connections to right wing governments to not rewrite the past.
Jim Collins is the reason I got a History PhD. 🙏🏻
Honoring one of the giants of the history of the early modern French state, James B. Collins
Scholar, mentor, friend, (not to mention connoisseur of good food & fine wine)
#GCFHSResist
Scholar, mentor, friend, (not to mention connoisseur of good food & fine wine)
#GCFHSResist
July 17, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Jim Collins is the reason I got a History PhD. 🙏🏻
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
As a historian, I have been curious (and appalled) by this choice of pseudo. The interpretation below is quite common, but not in fact correct. It was an 1865 law (sénatus-consulte) that made “Muslim Algerians” (a racial category divorced from actual faith) French nationals without citizenship 1/
The name “Crémieux” that Jordan Lasker uses is a specific, deeply anti-Muslim dog whistle: a reference to the Crémieux Decree — the official anti-Islam policy of colonial France, making Muslims in Algeria second-class citizens. Who the fuck even *knows* that, let alone makes it their _name_? Bigots.
July 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
As a historian, I have been curious (and appalled) by this choice of pseudo. The interpretation below is quite common, but not in fact correct. It was an 1865 law (sénatus-consulte) that made “Muslim Algerians” (a racial category divorced from actual faith) French nationals without citizenship 1/
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
"The problem with AI isn't that it can do your job. It can't. The problem with AI is that your MBA-brained boss's boss doesn't know how your job works and thinks AI can do your job at fractions of a penny on the dollar, and hears the siren song of 'maximize shareholder value'."
MBA-brain is real.
MBA-brain is real.
July 3, 2025 at 6:57 AM
"The problem with AI isn't that it can do your job. It can't. The problem with AI is that your MBA-brained boss's boss doesn't know how your job works and thinks AI can do your job at fractions of a penny on the dollar, and hears the siren song of 'maximize shareholder value'."
MBA-brain is real.
MBA-brain is real.
👇🏻 Pride in Budapest year is shaping up to be a major resistance moment.
Budapest Pride thread, from the ground
June 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
👇🏻 Pride in Budapest year is shaping up to be a major resistance moment.
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Imagine spending your whole life cos-playing and fantasizing about fighting the federal government sending troops in against its own citizens only to root for the government when the moment finally arrives
June 9, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Imagine spending your whole life cos-playing and fantasizing about fighting the federal government sending troops in against its own citizens only to root for the government when the moment finally arrives
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Something Ukrainians learned very well over the last few years is that even if you do somehow manage to maintain perfect discipline and give bad faith actors no openings to present you as evil, they will just run footage from some other country 15 years ago and claim it's you this week.
June 9, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Something Ukrainians learned very well over the last few years is that even if you do somehow manage to maintain perfect discipline and give bad faith actors no openings to present you as evil, they will just run footage from some other country 15 years ago and claim it's you this week.
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Brilliant read about Franco-Algerian Nutella affair
"It was about nostalgia, memory, injustice, nationalism, globalization, decolonization, protectionism, racism, identity, immigration, invasion—the same things that all arguments are about nowadays, transposed to the realm of spreadable snacks."
"It was about nostalgia, memory, injustice, nationalism, globalization, decolonization, protectionism, racism, identity, immigration, invasion—the same things that all arguments are about nowadays, transposed to the realm of spreadable snacks."
How a Hazelnut Spread Became a Sticking Point in Franco-Algerian Relations
The wildly popular Nutella competitor El Mordjene has been banned by the European Union, a move some see as politically motivated.
www.newyorker.com
June 9, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Brilliant read about Franco-Algerian Nutella affair
"It was about nostalgia, memory, injustice, nationalism, globalization, decolonization, protectionism, racism, identity, immigration, invasion—the same things that all arguments are about nowadays, transposed to the realm of spreadable snacks."
"It was about nostalgia, memory, injustice, nationalism, globalization, decolonization, protectionism, racism, identity, immigration, invasion—the same things that all arguments are about nowadays, transposed to the realm of spreadable snacks."
