Laura Vrana
@callmevrana.bsky.social
Scholar of African American poetry (author of https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814215753.html); Univ of South AL Associate Professor; former Emory FCHI Poetics Fellow & Rutgers postdoc. Opinions mine. She/her/hers.
Pinned
Can't believe I missed the one-year anniversary of the publication of my monograph on contemporary Black women's poetry last fall! I appreciate all support of the work so far and would love to speak to people about the book, available here: ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...
Reposted by Laura Vrana
I just don’t see how we can pretend even for a moment that anything involving our federal government is remotely normal when the president is covering up his involvement in a child sex trafficking ring. Like, what are we doing here
November 15, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I just don’t see how we can pretend even for a moment that anything involving our federal government is remotely normal when the president is covering up his involvement in a child sex trafficking ring. Like, what are we doing here
Reposted by Laura Vrana
Can someone dial the Unprecedented Times meter back down to a respectable number because I’m tired.
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Can someone dial the Unprecedented Times meter back down to a respectable number because I’m tired.
Can't believe I missed the one-year anniversary of the publication of my monograph on contemporary Black women's poetry last fall! I appreciate all support of the work so far and would love to speak to people about the book, available here: ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...
November 11, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Can't believe I missed the one-year anniversary of the publication of my monograph on contemporary Black women's poetry last fall! I appreciate all support of the work so far and would love to speak to people about the book, available here: ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...
Reposted by Laura Vrana
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Excited this afternoon to finally dig into Tiana Clark's newest poetry collection, Scorched Earth! Been eager for a new book by her since the extraordinary I Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood.
November 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Excited this afternoon to finally dig into Tiana Clark's newest poetry collection, Scorched Earth! Been eager for a new book by her since the extraordinary I Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood.
Reposted by Laura Vrana
Once again, the main day of Tea Party protests had about 300,000 nationwide, but saw endless coverage.
The No Kings protests had about 7,000,000 nationwide, and many media outlets reacted with a yawn.
No Kings was nearly 25x as big as the Tea Party but the Tea Party got 25x the attention.
The No Kings protests had about 7,000,000 nationwide, and many media outlets reacted with a yawn.
No Kings was nearly 25x as big as the Tea Party but the Tea Party got 25x the attention.
Ask yourself this: How would the New York Times have covered the protests if it had been seven million MAGA supporters flooding the streets? We don’t even have to guess: We know how they and other mainstream outlets covered the Tea Party protests during Obama’s first term.
October 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Once again, the main day of Tea Party protests had about 300,000 nationwide, but saw endless coverage.
The No Kings protests had about 7,000,000 nationwide, and many media outlets reacted with a yawn.
No Kings was nearly 25x as big as the Tea Party but the Tea Party got 25x the attention.
The No Kings protests had about 7,000,000 nationwide, and many media outlets reacted with a yawn.
No Kings was nearly 25x as big as the Tea Party but the Tea Party got 25x the attention.
Reposted by Laura Vrana
If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:45 PM
If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
Reposted by Laura Vrana
BREAKING: USC HAS JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
That’s four (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC) of the nine schools Trump targeted.
Stay tuned! 🍿
#DefendHigherEd
#StandUpFightBack
That’s four (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC) of the nine schools Trump targeted.
Stay tuned! 🍿
#DefendHigherEd
#StandUpFightBack
USC rejects Trump education compact aimed at shifting the university to the right
USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education turning down the Trump offer.
www.latimes.com
October 16, 2025 at 9:01 PM
BREAKING: USC HAS JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
That’s four (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC) of the nine schools Trump targeted.
Stay tuned! 🍿
#DefendHigherEd
#StandUpFightBack
That’s four (MIT, Brown, Penn, USC) of the nine schools Trump targeted.
Stay tuned! 🍿
#DefendHigherEd
#StandUpFightBack
Hi all: the lovely, hospitable English dept at my home institution (University of South Alabama) is about to begin a search for a TT Assistant or Associate Professor of English with a specialization in
Rhetoric and Composition, starting August 15, 2026. I'll have job ad soon, but please spread word!
Rhetoric and Composition, starting August 15, 2026. I'll have job ad soon, but please spread word!
October 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Hi all: the lovely, hospitable English dept at my home institution (University of South Alabama) is about to begin a search for a TT Assistant or Associate Professor of English with a specialization in
Rhetoric and Composition, starting August 15, 2026. I'll have job ad soon, but please spread word!
Rhetoric and Composition, starting August 15, 2026. I'll have job ad soon, but please spread word!
Watching the new doc about the prison system in my home state, The Alabama Solution. (Can't help but think about Orisanmi Burton's book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt too.) Watch. Learn. Get activated about the horrors of America's "justice" system.
October 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Watching the new doc about the prison system in my home state, The Alabama Solution. (Can't help but think about Orisanmi Burton's book Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt too.) Watch. Learn. Get activated about the horrors of America's "justice" system.
Highly recommend Eunsong Kim's book The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property, which I'm currently reading!
October 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Highly recommend Eunsong Kim's book The Politics of Collecting: Race and the Aestheticization of Property, which I'm currently reading!
