Kim Sherman
@kbsherman.bsky.social
Historian of the Atlantic World, Race, Gender, and Families | textile artist & creative weirdo | southern swamp witch | she/they 🌈 views my own
Record number of students have dropped by my office hours today unprompted, or have emailed to set up meeting. Must be the fact that we have exactly one month left of classes!
November 3, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Record number of students have dropped by my office hours today unprompted, or have emailed to set up meeting. Must be the fact that we have exactly one month left of classes!
Anyways, Scotland 🏴 was looking 🔥 in today’s rugby game. US seemed asleep. Now on to cheer the All Blacks! 🇳🇿🏉
November 1, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Anyways, Scotland 🏴 was looking 🔥 in today’s rugby game. US seemed asleep. Now on to cheer the All Blacks! 🇳🇿🏉
Maybe it’s just my neurodivergence, but I really hate it when I’m kinda new to a thing and someone who might know more about said thing acts like they are superior. Let me just enjoy, please.
November 1, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Maybe it’s just my neurodivergence, but I really hate it when I’m kinda new to a thing and someone who might know more about said thing acts like they are superior. Let me just enjoy, please.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:24 AM
'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3
Viago, my beloved.
October 31, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Viago, my beloved.
This semester has been kind of ridiculous, but for one magical night I got to speak at a lighthouse!
October 28, 2025 at 9:26 PM
This semester has been kind of ridiculous, but for one magical night I got to speak at a lighthouse!
Reposted by Kim Sherman
Feels symbolic that a Confederate statue first installed in 1901, at the peak of the consolidation of the Jim Crow system—when the states of the former Confederacy were in the midst of revising their constitutions to disfranchise Black citizens—has been reinstalled.
www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...
www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...
A Confederate statue toppled in Washington, D.C., in 2020 has been reinstalled
A statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which had been pulled down during the Black Lives Matter movement, has been put back up in Washington, D.C.'s Judiciary Square.
www.npr.org
October 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Feels symbolic that a Confederate statue first installed in 1901, at the peak of the consolidation of the Jim Crow system—when the states of the former Confederacy were in the midst of revising their constitutions to disfranchise Black citizens—has been reinstalled.
www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...
www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...
*creeps back onto bsky* Hello? Anyone out there?
October 28, 2025 at 9:12 PM
*creeps back onto bsky* Hello? Anyone out there?
As someone with a chronic illness that makes me incredibly sensitive to heat and thus my body cannot regulate temperature, I am not looking forward to this AT ALL.
Good (and zoomable) maps showing how the worst of the heat will march across the country over the next several days.
Takes into account heat, humidity, duration, and time of year to highlight where *impacts* will be the worst.
www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/
Takes into account heat, humidity, duration, and time of year to highlight where *impacts* will be the worst.
www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/
June 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
As someone with a chronic illness that makes me incredibly sensitive to heat and thus my body cannot regulate temperature, I am not looking forward to this AT ALL.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
On Juneteenth, a reminder that Commonplace has 25 years of free, open access articles on slavery and abolition up through this week's piece by Jayne Ptolemy about documents related to William Ansah Sessarakoo. Browse the Slavery and Abolition subject page here: commonplace.online/topic/slaver... 🗃️
June 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
On Juneteenth, a reminder that Commonplace has 25 years of free, open access articles on slavery and abolition up through this week's piece by Jayne Ptolemy about documents related to William Ansah Sessarakoo. Browse the Slavery and Abolition subject page here: commonplace.online/topic/slaver... 🗃️
This is cool. I always explain to students that broadsides were kind of like an early modern blog post!
Big news from the #ITPS! We are thrilled to share a new series with @uvapress.bsky.social! Here are more details about "From Pamphlets to Podcasts" and if you're working on relevant themes (this is an intentionally 'big tent' series), consider sending them our way upress.virginia.edu/news/new-boo...
New Book Series Brings the Spirit of Paine’s “Common Sense” and the Founding Era into the 21st Century
<p>The University of Virginia Press is pleased to announce “From Pamphlets to Podcasts: An Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Series,” a new series th
upress.virginia.edu
June 17, 2025 at 2:41 PM
This is cool. I always explain to students that broadsides were kind of like an early modern blog post!
I cannot emphasize enough how much this reminds me of kidnappings and false arrests in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.
Would love to have reporters dig into this incident, which is reminiscent of the Portland arrests of protesters in black vans.
My additional question: did these black vans even have government plates?
My additional question: did these black vans even have government plates?
WE HAVE QUESTIONS…
This is a kidnapping. No uniform, no badge, civilian car. Who are they?
ICE? Sanctioned bounty hunters? Either way, they’re grabbing people without warrants.
How often is this happening, and why aren’t more people talking about it? Congress?
This is a kidnapping. No uniform, no badge, civilian car. Who are they?
ICE? Sanctioned bounty hunters? Either way, they’re grabbing people without warrants.
How often is this happening, and why aren’t more people talking about it? Congress?
June 17, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I cannot emphasize enough how much this reminds me of kidnappings and false arrests in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.
While reading some of Tom Mayes 2013 blog series “Why Old Places Matter” this morning I couldn’t help but think about how the current admin is attempting to reshape the narrative of American history at old places like those overseen by NPS. 1/3
June 17, 2025 at 2:23 PM
While reading some of Tom Mayes 2013 blog series “Why Old Places Matter” this morning I couldn’t help but think about how the current admin is attempting to reshape the narrative of American history at old places like those overseen by NPS. 1/3
Living in this timeline is exhausting.