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
It’s hard to put into words just how comprehensively this bill is going to hurt public colleges and universities in Texas—especially UT.
Texas legislators just passed a bill that
gives politically-appointed regents control over faculty curriculum, hiring, & governance. It does what they accuse academics of doing: privileging ideas, biases, & agendas on political grounds, & silencing those that do not follow their ideology.
gives politically-appointed regents control over faculty curriculum, hiring, & governance. It does what they accuse academics of doing: privileging ideas, biases, & agendas on political grounds, & silencing those that do not follow their ideology.
Political appointees would have more control over Texas universities’ courses and hiring under bill OK’d by House
Senate Bill 37 would give more power to university regents, who are appointed by the governor, to vet and veto new curricula and administrators.
www.texastribune.org
May 25, 2025 at 1:53 AM
It’s hard to put into words just how comprehensively this bill is going to hurt public colleges and universities in Texas—especially UT.
This is horrifying.
Texas legislators just passed a bill that
gives politically-appointed regents control over faculty curriculum, hiring, & governance. It does what they accuse academics of doing: privileging ideas, biases, & agendas on political grounds, & silencing those that do not follow their ideology.
gives politically-appointed regents control over faculty curriculum, hiring, & governance. It does what they accuse academics of doing: privileging ideas, biases, & agendas on political grounds, & silencing those that do not follow their ideology.
Political appointees would have more control over Texas universities’ courses and hiring under bill OK’d by House
Senate Bill 37 would give more power to university regents, who are appointed by the governor, to vet and veto new curricula and administrators.
www.texastribune.org
May 25, 2025 at 2:10 AM
This is horrifying.
Big thanks to @drpenieljoseph.bsky.social and the best indie bookstore in TX for inviting me to be part of this great event!
Thanks to @profmkbyrnes.bsky.social and Lark and Owl bookstore for such a special Freedom Season event last night.
May 22, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Big thanks to @drpenieljoseph.bsky.social and the best indie bookstore in TX for inviting me to be part of this great event!
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Did you know that the ICE detention center in Newark was opened without permission from the city & in violation of state law? Mayor Baraka has been fighting to close it down.
Repost this to THANK Mayor Baraka!
Repost this to THANK Mayor Baraka!
May 9, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Did you know that the ICE detention center in Newark was opened without permission from the city & in violation of state law? Mayor Baraka has been fighting to close it down.
Repost this to THANK Mayor Baraka!
Repost this to THANK Mayor Baraka!
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
"Some members of your coalition should make you uncomfortable."
buttondown.com/monteiro/arc...
#protest #community
buttondown.com/monteiro/arc...
#protest #community
How to build a better mosh pit
This is an old one. 2022 maybe. This week’s question comes from me, actually: Do protests work? Depends what you mean by “work,” but let me tell my story and...
buttondown.com
April 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
"Some members of your coalition should make you uncomfortable."
buttondown.com/monteiro/arc...
#protest #community
buttondown.com/monteiro/arc...
#protest #community
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Email your representativies! There's a new bicameral Dear Colleague letter in support of reinstating everything at the #neh ! It's important for them to sign on in support. Use the National Humanities Alliance direct action email to send 1 email to all yr reps. Customize the msg: p2a.co/SBQi8e7
URGENT: Save the NEH
p2a.co
April 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Email your representativies! There's a new bicameral Dear Colleague letter in support of reinstating everything at the #neh ! It's important for them to sign on in support. Use the National Humanities Alliance direct action email to send 1 email to all yr reps. Customize the msg: p2a.co/SBQi8e7
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Cory Booker is 24 hours into his filibuster protesting Trump and Musk gutting America's social services. He's minutes away from breaking the US filibuster record — held by Strom Thurmond protesting the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Now that's symbolism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ut...
April 1, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Cory Booker is 24 hours into his filibuster protesting Trump and Musk gutting America's social services. He's minutes away from breaking the US filibuster record — held by Strom Thurmond protesting the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Now that's symbolism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ut...
Reposted by Melissa K Byrnes
Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.
March 18, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.