Reposted by Laura Vrana
I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?
Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels
Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive
www.thetimes.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety.
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?
So glad I've been teaching Thylias Moss's Slave Moth in my 400-/500-level class! They're doing so much with it!
October 3, 2025 at 6:05 PM
So glad I've been teaching Thylias Moss's Slave Moth in my 400-/500-level class! They're doing so much with it!
Weird request, but: anybody have recommendations of best OSU Press books they've read recently? (I get some complimentary books from them as a result of reviewing a book proposal and want to pick wisely!)
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Weird request, but: anybody have recommendations of best OSU Press books they've read recently? (I get some complimentary books from them as a result of reviewing a book proposal and want to pick wisely!)
Reposted by Laura Vrana
George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100
George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100
Hardy, a lieutenant colonel, became the youngest Tuskegee fighter pilot at 19, and was among the first Black military pilots in the United States.
www.nbcnews.com
September 27, 2025 at 10:24 PM
George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100
Reposted by Laura Vrana
if pregnant people can’t manage their pain there will actually be adverse effects on unborn children. we need to be happy & healthy during pregnancy to grow happy & healthy babies.
September 23, 2025 at 12:22 AM
if pregnant people can’t manage their pain there will actually be adverse effects on unborn children. we need to be happy & healthy during pregnancy to grow happy & healthy babies.
As with everything, it seems, returning to all in-class writing to avoid AI usage for my general education literature survey is resulting in my having to put in a TON more grading time. The results are (so far) worth it, but it's just depleting how all these things require more of us as profs...
September 11, 2025 at 9:40 PM
As with everything, it seems, returning to all in-class writing to avoid AI usage for my general education literature survey is resulting in my having to put in a TON more grading time. The results are (so far) worth it, but it's just depleting how all these things require more of us as profs...
Reposted by Laura Vrana
Next they'll be rewriting textbooks to say Japanese American internment camps were delightful summer resorts.
September 3, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Next they'll be rewriting textbooks to say Japanese American internment camps were delightful summer resorts.
Currently finishing up Tara A. Bynum's exceptional Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America - heavily recommend...!!
September 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Currently finishing up Tara A. Bynum's exceptional Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America - heavily recommend...!!
Reposted by Laura Vrana
“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will?
Why it matters that the University of Chicago is pausing admissions to doctoral programs in literature, philosophy, the arts, and languages
www.theatlantic.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:18 PM
“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
Reposted by Laura Vrana
"If history is properly a narrative of the collective tropism of masses of people, then our recent history is the tale of a populace mesmerized by ever more technically elaborate and intellectually vacuous entertainments designed to distract them from their deepening poverty."
- Lorenzo Thomas
- Lorenzo Thomas
August 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
"If history is properly a narrative of the collective tropism of masses of people, then our recent history is the tale of a populace mesmerized by ever more technically elaborate and intellectually vacuous entertainments designed to distract them from their deepening poverty."
- Lorenzo Thomas
- Lorenzo Thomas
I've never read anything at all like the debut poetry collection Joy Is My Middle Name by Sasha Debevec-McKenney. My new colleague handed it to me, and sh** have I been gobsmacked. How did I not know about this extraordinary poet?!?! Highly recommend.
August 27, 2025 at 8:33 PM
I've never read anything at all like the debut poetry collection Joy Is My Middle Name by Sasha Debevec-McKenney. My new colleague handed it to me, and sh** have I been gobsmacked. How did I not know about this extraordinary poet?!?! Highly recommend.
Reposted by Laura Vrana
“What happens to my nervous system when I read a book for an hour is that I become one with that book, and for that hour I’m not engaging with all the issues and problems outside in the world. That, too, is a real gift.”
— @likaluca.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
— @likaluca.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Lisa Lucas - Believer Magazine
The first time I met Lisa Lucas was around 2012, through mutual publishing friends, in the early days after my arrival in New York City. While I was a wide-eyed foreigner trying to cobble together a n...
www.thebeliever.net
August 26, 2025 at 5:25 PM
“What happens to my nervous system when I read a book for an hour is that I become one with that book, and for that hour I’m not engaging with all the issues and problems outside in the world. That, too, is a real gift.”
— @likaluca.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
— @likaluca.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
Doing strictly and exclusively in-class writing for my gen ed literature survey this semester (abandoning years' worth of doing short written responses as homework, because...yknow...AI) - and the first batch of 15-minute, on-the-spot written work today was mostly pretty decent! Delightful!
August 25, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Doing strictly and exclusively in-class writing for my gen ed literature survey this semester (abandoning years' worth of doing short written responses as homework, because...yknow...AI) - and the first batch of 15-minute, on-the-spot written work today was mostly pretty decent! Delightful!
Reposted by Laura Vrana
All around us are examples of people trying to do what they can, including experimenting or getting involved for the first time, to politically resist what's happening. I'm inspired.
Again, as Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.”
Again, as Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.”
August 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
All around us are examples of people trying to do what they can, including experimenting or getting involved for the first time, to politically resist what's happening. I'm inspired.
Again, as Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.”
Again, as Octavia E. Butler said, “We don’t have to wait for anything at all. What we have to do is start.”