June 16, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Living in this timeline is exhausting.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
Having read two NYT articles related to historical work this morning, this is the one that makes me optimistic about the future of our discipline.
At National History Day, Students Get Competitive About the Past
www.nytimes.com
June 16, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Having read two NYT articles related to historical work this morning, this is the one that makes me optimistic about the future of our discipline.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
I get why some people would want to use an LLM to gather, organize, or administrate. But what upsets me here is the suggestion that history can be written with a mere imitation of the human experience. Writing is personal—that is what makes it so hard and beautiful. What is history without heart?
“If history, per the adage, is written by the winners, then it’s not premature to wonder how the winners of the A.I. race might soon shape the stories that historians tell about the past.”
A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.
www.nytimes.com
June 16, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I get why some people would want to use an LLM to gather, organize, or administrate. But what upsets me here is the suggestion that history can be written with a mere imitation of the human experience. Writing is personal—that is what makes it so hard and beautiful. What is history without heart?
This whole thread 👏
The author of this piece advocates getting AI to read for you because “the internet-era explosion of digitized text now mocks nonfiction writers with access to more voluminous sources on any given subject than we can possibly process” 🙄
This is some bleak shit. Historians literally outsourcing the creative and research process to a thieving algorithm ripping off the IP of their own fellow-historians.
Says everything that they’re doing it from a Google office.
Hacks. They should be ashamed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...
Says everything that they’re doing it from a Google office.
Hacks. They should be ashamed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...
June 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
This whole thread 👏
Reposted by Kim Sherman
For those claiming protests don’t mean anything…
How do you think movements are built, fueled, sustained, & grown?
How do you prove the spirit of resistance is loud, proud, present, & powerful?
How do you prove democracy is loved, valued, & worth fighting for?
This IS what democracy looks like.
How do you think movements are built, fueled, sustained, & grown?
How do you prove the spirit of resistance is loud, proud, present, & powerful?
How do you prove democracy is loved, valued, & worth fighting for?
This IS what democracy looks like.
June 15, 2025 at 12:01 AM
For those claiming protests don’t mean anything…
How do you think movements are built, fueled, sustained, & grown?
How do you prove the spirit of resistance is loud, proud, present, & powerful?
How do you prove democracy is loved, valued, & worth fighting for?
This IS what democracy looks like.
How do you think movements are built, fueled, sustained, & grown?
How do you prove the spirit of resistance is loud, proud, present, & powerful?
How do you prove democracy is loved, valued, & worth fighting for?
This IS what democracy looks like.
Seeing all the social media posts of yesterday’s NO KINGS protests from so many small towns, including my own, across NC has really made my heart happy. 💙
June 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Seeing all the social media posts of yesterday’s NO KINGS protests from so many small towns, including my own, across NC has really made my heart happy. 💙
Historians of Presbyterianism! Question: what would lead a woman in 18c America to sign a covenant? I’m guessing this was part of church discipline?
May 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Historians of Presbyterianism! Question: what would lead a woman in 18c America to sign a covenant? I’m guessing this was part of church discipline?
Reposted by Kim Sherman
In a bit of good news, Scottish Loyalism in the British Atlantic World @routledgehistory.bsky.social arrived today, featuring essays by me, @kbsherman.bsky.social, Nicola Martin, @matthewcward.bsky.social, @kmccullo.bsky.social, & Graeme Morton. Thanks to Katie and Graeme for editing this project!
April 9, 2025 at 10:10 PM
In a bit of good news, Scottish Loyalism in the British Atlantic World @routledgehistory.bsky.social arrived today, featuring essays by me, @kbsherman.bsky.social, Nicola Martin, @matthewcward.bsky.social, @kmccullo.bsky.social, & Graeme Morton. Thanks to Katie and Graeme for editing this project!
Reposted by Kim Sherman
No kings.
March 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
No kings.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
Okay #histmed and #earlymodern folks: *Someone* out there has to be making replica wooden apothecary searces. TELL ME WHO.
March 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Okay #histmed and #earlymodern folks: *Someone* out there has to be making replica wooden apothecary searces. TELL ME WHO.
Reposted by Kim Sherman
If you live in NC, call every Republican politician you know. Call every farmer you know and ask them to do the same
When money walks , voters talk. Make sure they know this effects everyone in their town and state
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
When money walks , voters talk. Make sure they know this effects everyone in their town and state
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
USDA cancels $11 million in federal funding for North Carolina food banks
The USDA has notified the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that it would terminate the agreement for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which is one of the progr...
www.wunc.org
March 15, 2025 at 6:26 PM
If you live in NC, call every Republican politician you know. Call every farmer you know and ask them to do the same
When money walks , voters talk. Make sure they know this effects everyone in their town and state
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
When money walks , voters talk. Make sure they know this effects everyone in their town and state
www.wunc.org/news/2025-03...
It’s really hard not to be down about everything happening right now, but my sibling just informed me that, to their surprise, a large group of older residents were holding signs AGAINST Trump, Musk, et al at one of the city’s major intersections.
March 14, 2025 at 10:31 PM
It’s really hard not to be down about everything happening right now, but my sibling just informed me that, to their surprise, a large group of older residents were holding signs AGAINST Trump, Musk, et al at one of the city’s major intersections.