I explained Melanie Klein's good breast/bad breast, infantile terror, and depressive position to my tantruming 8yo in the car this morning and it calmed her down immediately. So anybody who says psychoanalysis doesn't work is just doing it wrong.

Yes and also the Coke that's drunk during Passover, a holiday all about what a regime can expect if it mistreats its immigrant workforce

More ND postdoc opportunities!
The Initiative on Race and Resilience (IRR) invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship focusing on multiracial democracy. See below for detail and link to apply

apply.interfolio.com/164233

Please repost and share widely! I don't have an inside scoop on the new postdoc program, but I can answer questions people might have about South Bend/ND. (Spoiler alert: It can actually be rather nice here.)

Very nice new postdoctoral gigs just posted at ND! $75K + research funds, low teaching. This year they're running it in Art, Art History, & Design; Film, Television, & Theatre; Sociology; History; German, Slavic, & Eurasian Studies; and the Medieval Institute. alresources.nd.edu/resources/pr...

Ok, as a mindfulness and anti-paralysis practice I'm going to call my senators about one issue per day. Today, Hegseth. Monday, health (WHO + NIH + RFK). Tuesday, immigration. I know this would be more effective if broadly coordinated. Who is coordinating well?

Hooray! So excited for you both to be here.

You might say 2024 was a bit of a disappointing year. But some of its best series were ABOUT disappointment in impressive, jarringly healthy ways.

I wrote about the year in TV for @newrepublic.com — thanks for reading, friends! newrepublic.com/article/1882...

I bet @laurenfklein.bsky.social knows of some good candidates! Also perhaps @mmvty.bsky.social. But you've probably already sent it to them.

Thank you!

Thank you, Keegan!

Thank you!

Thank you, Erica! I've been reading and marveling over your brilliant work on Hopkins this week.

Thank you!

I'm grateful to the selection committee, and I'm also grateful to everybody who helped me think through this book & improve it, incl. @harvardpress.bsky.social (esp. Lindsay Waters and Joseph Pomp), the book's generous peer reviewers, my grad advisors, my students, my partner... OK, I'm done!

using the inherent limits of transcription as a model for the inevitable shortcomings of any progressive or utopian political project."

"...Marcus argues that these setbacks can also provide the ground for new forms of resistance and progress. With a background as a musician and a music historian, Marcus interweaves political and literary analysis with a detailed attention to sonic experience and transcriptive practices,..."

"...Sara Marcus’s beautifully written Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis reflects on how American political culture has been perennially haunted by disappointment...."

From the citation: "Through a set of detailed literary case studies ranging from early Reconstruction scholars like W. E. B. Du Bois, Ella Sheppard, and Charles Chesnutt to AIDS-era authors and artists like David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs,..."

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that Political Disappointment has received honorable mention for the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize! www.mla.org/Resources/Ca...

Contemporaries is (are?) in the midst of painful separation from Xitter, which was for years our main way of sharing clusters and podcasts, so in the interregnum we really appreciate any kind of signal boost for the amazing work we platform. We’re now on 20 episodes of Pod45 and 60+ essay clusters!

It took me a LONG time to edit this episode (combo of technical and hurricane reasons, which I guess are ultimately the same) but I think it was worth the wait – such a smart conversation. Thanks to our suspiciously great guests and to @franciscondine.bsky.social for being the host with the most.