Roopika Risam

@roopikarisam.bsky.social

8.9K followers 1.9K following 5.2K posts

Author of DATA EMPIRE (Harper & Torva, July 2026), Chair of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth 💚, equestrian🐴, https://roopikarisam.com

Videos

Roopika Risam is an associate professor of film and media studies and of comparative literature and faculty in the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster at Dartmouth College. She was formerly Chair of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education and Associate Professor of Education at Salem State University. She is a scholar of digital and postcolonial humanities. .. more

Art 25%

Communication & Media Studies 21%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · Dec 8

AAAAAAAAAAH. Publisher's Weekly named DATA EMPIRE one of the top 10 history books to look for Spring 2026!!!!!!!! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Spring 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview: History

This season, culture wars and their origins are dissected, fascism and its opponents are profiled, and enclaves of the rich and famous are infiltrated.

www.publishersweekly.com

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5h

Being an adult is deeply enjoying the texts from your favorite teen but having to point out that it is 11pm and therefore way past everyone’s bedtime.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 22h

First time for everything, including one of your students skiing for the U.S. at Milano Cortina. As an Olympics geek, this excites me to no end. 💙💛🖤💚❤️

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

My high school teachers were frustrated because I selectively applied myself. I remember much of what they taught though. But I did get an email from one of my high school English teachers saying she had preordered my forthcoming book and was really proud, so that was really nice.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Oh there was a good 16 years (minus Oxford) of educational disdain… It wasn’t til I did an MA that I actually felt like I was actually good at anything. I have been the despair of many teachers! It really is interesting to see how different educational systems and cultures work.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

I think the difference was that I was encouraged to do original research based on my interests (as they related to the course) at Oxford, rather than assignments that were asking me to do something specific that I didn’t actually care about. No one needed my take on the Canterbury Tales, seriously.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

I was just writing a recommendation for a study abroad at Oxford and I remembered just how much studying abroad at Oxford influenced me. My profs at UPenn were… not impressed. The ones at Oxford thought I was talented. Wouldn’t have done a PhD without their encouragement. They wrote most of my recs.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Under settings, turn off the smart mail feature. You will lose having your mail sorted into primary vs. updated, promotions, and lists tabs, but it’s better than having to scroll past AI summaries of your email chains before you can see the actual email.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Growing up, we knew not to ask our friends’ dads who were vets about the war. I don’t remember anyone explicitly saying it but it was clear. Somehow I took a 20th century U.S. history class in high school that magically jumped from HUAC to the ‘80s. As a result, everything I know is from reading.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

And, I’m glad to see key phrase notes style in the wild, since my US publisher encouraged me to do that instead of numbered notes. Experiencing it naturally while reading a new book and being hyperconscious about it has been reassuring that it’s fairly seamless for someone looking for a source.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

And it’s so well-written! I wish I could write like that!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

It’s also a great, extended look at Coretta Scott King’s tremendous work as an activist in her own right, which tends to get overshadowed by her husband.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

The great thing about this book is that it makes clear that we can’t understand the impact of the Vietnam War on the U.S. without the stories of these soldiers.

Reposted by Andrew Jacobs

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

I have been waiting for a good narrative history on Black soldiers in Vietnam since I read the oral histories in BLOODS when I was in grad school. @mattdelmont.bsky.social’s UNTIL THE LAST GUN IS SILENT is exactly what I hoped for. Best way to spend a Sunday.

Cover of Matthew Delmont’s UNTIL THE LAST GUN IS SILENT

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Handsome little devil

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Real Death Star vibes. And tiny parachutes.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Just messing around with D3.js with the Pan-African data set....

Force-directed network visualization showing the Bandung Conference and the First Afro-Asian Writers Conference among others: black background, yellow conference nodes, green diamonds for people

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks, Jenn - DM-ing!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Looking for good recs for someone who can review my book proofs and is available to do it in the first half of February. If it’s you, please let me know.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

Sociology is the best. My class was one of the hardest I had in college and it was primarily Birmingham School cultural studies.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

And History of Computing, in the same building where the ENIAC was built! Also vaguely relevant to my life now 😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

My parents were thrilled, but who’s laughing now, Mom and Dad! I use things I learned from those classes ALL the time.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

It is soooo good.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:

1. British Comedy
2. Sociology of Pop Culture
3. History of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
4. The Devil’s Pact
5. Documentary Writing

David J. DeVore @devoretext.bsky.social · 3d

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1) Epistemology
2) Euripides
3) History of Rock Music
4) Dead Sea Scrolls & Apocrypha
5) Twentieth Century US Political History with @rauchway.bsky.social

Jonathan Bernstein @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social · 3d

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college

Sophomore Economics Tutorial
Sophomore History Tutorial
Sophomore Government Tutorial
#CSS #Wes
Ibsen and Shaw
Worlds of Music

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

“‘As first lady, children will always remain my priority,’ she coos, and you can almost picture her coaxing them into her little gingerbread house.”

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

Oh my gosh, this is awful

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

The true masterpiece is this review.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

“No doubt there is a great documentary to be made about Melania Knauss, the ambitious model from out of Slovenia who married a New York real-estate mogul and then found herself cast in the role of a latter-day Eva Braun, but the horrific Melania emphatically isn’t it.” 🔥

Melania review – Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest

Dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing – there is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Juan Cole, Roopika Risam

David J. DeVore @devoretext.bsky.social · 3d

Jonathan Bernstein @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social · 3d

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college

Sophomore Economics Tutorial
Sophomore History Tutorial
Sophomore Government Tutorial
#CSS #Wes
Ibsen and Shaw
Worlds of Music

Emily Farris @emayfarris.bsky.social · 3d

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college

Urban politics
Urban sociology
Mid 20th century U.S. History
Gender and Politics
World History (I'm sorry for sleeping through this at 8am, but the prof was so nice in office hours, I will always pay that forward)

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

I am laughing at the publishers meetings section because after I had my first one, I said to my agent, “Oh, part of this is about whether I can be let out in public.” And she said, yes it is. 😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

It’s so worth it! Tomorrow.

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news